Blogs from Marmara, Turkey, Middle East - page 191

It was my sweet Waldo's birthday. He went through a great deal of trouble cooking for all of us and we had a great party!! :) Umut came along, Fabian and Rahmit, and my best friend, Fatma, who is also one of my students. Cheers!... read more

My first experience abroad has been so far undoubtedly, a success. So far, so good :) I get to teach in a highly respectable private school in Eskisehir, improve my teaching skills, make loads of friends and travel now and then to different parts of Turkey. What better treatment could I expect from life? :) I love smoking nargile, the one with apple flavour is my favourite, love playing backgammon, so popular here, though I still need to improve and so far am a rubbish player :((. This is a short entry, just posting some pictures. Enjoy!... read more

Hitched across rolling fields and afternoon fog through Eastern Thrace to Edirne, less than 20 miles from Bulgaria and Greece. My hitchhiking fortunes have vastly improved since my comparative inexperienced days a month ago. Being offered a ride while not hitching is no longer an uncommon experience, and I don't think I hitched for more than 15 minutes before getting picked up. It may have more to do with the drivers in Thrace than anything to do with me. Edirne was the Ottoman capital prior to the liberation of Istanbul, and home to many mosques and other historical entities. The old palace, unfortunately, was blown up by the retreating Turks before they surrendered the city to the Bulgarians during the 1st Balkan war (1913). I read somewhere that they did the same to the palace in ... read more

Teaching English as a Foreign Language can be fun if you enjoy it. And I certainly enjoy it!! I love teaching, and I think I am good at it. At first I was scared and to be honest I wasn't sure I could do it! I wasn't sure I could cope with teaching using only English, especially to Elementary groups. The system the school uses is extremely good, and we work in tandem with native Turkish teachers. It works like this: Turkish teachers explain English grammar in Turkish in 1-2 hour classes, and after the break there is a foreign or native English teacher taking over and carrying on with the same topic, but focusing mostly on vocabulary and practical grammar, through exercises, conversation and so on. So it works swimmingly!! The Turkish teachers are very ... read more

We finally got to meet the Aiesec Chapter in Eskisehir, a happy bunch who asked us to put together a country presentation. Part of our Aiesec experience was to act as Cultural Ambassadors on behalf of our country. We were expected to deliver a speech and create a detailed power-point presentation of Romania containing information on our country's geography, history, and main cultural monuments and attractions. At that time in Eskisehir there were several other trainees, Waldo, from Mexico, Fabian from Germany, Andresa from Brazil. Rahmit from India also came later on, after our arrival. Romania Country Presentation was a huge success, over 20 Aiesec members and trainees came along. A bunch of students from Onder Dil interested in cultural diversity were also invited to attend. We tried to make our presentation informative and interactive, but ... read more