Today was launch day, and it went amazingly well. When you think about the fact that 340 students had to be bussed to campus from various parts of the city – although I thought I saw a few getting dropped off by parents – and that the building isn’t quite completed, there were surprisingly few hiccups. I had only two absences in each class. They may show up tomorrow or not at all. But quite frankly, I didn’t find much different than a first day in a UW ESL class.
The students are charming, of course. Like all classes the they display a wide range of personalities and interests. I teach two 100-minute periods each day. Just one prep, so that’s nice. We really are starting from scratch: “My name is Martha. What is your name?” And “I’m from Seattle. Where are you from?” We spoke a bit about hobbies; “ I like to …”
My first class is very lively but less proficient in English; the second one is more sedate but appears to be a bit further along. We finished the day with a little reading proficiency exam and one student told me “not read English.” It was really only a notch above Dick and Jane, and I think she knew more than she thought. However, it did take the first class a while to read the little story and answer five multiple choice questions; my second class was finished in 5 minutes.
After the last class one young man, who had diligently copied down everything I wrote on the board in very neat handwriting – he was stilling in the first row so I saw the notebook page – wanted to talk to me. He said he was Kurdish and didn’t start learning Turkish until he was 10. He started English at 16. I think what he was trying to tell me was that his English class was either after school or on weekends or something like that. He said the teacher really didn’t know English – he was a math teacher. And the teacher came and went, and the students came and went. He was trying to explain why his English was so weak, but I told him he did a good job of explaining his situation. He’ll probably end up being the best student in the class.
The one comical aspect to the morning was the confusion over room numbers. As of yesterday there were no room numbers posted anywhere. A couple of teachers went around and put yellow sticky notes on each doorjamb so we’d know where to go. We got our class lists yesterday afternoon and then went out and checked our spaces; mine was 213. This morning the bus got us the campus with little time to spare. I put my notebook with class list, etc. in the room and ran up to my office. When I came back down, a confused student showed me that someone had crossed out the 213 in pencil and written 212 below. Then I looked up and saw someone had indeed put up room numbers. The number plates were really quite lovely – red ovals with black lettering and gold rims, or something close to that. The only problem was that whoever put them up didn’t realize that the order was important. I expected to find room 213 next to room 212. However, it was down the hall next to room 210. And while I was teaching someone changed the number to 215. I hope we all find each other tomorrow morning.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Oh, the pistachios are GOOoood!
The teacher I was wandering around with today wanted to stoke up on gifts to take home. She went into a pistachio shop and bought three boxes of pistachio candy. And yes there are little shops every where that sell only pistachios is all different forms. I think there is a lot to learn about pistachios. Anyhow, the salesperson offered us a sample of the nuts. Very smart on his part. Oh so good. I bought a half kilo. I just now got into them. It's going to take great will power to stop eating. I'll just have to go to bed.
Ted and I were supposed to iChat tonight, but our apartment network was down until just a few minutes ago. Wouldn't you know. Also, neither of us has used iChat before so I think we may be back to Skype until Maya gave give us a tutorial.
Ted and I were supposed to iChat tonight, but our apartment network was down until just a few minutes ago. Wouldn't you know. Also, neither of us has used iChat before so I think we may be back to Skype until Maya gave give us a tutorial.
Going to the Mall
I had hoped to spend Sunday the afternoon at home, but one of my fellow teachers needed to find an ATM that would allow her to check the balance in her US account. She is the teacher who had some real health problems a week or so ago and is going home as soon as she can get her ticket changed. Anyhow, she thought there might be such an ATM at what the other teachers are calling the “American Mall.” The Turks don’t call it that, but it really is just like an upscale mall in the US, complete with a Food Court (and they do call it that in Turkish.) The one big difference is that you have to go through an airport - like security check upon entering. The stores all had the full range of beautiful and expensive goods. What is unexpected is that they also sell appliances. They had a Tefal store with small appliances and a couple that sold larger appliances like washing machines, etc. right next to a fancy show store. I did manage to find a mattress pad (My bed had been made up with the sheets directly on the mattress) and a bathmat. However, I don’t think I need to go there again. I’m not much of a mall person. I much prefer the quirky little shopping streets with everything from kitchy bags and trinkets to nicely crafted items. Those places are somehow much more full of life.
