December in Ankara

It's December. Back home people are listening to Christmas carols, buying Christmas presents and getting together with relatives. Christmas is all around! Surprisingly, I miss the build up to Christmas. I miss turning on the radio and hearing Christmas carols, I miss Christmas parties, I miss Christmas shopping and I miss Christmas food!

December in Turkey is another story. Yes, some shops are decorated with tinsel and other sparkly things, the malls are decked out in lights and trees, and there are strange, scrawny Santas prancing about. (Did you know that Santa was born in Turkey? Well now you do. A little trivia for you). The decorations and Santas are because Turks celebrate New Years and they believe that Christmas and New Years are the same thing. So they have taken the tradition of decorating and trees but moved it to January 1st.

My work gives us some time off for Christmas: the 24th and the 25th. The students keep asking me "Teacher, why do we have a vacation?" and I keep explaining that it is "my" Christmas and that they should just consider themselves lucky to be able to relax for a few days. The response is "But teacher, isn't Christmas on January 1st?" For some reason this makes me want to strangle them. I don't know why, maybe it is my misguided belief that everyone should know when Christmas is, after all, it is pretty well publicized in movies, books and TV shows, all of which my students have access to. Of course if you asked me I wouldn't know when Ramadan is... but I can argue that I don't know because it changes every year.

This year the lead up to Christmas has been particularly hard. I'm no longer enjoying my job and I want to be free. I do still love Turkey but this job has surpassed it's expiration date. It was a mistake to stay at "A" for one more year. I don't regret Turkey, but I regret my decision to continue being an English teacher to a bunch of *********** . Not only is the job bringing me down, but it's hard to be away from everyone for yet another year. And then my grandma died. Ugh. The trips with Yadi to Germany and Barcelona have come and gone and I feel that there won't be much excitement for a long time. So, December 2009 in Turkey has not been a great one.

*** a few days later ***

Christmas happened. It was nice, low key, relaxing. Brunch with friends followed by a pot luck dinner at another friend's: turkey, stuffing, egg nog and yorkshire pudding. It was Yadi's first Christmas so we exchanged small gifts and he participated in the Christmas dinner. It was funny because he claimed that he could not tell his parents that he was at a Christmas dinner! Heathen!
I promise that next year I will be home for Christmas.

What's next? New Years!! It looks like we will be spending that at Ankara's very own Country and Western bar. Dinner and unlimited drinks all night long. Sounds like fun. I'll update you on an Ankara New Years in a few days!