Turkey: Where East Meets West

So, I'm heading home tomorrow and I have yet to tell about my past week spent in Turkey. When we arrived in Prague Sunday morning, Ana and I literally had 24 hours before we needed to leave for Istanbul. We went to the apartment and slept, and all of us kind of just relaxed. This was the last time I'd see Ekta and Tete, so we were planning to go out on Sunday night, for one last hoorah, but we didn't even make it for a drink! Ana and I had some rearranging to do luggage wise, whereas Tete and Ekta had a few days to pack. We ended up going to sleep relatively early and on Monday morning, Ana and I woke up around 8 AM to head to the airport. Now, remember how I always have the most outrageous things happen to me when I'm travelling? This is certainly a first.

Ana and I woke up at 8 AM, showered, packed, and were ready to go by 8:30 AM. Our flight left at 11:35 AM, so we were giving ourselves plenty of time to reach the airport. We were saying our finals goodbyes to Tete and Ekta, wishing them the best and telling them that we'd see them soon. As we were saying our goodbyes, Ana begins to leave the apartment and opens the door. Well, the only problem was that the door was locked. Yes, that's right, the door was locked. Now, I'm saying goodbye to Tete, and I hear Ana say from the other room, "Oh My God! The door is locked!" This moment seems to last forever in my head, because I knew right away, we were really screwed.

I 100% knew that there was no way to unlock the door without the key. Now, here's why we didn't have a key. Somewhere in Krakow and Berlin, Ana, and her hoards of clothes, souvenirs, and personal items, seems to have misplaced the key to the apartment. Well how did we get in the apartment you ask? Simply by calling the two people that lived there, Chuey and Elvira (an Argentinian and a Russian). The only problem was, even though Tete, Ekta and Ana have cell phones, only Tete and Ana had credit. After calling the people to let us into the apartment, Tete ran out of credit and only had her Portuguese phone to use. So, anyway, we're locked in the apartment.

I totally blame Ekta for this situation because not only was this her THIRD time being locked in somewhere (AIESEC office, Jenny's house in Roztoky, and now this apartment), her bad luck seemed to have come back to haunt us at the worst of possible times. Ana and I had a flight to catch! In three hours! So we thought, what could we do? Chuey and Elvira were at work, because it was a Monday morning. Someone says that they told one of them not to lock the door on their way out, but I'm not sure they got the message. Either way, I could see how they would naturally lock it because most houses, when you lock the front door, don't lock the people inside. I had a few thoughts jump through my mind, like throwing my suitcase out the window and scuffling down the side of the building like Spiderman, but I knew that Ana wouldn't be able to do follow. Tete's phone was with no credit, Ekta's phone was with no credit, but Ana! Ana had one last phone call to make. So she called Chuey.

It was a desperate attempt to cry for help, but he picked up and we tried our best to explain the situation. Poor Chuey, he was always letting us in when we didn't have a key, but this time he couldn't help. He said he was going to call a few people, because someone was supposed to be dropping off an extra key sometime during the day. Luckily, Ana can receive calls without using credit, so when he called back, he just said that he couldn't get a hold of anyone and we would just have to wait. Great…

By this time, I was just completely frustrated and angry. I was doing nothing to help the situation, because I had no phone and no internet and nothing else, so I laid down in bed and just fell back asleep. I took about an hour nap and woke up to Ana telling everyone that she got a hold of one of the other Brazilian interns and he was doing his best to call everyone and try and get us out of the apartment. Eventually at 10:30 AM (2 hours later) we received word that Lessya was coming to drop the keys off. At this point, we were really confused because Lessya was supposed to be back in Kazakhstan, but we figured it was a different Lessya.

