Do you remember?

Heyyyy Guys!!!!

Do you remember the nights we spent all together watching movies?
And what about this move? I guess everybody remembers it: a French Erasmus student at Barcelona... We spoke a lot about it...because at the end...we felt the same!
Well... I know that it must be because Portugal is very "South" but FINALLY the second part of the movie can be seen in Portuguese cinemas!!!! The name: "The Russian dolls" (literal English title) or if you prefer: "Les Poupées Russes".




Has anybody watched it already?
Well I will for sure... By the way... does anybody want to come?
;-)
Well I will tell you how it was!

***HUGS***
***LOVE***

Natercia

The End of an Era

Finally, after exactly one year and one month since I arrived Turkey to start my traineeship, and 8 years of career in University, I completed all my academic responsibilities yesterday when I did a presentation on my traineeship/thesis/report/paper/thing.

The reasons why I took so long to finish my degree and traineeship/thesis are not relevant for this post, but I can tell you that a mayor part of it is because of the travels I have made in this period, which, as you can imagine, I don't regret at all.

I have taken a huge burden out of my shoulders, that I have carried mostly for the last 4 months since I came back, and now I can resume my 'normal' life again. Now you will see me going online at msn messenger more often, or at all, I will write and reply emails, I will write more often in this blog (and change the layout as I proposed), etc.

I have many plans for my future now that I have ended my thesis and career. I actually spent most of the time in the last 4 months thinking about my future plans. For the moment, I want to do everything that I enjoyed or wanted to do before starting my college life and stopped or decreased doing because of the lack of time. I made a list. I want to read and write more often again, to learn french or even portuguese, to learn photography, to take piano lessons, to do swimming and yoga regularly, to travel more and to work in film production, among other things.

Don't get me wrong, I also have many plans for my career, since I also like very much what I studied, but it's not the only thing I want to do with my life, at least not for the moment.

To begin with my new plans, I already started working in a short film production. Two months ago I met a film student at a party, and he told me that he was going to make a short film soon. I told him that I was very interested in helping in anything he needed. Two weeks ago I got a call from him to tell me that he was going to start shooting this week. After a few meetings, now I will be doing the sound recording and helping with the editing and soundtrack of the film. We started filming on wednesday but, because of my presentation, I had to stop for a couple of days. I'm very exciting about this project for many reasons, mainly because it was something I was always curious about, and it came just when I needed it.

We will be shooting for the next week and half and then start the editing. I will post some pictures of the film production soon.

Well, that's it for now. My graduation act will be in one month by the way.

Şerefe!

New 603 and More

Okay guys, I must admit I have been lazy in following up on my commitments, more on my updates later, here you go with the pictures , I am lazy to write and upload everything, but I have done my best here.

One more piece of information I wanted to share with all of you is that 603 is now being colonised by Asians :

1. Japanese
2. Korean
3. Thailand
4. Indian
5. Indonesian to come

Hail the South, more south spirit and the fire is spreading...Muhahaha!!

Had an Indian presentation the other day at the AIESEC office, spoke about everything from yoga to Gods to women to movies to music blah blah! Was Fun!

Finally, a post from the nominee for the next "El Padrino"

To all the Bobbies, Bobs, and Bobsters of the world,

It has been a quite a while since I have last checked the infamous blog. I can not believe how much it has grown and how hot the fire remains. It is so great that the bond that was created within this group is still so strong that it has yet to bend or break even now that most have gone to their respective home countries and are scattered across the entire world. It was so heartwarming to read so many people's posts reminiscing about their personal 603 experience and life there after. I thought it was finally time for me to break the loop and share my story.

