Kevin Revolinski

Would you sit down and listen to a stranger telling you about the year he spent teaching English in Turkey? Only if he were a really good storyteller, or if you were interested in Turkey, right?

Kevin Revolinski isn't a master talespinner, but he isn't a bad one, either. Just an average person telling you about his time abroad. I wish he'd have expanded on his trip to Egypt - all we got was that he'd gone - like he did on his trips to Cyprus and Syria.

The book ends much more powerfully than any other part in it, with a graduation and fireworks and sentimentality.… (meer)

Some friends of ours lent us a copy of The Yogurt Man Cometh: Tales of an American Teacher in Turkey as it's a humorous read about an American's crash course in living in Ankara and teaching at the same K-12 school where I taught. We highly recommend the book to anyone living in Ankara or planning to visit there.

Ankara was Revolinski's first real foray outside the U.S., he has since become a travel blogger. He captures the hilly slopes, the perils of public transit, and the difficulties of trying to teach English to private school students very well. Kevin was able to make friends quickly and accomplished a lot of sightseeing in Turkey, Cyprus, and Syria in just a year's time, despite getting seriously ill in the process. The experience takes place in 1997-1998 and it's interesting to see how much the city has grown and changed even in just 15 years.

The book is a quick read, it's like a series of blog posts. It's the book that will get you closest to what our lives look(ed) like in Ankara. Trust us, you'll enjoy it even if you never plan on visiting.… (meer)