Living in the big city!

So after a summer of travels that took us from Gaziantep, to Senegal, to Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Denver (and I'm sure a few other places in between) we are now back in Turkey. We arrived here last Friday evening. So we've now been here about a week and a half and beginning to feel pretty settled in. As we mentioned in the last post, we moved from Gaziantep in the Southeastern part of Turkey to Istanbul in the Northwest portion of the country. Istanbul is a really big, big city. We are beginning to discover and feel pretty comfortable in our little corner of the city. We are excited that we are not too far away from some good friends who live here. We are still trying to figure out the quickest way to get there (we are much closer on the map than the route the buses always take!). Also, Kylie's school is just about a 3 minute walk from our house. So that is perfect for her. Some of her co-workers who have an hour commute are somewhat jealous!

One of the nice things about working as a foreigner is that usually housing is included with your job. Last year our housing arrangements were a little...tight. (Ask the group of 12 american college students, plus 3 turkish students trying to make a traditional dish...it was tight :-P) We are really excited about our place this year. It only has one bedroom, but it is about the size of both the bedrooms from last year. It also has a much more open arrangement in the kitchen and living room, so we will actually be able to have a table to eat on instead of always eating on the couch. So we are excited about it. We are grateful for the gifts that some fellowships gave us while we were in the states and used that to furnish the place (and cover up some of the existing furnishings!)

(you can also see pictures on facebook) 

Summertime!

Okay, so I know it is poor etiquette to begin with an apology, yet nonetheless I apologize for not having updated this the past few months.

Since we last wrote - all the way back in April - a lot has transpired. First, we decided that we will not be returning to Gaziantep this fall. Kylie has a job teaching in Istanbul. I have transferred my credits and will be continuing my MA studies at a university in Istanbul. So when we return to Turkey, August 12, we will be moving to a new city. We are excited about the opportunities and adventures that await us there. So that is where we are headed but now a little about where we have been.

We finished out the school year in Gaziantep. It was sad to leave behind a lot of good friends that we have made there over this past year. We are hoping that we'll be able to see many of them again when they come to visit Istanbul or when we go back to Gaziantep. The last weekend of the school year a group of students from Northland came out and spent a couple days in Gaziantep. It was really fun to get to introduce them to our students and just to spend some time with them and hear about what they are learning. Then a few days later we got on a plane to fly to Senegal to spend three weeks with a group in St. Louis, Senegal where we were last summer. We were able to teach and help the students teach an evening English course. Kylie had some awesome opportunities at a public school to teach and interact with the teachers there. We also got to reconnect with some good friends from last year. It was a good trip but as we came to the end we were excited to come back to the USA.

We came back to the states and spent a week in Atlanta with Kylie's dad. He was finishing up the last week of treatment for prostate cancer. It was a really encouraging time for us to see the opportunities he had to be a blessing to so many people who were going through situations even more challenging than his. After that we spent a few weeks in Pennsylvania with family. It was a lot of fun and went by very quickly. After our three weeks in PA we came out to Colorado for about three weeks with family here. So far it has been a really good time. We've gotten to explore and adventure and overall just get ready for this next year.

So now as we have just a week or so left before heading back. We are excited about the opportunities that are ahead of us. As we go back we have the chance to meet a number of new friends. We will be closer to other Americans and so are excited about being able to help them in the things they have going on. There are also some opportunities for the future that are developing that we are excited to be a part of.

So that is a brief (sort of) update on where we have been and where we are going. We'd love to hear from you whether through this blog, or email, or facebook.

Also, among all the other things we have going on, we are both writing in different places. If you are interested feel free to check those out:

Kylie is writing an education blog with teaching ideas, stories from the classroom, and other related topics. You can find it here: http://justawordinthegrandstory.wordpress.com/.

She also has another general writing blog that you can find here: http://klizbarker.wordpress.com/

I have just begun a blog that is more or less about culture, theology, history and politics and you can find that here: http://thoughtfulconvergence.wordpress.com/.

One last thing if you are looking for a great short story for introducing kids to different cultures or if you'd just like to learn more about life in Senegal. Check out this short story: One Day as a Talibe. It is currently only available for Amazon Kindle (and the free kindle reading apps) but hopefully will be available in print sometime in the future.

