| Back to School Visitors The Blob, Vol. 2, Issue 10, October 2007 | ||
| Saturday September 29th, 2007 | ||
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| Yes, school is back in session. I have some fun classes this year. One of them has three students! In grade 9, the computer course is mandatory so I have full classes, but in grades 10, 11 and 12, it's an elective and the Ministry guidelines make it impossible for the students to fit the computer science elective into their course schedule so I can only take students who do the IB program and have decided 100% that they won't go to university in Turkey. This you can maybe imagine is a difficult | ||
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decision for them to make in grade 11 so I am privileged to teach
small classes. Top right is our last day playing ultimate frisbee on our field. The crane had destroyed half of the field, but we played on it for our last time while they worked. Diagonal left is a pub some of us like to go to but all of the pubs in this part of town are closed for Ramadan (Muslim month of fasting). Diagonal right is my favourite cheese salad in Turkey. On the right and top left is a potluck picnic I went to in a place called Belgrade forest. It was just like being in a car campgrounds in |
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Canada so it probably doesn't look like anything special to you, but
for anyone living in Istanbul, it is a super breath of fresh air,
beauty and peace. The computer room is where a friend of mine
runs his business doing graphics and what not for some big named
companies. I thought it was pretty cool to see the room where
some of these big companies have their graphics work done. I'm looking forward to teaching the first year of the IB curriculum this year (last year I taught the second year of the curriculum) with my class of three students. I'm also excited to get to know some of the newbies at the school this year. Most of the teachers in the group that was hired with me were both new teachers and first timers living in |
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amazed at the caliber of teachers the school seems to find.
On another note, I've decided that I'm done with dating Turkish women. While they are very attractive, I've found that there exists quite a cultural gap for me. Everything seems nice and normal when things stay surfacy and politely social, but going deeper there exists a very different mindset in this country in regards to relationships and friendships. The best way I can describe it is that dating a Turkish girl is like dating a teenager in my own culture. For them it is normal and that's their way, but the best word I can use for it is insane! Oh yes, what's up with the $US? It traded one to one with the Canadian dollar this week! Amazing!!! |
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another country. The newbies this year have a lot of overseas
living and teaching experience and I think they add a lot to the school. I'm quite |
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