A Marble Company

              At the end of 2013, I went back to Turkey from Malta. After one month, at the beginning of 2014, I started to work for Dimer Marble which is one of the biggest marble company in Turkey and also they were the best exporting company of previous year. They have customers from all over the world, but their best customer, without any doubt, is China. They also have an office there and four Chinese workers.
             I found that job via one of my friend who had worked there for 2 years. His girlfriend was working there as Human Resources. They told me that they needed someone who can speak English. I went there, attended an interview and they accepted me as an Foreign Trade Operator. I was responsible for organizing papers between vendors and purchasers. I was also responsible for exchanging mails with purchasers, operators, banks of Turkey and bank of other country and customs. I did not like that job due to many papers. I worked there about one year and at the end of the year, they promoted me as a salesman. Now my responsibility was selling marbles to overseas countries directly. I was happy that time because I did not have to struggle with many papers.
               While working there, I realized one more time that I don't like trade and money issues. I cannot be happy there as I always woke up early, worked until 5, and tried to sell stuff to someone. That's why I decided to follow my dream which is being a teacher. I started to search for a way to be a teacher, but there is only one way which is studying ELT(English Language Teaching).
                It was difficult to decided to start a new university and new department which is 4 years as I was 28 years old. I made my mind, took the exam and entered university as ELT student. as for living, Education in public universities in Turkey is free. I also found a job for my little expenses. I was working as an English teacher for a private English course.
                I am very glad to make that decision. I am studying in a department that I like and doing a job that I like. I know I am old to be a student but anyway, I like the situation I am in now.
            

In Malta

             I wrote how I managed to go to Malta in the previous post and now it is time to speak about what happened there.
             I arrived and I was very happy. I saw a taxi driver waiting out side of airport with a paper in hand written Chamber College with capital letters. It is the language school that I registered. I got in the taxi. I wasn't alone. There were 7-8 other students came from Turkey.
            The driver started driving car but there was something wrong. He was sitting on the right side of car. Traffic in Malta is on the right side. It was very difficult for me to get used to it. We arrived at the apart and next day went to school. I was disappointed that There were too much Turkish in Malta. We were 11 in class and 7 of them were from Turkey. We were 6 at the apart and 4 of them were Turkish. It wasn't good for me as I wanted to improve my English. And I also had many challenges to come here, so I decided not to speak with them.

           The Chamber College was very good. We had different teachers from different English speaking countries but mainly from Malta and England. I attended almost all lessons and some of activities. The classes were changed every week. Every week some new students were coming. I learned a lot there. My friends were mainly from South Korea, Spain, and Japan.
            To be in Malta contributed a lot to my English. I become more fluent and gain self-esteem. In addition to that I learn many new cultures that extended my horizon. The only think that I regret was not to pay attention to my pronunciation. I had never care about it, because I always think that the fluency and gaining the habit of language are more important.
             Actually there are a lot I have to say about Malta, but it is difficult to organize all of them.  To make it short, I would like to say that Malta is very good place to improve English as English is official language with Maltese.

First Abroad Experience: Malta

              After the bad mark from YDS, I decided to go abroad to improve my English. I was about about to graduate from university. I needed to be quick as students have better opportunity to gain visa for abroad.
              I started to search countries. The first one was England but too expansive just like America and Australia. New Zealand was cheaper but very far. The best option was Malta. Cheap and near. It is cheap to compare to other countries but still expensive for me to go. Expenses of school and accommodation were about 3.000 euros. adding visa and flight expenses, it became more expensive. Apart from that, I had to pay for food. Those all were difficult for me as I was a student but the most challenging one was that Malta wanted to see about 3.000 euros in my bank account as a proof that I have enough money to survive in Malta for 3 months. Shortly, I need 6.000 euros. 3.000 for school and accommodation, other 3.000 for account.
                 How did I find that money? Firstly, I was running a small shop, a tradition food shop: Çiğköfte, with my 3 friends and I sold my share. Secondly, I made a list of friends and other people who I can barrow money from them around me and I borrow from almost all of them with small amounts. Thirdly, I was working for a company previous summer and I made an agreement with them that they employed me for 1 month and pay my salary in advance. In addition to that the boss of that company, who is one of the richest man in the city Bolu, gave me one extra salary. With that extra salary, I managed to collect enough money for school and accommodation and now, time to find other 3.000.
             I didn't have that amount and I couldn't find it.  Therefore, I needed to find another way. I came up with an idea and share it with my education counsellor: I called him  and told him that I had 3.000 euro and I would take loan from a bank and then put all money in my account. I took my bank statement with 6.000 euros and put it to my visa paper. After I took the visa, I would take the money from my account and send back half of them to bank and other half to my counsellor for paying for school and accommodation. At first he said no as the expense of school and accommodation needed to be paid earlier, but in the end he accept as I insisted.
              I called my brother and told him to take 3.000 euro from the bank and sent it to me. He did and I applied for visa. The result came after one week: Reject because a student account cannot have that big amount of money, So I sent all money to my father account and took a letter of attorney from him. I applied again and this time they accepted. I managed to overcome difficulties and so my first abroad adventure started.