Sudden change in work

Today has been the most eventful day to date, and I can tell from this point on that the internship experience is going to be leaps and bounds better.

I had originally applied for the IT department because it was the only thing available at that time. But for me, IT? What was I thinking?

I emailed the sales and marketing department just seeking to talk with them briefly about structure. Before I knew it, I was chatting in depth about their sales process and their strategies. This was all at 11:00 AM. By 1:30 PM I was out on two follow up meetings in the city. Kick ass.

The market for AIESEC's mission

Recently I've seen a lot of debate in AIESEC US about mission statements, and how the statement we operate under now is "divergent" or "unaligned" with the global mission. I was actually a big proponent of this thought until I really thought seriously about the implications of mission statements, specifically of basing our day to day work off of semantics.

So currently the mission statement used in the US is "by developing individuals..." and the global descriptor of our role is "the international platform..." It is clear to anyone that they are not the same mission statement, and that in itself angers a lot of people, making them feel like they're in two separate organizations. However, after experiencing AIESEC where the rubber htis the road, I realize that the most important understanding we can have is of exactly that. Specifically, I'm talking about forgetting what semantics we operate under, and understanding what actually happens within the friction of AIESEC: different cultures coming together, people involving themselves in working groups and project teams, a unexperienced person beginning to build relationships with organizations, and the minute an exchange participant steps into new situations and challenges him/herself in a new culture.

What I'm saying is that what goes on globally when the rubber hits the road is not as divergent as we think. Whether you're an AIESECer in Istanbul, Prague, Sao Paulo, Santo Domingo, or Jaipur, depending on your LC leadership, you are more or less experiencing the same development. Again, what is most important is for us to analyze, understand, and come to terms with that is happening at the core of AIESEC, and not trying to make some all inclusive statement to make it happen. In a very general sense, a mission based from the bottom up, not the top down.

Also, the market for AIESEC's mission, I've found, is different across cultures. I found it very interesting this weekend at the conference that when AIESECers talked about @'s role, mission, and vision, they applied it almost 100 percent to their own country. What can we do to help our country? How can we be leaders in our country and make positive impact in our communities? How can we save Turkey? This is of course opposed to our conversations in the US where it is much more based on global change, on what we can do to be leaders in the world, to affect situations in other countries with a positive impact. Very little is based on how we can benefit our country. Isn't that interesting?

Turkish fight club

First, read this article: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/US/05/29/fight.club.ap/index.html.

One of my coworkers and I just talked about setting up a similar community of disgruntled, adventure-seeking, IT employees from the surrounding insurance companies. If there is one thing I didn't expect in Istanbul, it was the prospect of engaging in bear knuckle fights with fellow IT department employees. At least not for pleasure's sake.

Michael Owen

Multiple times this weekend I had people approaching me, asking if I was related to Michael Owen, or knew that I looked like him, etc. I, American as I am, had no idea who he was, but found his picture on google. I'm skeptical.

The power of business

To all those blindly opposed to big business.

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/05/29/china.pollute.ap/index.html

Wierd email

So I just got an email with pictures that a coworker sent to a few of us. The email says nothing but the pictures are of a group of cats in what seems like a brawl/sexual act.

I am completely and utterly confused.

Rough moments

Being American in Turkey has been fine so far. I have honestly encountered the most welcoming and warm culture imaginable. The relationships and friendships I've begun so far are closer and more comforting than some friendships over longer periods of time in the past. Besides the ever frequent question, "Do you like Bush?", my friends, coworkers, and acquaintaces have accepted me as a human being just like them.

It was because of this warm welcoming that I had trouble this weekend with a few conference delegates in conversations about the USA and the West. Many of these delegates were only 2 months into AIESEC and very determined on seeking a traineeship experience and nothing else. Compared to other facis, I felt a bit less welcomed. This could also be attributed to my scant knowledge of Turkish.

