where do i sign up?

Wow, this company sounds fantastic. I would've just thrown it up as a link on the right-hand side of my blog, but I wasn't even sure whether to put it under toolbox or toybox.

First, it is my eldest brother's birthday, so I suppose that should be at the top of the list. Happy BDay Bro Nick!! It was also my first niece's birthday a couple days ago, so Happy BDay Little Sophia!

As I think most people know, I just had a week-long visit to the states. It was fantastic! I made a one-night only appearance in Btown (Bloomington) and got to see some old and dear friends who were still around. The latter part of the week was a family-filled bonanza that was topped off with my little nephew's Christening on Saturday. It was the first time in I don't know how long that all of my (immediate) family was together. I managed to get a year-long work visa for Turkey in one day! I also took some time out to play at the beach and walk around Chicago (in the sweltering heat..on the first day of the the Taste, an giant annual music and food festival). And I came back with tons of clothes, and an mp3 player!

Last night, though still feeling a little cooky from the trip back to Turkey, I decided to suck it up and go to see this Ethiopian group that was performing as part of the International Cultural Festival in Bursa. The music was pretty fantastic. The group is called Minyeshu Chewata (or something like that, I think), and is comprised of members from the Netherlands, America, and Ethiopia. I also managed to meet some other Americans (from Maryland/D.C. I believe), who were just passing through town on their way to Istanbul.

I feel like I am leaving out so much that happened in the last week, but right now my thoughts seem to be anywhere but right here in blogland. Plus I suppose I should be getting some work done after my excursion.

I was born a travelin' (wo)man

Tonight I'll go to the Aiesec office to get the last of the paperwork I need for my work visa, as well as say goodbye. I'm planning on not staying there too long, because I have to pack this evening. Of course, I also still have a couple of things I want to pick up. C'mon, did you really think I was one of those freakish people who always do their Christmas shopping at the previous year's after-Christmas sales?!

My travel schedule thus far goes something like this:

Bus to Bursa bus terminal
Bus to Istanbul bus terminal
Bus to Istanbul airport
Plane to Amsterdam
Plane to Detroit
Plane to Chicago
El to Randolph St. Train Station
Train to East Chicago
Aunt Rob Taxi Service to CP
Collapse on the floor.

Final Countdown

I've been sitting here with that song in my head all day. It's very appropriate seeing that I'm leaving for home in less than one week!!!! whoa. On Friday we had a Colombian culture night at the Aiesec office, organized by Andres. It was really interesting, and got me thinking a lot about Bogota. And it just so happens Andres was telling me about some opportunities to teach English in Colombia...No! One place at a time..focus! We also had a little birthday cake in honor of Alexandra and Lee, two of the trainees who had birthdays last week.

On Saturday I woke up to go to work, and stepped out into what is surely the only typhoon to ever have happened in the mountains. It was ridiculous how much it was raining, and the wind! Jeepers. I had walked less than a minute when this car that was driving by stopped, rolled down the window, and said they were going to the metro station if I wanted to hop in. I wanted to kiss everyone at that moment, but all I could manage were a few Turkish "thank you's" and what not. I still walked from my metro stop to work, so I got there looking like I had just stepped out of a shower with all of my clothes on. After work, I braved the pazar, which is no small feat on a Saturday. Though I'm pretty sure there would have been a pazar even in a typoon, somehow the weather managed to go from typhoonous(is that a word?) to sunny and calm, so the people came out of the woodwork in the late afternoon.

Saturday night Berna, Lee, Murat, Murat's brother, and Minne went to a place called Cha Cha near our house. It was the first night that the place opened up the garden part, so there was all this confetti raining down on us, and of course there was live music. We (Berna, Minne, and I) kept saying that we had arranged everything in honor of Lee and Murat's birthday. Since when are there so many friggin birthdays in June, by the way? Sheesh.

On Sunday, Berna, Bensu and I went to a big department store place to look around. It's a really popular social activity here-to go to the malls/big stores like Carrefour, Özdilek, etc. on Sundays. After that, we drove to Mudanya, a town on the Marmara Sea, to eat some fish and meet up with Berna's brother and his girlfriend. It was the first time I had been to Mudanya. Though it was nice, I happen to like Tirilye more-it is a little smaller, without so many cafes and restaurants; but, there are less tourists, and less people in general, and you can find little vendors set up selling things like handmade jewelry, olives, wine, etc.

Fish Wrastlin'

Check out this little quip I came across on the Wired site today. I normally don't, err, read it, umm, it was by accident. Yeah. Okay, I'm a nerd. I give up.

