(no subject)
I am bored at the moment, so I figured I might as well write an update.
For those of you who don't know, I have a flickr account: http://flickr.com/photos/10786714@N05/ think of it as illustration for the journal...
I've been teaching grades 2, 6, 7, and 8 the last few weeks (though my schedule changes monday so who knows what will happen then). I kinda hate the little kids. Outside of class they are really nice and all want to talk to me and such, but in class they literally yell and run around the classroom constantly, and sometimes just leave the room when I tell them not to. Its rather frustrating sometimes, especially since the school doesn't really have any discipline that I can use, like calling the parents, or threatening to, cause I can't speak Turkish, and most of the little kids aren't properly afraid of being brought to the director until I'm physically dragging them out of the room, and even after they are bad again in 5 minutes.
The older kids, on the other hand, are wonderful for the most part. Most of them are genuinely interested in learning, or at least talking to me, which is a lot of fun and makes it a lot less frustrating, even when I have to tell them to be quiet every 5 minutes. At least they are good for those 5 minutes.
There are separate teachers rooms for the men and women, so I don't really interact with the male teachers at all, and don't even see the male foreign teacher who works at my school during the school day. The women are all very nice though, and seem to want me there, unlike at some of the camps.
I had a week off for Bayram (end of Ramadan) so I decided to do a quick Balkins trip. I made it to Split (Croatia), Sarajevo (Bosnia) and Belgrade (Serbia). It was all great fun. Each city was very different, but each were good. Split is a coastal city on the Dalmatian coast. It is also built on an old Roman city, and the palace is built on the same foundations as the old Roman palace. So its got a lot of history (including the oldest continually used synagogue in the world which I took a picture of to celebrate Rosh Hashannah). I was thinking about going to Dubrovnik as well, but I was told its way better in the summer, so I decided to go on to Bosnia instead. Being in Sarajevo made me realize how little I knew about the war there. There are still some scars from bombs and bullet holes, but in the center of town at least, most of it is fixed up. I also saw the place where arch-duke Franz Ferdinand was killed, so that was pretty cool. Belgrade is less beautiful than either of those cities, but it is still pretty cool. I met a bunch of great people in each place, and that helped too. The only downsides were that I was sick for most of it (bad cough, sore throat, etc.) and having to come back so soon!
all of these are old, and I know there are good ones that I have neglected to write down recently.. bad Debbie!
“We should be PR people for Georgia:
“The other Georgia: we have peaches too”
and then have a picture of an old woman with a head scarf and no teeth holding a peach” -Michele
“Someone needs to tell Allah that I need some fucking sleep” - Michele (RE: 5am call to prayer)
Mom: but didn't he put l ---- thing on this computer?
Me:Trillian?
Mom:yeah, triLLian
L-something, like I said
“So lets say you have to be ready by 10:30, when do you have to be up by?”-me
“11:30 should give me ample time”-Naomi
For those of you who don't know, I have a flickr account: http://flickr.com/photos/10786714@N05/ think of it as illustration for the journal...
I've been teaching grades 2, 6, 7, and 8 the last few weeks (though my schedule changes monday so who knows what will happen then). I kinda hate the little kids. Outside of class they are really nice and all want to talk to me and such, but in class they literally yell and run around the classroom constantly, and sometimes just leave the room when I tell them not to. Its rather frustrating sometimes, especially since the school doesn't really have any discipline that I can use, like calling the parents, or threatening to, cause I can't speak Turkish, and most of the little kids aren't properly afraid of being brought to the director until I'm physically dragging them out of the room, and even after they are bad again in 5 minutes.
The older kids, on the other hand, are wonderful for the most part. Most of them are genuinely interested in learning, or at least talking to me, which is a lot of fun and makes it a lot less frustrating, even when I have to tell them to be quiet every 5 minutes. At least they are good for those 5 minutes.
There are separate teachers rooms for the men and women, so I don't really interact with the male teachers at all, and don't even see the male foreign teacher who works at my school during the school day. The women are all very nice though, and seem to want me there, unlike at some of the camps.
I had a week off for Bayram (end of Ramadan) so I decided to do a quick Balkins trip. I made it to Split (Croatia), Sarajevo (Bosnia) and Belgrade (Serbia). It was all great fun. Each city was very different, but each were good. Split is a coastal city on the Dalmatian coast. It is also built on an old Roman city, and the palace is built on the same foundations as the old Roman palace. So its got a lot of history (including the oldest continually used synagogue in the world which I took a picture of to celebrate Rosh Hashannah). I was thinking about going to Dubrovnik as well, but I was told its way better in the summer, so I decided to go on to Bosnia instead. Being in Sarajevo made me realize how little I knew about the war there. There are still some scars from bombs and bullet holes, but in the center of town at least, most of it is fixed up. I also saw the place where arch-duke Franz Ferdinand was killed, so that was pretty cool. Belgrade is less beautiful than either of those cities, but it is still pretty cool. I met a bunch of great people in each place, and that helped too. The only downsides were that I was sick for most of it (bad cough, sore throat, etc.) and having to come back so soon!
all of these are old, and I know there are good ones that I have neglected to write down recently.. bad Debbie!
“We should be PR people for Georgia:
“The other Georgia: we have peaches too”
and then have a picture of an old woman with a head scarf and no teeth holding a peach” -Michele
“Someone needs to tell Allah that I need some fucking sleep” - Michele (RE: 5am call to prayer)
Mom: but didn't he put l ---- thing on this computer?
Me:Trillian?
Mom:yeah, triLLian
L-something, like I said
“So lets say you have to be ready by 10:30, when do you have to be up by?”-me
“11:30 should give me ample time”-Naomi