Finals and Rain

This has been my existence for the past week: final exams and rain. I am grateful for the rain because I know from experience in MN that without rain or snow there are droughts, but it has been pretty hard to focus on it as a blessing when it has been raining almost non-stop for a month or more. Today was a rare reprieve, and found dozens of Arnavutkoy residents lined up along the Bosphorus in the sunshine, trying to catch their share of the tiny fish that seem to be all that ever comes out of those murky waters. I took a walk to the grocery store in Kurucesme, the next village over, which was almost the first time I've really left my apartment to go anywhere off-campus in over a week. I've been doing battle with a bacteria-turned-virus-turned-bacteria that has taken possession of my body, and only left campus once last week to go to the pharmacy and get my necessary weapons. The walk was about all my body could manage, however, and required a long nap in a sunbeam to restore my energy afterwards. I spent all last week frantically grading exams after helping to proctor the fiction class exam on Monday, only to discover that just when I thought it was all over, a calculation misunderstanding sent us back to re-check all 182 exams. By midday on Friday, though, I was the first in my department to finish and sign off on all of my grades for the semester, and have since finally been able to catch up on some much needed rest. My brother is getting married in Cozumel this week but I won't be attending as it is a 33-hour one-way journey and I am still teaching classes and reviewing exams this week. My parents will be there, as will the bride's parents and sisters, so I'm certain the event will be everything they have hoped for and more. Next week I am off to Italy, on a solo journey to Bologna.

Iyi Senerler!

Happy New Year! Although Christmas is ignored by most Turks as just another working day, New Year's Day is celebrated with great fanfare and revelry. Most of the lights strung around town at the malls, in front of the hotels, and across pedestrian streets are referred to as New Year's lights, not Christmas lights (even if they happen to feature an occasional Santa or snowman). I even spotted Santa at the mall closest to my home, Akmerkez, while shopping on New Year's Eve. He and his elves (all female, dressed in very chic elf costumes) were distributing New Year's presents around the mall and raising people's spirits, thus ending once and for all the long-standing mystery about what it is he does after Christmas.

Here at Robert College, while the boarding students froze their little tushies off at a bonfire in the cold rain, the grown-ups divided their time between two very different types of parties: the formal event hosted by one of the art teachers and his wife (one of his two sons wore a bow tie and acted as consierge), and the far-from formal birthday party of one of the English teachers who had another fellow English teacher as dj for a rather unruly dance party. Many of us, myself included, opted to begin with the more dignified scene and then shift to the other when we'd warmed up a bit and had our fill of the copious amounts of hors d'oevres that filled the tables at the formal party. At midnight, the students gathered on the plateau while few of the adults did the same-at a safe distance- to watch the fireworks over the Bosphorus. A good time was had by all, and the New Year arrived here a tidy eight hours earlier than it has for me in most years past.