Quick update

So I managed to live through another weekend in Istanbul without being hit by a car, kidnapped by a taxi driver or eating a dodgy kebab.
On Friday I met up with an expat crowd from a website called expatinturkey.com. Somehow, with little effort on my part, I managed to get banned from it in three days. My heinous crime? To post 5 posts in a row to try and get around some stupid rule which states that you cannot private message other members until you have made about 50 posts. Obviously that makes me an axe murderer and a danger to the istanbulian expats as a whole. Heavens!

The expats included my irish friend Mairiad from Oskar and her french husband. I also met a lovely aspiring photo journalist who has promised to take me on a photographic tour of the asian side.
On Saturday I went out with some Turkish girls and was introduced to a guy from Ankara who is actually staying in the hotel room next to mine. Drinks were had and there was some dancing on bars involved. My omniverous nerve crumbled and I ate a kebab on the way home. This kebab stand sells the most kebabs in Turkey. 16000 a day. Well that many Turks can’t be wrong.
On Sunday I met Klara’s friend Murat for coffee and his turkish friend who spoke only three words of english. But as coffee turned to wine we were soon communicating like old friends.

And then the biggest surprise of all. My old director, Martin Jaros, who I worked with in Prague for years has been offered a temporary position here and came on Sunday ready for a Monday interview. He is coming back the day after tomorrow. So it seems we will be working together again, which is great because I have always loved working with Martin and I think we work well together. His wife is an absolute doll so I look forward to seeing her too.

I also took the time to go to Yenikoy, an area by the harbour in which I hope to be living. I couldn’t locate the flat I will be signing the contract for tomorrow but I did get a better feel for the area, and it is lovely. If you’re on facebook you can check out some pics of the harbour. And if you come and visit you can sit on my balcony supping wine and looking at the sea.

Tomorrow I meet a potential language teacher and I hope to start lessons before the week is through. I will not make the same mistake I did in the Czech Republic and stagger along in linguistic ignorance for years, although on saying that once I did understand a bit of Czech I was disappointed to discover that all anyone in the office ever talked about was cars, new houses and Veronika Farova’s arse. Which proves the old addage, ignorance is bliss.