Working and learning Turkish

March 18, 2002 - Started to learn turkish and to work

First day at work and the first kick on learning this weird language. My day at work was completely free but I noticed that maybe my boss did it to see how I would work without pressure. I decided to work hard then and almost finished 1 week work only in 1 day.

I think I could do more if 2 nerd turks from our IT deppartment didn't want to install a fingerprint identificator in my machine. There are so many computers here at the office, why mine? Anyway, they expent a lot of time there, almost 2 hours, and always when I tried to check my fingerprint... nothing. I think this cold weather erased my fingerprints. After they left I decided to try more and more and finally I could register it. I hope everyday I can open my computer easily.

After work, I went to AIESEC office to find out where I can develop my photo film, where I can wash my clothes (in turkish house there isn't place to wash it, neither a place to hang it to dry), where I can buy some bateries to my digital camera, and so on... I met Onur there and he told me Claudia called him telling she bought a book to learn turkish and wanted to know if I was interested to join her and Katerine, the colombian trainee, to study. For me is great, I'm not going to expend a cent with classes or books because she already have one. We studied till 10pm when I decided to go home. Before go home be brave to walk in 2 degrees weather... but I'm alive.

Kisses people... today I'm so tired I think I'm not going to have more news tomorrow. I just want to sleep a bit after dinner in my very simple but confortable bed on the floor... at least it is very hot.

March 19, 2002 - I just wanted to sleep, but...

I just wanted to go home early and sleep but...
I left work and went home to change my clothes because it was very cold and I was frozen. I dressed 2 moleton pants, 2 t-shirts, a pullover and a jacket over... I was ready to fight against the cold outside.

I don't know if there is a work to express it in english but there isn't in Portuguse... it was not only cold... it was minus 2 degrees. My clothes were enough but my nose frozen. At least only for 20 minutes, when I was walking till AIESEC office.

From there we went to dinner at the same place but this time I decided to try something different... I went for Manti. I liked a lot and I'm thinking about to eat it more times, also because ot is cheaper than Yogurt'lu Kofte. I was starving and only this plate was not enough... I need to eat some bread at home.

At the restaurant Mehmet (one of the AIESEC'ers) destroied my weekend plans. This weekend there will be something for new member and they need some help again. Ok, no problems, next weekend I'm planing to go to Istanbul to 3 Ankara trainees and the next one maybe a brasilian party here. Mehmet also put my film to develop today. Soon I will have some pictures and I already found out that there is a scanner in my company. I just need to convince the guys, in turkish, to scan them to me.

After dinner we went to a pub to watch Galatasaray (the biggest turkish team) versus Barcelona. Before the game starts I said, just to play, that Barcelona would win for 1x0... guess what happened? Exactly, Barcelona did it for the same score I said!

Now, more than ever, I have to find a safe place to watch the game between Brasil and Turkey for the World Cup. BEcause of this match at the pub I went home to sleep only at 1am.

Kisses,
Alex

Ankara city tour and pic-nic

March 16, 2002 - Ankara’s adventure

Beginning from yesterday...
After work I went to Anadolu University to a AIESEC new member presentation. I didn’t understand anything they said at the entire presentation but at the end they asked me a help to talk about myself and my expectations. I talked about how is to be a changing agent but I think they have another idea about this traineeship. There was a guy translating to turkish what I was talking but I’m really sure they didn’t understand anything.

I met the colombian trainee. She is an English teacher here in Eskisehir but sadly she works on Saturdays and will not join us in our weekend trips.
After the presentation I went to Claudia’s house to do something because it was Friday! Eskisehir is a young town but it was too cold outside and I think everybody decided to stay at home. We walked a lot looking for something. We found a techno party in a place that seems to be the city point but we didn’t enter because it was a bit expensive. Finally we decided to come back home, but it was fun anyway.

Today: Wake-up was dificult... the bus leaves to Ankara at 9... we got it without problems and 3 hours later, we were there.

AIESEC Ankara is very nice... it is a house... yelow... at the corner. I checked my e-mails there and we left to a city tour guided by 2 AIESEC’ers I don’t remember the names. We went to Ataturk mausoleum - this man is the national hero because he made a lot of important things. From there to a huge mosque, very nice... I can’t describe. Then, we went to a book store because Claudia wanted to buy something to learn turkish and then, back to the office.

I really wanted a place to dance a bit, have som fun... but we decided to go to a cafe and we stayed there, just talking. After 40 minutes, 2 people came over, one of them Marcia, a brasilian trainee from Curitiba - Paraná. It was enough for us to make a party at the place because I had in my backpack some samba and forró CD’s.