I was able to purchase a Turkish dictionary, both a larger hardback and a small one to carry around in my purse. The later comes in very handy because you really don’t run into people around here who speak much English, even in restaurants or other places you might expect visitors. People you meet in the street or in shops like to try out the few phrases they know, but beyond that its pantomime and lots of pointing at words in the dictionary. All the Turkish people I have encountered have been extremely friendly and go out of their way to be helpful. Yesterday, we went into a men’s clothing store in the market because the teacher I was with wanted to buy a necktie. He had been living in Istanbul and had his packed bags stolen out of his apartment just before departing for Gaziantep. Anyhow, this was a very simple place, not terribly high quality merchandise. It was obviously a family operation with mom and kids right there. The boy, who was probably middle school age, tried out his few phrases of English. They brought me a stool to sit on and a bottle of water. I am glad I am off the beaten path for tourists. We are clearly novelties here (they always ask me first if I’m German – the Turkish word sounds like the French Allemand) and the economy is not dependent on making accommodations to outsiders. This is the only large city in eastern Turkey, but it doesn’t feel all that large. It’s quite a comfortable place.
Anyhow, to get back to hats, I actually did see a man with a baseball cap today. He was selling lottery tickets on a busy corner in the market district in the old town. And I saw two older gentlemen wearing those woolen caps you associate with golfers at St. Andrews in Scotland. I don’t know what they are called but the have little brims, not much more than an inch wide. It was cooler here today – in the low 70s maybe – so maybe they wear caps to keep their heads warm and not to shade their eyes.
I was able to purchase a Turkish dictionary, both a larger hardback and a small one to carry around in my purse. The later comes in very handy because you really don’t run into people around here who speak much English, even in restaurants or other places you might expect visitors. People you meet in the street or in shops like to try out the few phrases they know, but beyond that its pantomime and lots of pointing at words in the dictionary. All the Turkish people I have encountered have been extremely friendly and go out of their way to be helpful. Yesterday, we went into a men’s clothing store in the market because the teacher I was with wanted to buy a necktie. He had been living in Istanbul and had his packed bags stolen out of his apartment just before departing for Gaziantep. Anyhow, this was a very simple place, not terribly high quality merchandise. It was obviously a family operation with mom and kids right there. The boy, who was probably middle school age, tried out his few phrases of English. They brought me a stool to sit on and a bottle of water. I am glad I am off the beaten path for tourists. We are clearly novelties here (they always ask me first if I’m German – the Turkish word sounds like the French Allemand) and the economy is not dependent on making accommodations to outsiders. This is the only large city in eastern Turkey, but it doesn’t feel all that large. It’s quite a comfortable place.
Anyhow, to get back to hats, I actually did see a man with a baseball cap today. He was selling lottery tickets on a busy corner in the market district in the old town. And I saw two older gentlemen wearing those woolen caps you associate with golfers at St. Andrews in Scotland. I don’t know what they are called but the have little brims, not much more than an inch wide. It was cooler here today – in the low 70s maybe – so maybe they wear caps to keep their heads warm and not to shade their eyes.
MCI, Get with it!
While Ted and I plan to use iChat and/or Skype to keep in touch, we didn’t know when I left what my Internet access would be. Just to make sure I could communicate, Ted found out that it was possible to use the MCI card from Turkey. All I had to do was call a special toll-free number specific to Turkey, punch in some codes and I was ready to go. Ted wrote out the whole process and sent me with not one but two copies of the directions.
The first thing I did after arriving at the hotel was to try calling Ted to let him know I had arrived safely. Sadly, even though I followed the directions, the phone in the room didn’t work. I went down to the hotel reception and “asked” (the person at the desk didn’t speak any English) to use the desk phone. He communicated to me that the hotel phones weren’t working and fetched a cell phone. He dialed the number and had no luck. He let me try; same result. We tried again in the morning, leaving off the “0”, thinking that might not really be necessary. No luck.
