So later that same day I helped Zabayda with covering the roof from the crazy rain, Katie and I were hanging out in my room and she and Mustafa came to my door with a bag of small, whole fish –he whips one out and dangles it with joy! They had bought fish (Mustafa’s fave for dinner and wanted me to join them for helping)! I was thinking NO way! Not again! So I tried to tell them I didn’t like balik (fish) and I wouldn’t have any! And Katie was like oh yes! Sign me up!
So they were like ok, Katie eats you no, fine type thing. I was like sweet! It worked! Phew! Right?! Right???! Nooooooo!! A little later we get summoned up, especially me. She makes me eat it, deboning a ton of these fish for me!! Arg! While Mustafa is literally dancing as he eats these things cuz he loves it soooo much!!! Not only that, but the 3 of them were making fun of me the whole time cuz they know I don’t like it!! Last time I help Zabada out! Psh!!
Here's a video so you can watching me die slowly and Mustafa enjoy it:
Though she did make up for it the other day, lol! I just finished showering (remember I live in a dorm, so there are a few other showers) and I here this calling, and it gets closer and closer, I’m thinking, yup that’s for me. So I scream out a reply, and Zabada is saying all these things in Turkish. I step out, dripping wet in my towel, and she’s motioning to come upstairs to eat; kinda looking at me like what's wrong with you showering I got food going on! I’m seriously DRIPPING! I start laughing and was like ok ok! Few minutes ya know?! Lol! So I rush to put on clothes and join them for some bbq chicken. Which was good, but questionable. It was very chicken looking and um, ya, I don’t know. But over all good! Haha!
One day Katie and I decided to just wander around the Euro side. We stumbled into Topkapi Palace, Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque. Only we decided not to go into any of these and save them for later, but got some gorgeous pics out of it...er or of ourselves I guess! Lol!
Dude, check out these 2 old ladies we walked by! And I'm not even standing right next to them! So they are shorter than they appear!
Diana, our head teacher, is amazing! Her husband got 2 free tickets to Lenny Kravitz this past Wednesday, but due to some fortunate events (for us that is) they couldn’t go! So she had told us teachers about it last weekend, but on Monday, I was in the teacher room alone and she comes in asking me if I want them. I found out that she wasn’t charging for them and was like Yes Please! So we got to go!! He is awesome live! Even better than he sounds recorded! It was a cool venue, smaller and right on the water. Though he didn’t try to speak tukish which bugged me, and he didn’t do very well at keeping them pumped. He dances really funny though, like a Bill Cosby x 10! Pretty funny! Then there were those famous songs of his which was hilarious to hear the Turks sing along to! This one guy behind us kept singing American wo-mmmmAANNNN! He would get louder and go up a series of notes as he neared the end of the word woman! Lol! Good times!
This job is crazy, always ups and downs –it all depends on the moods of your students. Turkish students, especially women, take out their bad day on teachers. So that’s a lot of fun! I have a problem class, and the office staff had to talk to them! But then, two weeks later, one of the office staff tells me how much my class loves me! How it’s so much fun and they can’t believe how fast time flies in my class. So I’m sooooooo confused, I haven't changed anything I'm doing with them! I can’t wait for that class to finish! It’s really hard, you gotta have tough skin for the job, something I’m not to sure I have. Gotta grow some quick or get out I guess…
Which brings me to my other tough skin, what should be the toughest skin on my body, the bottom of my foot…it’s no longer!
Our friend Josh inivited us over to his shabby place to hang out by the pool and drink and eat and what not. Josh knows everybody in his complex and kids were playing bball on the half court located on the tennis court. Being bball players ourselves, we decided to play a game -in our barefeet. Well my right foot rips open, I guess from being so dry, sure it hurt –but I kept going, playing more on the side of my foot, of course. I could see a huge chunk of skin flapping, knowing it wasn’t a good thing, but the game wasn’t over and I didn’t have time to stop and really take a gander at it. So I sucked it up and carried on playing (kinda playing half-assish though). After the game I showed the guys and they all freaked out and then it was a huge ordeal trying to find bandages big enough, Josh had to get scissors to cut the flap of skin off, he had to get disinfectant that hurts like a mother to clean it….good times. Poor Katie got to clean it, she tricked me at one point and pored rubbing alcohol on it when I wasn’t looking, I almost socked her several times. I seriously stopped myself just inches away from her, the pain just kept getting worse and worse!! But don't worry!! I didn't! I wouldn’t have done that to her! Come on! I’m not that mean!
