Same blog, new post

Mike, just so you know -- I told you the internet was spotty in my apartment and I only got to update the title. Here's the rest of the story...

Merhaba!

Oh! what a time it has been. I have been in Istanbul for two weeks! Let’s not get into that just yet. I still have some final housekeeping issues to take care of before delving into the details of my newest adopted home.

Let us rewind if you will to a time not long ago when I was still in the foothills of the Himalayas. The end of the year wrapped up much as I expected it would. I was eager to move on, put certain things behind me and take on new ones. It was certainly difficult to see my grade 12s graduate and move on towards college but more than anything I was proud of each one of them for their respective accomplishments.

Here are some photos of one of my AP classes in the lab. They are synthesising acetyl salicylic acid and testing the resulting crystals for purity. For those of you not hip to the wicked chemistry lingo that’s regular old aspirin. The equipment used in the analysis is the Vernier brand of probes and software. If there was one thing I could have brought with me from WS it would have been this. I love the ability to set up various probes and test the temperature, pH, absorbance or whatever and to collect data and even graph it in real time. The best thing about it though is the fact that the data can be manipulated within the programme itself or transferred to Excel and played with there.

Mixing the chemicals...

The reaction is a success!

Filtering the product...

Aspirin

Analysing the product for purity.

Crunching the numbers

So hard...

I also have some random photos taken in the last few weeks of WS.

A mural I started in one of my friends' homes. Never finished it...

My advisees made me a great poster (and hefty cake) as a thank you for three years.

The class of '011 - Luminesence

A creepy sign by the graveyard at the top of the hill...

Two of my best friends from WS. Getting through the last year really would have been rough without them.

Raji. I also would never have gotten through it without her to wash my clothes and dishes. She said it best when she said she was my, "Indian mama."

Summer vacation was a good time to relax and get myself prepared physically and mentally for Istanbul. I spent most of my time relaxing at home reading or painting bathrooms. I got to make the rounds and see most of the friends and family. It was really good to catch up with some of my college pals who have also been teaching chemistry. We got together for the day and just chatted about the schools we’ve been in, the curricula and everything else that goes on with education. I also tried on a $400 pair of shoes. Had I the money I might have bought them they were that comfortable. Alas, I just spent the last three years in India making meager scrapings by American standards and had to pass.

That does bring me to one point that had been poking my head all summer long. First, a little background. I flew into Chicago and stayed with Becky up there for the night before going on down to dad’s. J’ville was undergoing some heavy rains and ended up with flash flooding which contaminated the water supply and damaged the pumps. Well, that put us on a boil order and limited water usage. It lasted for a good four weeks or so and the entire time there was something in the newspaper from people complaining about having to buy bottled water or limit their usage. The thing that bothered me was that none of them seemed to appreciate their situation. If I were to throw out a conservative estimate I would say that roughly 85% of the world’s population does not have access to clean, running water to the standard that the US enjoys. Heck I’d say even well below that standard. I think that as Americans we feel entitled to things like clean water when really it is a huge luxury for a lot of the world. Now, I don’t really blame anyone for feeling quite that way. Clean water has been something that most Americans have had for all their lives and it certainly seems like one of those certain unalienable rights set forth in the Constitution. I do, however, ask us all to look at the bigger picture. I think of the row of tents set up below the hospital in Landour. Entire families were huddled under tarpulines no bigger than 20 square feet. They dug through the trash to find reusable items or bottles to sell or set up a small blacksmithing get up to scrape by. While I am sure you can find poverty like that in the States I doubt you will find it as readily and as in your face as you do in other parts of the world. All I’m saying is that when we run into inconveniences like a month long boil order we should take a minute to appreciate the fact that we can get clean water in the first place and remember those people who are truly less fortunate than us.

[Steps down from soapbox]

One of the other best parts of the summer was convincing everyone to play a big game of Trivial Pursuit (using Iron Chef board pieces no less). Now, this was made even more awesome by the fact that we baked real pies. So, when you answered your pie question correctly you not only got your plastic piece but also a piece of real pie (corresponding to the proper colour of course).

Blue – Blueberry Custard

Yellow – Peach Custard

Green – Keylime

Pink – Rhubarb Custard

Brown – Chocolate Silk

Orange – Pumpkin

I don’t think I really need to say that we all felt a little sick afterwards. I still claim the title because even though JJ and I only had two pieces of pie and Chunk and Tori had three we didn’t quit playing after taking a pie break.

OK OK I’ll stop with all that and get on to Istanbul.

I’ll just sum it up by saying that so far everything has been amazing. Everyone I am working with is really great and looks like they are wanting to work to make the school better. My apartment is small but I still don’t have enough stuff to fill it up and it is literally right next door to the school. Also, it’s on a big hill so I’ll still get all the exercise I need walking around. It is definitely in one of the more affluent areas of the city as evidenced by the Bentley and Ferrari dealerships. I am excited to get started. Things have been a little overwhelming but I’m wrapping my head around how things work and am settling OK.

I have 8 classes and five preps plus a homeroom. I’m doing 7& 8 physics, 7, 9 & IB-1 chemistry. The thing about it too is that I’m working towards three levels of external tests. The Checkpoint exam will encompass the 7&8 chem/phys, the 9^th chem. will do the IGCSE in 10^th grade and the IB-1 class will take the IB exam in 12^th. It’s a little hectic and nervewracking but everyone seems super eager to help me figure things out and transition well into the new job. I found out too that it’s a brand new position (actually, I think I was told that in the interview but I don’t remember for sure).

I have gotten a little chance to get out and see the city. I haven’t done much of the cultural stuff yet (I will have the week after next off and plan to do some then) but I have gone out to check out some of the shopping centres and nightlife. Last weekend there was a school dinner that turned into karaoke and later into dancing at some clubs. The next night we had a boat trip up the Bosphorus with some more dancing. I think I am going to be enjoying myself far more in Istanbul.

Drinking the milk of the lion.

Turkish coffee in the park.

Me flipping some intestines for good eatin'

Sunset on the Bosphorus.

The view from the top of the hill at Ulus Park.

Also, did you notice the change in the blog’s title? I thought it would be easier to just rename the bloody thing rather than send out a new link to everyone. So there you go, (Turkey on Rice)^-1 . It fits perfectly. You get the food joke with the rice and turkey (obvious enough, no?) and you get the nerdy maths joke with the ^-1. See, a fraction like 2/3 (2 upon 3) can be inversed by raising it to the -1 power to give the reciprocal (3/2). So, now “Turkey on Rice” becomes “Rice on Turkey” and goes from a delectable dish of bird on grain to devilishly handsome and witty young man reporting on his new home. Also, the picture in the title is the Bosphorus Bridge which is only about a 15min walk from my apartment.

OK, that's enough for now. I'll post again at a later time when the internet connection is a bit better.