When I got to the university that morning, I was able to e-mail Ted and he contacted MCI. They said they weren’t set up to receive calls from cell phones and I should call from a land line. Come on, MCI. In the US, you wouldn’t use a calling card if you had a cell phone. But if you claim to be an international company, you ought to get to know your markets. Everyone in Turkey uses cell phones. There isn’t even a phone line into my building. There are no phones in the teachers’ offices at Zirve. There probably are in administrative offices; I haven’t looked. And even the faculty in UW’s Communications department decided to give up land lines in their offices as a cost-cutting device because no one was using those phones anyhow.
Everyone in Turkey uses cell phones. There is no service you subscribe to. You just buy a phone – and you can get them quite cheaply – and then go into a TurkCell store or booth and put minutes on your phone. Very practical and reasonable. I haven’t seen a public phone booth anywhere, and I’ve ridden buses up and down several of the main roads and a few of the side ones. So MCI, get with it! Don’t offer a worldwide service that depends on land lines. Most of the rest of the world is learning to live without them.
The first thing I did after arriving at the hotel was to try calling Ted to let him know I had arrived safely. Sadly, even though I followed the directions, the phone in the room didn’t work. I went down to the hotel reception and “asked” (the person at the desk didn’t speak any English) to use the desk phone. He communicated to me that the hotel phones weren’t working and fetched a cell phone. He dialed the number and had no luck. He let me try; same result. We tried again in the morning, leaving off the “0”, thinking that might not really be necessary. No luck.
When I got to the university that morning, I was able to e-mail Ted and he contacted MCI. They said they weren’t set up to receive calls from cell phones and I should call from a land line. Come on, MCI. In the US, you wouldn’t use a calling card if you had a cell phone. But if you claim to be an international company, you ought to get to know your markets. Everyone in Turkey uses cell phones. There isn’t even a phone line into my building. There are no phones in the teachers’ offices at Zirve. There probably are in administrative offices; I haven’t looked. And even the faculty in UW’s Communications department decided to give up land lines in their offices as a cost-cutting device because no one was using those phones anyhow.
Everyone in Turkey uses cell phones. There is no service you subscribe to. You just buy a phone – and you can get them quite cheaply – and then go into a TurkCell store or booth and put minutes on your phone. Very practical and reasonable. I haven’t seen a public phone booth anywhere, and I’ve ridden buses up and down several of the main roads and a few of the side ones. So MCI, get with it! Don’t offer a worldwide service that depends on land lines. Most of the rest of the world is learning to live without them.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
No Hats
Since the weekend is the only time to shop and I was getting tired of having a Swiss Army knife and plastic cup from the bathroom as my only utensils, I decided to devote today to outfitting the apartment. Another teacher who also just arrived went with me. Our first stop was the bazaar in the center of town. We think we found it. It wasn’t all under one roof like I’d expected, but the streets were all were all spanned by cast iron arches with small lights and I seem to remember they were pedestrian only. There were literally hundreds of small shops selling just about anything you could want. So if it wasn’t THE BAZAAR, is was a close approximation. We made some purchases (another story) and headed back to the apartment building.
The second leg of the shopping foray took us in another direction, to the Migros and Carrefour megastores. They looked pretty much as I remember them from their home countries, Switzerland and France, respectively. Anyhow, as we started our hike to the bus stop, I lamented that I hadn’t brought along my straw hat; even a billed cap would have helped as the sun was quite intense. My fellow teacher commented that he’d seem people wearing straw hats and I could probably buy one.
I took the third leg of the journey by myself. By then I remembered I had brought my floppy brimmed birding/hiking had and was wearing it. However, I put “straw hat” on my list and then began looking to see if anyone actually wore such a thing. Actually, I didn’t see anyone wearing any kind of hat or cap. Some of the women wore headscarves, but none of the men sported any kind of head wear, not even the otherwise ubiquitous baseball cap. I was surprised because the sun in Gaziantep is quite intense, and you’d think you’d want something to shade your eyes. But I guess everyone here is used to it.