Giving a “brasilian way” I convinced them to put the CDs to play. The rest of the night was only dancing and making them believe that we knew how to dance samba and forró. But I think they were a bit terrifyed because here they don’t dance so close to each other.

After this dancing night we went to an AIESEC’er house to sleep. There, I still had time to try to teach her and Claudia some forró and samba.

There are more adventures tomorrow.

March 17, 2002 - Picnic on the snow??

Second day of adventures in Ankara!
Wake-up early again... 9 am the bus leaves to pic-nic. We paid more than was agreed before, but it is ok... what metters is the party.

Getting there, 1 hour by bus, I saw a white stuff on the ground... I thought it was something like foam. To my surprise it was snow! I saw snow the first time in my life. The first thing I did when I left the bus was to run to this snow and make a snow ball  I took some pictures.

I was very curious to know how was a turkish pic-nic in a place with snow. Well, turk stuff, chicken legs barbecue with bread (of course). When the chicken legs got finished they appear with some snacks and cakes... saved the day!

Here they have some different games.. we played some... but as the time was passing cloder was getting. The temperature was around 5 degrees celcius maximum. Was very hard but I survived and around 5pm we came back to the bus.

From the pic-nic to the bus station... from there to Eskisehir (3 hours by bus). Arriving here at the city a surprise... 2 degrees!! Guys, you know, I’m from Rio... I can’t live with this temperature.

The only thing I did was go home and sleep.

Kisses and hugs to everybody.

Alex

First day working

March 14, 2002 - Went to Company

Hi everybody!
Today morning I went again to the University to help AIESEC at the presentations and after that, Aysa drove me till the company (Endel) to meet my boss (Mr. Burak) and everything else. The company I will work is far away from the city, inside of an industrial zone, but as there is a company bus, it is ok.


We talked for sometime and I asked him the friday off... as you know, I`m brasilian and friday is not a day to start working... and he accepted... he is a great person :) I liked him a lot at the first day :)
The big problem I will have here is about the language as nobody speaks english, only turkish... the only one who speaks is my boss but I need to get used to his turkish accent. When he speaks slowly it is easy. Besides that, I`m not going to have ICQ but probably MSN messenger... I still don't know, on monday I tell you all.

Now I'm here waiting for the time when the bus leaves to go to AIESEC office and from there, organize my trip to Istanbul where I might to be to my friends again.

That's all for now. Maybe tomorrow I send an e-mail from Istanbul, I don't know yet how it will be.

Kisses and hugs,

March 15, 2002 - First working day

Hi everybody!
As you all can see I didn't go to Istanbul because my friends are not going to be there this weekends, then I decided to come to work. I hope my boss liked it :)
A dam cold early morning.. I woke-up at 6:30 am and almost got frozen when I put my nose out of home. Yesterday I made my bed on the floor using the pads from the sofa. I will take a picture soon. Talking about pictures, I can't find the bateries to my camera here... I think I made a very bad buy... would be better if I had a discman here :)

Mr. Burak (my boss) showed me the process we are going to remodel and if I have some space and time I will do a lot of changes because the actual database works but very bad organized. This is for future.

I have a computer now and as there was a room empty, only with some boxes and old stuffs, I asked to use it. Now I have my own room, with telephone and everything :)

Talking about good things... yesterday I was very sad that my plans to go to Istanbul failed but the AIESEC guys discovered the trainees in Ankara were organizing a pic-nic on saturday and on sunday a small sightseeing at the city. I already bought the bus ticket.. I just don`t know if I`m going there alone or if Claudia (the german trainee) will join me. Sad that the colombian trainee can not join us because she works on saturday.

Some bad news... I can't use ICQ or MSN or Yahoo Messenger... as I see we will need to schedule a time to chat somewhere on the web. Another thing is that I didn't find out how to call to Brasil without pay here, but paying there. The people here only uses mobile and I will expend a lot of money calling them. I hope I can call mobiles from the office.

That's all for now.. I liked very much the job as I'm going to plan, map the process and develop a system to them.

Kisses and I miss you all!

Alex (my name here)

In Eskisehir

March 12, 2002 - Finally in Eskisehir!!

Still in Istanbul we almost lost the bus that was leaving from Besiktas to the Bus Station (Otogar), but everything went right. After some difficulties to understand what the people at the bus station and inside the bus were speaking, finally I got here at Eskisehir.

