Time for anecdotes

I'll probably forgot about these things, so I better write them down. I will try to describe things that made the trip so enjoyable in company of new friends which I deeply respect and care about. If any of you are not ok with me talking about a particular subject, please let me know and I'll remove it immediately.

I will write it in no particular order

Anecdote with Viv
This was one of those times when you innocently say something without knowing what comes next, we were eating and talking about many topics with people from IZTEKGEB in the cafeteria, Viv was sitting next to me and we were talking about the weather, the university, and some other usual topics; all of a sudden we were talking about relationship status which caught me off guard and I said "well I'm divorced" and immediately Viv looked at one of the girls from IZTEKGEB and said "ohh wouldn't you like a good Mexican like Antonio" (at the same time she touched my knee with her knee as a sign of complicity) and I almost cracked up, not just due the fact that I have a girlfriend, but also because that girl has a boyfriend, it was really embarrassing and funny at the same time. I know she did it with the best intention in mind. It was simply wonderful... I laughed so much afterwards.

Anecdote with Subra
Subra is always making me laugh, he has a keen eye to spot funny things, the other day we were watching a delayed match between the Denver Broncos and San Diego Chargers, and he started to talk about John Gruden (a former NFL coach): "If he hasn't any positive to say, better shut up" he said, it kinda remind me those days back in Mexico when Sundays become a big event to watch NFL and we curse and sware. Ok so, we were watching the game and Vijay came in, you may say that Vijay is Subra's nemesis, detail man vs big picture man (Before continue with the story I should say that Vijay doesn't know a thing about American football, and has a hearing problem, so, sometimes it's difficult for him to understand what we are trying to tell him, but he is a good sport). Anyway, after a few minutes the score was 20 to 0, Chargers wining and suddenly Vijay throws the question: "which team is your team?"
Subra: Denver
Vijay: Which one is that?
Subra: The ones in white.
Vijay: Why do you support a team that's losing by such a big difference?...
Blog writer thoughts: hahaha here they go again...
Subra: Because we are loyal fans (sorry I forgot the term used by Subra to describe hardcore fans)
Vijay: I don't see the point of this, they are losing...
Blog writer thoughts: sometimes Subra forgets that he eventually will tell Vijay that's too complicated to explain in detail and he will tell me to write it down for him.
Subra: Because we are not like those fans that only support their team when they are winning and forget about them when they lo.... (by now Subra realizes that Vijay is not understanding and...)
Subra: Oh forget it, please write it down so he can understand
Blog writer thoughts: haha no matter how many times I see it, it's so much fun every time :)


Anecdote with Zoran
Zoran and Subra are just terrific, they are like those kids you met at school that are always joking around to make the trip enjoyable, as a mental note I would like to say that I like the sound he does to say yes, I mean is not exactly as the Americans, like a yeah! it's more like a "yeh". Anyway, So we were watching Monday football (American football) and Zoran doesn't know the rules, so some of us were trying to explain him how they play the game. After some comments he started to say things like: Why he didn't catch the ball?, it's should be easy. Why do they stop at every play?, I'm trying to understand why they don't kick the the bloody ball..., after a few minutes of the same comments he told us bluntly: I will give them some comments to make the game more interesting mate, yeh!. Everybody start laughing.

Anecdote with Vijay
Vijay, Vijay... what I can say about my friend, he likes to get things done just the way he likes them. So the other day he asked me if I wanted to go outside to eat lunch and I say yes, but I knew he was in one of those days when he is really picky and I told him "If I don't get fish I'm not going" and he said "yes let's look for something cheap"... I didn't realize the meaning of this phrase until later on. I tried to tell him to go to the sea side but he disagreed (they don't have anything cheap there) and we went behind the Swiss hotel, he was very kind to ask for fish in some restaurants but we couldn't find any place who also served salad and chicken for him; at some point I kept repeating myself: "I want fish, If we don't go to a restaurant that serves fish I will not eat" (silly me) after expending almost 20 min looking for a restaurant that served salad, chicken and fish all at the same place, I got tired and I told him that we could eat some chicken Durum. So, as usual we didn't do what I wanted but I spend a good time in company of a good man and I'm convincing myself that the next time I will get what I want... but guess what... the last time we went out for lunch we got a spicy chicken durum and I got sick and he didn't (I got bambooed ehe Vijay?) hahaha.

