Working girl

Had to happen, after 2 months of travelling and 'working' hard on the cruises İ have finally started to get into the swing of full time work.... getting out of bed before 10am, oh, the horror!

Teaching is going well, am learning more about grammar every day (yes, that is as exciting as it sounds!). They have started me off on the higher levels, so İ'm having to work hard to keep one step ahead of my students for when they ask me those lovely curly questions.

Otherwise İ am settling into İstanbul, drinking Efes with my fellow teachers, becoming a backgammon fiend, attempting to aquire Turkish and ignoring the stories of muggings, deportations and injuries that keep making the rounds.

A few tips for the intrepid visitor to Turkey:

1) Don't trust anyone, no matter how sincere they sound, unless you fancy a 1000 dollar beverage, in which case go for it.

2) Watch where you walk. The roads are full of gapping holes... or are the gapping holes full of road?

3) The more you love meat (regardless of what part of the animal it comes from), the better. Especially if you like to eat it for every meal, including dessert... mmmm, burnt chicken breast pudding. Delish!

4) Bring a giant pack of wet ones, store bottles of water in your room... or learn to live without showering. İ have a new appreciation for that marvellous little gurgle and subsequent gushing forth of water from taps now.

5) There is but one god and his name is Attaturk... no, wait... Allah.

6) İf you can't be bothered with an alarm clock, just move in next to a mosque. The call to prayer will rouse you at a reasonable 5am each day. Or do as I have done and move in next to a school, where the delightful murmur of adolescent voices and the playful tossing of basketballs will gently wake you each day.

7) Turkey is the best country in the world, İstanbul is the best city in the world and Turkish food is the best food in the world... at least according to my students.

8) Beware the cats, they may look cute, but they do attack. Want a pet? You'll find a kitten in most garbage piles, bushes, under tables, under parked cars, on steps, in carpet shops... anywhere you look really.

9) We've been wrong all these years, bread is the most important food group and should form the base of the food pyramid.

10) İf you happen to be an ex-rally car driver then by all means give driving in İstanbul a go... you might just have a chance at coming out in one piece. For the rest, forget it and be content as a passenger, knowing that even this will take years off your life.

11) Those stripey bits on the road, know as pedestrian crossings to us, mean nothing to Turkish drivers. Cross at these only if you want a better chance of survival by having other soft bodies surrounding you for when, not if, a car decides to plow through while you're crossing.

A few pics of İstanbul for you:
















İstikal Caddesi - Just around the corner from where İ am living. Huge street of restaurants, cafes and shops that is packed with people day and night.







The Golden Horn at Sunset.

And this is what happens when you ask a friend to take an inch off your hair... and İ thought Americans used the imperial measurement system! This is what İ ended up with after İ headed to a hairdresser to fix the bob that İ somehow ended up with. Now that İ have gotten over the shock of such unexpectedly short hair İ am rather liking it. Time for a change and all that jazz...