Turns out, around 11:00 AM, Lessya shows up at the front door, and in comes our favorite group leader from Kazakhstan! In all the excitement, Ana and I barely had any time to say hello to Lessya or goodbye to Ekta and Tete and we were out the door within 2 minutes. The fresh air couldn't have seemed more refreshing. I knew we were definitely going to miss our flight, and we arrived at the airport around 11:45 AM. Knowing that we are broke college students (I guess college grad for me), the airlines charged us a €50 rebooking fee and our flight left at 18:30. Great. Not only did we have to wait 6 hours at the airport, but we had to pay $60 to change our flight, just because someone locked us in, we had no keys out, and Ekta was with us.

We eventually caught our next flight, arrived in Turkey around 10 PM and began our next journey in a whole other world.

The Elite 8

So Friday was another day full of training. We started off the day with a session on how to plan sessions/programs. This will come in handy when we begin to prepare the activities for the camp this week. After this, we ate at a Chinese restaurant for lunch. Coming from America and having studied in China, I know the difference between authentic Chinese food and fast-food take out. Jolin, from China, has never been outside China, so she doesn't really know what "Chinese food" is to the rest of the world. I'll never forget the look on her face when we went to this restaurant. It first started when we sat down, and there were no chopsticks on the table. In the rest of the world, a lot of people can't use chopsticks, but explaining this was easy, because Jolin understands other cultures are different than hers. Then when we were choosing our food, she was all content to order some fried rice. When she went to order her meal, she was a little shocked to find that you have to order your rice separately from your entree. And if that wasn't enough, the final straw was when she spoke in Chinese to the waitress and the waitress did not understand. After this, Jolin was so upset she couldn't contain it, "What kind of Chinese restaurant is this place!?" I couldn't help but laugh. It was a pretty crappy restaurant, even by American-Chinese standards. No fortune cookie or anything.

After lunch we had a session by Prague College. This was "Working with Students Part II." It was by the worst workshop we've had all week. We couldn't really figure out what the point of it was, but in the end we got some good advice about dealing with Czech students, so it wasn't a complete waste of time. We then moved on to our final session, "Team Dynamics" with Vieroslava (Vieros) for short. By this time we were so exhausted with training and sessions we were practically delusional. We've heard enough about the importance of teamwork, the importance of being a leader, blah blah blah, the only thing we wanted to do was enjoy a beer or go to bed. But, we stuck it out through the end and made the best of our session.

We ended up coming home for an hour before we headed out for another weekend on the town. Friday night was a "Welcome to Prague" party for Pierre, the French intern who arrived earlier in the week to work for Accenture. By the time we got to the other flat (not Ana and Jolin's) there were about 15 other interns. New Zealand, Croatia, Colombia, Argentina, Romania, Mexico, Russia, Tunisia, India, Sweden, France, Czech Republic, and a few other countries were all represented at the AIESEC party. This is exactly why I joined. We enjoyed a few drinks, brought from all around the world, and proceeded to go out for the night. The morning train home was quite a journey, highlighted by a late night/early morning stop to KFC.

We slept in, for the first time in ages, and woke up to Jenny making some delicious Czech food. Aysegul's boyfriend's brother lives in Prague, so she left in the afternoon to meet up with him. I updated my blog, added pictures, etc. and took a nice nap. I woke up just in time to get ready to go out for the night. We ate a quick dinner and took the last train into Prague. This time we went straight out and didn't stop at any apartments beforehand. I really enjoy going out in Prague. There are hundreds of places, each with a unique crowd and different atmosphere.

This morning (Sunday), I woke up at 10 AM to check the bus schedule to go pick up Harrison (Taiwanese) from the airport. I found the next bus to the airport left at 10:40 AM, so I didn't even get to shower before I had to leave. I caught the bus, just to find out that I had caught it in the wrong direction (who knew that there was one bus stop for both directions...) and I ended up getting kicked out in who-knows-where again. Luckily, I found some random wireless internet and was able to check the bus schedules. Good news was I only had to wait 30 minutes for the next bus, bad news was that Harrison was going to be waiting another hour for me at the airport. There was nothing I could do, so I got a coffee at the only place around and caught the next bus. When I got to the airport, I found Harrison right away. He had just called Jenny from a payphone wondering where I was. I took him back to his apartment and introduced him to Ana (Brazil) and Jolin (China)--they are his new flatmates.

