School holidays

The school holiday has begun.  In Turkey there are just two terms to the school year – the first from September until mid-January and the second from February until mid-June.  The children have a two week holiday now between these two mega-terms.  It means that, though they have three months summer holiday, they don’t have any more holiday overall than schools in the UK.  But those long terms…the years I have been teaching in school or college  I have been nearly on my knees by the time the holiday came and even the students get very jaded and in need of a break. 

All the students in Turkey, from year 1 of primary to year 4 of high school get their school report on the last day of each term.  Kaan is in primary school where teachers are more lenient and his report was pretty much all 5s.  Emre’s crosses the whole range of marks from 5 for English (not as much of a cert as you might expect), to 1 for philosophy!  The standards are pretty high in schools here, both in the things they are teaching and the level expected, so for example, 54% in a test will only get you a 2.

Traditionally when students get their reports they take them to show family and close friends and – if they are good – get given little presents or money. Conversely students who have got bad grades will try anything to hide it, from forging reports and changing marks to running away from home!

Last week I wrote about our attempts at skiing at Erendağ near Fethiye, but you may have heard of bigger snow events in Turkey, with the winter ‘Universiade’ (university Olympics) being held in Erzurum.  Competitors from 58 countries are taking part in sports, including downhill skiing, ski jump, ice hockey and curling.  It is a big event for Turkey to be hosting and they are very proud of it. They have teams in most events, though they are fairly new to many of them.  Curling, for example, has been causing much amazement!

one of Turkish competitors in Universiade; Erzurum, Turkey

Erzurum is up in the north east of Turkey, where Cem’s family come from and near where we have been to ski in the past.  It has good snow and they have spent a lot of money on the facilities there.  There are also good ski slopes at Kartalkaya near Ankara and Uludağ near İstanbul.  The latter is now attracting some skiers from abroad.

The weather in Fethiye has been bright and sunny, but very cold.  So cold in fact that I have finally given in and let Cem put a wood-burning stove into our house.  These are the traditional way of heating here, where few houses have central heating.  They are not the most attractive addition to your interior décor but they do make the house nice and warm.  Here is Kaan, who is very smitten with it, feeding the stove.