One Night in Taksim

Taksim Square, the largest pedestrian gathering spot in Istanbul, is the beating heart of the city.

With everything from corn sellers and beggars to Italian watches, cafes, heavy metal bars, and tattoo parlors, Taksim is a magnet for people from all walks of life at all hours of the day. Last night I went there for the first time with some of my colleague-friends from the school: four other English teachers and a physics teacher.

We walked along Istiklal Caddesi, the main drag (a pedestrian street that is constantly filled with people at night), running into current and former students everywhere who were delighted to see their teachers out having a good time, until we came to one of the hundreds of side streets that branches off Istiklal and made our way to an outdoor dining area in front of a cafe for dinner. After bawdy talk and beers, we continued on to a heavy metal bar (yes, they actually have such things in Turkey) where the walls and the people were all clad in black and murals of red demons surrounded us. There we continued to fill ourselves with good spirits and sang along to the blaring music (once they got around to the Guns 'n' Roses and ACDC), watching a giant television showing music videos in advance of the live entertainment, which didn't begin until one in the morning! We wussed out around 12:30 since we had to come in to work this morning for parent open house day, but a cab ride with five of us crammed into one cab singing ABBA tunes into a mostly consumed corn cob made a fitting ending to our evening of rowdiness. I think the cab driver will need therapy.

Pictures of My New Home

Houses in Arnavutkoy

Ataturk

Arnavutkoy

My first sunrise in Turkey, the day after I arrived.

Robert College

Each day begins with a trek from my treehouse apartment at the Konak building to my office in Woods Hall, including the now-familiar and increasingly less painful walk up the hill to Gould Hall. I have been forced into inactivity for so long that even this relatively tame walk has been difficult to do, but I'm getting better at it.As the weather has been gorgeous I am inclined to follow the outside path to Woods Hall, which is generally filled with students and/or cats. The Forum is another of the outdoor gathering areas for students, especially during the day as it sits just outside and a few steps away from the entrance to the cafeteria. Lunch is free for teachers every school day, and both students and teachers have the additional option of buying goodies from the canteen. The students are phenomenal kids and I feel incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to teach them. I have now met them all, know several of their names, and they laugh when I throw things at them. My 9th grade fiction class is about to begin The Catcher in the Rye, while the rest of my students are practicing their oral English skills. At Robert College there are five years of matriculation beginning with a "prep" year in which students are able to develop academic fluency in their use of English, learn study skills, and prepare their minds so that they can give their best performance as high school students.

The best views are available at the Plateau, an open green playing field on which students can play sports, teachers and students can gather for social events in nice weather, and anyone with the inclination can go for a pleasant walk with great views of Istanbul.There are dozens of different types of trees, ranging from linden trees to pine trees to plum and fig trees, and ivy covers most of the grounds and some of the buildings. There are cats everywhere, small gecko-like lizards, parrots, magpies, hooded crows, other random birds, one dog (we call him Scruffy-he hangs out with the maintenance crews), hedgehogs, and weasels who all live here on campus. There are also scorpions and earwigs (their tail curves like a scorpion's, and mistook one for a scorpion my first week) but considering that they're the playthings of the cats, it's clear they are non-lethal and probably only carry enough venom to kill smaller insects.

Robert College is the most prestigious high school in Turkey; I've heard it said that it is the most prestigious school in the Middle East. All I know for sure is that this is home sweet home, and I don't plan to leave for some time!

(Arnavutkoy, the village in which Robert College lies.)

Two nights on the Bosphorus...and one on a stretcher

The Bosphorus, the waterway that separates Asia from Europe, divides this city much the way the Mississippi River divides the Twin Cities. It winds its way from the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea and is the major means of transportation for everything from dinner cruises to huge freighters and cruise ships, as well as revamped World War Two fighter ships that have been converted into any number of different all-purpose ships from fishing boats to trade vessels.

On Wednesday night the new teachers and all the administrators crossed the well-traveled waves of the Bosphorus to visit the home of one of the trustees, who had invited us to dinner; a first for a trustee of Robert College. She hired a ship to pick us up and bring us to her home on the Asian side of the water, a grand and beautifully restored yali that consisted of two historically registered buildings combined with a more recently constructed third building. To give you an idea of the level of opulence to which I am referring, she has several original sketches of Istanbul by Melling on her walls. It was a fairytale night for all of us, highlighted by her invitation to explore her home and the magnificent artifacts she and her husband have collected over the years; many of us took her up on her offer but I was one of the lucky few to receive the full tour, given by her teenaged daughter.

Thursday brought a dinner cruise for all new teachers, their "sponsers" and spouses which first brought us south past several weddings, then worked its way north on the Asian side of the water. A good time was had by all, but it was somewhat anticlimactic after the dream of an evening the night before.

Then came Friday. Robert College is famous (perhaps infamous would be a better word) for the hill on which it lies, and in particular the steepness of said hill. Friday night I proved how susceptible I am to steep hills by falling on my walk to dinner at the bottom of the hill; I stepped on an uneven patch of concrete hidden by leaves, then twisted my ankle under me on the side of the path as I fell. I ended up in the hospital after a trip to the school infirmary and a seemingly endless ambulance ride; they determined after several xrays and a two-part MRI that I had not broken anything and had not ruined my back surgery, but the soft tissue damage to my ankle was severe (and extremely painful) and the rest of my body was pretty scraped and bruised. Long story short, I am back on bedrest and hobbling around on crutches with my ankle in a brace. Great way to start the school year! Luckily they took pity on me and all of my classes are on the first or second floor. I highly recommend the American Hospital (Amerikan Hostanesi) for those who find themselves in need here; their doctors are top-notch and their equipment is top of the line...and German.