First Days in Sincan, Turkey

Randi and I are living in a suburb, 25 km outside of Ankara, that resembles a barren desert. Initially we felt a bit isolated, but after having spent time with new friends in Ankara (aka exploring the city by day and discovering it's nightlife by night), we are quite pleased with our new location. Tomorrow we'll be moving into a 3 bedroom apartment. We're happy to have an actual shower and a kitchen that isn't nicknamed "the kitchen of horrors". The cheap rent will include a weekly cleaning and fresh bread delivered to our door each morning. The only downside is that we will be neighbors to a mosque. The 5 am call to prayer will be our alarm clock!

Everyone has been extremely hospitable and welcoming. Randi and I have been placed into 2 neighboring schools with 2 male foreign teachers. Since it is preferred that women teach the younger students, we've been assigned 1st through 4th grades. In our schools, there are separate teachers lounges for the men and women, and the genders are quite segregated. We get quite a few stares when hanging out with the male English teachers and we're sometimes ushered away to rejoin the females. Also, it's advised to refrain from shaking hands with the opposite sex unless they initiate it. This year the female teachers are forbidden from wearing their head scarves during school hours so some wear wigs as a substitute. The teachers wear long, white jackets that resemble lab coats. If Randi and I can get away with minimal clothing underneath, we may join them!

~ Stacy

Istanbul, Turkey - Two Continents

Stacy has always said Istanbul is one of her favorite cities and now I know why.  It is breathtakingly beautiful.  Our first full day there was spent making our way up the extremely steep cobble stone streets to Taxsim Square, where shops and cafes line the streets.  We took a relaxing stroll down the streets stopping for fresh fruit juices along the way.  After making our way back to the beginning we braved the transit system and made it to the Istanbul Archaeological Museums.  Here there are three buildings of gorgeous tile work, Greek statues (much to the Greek's disdain), pottery, and sarcophaguses.  We enjoyed meandering around and Stacy made sure to get her second picture with Alexander the Great (a little too enamored).  By this time it was about 4 and I was a walking zombie, so we made it back to our hostel and passed out for the night at 5pm.  The next day was jammed packed with taking in as much as possible as we had to leave for Ankara the next morning.  Our first stop was Hagia Sophia, this was by far my favorite.  Hagia Sophia means divine power (holy wisdom).  It was first a church before the Byzantine Empire but then overrun and turned into a Mosque, covering all the Christian Mosaics with Arabic symbols.  At the end of the Byzantine Empire restorers attempted to uncover as many of the Christan depictions as possible, including the famous Mother and Child centered on the ceiling.  Today it is considered to stand for the meeting between Christianity and Islam.  There are two levels complete with one side having Mary and Child and on the other side Mihrab.  It is the embodiment of blending cultures; the history seeping through is extremely calming.  Across from Hagia Sophia is the Blue Mosque.  It is still a practicing Mosque, so Stacy and I both had to cover our hair with scarves.  The Blue Mosque is also very beautiful, with a blue stained glass dome covering the main prayer area.  With much time to spare we decided to splurge on an open Hop-On-Hop-Off tour.  We took two different routes, the first around the Golden Horn with the Bosphorus river separating Europe from Asia, and touring all the Asian monuments.  The second tour was a more in-depth look at the European side.  Both tours were lovely and came complete with audio commentary.  We also were able to see the coastal lines of both continents.

After a quick nap back at the hostel we met up with our friend Rose, who we had the pleasure of teaching with in Thailand.  Rose had been in Istanbul for a week so she knew of a few good places to eat and get a drink.  We both tried the famous Efes beer and I have to say it was pretty good, after Thailand I have been turned off beer for quite some time.  We also regretfully tried Riki, a licorice liquor that is mixed with water.  It tastes like black licorice and I wouldn't recommend it!  After saying goodbye to Rose, as she will be teaching 600 kilometers northeast of us, we made our back to our Hostel, the Stray Cat.  Our hostel was named appropriately for it had 4 to 6 stray cats and kittens that bounced and bounded around, in and out of the hostel.  Upon check out the next morning we were actually told we didn't need to pay for our three nights stay as the two brothers who owned it had lost our reservations and we'd had to stay in a dormitory.  So we were only charged our $12 initial credit card deposit!  We both loved Istanbul and will for sure be making it back the the next chance we get!

~ Randi

Getting There

Getting to Turkey ended up being more of an adventure than we anticipated.  Last year Stacy and I made 2 round trips between SE Asia and the US, one being a lovely 34 hour ordeal.  We were very pleased to see our total travel time to Turkey was only 15 hours.  Unfortunately this was too good to be true.  We left Detroit at around 6pm bound for Toronto, which was only a 45 minute flight.  We boarded a 14 passenger plane and were told by one of the two pilots that if we needed anything just let them know!  We then took off, with a full view of the cockpit.  Once in Toronto, complete with a stamp in our passports, we arrived at our gate only to learn our flight had been delayed an hour.  Since we had a two hour layover before our flight from Zurich to Istanbul we were not too concerned.  Before we knew it we boarded the plane, complete with individual screens, and were ready for our short flight of seven hours.  We backed away from the gate and then did not move for about 20 minutes.  The captain then came on intercom and said that our engine had had a false start and they were going to try and see if the problem would be an easy fix.  20 minutes later we were informed that something had to be replaced on the plane and this would take two to three hours.  Since we could not stay on the plane for this everyone had to disembark, we were given $10 to Tim Hortons and they brought out the snack cart.  As airplanes have become very stingy with the drinks I snagged 4 diet cokes and snacks, while Stacy went to wait in line at Tim Hortons.  She ended up spending most of the three hours it took to fix our plane getting smoothies.  So now being four hours later than planned we left Toronto at about 2am, obviously missing our flight to Turkey.  Oh and apparently Rob Lowe was on our plane, though I didn't see him some passengers in front of Stacy were remarking on the sighting.  We flew to Zurich easy enough and then had to convince Swiss immigration that we needed to be issued new boarding passes and they eventually let us through.  We were then booked on a flight to Istanbul and were issued 18 Swiss franks to spend on food.  We made it to our gate with time to spare and enjoyed a nice pasta dinner with beer on Canada Air.  We arrived in Istanbul, got our luggage, and were at our hostel before 11pm.

 
~ Randi

A New Adventure!

After an awesome year in Thailand, Randi and I decided to do another year of teaching abroad together. After all, we haven't killed each other yet ;) As much as we loved our time in Thailand, we were ready for a change. Randi wanted more than 2 seasons of hot and hotter, and I feared that staying any longer would compromise some of my morals! We returned home for a lovely summer with our friends and family. We were undecided as to where we wanted to go next. At the last minute, we decided to forgo our plans of teaching in Venezuela..and decided on Turkey!

~ Stacy