As some of you may know I loved Istanbul and 603 and of course the BF oh so much I decided to extend my stay six months longer than originally intended. Or maybe it is because I miss college life so much that I am attempting to extend it by living the ''in-between,'' life of a college student in the dorms with a job-like thing that requires no commitment. Who knows, the point is that I am back doing what we all so much enjoyed doing, living in the moment, creating bonds with people from around the world, and hanging out withAakash :-) I never thought for a moment that I would ever end up staying so long that I would be running against the only trainee left that has any recollection of Denis Lokantasi and the Fucking Hill in the gypsy neighborhood of Kasimpasha for the position of El Padrino, but here I am. I'm just too cool for this world :-)

A sum of my life since the shift from the original 603:

Bodrum at its best.

+

CEEDing it up with the AIESECers

+

The Captain acting as Moses leading us through the sand and dividing the ocean in search of Bangli's lost belt at our partial reunion in Portugal.

+

Home to the land of 10,000 lakes to hang with the fam and knock some sense into myself.

+

Back to Istanbul to follow my heart, with a sweet traineeship at Saatchi to boot.

=

Keeping the 603 Spirit alive.

Missing all of you so much! I honestly can not say how great it was to get to know each of you. 603 is just not the same without you. Let's make sure to meet again in the near future.

"Till the End,"
Nikki

Delayed Reunion Photos

First off for those who read Tsveti's wonderful posting, I'd like to correct her on her comment about being the "only CEEDer", I too was a "CEEDer" at AIESEC Istanbul between the months of January and March 2005. ; ) haha...

Just wanted to post a few nice photos of the reunion following the beach party at Aveiro. So here they are, I think I'll put more up on some sort of album or my webspace or something. On that note Aakash please let me know the username and password stuff for posting on the 603 album on Flickr.

By the river in Porto.


Two Southerners from Portugal. The Dutch Guy and I in Amsterdam

Holding Freddie (not included in the photo: giggling like the mad sitting next to a concerned Dutch Guy at the park)

At the train station at Porto before I left for Lisbon (we left the mark of 603 just before boarding!)

Hoping for many more reunions in the near future (the Captain has some interesting ideas on a large-scale reunion), as for the revolution:

I already took the plane.

Istanbul 603 till Now...!

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The Fire is Spreading !!

The Sun, The War's God

Winds of Change

!The War Already Began!

Most of you didn?t see this natural event, Solar Eclipse. I think was only viewable in the north of the peninsula, in the south of the Arabic peninsula and in the east of Africa.

This is my personal photo of it.

Cris!

As the revolution has come, some proposals for this blog

1. Change the description (the one at the top that says: "65 million people live in turkey...") for something that makes more sense now. It can be something like: "keep the spirit alive", "keep the spirit alive wherever you are", "603 is a state of mind". It could also be like a random quoter that shows any of the frequently used quotes we have compiled, a different one each time you visit the blog (although I have to see if that is technically possible).

2. Change a little the layout and include the 603 plate picture we thought about when we created this blog. I hope you still have those pictures Cris!.

3. I thought I had more proposals but I think that's it for now.

What do you think?

Route 603

Not giving up on the account that Caracas has very few bus routes identified by numbers, and after looking around for sometime, I, much to my surprise, finally found the 603 bus stop to follow the captain's call.

After waiting for a little too long, and thinking that I usually don't have that kind of luck, I realized that I was not in a bus stop, but just standing next to a road route sign. 'Well, at least I'm on the right track', I thought, dismissing the fact that I just made a fool of myself.

I started hitchhiking then. Oddly lucky I, got soon a lift from what appeared to be a car with a good sign, or at least a good license plate, the BKM 603 license plate, from Norh Dakota. I dind't ask about what a North Dakota car was doing in Caracas, as it seemed perfectly normal in this series of events.

Talking with the driver that picked me up, and telling my story, he, at some point, very wisely pointed out to me that I can't go to Turkey by car, or even by bus. 'There is huge ocean that takes us apart', he said. Well, that was a little discouraging, but I wouldn't let that detail get in my way of joining my fellow 603ers' war. I told the driver to leave me in the nearest international seaport, and so he did.

Looking for the 603 ship to cross the ocean proved to be a little more difficult. People didn't want to help me as they thought I was insane. After looking for a big 603 in any of the ships for a couple of hours, I gived up. It seems that there are even less numbered ships than buses in this country.