Some of our English students in Senegal

sunset out on the boat

The Cave of the Winds in Colorado Springs

Hiking above Montezuma, CO

"Should I stay or should I go?"

So I guess google or someone is making progress on restoring blogger service back to Turkey. It is accessible sometimes and then will be blocked other times. It seems that they can't quite make up their mind of whether it will stay or go.

Well, that was originally going to be the sum of this update, but as I think about it there are a few other things that seem to be debating about whether to stay or go.

The weather has been very Colorado Spring-like lately. Just a few hours ago it looked like monsoon season and now we are back to bright blue skies. There have been a few really nice warm days and then others that are back to really cold. We even had snow just a week or so ago. Warm weather has been making its appearances but hasn't quite decided that it is ready to stay.

For us personally we are torn right now about whether we should stay or go in Gaziantep. Our time here has been profitable in many different ways, but we are unsure of whether or not it is the experience we want to have again for another year. We are looking into other options trying to see what opportunities are available to us.

Needless to say we are in an interesting stage of the year. We are excited about what is next - but not really sure what that is or ought to be. It is teaching us more and more what it means to be dependent and to learn to trust. It is teaching us to be "actively patient," a lesson we thought we'd learned in the past but is still as difficult as ever.

Well, now I know one thing...it is time to go home! Ready for the weekend!

Spring has sprung

So it has now been over a month since we have last posted on here. While the actual reasons of neglect and busyness are probably truly to blame we do have another development that gives us a great "excuse." About three or four weeks ago a Turkish court ruled to ban blogger/blogspot.com in Turkey. This came just a few months after another court decided to finally unblock access to youtube in Turkey. Youtube had been blocked because of videos that were "anti-turkish" and so this caused the government to get upset and cut off access to the site. The ban on blogger came from a different reason - a copyright dispute. The television station Digiturk has the exclusive rights to broadcast Turkish Super-lig football matches, but there were people using blogspot to post live streams to the games. I guess they had made attempts to get them shut-down but to no avail and so they ultimately resorted to blocking access all-together (though obviously there are ways around it since I'm now posting anyway!). So, we are holding out hope that sooner or later they will get it figured out and restore the service, but for now it is just a hassle to post on here. So that is our "excuse" for delaying so long in writing.

A few news updates on what is going on for us:
Classes for the third term have finished. This week we have final exams. So it will be a change of pace and then we will get geared up for the final term. We are hoping many of our students will pass the exams and move up to level C. So for them this is a big week, but for us it is a little more relaxing. The term went well overall. Our students motivation as always would fluctuate from lesson to lesson. It's always a challenge on our part to come up with new ways for them to interact with the language and see how it is useful to them besides for an exam. So it was challenging but helps inspire creativity (at least for Kylie!).

I'm into the second semester of master's classes. I'm taking two more again this semester. One of them is on Islam and Politics and the other is Turkish Foreign Policy. Both of them have been really interesting and are pushing my thinking. I have lots of articles to read but am really enjoying it. The courses are really interesting from an intellectual standpoint but also practical as well with all that is happening in the Middle East right now.

We are looking forward to the summer. Everything will start getting very busy the end of May. It looks like the summer group from Northland will be coming out to spend a few days in Gaziantep. So it'll be great for us to get to spend time with them here. They'll be able to interact with the students at our university. So we're looking forward to that. Then we'll be leaving to go back to Senegal. We'll be helping with a group there. We'll be teaching an English course again, as well as visiting the university, doing camps and schools for kids, and lots of other things with a group from Northland. Then after that trip we'll be coming back to the States for some amount of time. I'll be attending a seminar on Islam and Religious freedom in early July. After that our plans are up in the air but are sure to involve travel and family (and Red Robin, Chipotle, and Dr. Pepper!)

Our plans for next year are not certain yet. We are strongly considering being back in the same place again next year but are waiting on somethings to develop before we will know for sure. What we want to or feel like would be best for us to do.

