Botanic Park and Halloween

Another week in Ankara is checked off the list. Pre-K had our first fieldtrip on Tuesday to the Botanic Park. It was so great to see the kiddos outside of the classroom and having wonderful and meaningful experiences with nature. We walked around and collected leaves, acorns, and chestnuts and just played. I was surprised at how smoothly the trip actually went. No accidents. Nobody got hurt. No tears were shed= great fieldtrip!

Friday was our first teacher professional development day. It was nice to have a little break from the little squirts and learn about technology in the classroom. Kind of bummed about the topic. I JUST got done with two “Technology in the Classroom” classes at NAU. It was still nice to socialize with teachers that I don’t get to see very often. But the greatest thing was that it was a half day, so some of us went to the market in Ulus and had a wonderful lunch!

Saturday morning we had a “Republic Day” ceremony at the school. School on a Saturday?!? What! It wasn’t all the bad. It was real quick and the kids who were there seemed to enjoy it. That afternoon Joanie and I went and walked around Tunali. We discovered an English bookstore! So exciting! That night was the Halloween party at the British Embassy. Way too much fun! We had quite a few people from the school and everyone was dressed up! I was a Greek goddess. It was a successful weekend in my book and now I’m preparing for Italia! I leave Thursday morning! Yay!  

çok güzel

It was a beautiful weekend! Friday night was a wonderful time spent with friends. We started out with our friend's birthday dinner at an amazingly cute restaurant in town. It was so nice to have a break from school food! (side note: the school food is great, but having the same thing all the time is starting to get a little old!). We all headed over to the US embassy for happy hour which is always a nice time. Hearing English is good for the soul right now.

Saturday morning I woke up nice and early to head off to see my school's volleyball team play the DoDDS school. It was nice getting to know some of the girls. They reminded me of the girls from camp for some reason! But I have to say, the best part of the whole morning was.........OREOS!!! Yay! After 10 weeks of craving the chocolaty goodness, I finally got my hands on some oreos and even poptarts! After getting home, I jumped on a bus for a shopping adventure in town! Yay for figuring my way around all by myself!

Today I had brunch with a few friends in town. So. Good. There was even bacon involved. (First of all, its hard to find anything with bacon in Turkey, and second of all I don't really eat meat...but I had to make an exception for bacon...in Turkey!) We were going to go to the English bookstore, but ran out of time and had to run back to school for our "UN Day Celebration." I have to be honest, I was not looking forward to it, but I ended up really enjoying spending some time with my pre-K team and seeing the kiddos outside of the classroom!

Overall a really great weekend! Should be an easy upcoming week and then I'm basically in Italy! yay! 9 days!

In class we've been talking about Fall and the different changes we see. We pulled out some fashion magazines and the kids were to look through them and find good clothes for this time of year. I'm thinking this little guy was trying to earn some brownie points! Way cute!

Oktoberfest & Eskisehir

What a wonderful weekend! After an incredibly busy week a few of us had an incredible little taste of Germany at Oktoberfest at the German Embassy. After a bit of a rough start (our bus didn’t show up, we couldn’t find a table, etc.) we quickly joined the festivities. There was traditional German food (a nice change from all of the Turkish food!), beer, and dancing! I think we all had a great time.

Saturday morning, Joanie and I went off on our first adventure out of the city by ourselves. We managed to navigate the Ankara train station and made it to Eskisehir in one piece. We probably could’ve done a little research before going because as soon as we jumped off that train we both said, “now what?” We walked around a bit and impressed ourselves with how much Turkish we could actually speak! So exciting! We met some wonderful ladies at a little craft fair we stumbled upon and even did some shopping with a Turkish girl we met while walking around. It was fun, but we both agreed that we can now check Eskisehir of the list.

School Kills Creativity - Ken Robinson

This is a video I had to watch in one of my classes at NAU. I haven't exactly seen eye to eye on some school matters (art, centers, free choice) with some members of my pre-K team even though I feel we are still a very strong unit. Watching my kiddos at our art center today reminded me of this video. I hope we can all find ways to encourage creativity in the people around us.



Getting ready for Oktoberfest! YAY!

Yoğurt

Can you tell I skipped Turkish class today!? I'm really running low on Turkish titles!

Well anyways, after a wonderful weekend full of relaxing and eating a wonderful Canadian Thanksgiving meal, I was feeling fully prepared for a busy week at school. Monday I was pretty disappointed to find out that my professional development request for the conference in Italy was DENIED! Don't worry. I survived, but not without a few tears. Then I just had to laugh. I'm really just as bad as my 4 year-olds. Today we, once again, had a IB Primary Years Program workshop. I actually really enjoyed this one and left feeling very positive and you could even say inspired. I then went home and bought my plane ticket for my trip to Italy over the Kurban Bayram. YAY!!! I haven't felt homesick yet, but I have gotten very "Italysick." I can't wait to be back, even if it is only for 5 days! I've got Oktoberfest at the German Embassy this Friday, and I simply can't wait! Lots to look forward to!

So I've been eating really healthy and even running thinking that soon enough I'll have to lose all of that weight I gained in Italy (hey, it just meant that I lived life to the fullest....right?). WELL...I've been wondering why I haven't seen any results yet. It might be because; 1) I just finished off my 3rd jar of Nutella and/or 2) my new favorite snack is yogurt and honey (something that is not bad in moderation....key word being moderation. NOT something I'm very good at!)

Cappadocia

I left my little home base for the first time this weekend and it was absolutely magical! I, along with many of the other new teachers, went a few hours south of Ankara to Cappadocia. It was such an interesting place, with wild rock formations and an incredible amount of history, but I feel like we were very successful and saw a good deal of what there was to see. It was kind of weird being in such a tourist town again. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t even compare to Venice on that front, but still touristy none the less. Our hotel was a bunch of caves carved out in the mountain and the people who worked there were so incredibly hospitable. Saturday morning a few of us got up at the ungodly hour of 5am to go for a sunrise hot air balloon ride! It was B-E-A-UTIFUL! I can’t even begin to explain what an amazing experience it was. Surreal is the only adjective I can think of to describe it.

We then had a long day of touring the area. This included the fairy chimneys that Cappadocia is so well known for and even a ceramic factory where we got a complete tour of how the traditional pieces are made. I think one of the most interesting parts of the tour was seeing the old churches that were carved into the mountains and rock formations. Most of them had beautiful frescos that were fairly well preserved.

That night we went to “Turkish Night” as everybody continued to call it. We had a very traditional Turkish meal and watched some Turkish dancing, whirling dervishes, and belly dancing. It was overall just a wonderful time, but such a long day!

Sunday morning we woke up and had brunch before heading to a carpet shop where we were to become experts on Turkish carpets. I told myself a million times in the past few weeks that I would wait a few months before actually purchasing a carpet. Well, they say you turn into your mother, and I’m thinking this was the first major sign that that may be true! Sure enough, I fell in love with a carpet and went home with a new investment.

We stopped by an underground city and a dried up salt lake on the way back into town. It was an incredible trip which as tickled my travel bone a bit so I am now constantly daydreaming about all of the wonderful places I get to see in Turkey!

P.S. Hey Dad...this is my ride to school everymorning!