By the way, people noticed my floppy hat. A young women sitting across from me in the bus and wearing a scarf herself commented through the young student sitting next to her that my hat was nice. She was full of smiles and chatting away like I understood everyone word. The student could translate some of it.
The second leg of the shopping foray took us in another direction, to the Migros and Carrefour megastores. They looked pretty much as I remember them from their home countries, Switzerland and France, respectively. Anyhow, as we started our hike to the bus stop, I lamented that I hadn’t brought along my straw hat; even a billed cap would have helped as the sun was quite intense. My fellow teacher commented that he’d seem people wearing straw hats and I could probably buy one.
I took the third leg of the journey by myself. By then I remembered I had brought my floppy brimmed birding/hiking had and was wearing it. However, I put “straw hat” on my list and then began looking to see if anyone actually wore such a thing. Actually, I didn’t see anyone wearing any kind of hat or cap. Some of the women wore headscarves, but none of the men sported any kind of head wear, not even the otherwise ubiquitous baseball cap. I was surprised because the sun in Gaziantep is quite intense, and you’d think you’d want something to shade your eyes. But I guess everyone here is used to it.
By the way, people noticed my floppy hat. A young women sitting across from me in the bus and wearing a scarf herself commented through the young student sitting next to her that my hat was nice. She was full of smiles and chatting away like I understood everyone word. The student could translate some of it.
First Impressions of the Job
When I told people I was coming to a “work in progress” I was referring to the English Language Program. It turns out the whole campus is a giant start up. I thought their academic courses would be running, but it turns out that we, the English Language Program, are the only game in town at the moment. In fact, only one building is completed – or about 95% completed. They are still grading a road into the site. Some of it actually had asphalt on it this morning (Friday). Classes start Monday.
That said, what they have done is absolutely gorgeous. Our building has marble floors throughout – except in the classrooms. I would have died and gone to heaven had I had such classrooms at UW. They have individual moveable desks and chairs so you have great flexibility in setting up the room. They all have ceiling mounted projectors and computer hookups that will allow you to project materials you’ve preloaded on the computer. The building has WiFi everywhere, so you can also project Internet sites. On Monday all instructors are to receive laptops. In fact, each student is to receive a laptop as well. On the bottom floor there is a tea stand. It is served in little tulip-shaped classes on square glass saucers. Despite the fact that the Turks introduced coffee to the rest of Europe, they are really great tea drinkers.
The one odd thing about the building is how few electrical outlets there are. The teachers’ offices are very large rooms. There are six of us to a room, That sounds bad but we all have very large desks and they are kind of partitioned off with cabinets. One entire wall is windows that actually open. It’s all very tastefully done. However there are only four outlets in the room. And they aren’t double outlets like in the US – just one plug per outlet. Looks like we’ll be buying some power strips!
The other interesting feature is the women’s restroom. It’s all nicely tiled in tastefully chosen colors. Two of the stalls have regular western toilets, with the progressive water-saving devise of two levels of flushing; one uses more water than the other. However, the other stall is a porcelain bowl in the floor. It’s flushable, but you don’t sit; you squat. I’ve encountered those types of toilets elsewhere in my travels but none in brand new luxury-style buildings.
The campus sits atop the rolling hills in this region of southern Anatolia. The Texans of the staff say it looks like the Texas hill country, but without as much vegetation. It’s very dry here – it feels a bit like the American Southwest climate-wise. The patches of green are mostly orchards or vineyards. And they don’t stake up their grapes the way we do. They look more like bushes. The university has already planted hundreds of trees around the existing construction site. It will take five year to complete and will eventually become a self-contained village, with student housing, etc. They soccer fields have already been built. Going home this evening I even spotted a couple of goals set up in the fields.