One particular moment stuck with me and I've been trying to deal with it ever since. On Sunday evening, we had a session called "World Café". I chose to facilitate the topic of East Vs. West?. My goal behind this discussion was to understand the images, words, and people that come to our minds when hearing these words, asking why they do, then questioning the actual existence of this separation. Is there a true separation or is it something we just create in our minds?

We started out with a table divided into East and West, then began listing these images that came to mind. For East, some were soul, religion, rich color, traditions, and for West, materialism, body, decisions, etc. This one particular delegate who joined our group was sort of a hot-shot macho guy. He really was giving some good input but got frustrated when another delegate questioned him. He actually seemed to be dissapointed that another Turk was questioning his perception of the West.

Really out of the blue, all of a sudden, he interrupted another delegate and said, "East is everything, West is nothing, and the East should kill all of the West." He then got up, kicked his chair, and walked out of the room. I really was in utter shock, and quite embarassed being the facilitator. Did I say something? Was it the facilitation? Why would he say something like that? And why can't I impact this guy?

I felt better after the other delegates expressed their feelings about the incident, saying they didn't believe the same, and that they really didn't like that guy. It was really comforting and I knew they could tell I was upset by it. Fortunately, the incident brought the group closer together in our discussion, and we really came to some unique conclusions. I also met a Kurdish guy who was born in Northern Iraq and has lived in Southern Turkey for his entire life. We exchanged contacts and he made sure with me that I would visit him and meet his Kurdish community.

Faci-nating

Its Tuesday and I'm finally back at work. I got back from the YES! congress last night around 7:30 PM after a nearly 2 hour bus trip from the hotel. Funny thing is that the hotel is still considered Istanbul.

The @ conference this weekend was a new experience for me. I've never taken on an official "faci" position, so I did not completely know what to expect. Our faci pre-meeting was on Friday night, followed by a brief birthday celebration for Birtan, current MC Turkey and heading off to the MC in China. I was in charge of the "Heading for the Future" session, so the majority of time was spent wondering how the session I created would be received by newer AIESEC members, and a different working culture.

We had just over 120 delegates from 10 LCs in Turkey. Some delegates traveled 16 hours by car from near the Syrian border to attend. I was a little weary of the conference because it was for exchange participants with an average of less than 2 months in AIESEC. I knew they'd be totally wierded out by AIESEC culture. Regardless, by the final day (Monday), the remaining delegates were into every aspect of @ culture, expressing their regret for not joining AIESEC earlier.

The other great part of the conference was getting to know the faci team so well. We were 8 facis from Germany, Bulgaria, Egypt, Turkey, and the US. Through the hard work and planning, I really became close to the other 7, and gained a lot learning from their life and AIESEC experiences.

At work

This is Serkan and I doing what we do best. Slackin' off.

Where to next as the airport burns?

Yesterday morning while a few of us were taking a break in the lazy man's corner (by the water cooler), Mustafa mentioned that his wife was out of town and that he wanted to get a few beers. Never hesitant to visit bars in other countries, I warmly welcomed the invitation.

Near the end of the day, Cemal said he would come to, so we walked from work to Taksim for, of course, "just one beer". On a sidenote, Cemal is a character. He is the system administrator for Basak, and yesterday during our English conversation he taught me the basics of system and database administration. He prides himself on the fact that he controls when people can use the internet. He is also from the Black Sea, and according to Mustafa, Black Sea peoples have a distinct nose with eyes close together. For the most part, he's exactly right. Cemal told me a bit about his family and his hometown, and after his broken explanation, it truly sounds like he is Turkish mafia. His town is known for mafia activity and for everyone owning a gun. After last night, in which he smoked 3 packs of cigarettes in one evening, I wouldn't put it past him. Regardless of his remotely sketchy background, he's extremely smart and very nice.

So first we went for food, and they ordered me the popular Turkish dish, Iskander. This stuff is amazing. It's bread with tomato sauce and yogurt, completely covered in meat. It's glorious.

