The existence of “the Tea Lady” was one of many things in Turkey that threw Dan Keller for a loop.

Keller, principal of Brier Elementary, will leave for Turkey in August to take a job as associate director of elementary programs at Bilkent University Preparatory School in the city of Ankara. He visited the school in April for a three-day orientation.

“I was sitting in a meeting and this lady comes in and serves tea and I said, ‘Is that one of your secretaries?’” Keller said. “They said, ‘No, it’s the Tea Lady.’ Her whole job is to serve tea.”

Tea is big in Turkey.

“If you want to buy a hat, they say, ‘Let’s sit down and have tea first.’” he said. “It slows life down.”

That slower pace of life, among other things, hit Keller harder than he expected.

“It blew my mind,” he said. “I had no idea that three days in the country would change my world view. I can’t imagine what two years will do.”

Other surprises included the large sword pulled out by a waiter at a restaurant to chop at a six-foot pizza.

Such surprises are the things that Keller and his wife, Lara, who will teach first grade at the school, were hoping for. They’ve dreamed of working abroad for more than 10 years. The couple will take daughter Maddie, 7, and son Forrest, 3, with them.

“(We were) pursuing the American dream of a white picket fence in the suburbs, the accumulation of wealth,” Keller said. “After a while it was like, “We’ve got this gig down. It’s time to make (the move abroad) happen.’”

Keller was offered the job in February through a placement firm. People’s reactions when he shares the news have varied.

“They (run) the full range from really supportive to dumbfounded and shocked to afraid for us,” he said.

One kindergartner at the school thought it was funny the family was moving to “Chicken.”

“Telling our kids was an interesting one,” Keller said. “They jumped up and down screaming with joy. For three minutes.”

Once Maddie got over the fact that the countries of Hungary, Greece and Turkey – all food-themed – are so closely situated, took a harder look at the situation.

“She started asking really great questions,” Keller said. “‘Do I have to dress different? Where will we go to church when we’re there? So, we’ll be Muslim?’”

Turkey is almost 100 percent Muslim. Some Americans have misconceptions about the country, Keller said, but it’s friendly to Westerners. There is a strict separation of government from religion.

“I saw very few women in veils,” Keller said. “They aren’t allowed to wear religious garb in any government building, including schools. So at university, you see a number of women wearing wigs.”

It’s also safe, he said. He turned down jobs in Afghanistan and the United Arab Emirates because they were riskier.

“(Turkey) is much safer than Seattle,” he said. “They said you could leave your 3-year-old downtown, come back in an hour and they’d be fine.”

Still, he and his wife want to return to the Northwest someday, though they don’t know when that will be.

“We’re interested, after Turkey, in going to other countries,” he said. “We’ve talked to families who raised their kids this way.”

In the meantime, Cindy Marum, the principal who will replace Keller in the fall, has been spending hours at the school each day learning the ropes.

“It’s unusual. Most (of the time) you get half a day with the incoming principal,” Keller said.

While he’s looking forward to the adventure, he’s also a little nervous. The family doesn’t know Turkish, and not many people there speak English, he said.

Despite the challenges, Keller hopes the family will take away something lasting from the experience.

“I hope that in some way it helps us all understand a little more about other parts of the world,” he said.