A Li Ba Ba


The boy is holding a balloon of Turish flag. Took in Kulturpark (culture park), Bursa. Because of high degree hybrid, every Turkish kid is so cute. Black hair parents may have blond child. On the street you can see blond, mid-eastern type, Indian type, mediterranean type.., but they are all Turkish. p.s. The first Miss World is Miss Turkey!

Gwen's news update:
1. Overcame the Uludag summit (2543m) by foot on August 9th, even left some words in the notebook on the top of the mountain. After the snow covering in winter, Uludag mountain, as the most famous skiing spot, is full of all size of rocks. No trees.It's so hard to climb this steep mountain, moving vertical 1200m in 20 minutes. I met my first ice hailstorm(ice rain) in the mountains and still walked slow bravely! well, because I cannot move faster.

2. Visited Southeaster Anatolia (Gaziantep, Urfa castles, Harran(the first University in the world), Nemrut Mountain(2150m) summit sunrise, and Ataturk Dam) last weekend(Aug 15~17), 16-hour bus trip to reach there. Bring back 180 photos. Also met a Istanbul trainee from Beijing University. We even have common friends! How amazing@ But, when others are curious about the Madarin we are talking about and asked are we come from the same country, She said YES before I say No! I have to explain to these Europeans after. Anyway, the trip is simply great. I will publish them after the pchome newsletter system repairing from Wednesday to Sunday.

3.Start my bally dance course this week. And I learn some dance basic movements from the crazy AIESECers....

4.No big news, 5 weeks left. A bit tired, but never visit Istanbul yet, which take at least 3 days to visit. And I didn't buy my favorite Turkish carpet yet!

5. I know one of the newsletter subscribers is going to Slovakia!! Congradulations! and good luck to your VISA!

some advice for your Preparation package:

a. simple Taiwanese History. They will ask what's the difference between HK and Taiwan, between Taiwan and Thailand, between Japan and Taiwan, between China and Taiwan. Learn some important year in heart so that it's easier to explain them why Taiwan is not China.

b. bring some Chinese and Taiwanese music, because you cannot describe how different it is! And they will ask you how is the dance!

c. Taiwan Map. Memorize simple numbers about the size of Taiwan and the population. Photos and postcards help.

useful website about Taiwan info in English
http://www.lonelyplanet.com
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

d. Don't rely on technical things and internet too much, just like me. Not many countries are technically like Taiwan.

e. Friends contacts. You will always want to ask them to send you package and want to speak in Chinese after some time! Only at this moment, you know what is really important to you! Food or music, maybe books...


I know there are also some former trainees, current trainees and SN managers in the list. Please reply and give more advice from your experience to this trainee in Slovakia-to-be! Thanks a zillion!
And other friends, please feel free to reply and attend the discussion.

p.s. So, Do you remember the story "ALiBaBa & 40 robbers"? It's one of the stories in "1001 nights", which was happening in Turkey. I always thought "Alibaba" is a cool name, but what does it mean? "Baba" in Turkish means Father, same pronunciation with Chinese one. And "Alibaba" just means "Father Ali", isn't it interesting!!!

Time: May 16th, 2003
Place: Effesus, in front of the Celsus Library.
topic: Visited Effesus, with Turksih Students and other trainees. Locals pay 2 million (50NTD) while foreigners pay 15 million (375NTD)
Effesus is the incredible Greek ancient city 6th BC. I will introduce this tour in the next issue.



Time: Anytime
Place: Any place
topic:The tea is the most important and common drink in Turkey, with special glass.



Time: May 16~18
Place: Kusadasi, inside the hotel, it's all same in the planery room, who cares...
topic: The crowded AIESEC dance time...



Time: May 18th, 2003
Place: Pine Bay Hotel
topic: photo with the trainees, LCP and VP reception team of LC Bursa before the "Gala dinner", which lasted 5 hours, starts at 10:00pm, ended at 3 am. There were long Turkish speech and awards.....LC Bursa again wins the best LC.



Time:May 26th
photo: One of the trainees' welcome and farewell dinner. How many trainees inside the photos?
9, from Finland, Mexico, Japan, France, Spain, Columbiax2, Germany, and Taiwan

Bursa city view. Bursa was called "Yesil Bursa", which means Green Bursa. But now, as one of the industrial cities, and so many people moving in, Bursa is not that green any more. Yet, you can still visit so many tombs of Sultan of Ottoman Empire since Bursa was the first city of the Ottoman Empire and, in a real sense, the birthplace of modern Turkish culture.

there are thousands of roses here everywhere. Amazing, I never see so many roses around me at the same time in Taiwan. But people here, they get used to it.

Gwen's updated news
I know it is so extremely hot now in Taiwan. But here in Bursa, it's hot also, 40C something, but quite okey for drier air.

