Why did I come to Turkey? This is the question I'm asked even more often than why I'm not married. I wish I had a good answer (for either question) but the truth is I sort of stumbled upon the idea of moving to Turkey.
The idea of leaving New York started to germinate when I realized I could no longer afford my ridiculously overpriced Upper West Side apartment. In Amsterdam on my final singing job in December 2009 I had to face the fact that I had no work coming up. Not a slow year, or a long time between engagements, but absolutely nothing. Okay, that's why I have a law degree to fall back on. As fate would have it, the economy collapsed just as my singing work was drying up, making it impossible for me to get even a lousy temp job doing document review. With so many laid- off lawyers having to take those unappealing jobs, my Harvard law degree was not going to make up for the fact that I'd been traipsing around the world singing for the last 20 years. There was no way I could compete with vastly more experienced attorneys.
So there I was, of a certain age, unemployed and essentially unemployable. I was living in a tiny apartment from which I could walk to the Met, but since I was no longer singing at the Met this advantage was hardly worth the $2350 a month I was paying for the privilege. And if I wasn't working at the Met (or anyplace else) I couldn't continue to pay for it much longer. If I wanted to stay in the NY area, I'd have to find a place in Queens, Inwood, or New Jersey, and I'd still need a job. In theory I had the credentials to hang out a shingle as a voice teacher or a lawyer, but in practice I didn't really feel qualified to do either. I didn't want to add to the plethora of singers claiming expertise in vocal pedagogy simply by virtue of having had singing careers. I knew what a real voice teacher was, and I wasn't it. And I hadn't enough legal experience to run my own office.
Realistically, my only marketable skills were singing and legal research and writing. Since it seemed impossible to find a job commensurate with my education and experience, I decided to look at things another way: Forget what I'd like to do for a living; what do I want to do in life, and where could I go to do it?
I want to sit in the sun and read novels. And maybe travel to places I haven't been and learn a new language. And have an apartment that rents for less than the price of a small car.
So I was looking for someplace warm and inexpensive where I've never been and where the language is something other than English, German, French, Italian or Spanish. I figured I could get the TEFL certificate for teaching English as a foreign language and find work as a teacher. So I started looking for someplace interesting to take the TEFL course, and I came across a photo of Antalya, capital of the Turkish Riviera. I'd always loved the Mediterranean, but never realized Turkey was a part of it. And I'd never been to Turkey. Perfect!
As it happens, the TEFL course I'd planned to take here was canceled, but I'd already bought my plane ticket so I came anyway. It was nice, so I stayed.
Next week's blog will return to my regularly scheduled misadventures.