Anecdote with Sara
She is probably the only American I know that likes Mexican food as much as I do, so she recommends me a lot of places to go and try delicious food. The other day she told some of us to go and try a French restaurant and I was reluctant because it didn't sound very appealing to eat French food in Turkey, but she is a nice person and has good taste, so I thought it will be worth while to try it. We ordered the main course and it was fabulous, and then dessert, literally heaven. After a few days she suggested to go back and eat again at the same place. Even when I was completely full, we asked for dessert to share, when it arrived she told me: "don't go and pull on weight now ok?" (bless her) the dessert was so good that my face told everyone that I was enjoying it deeply :D Thanks Sara.

Anecdote with Rosana

At the dinner hosted by Dr. Guden we were talking about drinks and she asked me if I liked Raki (a local alcoholic beverage, quite strong) I told her that I would drink it to show respect to Dr. Guden because it's a local beverage and I wanted to show as much appreciation as possible, even if Raki is to hard to drink for me, she told me that she will not drink it because she doesn't like anise flavor, so I thought that it would be a good idea to drink raki, mainly because I thougth Dr. Guden would ask for Raki to make a toast for sure. After a while Dr. Guden only had water and when someone asked him if he liked Raki, he said: no I don't like it, haha but anyway it's better try to show respect and fail than not show it at all.

Anecdote with Kazufumi

Kazufumi-san and I, are always trying to be very polite to each other, but sometimes it would have been better if we didn't understand at all, and I tell you why, when we were at Cesme beach he told me about a game where you lay on sand and after counting from 1 to 3 you have to get up and run as fast as you can to reach the finish line which is located a few meters away. The first time, he beat me so easily that I felt like an old man with a big belly trying to move fast, you know if you would have the opportunity to see me, it would have been like being recorded with slow motion camera, the second time Bharat joined us and he fell over the sand (It actually draw the attention from people so they could not see me swallowing the sand thrown by Kazufumi's feet, man he's fast). At the the third time I finally was able to tie at the first place and I felt like a real athlete, the bad thing is that even when I could feel my belly bounce up and down, I didn't realize there were two beautiful girls watching us playing like kids... (Tragame tierra, en English is something like earth swallow me)... so maybe by now you know why is better to not understand somethings.

Anecdote with Bharat

I have not been able to spend much time with some of our colleges, mainly because we are busy or in different teams, and that's the case with Bharat but when we spend time together it's always good. With Bharat I learned about eyes massage, it's a very ancient way to relax the eyes and it's practiced by many cultures, you see if done properly can be done for hours. Anyway, it's always fun to watch Bharat, Vijay and I walking by the sea side for sight seeing, I guess that sometimes Bharat finds it difficult to understand my English because of my accent, sometimes it is also difficult for me to understand him and for the both of us it's difficult to understand Vijay and the same for Vijay when he tries to understand what we are saying, so I think of the 3 of us as very old men, saying something like this:
Old man: I want to go to the old bazar,
The other two men : "say what?, do you want to go and change your pants?."

Anecdote with Sanjay

For some reason Sanjay has an incredible good eye for photography and he got a snap of me while teaching dancing lessons to Vijay, you can imagine my predicament, I will do whatever he wants as long as he do not publish those photos (one of them gives you the impression that Vijay is grabbing something that he shouldn't haha) I'm just kidding he can share the photos anytime... and if you see them, you'll understand why I'm joking about it.

