I’ve finished my rehab/rest trip in the USA and arrived back in Istanbul, Turkey, yesterday. Being out of the city for three long months, there are a few things I’ve missed and haven’t missed:
There are probably as many English schools in Istanbul as there are Starbucks in New York. Depending on whether you work for a private English school, public or private university, high school, or primary school, or in the corporate world, you will have a different experience as a teacher. For first-time teachers or even experienced ones, I hope to shed some light on the Istanbul teaching scene. In this post, we will look at the normal everyday run-of-the-mill English school.
Part 2 of my Turkish hospital misadventures…
I’m not currently in Turkey. Instead of teaching my students or traveling to some Anatolian city nobody’s ever heard of, I’ve been sitting at my mom’s house in Valparaiso, Indiana healing all summer. It’s complicated. Here’s how it started:
İş Sanat is a cultural center run by İşbank (Türkiye İs Bankası), the largest bank in Turkey. It’s located at the headquarters of the bank in the Levent neighborhood of the Beşiktaş district. There are art galleries and a performance hall. It’s an excellent venue for watching concerts, dance performances, and other cultural events.
Far to the west in Istanbul’s nether regions lies the district of Büyükçekmece. It sits on a large (and unfortunately polluted) lake, spanned by a historic Ottoman bridge built by Mimar Sinan (c. 1490 – 1588).
Çamlıca Hill (Büyük Çamlıca Tepesi) is a place on the Asian side of Istanbul with phenomenal views of the city and the Bosporus. The Turkish name literally translates to Big Pine Tree Hill.
Küçükçekmece is a district in Istanbul west of the old Atatürk International Airport that isn’t worth your time visiting. I’ll write about it anyway, but I won’t have much to say. When I visited with Isaac, we were in and out in 30 minutes.