My last international travel, pre COVID, was to Ukraine in November of 2019. In hindsight I am beyond thankful I made that trip because we had no idea what the world had in store for Ukraine. I spent a week in Kiev including a two-day tour that took me north to Chernobyl which was the primary aim of the trip. Mid November brings, just as it did then, Fall Break (a week off from work/school)…
Returning from the summer in Dalyan, I moved into my next stage of life in Turkey–moving out of the “lojman”–a worker’s residence building–and into an apartment off-site from the school. I guess you could say I “graduated” as my seniority of employment put me towards the top of the list when an off-site apartment was vacated by another foreign employee. Before moving to Dalyan for the summer I had boxed and packed up all of…
My second summer in Dalyan was a dream come true. As my sister Fawn put it, I had a sort of “mini-retirement.” With hindsight I can say it did have that feel to it. After surviving two plus years of COVID impacts, this summer came well overdue for all of us educators. The 2021-22 school year was especially tiring for us, between juggling hybrid classes with students out with COVID, and constant substitute coverage of…