I am currently in Austria with Mike, my parents, and the rest of the Euro family. Unfortunately my brother isn't here, even though he was supposed to be. He noticed the day before leaving America that his passport expired the next week. After spending 6 hours on the phone, my mom learned that he couldn't get an expedited appointment in CT, and the Prague Airport Police wouldn't even let him into the country (and that's assuming that the JFK Airport Police would have let him out). So he stayed how with his new boa constrictor, and my parents came alone. It's been nice having Mike 'Meet the Family' and having him around has made everyone practice their English pull out some good old 'hilarious' stories of me as a baby/kid. It's also been amazing to have great food again, good, non-fatty, non-teeth-breaking, non-mutton, non-drowning-in-oil food. We have another week here and then, somehow, we're going back to Istanbul, but we don't really know yet how. Maybe by bus, maybe by train, maybe by plane, but we haven't decided if/for how long we want to stop off in Budapest/Bucharest/Sofia/somewhere else. Blah. It's too bad that Europe is so expensive, and especially compared to the prices we're used to it's downright impossible to buy anything without feeling the hangman's noose of bankruptcy closing around my neck.
Our first week in Istanbul was great. We spent two nights in a hostel, which was nice because we met a great Australian couple, but not so nice because of course we had to pay, and the employees were jerks. We moved in with a friend of a friend, and were in a great part of town with an amazing Bosphorus view and great company. We spent the week looking at tons of apartments, but didn't find any that really spoke to us. We are looking for somewhere in the center with a view of the Bosphorus and without our price range, but nothing had everything we wanted. We're still busy emailing craigslist people, hoping to have places lined up for when we get back. We are still deciding if we want a flat for ourselves, or just a room in house/flat. We also had a job interview and stopped in a a handful of language schools we found on our wandering of Central Istanbul, but only got a response from one school we emailed. Everyone says that schools in Istanbul are desperate for teachers, so why don't they respond?? No one knows... We are hoping to hear back from EF by the end of the month, and hopefully we get the job. It's teaching at a foundation course for university students who need to get their English to an Intermediate level before stating university in English. It's a lot of money and not too much work, so it'd be ideal. We'll see!
We didn't do many touristy things but just walked around marvelling at the beautiful scenery that was all around. We watched a Turkish movie on someone's rooftop and had an unbelievable view of the entire city. The night pictures of Istanbul on facebook are taken from that very rooftop. We took a ferry across to the Asian side of Istanbul, which is just as modern and hip as the European side.
There's so much to do before we are really settled, but it will be great getting to know the city and find our way around. I'm looking forward to entertaining all the people who promise to come and visit! :)
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