What the Heck Wednesdays: Karaoke Day

"What the Heck?! Wednesdays" focus on the heart-warming, ridiculous, and sometimes frustrating stories from our school days.  Teaching in Turkey is trying and difficult.  We come home exhausted,  and our days off are nothing short of precious. That being said, we love our students.  Most of the time. They are creative, silly, smart, obnoxious, loud, affectionate and adorable.  And they make for some delightful stories. Enjoy...

Karaoke Day.  Also known as The Best Day Ever. Not that I like karaoke. I'd rather have my teeth drilled than sing in front of people.  But my students LOVE karaoke. And I love watching them sing.  Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, and Bruno Mars are SOOOO much more motivating than I am.

 I am nothing short of amazed when I see them read all of the words in their favourite songs.  Or when they choose their own song and prepare for days on end at home. Or when they bust out lyrics in a different context...  

Me: (Reading) Winnie smiled at Wilber...  Do you know what "smile" means?     
3rd grader: (singing)  Just stop for a minute and Smiiiiile! (points at dimples while smiling)
Thank you for Price Tag, Jessie J. My students love it.

Yesterday was our second All English Karaoke Day, and this time my students shocked me by adding well-thought-out performances to their singing.  Oh they crack me up.

Highlights:

• Altay solo singing Bruno Mars with the clearest most angelic voice ever. 
• Turgut solo singing one of my favourites: Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called To Say I Love You."
• Alex, Yavuzhan, Efe, Oğuzhan, Umut, and Alaaddin playing air-guitar, air-piano, air-drums, air-fiddle, and air-saxiphone, during the instrumental parts of their songs. 
• İbrahim rocking out to a Jonas Brother's song, never looking at the lyrics, and never missing a word.
• Hazal donning a spangled, feathery, mardi gras mask for her performance.
• Doğa and Ceren singing Adele's "Rolling in the Deep," wearing matching outfits, dancing in perfect time with the music, and belting it out with the passion of the diva who actually sings it.  
• A few old school choices, like Derin singing "Que Sera Sera," and Kuzey and Ali Bayram singing John Denver's "Annie's Song."
• The tiniest girl in 2nd grade singing "I'm a Big Big Girl, In a Big Big World."
• Kazim shouting to the crowd "Stand up and dance!" and then throwing his hat out at the laughing parents. 
• Mehmet, Doruk and Can, who refused to use a song with printed lyrics because they didn't need it, cracking-up and losing their place in the song after Doruk busted out some ridiculous impromptu dance moves.
• Hilal makin' it rain faux money on the crowd during Alexandra Stan's "Million."
• The way their faces glowed with pride as their parents squeezed them after their performance. 
• The way they treated each other like real rock stars, hooting and high-fiving and giving standing ovations. 

My face hurt from smiling, my eyes burned from trying not to cry, and my heart hurt whenever I thought about saying "Goodbye."  I love these kids, and I will miss them dearly. 

Olympos

While in Adrasan, we spent the day roaming the ancient city of Olympos. 

Olympos is what Big Sur would look like if you dropped 2000 year old castles and ruins down into it. 

Some of the city dates back as far as 200 BC.  Remaining ruins include a castle, many sarcophagi, churches, homes, hamams, and a theater.

 It boasts residents and visitors such as Marcus Aurelius, Cicero, and Julius Caesar. 

Most of the sarcophagi were built for Marcus Aurelius and his family.  Signs translated the carvings on the side, which warned, "These graves were built by me for my family.  Anyone who dares to use these graves will be subject to a fine of 1000 Durum at the gates to heaven."  Yea.  Take that grave robbers!

Once we made it through all of the fantastic ruins we headed to the beach.  Picture perfect.

Adrasan: A Place to Retire

This weekend we took a short holiday to Adrasan, a sleepy little beach town hidden away in the mountains.  

The views were breathtaking.  It was very Big Sur reminiscent of, in the way that the pine tree covered mountains met the sea. The coast was like a hundred coves and bays all separated by cliffs and woods. 