So the fortunate events part: Josh doesn’t really work at English Time anymore, he lives a little further out and has a ton of private students and is hoping to open his own school within the next year. Well one of his student’s that was there was on his way to go have dinner with his family over in our area –so sly Josh got us a ride home! Only we aren’t really good with car directions since we never go in one, so we got let off on a street close by us. Which is perfect cuz I needed some sort of gauze and shtuff for my foot! Not to mention the butt load of bandaids are flapping like my skin was bcuz of the puss that had soaked through and stopped it from being sticky. So we’re limping along hoping to find some sort of Quickee Mart (which there are some every few feet around here) that would actually sell huge bandaids and not just candy. Well we went into one of them that was bigger and looked like it had some potential, and this teenager that worked there tried to help me. He found out I need a bandaid and brought me back downstairs to the cash register and had the woman whip out a pack of bandaids. Dude, there were maybe three in a pack. I was like oh no! no! no! and tried to say in Turkish I need a huge one and kind showed my wound. Then, her husband (this couple are in their 50s) said all these things in Turkish and told me to wait a few minutes….He came back and pointed down the street and told me in a crazy way which store to go to. Thank God for pointing, cuz atleast I kinda knew where to go! So we take off, and all of the sudden, a customer from the store came up and he walked us all the way over to the store the guy was talkin about. Now this was way out of his way and completely unnecessary of him! So nice!! Only when we got to the store, it was closed! And he tried to tell us the only other option was the hospital! We told him no, thanked him, and parted ways. So on the way home now, we passed by this pharmacy that was closed, except the door was slightly open! So I squished inside and got the woman to help us! It took a little time, but we ended up with gauze, tape and disinfectant! It’s funny cuz the Turkish name for gauze is very similar to the English word for it –but she couldn’t get it (oh you mean Coffee Bean AND TEA LEAF?!). So we happily limp back! Katie has a bunch of patches just waiting to be popped, I have one on my other foot and and one on my big toe on the same foot as the battle wound. The best part is Zabada found out and she clapped her hands at me and shook her head before she even asked me what happened! Lol! But then she offered for me to come eat with them! Only I didn’t cuz we ate a ton of Chinese food at Josh’s! A little later that night, I was up in the common room and Zabada busts out this giant tub, soap and a scrub. I was like oh crap! This is gonna hurt! She starts washing my foot! It hurt too much to let her do it, so I started doing it myself. Mustafa then told me he would take me in the taxi to work because I can't limp all the way there! Which didn't end up happening because I ran into an older teacher that takes the taxi to work, so I went with him! The Turks really freak out here about wounds and immediately want to take you to the hospital. It's kinda funny, but they are super nice and attentive! It's really great to see! My wound is completely fine though! Mark's girlfriend, who is visiting and is a nurse at a hospital, looked at it and she said it is perfectly fine! Phew!Mark is one of our hilarious friends that we hag out a lot with. He had a bday bash the other week. That was a lot of fun!
The other week, Mustafa's oldest son - Serkan and his nephew, Ahmet, visited for a few days. When I got back from work one day (10:20ish pm), they were all upstairs hanging out. Of course, I was invited to come up. They were eating a pile of nuts, which you can get everywhere here (I think they might be hazlenuts -no idea)Well I MUST go BECAUSE….duhn-duhn-nuhn-naaaa…..I have to get ready to move!!!! We can’t have visitors in the dorms...well actually, Mustafa found out we were looking to move the other day, and he looked at me like I was an idiot and was like of course your friends can stay here I’m not going to tell on you! But we really want a real place to live (ie. family room) plus we have some friends coming mid-sept (yay!) and we rather have a real place for them. So we’ve been looking and got this number of this guy that rents out furnished flats. We call him yesterday and all of the sudden, we are being hurried over to our new flat in the quaint little town of Moda to see the place! It’s super nice! Two block from the water! Sooo awesome! So he wants to give us the keys today!! Holla!!!! Jeez things happen fast here! Haha! Oh and Michael, a fellow Kanuk, is going to be living with us! Poor Katie! Mwhahaha! She'll be a Canadian before she knows it! So I gotta go pack and avoid Mustafa and Zabayda –they will be super sad….(oh you don’t have to give notice here, you just up and leave).
Noshk! (bye in Markasha talk)
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