Things have been getting better here. I'm becoming more used to the system and the way things are in Turkey (as well as how Turkish people are) and I'm getting more comfortable. I finished my first course and met my new students yesterday. I'm also pleased to report that all but one of my students from my first course passed PIN and are now Intermediate students. I'm so proud of them! They were a great first class...I think I got really lucky with them. They were exactly what I needed them to be with everything else that was goin' on. I went out to dinner with them right before the course ended and genuinely had a good time. And one of my students gifted me a bottle of Georgian wine and some homemade wine her father's dad makes. All my students knew how I felt about wine, mainly because I usually always used it in my grammar examples (First conditional question form: Will Heather die if she never drinks wine again?). So screw the apple, nothing beats this gift!
I'm a little nervous to start a new class, but I'm also a little excited to see how different things will be. I think this class will be much weaker than my last class and I'll really have to develop as a teacher to be able to meet their specific needs. I just hope everything goes smoothly and I have a better course overall this time around. Aside from my great students course one was horrible. But everyone says they get easier as they go and that the next year (after ICELT) is even better, so I'm really glad I stuck it out and made it work.
Winter is upon us and my oh my is it cold. I need to go out into town and get a better coat. When it got really cold back in Florida I would just hop into a warm bath and soak. I really wish I had a bathtub here. Oh wait....I DO! Totally had one installed and indulged in my first bath last night. Poured a glass of wine and read my book while soaking up to the neck. Talk about simple pleasures. I honestly and truly believe I will be much happier here for this reason alone! It's the best 350 TL I've spent so far.
Thanksgiving was lovely. I made a homemade dinner for me and my fiance and it was amazing. Played volleyball before I started cooking, and even though I hurt my wrist, it was great to have all the things I love on Turkey Day: my favorite sport, a bathtub, homemade dinner (literally, everything from scratch, stuffing, turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy), my fiance, and an episode of The Walking Dead. It was lame I had to work earlier that day as well as the next day, but it was the next best thing to being home with my family. And I even got to chat with them a bit, too. Good stuff all around.
I have a lot of planning to do this weekend, but overall I think it'll be nice to just relax and clean house a bit. Maybe I'll go out and buy that coat today. Lazy days are my favorite days :)
Friday, November 23, 2012
Saturday, November 3, 2012
How shocking!
Ohhh, so that's what culture shock is. Or at least I think that's what this is.
I'm feeling it pretty intensely, I'd say. Thing have been rough lately. I'm really overwhelmed and I have so much anxiety, and I don't really know what to do about it. It's in times like these that I miss my family terribly and thank the high heavens that my fiance is here with me. Because I'm so close with my family, I think being away from them is the hardest part. I also miss being able to talk to my friends on a more regular basis. Not to mention, the internet hasn't exactly been dependable. There's just not enough hours in the day. Or rather, not enough of those hours are spent relaxing or doing something other than work for school.
I knew it would be difficult to come here and that it would be a hard job, but I didn't really expect it to be like this. I mean, once you get your head wrapped around things and just accept that this is the way it is and just deal with it, you'll be ok. Doing so has been difficult for me though. I can feel myself fighting it and just yearning for the comfort of my old life, and I think that's part of my problem. Maybe that's what culture shock it overall. It's not so much that things are really different, it's just a different way of thinking, I guess. I can't quite explain it because it's really an internal thing, but yeah, it sucks. I literally just take it a day at a time and when I think even a week ahead I start to cry. I know in the end I'll be stronger though. Rimond says it's like learning to drive in New York City. If you can drive in New York City, you can drive anywhere. I just gotta stick it out and try to get through it and I'll be a better person and teacher for it. I need to be more positive! Everyone is really understanding and empathetic and says it'll get better, and I just hope they're right.
I did a bit of traveling over the Bayram holiday and that was really nice. Rimond and I went to Kapadokya (Cappadocia) for three days and met some really great people from all over the world. We went hiking the first day with a couple named Marina and Ag who spoke Russian, and after they left we met a group and hung out with two people named Houyem from Tunisia and Igor from Croatia. It was really wonderful to interact with all different types of people and see new and different things. I think traveling will be very healing for me, and I really wish I had more time to do it. The next holiday isn't until the end of January, so now I'm just trying to get my head wrapped around that. I don't know if I can wait that long for another break. The weekends aren't much of a break for me at all considering I still do so much work, so I don't really know what's gunna happen there. Hopefully something works itself out in that regard.
One step at a time, one day at a time.
I'm feeling it pretty intensely, I'd say. Thing have been rough lately. I'm really overwhelmed and I have so much anxiety, and I don't really know what to do about it. It's in times like these that I miss my family terribly and thank the high heavens that my fiance is here with me. Because I'm so close with my family, I think being away from them is the hardest part. I also miss being able to talk to my friends on a more regular basis. Not to mention, the internet hasn't exactly been dependable. There's just not enough hours in the day. Or rather, not enough of those hours are spent relaxing or doing something other than work for school.
I knew it would be difficult to come here and that it would be a hard job, but I didn't really expect it to be like this. I mean, once you get your head wrapped around things and just accept that this is the way it is and just deal with it, you'll be ok. Doing so has been difficult for me though. I can feel myself fighting it and just yearning for the comfort of my old life, and I think that's part of my problem. Maybe that's what culture shock it overall. It's not so much that things are really different, it's just a different way of thinking, I guess. I can't quite explain it because it's really an internal thing, but yeah, it sucks. I literally just take it a day at a time and when I think even a week ahead I start to cry. I know in the end I'll be stronger though. Rimond says it's like learning to drive in New York City. If you can drive in New York City, you can drive anywhere. I just gotta stick it out and try to get through it and I'll be a better person and teacher for it. I need to be more positive! Everyone is really understanding and empathetic and says it'll get better, and I just hope they're right.
I did a bit of traveling over the Bayram holiday and that was really nice. Rimond and I went to Kapadokya (Cappadocia) for three days and met some really great people from all over the world. We went hiking the first day with a couple named Marina and Ag who spoke Russian, and after they left we met a group and hung out with two people named Houyem from Tunisia and Igor from Croatia. It was really wonderful to interact with all different types of people and see new and different things. I think traveling will be very healing for me, and I really wish I had more time to do it. The next holiday isn't until the end of January, so now I'm just trying to get my head wrapped around that. I don't know if I can wait that long for another break. The weekends aren't much of a break for me at all considering I still do so much work, so I don't really know what's gunna happen there. Hopefully something works itself out in that regard.
One step at a time, one day at a time.
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