Anecdote with Bich ha
Bich Ha kindly told me about her plans to go to the "other side" in Izmir (they called it literally the other side), so I asked her if I could join her and she said yes. But I could not know that she is a shopping master, she can find the best discounts everywhere, but for me, as a man, shopping is not that interesting, so I told her that I'll go and buy shoes and a large suit case. It took me 30 min to get both things and I was worried that Bich ha would have been waiting for me by then, but guess what she was in the same store I left her and trying every dress they had haha. After that we had spent about 3 hours shopping...  Serina joined us, you can imagined how it ended, man I will not have excuses for my girlfriend if she reads this post...

Anecdote with Tsubasa

Tsubasa and and Kazufumi are Japanese and they are very respectful. Sometimes you can get the impression they are very similar but they are not (I mean in terms of what they like). One thing they do have in common is listening very carefully to counterattack and I'll explain you why. This time we were talking outside the hotel as usual, in the balcony and usually we tease each other for fun, and this time was no exception, after a while Tsubasa arrived and Zoran look at him with a smile in his face (like the smile kids have on their face when they are up to something). So, Zoran asked Tsubasa the following: hey Tsubasa where it's Kazufumi?
Tsubasa replied: why do you ask me about him?
I think that Zoran didn't expected such fulminant answer and was left speechless, at the instant Subra and I couldn't help but laugh. (Conclusion: never underestimate the ways of the samurai heirs...)

Anecdote with Iliana
The other day we were enjoying a good chat with the team and Iliana mentioned the name of her "worst it's nothing" a phrase we use in Mexico to talk about boyfriends, and the meaning of surnames from different cultures could mean something unexpected for foreigners and that trying to explain might be a little difficult, specially after one month assignment hearing many different last names,  I  anyway, Iliana continued talking about the meaning of funny names and I  told Iliana that sometimes it may not be a good idea to ask for the meaning of a name in public, because you can find people like my father which last name is Cerda, which in English literally means "Female pig" and you can imagine what I have to do every time people ask me: what its the meaning of his last name haha :D

Anecdote with Frank
I have to mention Bich Ha every time I talk about Frank, I mean, it's like a small size mother who cares about her boy, or should I say: A mother who does not let her son get his way; it is like some kind of instinct; Frank says something and Bich ha turns her head looking at him (like saying: what are you talking about?) no matter how far they are from each other. Maybe that's why Frank from the the very start of the project established very clearly that he was the leader of sub team 3. Like Napoleon she may be small but she can conquer the world in a blink of an eye, specially the shopping world as Frank and I discovered a few days later.

Anecdote with Serina.
Serina likes to stay fit, but we are having so much things to eat that is really difficult to do so, the other day our team brought some wine and she was under medication, it was really bad because you could see on his face that she really wanted to have a drink, and a few days later we found out that our host would take us to a vineyard. When she knew about it, she immediately stop taking her medicines to taste those wines. The day of the wine test I had the impression, just by looking at her face that she really enjoyed, medicines what the hell bring more wine! :D

Not CSC, but Italy

CSC project is over but now I'm in holiday and I woul like to tell you about it. I am at Rome and I think there is no easy way to describe it is amazing; there is art and history everywhere. If I go to one place I say wow if I go to a different side still wow, no wonder why they call it the ethernal city, I've been walkink for 2 days and the wow factor continues. And, guess what I hit my head again and my right foot is killing me (damn new shoes) I'll upload photos later on (I will not upload them to facebook)

One week left

For this blog post I'll divide it into 3 separate parts,  the first one to talk about work, the second one what I have learned so far  and at last our group activities for fun.

