Predictions

For some reason a particular class stuck with me my entire time in Istanbul; it was when my students made some predictions as to “what will happen” in 2008, using “will” as the springboard word. Here were their predictions for the year:

1. There will be a lot of new babies in 2008. (This obviously would be a true statement as our population continues to expand alarmingly high. But I’m keeping it in as a ‘correct’ prediction. They predicted it!)

2. It will be a very hot summer. (I don’t know how it was in relation to others in Istanbul. But it was consistently sultry, with temps high up past the 90-degree mark almost every day. During my vacation, the Fahrenheit thermometer went over the century multiple times in southwestern Turkey. So, yeah, it was a pretty damn hot summer.)

3. Turkey will win the European football championship this year. (This turned out to be close! If Turkey had beaten Germany in the semifinals, they’d have faced Spain for the Cup. It was an amazing run, and a very close prediction.)

4. A war will break out between Israel and Palestine. (If you don’t consider it a war, conflict escalated to a very alarming level in the latter half of this year, and for that I say “Yikes!” and “Don’t make anymore war predictions for the future, thanks.”)

5. In 2008, there will be a new president of the United States. (Here, I then asked “Who?” because yes there would be a new prez unless Dubya did something really diabolical with the voting machines. The majority of the students guessed wrongly and said Hilary Clinton. You were almost there, kids!)

6. George Bush will die this year. (Nope.)

7. There will be an earthquake in Istanbul. (Another correct prediction. It happened in March, but it only ranked 4.8 on the Richter Scale. No major damage and it was barely felt by me, even though it happened while in the kantin on the 5th floor of the building. Let’s keep it like that!)