While I was going back, defeated as that time I was kicked out of Bulgaria, I notice a little boat that didn't have anything exceptional to notice about, except of the fact that it was named 'BAS'. 'This is it, this is actually my lucky day!', I thought. Any boat that is named after me has to take me wherever I want, right? Even if that boat would hardly go from Tophane to Eminonu, much less cross an ocean. Well, as this is my story, yes, I was right.

And so, this is the tale of how I joined the IF2F603 in it's quest to help the 603 and now I'm on my way.

I already took the boat.

Fight the power and keep the spirit!

International Front To Free 603

The IF2F603 deliberated in general assembly:

1- All International Members in exile have to come back to the base in Istanbul (yeah even you Greg)
2- All the activities in order to free our nation is allowed the use of force and sometimes violence.
3- The first mission of the IF2F603 will be: arrest the ?manager?.
4- Bring the cleaning team to our movement bribing them with çkerdek
5- Then demand an elevator until the 6th floor.
6- Then be sure that the ?manager? doesn?t eat.
7- Then only accept 603 back, not other room(s) or other dorm(s).
8- Is better the street then other(s) room(s) or dormitory(s).
9- If any of this ways of war doesn?t work the solution will be sadly: fire the dormitory then detonate it. (Aakash be sure that you steal the 603 plate before)

Your ?Captain? in the exile:

Cris!

I already took the bus

How would the 603 have reacted

Building on the post of how people from different cultures reacted, I was thinking how the 603 would have reacted, here are some thoughts and feel free to add...

The Captain would have said ' Lets burn the hostel'
Bas would have said 'Man, but why do we have to move' and then slept off or would have made a plan to go for beer or concert
Greg would have counted how this is the million th time he has had to move, bitch about the dorm administration, the @ers ofcourse and then would start packing his bags :)
Iva would be puffing up and down the place with anger on her nose making it visible to one and all that how it sucks!
Ash would have given a hour long analysis on the entire scenario, used some historical or political events to describe our situation and projected future scenarios etc, etc etc !!

Just a few who came to mind, use your imagination and suggest what others would have done...Natercia, Dutch Guy, Nikki, Moncia, Hinnnnnndddiiiii, Sindyyyyyyyyyyyyy and others!

The Unanimous winner gets to be the '603 person of the month'

Comment Alerts!

Yo Guys,

If you want to follow the comments on the blog posts closely, please leave your email ID's as a comment below this post and ill add you to comment notification so that you can stay upto date with what is happening.

Cheers!

In Desperation!

In order to communicate our view on the Dorm situation, the trainees are sending a letter to the management, check out the contents below and feel happy that you have a place to stay in that you know will be yours :P
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To Whom It May Concern,

We are writing in regards to the accommodation situation at the Bilgi University dorms. As you know, there is currently a shortage of available rooms and as a result the AIESEC trainees were recently moved into a new building across from the main dorm. At this time, it appears to be uncertain whether or not the trainees will be permitted to stay in the Bilgi facilities at all.

We sincerely hope that you will allow us to remain in our current living situation. To begin with, Tophane?s central location is ideal. Many of us face a lengthy commute to work every day and would have to commute even further, perhaps even several hours each way, should we be forced to move to a less centrally-located accommodation. More importantly, it is essential that we remain in close proximity to the AIESEC office, which is located in Beyoglu. We are in Istanbul without any major support systems and so we rely very much on AIESEC to support us.

In the unfortunate event of us being forced to move to Baltanimani, which is an all-girls dorm, there is a likelihood that the male and female trainees would no longer be together. A big part of the AIESEC experience is based on living with and learning from each other. We are also support systems for each other as we are going through similar experiences. We are content with our current situation ? men and women sharing one room ? and would very much prefer to stay together as we are than be forced to live in different locations.