They have a lotion inside the bus that they offer to everybody to clean the hands and as I could noticed they get furious if you don’t acept it. After 6 hours by bus, in a better one then the one I came from Athens to Istanbul, I arrived in Eskisehir.


As I’ve been studing and asking to my friends, Eskisehir is a city with 700 thousands inhabitans where the most of them are university students. There are 2 huge universities here and a river that cross the city and people say it’s the city point. Let’s see.

I’m already stabilished in my new home. My roomates are cool but I didn`t have time to talk to them. I saw only a little bit from the city, just knew some streets around where I live.

I can’t stay for longer here because I already answered tons of mails and it will get expensive. Soon I will be working and can send these e-mails from the office... what will be easier.

March 13, 2002 - Exploring Eskisehir!!

Hello everybody! I`m already exploring the city!

I went to Anadolu University... that place is great... seems like the universities shown on movies. I almost asked how I could finish my graduation here. I helped AIESEC people in some class presentations and then I went together to my new friend Onur (you will read a lot about him in the future) to walk around. We played table tenis, where I lost, but was interesting to learn the numbers till 22.

After the university we went to the office where there was a meeting to new AIESEC member. Then, we went dinner... the food here is really spicy... I hope my stomach supports for a little more till I find something better.


There is a german trainee here, Claudia, and we went there to her house to a small party... what was really fun! I drank a red vodka from Finland and came back home a bit drunk... but it’s OK.. at least I remember everything 

Kisses and Hugs!

Long way to Turkey - 2nd part

9th March 2002 – Finally in Istambul...

Hi Guys...
After 22 hours by bus I’m in Istanbul. Just to start I didn’t have Turkish Lira (very smart) and I don’t know their language. It was a bit complicated to find a place where I could exchange my money and buy a telephone card.


I decided to ask a help inside of a store where there were some telephones but the person didn’t know any english. At the end we could understand each other and he helped me, exchanged some money to me and called my friend Hakan that came there to pick me up.
Right now I’m in his house. Already tasted turkish food. I liked but it is very spicy.

Still talking about my greek adventure, after right the last e-mail I went eat something and then decided to try to find the Olympic Complex. That place is great, huge! As I didn’t have permission to be there (but I didn’t know), I was forced to leave the place. This was funny because the guy didn’t speak any english and we had to ask some help from people that were there. After some translation, finally I understood that I was not welcome there. J

The bus trip was hard, I’m very tired. 22 hours inside of a very old and unconfortable bus, nobody deserves that, but that was my choice to come to Turkey… the cheapest one by the way. As I didn’t know how to buy things in greek durring the way and we only stopped in some very small places I didn’t even eat on the way. Anyway, I’m alive.

Tomorrow will be a long day. I need to meet Zeki, a turkish guy who wants to open a ConnAction (NGO I work in Brasil) here in Turkey and also meet a friend that teached me some turkish while I was still in Rio.

10th March 2002 – Yeah, I’m really in Turkey
I was in Hakan’s home but as it is far from everywhere I decided to call to Azade, the friend I talked before who lives close to Intanbul Downtonw in a place called Ortaköy. It doesn’t mean I didn’t like there, it was very nice place, but I would like to know the city and also meet her.

Almost night and she got there with a very nice guy, Kenan, that is engineer and her friend. We went to her house and from there to walk around, closed to Bosforo canal that is very closed to her home. After eat something we came back home because it was very cold… at least to me but to them it was a nice night to walk.

When we came back I showed her Guaraná and she got crazy. They never saw it before, even heard about it here. I met also another friend of her that was going to show me the city at the next day as she had to work. I was so tired that I slept at the couch as a small child.

Ahh.. Azade decided to give me a nickname “Samba Man”. She thinks I know how to dance samba… lets see

11th March 2002 – Unreal day

Guys, today was a very weird day. I woke-up and took a shower. The bathroom here is weird, there is a whole on the groud to do the stuffs. Then, decided to call Zeki. As he lived 1 year in Brasil he knows portuguese, what was great, we spoke english the entire day. Image the scene, my second day in Turkey, walking around to a turkish guy, only speaking portuguese. J We visited Besiktas, Üsküdar and Taksim where the AIESEC Istanbul office is.

After that I met Azade, we bought the bus ticket to Eskisehir (11 million turkish liras) and went back to her home as it was getting colder. All turkish are millionaires here! Everything is in millions. We came back together to another friend of her, a big guy that I don’t remember the name. At home, far from the cold weather, we saw some pictures from her and some stuff I brought from Brasil. She asked me to drink Guaraná again… I think that guaraná is really aphodisiac.

