Landing

Wow. All I can say is wow. I'm going to post pictures on my photo site (link on the left) but since I haven't gotten the wireless password yet, I haven't been using my computer. Maybe tomorrow?

My flight out of San Francisco was fine. Strangest sight: a man carrying a cowboy pinata on the plane as hand luggage. I sat next to a 13 year old girl who was going to Prague for her grandmother's funeral. She talked a lot, which was pleasant for awhile, but I was glad when she got tired and fell asleep. I was worried that my arrival in Munich would require a mad dash across terminals to get to my connection for Izmir. In reality, I got off the plane and walked 50 feet to my gate. I had plenty of time in Munich, and then the plane was delayed for Izmir. I was really starting to crash and took a few naps slumped over on my fully-stuffed backpack. When we finally boarded, we were herded down a stairway (hey... wait a minute...), out onto the runway and onto a bus (not what I expected). In general, Lufthansa fed me really well and I was able to make it to Izmir without starving. They put Southwest Airlines paltry peanut offering to shame. Lufthansa might have served carrots in a mysterious sauce, and the chicken might have been super dried out, but was I going to complain? Hell no. They even gave me a candy bar.

Turkish Customs were so friendly that I didn't even know they were happening. I paid US$20 for a tourist visa and it was stamped and I was let into the country without being asked a single question. It wasn't until I had my bags and was wheeling them out of the airport that I realized that that quiet stamp had been Customs. In the US, they rake me over the coals until I am a flustered mass of explanations.

One of the teachers from my school was standing waiting for me after I got my bags. I was so happy to see my name on a piece of paper! I got ushered into a taxi and driven through the balmy night to my apartment about 25 minutes away. My apartment is on the fifth floor of a building, up a very cool elevator (video to come). It's a busy boulevard with five- and six-story apartment buildings lining the road for at least a mile on both sides. You've got to fit 2.6 million people into a city somehow. The balcony off our living room offers a sliver of a bay view through a break in a couple of buildings. I met my flatmates, Sondra (American) and George (British). Hopefully we'll all get along but it bodes well so far. I just feel bad for George--living with two American women.

Since I arrived last, I got the only room left, but it's really not that bad. The apartment complex has this weird courtyard tower that the building is built around. Three windows in our flat look out onto it and it'd be great except the roof of it got boarded up awhile ago. So technically my room has a window, but it looks out into this courtyard. When I opened the window, it smelled like laundry. There are a lot worse smells. Apparently my room is cozy in winter because the courtyard traps heat. Until then, I'm commandeering the floor fan because my room is stifling otherwise.

Izmir does not cool down at night. It's just hot constantly. It was hot when I popped about five melatonin last night and finally went to bed sometime around 2 (I don't have a clock yet so everything is approximate), it was hot when I woke up a couple hours later to the Ramadan drummers walking down the street beating their drums to let people know that dawn is coming and they should eat while there's still time (I'm going to try to take a video of it tonight. It's such a trip.) and it was especially hot when we went out later today around noon. It has been a long time since I have had sweat literally running down me from doing nothing more than standing in the sun.

Today I wandered around Izmir with some of the other female teachers from Posh English École. It was fun for awhile but I got exhausted really quickly. We had lunch at this amazing cafe/lime orchard. We sat on picnic table benches under the trees and ate and drank for about 3 hours. I have decided not to drink alcohol for at least a few days while my body adjusts. I have enough things to deal with... People were talking and joking around and all of it went over my head like a jet plane. They decided to keep hanging out but I came back home to get some time alone to decompress and collect myself before maybe going out as a group again later.

Nap time.