The one problem with the campus is that is a distance outside town. There is no public transportation. They’ve been running vans for the employees – including the teachers. The administration expects over 300 students to start the language program on Monday. They will probably run vans from the end of the bus line. It isn’t common for students to own cars, so they will have to provide some sort of transport for them. What this means, however, is that we are basically stuck on campus from 8:00 – 5:00 Monday through Friday. That makes things such as shopping and dealing with the bank nearly impossible. However, they are providing everyone, including students, a hot lunch every day. And the food has been quite good.
The Zirve vision is really quite progressive. They plan is to offer all their degree programs entirely in English. The main university here teaches everything except engineering in Turkish; engineers are all taught in English. Given Turkey’s hopes for joining the EU, Zirve will be ahead of the pack, since all major EU universities have to offer at least some of their degree programs in English.
Zirve contracted with the University of Northern Texas in Denton to build their English program. The idea was to have half of the teaching staff be native speakers and the other half Turks who have learned English. Most of the Turkish-speaking teachers are quite young – for most this is their first job after college. It amazes me how well they can speak English, often without having left Turkey. The UNT staff held a three-week “boot camp” for them starting September 8. It was really a crash methodology course. I think they will be great – very enthusiastic.
The big shock all the way around is that out of something like 350 students, three quarters of them placed at the absolute beginner level on the basis of a diagnostic test administered by UNT staff. Even more surprising is that 100 of them didn’t even show up for the test; they were automatically placed in the beginning class. That doesn’t mean they don’t know any English; most have had 6-8 years in school. But they were never really required to produce – speak or write – in English. All high school tests were either fill-in or multiple choice so to come to a test and be asked to write an essay on some topic was a real shock. Personally, I don’t think it will be quite as disastrous as some people fear – UNT promised to have the students fit for content classes by the fall – because they really have a solid base to build on. We just have to activate it.
The academic (content) side of the program is madly trying to hire faculty. They don’t want anyone without an American PhD. I really like their business dean. He spent six years at the Spokane branch of WSU and speaks beautiful English. He’s looking for finance and marketing faculty – but statistics is a requirement for almost all their majors. He’s even open to people looking to spend their sabbaticals in an interesting location.
That said, what they have done is absolutely gorgeous. Our building has marble floors throughout – except in the classrooms. I would have died and gone to heaven had I had such classrooms at UW. They have individual moveable desks and chairs so you have great flexibility in setting up the room. They all have ceiling mounted projectors and computer hookups that will allow you to project materials you’ve preloaded on the computer. The building has WiFi everywhere, so you can also project Internet sites. On Monday all instructors are to receive laptops. In fact, each student is to receive a laptop as well. On the bottom floor there is a tea stand. It is served in little tulip-shaped classes on square glass saucers. Despite the fact that the Turks introduced coffee to the rest of Europe, they are really great tea drinkers.
The one odd thing about the building is how few electrical outlets there are. The teachers’ offices are very large rooms. There are six of us to a room, That sounds bad but we all have very large desks and they are kind of partitioned off with cabinets. One entire wall is windows that actually open. It’s all very tastefully done. However there are only four outlets in the room. And they aren’t double outlets like in the US – just one plug per outlet. Looks like we’ll be buying some power strips!
The other interesting feature is the women’s restroom. It’s all nicely tiled in tastefully chosen colors. Two of the stalls have regular western toilets, with the progressive water-saving devise of two levels of flushing; one uses more water than the other. However, the other stall is a porcelain bowl in the floor. It’s flushable, but you don’t sit; you squat. I’ve encountered those types of toilets elsewhere in my travels but none in brand new luxury-style buildings.
The campus sits atop the rolling hills in this region of southern Anatolia. The Texans of the staff say it looks like the Texas hill country, but without as much vegetation. It’s very dry here – it feels a bit like the American Southwest climate-wise. The patches of green are mostly orchards or vineyards. And they don’t stake up their grapes the way we do. They look more like bushes. The university has already planted hundreds of trees around the existing construction site. It will take five year to complete and will eventually become a self-contained village, with student housing, etc. They soccer fields have already been built. Going home this evening I even spotted a couple of goals set up in the fields.
