‘Why Turkey?’
My answer to this always feels so boring, and kind of makes me seem silly.
When I was in my last year of university, the professors went on strike for a month. I had a lot of free time on my hands, so I decided that I would get my ESL certificate. I had always known that I would do something abroad, and teaching seemed like a great opportunity to travel and work.
While I was at the course, one of the teachers was talking about his experience with traveling and teaching. He was talking about food, and all the different kinds of food that he had eaten during his travels. He warned us that if we have any food allergies, we should be careful with where we choose to work.
Now, I have a severe fish allergy. When I told him about it, he suggested that I stay out of Asia. So, when I finished my course, I started looking for jobs in other parts of the world.
My first night of applying, I sent my resume and a letter to a school in Russia, and a school in Turkey. The Turkish school responded immediately. Everything that they were offering seemed to be what I was looking for, and I took the job.
I’d love to tell you that I had always wanted to go there. That I’d been dying to go cross between Europe and Asia in Istanbul, or sit on a Mediterranean beach, or see the fairy chimneys in Cappadocia, or the Whirling Dervishes of Konya.
Honestly, I didn’t know very much about Turkey, and most of the things I did know were wrong (I had thought that Istanbul was the capital city, that everyone rode camels, and that it was a lot hotter all year round…)
It didn’t matter though, I thought I would stay for one or two years, get some experience and either go back to Canada, or move on to a new place. I wanted an experience.
‘Why Turkey?’ People always seem so disappointed, it’s not the most exciting answer, why I stayed is much more…
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A Family's Life 
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