After dinner, we headed to "Beer street." Yes, this place is amazing as it sounds. Pub after Pub after Pub. Although they only serve one type of beer, each place has its own feeling. I explained the concept of bar-hopping to Mustafa and Cemal, and told them how funny it was that in theory you could actually hop to bars on beer street. They are like townhouses, and it only takes a small step to enter another bar. Liking the idea, we began to hop to a few different bars.

Well, after "one beer" at beer street, we ended up bar hopping from beer street to Araf, a 6th floor bar overlooking the interior of Istanbul, then to French street for some fries and wine, then to Barci, where there was some sort of karaoke going on, but fortunately every singer sounded like a pop artist.

I got home at 11:30 PM, and after a long walk home, even that amount of bar-hopping didn't do me in. I was pretty proud.

I got into work this morning and checked the news: "Wednesday evening, Istanbul airport engulfed in flames."

Me: "What???"

YES! this weekend

AIESEC involvement in Istanbul has come quicker than expected. I attended a GMM of @ Istanbul, but of course I couldn't understand anything. The EB presented the week's updates, and the LCP wore a suit!

Anyways, this weekend is YES! to lead to the future congress, a weekend @ conference for exchange participants. I'm one of the 8 facilitators, and I'm in charge of a homegroup and the heading for the future session. This will be my first "official" faci experience, and I'm totally psyched. The other facilitators are from Bulgaria, Turkey, Egypt, and Germany. And this puppy's in a 5 star hotel just outside Istanbul. Money.

Change of plans

So huge change of plans as of today.

I've been planning on applying for the CDL role for quite some time, however the recent global sourcing role that went up last week has really caught my eye. I looked at it today, and realized it was something I wanted to pursue.

So, today, after 3 years, I applied for the national team. Damn it feels good to write that.

Buddy = En iyi arkadaş

I've realized over the last 24 hours just the impact I'm subtly making in the IT department. Although the project I want to work on is taking a time to begin, I'm spending a good 45 minutes - 1 hour with a different employee everyday "teaching" them English. When it comes down to it, I just ask them questions about their background and their tasks at the company.

I got put with the beginners first, so it has been very hard to communicate, and about a half hour before our "lesson" I get pretty nervous wondering whether we will be able to talk about anything at all. It's funny though what the human spirit can do for communication.

Serkan, who I mentioned earlier, is officially my "buddy". I said it one day off hand and he looked a little puzzled, thinking he had heard "body". This guy loves the word buddy and uses it all day, and when another employee used it today he got mad and said, "No, andaru ees buddy mine!" Haha, regardless I talked to them about the concept of a buddy, so now everyone in the office calls themselves "Hey buddy."

A really touching thing today was after a long conversation with one of the begginers, I noticed that his English had improved just in the first 45 minutes. I explained this to him, and he told me that he was very nervous for 2 weeks before I arrived, knowing that he would have to speak English. He told me, however, that in just one day he felt very comfortable with me and is not afraid at all to speak English with me. He actually referred to me today as "best friend" in Turkish. As I spend each day with a different employee, I'm beginning to build strong relationships with them, all the while learning a ton about database administration, system management, oracle, HTML, etc.

Extracurricular Activities

I've had a few ideas in the past few days that have been on my mind. I mentioned a really long walk I took on Sunday. One of the places I spent a good amount of time at was the boatdocks between the Galata bridge and the other which I don't know the name of. Along this section of the Golden Horn there are tons of boats of all sizes for tourism, fishing, transportation, etc.

The people I saw around the boat docks were a different sort of people I've encountered at the dorms, at work, in AIESEC, etc. They are more, you could say, the "common" Turkish people that don't have a college education, and probably immigrated to Istanbul for more opportunities. Anyways, after seeing this I thought it would be really cool to seek out weekend work on one of these boats. It looks like the majority of work is physical so I wouldn't have to speak Turkish in amounts that I can't. Interacting with this new group of people, soaking up some skin, getting some exercise, and learning the ins and outs of shipyards seems pretty freaking cool. Although we are going to travel a lot on weekends, I'm thinking even 2 - 3 weekends would have quite the impact on me.

