DECEMBER 1973 314 N. FREMONT STREET, RIVER FALLS, WISCONSIN 54022 U. S. AMERICA
*************************************************************************************************** Dear Ones All: Here I am again at the old home place in River Falls, still trying to get back to earth after a year of fantastic experiences abroad. As most of you know, the good fortune of a year teaching at a girl’s school in Turkey came my way, and with it the opportunity to travel to many places of interest off the usual tourist tracks. I returned home Aug.18, 1973 and resumed my school duties at Prescott on Aug.20, after 14 months away which included study, travel and teaching. I was in 13 different countries, and three continents outside the USA. Incredible that it should happen to me.
I cannot find enough superlatives to describe my experience and feelings. Likewise I cannot find enough ways to say “thank you” to all who helped and befriended me in so many ways. If it is more blessed to give than to receive, then there are a lot of very blessed people whom I met in my travels and from whom I received much more than I was able to repay. For in friendship, undertaking, companionship, shared thoughts, hospitality and much love and laughter I am indebted to many people.
I prefaced the year in Turkey with a Comparative Education Seminar in England in June, 1972. There I lived with a delightful “retired” couple, the Gills, in Ormskirk who immediately adopted me into their family and made me feel at home at Cock-a-Lorum as their house was named. I invaded the Art department at Edgehill College of Education where the chairman, Robbie, (Mr.Robertson) was most generous with his time at his busiest season of the year. He also arranged for me to visit a dozen different schools to see British education and student teachers in action. Thus I got an intensive mini-course in three weeks. My brother, Allison, also participated in this seminar, and Mary went along “for the ride”. July 1st we left jolly old England by plane for Brussels, and thence by rented car to Vienna. With Allison as pilot, Mary and I as navigators, knowing no German, we had some interesting adventures and misadventures enroute. International road signs helped - some. Eventually we met up with nephew Mick and Co. in Istanbul where we spent a weekend in a house overlooking the Bosphorus, watching ships of all nations plying to and from the Black Sea. Seven of us embarked on a camping trip in Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, and Austria. We had all the usual fun and frustrations plus some unusual ones. Who could forget the Belgrad Zoo? or two storks nesting on top of a telephone pole in a Greek village, or pictorial road signs directing traffic for donkey carts, sheep, bicycles, cars, trucks, and busses all on the same post? Al and Mary flew back to Oshkosh and I returned with Mick to Istanbul where I spent August getting oriented to a new country, language and some of the people I was to work with. Here I met Jessie St. Jean who was to be my “roomie” for the month and apartment mate later. Jessie is one of the more important things that happened to me and one of the reasons that I had such an unforgettable year. September found us settling in at Ismir on the beautiful Aegean. I taught Art at Amerikan Kiz Koleji, a school for about 600 Turkish girls ages 12-20, sponsored by the United Church Board of World Ministries. There I learned to appreciate cultural and religious differences as opportunities for sharing and understanding.
As Ever, Betty