Bursa To Teach English

I have to say that I am very happy with my choice to go to Bursa to teach English.  Fabulous accommodation, fabulous school, great food, and great, great girls whom I already love.  

Fabulous brand new room with flat screen tv, security, internet, an attached restaurant, balcony in our room, beautiful garden area for writing/reading, and the best amenity-the gym! The gym has a brand new(not even used once) treadmill, elliptical, and pilates/yoga studio.  The teachers have no interest in fitness so I basically have the whole place to myself.  I think this opportunity was worth it for just the gym and school alone-both so nice. The private school is also brand new and super nice with all kinds of amenities: internet, smart boards in the classroom, and fun extra-curricular activities like paint balling. 

My roommates in my flat are a 25 year old from the UK who is just lovely and another 35 year old from Mexico-very nice girls.  Across the hall there are two girls from Texas and also another girl from the UK who are both outgoing with a great sense of American humor like me=)  

The area we are staying in is a student area of Uladag university, which is one of the biggest universities in Turkey.  It was named after Uladag mountain, which is the highest mountain of the Marmara region.  It is quite popular for skiing and trekking in the summer, which I would love to do, but was told it is extremely expensive. 

The town area itself is a quite a happening little student town with nice restaurants, bars, cafes, and good quality super markets.  The students in the area are always friendly.  On our first night, we had a bbq where we were blasting Turkish music and dancing together. 

My sunset runs are amazing.  I run through a windy road with lots of hills right into the pink sunset.  The sunset is setting for what feels like a couple hours.  The whole sky is just pink and the hills are alive with the sound of my music ha!  On one side there is the sun setting and on the other there is a full moon.  It ends up setting at about 9:20pm, which makes it a late sunset with a dash of night.  People never bother me when running and they just smile and keep walking and people are stopping in cars being perverts like Egypt-it is so nice and relaxing. Occasionally, there is the sheep herder in the road with big herds of sheep and the smell of cow dung is around sometimes, but I do not mind it at all.  There are crops and bright purple flowers that stand out on the side of the road.   The horses are in the backyards of old stone homes and it just feels like a place from a fable or old story.   

Passing by the main town area, I stopped to watch a bit of the Turkish wedding with everyone joining in and sitting down surrounding the bride in a circle.  The bride dances like a statue, but she looks stunning in her long strapless, pearl white wedding dress with tiny silver sparkles.