I have officially committed to a one year's teaching position in Malatya, Turkey. Tonight begins the official blog set up and journaling of my experiences relating to this assignment. Actually, I have just spent the past two hours researching biking tours and hotels in Turkey, Spain, Croatia and the likes so this journal entry is my feeble attempt to feel like I've been productive. Although I've found lots of cool tours, I'm still not really sure what vacations I will have besides Christmas and a late January semester break when bike trips are not going to be real feasible. To top it off, I will be working six days per week so I probably won't have a lot of vacation until the teaching assignment officially ends. So, in essence, researching these trips is probably much less productive than my Turkish phrase practice on Live Mocha would have been. But, practicing "hello" would wake Eric up,therefore it's time to start the blog.
OK. So the job...I will be teaching English to middle school students at a private school in Malatya, a town in eastern Turkey affectionately described as the apricot capital of the world. I will share a three bedroom apartment with a teacher from Australia. I will ride to school on a bus, work 6 days a week, and do my best to communicate in a town where few speak English.