Bowling and Tying

Many of my friends and family in Minnesota have been curious to know what it is that we do for fun here in Turkey. For the past few months, as the rains have been pouring down, the answer has been mostly "keep dry," with a group of us beginning a book club to give us an excuse to get together and get out of our houses. Another favorite pastime of RC teachers is bowling, although I have been unable to join in the fun because my back has been bothering me and I'm no longer willing to risk injury in the name of a good time (I must be getting old). Last weekend, however, my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to go along for bowling night if only as a spectator. Well, I'm here to report that bowling in Turkey is pretty much exactly the same as bowling anywhere else in the world, smelly shoes and all, though instead of the usual baseball game on TV in the background, here it is usually a soccer match that has the locals shouting and screaming. On this occasion the local team, Besiktas, won, so the mood at Korukent Cosmic Bowling was decidedly jubilant.

The national elections are on Monday, so the Minister of Education has decided to cancel school for all Turkish schools, a move that has made him exceptionally popular among my students (and, yes, my colleagues). Today I have decided to take advantage of the three-day weekend announced only yesterday to catch up on one of my own favorite pastimes: fly tying.

Ataturk and St. Patrick...Friends?

Well, not really, no. But there are back to back holidays honoring them; the day after St. Patrick's Day is Canakkale Day, which celebrates the Turkish victory over the (mostly Aussie and Kiwi) allied forces at Gallipoli. I'm not sure if the Australians and New Zealanders on staff are required to attend the all-school celebration for Canakkale Day (or "Martyrs' Day"), but I know that I was required to be there and I was extremely pleased with myself for having turned down my Irish friend Clem's invitation to go out for the evening with a group of his Irish friends to celebrate St. Patrick's Day-he was in rough shape at the ceremony today and I did not envy him. I did go out for a few slaintés after school with Clem and some of my Irish-American friends, and like the good granddaughter that I am, I did manage to get in touch with my Irish-blooded grandmother to wish her a happy St. Patrick's day, but I was definitely homesick last night as I imagined what I would have been doing if I were in St. Paul. Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh and Happy Martyrs Day!

Nocturnal Neighbors and Signs of Spring

All around campus these days, I see signs of an early spring coming our way. The cats are mating right outside my classroom windows, the birds are singing loudly and usually out of tune, my students are opening the windows instead of huddling around the heaters, and most telling of all, the trees are beginning to bloom. The beauty of this campus still stuns me every day as I walk to work and gaze out my windows, and I feel very fortunate to be lucky enough to work and live here. It has been raining for almost three months straight now (my colleagues assure me that this is highly abnormal), and the greenery surrounding me is amazing. I feel like I'm in the tropics with all the moisture in the air, but the sandy haze carried up from the Sahara desert in recent days has been a stark reminder of exactly where I am. Tonight I had a unique experience on my way home from taking pictures of my students at a school dance: one of the campus hedgehogs sat perfectly still and posed for me for several minutes (okay I probably temporarily blinded him with my flash, but he did tolerate me quite calmly for a very long time). Note: Those are not cherries on the tree. They are little heads made out of clay that one of the art teachers decided to hang from the branches of one of the trees outside the window of one of the school corridors, and they creep me out.