A couple of neat things from the past few weeks:
- Last weekend we went with a few students to the city of Mersin (about 3 hours from here). We had been there briefly at the end of the summer. It was a really good time with our students. We got to meet his family and get to know them. They were great hosts and it was a really good change of pace for us. The weather and walking along the Mediterranean was beautiful.
- Since we arrived in September, Arby's has been "Coming Soon" and then "Coming Very Soon." It finally opened about a week ago. We ate it for the first time last night. The roast beef was wonderful. The curly fries were great. Unfortunately they don't have "Arby's Sauce." They do have horsey sauce, but no Arby's. Highly disappointed! Now our food court is only missing Chick-Fil-A and a Chinese restaurant to be complete (we have Burger King, McDonalds, Popeye's chicken, Sbarro, and Arby's!)
- Most important about three weeks ago we were able to get in contact with some believers in the city. It has been great to meet with them. They've been such an encouragement to us. Even though most is in Turkish and beyond what we grasp (though it helps us learn more) it is still so good for us. We hope that we've also been an encouragement to them as well. So that has been a major blessing to us recently.

Well, I apologize for how long this is...and also for going so long between posts. We'd love to hear from you and how you are doing. We are excited for what the future holds and reminded to look ahead because of the hope that we possess.

(We'll add some recent pictures to facebook and you can check them out over there!)

Wow . . . February Already!

Well . . . it has been quite a while since we posted last, but in our defense, we've been off traveling the world and such. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of fun and excitement, but now we are back to the daily routine.
About 4 weeks ago we had group of students come over to our apartment for a "End of the Term" party. That was really fun. We squished about 12 guys into our living room and watched some T.V. ate some food, played some games, etc. It was fun and a good chance to hang out with our students aside from school. The next week was final exams for the students. We had to administer tests and help with the grading, then we were finished for two wonderful weeks! I never knew I would be so ready for a break. But just skimming over Christmas and New Year's with no time off set me up to be really ready for some time off.

Jeremy's sister Tiffany and her husband Tim arrived on that Thursday night of exam week. We were able to spend the next few days with them here in Gaziantep, show them around the city, discover that our favorite museum had been completely stripped of all of the amazing mosaics that used to be there, and spend time just hanging out and playing games. Then, we went to Istanbul with them. That was great fun. I love Istanbul. There is so much to do and see. We enjoyed the time there, but it went very quickly. On Tuesday, Tim and Tiff headed back to London and Jer and I got on a plane for Florence, Italy. We only had a night, a day, and a half in Florence, but I believe we did well. We mapped out everything we wanted to see and walked all around the city. I loved Florence. It was beautiful and the people were friendly and the food was amazing! (We ate a lot of bacon.) We got to see a lot of amazing things here, and then on Thursday morning, we got on a train for Venice.
Venice was really cool. It felt to me like a place that you always hear about, but never expect to actually see, and there's just nothing else quite like it. So, I really enjoyed that. However, Jer was a little less thrilled about the ability to navigate the really confusing maps. And, we encountered a little less friendliness in Venice, which made it easier to move on after our day and a half there. But, I must say, we did eat some really good food and we did see some really cool things. We were able to go up to the top of the Campanile Tower in St. Mark's Square. There were some really cool views of the city and the sea.

After Venice, we met up with my parents and Mollie in Istanbul again and spent a few days there touring with them. It's hard to get tired of such a big city, so we didn't mind in the least! We went up Galata tower for the first time, and saw a few other things that we'd never seen before. On our last day in Istanbul, we were working on getting to the airport on the Asian side (and we'd been staying on the European side.) So, lugging five suitcases and five carry-ons, we made the trek to the tram where I got on without my family or Jeremy, but we eventually met up again, and then made it to the ferry, the bus, the plane, the taxi, and finally home . . . with only a few mishaps, like Mollie getting shut in the bus door. We had the rest of the week with my family in Gaziantep, and it was fun to just hang out and play games and watch movies. But, sadly, the break had to come to an end.

Now we are back at school and working hard. Both of us are teaching Level B students this term, so we are enjoying the new atmosphere and getting back into the swing of things with our new students.
We hope you are all doing well, and looking forward to spring!