When we arrived, the girls were just hanging out. They were supposed to do a cultural simulation this afternoon, but when I arrived, the other girls (Olessya, Ekta, and Aysegul) still hadn't left Roztoky and it was already 3 PM. Harrison was tired, so I decided to go grocery shopping with Ana and Jolin while he took a rest. We skyped the girls and told them to meet at Ana & Jolin's apartment so they could begin their cultural simulation. While they were doing that, I could do the makeup session with Harrison and Tete (Portuguese) to catch them up on all the information they missed the past week. Tete was on her way from the airport with Jenny by now.

Right when we had everything all figured out, Ana get's a call from Ekta, who was still at Jenny's house. They were all ready to leave, when they noticed one small problem. They were now locked inside the house. See, Jenny and I are the only one's with keys to Jenny's house. Jenny had left early Sunday morning, before me, but I didn't know. So when I left this morning, I locked the house and went on my way. Now the girls were stuck in the house. Poor Ekta...always getting locked into places. We went grocery shopping, and received a phone call from them a few minutes later saying they had figured out a way out. They still won't tell me how they did it. All they said was, "Regis, we are smart girls and we don't need you for everything." Fair enough. I still don't know how they did it.

When they finally arrived at the apartment, Jenny had dropped off Tete and I began to do the make up session with Harrison and Tete. Welcome to Prague--now straight to work!! The session ended up taking 3 hours (an hour longer than I had planned) because there was just so much material to cover. The girls worked on their simulation for a while in the apartment, but eventually had to leave to take pictures of a few statues and find a few things around Prague. When we finished, Pierre had made an apple crisp of some sort, so we had a bit of dessert and left to go watch the Brazil game in Old Town Square.

We met up with the girls at Old Town Square, but the weather was cloudy and cold and we decided to leave a bit early. Harrison and Tete were exhausted, Pierre has work tomorrow and I had to get home to finish the agenda for the upcoming week. We have a ton of work to do this week, so I had to plan when we're going to do what. We caught the train home and made it back, just in time for me to finish my work and get to bed before 2 AM. I'm really glad that the final two group leaders are in Prague. Now we can really form a cohesive group and make this camp the best. It'll be nice to see how having two new dynamic personalities in our group. I can't wait to see how it pans out. For now, there will be more to come, but I need to sleep. Tomorrow is a long day.

Meeting the Others

Since Saturday, a lot has been going on around over here. Saturday night, after the whole train fiasco, we ended up going out to Prague to meet some other international students here on their internships. When we arrived at their apartment they welcomed me to Prague and introduced themselves. Zrinka (Zizi) a girl from Croatia, Rusha an Indian girl from New Zealand, Tinzo a guy from Tunzania, a guy from Colombia, and a Brazilian guy. They are all really outgoing and had all been here for at least two months already. I think most of them plan to stay for more then 6 months. Prague, come to find out, typically hosts between 30-40 international exchanges a year. That's a lot for such a small city!

When it was time to go out it was already nearly 1 AM. Jenny and I had taken the last train into the city, an 11:30 PM, and since the trains do not run at night, planned to take the 4:41 AM home. That is just the way it works here. The first place we went to was a "music bar," 