It made me long for a tent and a sleeping bag.  Though our little cabin was perfect. 

Adrasan was virtually tourist free in May, the kind of peaceful that had me dreaming of abandoning my life in exchange for a small boat, some fishing poles, and the freedom to sail from port to port exploring the world.

Of course our boat would have to have room for our bikes.  

So that we could ride leisurely through the port cities.

Or better yet, let's dock our boat on the shore more permanently...

Let's buy a bed and breakfast, and set our cafe up on the river... 

Let's spend our mornings watching the ducks and the cats...

Let's rent out our bikes to our guests...

and use our boat for fishing and cove tours... 

Let's stay forever... Maybe when we retire.

Like a Lion

Olympos Beach: Alan decided to take a swim even though the weather was a bit brisk.  He did it just so he could have some pictures of himself swimming at this stunning beach.  I knew what that meant. He wanted some serious model pictures of himself in his swim suit.  Good thing he has me to read his mind.

Work it... Yes.. Yes.. Sass that camera!

Yes! The camera loves you.

Now.  Like a lion. Crawl like a lion.

Oh yes. A sneaky lion.

Raaaarrr.... 

Oh! Oh you playful little kitten, you!

Amazing! Beautiful! You look just like a lioness. 

Wait did you just say "Lioness?" 

Now you're going to get it! 

I eat photographers like you for lunch!

 Here I come!

Roar. 

What the Heck Wednesdays: I Say "Potato" You Say "How Dare You"

"What the Heck?! Wednesdays" focus on the heart-warming, ridiculous, and sometimes frustrating stories from our school days.  Teaching in Turkey is trying and difficult.  We come home exhausted,  and our days off are nothing short of precious. That being said, we love our students.  Most of the time. They are creative, silly, smart, obnoxious, loud, affectionate and adorable.  And they make for some delightful stories. Enjoy... 

We've both had a lot of experience saying common English words and phrases that accidentally offend everyone around us, because those same words in Turkish are some sort of vile swear word.  I won't translate all of them, because I don't want to offend you, but let me give you and idea of the kinds of things that we have to avoid saying...

I'm sick.
Book
Peach
Goat (The last three aren't actually bad themselves, but if you aren't careful about the way you pronounce them they can quickly turn into offensive words. Also, all three of these words are vocabulary words that we have to teach by the end of 2nd grade.)

I regularly ask children gripping their stomachs, "Are you sick?" To which I always get big eyes, blushing cheeks, and a quick head shake. Oops.  As an American, that is a difficult phrase to shake.

I've also discovered a few other words by trial and error.  Fun!
  
A common phrase used to discipline children here is "Çok Ayıp." It means "Shame on you."  So after hearing many of my second and third graders using this phrase on each other, I decided to be a good English teacher and teach them the English version.  When I taught it to them they all got really giggly, which I naively took to mean that they were all giddy about getting to learn English that isn't in their books. Idiot. They got really good at this phrase, and I beamed every time I heard them shouting "Shame on you, Cansu!" or "Shame, Shame Süleyman!" in the corridors.

Then one day something funny happened. In the middle of my lesson, one of the girls stood up and Shame, Shame-d one of the boys, who got really mad, and started yelling at her in Turkish.  Soon many children were chiming in about she had said something bad. She adamantly defended herself, pointing out that Miss Erin says it all the time. But her cheeks were turning the colour of someone who knows she's in trouble.

"Does shame mean something in Turkish?"  I guessed.

Rapid nodding and hidden faces.

"Does it mean something bad?"

More silent nodding.

"What does it mean?"

Horrified silence.  They all looked down at their tables and turned to statues.  No one wanted the job of telling me.

One girl finally said "Miss Erin.  Shame is very very ayıp."  Ironic.

"OooK." At this point I just thought quietly... I was curious, but clearly no one felt comfortable translating what I had been saying for weeks.

Finally another girl got up, pointed between her legs, and said "Boys have it."