Work:

In case you were wondering what do you need to work in a foreign country with 14 people from different countries, different ways to approach work, different ways to live and so many different interests?... well my answer would be Patience, empathy and communication (and no, I'm not talking about marriage). Sometimes it's frustrating when things don't go the way you are expecting them to be, when the message you are intending to deliver is not understood or people react in different ways others than you are used to. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that this type of collaboration is a huge challenge and an opportunity as well.
For the last couple of weeks we have interviewed people, measured satisfaction levels, assess potential, also tried to figure it out the best way to provide good recommendations for our client, discuss about alternatives to approach work, about meetings, and so many other things like looking at each other like this ¬_¬   :)

What I have learned. 
If things don't go the way you like, take a deep breath and try to get it done as you want it, if not possible talk about it (Good thing is if talking is not enough, you can always move your arms, hands and body to say I don't understand but the Chai is so good, can I have one more please?). I learned to say thanks often, in might seem nonsense but a small word makes a huge difference; the opinion of each individual is different and their point of view should be listened carefully and respected, but sometimes you need to take the lead in order to others follow and do what you want if that option will benefit the group.
In addition you need to gain the trust and respect of a group before actually being part of the group.
I also have learned so many things about Turkey, but that is reserved for another blog post.

Group activities for fun

One of the activities that is really fun to watch (at least for me) is asking for food, it's amazing, it's like trying to make reverse engineering on food.
Waitress:  Merhaba,
Me:  Merhaba, do you speak English? 
Waitress: Üzgünüm, yemek ister misin? 
Me: I'm not Turkish, I don't speak Turkish sorry
Waitress: İngilizce konuşan bir yabancının, Tanrım!. Sonra bir Avustralyalı olanlar, bir Japon, bir Meksikalı sonra artık bir Amerikan ve. Ne bir gün.
Me:  I just want to see the menu please (Making as many hand gestures I'm capable of, like that would be any difference)
Waitress: Points with her finger the salads and food available. 
Me:  What is that green and red thing over there?  
Waitress:  meat (at this point she realizes she can make fun of me)
Me: (showing the nicest smile my face is capable of)... do you serve it with with rice? (reverse engineering starts, and still trying to get her understand English...)
Waitress: Yes
Me: (ohhh she understands! I think to myself, I'm about to discover how silly I am) ohh does it have peanuts? 
Waitress: Yes
Me: wonderful, is that red thing strawberries?
Waitress: Yes
Me: do you have it to take away?
Waitress: yes
Me: What else do you serve on it?
Waitress: Yes (trying not to to laugh)
Me: You don't understand a word of what I'm saying right?
Waitress: Yes
Me: You are just making fun out of me right?
Waitress: Yes, 10 Turkish lira please.  
Me: hahaha

So as you can see things that may appear to be a simple task, can turn out to be a very difficult task  in other country =D

Other activity we had as a group was a dinner with IYTE and IZTEKGEB director,  Dr. Guden, he is a very smart person with a great vision to transform the university and its technopark into a smart city.  We eat and laugh about many things specially fortune telling using coffee, Dr. Guden told us that every mom in Turkey knows how to read the fortune using coffee which was very funny specially because I thought it was some kind of secret only a few know about.  Mental note:  There was a cake on flames which was really amazing, I'm wondering if it survived the trip to the table with it was supposed to go.

Before the dinner we had another dinner with Dr. Emrah and his team, it was a beautiful place they are really nice people, and are always willing to have a good conversation.

And before that dinner we had our CSC community service day, which consisted of helping kids realize the importance of continue studying and hard work, I must say that I was really inspired and honored to be part of such event, is not that we were some kind of peace corp or anything like it, but we were doing something for other people good and that is really inspiring, everyone participated and for me was a experience that will change my life for ever.

What else, umm... ahh Ephesus, what a terrific place, just imagine to be on the same place were one of the 7 wonders was built, surrounded by history. The library and the theaters were incredible, they were really smart people, I mean it's like a modern city from the past, bathrooms that recycled water,  tunnels, libraries, theaters, a port, they even had a way to indicate where young women with a broken heart could be located and the level of detail for the constructions simple amazing. 

As usual here are some photos and a video hope you enjoy. 