The trainees have been living in Bilgi for several months now and have forged meaningful and long lasting relationships with the students and management of the dorm. We strongly believe that the principles AIESEC stands for ? tolerance, open-mindedness and cultural understanding ? go hand in hand with the principles of Bilgi University.

We know that you are in a difficult situation and that you are trying your best to satisfy everyone?s needs. We appreciate the fact that you have always been a friend to AIESEC and that you have been working so hard to help us find a solution in this situation. We hope that you will allow us to remain in our current accommodation and further demonstrate Bilgi university?s commitment towards fostering Internationalism and continue your positive relationship with AIESEC.

Thank you for your time and for your continued help!

Sincerely,
AIESEC Istanbul Trainees

Juliana Zanetti Bessa
Aditya Singh
Judit Dunai
Nizar Kanakane
Nicolae Sasaran
Virginia Zhelyazkova
Osman Soğancı
Sana Msahel
Aakash Sethi
Sina Schuck
Helen İyidilli
Eugene Doris
Muhammed Amine
Akiyo Seino
Alexandra Smith

Judgement Day!

People in all parts of the world, tomorrow,Wednesday, 28th September is:

Why?
The dorm administration meets to discuss among other things the future of AIESEC trainees, if trainees stay or trainees go to the girls dorm in Bebek (so you see I am not complaining) none the less, keep your fingers crossed and pray !

Hanging on.... !

How cool you are :)

HEY GUYYYSSS!!!!
Probably u thought im lost somewhere cause i didnt write such a long time...Well, actually, I even didnt know about this blog until Aakash told me about it a week ago (i guess he was just checking if im cool enough to not forget Istanbul to give it to me ;) Well, u can imagine how happy i was then to read the posts, get to know how all of u r, see some pics, check some blogs out... Actually, if i have to be honest, it made me so sad, cause i really still miss Istanbul SO MUCH! maybe its strange cause i was there just 2 months and , come on, i didnt spend that much time in the dorms ;) but still...I actually really think it was one of the best times in my life...And im so happy that i didnt come in summer...cause all the people were telling me " oh, u cant imagine how beautiful it is etc..."...which is true i guess....but i totally have the feeling that this place is a LOTTTT cooler with not all too many trainees, the atmosphere of a family we used to have was like really the best ever, it was so amazing..and also i wasnt just the Ceeder Nr... but i actually had the chance to be the only ceeder at a time and thus get to know the real atmosphere...Come on, i was unique (as u know from me always saying how cool i am u know im anything but modest...hahhhahah)...
The reunion u had guys must have been amazing, oh MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!11
its hard imaging the dorms without all but greg...I guess it would have been weird if i would have come in october for a visit (which i was trying to...)...I would really so much like to come in december, also to visit some friends i get to know here (cause now im totally an Istanbul fan, Viva Istanbul forever...)
And last but not least....I would like to greet all of u...
Mam Natercia, rocking her internship and being hard- working, oh, girl, how can u manage?!??
Our sweet Costa Rica girl, u are a real globe trotter, im envious....
Nikki, i loveeee uuu, i hope u will be in Istanbul in December, write me!
Serious Iva ;) I hope Ankara didnt kill ur enthusiasm but u r really cool, u can manage so much!
Greg, i have to say i was so happy u found a job in Poland, i was worried if u can manage at all to leave Istanbul, cause it was so deep into u, but as i can see, u r happy :)
Aakash, come on, come to visit me man and continue being our news men from The Dorms ;)
Ash, Christiano, send me pics from Portugal, im so proud of u that u managed to make the reunion
Basilio, ur posts r so funny....
Maarten, how is good old Maastricht doin??!?!?
Well, guys, i just wanted to say i didnt at all forget u. And i do hope that u have put my poster in the whatever room, cause otherwise ill get so angry ;)
Ciao cucciole, te voglio benne, stay cool and never forget the Spirit of 603
Cok öptüm
TSVETI (bulgarian, italian, german, turkish: or simply: cool ;))

Moving!

