Shopping

Today was quite the adventure. The day started with a major accomplishment, I walked to school all by myself. You can actually see the school from my room, so Beth (my roommate) went over the route with me. All of Cigdem is very hilly. So you are constantly walking uphill it seems. After lunch we went down to get passport pictures, because apparently I need a lot of them. I had to get 16 today. They’ll be used for all kinds of things. I actually thought I might pass out this walking back to school. I enjoyed the lovely downhill walk to the place to get our pictures taken, forgetting how it would be coming back. Needless to say, it’s a very steep incline and it is also very hot. But again, I was proud because I walked back by myself and didn’t get lost! I know it will take awhile to get my bearings.

Later we went to the Wal-mart and Lowe’s of Ankara. Praktiker was just like being at Lowe’s or Home Depot in the states. And even better, when we asked for help, they actually knew what they were talking about. Of course it did help we had two people with us who are fluent in Turkish. Tax in Turkey is 18%. Wow! That also describes all the stuff we got. The van was packed so full we sent two people home in a taxi to have enough room. The best part was getting a fan. My room at home and school are already much cooler!

We almost have all the new teachers here. We have two more arriving tomorrow. That leaves just one more coming in next week. I’ve got my classroom mostly decorated and set up. It’s much smaller than what I’ve been used to, so that helps. Of course now I’ll spend my time making lesson plans for 5 classes. We start next week all of our teacher orientation. New teacher orientation will include getting a cell phone, going to the US Embassy and getting our resident card.

**Check out my pictures on Photobucket. Go to http://photobucket.com/albums/y145/CDeLong/Turkey/
I have pictures of the school, food, etc.

Signing off for now – Crystal 18/8/05