2nd thoughts

2 day of school.

I teach at a private school called Nilufer. It is a big school with kindergarden through 7th grade. I am a conversational English teacher. There are eight periods in a day which last for 40 min a class. I usually have about five to six in a day. I arrive at school at 8am and my first class begins at 11am. I try to prepare a short lesson. I try to teach them conversational English. So most of my lessons are Abc and numbers. And I try to make them talk to me. Not much gets accomplished in a day. I do not know any Turkish and they do not know any English. So trying to communicate and remain control with a class of 2nd and 3rd grades is difficult. Typically they fight with each other and I pull them apart. But today there was less fighting. It is hard to keep them going once they lose interest. So you have to constantly be on ready for a new activity.
The little ones, the kindergartners are really cute. I wish I knew Turkish so badly. But we play together and I try to introduce English in their vocabulary.

3rd day of school.

You never know what will happen.

Today I went to school knowing I would have five lessons to teach. 3 of which are 2nd grade classes. Which are the worst. And to have three of those classes back to back, sucks. It does not matter who thekids are. It’s the same thing. They run, fight, and scream. I yell, pull apart and scream. Today I took an eraser and slammed it against the wall 10 times to get their attention. Another 5 year old boy was holding a girls neck and pushing her. At that point I had lost my patience, so I took my hands and put it around his neck and pushed him against the wall and yelled at him. Then I walked away. I hope he remembers.
Some classes are alright and some are annoying. Its hard to judge if you really like this or not while you are in class. In class, you ask yourself, why the hell am I doing this? No one is listening to me count numbers or repeating the word blackboard. But when you leave class, its another story.

When the bell rings, the kids have ten minutes to run around while the teachers move about to different classrooms. So when teachers are walking around, they are like celebrities. Kids who you don’t even know run up to you and scream “hello!” Little kids who I jus t spent an hour yelling at, will run up to me and hug me. I am just like, uhh, get away. But you cant really say that. You just smile and keep walking. When you leave school and get on the bus. The kids of all ages, will run after you and walk you to the bus an open doors for you. And they keep waving until you turn the corner. This is every day. So, its worthwhile.
Most days, the students parents invite the teachers and their students peers over for dinner. Today we went with this English teacher and her class of 10 fifth grader girls to a parents house. We talked to the girls on the way there. The older the kids are, the more they love you. They are sooo excited that you are coming to their house. They fight over who gets to sit next to you. And all they want to do is talk to you in English. So, even though im tired from teaching five lessons, I get excited as well.

Turkish houses are so beautiful. They are wonderfully decorated and furnished. We sat down on the couches and talked and laughed. It was only 5 30 so we have awhile till iftar. The girls are really silly so it was easy to get along with them. Dinner was served on the floor on a long plastic board. We watched some videos of Ramadan and Gulen while we waited. It was all in Turkish. I was about to ask what they were saying when one of the teachers started crying when Gulen was shown. Sore subject? I refrained from my question.

Soon dinner was served and we were bombarded with dish after dish. The 12 of us sat close by each other around the floor. Even though I don’t know Turkish I could still understand the silly looks and remarks of the girls. One of the girls made French fries and made it really oily. It was sooo good. Afterwards we had tea and really good chocolate cake.
Before the evening started the girls figured out I was muslim. By figure out, I mean I told them. They were surprised but really really happy. I know they love meeting new people, but I guess they really love meeting new muslim people. Every time I mentioned the word quran or Arabic or iftar they freaked out. Its cool giving people a different glimpse of muslims.
After dinner, we all sat on the floor and recited many duahs. We sang in unison. They girls know very many different muslim songs. This was probably the best part of the night. Literally a week ago, I didn’t know any of these girls. Now, I was sitting on the floor, close together, singing duahs, with fifteen other girls. It felt like I had known them forever. Islam really does feel like the universal religion when things like this happen. After we were done with that, we sat up again and drank more tea. The girls prayed taraweeh and Louisa, Layla, the mother and I sat in the other room. Layla is a muslim Turkish girl that I live with. She knows English the most and is the most friendliest of the girls. We sat and asked each other questions about religion. Again the topic turned to me and layla asked me about being muslim in America. Maybe it is because the girls here don’t know anyone in America. But it seems almost a foreign concept that I know islam coming from America . I told them I grew up going to Sunday school and such and they seemed satisfied. I hope.

OH! The mother( the host) each gave us sparkly gel pens. On each pen was a hadith that was handwritten on paper and taped to the pen. Mine said “you are in accordance with your friend by his/her religion”. How awesome!! Then Layla and talked about how awesome our school was and how friendly everyone really is. I mean, everyone says Turkish people are the nicest. But to really experience it and to feel it, completely different. I mean, layla is Turkish and she was specifically talking about how wonderful the school is to her. So I guess im really lucky to be teaching in such a place.

Layla is really good about translating things from English to Turkish . you don’t know how important it is to find such people when you are in a foreign land. Sometimes, she goes on and and on explaining a certain word when Louisa has quit listening and I am just laughing at her. Its awesome.

So that way my day. Layla,Louisa, and I finally come home at 10pm to our apt. our other roomies, three other girls who I forget their names are there. We all shower and do our thing. Then before we sleep we either all drink tea, eat cookies, or today put a sheet on the carpet floor and sit around a plate of fruit. This is also my fav part of the day. Most of the time, they all talk in Turkish to each other and I don’t understand a word, but it does not matter. Friendship transcends language. I don’t even know them but they already have a fork waiting for me and motion me towards the fruit. These girls cook suhoor and wake me up everyday to eat five minutes before its ready. They also cook iftar and make me eat with them. The effort and kindness they give towards me everyday is so awesome and sincere. Sometimes im so tired but everytime we gather around to eat I love it. Also, I mentioned the word surah and one of the girls got really excited and gave me a high five. Hahah.

I still cant believe im here.

You never know.