Turkish Trains

This past weekend, I went on a retreat with the local church that my roommates attend, and overall, it was a wonderful experience; however, what stuck out to me the most was the train trip there.

First of all, buying the train ticket in advance was the first excursion that I accomplished by myself and totally in Turkish. Well, when I say by myself, I mean my roommate gave me her ticket with a little post-it note that read "This is my friend's ticket; I need the same one please." Essentially, my role was reading the ticket-agent my script, and then handing it to her just in case I was completely un-understandable. But, still- I was alone when I did it. Honestly, I felt accomplished in just finding the train station by myself. :) When you live in a foreign country, things you did by yourself as a 5-year old in the States feel like monumental achievements.

Anyways, we rushed to leave for the train station well over an hour before our train was about to leave- which I felt was a bit unnecessary, seeing as how we already had our tickets. How wrong I was. We were leaving at the start of the Turkish "Bayram" holiday which is a 2.5 day celebration of the end of Ramadan. By the time we made it to the station, we had 45 minutes before our train left and every single seat on the train was already taken. I thought people were on the wrong train. Or maybe we were on the wrong train. Surely the train station would not overbook a train so that people would be expected to stand for a 1.5 hour train ride. Wrong again.

Standing doesn't really accurately describe our train experience; it was more like leaning against the two (or four) people who were smooshed up against you. I was actually one of the fortunate ones who got to lean against the front wall as I stood facing the people in the front row seats while I shared their leg-space-area with their luggage. I felt bad for the people who were in the car's entry-way as they didn't really get any of the air-conditioning and were more tightly packed than any metro I've ever been in.

In the midst of this hot, miserable, and slightly smelly car, I got to see a whole different side of Turkish people though. As people began crowding the entry-ways and up and down the aisle, people were moving over to try and fit 3 people where normally only 2 would sit; people were letting strangers' children sit on their laps so they didn't have to stand; and when we stopped at every station (where of course no one got off) they waved the new people in with smiles, saying "there's always room for one more." While this statement might be accurate for cookies or jell-o, I'm not sure that it was 100% factual at the time- but generous nonetheless.

In the end, it was worth it. I had a fabulous experience at the retreat, and got to take a mountain hike at sunrise to see Ephesus.

For the record, we took the bus back where we had seats, tons of leg room, and even a free beverage :o)

İzmir in Pictures!

Here are some pictures of things I see on a daily basis:

My apartment building- lots of trees and greenery in my neighborhood.

The sidewalk outside my apartment

My lovely little kitchen!

Downtown İzmir (about 20 min from my apt) with colleagues

Fountains near the pier

Downtown in Alsancak

View from the ferry

More to come! :o)

Don't be a chicken; go to Turkey

Welcome to my blog! I'll be updating this periodically to chronicle my adventures in Turkey where I'm teaching English at a local university. After months of planning and anticipation, I'm finally here in Izmir, Turkey.

After over 20 hours of traveling, I made it to my new home on Monday of this week. As far as international travel goes, I really had the best possible experience. On the last flight, however, I was hit with the reality that: I was entering a country where I basically had zero language skills, didn't know a single person that I had ever physically met, and was leaving behind amazing family and friends. All of a sudden, a year felt like an extremely long time, and I was ready to simply book a return flight home once I arrived at the airport. Fortunately, I was provided with wonderful friends and helpful people right from the moment I stepped off the plane. My present roommates have been absolutely amazing and I don't know if I could have survived my first few days without them.

Lessons learned thus far in Turkey:

1) I need to live by the sea someday. It's absolutely amazing to have such beautiful scenery.
2) Mumbling is very underrated. When you don't quite know how to pronounce a word, knowing at least the first syllable and using wild hand gestures can usually get the point across.
3) Living in a foreign country is a very humbling experience. It usually necessitates making a fool out of yourself on almost a daily basis.
4) Starbucks and McDonalds truly are everywhere (although I would have to say Burger King is more popular here than the golden arches).
5) There is no 'right -of-way' as a pedestrian or driver- a speeding car trumps the little green signal telling you it's safe to cross.
6) Never be too proud to carry a map. You never know when you will take the metro unnecessarily and then walk for 35 minutes when you were really 5 minutes from you're apartment all along.
7) Waiters in Turkey tend to clear of tables right away, even if you're in the middle of eating what's on your plate. Eat fast or go hungry. Or learn the words for "I'm not finished yet." They really should add that to the Turkish essential phrases list.

I miss all of you in the States bunches and hope to talk with you soon!