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Stations

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On the outskirts of Istanbul, the sunflowers have wilted but the autumn sun still shines warm and bright. I take a 25-minute bus ride to work each day, which scoops me up from the top of my street and winds through neighborhoods and farmland. I’m really enjoying working in the art cabins, detached from the main school building. I host many classes outside under the canopy shade as COVID is still prevalent. There is no masking requirement here but cases have remained relatively low so far this school year.

This week, my goal was to get my Grade 7 and 8 students excited about using new types of media. Some students have not been in school for the majority of the past 2.5 years. Since art is such a material-heavy domain, they have lost a lot of hands-on exploration time. For this lesson, they rotated media stations, they checked out 2D materials like oil pastel and charcoal to determine what they will choose for their upcoming Nightmare/Daydream Project.

Earlier this summer, I received training in MYP Visual Arts (the Middle Years Program) which serves students in Grades 6-10, a facet of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. IB Visual Arts is a fairly philosophical curriculum based on criteria and standards-based grading (ie. no letter grades or percentages). I find that the IB syncs well with my personal philosophy surrounding the equal importance between process and product in the Arts. You don’t have to have exceptional drawing skills to do well in these courses but you will learn how to talk about aesthetics and critique artwork. As I am once again teaching DP Visual Arts (the Diploma Program, Grades 11 & 12), I am quite pleased to front-load these skills at the middle school level, creating a continuum that will help my students to become lifelong art appreciators (at least that’s the goal!).

Speaking of lifelong activities, I’m relishing the opportunity to coach and play tennis once again. Playing under gorgeous blue skies is a dramatic change from dodging rain and cold even in early September back in Moscow. We’ve had a very strong turnout this season and I’m very pleased to be a part of it. I’m coaching the coed middle school team with the Athletic Director. He previously taught at Seoul International School and we share a number of friends from both Korea and Moscow. The international teaching world is exceptionally small.

One of my other roles at school is as a Grade 12 homeroom advisor. Always a big year in the life of a high schooler, my students are currently deciding what to do after graduation. Options may include university (or “uni”) somewhere in Europe, Asia, or the States, taking a gap year, or starting at the family business. Grade 12 is a really sweet bunch and I feel lucky to have them as my first senior class in Turkey.

Some of you have asked about the differences between Moscow and Istanbul. Aside from the weather (it’s 80F a sunny here today), the two are really quite different. Metropolitan and very “hustle-bustle”, Moscow kept me on my toes at every minute. Istanbul keeps a frenetic but somehow more laid-back pace that is decidedly more provencal (and I’m not just talking about the sunflower fields). The calmer pace has allowed me to create a more well-rounded experience for my students and still have the energy to explore on the weekends (gotta feed your own soul, too!).

I’m headed downtown tonight to meet up with my friend Julie who is in town for work. We haven’t seen each other since I left Moscow and I’m really looking forward to it. I’ll be staying at a little boutique hotel in the Cihangir neighborhood so keep an eye out for that post next week 🙂 Take care, everyone!

Sanat

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After nearly a month in Turkey, I’ve begun to settle in. I’ve got my little two-wheeled grocery cart, rearranged my apartment, and I’ve finished two successful weeks of classes with my students. The honeymoon period has ended and I am facing the day-to-day challenges of life as an expat in a foreign country. I celebrate every success (water delivery!) and try not to dwell when things don’t well (a wild goose hunt at the Turkish Immigration Office). This week I began coaching middle school tennis – which is incredibly fun – and also hosted friends for drinks on my sun porch. Both are wins.

I shuttled in and out of downtown Istanbul twice this past weekend. On Saturday, Ali and I met a Turkish friend from Moscow, Arzu, at the Pera Museum. We had a lovely lunch, drank in Arzu’s generous advice about Istanbul’s sights and traditions, and enjoyed the museum galleries.

The exhibitions taught me a great deal about the technological and mathematical discoveries that have taken place in the region since the time of Mesopotamia (remember the Fertile Crescent from history class?). Most impressive were tools of measurement such as the compass and the brass aerial balance, both of which had great impact upon Islamic art, geometry, and other engineering domains. I also learned about Osman Hamdi Bey, a 19th Century Turkish statesman who was a pioneer of art education and a revered painter.

Sunday morning dawned bright and early as Moloko and I watched the sunrise against the Bahçeşehir skyline. Wonderful coworkers had organized a brunch boat trip on the Bosphorous Strait. After catching the tried and true city bus from Bahçeşehir to downtown, we walked the last mile to the pier and boarded Le Vapeur Magique for a 2-hour cruise.

There seems to be something especially kind about individuals who end up in Istanbul. Multiple coworkers had offered for me to stay at their apartment the evening before but the commute in was no problem. Sitting atop a double decker bus as the world wakes up, on a ride costing 80 cents, I have zero complaints. Both the company and the Turkish breakfast were wonderful, to say the least.

Finding one’s place in a new country is a bit of an art form. Not everything about this move has been easy and some days are certainly better than others. At this point, I’m striving for acceptance – acceptance of the choice I’ve made to move here, respect for the traditions and trappings of the local culture surrounding me, and the wisdom of knowing how to reset when things get heavy (my current meditation is found swimming laps). I’m open to what Istanbul and TĂĽrkiye have to offer and really pleased with what I’ve discovered so far.

Sanat (n., Ottoman-Turkish origin) art, artistry, museum, culture, music, creative. The methods used in the narration of a sensation, design or beauty, or the superior creativity that emerges as a result of this narrative. A narrative created in accordance with the metrics of pleasure of a particular civilization or community.