Finally, I can attach some photos to my newsletter! If it does suceed, thank you, Fanfan.
Something unlucky happened to me again this week after I lost my laptop. I lost 400 million cash (about 10,000 NTD) inside my room, all my salary and some of my money I left after the "Cappadocia tour". I felt miserable and cannot join the "blue Aegean tour " this weekend.
That's why I want to discribe my accommodation to you as I already moved for 5 times, and stayed in 8 different places in these three months. I am sorry it will be more like a complaint than an introduction. But, I don't know how to make my own experience to positive sharing.

Gwen

My moving history

photo: a kicken of a general Turksih family. On the table prepared the typical Turksih breakfast. For Turkish people, they are usually very hospitable. Inviting Friends sleeping at your home is very common, so, all the sofa in every family can spread to be a bed!

My moving history:
April 10th~April 13th, Ozlem's grandparents' flat
Ozlem is the coordinator of the reception team.

April 14th~May 10th, Miss Hanife's flat.
Hanife is a manager of the TN company. She is a 40 year-old, single, charming woman, with a female cat. It's very kind of her let me sleep on her sofa bed for free. But after all, she is used to be alone, and I decide not to bother her any more after three weeks. Also, her home is 8 metro stations far from the city center, I always got lost walking from metro station to her home.

May10th~May 19th, Noriko's room
Noriko is a Japanese trainee in Bursa. My best shopping pal.

May 20th~May 31st, Ozlem's flat
e. June 1st~July 31st share a flat with two Turkish girls. here is the flat where my money was missing. rent: 95million+ bills

Aug 1st~share a room with a new-graduated Englsih teacher, and live in a five girls+landlady flat, just like a girls dorm. rent: 50million+ bills. Washing machine provided.
The story:

Sine June, I paid 95 million (2375NTD) for my rent to share a flat with two Turkish girls, Tulin and Gulay, who are both Univeristy strudents from Uludag University, and don't speak Enlish much. I felt quite okey when I visited the flat for the first time. The two girls are slim and clean, and they promise they only smoke in the living room. There is a balcony in my room(how nice!). And we will share the bills and food.

After I moved in, I found out there were another woman, Sukran sleeping in the living room every night. (Gulay said Sukran is very poor and cannot afford the rent, so they let her to stay.) And then, I found out everyone entered in my room to the balcony to dry there clothes. It's still okey with me, until my money was stolen inside my room. We set up rules that I share the food money with them, but if I want to cook my own food, I will pay by myself. Reasonable, right? Then, I found out I don't have any food to eat in the morning for three days a week. But, wWhen I bought some eggs, or cheese, they eat them all, before I can eat them. But still, I like my two lovely flatmates.

My two flatmates went back to theri home city in June, and then Sukran brought her daughter living with us. And after one week, another stranger woman joined them, so that there are three people sleeping in the living room, and I sleep in my room. They came back home at 2 a.m. in the morning, and still turned on the TV very loudly, smoking everywhere in the rest of the flat.
In the morning, when I left home to work, I have to be very quiet, because they are still sleeping in the living room. They are very dirty, never wash dishes and all the pipes in the kitchen and bathroom are stucked.

How come I didn't do anything? or try to communicate with them? Language barrier! We are not able to communicate. When I asked, who is that strange woman, and they said, she is our friend. What can you say?
Some of the trainees in Bursa

Photo: some of the trainees in Bursa
sit: from left to right
Gorsia(Poland), Kristina(Germany), Hakki(Finland)
stand:
Gwen(Taiwan), Harold(France), Theodore(Greece), Zoe(Mexico), Katrin(Germany), Zuzka(Czech Republic)


I didn't check my money everyday, and didn't try to hide all the salary in secret place but just put them under a box, because it's so tiring to hide everything in your own room, and I believe these girls. I believe they would just pass my room to the balcony, and shouldn't move my stuff. But, two days after I checked my money, 400 million cash, I found out the money disapear. My two flatmates were not in Bursa, and the women sleeping in the living room said they didn't know anything. I couldn't suspect any of them, and always try to check any possible place. I don't think I can get the money back, and just accept the loss now. I think I learned an expensive lesson.

Now, I live with 4 girls and the landlady, 2 of them are University students and just show up during exams. The landlady is a traditional Eastern Turkish old lady. I shared a room with another Turkish girl, who had met problems with her ex-flatmate. I think we will get along very well, since language is no more a problem, and we all cherish a quiet environment.

Before I came to Turkey, I only asked AIESEC Bursa provide me the accommodation choice with only girls. I thought this is quite simple, though, I still cannot imagine things turned out to be so complicated. Maybe this is just the unconvenientce of renting a room and living outside. Now I cherish my room in Taipei too much, and I want to say apologize to my Mom, "Mom, I am so sorry keep my room so messy all the time. Now I know it's hard to have a room, and I will cherish it more."