Well, I wish I had a terribly amusing excuse for my lack of posts recently, but I do not. Simply that life, being what it is, gets in the way of these sorts of things. So I'm finally bending under my mother continuous badgering... and updating.
So as for the title of this post- what is so difficult about wrangling cats? Well, for one thing, when you tell them to do something, they usually don't understand what you're saying- and when they do understand, they proceed to do the exact opposite out of spite. They yowl and meow and generally make quite a bit of racket when they're unhappy. When you try to organize them, they leap off chairs and dart behind you, scratching at the door. Trying to play a game? Good luck explaining rules to cats. Also, if you've ever tried to split up a fight between two tomcats, you know what a tricky endeavor it can be.
I might explain, I wasn't actually wrangling cats. Just trying to teach English to half a dozen ADHD seven year olds. The main challenge, of course, was that their english was limited to some basic vocabulary- "chair," "book," "carrot." Not included in their vocabulary? "Sit down," "don't hit him," "no you may not go through my purse," "give me back the chalk," and "don't throw pencil shavings at me," among other things.
So I'm now locked in to spending four hours on my Saturday morning (starting at 9:30) in a 15x10 foot cell otherwise occupied by two adorable girls and five questionably demonic little boys. The most success I've had so far is teaching them "I'm a Little Teapot" and "Row Row Row Your Boat" in (unintentional) rounds. Did I mention this is volunteer work?
Other than the little monsters, life has been good. My classes are voluntary "tutorials," basically extra help sessions- meaning sometimes two or three students show up, sometimes 15, and sometimes none at all. I've built up a decent rapport with the regulars, which include the arab students (two Iraqis, two Palestinians, a Syrian and a Moroccan, not generally simultaneously). Zakaria, the Syrian student, is one of my favorites- he's an A1 repeat student, meaning he's repeating the first semester of english. His vocabulary is extremely limited, but he's bright (if constantly distracted) and very funny. Working with him can be extremely painstaking, with lots of hand gestures and very simple words, and sometimes I have to simply give up on a line of conversation because he can't understand me. When we started, getting him to actually speak was like pulling teeth; 2-3 full sentences in the course of one 30 minute class was an absolute accomplishment. But he's been improving, slowly but surely.
Outside of school, I've been adopted by an absolutely adorable trio of siblings. I met Bahar, the oldest girl, during the week I worked at the other prep school in Besiktas (my regular school was closed for a week's vacation, so I was loaned out- both schools are part of Bahcesehir University). We had a brief speaking lesson, and hit it off- she invited me out the following weekend, and I've been spending at least a night or two out of every seven at her apartment ever since. Bahar is in her late 20s, and lives with her sister Fatos (also late 20s) and brother Serhan (age 22). Fatos and Serhan know absolutely no english, and Bahar is on her first semester- we communicate mostly in Turkish, with some Turkglish for good measure (google translator is frequently used as well). Fatos is the best cook I know, and is slowly and patiently teaching me how to cook turkish food- very exciting. They live in Istanbul, but Istanbul is a very large place- it takes a 10 minute subway ride and then 30 minutes (or more, depending on traffic) by car to get to their apartment, which is part of the reason I often stay the night- between gas prices and the time it takes to pick me up and drop me off, it would be absolutely illogical to just "drop in" for dinner. Not to mention, people just sleep over a lot more here. I'm getting used to it.
What else... I took a trip to Ankara a few weeks back. I hung out with my American replacements at TOBB ETU, which was very fun, including staying in their (my?) apartment, very surreal. The furniture is switched about, and some things I left there were missing... my dictionary and Turkish grammar book being the most notable. But such is life. I met the Erasmus students, foreign exchange students from Spain, Poland, Germany, etc, a very fun group. I also dropped in on some old TOBB students/friends, which was also extremely surreal... but it was nice to catch up on their lives. This trip was over Valentine's Day weekend, and Annie and I had a wonderful Valentine's Day date (complete with chocolate and deep conversations). I've hijacked her into agreeing to be my permanent Valentine, because it was by far the best Valentine's I've ever had (and Annie- you can't get out of it now, it's on the internet! haha)... Back in Istanbul the next weekend, I got to meet all the international students at Bahcesehir while giving a brief- and completely impromptu- presentation on "the international co-op experience" (Bahcesehir is in the process of expanding its fledgling co-op program). There was a dinner and then a semi-organized night out. There were Germans, Bulgarians, South Koreans, Polish, and even a couple American girls, but I spent most of the night talking to the turkish student helpers/organizers, rather than the foreign students.
So that's pretty much all. Classes have been going well, slowly expanding as people hear about me and drop in to find out what all the fuss is about. My Turkish vocabulary has also been slowing expanding, as my social circle is almost exclusively Turks, and often ones who know very little English, at that. I can't believe it's already March- my time here is absolutely flying. So for now, kolay gelsin :) (roughly translated: take it easy!)
Monday, March 8, 2010
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