Fist Full o' Fish
Who needs a rod and reel? Some fishermen hunt their prey by hand in a traditional practice known as "noodling." And what prey it is: The giant catfish the anglers pursue hit nearly 100 pounds, and they can do damage to the noodlers' hands. "I've always said if you ain't bleeding, you ain't hand fishing," Howard Ramsey told Fox News. Noodling -- in which fishermen wade into the water, stick their arms in underwater cavities, wait for a fish to bite them, then haul 'em in by the jaw or gill plate -- is legal in 11 states, but this year marks the first time since 1919 that Missouri will allow noodling. Show Me State noodlers can bag up to five catfish per day through July 15.
-- Lewis Wallace

"If you ain't bleeing, you ain't hand fishing." Yeah, that's right! And don't you forget it! Classic.

It's getting to the point where the heat (though I mostly blame the humidity) is starting to cause that tired, lazy feeling, or at least that's my story and I'm sticking to it. It comes at a most inopportune time seeing as how I'm trying to stay on top of everything before I go on my trip.

I just applied to take an online course today; a CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) course entitled "The Role of Business in Development" offered especially to Aiesecers by the World Bank Group. I believe CSR will play a major role in the future of Aiesec, and if done right, a healthy world for that matter. Not to mention that I think it will definitely contribute to my efforts of getting involved with NGO/humanitarian efforts in developing nations-I think I may have mentioned things like Microsoft's UP projects before, so yeah, things like that. And well, it's free, and who wouldn't want free education, right? Worst case scenario, I'll be a less ignorant person, so where's the downside?

I also finally up and applied to go the that You Can Congress in India. Now, I'm not 100% sure that I'm going to go even if I get accepted, but I wanted to give it a shot. We'll deal with the results when the come in, which isn't until sometime in July.

You may be wondering about those pictures I posted recently. Well, they were taken at the YES Congress a couple of weeks ago. No, your eyes doth not deceive you, we are on a beach. Hehe. I'm going to edit the posts to make them purdier, but I wanted to throw those up there so you could see. I have some others, which I may someday upload, but don't hold your breath because I don't think I'll get to it before July.

Group

Img_3282
Originally uploaded by lbrunett.

fdsa

Beach

2024_henrik_onat_laura
Originally uploaded by lbrunett.

Marmara Sea

On Saturday, despite having to work, I had an all around nice day. After work I was planning on going to the pazar to look for some cool gifts (I come home in two weeks!!), but while I was walking by Heykel I heard the sound of an electric guitar being tuned. My curiousity got the better of me, especially as I'm not one who enjoys shopping so much in the first place, and I walked around to the back of the Atatürk statue to see a little stage set up. Not only that, but I bumped in to some of the other trainees-Andres, Colombian, Olga & Marina, Russian, Danai, Greek, and some French guys, who aren't trainees. It turned out they were coming back from a picnic, and similarly, heard the festivities and stopped to check it out. Although the bands were mediocre at best, it was nice to spend some time outside with friends on a Saturday afternoon. Only in Turkey can you go to a concert and find vendors selling simit and tea, on the trays, in turkish tea glasses. Classic. I found out later that the little outdoor concert was put on by an NGO, and was some kind of awareness concert dealing with the environment.

I didn't stay the entire time because I wanted to at least walk around a little bit, I'm supposed to be gift shopping, remember? I ended up buying nothing after an hour or two, but I did get a good idea of the things I want to get. That's how I like to do it-survey the land, peruse, compare, then go back another day and get what you want. You gotta marinate on it for awhile.

I went to the aiesec office at 9pm to watch the Greece/Turkey match, but it was utterly disappointing. No excitement, no heart, no passion, no goals, albeit cool to watch the whole thing projected on a wall.

Sunday, Danai, Andres, and I had made plans to go to Tirilye/Zeytinbağı. It's kind of funny, because Danai was talking about going to Zeytinbağı, and I was like, "Okay, I've never been there before. I want to check it out." Actually, the place goes by two names(Tirilye is the Greek one from Ottoman times), and I had only known it by Tirilye. So when we were going there, I was like, "hey, I know this way. I'm pretty sure I've been here before!"

