Turkey

It's my second time in Turkey. I'm in Eskisehir and we're having a project meeting here. We've been visiting parks and museums and we've also done some shopping. Tomorrow we're going to spend the morning at the partner school. On Tuesday we're going to travel to Istanbul and visit lots of famous places there.

I'm using my smartphone to write this post and it's not easy at all. Uploading some photos seems to be a very difficult task but I'll try to find a way to do it. We're at our hotel right now and we've got an hour to have some rest. We went to a huge shopping centre and I felt like an alien there cause they haven't got many blond women here so most of the men were just staring at me. It's nice to get some attention every now and then but this was a bit too much for me.

Right now I can hear the 4th call to prayer. They have tall towers by the mosques here and you can hear a man singing in Arabic and calling people to say their prayers. Actually, Eskisehir is a university town so most of the people here are young and not religious.

Greetings from Turkey

It's my third day in Turkey. We're here with some teachers and students from Estonia and Spain and we've been so busy that I haven't had any time to write. I'll try to post some photos in the evening. Take care :)

Poetry again

As you all know, I'm crazy about poetry. This time, my students wrote haikus - famous Japanese poems whose tradition dates from 9th century. Actually, haiku is more than a type of a poem - it's a way of looking at the world around us and seeing something deeper. Haikus' subjects are nature and feelings. They are simple in form and their pattern goes as follows:

1st verse - 5 syllables
2nd verse - 7 syllables
3rd verse - 5 syllables

Easy, right? Well, try and see... My students already experienced how deceptive appearances may be... :D Still, they had lots of fun!!!


water flowing slow
but when liquid starts to boil
the vessel could break


she is my cocaine
laughter like a butterfly's
never let her go


you said Valentine's
I call it a shitty day
it is just Tuesday

your eyes are so blue
your arm - so strong, your vow - real
your heart - why so dark?

fight for your belief
don't fight for others' belief
let it be their own


snow covers your trail
white flakes fall mercilessly
silent rejection

Have a great week! I miss you so much...

Happy Birthday Estonia!

Google celebrated with all of the Estonians the 94th anniversary of our small state.
The independence was declared on 24th of February 1918, but the real independence was won only after being at war for 2 years and the Tartu Peace Treaty was signed between Russia and Estonia on Feb2 in 1920.

The Estonian television channel always broadcasts the speech of the President as well as the formal reception that everybody  in Estonia calls: "the Parade of the Penguins".So, everybody in Estonia spends about two or more hours in the evening being envious and criticizing the clothes of the ladies and gentlemen  having been invited to the reception.
And there will be another week when we can read about it all in the local magazines and newspapers.
However, we are happy and wish:
Happy Birthday Estonia!

Let's hope there won't be any invasion until the end of the world...

Happy Valentine's Day!

“You meet people who forget you. You forget people you meet. But sometimes you meet those people you can't forget. Those are your 'friends.'
Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.”

Every day I'm thankful for finding you...

My Different Classroom

Last time when I wrote about my school, you could see water pipes running along my classroom, just below the ceiling. I've been thinking all the time how to hide them. Well, I finally found a way... :)

Footprints on the sand, ripples on the water...

Alejandra's and Kristel's beautiful poems reminded me of my favorite one when I was in high school and, as a teenager, I was looking for an answer to the eternal question: "How shall I live?"
The poem was written by a Polish poet - Leopold Staff, who started writing during the Modernism period and remained active until his death in 1957.
This is the only translation I've found and it's quite good though I prefer the definition of life in the original version: 'Lo, this is life: nothing, but still enough'...





TO LOVE AND LOSE

To love and lose, to thirst and pity too,
To fall in anguish and rise up again,
To cry ”away!” Yet longingly to woo-
Lo, this is life: mere vanity and pain.

Men traverse parching deserts for one gem;
For one great pearl, the ocean they explore;
Then die, and all that lingers after them
Are footprints on the sand and ripples on the water.

How do we learn?

We learn from our mistakes and failures.

Long time no see...

I'm sorry I haven't written anything for a long time. And Tea, thank you for reminding us to post something :)

I've been busy working. 28 classes a week is a lot but I've still managed to find time to rest and have fun. I've even had time to read the books I bought in the States. I love my Nook :) As Tea already mentioned, the weather here is just freezing and I'm getting a bit tired of the cold and snowy winter we have here.

My second youth novel was published on January 24th. Here's the cover of the book. The title of the novel is Tortured Souls.

You've posted many great poems here so I thought I should share my favorite one with you. It's written by an American poet Edgar Lee Masters.

George Gray

I have studied many times
The marble which was chiseled for me --
A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor.
In truth it pictures not my destination
But my life.
For love was offered me and I shrank from its disillusionment;
Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid;
Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances.
Yet all the while I hungered for meaning in my life.
And now I know that we must lift the sail
And catch the winds of destiny
Wherever they drive the boat.
To put meaning in one's life may end in madness,
But life without meaning is the torture
Of restlessness and vague desire --
It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid.

Hugs and kisses, I miss you all :)

I love winter!

Although we have -25 to -35 degrees Celcius temperatures in Estonia... I LOVE WINTER! I love the fire in the stove. The sound the wood makes when it burns. The Snow covering everything. The sound of snow below your feet when it's really cold. I love winter!

A Cat in an Empty Apartment

Do you remember the poem "Nothing Twice" I read in the hotel lobby during our Reading Poetry Aloud Evening? The poet, Wislawa Szymborska, who received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1996 for " the poetry which, with its ironical precision, allows the historical and biological context manifest itself in parts of human existence", died last night in her sleep in Cracow, Poland, at the age of 89, surrounded by people who loved her. Beautiful death, I think, one that must be deserved...
But still, there are people left behind, bereaved, in a sense. That's why I decided to share with you one of my most favorite poems of her:


A Cat in an Empty Apartment

Die? One does not do that to a cat.
Because what's a cat to do
in an empty apartment?
Climb the walls.
Caress against the furniture.
It seems that nothing has changed here,
but yet things are different.
Nothing appears to have been relocated,
yet everything has been shuffled about.
The lamp no longer burns in the evenings.

Footsteps can be heard on the stairway,
but they're not the ones.
The hand which puts the fish on the platter
is not the same one which used to do it.

Something here does not begin
at its usual time.
Something does not happen quite
as it should
Here someone was and was,
then suddenly disappeared
and now is stubbornly absent.

All the closets were peered into.
The shelves were walked through.
The rug was lifted and examined.
Even the rule about not scattering
papers was violated.

What more is to be done?
Sleep and wait.

Let him return,
at least make a token appearance.
Then he'll learn
that one shouldn't treat a cat like this.
He will be approached
as though unwillingly,
slowly,
on very offended paws.
With no spontaneous leaps or squeals at first.

Conditionals

I've been thinking that one of the ways I've learned languages is through music. So I'm compiling a page where people could listen to songs making use of conditionals types 0-3. Check for yourself and suggest other songs!