so close to home...

Well, it's getting so close to time to come home! It's pretty crazy. About a month exactly... I still haven't figured out a way to send a bunch of my stuff home so that I won't be overweight at the airport (and have to drag around such heavy luggage in London...) If anyone has any idea.... lemme know.

Last Friday one of my students had a BBQ for his bday at his summer house and invited my class, us teachers, and our boss Ali. The weather was quite nice, and it was a nice time. Notice how beautiful my girl students are! Oh and the crazy Jordanian in the blue shirt with the cigar is Ali...

Driving... in Istanbul?

So, I've been going through driving withdrawls. It's been about 8 months since I've driven a car, and even longer since I've driven a stick (which I love). It seems everyone around here drives a stick, and so whenever i get in a car, I am like, "pleaasssse let me drive!" Of course I had no real intention of driving in Istanbul because people here drive like maniacs... There really shouldn't be any lines on the roads, as nobody uses them and they drive in the middle and swerve back and forth instead. Forget turn signals... Any-hoo, today I was shopping and got a call asking if I had a driving license. Of course I said yes and my boss, Ali, told me to come to Dilko and speak with him. I finished my shopping and headed back to work and he asked me if I could drive his car. HAHA! So I was like uhh.... where... how far....will anybody be with me....etc. His car was at the service place and he had forgotten his wallet at home this morning but wanted to go pick it up. There was nobody else around who had a drivers license.. so I agreed. Luckily (and I wouldn't have agreed if it hadn't been) the place was quite close and he was coming with me to pick the car up. So, yay! I got to drive, and it was a stick! (I was quite nervous about that with how long it's been.. I actually don't remember the last stick shift I drove...) But it went all right, and was super easy. It took awhile to get used to the touchy brake because the car is so new though.



I'm loving this nice weather!! All the tulips and other flowers are out.. it's beautiful. I can't wait for a trip to the Islands! I'm going to have a picnic with my class again on Friday. Should be much nicer than the last one since the weather is much warmer... They want to play football, so I told them we must play American Football instead... they agreed, but who knows if we'll be able to get a real football... Should be fun. :) MMMM barbeque!

P.S.

P.S. It's 65 and beautiful here, what's the weather like there?

Oh, and mom the Romania slideshow is working again, but the music stops working after the first song... strange.

Oh, and does anyone know about sending a big box home by like freight or something... who I could do that through, how much it would cost, etc? I really don't want overweight luggage when I go home... :(

Birthday etc.

My birthday was quite uneventful. We had cake in the staffroom for both Omens and I, who share the same birthday. That was nice. I started an Advanced class that morning, and I told them that it was my birthday, and that I didn't want to teach so we went out after the first hour. My afternoon class signed a petition to let me go home after two hours. They also bought a bunch of little brownies and put candles in them and sang to me. :)




























Here are some other random pictures of me and people from Dilko. The blonde curly haired girl is Pınar, she's the receptionist that is in the teacher's room. She was also my student for Elementary and half of Pre-Intermediate until she switched classes. :(