Interesting day at work

So we are still preparing for the students to arrive next week and I still am excused from all meeting which leads to a very boring and long day.  Today and did have an unexpected surprise when I walked into the English Department offices to an authentic Turkish breakfast.  It was quite a feast.  There was an egg and sausage casserole, a cake that was nothing like our kind of cake.  It was a savory type of cake.  There was nonbread with roasted peppers, tomato, ad feta cheese.  We had a platter of tomoto, cucumber, and cilantro and there was a sesame seed bread.  There breakfast is very different in that they have no sweet things like we do.  It was all very very good.  And as if I wanst still full from breakfast, when we went to lunch about 4 hours later, I was introduced to the Turkish version of Steak Tartar.  I still cannot get over how the prepare lunch at my school.

This afternoon a sign was put on our Department door that stated "English Only!".  Now if the members of my department will remember this I will be truly surprised.  Almost everybody speaks English but there are a couple that never do.............I can only imagine what their English class is like.  I am being embarrassed by my department and even though we do not speak the same language, each day I feel more and more like a part of the team.  I spent a good part of the day planning projects and am excited about how they might turn out.  I am very excited about the potential project where my students here will be working with some of my older students that are now in high school and with an elementary school back in Memphis.  It is a great opportunity for my kids back in Memphis to go exposure to another culture that the would otherwise not have the chance to encounter.  It is also going to be a great way for my kids here to strengthen their English skills in reading, writing, and speaking.  I'm excited about eh potential of this project, now I just need to figure out how in the heck to plan this and put it into action.

Tomorrow is going to be a big day........I am moving out of the hotel and into my flat.   I'm so ready to have a place of my own.