 
 

CSC is challenging and our first weekend

Ok so long time without adding a single entry, now I have to keep it going.  We have been very busy at work during the week and we are trying to figure it out the best way to help our clients. I have to say that my colleagues at work are making the whole process a terrific experience, we are teasing everyone about many things, you wouldn't believe it. Viv is giving me a hard time specially, but it's really good fun and everyone is good sport so no hard feelings. Vijay has officially been named our camera man and I'm surprised how many pictures he can take in a single day.  Anyway, going back to the topic at hand I would like to tell you that our project is really really challenging, I mean, bringing so many people with this variety of skills is not an easy task and putting them together to find a solution that would be beneficial for an entire region is amazing.  We will have to overcome many difficulties to do so, but at the end I think we will succeed.
We had a great weekend and we shared many things, we laugh and talked about ourselfs, there are so many things to share, 24 hours per day is not enough. We went to Cesme beach, it reminds me of Cancun somehow. We swam (some of us just tried not to drown) we played some beach games Bharat suggested (by the way seeing Bharat falling over the beach sand was priceless) he is a nice person always telling very interesting stories. After swiming we didn't know there were showers and we returned to the hotel covered with sea salt; I have to tell you that two of my team mates Zoran and Subra are  good men and hilarious, they are always making fun of many things, they make me laugh so hard. Sanjay has explained me many things I didn't know about IBM, he has opened my eyes, sort of speak, in terms of what I can do to continue growing. Sara is great fun, she likes Mexican food which I think is amazing; arriba arriba, andale andale she said and I couldn't help but laugh haha. Frank and Bich Ha are a dynamic duo, Frank says something and Bich Ha  says just the opposite, they are really good people and make feel at ease when they are around. Rosana and Iliana are adventurers, I can not believe they went all the way to Cappadocia, that requires some guts, and they did it, they are lots of fun too. Oh Kazufumi-san showed me some taido moves, he is a great man he is always laughing and willing to talk, he is very respectful and I admire him for that.  My room neighbor Tsubasa-san won the race we had at the beach, he is incredible fast, he is married and loves his wife, I always wanted to learn more about Japan's culture and he is briefing me, for which I'm very grateful. Serina is briefing me on Indian culture, she is very polite and considerate when I don't understand something she clarifies.
All of them are fantastic, I appreciate and respect them all.  I'm learning so many things out of them that I just want to say thanks in everyway I can.

And now my thoughts are now focusing on my beloved ones, I would like to thank my parents for their amazing and continuous support during so many years for encouraging me to do things others do not even dare so I could achieve my goals, to my brothers who believe in me, to my girlfriend for being honest and be the voice that reminds me to follow my dreams whatever it takes.

Time to sleep, here are some photos

Meeting the customer

Day 4

Today was a productive day, we met the customer and presented our workplans, they have high expectations and are willing to help us in every way they can. I'm afraid communication will be a lot more difficult than what I expected to be, so we have to make sure there are no misunderstandings and define the scope. We are On the forming stage and it will be very interesting when we get to the storming stage with so Many people with such many different ideas.

We didn't have lunch because the Meeting was held at 1 but we had an early dinner: Turkish pizza.

Second day working

I'm happy we had this Meeting with the client they have the vision and we have to enable them to achive it, everyone had questions because we are trying to achive something the client can use and it's valuable. They took us On a trip to Urla a very nice town. We ate traditional Turkish food and it was fantastic


Then we head back for the university to continue working

Izmir arrival

Day 4

It was a very busy day, early in the morning we have a team briefing by Seda and Sirri, they were very nice and explained somethings about DOT and our hosts, we had such a lovely time, after the briefing we had lunch and headed to the airport. I'm still amazed by the beauty of this great country.

 The picture above was taken on a street near our hotel in Izmir. You can see the beauty of the

 We are now on location and we are going to stay here one moth I hope is a productive one,  so I'll start everyday with an early run by the sea (except on Sundays), to be fresh and prepared for each day.