The one problem with the campus is that is a distance outside town. There is no public transportation. They’ve been running vans for the employees – including the teachers. The administration expects over 300 students to start the language program on Monday. They will probably run vans from the end of the bus line. It isn’t common for students to own cars, so they will have to provide some sort of transport for them. What this means, however, is that we are basically stuck on campus from 8:00 – 5:00 Monday through Friday. That makes things such as shopping and dealing with the bank nearly impossible. However, they are providing everyone, including students, a hot lunch every day. And the food has been quite good.
The Zirve vision is really quite progressive. They plan is to offer all their degree programs entirely in English. The main university here teaches everything except engineering in Turkish; engineers are all taught in English. Given Turkey’s hopes for joining the EU, Zirve will be ahead of the pack, since all major EU universities have to offer at least some of their degree programs in English.
Zirve contracted with the University of Northern Texas in Denton to build their English program. The idea was to have half of the teaching staff be native speakers and the other half Turks who have learned English. Most of the Turkish-speaking teachers are quite young – for most this is their first job after college. It amazes me how well they can speak English, often without having left Turkey. The UNT staff held a three-week “boot camp” for them starting September 8. It was really a crash methodology course. I think they will be great – very enthusiastic.
The big shock all the way around is that out of something like 350 students, three quarters of them placed at the absolute beginner level on the basis of a diagnostic test administered by UNT staff. Even more surprising is that 100 of them didn’t even show up for the test; they were automatically placed in the beginning class. That doesn’t mean they don’t know any English; most have had 6-8 years in school. But they were never really required to produce – speak or write – in English. All high school tests were either fill-in or multiple choice so to come to a test and be asked to write an essay on some topic was a real shock. Personally, I don’t think it will be quite as disastrous as some people fear – UNT promised to have the students fit for content classes by the fall – because they really have a solid base to build on. We just have to activate it.
The academic (content) side of the program is madly trying to hire faculty. They don’t want anyone without an American PhD. I really like their business dean. He spent six years at the Spokane branch of WSU and speaks beautiful English. He’s looking for finance and marketing faculty – but statistics is a requirement for almost all their majors. He’s even open to people looking to spend their sabbaticals in an interesting location.
Apartment
Despite an e-mail to the contrary, I was able to get into my housing the evening after my arrival. Our neighborhood is full of 5-6 floor apartment buildings (6 if there is a business on the ground floor) that are square and six have apartments per floor. The buildings are spaced far enough apart that the sun still shines into the streets and into the buildings. It’s really kind of nice. The more standard large apartment buildings are springing up on the edges of town, but we are located just across from the large Gaziantep University. In fact, it would appear that our building is geared more toward students. In fact, there are two Polish students and a Hungarian sharing one of the units.
Our building is new. It’s solidly built, but the plasterers, painters and installers of bathroom appliances didn’t clean up too well after themselves. Those who moved in earlier bought a bottle of some sort of solvent to remove adhesive, plaster and paint from sinks and tiles. The bottle is floating around the building somewhere. I especially need it for the bathroom and kitchen sinks. Looks the workers used them to wash their tools.
All the units have about the same layout. They are basically two rooms plus bathroom. When you enter my little abode, you find a countertop with a sink and two electric burners on the wall immediately to the right. There is a student-style refrigerator under the counter and cabinets above. That’s the kitchen. Fine with me because I don’t plan to do much cooking. Otherwise the living room contains and IKEA like table, chairs and coffee table as well as a very solid sofa that makes into a bed. It’s not an American-style hide-a-bed. With this one you pull out the seat and the back comes down. I slept on one like it in our Basel apartment and my grandmother had one in her rooms in the old Bonneyville in Tacoma. The ironic thing is that it has a wall mounted TV connected to a satellite dish on the roof. You can get hundreds of channels, including English, German and Russian-don’t want to miss any of those soccer games. The bedroom has two single beds, an IKEA-style wardrobe and a kind of nightstand (about two feet wide) with two drawers. These are great for underwear and T-shirts. Otherwise no drawers.
