Happy Turkey Day!

My goal is to make 2 blog posts a month and it looks like I didn't quite reach my goal for November. I've been so darn busy this month. I work hard and play hard. Today (Sunday) is the first day I've had to myself in a long while, and it's only because I made the conscious decision NOT to do the 8km hike by the Black Sea that's happening today. I wanted to go but dammit I need a day to myself. It feels great.The easiest way to play catch up with my blog is to post some pics so here it goes.

I know I posted about how my school celebrated Republic Day, but for the day itself my friends and I went to Ataturk's mausoleum. It was packed with people waving the Turkish flag and chanting (in Turkish) "We are Mustafa Ataturk's Army!" We didn't visit the museum part because it was super crowded but we did go inside the mausoleum (the building in the background) to look around. One thing that I thought was interesting was when I was observing all the flags, flag shirts, headbands, etc. and Carlos commented, "The Turkish people love their flag, just like you Americans. In Spain we don't care about the flag so much." He's right- we Americans LOVE our flag, just like the Turks love theirs. I had never given much thought about how much pride a nation can have in a thing as simple as a flag. The most profound utterance I've ever had regarding vexillology was, "hey, when the Turkish flag is hung sideways, it looks like a little man with a parachute."

View from the mausoleum.

My friends and I still go out every weekend. We basically just frequent a single bar that has patrons around our age, plays good music, and has beer pong tables set up. A few weeks ago we were waiting for our beer so we could play and I took some initiative with the bartender.

Yes, of course it worked. We then got our beer and I never called Tarek (?). It's nice to know I still know how to work it.

Halloween rolled around and the kids were so excited! I've celebrated Halloween in every country I've lived in and they all do it differently and some places get it less than others. The worst was probably Australia where I went to a Halloween party at a friend's house and I was the only one not wearing a costume that had been bought or rented- they just didn't know how to capture the spirit of the holiday. In Korea, my foreign friends and I had an absolute blast dressing up and putting on loads of makeup for our sugar skull faces and partied it up.

Here the children of faculty members actually went trick-or-treating (albeit not on the actual night of Halloween for some unknown reason) in the lojmans (apartments) where we are all housed. I helped Carlos give out candy at his place and it was cute. The students had a "Halloween Disco." The school held a Halloween dance for them but since this is Elementary School, it was kids dressed up running around like mad while music played in the background. I showed up in my Pinkie Pie costume from Comic Con and whenever a little girl asked me tentatively, "are you Pinkie Pie?" I would start jumping up and down and scream, "Yeees! You got it! I'm Pinkie Pie!" and their faces lit up. I requested "Cha Cha Slide" and the second graders ate it up- kids love choreographed dances they can follow.

Me and some of my little ghouls!

 There was a Halloween party for foreigners set up by an expat community and Kristen and I decided to see if it was cool. Long story short, it wasn't. Then we met up with our ghostbuster buddies and had fun looking like weirdos out on the town. Every Halloween I usually go through about 2 or 3 costumes and this year was no different. My second costume was Black Swan because I had a poofy skirt and all I had to do was put on tons of creepy makeup. It was a success!

Kristen, Carlos, Moi, Cody

The next event was the Marine Corps Ball. Kristen and I were told this was a black tie affair and we needed some gowns. I was definitely a little heart-broken that I didn't bring my old prom dress for this because it would have been perfect, but at least now I can wear it next year. We went to a mall and found absolutely nothing, it was really disappointing. I ended up wearing a cocktail dress and was a little embarrassed, but my legs looked fabulous. This was a party at yet another swanky hotel to celebrate the 239th Birthday of the US Marine Corps. I loved seeing all the fancy gowns. How often do you get to go to a party where the women wear gowns? We had to listen to a few speeches and a LOT of how freakin wonderful the Marines think the Marine Corps is. It was nice. Not amazing, but lovely.

The Marines cutting the cake with a sword because why use a knife when you have a sword?

Kristen and Me looking cute despite not having gowns (oh the shame).

Dancing queens. 

Another weekend, and time for another trip to Istanbul, this time with my friend Carlos. I wanted to go again for the specific reason of going to the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Market. Since last time I went it was a holiday, both of them were closed when I was there. I wanted to get some gifts for people for Christmas but to be honest I never have any idea what the hell to get my family as souvenirs. They're getting (spoiler alert) some Turkish Delight that they'll probably never eat once I find a post office which could be after Christmas since I never seem to have free time. The shopping was wonderful. I bought a "genuine imitation" Alexander McQueen scarf that I argued down to half the asking price, which was half the fun. I got 2 really good tips to do this right: one, say you live in Ankara and throw out "well I can just buy this in Ankara," and two, if they don't meet you at half price just say you're going to keep looking. These tactics worked beautifully!

One of the entrances to the Grand Bazaar.

Inside the Grand Bazaar.

Walkin around Istanbul in my new scarf. 

Me and Carlito at Taksim Square. 

 Our hotel had an incredible breakfast buffet. I'm used to "Turkish breakfast," which is cheese, tomato and cucumber slices, olives, and bread. This place had heaps of fruit, jam, hot items... it was heaven. The rose petal jam made me think I was in a fairy tale but the sour cherry jam was my favorite. Yes, these were good enough to be mentioned on my blog.

