the obligatory posting from a new country - Turkey

Hello dear readers,

Yes, I have turned up in Turkey on a last-minute visit to an AIESEC Turkey national conference! Since I seem to be posting once for each country visited so far on my journey, I thought I should blog.

I am in the MC office in Istanbul. As advertised, it is a beautiful, large office, complete with a sitting room and television, shower, kitchen and even a dishwasher! You can imagine how jealous I am considering I'm still living in an apartment sans-fridge.

The conference was great and I felt very warmly welcomed. The main purpose of my visit is to promote the mentorship partnership we're building between AIESEC in Serbia & Montenegro and AIESEC Turkey. I met with most of Turkey's 11 LCs, facilitated a discussion about the international MC experience (even had a short video interview - I'll try to get the file) and co-delivered a session about which I received very positive feedback, which is always welcome but particularly so in the middle of a term where I seem to receive negative feedback all too often, a lot of which I think (hope) is due to the culture - not just Serbian culture, but also the culture in AIESEC in Serbia and Montenegro, which I hope our team will help to change for the better - and not strictly a reflection of my performance. This aspect of the culture has been very trying for me, particularly because (as those of you who know me know) I tend to take criticism to heart. On the bright side, it is a learning and personal development experience for me :)

Istanbul is a beautiful city and I hope to see more of it tomorrow before I return to Belgrade (on a 24 hour train ride!). I spent most of today chilling out first at the MC flat and then at the office. Then some of the MC guys took me out for dinner at Turkey's answer to McDonald's, and then to a shisha (sp?) bar :) (memories of NPM 2004 came flooding back - miss you guys!)

OK time to head back to the flat and bed!