or a club, that was kind of crowded but not too much. It was mostly filled with a bunch of random people from middle aged people who just wanted to dance, to some younger people there just for the drinks. The music playlist was a whole other story. A mix of 80s rock and Michael Jackson to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and random techno songs, overall it wasn't really good music to dance to. It was fun however to watch the unique dance moves of some select individuals, who grooved to their own tune or who simply just danced like they thought the world was ending. Those people were the most entertainment I got from the place because it was kind of awkward and pretty much like pulling teeth to force ourselves to make the best of it. After two hours of this, it was finally time to call it quits and we moved on. By now it was nearly 3 AM and in typical American fashion we stopped by a late night pizza place to grab a quick snack. I got a gyro, which was nice and fresh, and we moved on to the next place. We eventually found this place called "Hell," an underground club with smoke machines and gothic decorations. The DJ was really good even though I don't particularly like electronica. He played minimal techno, which means it has no words just beats mixed together, and I thought he was pretty good. This place was much better and nicer than the last place, but unfortunately there was one big problem. We were the only ones there. I mean there was one couple in a dark secluded corner and one guy dancing by himself--who would randomly shout when the music got really good and he couldn't contain his excitement (pretty funny)--and there were people along the bar, but mostly the place was empty. Bummer. We ended up making our own dance party until it was time to leave and Jenny and I caught our train and slept in.

When I woke up yesterday it was time for a busy day. Jenny left around 1 PM to pick up Ana Luisa, our Brazilian exchange who is going to camp with us. While she was gone I went to the store, bought eggs and bread, and worked on the schedule. When they returned from the airport, I was preparing to leave to pick up Ekta, our Indian exchange. I did have a chance to eat and talk with Ana before I left.  She is very bubbly and outgoing, she brought two bottles of cachaça (a Brazilian liquor that is made from sugarcane) per my request, which was very nice of her, and she also insists that I practice my Spanish with her. We did get to speak long enough for her to call me a "drama queen," at which I laughed and just shook my head. This is coming from a girl who just complained that there are no Victoria Secrets around so she couldn't buy her lotion for her dry skin... Great.

I left for the airport by myself with just the numbers of the busses to guide me. Luckily I have a great sense of direction and I made to the airport without getting lost or missing my transfer. I greeted Ekta at the airport and bought her ticket for her and we began our journey back. We talked about many things, including life in India, her vegetarianism (she's never had meat in her life and not for religious purposes), life in Singapore and traveling.

Upon arriving at the house, Jenny had just left to pick up the other interns from the train station. The people we had hung out with the previous night were coming to say hi to the new interns. They brought with them a girl from Russia, Maria, and we went to the local pub in Jenny's town. The group was quite the mix. Ekta and Tinzo don't drink, Ekta just doesn't like it and Tinzo is Muslim. Ana, being a typical South American, was really excited to go out, but was happy to have a beer at the local pub instead.

The pub closed at 11 PM and on our way back we found Lin, our Chinese exchange, returning from the airport. We talked for a little while and I soon realize that I'm living with four international women. I'm just going to leave it at that. I fell asleep to them chit chatting about who knows what. I woke up this morning to see that they also invaded, but haven't yet taken over my sleeping space, but we will see how that goes. Today we are going to get the new interns settled into Prague, they need to buy train passes and get cell phones (which I refuse to buy for two weeks in Prague even though Jenny insists that I do so). I'll hopefully have a chance tonight to write again. Our exchange from Turkey comes in today so we'll have another addition to add to our group.

I've Arrived in Prague

16 hours later...I've finally arrived in Prague. Let's start from the beginning. My trip begun at Denver International, waiting in an hour line to check my bag. Of course, I was waiting in the wrong line, but I eventually got my bag checked. I lucked out by going through a security line that was about to close, so that meant there was no lines and no waiting through security. My 8:00 PM flight left on time and after two weeks of weddings, graduation parties, and visiting friends, I was exhausted. I was lucky enough to have the adjacent seat empty, so I got to spread out and get comfortable. All I wanted to do was pass out, but I had to stay up for the delicious airplane food and enjoy a complimentary drink! I was kind of surprised to hear the British lady next to me (at least in her 60s) ordered a whiskey-sprite, but was even more surprised when she almost downed it quicker than I could pour my drink! I slept the entire flight and upon landing at London Heathrow, I felt pretty well rested.

