Kizkalesi photos

Last Thursday was a national holiday in Turkey, so the foreign teachers (foreign meaning from the U.S. or Canada) took a trip to Kizkalesi to spend the day at the beach.  This is not your run of the mill beach, however!  The beach is famous for it's views of the Maiden's Castle.  It is located out on an island, about 200 m from the shoreline.  The castle was built around 200 B.C.  The local legend is that a powerful king had the castle build on the tiny island to protect his daughter after hearing a prophecy from a fortune teller that she would be killed from a snakebite.  As it turns out, a snake made it's way over anyway when someone delivered fruit to her by boat, and ultimately the prophecy was fulfilled.  I was hoping to get a look into the castle after I swam out there (in beautiful, clear water!), but unfortunately you have to pay to enter.  So maybe next time I'll take a paddleboat out there and walk around.  There was also the option of parasailing at this beach to get an aerial view of the inside :-)

Not your everyday beach view!

I love all the men on the banana boat raft!

I was hoping to go back to Mersin to do some shopping over the weekend,  but unfortunately I had to deal with some moderate food poisoning :-(  Once again this week, work has consisted of preparation and meetings.  Up until today, I have not felt very productive or even in the know of what is going on at the school.  I did get my teaching schedule today, and I will be teaching eighteen 40-minute periods of third grade English a week.  Twelve of those periods will be splits, which means I will have 9-10 students in my class.  Pretty AWESOME schedule, if you ask me!  It sounds like they keep English teachers busy when they are not teaching doing pull-out English lessons, recess duty, subbing, etc.  I still don't have a very clear idea of the curriculum I will be following, nor do I have all of the resources I am expected to use.  But at least I will know where I need to go on the first day and all of that other stuff will fall into place with time, I am sure.  

Even though I got food poisoning in Turkey, that is still not going to stop me from eating their food!  Tonight I had some amazing homemade humus, and my teaching partner promised to teach me how to make humus from scratch.  You can't buy it pre-made in the stores like in the U.S.  You have to either make it yourself or get it to go from a restaurant if you want humus at home.  And it sounds like many Turks make it themselves!  I also can't get enough of the feta cheese.  Or fresh fruits!  Right now, peaches and plums are in season.  Peaches with yogurt and honey (yogurt that's similar, but better than Greek yogurt) is one of my favorite snacks.  They also use eggplant a lot in their main meals, which I also love.  Once I get settled in to my school routine, I would love to experiment a little more with making Turkish dishes on my own here at home!

So far I enjoy living by myself.  Since I share an office/workspace with 18 other people, it is nice to have a quiet place to come home to in the evenings.  More funny office stories later....this is the first time in my adult career I have to share an office space with other adults, instead of having a classroom!  So different, but I think I will end up really enjoying it.  Next post, I will try to have photos of the school, as well as my apartment.  Maybe I will wait until my cleaning lady comes on Monday to take those :-).... Actually MOM my place is not messy at all!