I love Istanbul. It has so much life and character. It's East meets West and Ancient meets Modern and Kimberly meets Destiny. If you haven't been, go.

Teacher Appreciation Day was last week, and apparently that's kind of a big deal here in Turkey. I got lots of nice gifts, and the school threw yet another lovely dinner at yet another fancy hotel. I've been to a lot of fancy dinners that have drinks included and yes, I've gained weight (GASP). There must be a slowing down point. I don't know how or when but THERE MUST BE.

My swag from my students. I got 4 mugs!

The Crew

Having fun at the Teacher Appreciation dinner!

Me and Carlito looking like cutie faces. 

Work is still wonderful. I love my students and my co-workers. This is the most satisfying job I've ever had by a million miles. Going to school and working my ass off for my students and BLIS fills me with pride. I almost cried at the Teacher Appreciation dinner because at the moment I felt so full of joy. How did I ever get so lucky? 

My students peer editing each other's essays. They did an amazing job!

Greta and Joseph being playground pals. 

Conducting science experiments; mixing vinegar and baking soda to make carbon dioxide. 

The students had to write sentences about the picture using descriptive adjectives. Love the "insane chicken of doom!"

We had some professional development days last week as well. Tuesday night was the Teacher Appreciation dinner and then Wednesday and Thursday were the PD days. When we all went in on Wednesday everyone seemed to have the same question: "why would they give us unlimited booze last night then expect us to be productive today?" Luckily it was a pretty easy day: first aid training in the morning and then working with our grade level teams in the afternoon. These PD days were extra wonderful because my entire team got to catch up on loads of work. My team is wonderful. We made the decision to have a pot luck breakfast on Thursday since back in the USA it was Thanksgiving. The homemade pumpkin bread was delish. I got all my inbox papers and tests graded and worked on a lot of material for the next unit- score! We also had to play on the new playground equipment to see if it's safe and whatnot- hard work.

Chest compressions to the tune of "Stayin Alive."

Oh no, Carlos has injured his hand. Cody, make a bandage and Kristen, calm him down and keep him from going into shock!

My fourth grade teammate, Julia, testing the new playground equipment. 

Working hard with the 4th grade team!

Which brings us up to yesterday, Saturday, and the Thanksgiving extravaganza. Some weeks ago one of the school employees, Becky, put on our group facebook page that she would like to do a pot luck Thanksgiving. I planned on making stuffing and called my mom for advice on how exactly to make it like she does. I don't have access to stuffing mix, so on Thursday I bought 3 baguettes and tore them up into itty bitty pieces so they'd be nice and dry by Saturday. Come Saturday morning, I went from my Turkish lesson armed with the turkish word for sage (adaçayı) and found that there was no celery in the entire grocery store, so I got leeks instead and my sage (my mom specifically told me that sage was the most important spice for stuffing- she was absolutely right, as if there were any doubt). I've only cooked with leeks once or twice and don't know much about them but using them turned out AMAZING! I made incredible stuffing and got many thanks and compliments. I also made a second kind of stuffing with chorizo and pumpkin, a take on the stuffing my dad makes. Carlos had smoked chorizo from Spain in his fridge and pork products are extremely hard to come by in a Muslim country so I jumped at the chance to use it when he mentioned he had some. Both of my stuffings kicked ass, and I had my head held high, knowing I had done my parents proud. Sorry I didn't take pics but they would not have done my stuffings justice anyway. Now that I know how to make it, the challenge is not making it every week.

The dinner was held at 3pm in the PreSchool building. About 50 people ended up coming so doing it in someones lojman was impossible. We gathered around our tiny tables and sat in our tiny chairs and enjoyed the fare which consisted of 2 turkeys, gravy, mashed potatoes (my fourth grade teammate Julia brought wasabi mashed potatoes-delicious), wild rice, mac n cheese, cornbread, stuffing (one other person brought some and mine was waaaaay better), and other goodies. I will let the dessert table picture speak for itself.

Enjoying our meal!

The one that's covered was apple crumble. Not as good as my apple brown betty but a nice attempt :)

One thing that's simply marvelous about a Thanksgiving outside of the US is that everything is homemade. You can't cheat by getting pumpkin pie mix, or stuffing mix, or mashed potatoes that come from a box. See that apple pie? Someone made that from scratch- they didn't just buy it from Costco. Yes, apple pies from Costco are delicious and convenient (and yes I miss and love you, Costco!) but all this homemade goodness really warms the soul as well as the belly. You can taste the love.

We didn't have a football, but we had baseballs, gloves, and a tiny bat. So after dinner my friends and I played some catch and had a little fun. Carlos was very adorably Spanish, enjoying his first Thanksgiving and then proclaiming "I always wanted to play the baseball! They are always doing these things in the movies."

Carlos at bat with "the biggest bat they sold at Real."

That brings us up to today, my lazy Sunday. Now I am going to do laundry, build some drawers I bought from IKEA last week, and generally enjoy my precious "me time."