The other idea I had was to join the hundreds of fishermen that line bridges. Fishing seems like a real cultural past time here, and to join these rugged looking fellas would be pretty cool. I don't have fishing tackle, a liscense, or any skill, but I'm hoping a few Turks can lend a helping hand.

I think the main reason I'm seeking out these opportunities is because of the drastic contrast this experience has been with my last echange in the Dominican Republic. Overall, I live extremely well here, and Istanbul is much more developed than I had remembered or imagined. In the DR, I more or less lived in poverty; no water, electricity, etc. I also worked and lived with people with little education if any. Now I'm working with and socializing with young Turkish people with sometimes 2 degrees, including an MBA. Some of them are actually the smartest people I've ever met.

I guess I'm trying to seek out some of the impact and experiences I had in the DR here in Istanbul. Not sure if that's good, bad, or natural, but at this point it feels right and it feels exciting.

My buddy Serkan

Up until this point, I really haven't met anyone religious in Turkey. Although the religious folk are visible, they aren't the people I've come into conversation with.

Serkan is my neighbor at work, and since no offices I've seen in Istanbul have cubicles, everyone is openly visible and audible. He's a very funny guy, very quiet, mild-mannered, and thinks he looks just like the main actor on Turkey's version of the sopranos. One of our colleagues mentioned beer yesterday and he got pretty quiet. I later asked him if he was religious, and he said, very.

I asked him about Islam and Turkey. A very simple question about the Sunni and Sh'ia break up. 30 minutes later, I heard a mini monologue on the two religious sects here in Turkey. He told me he wants to teach me a little bit about his religion each day. So, in addition to tea time with Tarik, I now have mini-Islam monologue everyday at 4:30.

Engineering in Turkey

After a week here in Istanbul, I've talked to quite a few students, recent grads, and working professionals about their academic backgrounds. The most common course of study I've found is economics and engineering. However engineering seems to encompass an incredible amount in Turkey.

Actually, it seems that the word engineering follows any and all other courses of study. I've heard the regular mechanical, electrical, civil, industrial, and electrical. Haha, but I've also heard financial, physics, mathematical, economical, managerial, methodological, communication, computer, accounting, and a slew of others. I now openly expect to hear engineering know matter what the first word is.

Tea time with Tarik

It's safe to say that every hour in Turkey is tea time. I get free tea at my desk the entire day, sipping down 6 - 8 glasses before the day is through.

Starting today, 2:00 PM everyday is tea time with Tarik. Tarik is the managing director of the IT department, and he is also my boss. Former military lieutinant, Tarik is a rather intimidating guy, but in conversation he is very pleasant.

Because he wants to improve his English, every day for an hour I will sit down with him over tea and talk about anything. When I first heard this, I got a little nervous, mostly because I thought it would be boring as hell. On the contrary, Tarik is extremely smart and very knowledgeable. Today I learned about the history of the Turkish military and its role in society, government, etc. I also learned about the history of the insurance industry in Turkey, plus he drew out an entire map of Basak's management structure. We finished by talking about the implications of GrupoAma's buyout of Basak on its corporate structure and culture.

More to come from tea time with Tarik.

Two surprises

I had two surprises today.

For some reason, I got sucked into the insurance industry in January. I had very enthusiastically applied for a sales job with Aflac in DC. I got up at 6:00 AM my first day, and headed off to work to start at 8:00 AM.

I ran into Richard at 11:30 AM near the @ house...

"Hey, how was your first day?"

Me: "I quit. It was great!"

The insurance industry, or rather Aflac's sales force, was not for me.

I realized today that I'm working for the Aflac of Turkey. Basak Emeklilik sells basically the same thing, and they sell it in the same way. Fortunately, there's no duck here.

