9/25 We were out visiting people until after 11. I have been eating some amazing food. We were invited out for diner again, the people here are amazing cooks. The meal had no meat but was very good. They also had three kinds of deserts. I hadn't eaten most of what was served and even all the deserts were new. They eat a lot of things we don't and know a lot of different ways to prepare vegetables. We had a very good lentil salad, fresh bread, a cheese pastry, and stuffed peppers. The peppers didn't have meat just rice, flavoring and maybe some other vegetable. They also use a lot of yogurt when they cook. I spent all day visiting people yesterday and had lunch and diner with different families. I visited one family from 1:00 to 5:00, from 5:00 to 6:00 we had running practice, at 7:00 we went to visit another family and stayed until 11:00.
9/26
I took a walk through the bazaar which was fun...just spent some time watching the kids who where out. The kids here are entertaining, they are constantly fighting or doing the least expected. The parents don't seem to punish the kids. Kids who are three or four are running around on their own and the only way the parents can control them is to keep a grip on them. The second they let go the kid is off and usually into trouble. Kids who don't even know each other will try and take toys out of each others hands.
Two sisters came over and ended up staying over three hours which is normal and we had fun. Since there were only two of them Lucy had time to translate more of what was being said than usual. I am getting better at knowing what is being talked about but it is hard to even figure out the topic most of the time let alone what is actually being said. We played Chinese checkers which is a new game for people here. Today I'll be going to meet the same girls and we'll go walk by the sea and take pictures. It should be interesting since they don't know English. The kids who are still in school know the most English. Since it has been awhile since they were in school they've forgotten what little they knew. It should be a nice walk and I will bring a small dictionary which might help.
9/27
We hiked to an awesome water fall. It was a ten minute drive and a ten minute walk. The trail was beautiful and the water was warmer than I expected. We stayed at the fall for about an hour with our feet in the water talking. Then we went on a hike up the river. There was a trail at first that faded, so we followed the river. The mountains here are so pretty and green. There's so much undergrowth that it's hard, even impossible to leave the trail. The river is low right now so we could walk on the rocks by the waters edge where there wasn't a trail. We hiked for over an hour and waded to an island in the river where we sat and talked to father. This place is so pretty and we only need to go a short way before it feels like we are in the middle of nowhere and don't see anyone. There are a lot of people who have grown up in this town who've never seen the waterfall even though it is so close. The people, especially the girls just never do much and would find the idea of going hiking scary.
9/29
Lucy taught a kindergarten class for the first time and she really enjoyed it. It is a new challenge for her but the kids learned a lot and had better pronunciation than the older kids.
Then it was time for the kids study time. Lucy encourages them to talk to me and ask me all they can. We had a great time and it was a lot of fun to try and talk. This group of girls were a lot of fun and we had a lot of laughs and actually got to know a bit about each other. It was one girl's birthday so Lucy took her and her friends to get baklava. There were 6 of us. We had fun and good baklava.
Then Lucy had a private lesson with a new group and that was fun also. It was two boys and a girl and they had sooo much fun learning English. The youngest boy who actually hasn't started learning it in school was the smartest. He was really cute, really high energy and couldn't help from answering any time he knew the answer even if he wasn't the one who was asked. I think he was 8 and the other two where probably 10 they where a fun group.
The days seem long and confusing and also like they go by really fast.
10/1
Hi
We had a big storm yesterday with a lot of lighting. It started with a super strong wind when we were out at a private lesson. We were worried about walking home because everyone has stuff on their balcony and we didn't want something to fly off and hit us in the head. But we had to go home so we just went quickly and watched for falling things. We made it fine and then about 15 minutes after we got inside it started to pour and rained hard the rest of the night.
Yesterday we were going to drop something off where Lucy works. People kept coming in and talking with us and then they made tea so it took a long time. Then I helped her write up the questions for a test, which was a more interesting and difficult job then I thought it would be. We had to write 40 question and their answers by hand. We also had to write stuff in their language like how to answer the question, even though that seemed obvious since most of the question were multiple choice. It took a long time and part of what made it so hard is we had to come up with question that fit the curriculum but that only had words the kids would know.
When we tell people what we do every day it doesn't sound like we get much done or really do that much but we really do keep busy from 9 am until at least 9 pm. It just seems like things take longer here and part of that is that we walk everywhere. So when I say we go to a private lesson it means we prepare a lesson plan, walk to the kids house, teach the kids, talk to the parents, and then walk back.
I have only eaten meat twice since getting here I have basically become a vegetarian but the food is really good so I don't even miss eating meat or at least not yet. One other strange thing we eat is tomato jelly and it actually has large chunks of tomatoes in it. It is good but it is a little weird.
We seem to clean a lot, which is because they have a tea factory here and when we leave the balcony door or the window open tea dust gets in. So we have to mop the floors, vacuum, and dust, every couple of days. So we have to clean rooms we don't even go into like the sitting room because if we have company we don't want the room to be all dusty.
Another interesting thing here that I didn't mention is that one of the big things every one is into is falconry. Instead of keeping the birds at home, because their really isn't anywhere for them to keep them at home, they have them out on the streets. Instead of streets signs on the corners there is often a bird stand. All the birds have bells tied to their legs so as we walk around we hear the bells. The birds are just tied to perches on the street corner so we see falcons all the time and often people are feeding them or moving them or even just walking around on the street with the bird on their arm. They also have smaller pet birds I don't know what kind they are and they tie them to sticks and walk around with them. I guess every now and then one of the falcons will eat one of the pet birds.
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