After almost 4 months in 101 aka 603, as some of you know the time has come for us to move on. It seems that the dorm administration is hell bent on throwing us out, from the 6th floor to the 1st floor, now from the 1st floor to the room next to the security guards. There are 16 beds in that room, 8 will be for girls and 8 for guys, its perhaps going to be the worst quality of life (even worse than kasim pasha i think) but the positive side is that one enclosure has natural light and a glass roof, so we will always have natural light unlike the kasim pasa dorms. There was chaos at 2 am on a thursday night when we got to know this was going to happen. The useless administration informs us and says you have to move rooms in one day, ie is move to that god forsaken room on Friday, was interesting to observe the cultural differences in the way people reacted, here are some realtime examples:

The Tunisian made a banner saying 'We will stay here, We wont leave' or something to that effect
The American first charged the turks of being assholes, threaten to leave, and then acted as the representative of the trainees to talk to the administation to solve the dispute
The Brazilian was on 'Vacation'
The British was not bothered with what was going on because he is leaving in 3 days
The Romanians were spreading the news around about what was happening
The Two indians were gossiping about everyone else and having a good laugh and then slept, thinking we will think about this tomorrow!

Anyways, to sum up, there are challenging times ahead with 16 people in a room, but on the positive side, that is going to bring everyone together, bring back the spirit that has been recently lacking.

45 more days in Istanbul, the countdown has begun!

a little love from the Rich Coast

www.monicastravels.com

The benefit of being the venezuelan guy (and not the dutch guy)

I didn't became aware of this particular benefit of being venezuelan until I left the country, and now that I see this list and put everything into perspective it seems completly ridiculous.

I'm not proud of this at all, but if you come to visit me in Venezuela sometime, you know what to buy for present to your family (specially you Maarten).

This list pretty much explains itself

reunions and nostalgia

Wow, I haven´t checked this blog for a few weeks and I'm very impressed. Iva´s post especially rings so true. This past week I had two reunions of my own, one with Pat and his gf Martina and also with some friends I hadn´t seen for two years since we had our exchange in Mexico. When they left, I was left with a feeling of homesickness that I hadn´t felt since I´d gotten here. But the homesickness wasn´t just for "home" but it contained all the nostalgic feelings of you guys and Istanbul. And when Iva said it doesn´t happen often, that is so true. It´s true for me here in Costa Rica and I think the magic and also hard times of a city like Istanbul really pulls everyone together.

I feel optimistic though because already in the past few months I have seen some ppl I never would have thought I would meet again. Nuinuy came to San Jose a while ago, the Pat and Martina, and then my American friends. And the European reunion is soooooooo cool, lovin those pics, thanks Ash.

That´s a super cool pic Bas, and kudos to you and Cristiano for always keeping it spunky and entertaining, will try to take or find a pic that matches your talent.

I can´t believe I only have 3 months left in Costa Rica, this is really passing so quickly. I guess sooner or later I´d have to find a stable job in Canada and grow some roots, for a while.

I´m happy to see yall tanned and smiling:)

Write about it

I was going to title this post 'What about the 603 reunion?' but I don't want to kill that phrase from overdose.

I really would like to hear more stories and see more photos from the reunion. I want to know what things were stolen and how did you keep the 603 spirit alive. It would be great if everybody involved writes something.

And now, to contribute myself and not just ask for other people to contribute, here you have a picture I took yesterday on my way to university. I will try from now on to carry my camera with me as much as I can to document a little of this city and to capture the 'magical realism' that is present on the small details of everyday life in Caracas. I would like to call this project the 'Trigger Happy Project', in honor of that great show Cristiano introduced me (and because the idea is to shoot a picture first and then ask yourself if it was worth it). I wanted to do this, and had done it sporadically, since a long time ago, but now I thought it would be interesting to share it with you in this blog, taking back a little of the original idea behind the 603 philosophy. I will appreciate very much if other people did the same and became part of the 'project'. It would be interesting to see a piece of everybody's life thru photography.

So, here it is, my first piece. I titled it: 'Moving comfort'