Messin’ with Texas

Current Mood: Happy

Hey everyone, I have been very busy this week so I am just going to post a few pictures with some descriptions. Last weekend I went indoor climbing with Izzy, did some shopping, went out, played soccer and went outside the city to see some house that Tahsin’s family has. Tahsin is a friend that I met through Izzy. He studied at Syracuse so he’s been to one of my parties (don’t remember which one) in New York. Murat wanted to stay in the city Sunday evening so I stayed at Tahsin’s flat. After soccer, Tahsin and I played raquet ball at the health club he is a member of (it is so unbelievably nice). Afterwards we relaxed in the sauna watching TV (yeah the sauna has a tv in it!).

As for this weekend… well I will go to Izmir tomorrow, I will meet a friend of a friend on Saturday, play soccer again on Sunday. Probably do some shopping (a lot of big days coming up!). Saturday is a very very important soccer game between besiktas and fenerbache, so I will probably watch that with Izzy. Alright, for your viewing pleasure, here are some pictures.

Since Alper (left) is from the area where we live, he took us to a pide place (Turkish pizza). It was excellent, although the restaurant was suspiciously empty. I am not sure why Baris (right) is so happy in this picture.

Murat and I at the same place as in the above picture. The sign I am making with my hand (fist over the heart) is a symbol of respect. I am actually not sure if it is a real symbol or not. I just kind of started doing it one day not really aware of where I picked it up from. Anyway, Alper, Baris and I are doing it all the time now. It caught on very quickly and will probably die very quickly. It kind of reminds me of the way all the various birdisms (only cmu people will understand what that is) came and went.

I was too lazy to right this picture. I realized it was crooked after I uploaded it and couldn’t be bothered to change it. Anyway, this was a bottle of wine I ordered at a restaurant that was actually very good. Murat says it’s one of the better Turkish wines. In the store it costs 22ytl which is something like 15 USD.

My whiteboard! In the first week I insisted on having a whiteboard in the office so we could record stuff, and write our goals. My thought was that with your goals staring you in the face, you cannot forget or ignore them. Second, if you have a list of your goals and you cross them off as you go, there is a sense of accomplishment. As your list of tasks for the week decreases you get a feeling of satisfaction. Well of course Murat thought this was stupid, and all the other Turks were a bit confused, but it has actually been a huge help. Murat, Baris and I have all been using it and it has had its exact intended effect. I think all three of us have been working more effectively, and it has facilitated communication between the three of us. Furthermore, the guys upstairs were impressed as well.

Lastly, that’s my desk! Remember how empty it was in the earlier picture? Well now it’s full of crap. Papers, documents, equipment… It’s actually not too bad here because I tidied it up a bit. Murat is sitting at my desk because we were working on creating list prices together for all of our products. I actually just finished that today.

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