Turkey first assaulted my senses and sent me head over ass in culture shock back in October, 1998. I landed in Ataturk Havilimani in a great deal of pain, tired, and dirty. My luggage had been sent on a later flight. apparently it hadn;t been good enough to travel with me from Amsterdam to Istanbul.
It was hot and dusty in Istanbul that Friday afternoon. Everything was new - the language, the traffic, the people - everything. As I've grown accustomed to the language and people, I realize that this place is pretty remarkable. I've neve developed a faster sense of loyalty to any other group of people in my life.
It isn't different to me anymore. It feels like I have always been here, living this life. It feels like I am supposed ot be a part of this great social experiment called ESL teaching; it feels like I was meant to come to Turkey.
So a bomb or two goes off in my neighbourhood - just adds to the excitement of the day. So the pollution is taking a toll on my previously perfect skin. All I know is that the weeks are flying by and that I have never regretted coming here. And I know that it is the best spontaneous decision that I have ever made.
Anyhow my point wsa that I'm at the stage where life in Canada seems strange, distant and foreign, and life here seems normal and ordinary.
I have a theory that Leyla, the secretary at English Time, was actually fired a ling time ago, but she stays on because she doesn't understand.
"Leyla, don't come back."
"Ok then. See you Monday."
"No, Leyla - you don't work here anymore."
"A holiday?"
"Yes, I do."
"No, you're fired."
"Ok. See you Monday!"
So we think English Time has just given up and they have just learned how to deal with her. She's not really that bad. I mean, she is a smiley face in an otherwise serious environment. The new guy Enis, smiles sometimes, but he just looks out of place. Ann thinks Enis really should be a roadie for a Metallica cover band.
Bucak looks like a little boy in a nice suit who would really rather be playing Nintendo or just running around outside. Dress him up in orange and red tights and he'd make the perfect Robin.
The Manager, Kemal, well I don't know where to begin with him. I get the feeling that he secretly longs to shove Bucak out the window, yet he holds back because of a faint hope that one day Bucak will come to him and be his secret lover. It's a love-hate relationship.
It's spring - the beginning of my zodiac sign Aries. I've always liked being an Aries, even though I'm not your typical Ram. We're supposed to be leaders - and while that's true to some extent, I usually end up being a leader by default rather than a power seige. I can also be pretty stubborn, and bossy. And I have the compassion of a rock.
I'm not a good person to have around when you're sick? I'm of the 'walk it off' type. Except when I'm ill, of course. Then I expect the world to stop, candle-lit vigils, prayer circles - the whole bit.
I was talking to mom the other night. I figured she'd find out about the bombings eventually, but I was hoping it wouldn't be until sometime next year. She thinks English Time ought to get all the teachers bomb-sniffing dogs.
With my luck, my dog would end up being one of those slackers who just managed to squeak by in bomb-sniffing school. He probably wouldn't even have gone to all his classes, and he was likely sleeping or scratching during those crucial elements of schooling like the difference between the odour of the chemicals that compose a bomb, and for example, the ingrediants of a doughnut.
The dog, we'll call him Todd, and I would be walking down the road one day and suddenly Todd would get all frantic, screaming 'run for your lives' in whatever doggie-dialect he's fluent in, and take off like a batt outta hell.
And I'd just be standing there in fron of Dunkin' Donuts wondering what the hell's going on.
Apparently there were pictures in the newspaper back home of one of the bomb sights. And some mall that the terrorists set on fire. A whole shitload of people were killed. Anyhow in the paper there was a picture of some firemen rescuing some chick who supposedly looked a lot like me.
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