London Heathrow was nice. I was really excited to see that they had a Wagamama, the "Tokyo Joe's" of the United Kingdom! It's definitely a notch up from Tokyo Joes and after converting the prices it's definitely about twice as expensive, but for me, it was totally worth it. I haven't had Wagamama since the last time I was in London in 2006. After enjoying my soba noodles with steak (& a Singha beer of course), I made my way to the gate to wait for my next flight. When I boarded my connecting flight to Prague, I passed out instantly before the plane took off. When I woke up, I realized I had slept an hour and a half...but naturally the plane hadn't moved from the gate. Being confused, I asked the gentleman next to me what the problem was and he explained that a circuit had shorted on the dashboard and they had finished repairing it but due to scheduling conflicts we were still delayed another 30 minutes. I'm glad they kept us on the hot plane for 2 hours sitting at the gate...it was really nice to wake up sweating with neck aches from napping in a cramped airplane seat. Really great. I also couldn't help but feel bad knowing that I had no cell phone and someone was supposed to pick me up from the airport. I really hoped they didn't leave me there alone.

After finally landing in Prague, I got my bags and was relieved to see Martin waiting for me in the lobby. By this time, a huge torrential downpour had started and buckets of water were falling from the sky. Luckily, the bus stop was covered and we didn't have to get wet, but the muggy bus ride to meet up with my boss was slightly reminiscent of the humid car rides I once took in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Martin dropped me off with Jana, my boss and host for MBM, and we made our way on another bus to her house in the suburbs of Prague.

Although I arrived at 10:00 PM, and the sun had barely set beyond the horizon, I could tell right away the house and neighborhood is beautiful. There are green pastures all around, a quiet and peaceful village town with a Tesco and a grocery store, and nice houses with patios and gates. She lives with 4 other people and will be adding a few more once the other leaders arrive. This is the place I'll call home for the next few weeks before the camps begin.

Tomorrow, Jana is busy with work stuff and Martin is still in school, so I'm going into Prague with Jana in the morning and will be wandering around on my own discovering the city the fast way. Martin will meet up with me after class, help me by a monthly metro card that is good on all of Prague's subways, busses and trains. I think it'll be no more than $25. I'll be sure to let you guys know what I discover tomorrow...

Zai Beijing

I'm here. The flight to Vancouver was good. It was really hard to stay up the whole time because all I wanted to do was sleep. Then, I had 3 hours to do nothing at Vancouver International. I'm glad that the airport had free internet, or I would have died. Here's a story that will make people laugh. Right before I get on my 12 hour flight to PEK, I decided to buy some snacks. The nice little Canadian Asian asked me where I was going and I told her Beijing. Then she asked if I was going home...and I laughed. Not exactly lady. First, I'm American, not Chinese. Second, I can't believe she asked me that. When I boarded my flight, I sat next to a Chinese lady who had just immigrated to Vancouver. She started speaking Chinese to me. She called me a "green something" that meant I was new to China. Then she gave me her phone number and told me to call her and she'll take me and Devon and Jimmy out to "pub." Dancing and fun. After talking for a bit and practicing my Chinese, I passed out. I woke up, surprisingly, with 4 hours left of the flight. I watched a movie, read, and that was pretty much it. It wasn't bad at all. I got to the airport, which was clean, spacious, and brand new. I looked out the window...SMOG. It's really as bad as the pictures portray. I got my bags and met up with CC Interntional. Devon had arrived right before me and she was there too. I hadn't been out of customs for more than 5 minutes when I get approached from a CBS person to do an interview about the VISA process. So if you saw me on the evening news tonight...haha, what can I say?

We left the airport by subway, which puts NYC Subway system to shame. Here the subways are clean, electronic, quiet, and fast. Everything is brand new. We got to our apartment. I have pictures. It's really cool. I'm on the 24th floor. Most of my roommates haven't arrived yet. I ate last night a quick meal. It was really delicious. Had eggroll things and dumplings. Not bad.

Today, I plan on getting a Chinese cell phone, walking around and exploring the neighboorhood. Jimmy comes in today too, so we'll help get him settled in. Tonight, we're going out.