You know you're an Istanbul trainee when...

I recently posted on my blog "You know you're in Costa Rica when..) and thought it would be cool to do the same for this blog so here it is my 5 cents to start the list....

You know you're an Istanbul trainee when....

You are so broke that you do the following to save a lira:

1. cook for 2 hours every night
2. walk considerable distances and fucking hills instead of hopping in a taxi or bus
3. consider playing guitar on Istiklal to collect donations
4. consume as much Efes and Freddy as possible before heading out on the town and only agreeing to go to clubs that don't charge cover
5. pretend to be an Istanbul trainee so that you can sleep in the dorms

End of the world

Quite hilarious, check it out

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/end.php

Cheers!

Girls nites comment

I cant make comments specifically to a certain blog, but I had to share my comment, so doing it this way:
Bobby if u r so annoyed with all the girl's nites talk,emails etc. why r u polluting the blog with it too?? Look what it turned into! (Although it was really nice to see a pic from one of the good ones, netercia!)

About Girls' Night...

I think those nights are very funny...

Girls decide to go out all together and don't accept that any male friend goes out with them...or at least that is what they say! Well, then you have several types of "girls' nights"...

1st type(and the most acceptable): it happens when there are many girls in a place or when they are not often together... they don't have time to really know each other so they decide to go out and have a nice conversation around a beer or some beers in order to know each others better.... They just want to have time together... Now the reader might be thinking: <> NO! Absolutly not! Cause when boys are around we can't really speak the same way we would speak with 20 guys around and there would be many groups...so it would be impossible to really meet each other...

2nd type: there are not that many nor as devided as in the first type... They actually know each others well... They don't NEED time for each other but they just want to do something "different" and if it can call the attention of male friends...well it is even better. Actually some girls even do this on purpose to call the attention of some guys... and deep in their heart they hope the guys will try to find in which bar they are... and so on and so on.... The funniest thing is that guys don't usually do that! They don't care at all... thay have a beer all together or just stay at home watching a nice movie!

In his type you can often find one or two "breakers"..those girls are usually a little bit less stupid and don't go to those parties cause they know they wouln't have fun and would have to speaking about nothing but GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!

3rd type: this one is really...HOT, let's say! And it is really better for the guys not to go...they would dicover their female friends as they would never imagine! No! it doesn't include any homosexual things!!!! Girls go out together and they dress really sexy... they go to a nice bar first and then they go to a disco...full of people and with crazy music so that they can show their hability do dance! The objectives of those paries are not at all to know the other girls... NOT AT ALL...cause they already know each others pretty well...they just go out to meet new guys... and you might imagine the end of the night!

Obviously...there is ONE similarity in all those type: girls ALWAYS apeak about guys...in some types more in others less...but guys are always in the summary of the meeting!!!

That is not new: everybody knows it!!!! And those who don't admit it are just too young or little liers!!!!! hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!

Finally, as Aakash said we had one it was nice...Here is a photo...

Take care!

Natercia

Girls Nights!

There is this very 'gay' discussion going around about these girls nights, the same ones they used to have when you guys were around...I just replied to it...posted below find my reply to the email discussion about 'Girls nights'

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Hi all chicks!
Sorry but I couldnt resist commenting the following after reading your reactions and discussions

How can you have good cocktails...without the cocks around !!

Think about that for a moment...enjoy none the less, these moments are rare!

And I will have a good friday night dont worry...tell you why...cause I have fred with me, and when I have fred, I dont need anyone else !! (Ask your girls at the party what it means)

Cheers N Britney Spears...your cocky Indian Turk!
Aakash

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You can look at istanbul trainees for more details

Chagall

Chagall is the name of a 20th century russian painter and also the title of the short film that is keeping me very busy lately. Wednesday we will finish shooting and then start post-production.

The film is basically about Martin, a fashion photographer that is going blind and falls in love with Lucia, a girl who is also interested in photography and is a very good cook. There is an intense relationship between them with a lot of photography, food, sex, and some betrayal and reconciliation involved.

Yesterday we worked for more than 12 hours and I took some pictures at the beginning of the day in one of the sets. Here are some pictures of the opening scene where Martin, the protagonist, is working in a photo session.

The director of photography doing some tests with the actors.

It almost looks like I'm posing to show my turkish t-shirt but it's all a coincidence. I talked about my time in Turkey a lot that day too, but that's not a coincidence since I do that almost everyday.

The set in the middle of the shooting.

HEYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Well... the "annoying" portuguese (according to Aakash!) is back! YES! I finally found my password and plus I discovered how to upload images! Ahhhh! How "COOL" I am!

As you might have understood, the lack of password has been one of he reasons why I have been away from this blog... (Bobbies! Don't laught at me!)


In fact, I have been working hard the last months... and something tells me that it is just the beginning! I did an internship this summer and my boss asked me to stay and work with them for a while...
I accepted this opportubity cause I love the job I am doing and people are nice! So the question you might be asking is: "Which job are you doing?". Well "my" company is working with renewable energy and I am doing mostly the institutional communication but I take care of almost everything related to external communication. Here is a photo of my office!

Obviously I am still studying! I am waiting for my equivalencies from my Erasmus Programm at Biligi University... And if everything is ok I will finish my Bachelor in December/January and my License in July!!! Hope it will be my last year cause I am a little bit fed up with school!
But this year seems to be more interesting than all the others eventhought it is harder!

After my graduation... I don't want to think about any plan because I prefer listenning to my South Spirit... Anyway I know that planning is not the best once that after all it never comes out the way I want!

I think that's it for the update of my life! Now... What about the other Bobbies? Iva? Tsveti? Saad? El Padriño? Monica? Sara? I hope each one will make an update of their life sometime!

Hugs everyone!
Take care
Natercia

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
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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