Visitors, Residency and Work

This week has brought me a special treat. I got to visit with Rick Vaz and Chrys Demetry from WPI. They were making a vacation to Greece and decided to pay a visit to İstanbul for a few days. We met for a chat and an awesome meal together. They filled me in on their travels and experiences while I also answered some of their questions about the life and culture here. It was so surreal to see non-Turkish friends of mine here. In my mind, this city is like my little world that is all mine. Like a kind of island that I discovered in which I now move about. But it was so nice to see Vaz and Chyrs. I greatly enjoyed hearing about their first impressions of İstanbul. Their observations consisted of many things which I noticed when I first came but had since forgotten about when I got used to being here. It was a really great time all together. A part of me wanted to accompany them on their tours and explorations for the following couple of days, but it will be much more exciting for them to go through the city on their own. Still, I drafted up a small list of essential phrases and information. I wish them the best. It was a special feeling to have visitors. At one point, after the meal, the waiter asked if Chrys was my mom. We all laughed and I told him that she is my friend. But I thought, how great would that be? If my mom visited me here :)

A minor yet interesting additional feature of visiting Vaz and Chrys was that it brought me to the heart of Sultanahmet where their hotel is located. This is a place that I have been avoiding at all costs because it is overrun with tourists and worse, Turks who make a lot of money off of tourists. When I was looking for the hotel, I asked a guy at a cafe if his cafe had wireless. He spoke to me differently than how I am used to here. He tried to speak English and sell me a watch. I was confused but I ignored the comment. He told me his cafe didnt have wireless but the neighboring one did. Then he tried to get me to pay him for telling me this information. This kind of thing is not Turkish at all. Any real Turk helps a person find a place they are looking for without asking anything in return. He also wanted me to tell him the password to the wireless after I was done at the cafe. This guy was just trying to take any advantage that he could of a seemingly helpless tourist. I flipped out on him, in Turkish. He backed off and I left in a different direction. I found a cafe where the people were real Turks and my experiences in Sultanahmet from that point were all wonderful. A little later when I was trying to find Vaz and Chrys's hotel, I asked a shopkeeper for directions. He gave them, and they were a bit long and complicated. I thanked him and started to leave when he asked me if I really understand everything he had just said. I told him "Yes, I really understood everything. Thanks and have a nice day." He smiled broadly and complimented me on my Turkish. I really felt great by this. Apparently in Sultanahmet, nobody expects a tourist to know anything! But I am not a tourist and with each passing day I feel less like one. This leads me to my next bit...

The other exciting news of this week is that I got my residency permit!
This took me so much time and effort but I finally got it. I feel more... official. Also I feel a greater sense of belonging. What it really means is that I can live here for a year (before I have to renew it... a much easier process than what I went through this time), and also it means I can get a work permit. This is huge because now I can get a real job. That having been said, I am exploring two job prospects right now. One would be assisting with communications for a trading company in their exchanges with foreign, English speaking business partners. The other job would be working at a fancy preschool, teaching English to 4-5 year olds. They are complete opposites of each other, but I kind of like each one in its own way. It might be possible for me to work part time at both, but at this point I really can't say for sure if I will work at either one or for how long. In other news, I am getting requests to tutor in English. This I think is the funnest for me and the most flexible hours-wise. I'm still in the process of arranging it. Opportunities seem to be presenting themselves to me all the time now and it is really encouraging. I met a new friend who is starting with his father, a renewable energy company. So who knows what will happen.

You can be sure I'll keep you posted about it though :)