She Left Him at the Bus Stop..

After Bursa, I was planning on heading to Istanbul to work with a family teaching English for 2 weeks and then I would head to Adapazari(2 hours) away from Istanbul to teach English with another company(the big company I originally planned on coming to Turkey to work for).
Heading back to Istanbul, I had planned to meet him. I had the whole Bollywood moment planned out in my head all week. I told the girls and they were very excited for me. I planned out my outfit and had my running and diet all on track. I was looking forward to it until that day...

The day I left was the last day of school and things were a bit rushed.  I had just made the bus leaving at 5:30, which was scheduled to arrive in Istanbul at 9:30pm when he would pick me up. The metro bus(the worst bus in Turkey) arrived four hours later and I had switched buses three different times in Istanbul. 

If I told an average, normal Turkish guy that I had been on three buses and I was confused on where I was going next, the average Turkish guy would tell me "Stay where you are, I am coming."

Mr. Bigg tells me to just take the bus after it was already 11:45 and the bus would take another hour or so to get there.  Keep in mind I have not seen him in almost two years..Does anyone see a problem with this? I do.

Instead of being excited to see him, I was feeling disappointed and annoyed with the whole bus situation.  He was waiting at the final station and after being walked around the station to the wrong bus and then back- I just called him and told him to not wait for me and said, "Go home."
I said it pretty rudely too, which did not make anything better. Being a stubborn man/boy, he hung up the phone on me. 

These guys from the metro bus company offered to give me a ride to the bus station, but I had decided to just go to my friends house that was nearby.  Driving in the car with these annoying guys asking dumb questions, it hit me like a ton of bricks "What did I just do?"

"Wait, wait turn around go to Alibeykoy." Pris

"Um we are on our way to Ayazaya and it is too late to turn around."

"Turn around." Pris

"We can drop you off near the metro and you can take a bus."

"Stop driving in the wrong direction, turn around." Pris

"We can not turn around on this highway."

"Okay just drop me off near the bus over there." Pris

"But we are in the middle of the highway."

"Just stop the car." Pris

Priscilla gets out of the car at 1am and goes off with her backpack into the street.  She meets a nice couple who helps her get a dolmush to Alibeykoy.  It looks like Priscilla is his last and only customer. Being extra nice, she makes friends and he says he will take her to Taxsim-Beyoglu. 

I sit in Taxsim texting him from a strangers phone and get no response.  It is raining, my cute outfit is getting all dirty, and I am sitting in the middle of Taxsim looking hopeless.  These nice boys sit with me as they feel bad and do not want to leave me.  I end up staying with a stranger-yes a stranger who happened to be a very nice guy-I call him my Mr. Mercedes who came to my rescue.  He picked me up at the bus stop where I just sat waiting for a bus that never came. 

I stayed with him in his home and he was a perfect gentlemen and he is now a good friend of mine.
Hitchiking turned into friendship=)

As for Mr. Bigg, he did not ever respond and he did not respond to anything I wrote for one whole month-stubborn, stubborn man- Arab-like yes.

Two Loves Lost

Leaving Bursa was very tough because I had to leave two girls I loved very much- Angie and Sana.  These two girls were both English teachers that I became very close with overtime.  Sana was my roommate and we sat up talking all night about boys, our life, religion, and family-real, honest, insightful conversations that I appreciated so much.  We would come home and have our tea time. She enjoys her English Breakfast tea I enjoy my herbal tea=)

Angie was my "team teacher." We both taught the same students so we created our curriculum together.  We worked hard making creative activities, utilizing all her teaching supplies(she came super prepared),and we were so enthusiastic about our students learning and improvement. 

Traveling around, I have been lacking that quality girl time gossiping and just being girls.  It was so refreshing and totally unexpected to connect so well with two people at the same time.  I just adore them and am thankful to have them in my life=)

                               Love you girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bursa

Here are some sites I visited in Bursa:

Pictures from Wikipedia.

Bursa is quite charming with lots of beautiful mountains, view points, cafes, restaurants, and historical buildings.  My girlfriend and two new friends of ours drove to Mudanya, which was quite scenic driving along the coast.  We past many olive trees, enjoyed chai, fish, and munching on sunflower seeds.  Priscilla tried to learn how to open a sunflower seed with her tooth,but kept failing again and again ha. 

While I did not run around the all the museums and all historical sights, I just kept things simple in Bursa. I visited the mosques, tombs, castle, and some great historical areas turned into shops and art galleries. I met the most lovely artist in town and we talked and talked via google translate. 
I only went out at night a few times to cafes, while my girls and other teachers were going out every night. Bursa-great little city would not mind revisiting it one day=)

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  Statue of Atatürk and the Governorate of Bursa
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  Bursa Clock Tower in the historic Tophane district
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  The contiguous tombs of Karagöz and Hacivat in Bursa
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  Bursa Castle
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  Minaret of the Bursa Grand Mosque
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  Governorate of Bursa
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  Sarcophagus in the Bursa Archaeological Museum
• Bursaray
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  The glass pyramid entrance of Zafer Plaza AVM shopping center
• Kent Meydanı AVM shopping cent
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  Mudanya district in Bursa Province
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  Mudanya
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  Mt. Uludağ is a popular winter sports destination
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  The hills of Mt. Uludağ as seen in the summer
• Irgandı Bridge (1442)

Nilufer School Bursa

My overall experience was quite successful with my lovely 6th grade class.  The students I absolutely adored. At first, they were a handful like most students are in the beginning.  They test their boundaries with the teacher and see just see how much they can get away with.  My students do well because I gain their respect. Respect is something that works both ways with all human beings and even animals.  With children especially, when you respect them and treat them like little adults, they respond very well. 
Naturally, teachers have their favorite students and mine were basically all the boys in my class. There were the most adorable set of twins(handsome and very smart). One can not help, but wonder what these boys will become when they get older.  Asim and Atif were my also my two favorite boys.  Atif was always enthusiastic and dramatic when trying to explain something in English only as no turkish is allowed in the classroom.  And of course, there was my adorable chunk of love Sahim.  He was overweight with black square glasses and he was very shy, but always very polite.  He would always smile big and offer me some of his chocolate wafers-priceless.

My other class was not as great as my first class, but they respected me, which resulted in great lessons, enthusiasm, and participation.  The girls were chatty and not as enthusiastic as the boys, but it is all good.  The last day of class we were playing games, eating marshmallows, and dancing to the party rock anthem(boy that video is addicting). I still do not know how to fully do the dance. My team teacher, Angie, picked it up faster than me ha!

The principal, Mr. Fahie, was always so kind and had the cutest mannerisms. He would always squint and be walking around the school looking confused, but he knew what he was doing. He took us to the Whirling Dervishes dance one night as a school outing.  We also went on a picnic with the students and took them to a lake for fishing. 

I just loved, loved this school and this whole experience.  It was very little money, but it was such a pleasure.  When you have such a nice experience, money is the last thing that matters-really.  I got caught up with my running, met wonderful new friends, explored Bursa, loved my students, loved the school, the Saturday bazaars, bonding with my roommates, long lunches, and cafe stops snacking on honey dew and chai.  It was wonderful...