First trip to Mersin

The other night I started a post, but then was unable to finish because I wasn't able to get connected to the internet (again!).  But I will start off with one thing that is very true and pertinent:  Everything is a learning process over here in Turkey and I am discovering that many times, things don't happen the the right way the first time but eventually they do :-)

Enjoying the Mersin Marina after some shopping and lunch

On Sunday we went on a fun shopping trip to Mersin, which is about 45 minutes away.  There are lots of shopping options, clothes and shoes included which makes me happy!  They took us to a store that is a lot like home depot for some apartment items.  Taking 8 ladies shopping in a store with no English is quite the undertaking and takes a lot of time, so I was able to sneak away and buy my first pair of shoes and a dress (both on sale!).

After shopping we went out for a lovely lunch at a restaurant right on the sea.  The food here is really delicious and while people say they get tired of the lack of variety, I am loving everything I have tried.  My favorite are the dolmas, which are stuffed grape leaves.  I have also had some awesome hummus, kebabs, feta, olives, baklava, and many cheeses.  There are green grocers all over the place, which sell fresh fruits and vegetables.  It's all cheap and great quality.  Tahini is also going to be a guilty pleasure of mine.  It's a sweet made with ground sesame seeds and sometimes pistachio or chocolate or vanilla.  The best tahini is made here in Tarsus, so I got a huge tin of pistachio tahini for super cheap.  I still need to make it to the olive shop, which is reported to have the best quality olive oil and products for extremely reasonable prices.  It is a good thing that the school has a workout facility, although when another teacher and I went there yesterday, we worked out in 36 degrees celsius conditions.  That's 96.8 degrees F, folks!  I made it about 20 minutes on an eliptical before calling it quits.

Here are some photos from the Mersin trip:

Yes, that is a Caribou Coffee in Turkey!  I couldn't believe it when other teachers told me about it.

View of the marina in Mersin, which was right in front of where we had lunch.

Monday was the first day for all teachers, so I got to meet a lot of new people (again, that's basically what it has been for the past 8 days!), including the English Department, where I will be working.  My teaching partner's name is a Tarsus native named Gulcan (pronounced Gul-jan).  I feel really lucky to have her as my teaching partner because she has been at the school for ten years and worked with the second graders last year, so she knows the incoming third grade students very well!  According to Gulcan, this is a really nice class of students.  I really haven't done much over the past few days besides help move all of the English Department resources upstairs (in the heat, no AC!) and run around trying to take care of things like filling out medical insurance, signing resident permit forms, and working out internet issues.  One fun thing I did today (mom, you will appreciate this!) is hire a maid to come in.  The school secretary has several ladies she uses to set up services for teachers who live on campus.  I will have a lady come in for a half day every two weeks to do some basic cleaning.  Yeah, I can do it myself, but I can afford it and it gives someone in Tarsus a little extra cash too.  Tomorrow is Victory Day to celebrate Turkey's independence, so there is no work and I am going to the beach in Mersin!  Hopefully on Friday more will be known in the English department, like what books and resources we are expected to use!  Bureaucracy exists everywhere, it seems.

Before I post, I have to share a little about the neighborhood I am living in.  Feliz, the school's official translator (who looks like a yoga instructor and is the friendliest person I have ever met), our driver Ramazan, and the buildings supervisor Neslihan took the four of us who live off campus on a mini tour of the neighborhood.  They introduced us to the people who work at a grocery store, green grocer, bread store (freshly made, and it smelled awesome), and a kebab place.  Everyone gave us a card and said they would deliver, even though we live like 2 minutes away.  On our way back to our apartments, we saw some ladies crushing red peppers to make red pepper paste:

I made the photo extra big so you can see  the huge pile of seeds and peppers!  It smelled amazing, and I would love to buy this paste that they were making!

Tonight two other teachers and I went to the kebab place to have dinner.  This was our first venture out without anybody to translate or help us out, so there was some confusion but all in all a great experience.  They kept bringing us food, first a bunch of vegetables, then tahuni, and then kebabs.  I don't think we ordered it all, but it was really good.  While we were trying to figure out how to ask how much, I noticed a little boy, about third grade, staring and giggling at us.  I kept catching his eye, and then finally he said "hi" to us.  I decided to practice my Turkish with him, so we had a little conversation.  He told me his name was Umut and on the way home I wondered if maybe that was a dirty word in Turkish and he was just trying to get an adult to say a bad word, so I looked it up in my English-Turkish dictionary.  As it turns out, umut means "hope", which I thought was perfect :-)  I think Umut is the son of someone who works at the kebab place, so I am sure I will see him again and maybe he can help me with my Turkish.  Thanks for the feedback so far on the blog....I try to keep things short but now there is just so many interesting and new things to share.  I will have to take some photos of the school on Friday to share :)