Next contact I will be in Eskisehir!
Kisses!

Long way to Turkey - 1st part

5th March 2002

Hi everybody... I'm sending this first e-mail to test if it works and to tell you that I'm leaving tomorrow (wednesday) morning. I'm departing deom International airport at 11:40. Arriving in Sao Paulo (SP) I will try to send another message. I will try to write from all airports and in Athens I may do it as I will expend 1 day there. My pictures I can only upload when I arrive in Eskisehir. Maybe if I'm lucky and one of my Istanbul friends have a good computer I do it from there.
That's all.
Kisses and hugs and wish the best to me (I'm ansious). Kendine iyi bak (take care) sonra görüþürüz (see you soon) hoþakal (bye)

6th March - Arrived in Sao Paulo

As I said, I would send news from everywhere I stopped. I'm in Guarulhos (SP) right now at the International airport. The flight was fine and fast, only 45 minutes. I'm a bit lost here whithout know what to do till the next flight. Imagine when I'm in Amsterdam :)
I found a place to stay in Istanbul, my friend Hakan told me I can sleep in his house... great! In Athens I still don't know what to do but I'm thinking about to leave the airport and go to a hostel, but I'm still deciding. I hope I can go to Achropolisand some other places. Well, I will have a lot of time to think about that till I get there.
Bye! See you in Amsterdan!

7th March - In Amsterdam

Well, I'm in Amsterdam... waiting my flight to Athens.

The flight till here was fine. Before the flight depart I started to speak in English (as I had to start to use it) to a lady seating by my side. After some minutes we realized that we both were brasilians :) I met also another brasilian girl at the flight as she was seating in front of us and heared portuguese being spoken. We talked the whole flight. Unfortunately both had to take another flight in Amstedam and I was alone again... and now in Europe, for the first time, by myself, speaking my very bad english.

I didn't like Amsterdam, specially because was 10 degrees in the Sun. As I was there I decided to take a boat tour to know the rivers... that was interesting...
Everything here is expensive... uau! I'm not going to dinner here and wait till Athens. I ate enought at the flight.
The airport here is amazing, then I'm waiting my flight here.
Let me go now because my Internet time is finishing. I send more news from Athens.

8th March - In Athens and the adventure started

I was in Amsterdam and came to Athens... nice flight... only 3 hours and I ate a lot. Arrived around 1am (local time). As I didn't eat in Amsterdam, I ate a lot at the flight. :)
As it was late I couldn't go to downtown to check the hostels and I decided to do what people were doing... relax and rest a bit at the airport seats. I didn't rest much because I couldn't sleep... I'm without sleep since I left Brasil, 4 days ago and I think I will only relax when I get in Eskisehir. From time to time I walked around asking where the bus station was... knowbody knew that there was a International bus station... I really started to get worried.

Around 5am I saw a group of forengners with a book about Athens... then I had an idea: or ask them or buy a similar book at the store. Of course I asked them to check the book and later I went to the store to get some more information, without buy anything :) Finally I found the bus station... or lets say... a bus stop. One good news is the bus ticket from airport to downtown I can use 24 hours in all public transportation... great... I'm using subway to go everywhere for free. I'm just a bit shy because I'm the only one not registering the ticket when getting into the subway station because it is already validated.

I already visited everything I planned... Achropolis, Pathernon, the National Museum, Athens Academy and some other places I don't remember the name. They are building the Olympic Stadium here but I don't know if I'm going there.

Well, here is 12:20 and I have to do samething till 7 pm, or earlier as I left my luggage in a pseudo-locker... I hope it is still there :) Talking about luggage, one of the cachaça bottles was broken when I got here. Now I have only 1.

Let me go guys because I'm here for a long time. See you all in Istanbul! 24 hours by bus till there!

Presentation

This blog is to post all messages I sent by e-mail to my famully and friends when I was in a traineeship in Turkey from march to october 2002. At that time there wasn't Blogs, then everyday I wrote an e-mail to tell to my friends what was going on.

I went there to work in as an IT analyst by AIESEC interchange and of course to travel around and there were many adventures you all will see at the next posts. I will try to keep the wording the same I used in my e-mails, always putting a date to reference that it was in the past, in 2002, 6 years ago.

This is an english version of the original Blog where I'm posting the original texts in portuguese (xandturquia.blogspot.com), then I'm sorry if something weird is writtenbecause my english is not perfect and some words are also hard to translate.

I hope you enjoy the trip at the next posts! See you in Turkey 2002!