The other surprise I had is that I started work on Thursday for Basak Emeklilik, and when I arrived today, I work for a different company: GrupoAma. Grupoama is a massive MNC based in France, and they recently bought out Basak Emeklilik and Basak Sigorta in their global expansion efforts. I guess this is technically the world's shortest traineeship, followed by a new tranieeship with a huge ass company. Pretty sweet.

Bosphorous and longest walk ever

On Friday the trainees were invited to a boat tour and party on the Bosphorous by some engineering students from Marmara university. Four of us decided to go, so we took the ferry to the Asian side and met some of the students. Abdi, the guy who helped us get there, asked us if we wanted to buy any "special" drinks before bording, but we felt it wouldn't be appropriate to drink in the afternoon. He also said that engineering students were calmer and more chill than other Turkish students.

We were the only 4 people not guzzling Efes on the boat. And Abdi's definition of more chill was definitely different from our's, because these engineering students were singing, dancing, and having a grand ole' time.

The Bosphorous is amazing, and from it you can truly see the beauty and the wealth of Istanbul. The Bosphorous is the busiest waterway in the world, and having been such an important place historically, it gave me a chill to be sailing down the border of Europe and Asia.

On Sunday I decided it was time to just start walking. I made it one block before sitting down for some delicious apple tea and menemen and starting on The Five People you Meet in Heaven. After breakfast, I walked across the Galata bridge and through the shipyards, then back up to the Galata tower for a breathtaking view of the entirety of Istanbul.

Before I got to the Galata tower I definitely went down the wrong street. On the one of the alleyways, I found this black van blocking the road, along with a guy in a suit and a headset. When I walked by, he searched me with a metal detector. Stupidly, I continued down the road, only to see another black van a block away. Wondering what the hell was up, I saw halfway in between the vans a small, slightly hidden synagogue. There were a few people dressed up, and it almost had the feeling of a funeral ceremony. I'm unsure if there was somebody important there, of if those were precautions that Jewish people always have to take here in Turkey. Regardless, it was definitely interesting.

After the walk, I got a few ideas, or rather a "to do" list, that should make for a very interesting experience in Istanbul. I'm going to follow up with those ideas this week and see if they're actually doable.

The Joker

As of yet, I believe the biggest misconception I had of Turkey, well moreso of Istanbul, is the amount of nightlife. I honestly expected to find maybe 4 - 5 bars, a few clubs, and that's it. Shit was I wrong.

There are over 1500 bars and clubs in Istanbul, and after this weekend, I'll argue that Istanbul parties harder than any city I've ever seen.

Trainees in Istanbul resemble a family. And in every family there are traditions. One of those traditions is the Joker, a hole in the wall, dive bar near Taksim.

We walked into the lobby of what seemed to be an apartment building. A little confused, we climbed a set of stairs, passed a few teenagers sick from too much alcohol, and started up an elevator. As we near the fifth floor, I can hear Eurohouse pumpin'. On the fifth floor, in what looks like someone's apartment, lies the Joker. This bar is disgusting. It literally looks like the 3rd floor of a frat house, plus a full bar. No matter how grimy and fraternity-like it is, this place is amazing.

The music is typical Eurohouse. The only beer is Efes, and you can buy it in .3, .5, and .7 sizes. They also sell entire bottles of mystery liquor, which basically tastes like red bull with green food dye. Above all, the best part is that this bar's neighbor is the local mosque. You can indeed sip your beer while sitting a few meters away from a giant mosque. I love the contradictions in Istanbul.

We went to the Joker Friday and Saturday. I was pretty tired Friday so I come home early. The Indian trainee had a bit too much Raki, so everyone else's nigth was spent taking care of her. Saturday night was a different story. Two of the Turkish AIESECers came with us and they found it imperative to chug every beer they bought. I was in no mood to let some Turkish AIESECers show an American how to drink beer, so I very calmly kept up with them until they were sick and I was still ordering another. Yeah, it's sad, but I felt damn proud.

My new name: Tarkan

Basak Emeklilik is a very young company. My IT department has nobody over age 30.

