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I'm wrapping up week 2 in Turkey, and feeling like I've made a tiny bit of progress. I met one of my classes last week, and have so far managed to convince them that I know what I'm doing. It'll be interesting to see how long I can keep that illusion going.

Part of my difficulty at this point is that my books haven't arrived yet. They were in Ankara about a week ago, but didn't get forwarded on to me until 2 days ago. I'm told they'll be here early next week, but that doesn't really help me to plan tomorrow's lessons - 3 hours of Listening & Pronunciation, and another 3 hours of Approaches in ELT (don't ask, I'm still not sure what it means). I'm fairly sure I can wing it through most of the day, but I'd feel more confident with a book to fall back on.

I'm also still waiting for the 2 boxes of personal items I shipped to myself. I'm just about out of the 2-week supply I brought with me, thinking that would be plenty of time for the boxes to arrive. I can survive a bit longer without them, but things are going to start getting uncomfortable soon.

I'm spending a fair amount of time with the other ex-pats in town, particularly the 2 living next door. Of course, that's mainly because they still don't have hot water, so they've been using my shower. We need to have a brief conversation about appropriate places to leave one's underwear, but I'm happy to help them out.

I took the free shuttle to the mall yesterday to do some shopping, and learned that you shouldn't leave your cart unattended in a Turkish grocery store. I had 2 items in my cart and had walked away from it to try to find something. When I came back, my 2 items were sitting on a shelf & my cart was gone. So I ended up carrying my shopping, and bought less than I would have as a result. Which may be a good thing.

After I got my groceries, I went into the liquor store next door & set off the alarm with something in my bag. The security guard spoke German, so we had a nice chat while he searched my bag & found 2 theft-prevention stickers on my bottle of Neutrogena face wash. Apparently, people are really desperate to wash their faces here, to the point of stealing. (????) Whatever, we removed the stickers & I bought a bottle of Turkish wine. It's not great, but I'm willing to overlook that at this point. I've got a whole year to find good wine, and I plan to apply myself fully to the task.

Next week begins the real work of teaching, which I'm really looking forward to. And the following week, I'll be cancelling 4 of my classes so I can go to an orientation in Ankara, which I'm also really looking forward to. But mainly, I'm hoping to get into a routine soon, so things will start feeling slightly less - well, I don't want to say "foreign," but that's the gist of it. As for the rest of today, I've got a very exciting day planned - laundry, more grocery shopping, and lesson planning. Here's hoping your Sunday will be half as fun as mine! ;)