Old School Crew

Rumor has it that Marloes is back in town. We have one of our biweekly meetings this evening, so we will see, but I hope that it's true.

Last week Ewa and I were at another private school called Tuncsiper. It was an overall nice experience. We had a meeting one day with the founder, a very old and kind man, which was, in my opinion, one of the best, if not the best, moment of the whole week. We talked about experiences in foreign countries, what we were doing in Turkey, our future, etc.-it was like story time with Grandpa Tuncsiper.

On Saturday we went to a Book and Education fair here in Bursa. It was very hot and crowded, and there were only a few tables to put all of our stuff on; but, it was definitely worth it when we were swarmed by herds of children. Some were brave enough to speak and ask questions, while others just kind of stood and stared.

I received 2 boxes worth of books, pamphlets, and brochures, thanks to the American consulate in Istanbul. Now I have information on everything from American Literature to being Muslim in the US, to the US Economy, and a lot of the materials are in Turkish and English.

I also got my hands on two Powerpoints about America, and I made something myself that I like to call, "Tour the 50 States". I did it in Powerpoint, but it is not a presentation per say. It has the state flag of all 50 states and then at least one picture from each state. There are no words except the names of each state, but I am thinking about adding the state motto as well. Like I said, it's not a presentation; but, I think it is a good thing, for example, to have running on a laptop at an American information table at a Global Village. I also have been forming a collection of American Patriotic mp3's. I have things like our national anthem, Auld Lang Syne, Taps, songs of the airforce, navy, army, etc, God Bless America, America the Beautiful, yada yada yada. I think this would also be nice to play.

Sunday we had a free day! Woo! The second one of the whole project. I did absolutely nothing, and it was fantabulous.

This week we are at Tan College. It's only the beginning of the week, so we'll see how it goes. I've talked with a couple of the German teachers, who I like very much, but I can tell my German is quickly fading, even though they complimented me on it.

Two more full weeks and the project will be over. I've been thinking about trying to find another opportunity here, but it's not so easy to look for jobs during the week because we are at school from early in the morning until about 5 pm. If I'm serious about it, I better get on the stick, eh? The end of the project also means that it's mother and daughter vacation time!!! I've been trying to improve my Turkish so that it will be that much easier to get around, but it's difficult to learn any foreign language when you are speaking English all the time..

By the way, thanks mom for being the ONLY ONE to even bother to post any comments!!!