Autumn Begins

It's starting to feel like fall on the canal street.

The weather is starting to take a turn for the cold.  There is snow on the mountains (granted they are far in the distance) and at 6am on a Saturday, when the alarm goes off and you attempt to crawl out of bed (and your apartment has no heating) in order to go to work and teach six classes back to back, you find yourself cursing the cold and dreading the knowledge that it will indeed be getting colder.  The long weekends (indeed the majority of our weekly hours take place on the weekend) were made further frustrating this past weekend when our schedules got changed three times that day (for that day’s classes). I ended up running back and forth between schools multiple times in order to teach all my classes- which, while good exercise, is not overly enjoyable.  There was no time for lunch, no time for water, no time for anything but running back and forth like a chicken with your head cut off and then teaching class after class after class.  At least I knew this ahead of time.  Joe was given four minutes (count ‘em- 1-2-3-4) notice that he had a new class starting at the other school.  He ran, didn’t plan, taught the class.  Not ideal, but apparently they do this all the time so I suppose we will just have to be ready.  Needless to say, we went to the pub when classes finished that day in an effort to slightly abate the frustration.  Sunday was no better.  They gave me a new first class (adding another run between schools) that wasn’t a first class because Joe had taught them the previous week but no one had bothered to tell us.  It is really irritating to teach the wrong lesson and look like a fool because our managers don’t see the importance in giving us information.  We never know how many students we will have in a new class (prepare for anywhere from 10-30) and in the case of new kids classes this past weekend, we were told to ‘teach whatever you want.’  No curriculum whatsoever.  Needless to say by Sunday afternoon, we were decidedly pooped.  Joe got wrangled in to playing football (soccer) that night (girls don’t play soccer in Turkey) and with a dropping temperature of one degree, I opted to stay home in the warmth rather than go ‘watch’.  I was sound asleep when he got home.

Turkish coffee with a side of Turkish delight.

                

                That brings us to Monday.  It was a lazy morning indeed as we took our time getting ready, only to receive a text from Mustafa that he was going to be in the center that day and would like to meet up.  Naturally we said yes, dropped our bags off at the school (I dropped them off- Joe was too stiff to climb the stairs) and then went for a walk (he showed us some key establishments in Malatya) before ending up at a café for lunch and tea with him and some of his friends.  As per always, time with Mustafa is highly enjoyable, and even when the conversation turned to religion and Joe’s stance as an atheist (something people in this country do not understand) it was a civil conversation that was quite entertaining to listen to.  Mustafa translated for his friends (a few of whom speak decent English but couldn’t quite follow the conversation) and it was quite late by the time we got back to the school to finish lesson planning.  When we got there, however, Elif (one of my local teachers) was in early, so in an effort to make friends, I went for a tea upstairs with her while Joe finished his lessons.  It was by far the most social day we have had so far.

                

              On Tuesday, we decided to join a gym at the hotel not far from us.  They have a pool and a sauna and everything else you need to keep warm for the winter, and although paying six months up front (similar to Indonesia) is extremely painful on the wallet, we decided it was worth it.  Hopefully we will be able to get our money’s worth out of the place.

              

           

Sunset from the school windows

              Other than that there are just the other little quirks that are associated with living overseas.  I sneakily managed to figure out if my students drink beer or think it’s a sin into a few of my lesson plans, and I must say that I am pleasantly surprised when they do, and can sense them being raised a few notches on my ‘this student is  a good person list’.  A little biased I am fully aware, but alas.  There have also been some charming disagreements with management (we try and avoid speaking to one of our bosses at all costs, although the others are fine) including working a six day week (again, Joe was given last minute notice as to a new class that put him on a six day week) and when I went to inform said boss that our contract clearly stated (twice) that we were working five day weeks (barring sickness or holiday or some other need to cover a class in which case we would be flexible).  He made a big deal of digging up the contract and finding it and then informing me that this was not how things were usually done (to which the smart mouth side of me wanted to reply that that was not my problem- I didn’t write the contract and I would have had absolutely no way of knowing how things were ‘usually done’ but I decided it would not be in my best interest to open my mouth) but he did say that they would fix the problem, so we shall wait and see if he plots some sort of revenge on that.  I will feel a lot more secure in the job once our work visas are firmly in place.  They have already tried to convince Joe that with our twelve month visa we would be here until next November- an idea Joe quickly nipped in the bud, but we shall see.  We didn’t expect to see a company more disorganised than EF and we have been unpleasantly surprised thus far.