Yoo hoo

Hi-de-ho, folks, just letting you know I'm still here. Can't keep up a regular posting rate because I've been quite busy (and tired) these days. But, I'm happy to report that things continue to go pretty well. Thanksgiving was the big turning point, i.e. when I got my work permit. Now things have started to roll with the university; yesterday I signed some forms for health insurance, and today I will sign more, and I am told (cross your fingers) that I will finally be paid the money I am owed for all the teaching I have done since September. Meltem and I are starting to feel a financial pinch, so that is gladsome tidings indeed.

The psychological boost is even more welcome. For all the chipper-sounding posts and e-mails and Skype calls y'all may have gotten, my first three months here were damn hard. Culture shock is a bear (and yes, you do get culture shock when you are in a foreign place for a while, even if you think you already know the culture). Everything was a potential source of frustration and bother and depression, from the quality of the air to the manners of bus drivers to the ugliness of the neighborhoods I pass through on my lengthy commute to teaching spoiled-brat students with hopeless English at an incompetent university that's not even paying me for all my slogging. Now, though, there is the looming prospect of a real-live paying job in a university history department, with the hope of actually teaching a little art history (a hope raised in my brief conversation with the head of the department on Monday). There is also a faint glimmer of hope on the horizon that there could be a spot for me at a much higher-paying university. Besides which, I have felt much more at home with the city and people in the last few days. So it seems I am finally settling in, and now that I'm less of a pain in the ass to be around Meltem and I are going to sit down and plan out our goals and dreams for the future, like saving up for a house and what to name the kid.

Just keeping you in the loop. More to come!