Ahhhh...

After confirming with my colleagues, it was clear.  I had been teaching my children to say a slang version of "Penis on you," all year.

Shame on me.

The Big Match

Saturday night was the Champion Football match in Turkey.  (Americans, football means soccer pretty much everywhere else in the world.) It's always a big deal, but with two of Turkey's most famous teams playing (Galatasaray and Fenerbahçe) things were particularly exciting around here. 

On a whim, we decided we should wear some jerseys while we watched the match, to show our "support."  The quotations in the last sentence refer to the fact that I really couldn't care less about either team, but like to be a part of the party.

Alan went with Galatasaray because he knows the team chant, I went with Fenerbahçe because I like to go up against Alan, and Sonya went with Galata because the guy who was selling the jerseys REALLY LOVES that team.

As it turns out I chose wrong. Bummer.  While the final score was actually 0-0, for some reason the Championship title went to Galatasaray.

Watching the game with people who really care was fun...

But the after party was even better...

Fans shot off team coloured fire works...

There were mobs of cheering fans marching up and down the street. My loser's jersey attracted a lot of boos, and one guy shouting in practiced English "I DON'T love Fenerbahçe!" I was really wishing for a different jersey...

The Galata Championship song was blasted all over the city...

A car parade with incessant honking and topless fans waving their jerseys like flags...

No Turkish celebration would be complete without insanely dangerous car antics, including people fully hanging out of every window, and sitting on the roof.  My heart stopped when I saw the driver of a car, whose whole family sat on the roof, climb out the window himself WHILE THE CAR WAS STILL MOVING!

This picture doesn't do justice to the crazy antics, but it captures the vibe.

At the end of the night, a guy working at one of the shops offered me a free Galata jersey in exchange for my loser one.  He was clearly taking pity on me.  I considered the offer, but decided to keep the one I had.  We'll get 'em next year, Fenerbahçe!

Turkish Meal Mondays:Gözleme and Çoban Salata

Turkish Meal Mondays are a glimpse into the food we enjoy here in Turkey, accompanied by a recipe.  Mondays are one of our favourite days, because they're Market Days. Ever since our first market day a year and a half ago we have only missed two, due to torrential down pour a few weeks ago.  Our trips to the market will continue to focus on selecting fresh and delish produce to use in our weekly Turkish recipes.  Get ready... This blog just became appealing to foodies. 

 This week we're making a favorite fast food here in Turkey: Gözleme. The name actually means "observation" or something similar to that. It is basically the Turkish version of the quesadilla, but it could be embellished in anyway you want it to be, oh the possibilities.

You can see stands like this at many restaurants
 staffed by a Turkish "Habla"ready to make your treat.

First step is to make the dough. It's a basic dough:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup room temp water
1/2 tsp salt

Mix them together until a dough forms and let sit for 15-20 minutes.

 

While you wait you can prepare the filling. I made the original version for this blog:

1/2 cup white cheese (feta will work)
1/4 cup fresh parsley

Mix together.

Now comes the rolling of the dough. There is a special technique used for rolling this dough that involves rolling the dough over the stick and then unrolling it the other way.  I've tried it unsuccessfully several times ending up with a clump of dough stuck to my "rolling pin". (A regular rolling pin will work just fine.)

Roll half of the dough into a pretty thin flat circle. Then you can stuff one side with half of the filling and fold the other half over. You can pinch the sides together however you see fit.

At this point I brush both sides with olive oil and put in a medium heat pan until the sides start to develop the brown "eyes" that actually give the food it's name. Turn and repeat.

Then you can remove it and enjoy it with some çoban salata, a mixture of cucumbers, tomatoes and parsley topped with some olive oil and lemon juice. Together these two make a great fast easy meal.

I often add other things to the gözleme mix like left over mashed potatoes and spinach. I originally took the recipe from Binnur's Turkish Cookbook, this site also has some alternative fillings listed if you want to be adventurous. We long for the days when we get back to America and we can add some bacon.  Shhh.