I'm not sure if I appeared extremely approachable and well-learned in Turkish that day, but on the metro I sat next to an older villager woman. She started spouting off something in Turkish and even after I told her I didn't understand, she just kept going! Blah Blah Blah, and laughing and giving me friendly nudges and little taps on the hand and stuff. Danai was thoroughly amused by the situation. Then, on the bus to Tirilye, I sat next to an old villager, and this guy started a conversation, which I of course didn't understand. He knew a little German, though, so we talked a little bit during the ride. He was very kind, and he showed me a picture of him standing next to his little turquoise VW bug. He was so proud of it. He learned German because his brother lives and works there, and has for about three years. After getting off the bus, and the villager pointing out his car parked up ahead, we set off. The three of us spent the whole day there just sitting next to the sea. We bought some bread and sucuk and made sandwiches that we ate on some large rocks on the shore. It still amazes me you can get whole homemade loaves of bread, hot out of the oven for 50 kuruş, which is like 35 cents! And I've seen them cheaper than that! After a short walk around the actual village, and a little ice cream pit stop, we got back on the return bus to Bursa.

It was really nice to get out of Bursa for a day, and especially to be by the sea. The place itself is just a village with cafes and restaurants. Not too touristy and bustling, which is great. We went back to Bursa, and I had made plans to go to a bbq. When I got there, Aiesec was finishing up its planning congress meeting, and shortly after, we began bbq-ing. mmmm. Everyone was sitting on the porch and chowing down, and the last of the chicken was on the electric grill. Then there was a little flame from the grease underneath; no big deal, in grilling these things happen. Then all of a sudden it got bigger and bigger, and was wayyy too big. All of the girls in the corner started freaking out, and the guy in charge of grilling just stopped everything he was doing, and was like, "Ladies! Calm down! sshhhhh! Let me think about it, and then I'll do something!" meanwhile the fire was ablaze in front of him. No worries, though, everything worked out just fine, but we were laughing afterward about the way the grill master handled the situation.

Too many to count

It's the nature of things, I think, to always be saying "hello" or "goodbye" to this or that person, especially when you are surrounded by foreigners, and furthermore Aiesecers. Last night we had a farewell dinner for two people, Zalan, a German trainee who will go back to Germany, and Beyhan, a Turk who will go to India for a traineeship. Beyhan will go to another country after India for another traineeship, but I think at the moment it's uncertain which one. He is planning to not come back to Turkey for the next three years or so, because as you may or may not know, all Turkish males have to serve in the military and he wants to hold off on serving for a little while. Also, next weekend I will go to Istanbul to visit my relatively new and dear friend Tuğba, who will leave for a position on the Australian national Aiesec (Australian MC). Though I'm happy for her opportunity, and I didn't get to see her too much, it is still difficult to know she will be so far away. Who knows, though, maybe I can visit her there sometime; Aiesec has a strange way of creating boundless opportunities. And lastly, Onur, not the one from the MMF project, but another Aiesecer will leave for Poland. He will be gone only for a few months to be involved in a project there and possibly a CEED.

On to happier things and enjoying the here and now, this weekend should be pretty awesome. Tonight a bunch of people will watch the Greece/Turkey World Cup qualifying match at the Aiesec office-we got a hold of a projector, so that should be pretty sweet! Then, if we're feeling in high spirits (ie if Turkey wins) or we need to drown our sorrows (Turkey loses), we'll head over to Zalan, Walid, and Ramazan's place for one last little bruhaha with Zalan. I suppose on Sunday I should do some work, but if the weather is nice during the day, I know that won't happen. In the evening I'm going to go over to Mert, Ibo, Berk, and Ufuk's for a bbq!! Woohoo! I'm thinking of it as a belated Memorial Day celebration.

I can't believe how fast this week has flown by. I've been keeping myself busy with Aiesec and UKLA, of course. Next week in UKLA I'm going to start giving seminars about the higher education system in the US-it goes along with us eventually wanting to provide University Placement Services. Now, even though I went through this system, I don't think I grasped just how complicated it can be. sheesh. And with Aiesec, well, matching reception matching reception matching reception. :) The good news is that by this time next week, we should have two more matches under our belt, and in light of my new, very official title of "Trainee Officer", I want to start really hammering out some new ideas to increase the quality of reception and trainee experience here.

But I'd have to say the best part of my whole week has been when I finally found a little pink slip waiting for me at the Aiesec office. I went to the post office yesterday morning to pick up my package, which I'm really proud myself for doing all on my own, and found not one, but three packages for me!! I immediately took them to the office and started ripping into them. My mom sent me magazines, a new book!, pictures of my niece and nephew (they're really great..I have the one of them sitting on their grandma's lap, with Joey looking like he's about to play the jembe on the cake in front of him, sitting on my desk at work), an adapter, chocolate, cookies, easy cheese, pb, but most importantly, soy milk and rice noodles! I so can't wait to cook up one mean stir fry with those babies! I already have it planned out, I'm going to do it right before I come home. I can't believe that's in two weeks!