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Category Archives: Introspective

Gideceğim Geleceğim

Saturday, June 5, 2010

I am leaving Turkey in much the same way that I came to it, in a frantic whirlwind of packing and paperwork up to the last possible minute. (Followed by plane trouble.)1 This week has been finals week for my students in both department, so it’s been chaotic, to say the least, with [...]

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We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet

Friday, January 1, 2010

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne.
It’s a quiet New Year’s Eve here– my plans fell through, and I’m leaving for Istanbul in the morning to see friends visiting from the US, in any case– so I’m sitting in my window, watching the dark [...]

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Little Things / Big Things

Monday, December 7, 2009

On the one hand (μεν), it was a rough day. I realized in the morning that I had another stack of midterms I’d forgotten to grade, and then found out I was supposed to vacate my office by the end of the day (that didn’t happen, unfortunately), and had to go to a meeting [...]

Filed in Academia, Introspective, Navel-Gazing, Personal, Reactions, Teaching, Turkey, Turkish Culture, Turkish Education | Comments (0)

Speaking.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

All the classes here took their first speaking exam today. I’m probably somewhere near as nervous as they are about the results; my biggest teaching responsibility is 12 one-hour speaking classes, taught once per week to 12 of the 15 pre-intermediate groups. I am, in a rather solipsistic way, seeing this partly as [...]

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Thankful

Friday, November 27, 2009

Today is (or was, at this point) Thanksgiving in the US. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday– secular, identified with a spirit of thankfulness and generosity, and heavily food-focused (which satisfies my culinary hobbies). I didn’t expect to be able to celebrate here, because I hadn’t made plans and it’s complicated by Kurban Bayramı [...]

Filed in Cooking, Food & Drink, Introspective, Personal, Reactions, Travel, Turkey, Turkish Culture | Comments (0)

Late-season garden thoughts

Friday, September 4, 2009

So this summer was one of the first times I was in the right place at the right time with sufficient time (sort of) to have a vegetable garden, and it was exciting, especially at the beginning.
Now that it’s September, how do I feel? Mixed. I mean, to give you some context:

Summer after [...]

Filed in Garden, Introspective, Navel-Gazing, Photos | Comments (0)