The bathroom is interesting. It’s tiled floor to ceiling. One half has the standard sink and toilet. It the far corner they have mounted a shower head, and there is a drain in the floor. There is nothing to keep the water from flowing into the rest of the bathroom. I’d brought along a towel, which I used as kind of a dam. (They provided nice Turkish bath towels – can’t complain about that.) I suppose the theory is that the floor is slanted so that the water drains into the corner, but that’s sure not the case in my apartment.
I also have a small balcony. It would probably hold only a chair or a clothes drying rack but it’s nice to have the door to open up to let in air. There is a minaret somewhere nearby because you clearly hear the calls to prayer. Today(Friday) I heard it at about 5 AM and again at around 6:30 and 8:30 PM. It’s not the blast that come through my hotel window my first morning here. But you definitely hear it.
One thing this building shares with all the new apartment buildings popping up like mushrooms at this end of town is a very mysterious and seemingly unrelated mixture of “stuff” on the roof. I use that word partly because I can’t think of any way to describe it but partially because it seems to be just dropped there without much thought of order. It is, in fact, a bit unsightly. First are the satellite dishes for TV reception. On some buildings they look like they are hanging over the side of the roof. There is a certain randomness to their placement. Then there are these metal frames, each holding two metal large metal canisters about the size of two 50-gallon barrels laid end-to-end. Some are bright silver, others red or yellow, a few even rusty. Some buildings have more than others, and some frames have only one canister. Finally there are large square solar panels. I’ve heard two stories about what’s going on up on those rooftops. Both say that the canisters hold our hot water supply. Some say that the solar panels are supplying all the electricity for the apartments in the building; others say they are just heating the hot water. In either case, they are a step ahead of us in providing power to apartment buildings. This certainly is an idea spot for solar energy.
Back to the important part: I have beds for visitors but don’t expect any gourmet cooking. However, you won’t need it. There are lots of inexpensive and good places to eat around here.
Our building is new. It’s solidly built, but the plasterers, painters and installers of bathroom appliances didn’t clean up too well after themselves. Those who moved in earlier bought a bottle of some sort of solvent to remove adhesive, plaster and paint from sinks and tiles. The bottle is floating around the building somewhere. I especially need it for the bathroom and kitchen sinks. Looks the workers used them to wash their tools.
All the units have about the same layout. They are basically two rooms plus bathroom. When you enter my little abode, you find a countertop with a sink and two electric burners on the wall immediately to the right. There is a student-style refrigerator under the counter and cabinets above. That’s the kitchen. Fine with me because I don’t plan to do much cooking. Otherwise the living room contains and IKEA like table, chairs and coffee table as well as a very solid sofa that makes into a bed. It’s not an American-style hide-a-bed. With this one you pull out the seat and the back comes down. I slept on one like it in our Basel apartment and my grandmother had one in her rooms in the old Bonneyville in Tacoma. The ironic thing is that it has a wall mounted TV connected to a satellite dish on the roof. You can get hundreds of channels, including English, German and Russian-don’t want to miss any of those soccer games. The bedroom has two single beds, an IKEA-style wardrobe and a kind of nightstand (about two feet wide) with two drawers. These are great for underwear and T-shirts. Otherwise no drawers.
The bathroom is interesting. It’s tiled floor to ceiling. One half has the standard sink and toilet. It the far corner they have mounted a shower head, and there is a drain in the floor. There is nothing to keep the water from flowing into the rest of the bathroom. I’d brought along a towel, which I used as kind of a dam. (They provided nice Turkish bath towels – can’t complain about that.) I suppose the theory is that the floor is slanted so that the water drains into the corner, but that’s sure not the case in my apartment.
I also have a small balcony. It would probably hold only a chair or a clothes drying rack but it’s nice to have the door to open up to let in air. There is a minaret somewhere nearby because you clearly hear the calls to prayer. Today(Friday) I heard it at about 5 AM and again at around 6:30 and 8:30 PM. It’s not the blast that come through my hotel window my first morning here. But you definitely hear it.
