Seriously...
I have hit a machine at least 20 times thinking I was gonna sit down and catch up with my stories and left without getting it done.
I've got 2 larger stories to type out (they are on paper) but they'll have to wait. This is just a quick update.
Home - yay I have one sorted. Been there for a week and paid for another 3. The owner Mevlede (31) is mother to Boran (9) and the third bedroom belongs to Emrah (28?). All are Turkish of course with those names. We're going through a teething phase at the moment and it's odds-on that Emrah will be moving out pretty soon. He is allergic to the fumes from Mevledes smoking. I might be moving too as she's going through quite a lot of issues which makes her a bit psycho at times. But right now I'm enjoying have a place to rest my head. It's 2 metro stops from the centre of Istanbul and a little expensive for the standard but again .. nice to have a place to call home. My room is the lounge/bedroom. We entertain there lol.
Job - turned down one this week as I thought the money was too low. Hope to have an offer this week from another teaching school and crazily enough I'll take it if they do even though the money will be less.
Social - hmm. Not a heck of a lot happening on this front and often wonder where it might head. If I get bedded down here I'll look to get some Turkish lessons.
A few anecdotes:
I was out in the wop-wops trying to find this computer store that had been recommended to me. Finding my way about is pretty hard generally and this especially so as it was my first venture out of the centre of Istanbul. I got tired and stopped at a cafe for some food. The menu was solely in Turkish and asking for an English one wasn't an option (I did ask but they didn't have one). As with things in Turkey people just ask whoever is nearby and so the owner asked one of his patrons who he seemed to know knew English. I was a little embarrassed to have another patron bothered. He explained a few things to me and upon the mention of sausage I said "Sounds good" and ordered it. Turned out to be a fry up of all sorts of different things. Quite nice. Then I asked for directions to this computer place. Again the other patrons were involved and I ended up with 5 other people surrounding my small table all chipping in to help. I like that about the Turks.
Some odd sights:
- man selling goldfish in bowls from the side door of his van near a major road
- "beggars" who sit in major thoroughfares with a set of scales (human) to earn a buck
- women in shorts - spotted only once in the colder periods
- Mark in shorts - unique in Istanbul
- A sweetcorn stand. Comes in a cup with lemon and butter - yum! It was really good as opposed to the cobs the vendors sell and throw a bucket load of salt onto
- barbeque lamb chops - yum!
Odd things I've done:
- went to a play performed by Mevledes friends (she is doing performing arts). It was all in Turkish and very in your face being about a Romanian caught in prostitution and a tourist who was enlisted to create a porn site as his passport was taken from him. It was annoying in a sense as it looked really good and I was curious what they were saying. The odd thing for me was the 1 female actor who showed most of her figure doing all the clothing changes on stage and of course wearing hooker style clothing. Initially it surprised me being Turkey but then in the arts there are no rules right?
- Listened to a lecture by a French film director. In French. With headsets for live translation into Turkish. Hmm.
- Watched a French film festival movie (too slow to be entertaining) that had both Turkish and English subtitles. First time I've been to a movie with 2 sets of subtitles. I was reading both sets and really getting down on ever learning Turkish. Internationally I've been frequently told that English is the hardest language to learn. Now I've found one to knock that off top spot. The Turks agree - Turkish is harder.
- Taken a photo of the heating system in the flat and tried to translate (dictionary and Mevlede) into English because I was getting well pissed off having cold showers.
- Spending 3+ weeks internet searching, walking around greater Istanbul hunting down which laptop I should get and comparing prices. Only to have Emrah do a 15 min search on his iPhone and find a better deal. Ugh.
- Visit the Asian continent for less than NZ 2 dollars
