US Teacher in Turkey

 Yesterday, June 19, 2021, I asked my friend Emily - I also call her my Zimbabwe daughter -  if she would come with and show me Canyon Mall.  It isn't far from where I live and right off the Metro. I'd heard of its unusual architecture of a canyon-like appearance with overhanging "cliffs" above.   We had a grand time.  We ate lunch at Big Chefs on the top level, one of my favorite restaurants in Istanbul.  I've been to Big Chefs on the Bosporus near Yenikoy and one in Galata area.  We wandered about looking at jewelry, Turkish glassware, clothing in Marks and Spencer, and purchasing a few items.   Later in the afternoon, we stopped for coffee at a cafe on the lower level.  In the middle of our conversation, I felt the floor beneath my feet bump.  Just once.  I looked at Emily and she looked at me and I said the obvious, "Did you feel that?"  "Yes."  She acknowledged.  Earthquake?   Emily and I look...

 Yesterday.  June 16, 2021.  My rent was due.  It rained all day.  And I completed my year of online teaching at Enka School, Istanbul Turkey.   It ended with a simple wave, a "Bye and Thank you" and Poof! they were gone for the summer.  Well.  Almost all of them. Ask any teacher - who is worth their paycheck and more - what it feels like to have a student go out of their way to say thank you.  To tell you what you did that year meant something.  Even tell you they love you.  I got that from 3 students yesterday who stayed behind after class ended.  There isn't a pay check big enough to give a teacher that feeling.   Soon I will wonder: Can I replicate what I did this year, again next year?  I transitioned to online teaching, can I transition back to in-class teaching?  Will Covid variants hit Turkey and mean we will be online again?  Please no.  I have one more year of teaching at Enka. ...