A Very Rough Day

October 5, 2009 (Written yesterday when the internet was down, posted today, October 6, 2006).

What a day! Frustrations upon frustrations, it seems. First, there were all the usual problems of not having enough copies, copiers not working when you needed them, etc. Of course, these didn’t bother me so much because I’ve been planning my lessons assuming I wouldn’t have such luxuries. I’ve learned that much at least. But apparently I haven’t learned well enough.

The first frustration that affected me was that we were scheduled to have a meeting at 5:00, by which time we are supposed to be done working. However, God knows the bus schedule has changed every day since we’ve been here, getting later and later, so the meeting wouldn’t have interefered with getting home. But this was a problem fort me because it interfered with my plans to take my pay to a bank, and wire some of it home, exchanging the rest of it to use for the month.

The first proposed solution was simply to go and come back, but there was another meeting at 2:30, and supposedly we couldn’t miss either one. Fortunately, our coordinator was kind enough to allow us to miss the 2:30 meeting, so everything seemed fine. Buses leave every hour on the half hour, so a couple of us planned to leave at 1:30, take care of our banking, and be back in time for the meeting.

That was the plan, anyway. Enter frustration number two. I was at the bus, ready to board when I realized I had left the envelope full of my money in the secure drawer in my office. So I charged back up there, got it and came back, only to watch the 1:30 bus driving blissfully away. No problem, though, there would be another at 2:30, and I wasn’t the only one who needed to take care of banking who had missed the bus. No problem, right?

WRONG! Turns out that today, the bus schedule had changed such that there were no buses after 1:30 until the 5:30 one that takes us all home. Again, no problem. We can call a taxi and between the six of us, splitting the fare wouldn’t be so bad. Again, wrong. The security desk doesn’t know any numbers for taxis.

So I still haven’t done my banking (as of a qurter to 10 on October 5th). I’ll have to try again tomorrow. And to top it all off, the electricity and water went out at work today for a while.

Such a stressful day required some major stress relief, and it came as unexpectedly as all the problems. My neighbor and colleague seems to have developed a love for going out all the time, as much as is possible in Antep, anyway, so she was immediately asking upon our return what we should do tonight. Failing anything definitive, I suggested we get on a bus, see where it takes us and take a walk around the downtown area to see what’s shaking. At the least, I thought, it wouldn’t be hanging out in the apartments.

Enter another pair of Americans who live in our building, but are teachers at a primary school here. They were headed across the street to see some live music at Gaziantep University. So we joined them. The live music consisted of one guy playing guitar to a circle of friends and acquaintances, students at Gaz U, except of course, for us. So we sat in a circle in the grass under the stars, he played lots of songs, I played three or four, and it was a perfectly relaxing evening to follow one of the hardest days so far.