One thing this building shares with all the new apartment buildings popping up like mushrooms at this end of town is a very mysterious and seemingly unrelated mixture of “stuff” on the roof. I use that word partly because I can’t think of any way to describe it but partially because it seems to be just dropped there without much thought of order. It is, in fact, a bit unsightly. First are the satellite dishes for TV reception. On some buildings they look like they are hanging over the side of the roof. There is a certain randomness to their placement. Then there are these metal frames, each holding two metal large metal canisters about the size of two 50-gallon barrels laid end-to-end. Some are bright silver, others red or yellow, a few even rusty. Some buildings have more than others, and some frames have only one canister. Finally there are large square solar panels. I’ve heard two stories about what’s going on up on those rooftops. Both say that the canisters hold our hot water supply. Some say that the solar panels are supplying all the electricity for the apartments in the building; others say they are just heating the hot water. In either case, they are a step ahead of us in providing power to apartment buildings. This certainly is an idea spot for solar energy.
Back to the important part: I have beds for visitors but don’t expect any gourmet cooking. However, you won’t need it. There are lots of inexpensive and good places to eat around here.
Thus Begins The Journey
Due to one of those cyclical downsizings of the staff in UW’s English Language Program, I suddenly and with little warning found myself without employment for the coming academic year. I quickly started exploring other opportunities, including one at a UW branch campus that seemed just perfect, but that didn’t work out.
The day before receiving what was essentially a layoff notice, I got one of those mass e-mails about someone is some country looking for someone to teach English. I always delete those, because the timing hadn't seemed right to work outside the country. Strangely, in this case I didn’t delete the e-mail. To make a long story short, the position was is Gaziantep Turkey, in the south central part of the country, just north of Aleppo, Syria. I applied, was offered a job, and accepted. This left me with just two weeks to get ready to leave, six days of which was already committed to a trip to eastern Oregon to visit a dear friend, attend the Pendleton Round-up and enjoy the spectacular countryside. In short, it was a bit of a rush.
I flew from Seattle to Chicago and caught a flight to Istanbul, where I had a six-hour layover before flying on to Gaziantep. I arrived at 1 AM, expecting to be met. I had only an office phone number and no idea where my promised housing was to be. When they locked the airport and turned off the lights if gave up waiting and I entrusted my fate to a taxi driver who said he’d take me to a hotel in the center of town. He did. Frankly, I didn’t doubt he would. I’d had nothing but friendly and helpful encounters throughout the trip, beginning with the gentleman at the United counter who helped me sort out an overweight baggage problem to the taxi driver who got me safely to a hotel that night.
My first impression of Gaziantep was the night sky. There was Orion. He seemed so much larger and brighter than what we see in our night sky. But it was also a comfort to see old friend Orion up there, still shining away. And thus begins the journey.
The day before receiving what was essentially a layoff notice, I got one of those mass e-mails about someone is some country looking for someone to teach English. I always delete those, because the timing hadn't seemed right to work outside the country. Strangely, in this case I didn’t delete the e-mail. To make a long story short, the position was is Gaziantep Turkey, in the south central part of the country, just north of Aleppo, Syria. I applied, was offered a job, and accepted. This left me with just two weeks to get ready to leave, six days of which was already committed to a trip to eastern Oregon to visit a dear friend, attend the Pendleton Round-up and enjoy the spectacular countryside. In short, it was a bit of a rush.
I flew from Seattle to Chicago and caught a flight to Istanbul, where I had a six-hour layover before flying on to Gaziantep. I arrived at 1 AM, expecting to be met. I had only an office phone number and no idea where my promised housing was to be. When they locked the airport and turned off the lights if gave up waiting and I entrusted my fate to a taxi driver who said he’d take me to a hotel in the center of town. He did. Frankly, I didn’t doubt he would. I’d had nothing but friendly and helpful encounters throughout the trip, beginning with the gentleman at the United counter who helped me sort out an overweight baggage problem to the taxi driver who got me safely to a hotel that night.
My first impression of Gaziantep was the night sky. There was Orion. He seemed so much larger and brighter than what we see in our night sky. But it was also a comfort to see old friend Orion up there, still shining away. And thus begins the journey.
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