First Week Of School

It has been a nice, lazy Sunday and weekend after my first week of teaching.  Yes, I did end up having to teach the rest of the week after the opening ceremony!  The third grade students seem like a really nice group of kids.  I am still getting names down and also determining their English abilities.  Overall, I would say their English language proficiency is lower than I expected, although that might change once they get back into the groove of school and hearing English on a more regular basis.  The first week consisted of getting to know the kids, basic rules, and also listening to some summer homework presentations.  Their English summer homework was to create a brief presentation of what they did over the summer.  Just like in the U.S., you get a lot of kids who didn't do their homework!  But I have had a number of students bring in flashdrives with PowerPoints or other presentations to share.  I have to think that the parents may have had a hand in preparing them :)  I was pretty amazed at how much traveling the students did over the summer.  My favorite presentation was a girl who had traveled all over Europe, including the red-light district of Amsterdam!  Luckily, that one got lost in translation and no questions were asked :)

All of this for only 6 TL!  That's about $4!

It was a pretty busy week after school as well.  I started taking tennis lessons at the Tarsus tennis club.  I go two days a week and it has been fun learning how to hit a ball.  I don't have the best hand-eye coordination in the world so I have a lot of work, but it's fun to take lessons.  I also got my residence permit, which allows me to come and go out of Turkey as I want.  One night this week I went to get some humus from Karavan, which was hands down the best humus I have ever had.  The ayran in the photo is a traditional Turkish drink made of yogurt, water, and salt.  Some people hate it but I actually kind of like it.  

This weekend I booked my blue cruise boat trip for the October holiday.  Here's a link to my intinerary:

http://www.bluecruisesturkey.com/Cabin_Charters/Olympos-Fethiye.html

As you can see from the photos, it should be a beautiful trip!  I can't wait to go, and it's always nice to have something fun to look forward to.  Saturday night I went out for dinner and some drinks in the "Old Town" part of Tarsus (really, the whole city is old!).  A number of old buildings have been renovated into nice restaurants and bars.  It was nice to sit outside and enjoy some live Turkish music and relax with some of the other teachers at the school.  Next weekend there is an Oktoberfest celebration in Adana, which should be a good time as well.  The beer of choice here in Turkey is Efes, a pilsner.  There's a dark Efes and a lemon one as well.  It's not as good as the Tuis in New Zealand, but still all right :)  The wine is pretty good here, so that makes me happy.  Any hard alcohol is pretty expensive, except for Raki (pronounced Ra-kah).  Raki is a clear liquid that they mix with water and ice, and then it turns a milky white color.  It tastes kind of like black licorice and is incredibly strong.  I don't care for it at all, but the Turkish men really go nuts over it.  I did buy a Turkish coffee liquor, so maybe next weekend I can throw some of that in my morning brew.  

Thanks for reading and giving feedback :)  I have been able to skype with some people and it's really fun to share about all of the new experiences here.  Visitors welcome, anytime :)