Freezing at 20 degrees

I found a minute to collect my thoughts and type an entry, so I am sitting here with a cup of hot tea and in my favorite fleece pullover. "Stephanie," you may say, "Isn't it REALLY hot there?" Why, yes. Right now it's about 44 degrees Celsius outside, so about 110 Fahrenheit; however, our apartment is set at 20C (about 68F). Chris likes to keep it brisk, so I adjust accordingly :)

Though it took a few extra days than planned to arrive, we are in our Middle Eastern home and settling. While we had a two-day stay in Istanbul, we were able to experience some of the Ramadan festivities in the evenings. While we did get to eat things like falafel and hommos in the States, it just doesn't hold a candle to how the Turks and Arabs make it fresh.

We are in our new apartment and mostly organized, and this week was my first week back to school. For the time being, we are doing a lot of preparation for when the students start next Monday. We'll continue to have shortened days until Ramadan is over (9am-1pm with students), and then we'll resume the regular class schedule of 7:30am-3pm. When Chris and I first returned, we woke up at weird hours of the night due to jet lag, but I think we'll be adjusted to our regular sleeping schedule when by the time Eid comes, too.

So far, it has been pretty pleasant to be back. All of our paperwork to transfer to our new jobs seems to be in order and getting processed, for which we're very thankful. I have had the opportunity to talk with a lot of the new teachers that I'll be working with, who have all been extremely welcoming and interested in helping me with every dumb question I ask. There is a lot more diversity of teachers' nationalities at my new school, so I have some native Spanish speakers to practice with in my spare time! I think I've spent some part of each of the last five days with my best friend here, too, which definitely helps with the adjustment back to desert/city life.

I think it's going to be a good year.