UP. DATE.

Before launching into the second 8 week module of the school year here at AIU's English language prep program, I thought I'd run through a little synopsis of the life and times of me as of late.

1. I taught intermediate listening and speaking to two classes of about 15 students. One class loved me and my lessons and everything about life. The other class did not love me nor my lessons, and I don't know how they felt about life. Each lesson felt awesome with one group and horrible with the other. I've never experienced that kind of extreme class personality difference before and it made for a roller coaster-ish module. Here's a picture of me with one of my classes on the last day of class. My hair is much shorter now, but not as short as it has been in the past.

2. I've been deemed (without merit) the intermediate level coordinator. I'm not sure yet if I enjoy the added stress, but I do enjoy trying new things. Mostly, I pass on information and agonize over group emails and think about how I would want a level coordinator to treat me. And wake up with a racing heart at 3am with no real reason.

3. A Turkish friend who is sweet and kind and gentle invited me and a few of my colleagues to her sister's wedding in the tiny village where she grew up. We stayed with her aunt and ate some of the best food I've had while here. People can be indescribably hospitable.

4. A friend and I took a trip to Izmir. We met up with some of my old grad school buddies who are also teaching in different cities in Turkey. Reconnecting with them made me miss the grad school chapter of my life quite a bit.

   There were beautiful ruins (Ephesus) combined with stunning cats.

There was also plenty of this:

 5. Another friend and I went to Cyprus for a couple of days. The northern half is occupied by Turkey and speaks only Turkish and uses Turkish Lyra. The southern half is Cyprus and speaks Greek and uses Euros. Between the two is a block wide division of abandoned buildings and fields, armored guards, and barbed wire.

I can't explain the history very well, but an interesting documentary on Cyprus could help and is found here:

Despite the division, it's a very nice place to visit. The highlights were amazing frozen yogurt, a bar with delightful and open minded young owners and sweet, delicious wine, cool graffiti, orthodox churches that reminded me of Romania so much it kinda hurt, and this:

Cool graffiti sample (just so you'd believe me):

Sweet wine bar + travel buddy (cause I like the lighting):

6. It's 10:30pm and I need to get up at 6am tomorrow for the start of our second 8 week module. But real quick:

I've also taken weekend trips to Olympos and Phaselis. They're both about an hour from Antalya and combine ancient Roman ruins with Mediterranean beaches in a really pleasing way (see the cover photo of this blog).

I'm trying to learn Turkish, but am not doing very well at it. One of the gifts of the Peace Corps is the language training, I now realize. Turkish classes started last week at our university and I'm hoping the 2 hours a week plus my random Turkish apps will help me get somewhere.

I bought a keyboard and am tickled pink that I'm painstakingly coming up with a new song. One lesson I've learned recently - I should not go for too long without playing the piano. I'm also trying to learn this little ditty. Betcha a Lyra you'll recognize it if you were born within ten years of me. Who knew it was originally a Russian folk song?

I am planning on planning a trip to Romania and possibly Croatia over the two week break we have between the second and third module. The thought of visiting Romania again is both thrilling and nerve wracking. More on that later; time for a book and a sleep.

And with that, I complete this UP. DATE. Thanks for reading and iyi geceler.