"I love teacher."

The student finally became the teacher! To the left is our "First Day of School Picture." I never thought I'd live to see the day. Tas, Nick and I went off to school this morning, nervous just like we were starting school all over again, and not knowing how nice the kids are going to be. We had lesson planned for a solid 24 hours over the weekend. We headed off to our respective classes at 8:00am prepared for the worst hoping for the best. I started with a class of only 12ish students who were very attentive. Four hours of class later, I felt proud, victorious even. Ate some yogurt, tomato soup, burek (spinach/cheese concoction) for lunch and headed to my next class. Hoo-boy. Rambunctious describes it all. They are very intelligent and curious. But it was a totally different experience from my first class. We played a game where you sit in a circle and say things you like and don't like. If another person agrees, they must switch seats. I got "I don't like America." ouch. Then, "I don't like Israel." I finally got "I like America," and "I love teacher." Luckily all but two of my twenty of my students moved for that one. Whew. I like to think they were just being lazy. The kids were very curious about my age, my religion and my family. In the end, I feel as though I have already learned the lesson that 'each day of class is a learning experience.' For real. They actually taught me a lot of Turkish outside of class.

BUT, I wanted to give you a brief run-down on Duzce Universitsi and Duzce- which we call the Duz. Duzce has two municipalities- Duzce and Konuralp- both cities named after the loves of the famous Ottoman leader Osman. Konuralp is where the university is located, up on a large hill. On the right is a view of the new campus. I don't teach here, but this is where I am staying for now. It is beautiful campus, but with a very new feel. Newly planted trees, constant construction, etc. Surrounding the school are cow pastures, homes, two small villages and a couple great restaurants. On Sunday, we woke up for breakfast with nothing open to eat on campus. We ventured into the unknown, craving some serious food. We finally arrived to a restaurant and simply said, we are hungry in Turkish. We didn't order a thing and were brought 3 platters of Turkish breakfast, coffee, tea, etc. They presented it to us as "English Breakfast, welcome." Turkish hospitality is incredible. Such massive quantities of food cost the three of us a mere 16.60. That is about 6 dollars each. MASSIVE amounts people. Massive. Well ta' for now. More lesson planning is needed for my next class tomorrow. "Haydee Bye Bye" (As the Turks say!)