Turkish Lesson: Dur

This one's pretty easy.

The hexagonal red sign is a universal symbol (although the EU usually has a T with a white stem and a red top, I have also seen hexagonal signs there.

The sign across the road, "KIRALIK," means 'for rent.'

There are a lot of these signs here in Gaziemir, a boom town near Izmir's airport that has a lot of newer buildings. With Turkey's economy in a real downturn, there will continue to be vacancies in malls and shopping centers for the foreseeable future.

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Two-month Anniversary: Life at School

I have been wanting to post an update on teaching and tonight feels like the right time: it was parent-teacher conference time on Google Meet, and today is my two-month anniversary in Turkey. I landed in Izmir two months ago this afternoon, and I was immediately whisked away by my principal and the school driver to his home and a warm Izmiri welcome. I remember the details so well. We had chicken dürüm for supper, and I went for a walk along the harbor and witnessed my first Aegean sunset . I'll never forget it. It's filed away with my first Arizona sunset (1994) among my most cherished memories. But this is a blog about my new school, so enough flashbacks. Happy anniversary to me! Describing MEF MEF Izmir (the acronym is words in Turkish) is a school that I was prepared for, but it still yielded a lot of surprises. The student count is 152, and that's across preschool through Grade 12. I estimate that there are 30-40 kids in the preschool/kindergarten program. The scho...

Book Review: My Father's House / The Idle Years

A few weeks ago I went through my monthly book binge. The school secretary, a Turk named Ipek, had asked me if I was teaching any Turkish writers in my literature classes. I have spent the years since my first visit to Turkey reading Turkish writers, most notably Nobel laureate, Orhan Pamuk. But I remain ignorant of the breadth of Turkish literature. Ipek set me aright. She wrote down ten authors I needed to check out. I immediately went home, hoping to find them translated into English. It took some work--so did finding English titles in a Turkish bookstore. Finally someone mentioned a store with English books on Konak Pier, and I went the next Sunday to check it out. The English titles they had were mostly classics--Frankenstein, Kafka, stuff like that. I found two books by Turkish writers: a history of the Ottomans and Orhan Kemal's My Father's House . Kemal had been one of the writers on Ipek's list. The book begins as a novel--another man telling his story to the writ...

Sunday at the İzmir Archeological Museum

After church today, I resolved to beat the heat and go to a museum. My target: the İzmir Archeological Museum , just south of the bazaar in the Konak district. My friend, Jen, had told me about a slogan she had seen: "Turkey, it's the world's largest museum." It's true. At any given place where I might stand, especially at an important harbor like Izmir, I may have seven millenia of history at my feet! I quickly learned, upon entering the gallery that ancient history is a pretty broad topic to examine. When we think of Ancient Rome, we think of a specific civilization that endured for 500 years. Ancient Greece casts our minds to Socrates and Alexander. But Ancient Turkey? There is really no one thing. I don't want to go into much detail here. I have years of living in and exploring this fascinating country ahead of me. So I have plenty of time to figure it out for myself. I'll just write that before the Greek civilizations, known as Ionians and Aeolians, ...

Aegean Pearls: My Life in Izmir

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