The first day of work kicked ass. My boss is former Turkish military, and his english is okay since he lived in Atlanta for a year. He's very social and encourages me to talk to every employee as much as possible. Getting paid to socialize kicks ass too. I also met with the vice president of the company, and we chatted for a good while about the European and American markets for the software that Basak developed while other insurance companies were going out of business. One of my projects could be developing a plan to sell the software to American companies.

My first day at work and I already have a new name and a chill out corner. Since my name is a little hard to pronounce, my neighbor Serkan started calling me Tarkan, which is also the name of a famous Turkish pop star. They say I work too hard and type too fast, haha. Near the water cooler is a corner near a window, and that's where the guys and I chill out and talk about nothing. It's our "lazy man's corner" as we termed it. I can tell there will be many 20 minute breaks where we spend more energy trying to avoid work than actually doing it.

More to come on work as the week progresses.

Drunken Delights

Remember that delicious slice of pizza you had at 4 am after tearing up the bars in NYC?

Why not mussles and lamb intestines? Welcome to drunken snacks in Istanbul.

After our welcome party at an Equadorian restaurant, we headed home only to stop for some drunk snacks. I couldn't believe where they had taken us. And it sure wasn't a joke. No pizza, no hot dogs, no 7 11 taquitos, nothing like that. Just mussels and a lamb intestine sandwich.

America may need to learn about being more sensitive to its neighbors, but Turkey could sure learn something about what to eat after a night on the town.

Allah Allah

Holy shit. Istanbul is nothing shy of remarkable.

I flew out Monday at 1:35 PM and started on Tuesdays with Morrie. Not going to lie, I didn't like it. Yes, I cried at the end, which was a little embarassing, but the effect that I believe it was going for, I had already encountered in "Chasing Daylight." If anyone has read it, please let me know how you felt about it, and maybe enlighten me on what I may have missed.

Landed in Chicago and bought DaVinci Code which I read all the way to Istanbul. What a ride! I didn't really like the ending but I'm now really interested to see what the movie is like.

Flying into Istanbul is a gift, a privilege. As we inched toward the coast, I saw a large mosque. 5 years ago I traveled to Istanbul for 2 days and visited the Haghia Sofia and the Sultanahmet. "Wow! I've been there!", I thought. Then my eyes panned out across the city and I counted more than 75 humongous masques before we hit the runway. In reality, I had no idea which mosque was which, and was utterly amazed by the beauty of Istanbul.

Muge, my hot @ Istanbul buddy, picked me up and we took a bus to Taksim, the center of Istanbul. We walked past the @ office and to the Bilgi university dorm. I was a little nervous about the place, but damn it's pretty nice. We are 16 trainees in one room (it's a huge room), with girls and guys from Germany, Colombia, India, Azerbaijan, Egypt, and more. It feels like an international conference almost!

Basak Emeklilik, the company I work for, recently got bought out by Grupoama, a French MNC. The final day of transition was Wednesday, so I started work on Thursday (today). Yesterday was very much needed, as I got a bus ticket with Kelsey, learned some Turkish, walked around a lot, and went to @ Istanbul's GMM. I'll say one thing: the LCP wears a suit. Mehmet kicks ass.

This morning, before work, I did an unbelievable thing. I woke up at 645 and went for a run across the Golden Horn, and nearnig the Sultanahmet. I remember when I was going to India, and I started my first journal entry with, "I can't believe the amount of times I've started a journal entry with 'I can't believe I'm..." in the last 2 years." Well, this morning topped it all.

Changes in your life will hit you like a freight train as you look up from a steady jog and see the most beautiful mosques, palaces, bridges, houses, imaginable. "Allah Allah, I can't believe I'm on a morning jog in Istanbul." Riley, we talk of AIESEC moments? You have to try this one.

Work is awesome so far. The team in the IT department is very small, so I feel like I actually can make a real impact. I'll start a project next week, but I'm already set with an English schedule for next week where I'm working with a different employee each day on their tasks/responsibilities.

Hope everyone is doing great, holler at me when you get a chance.