A tad worried

So the discussion at the dinner table was consistent with the one yesterday:
Is the situation gonna degrade or will it improve?

As I said yesterday, generals have been arrested.
My dad tried to explain what was happening.

The army in Turkey has had for purpose, among others, to keep the country secular (non religious). The ATP party (I think), the party in power, is a muslim party, with the president and first minister being a bit of extremists.
Some years back there are rumors that the army made a plot against this party in question, etc etc, since in the Turkish constitution it says they have the right to intervene whenever they feel that the country is no longer led in a secular way.
Pls, stop me if I'm wrong...
Now in order to get back at the army, the government has arrested 50ish high ranked active duty and retired commanders.
Ehm, I'm not sure what is happening, or what will happened.
Will the army fight back?!
Should we be worried they will organize a coup d'etat?!

Bettina is really worried, my dad says that his company is protecting us and that if there would be the least sign of any type of danger we would be taken care of.
I'm not sure...

Maybe I'm a bit worried, but on the other hand I assume and hope that Bilkent University would have contacted and informed us of any dangers.

Here's an article from CNN that you can read if you feel like it: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/25/turkey.sledgehammer.arrest/index.html?iref=allsearch

Just finished watching a movie... something girlfriends past, seen it before, but it's ok...
Now i need to write a presentation of myself in spanish...
I don't want to, I'm tired...
went swimming today and am still exhausted since.

Tomorrow is friday and i'm very much looking forward to the weekend, not remotely as much as last week but still... will b nice to sleep

Hope u had a nice night... all u in jkpg, hope u enjoyed Caj...

PUSS

Cobb-Douglass

Who is that person? And why does he want to destroy my life?

The Cobb-Douglass utility function is horrible...

I don't understand, alpha, beta, whatever, whatever...

Anyone care to help me clarify it??

Will give u a nicer update on my day in a few hours...

Hopefully yours were nice!

Puss

Dangerous!??!?

Before dinner today Bettina told me that since Friday there has been some kinda raids against government or military people in Turkey; officials from Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir have been taken to custody since they are believed to have wanted to organize a coup d'etat in 2003 or something...
WTF!?

Is this gonna create some type of problem or agitation!? Or will the country go on as it is??

Freaky!

Good news of tonight is that it seems as if we're all going to Paris in June for Bettina's graduation! Yayyy... i'm über excited but also a bit nervous, haven't been back there since yeah... 2½ years or smth...
Feels weird, it's still what I consider home and now I'll b going back for a weekend staying at a hotel...
We'll see how that goes!

Have had a very productive afternoon otherwise, I read 4ish articles and half a chapter of the cross-cultural book. Got more work done than most other days! (0;

Another half good news for tonight is that my morning class is canceled tomorrow, that is the good half
the bad half would be that it is because our teacher is following a chemotherapy treatment... Feels pretty bad to be happy about a late morning du coup...

Oh well, I will keep enjoying my night, which started with pizza and a nice warm bath (i ignored the pool today, figure I can do that in the morning)
and will end with a nice talk!!

** The picture is from back in the day when Paris was home and I had to post my first tax declaration**

Have fun

Week 4 is week 9 and week 15 is week 10

Yeah, that's the logic of my Innovation management teacher.
She told us two weeks ago that we had to hand in our homework (15 page project) week 10, which for us Europeans meant week 10 of the year, which is next week.

Well, at Bilkent week 10 in the year is week 5 of the semester so our project is due week 10 of the semester meaning week 15?! Or did I get that wrong!? hmhm...

Oh well, it's not next week, that much I know! Hopefully my Atatürk agenda can help me out on that one!

Anyways, so much for rubbing our awesome weather in you faces;
"Den som skrattar först skrattar sist"
Or how is it?!
Today it was cold(10c) and rainy/windy...
Not nice, my throat is hurting and my ear too, but I hope I wont get worse than I already am.
Well, I'll play with faith, or whatever, haha, and go swim in the afternoon, I think it will do me good.

Now I'm gonna read some articles, since I have to read for both Benoit and me! haha...

Enjoy you afternoons!

PUSS

Poor Sweden

Wow, Poor home country, Sweden is more or less paralyzed by the snow.
* The whole railway system crashed, practically no trains are working,
* roofs are falling in because of too much snow, for too long time,
* traffic is crazy; 1000 people out waiting in the cold got crazy angry today because of some problem with buses
* People freezing to death

No one knows who's fault it is... why do you have to try to find that!?
It's the fucking weather, it's been snowy now since November-December... what did u expect... and it's not gonna stop yet...

In one way I wish I could see it cus I have never seen that much snow... last time there was that much snow in Sweden was in 1986, I was 2 years old, n don't remember shit!

But well I shouldn't complain, tomorrow I'm planning on wearing my spring jacket and some ballerinas... so... haha... sorry for rubbing it into your faces but it's pretty awesome no!? That warm weather in February!?

***Stole the pic from Rik, cus it's a pretty good one!***

Puss och god natt!

The Future is looking good

For once I can actually say that I'm pretty much looking forward to what the future has for me!
Must admit it was quite a while ago, as some of you might know.

It's for reasons I don't really feel to share here right now, since it's a bit personal but well, the most important is that I'm happy and I'm 100% sure someone else is too!

Ayayay... happiness, isn't it amazing!???

Well well, somewhere deep inside I'm feeling a tad worried about school. I've fallen a bit behind, which means that I'll have to sit n study most of my free time this week.

But it will all work out in the end! Most of the teachers (at least 2/5) grades on a curve, which works in my favor since I'm not a very good student.
Spanish I'm sure I'll pass, haha... and the other two too...

Btw, today in Spanish class we were supposed to create a dialogue and a presentation of a person... and the teacher told me straight out that I couldn't help )0: Kinda sucks cus I never get to practice my spanish, she never asks me anything in class...
But well, suppose I should take it as a good sign since she assumes I already know all of this.
We'll see on friday, we've got our first quiz, Unidad 1... the alphabet! Haaha, if u've followed this blog a bit you should know that I passionately hate the alphabet!

Hmhm... we'll c if I'll even study for it!

Now I'm gonna continue my conversation with Fredrik before dinner...

puss

Morning glory...

My ass.... wow I'm tired!!!

I don't like mornings, and I like mornings where I need to wake up early for stupid Spanish II even less.

Hopefully I remember everything I need to bring;

* Firat's shirt
* Computer to see which homework I have
* Macro book to know what to write in homework
* Spanish books; she hates when I don't bring them
* Innovation articles
* Wallet
* Cell phone, preferably the Turkish one, but it isn't charged

I wish we lived a bit closer to school, today I start at 10.40 n it would have been cool to be able to sleep until 10... like in Jönköping, where it took me about 5-10 min to get to school.

I wish you all an amazing day, for you in Sweden. Make sure to take it easy in the snow!

PUSS

Back to "normal" life

Friday, Benoit and I left Ankara around 10.30... but not without problems.
Turned out Benoit wasn't at the right station, or wait... we thought Benoit wasn't at the right station, and it turned out that he was!

PANIC PANIC, i was trying to get the bus to wait for him; them telling me and showing that they were leaving, and I, in panic, tryin to explain that he was on his way!

We finally got on the bus, only to notice that, 10 min after having left Asti it stopped at the station where he had been earlier!
Oh well, if only turkish people would speak english!!!

Other things that went wrong on the trip:

* I don't know, what I do know is waking up with blues and pain everywhere.

* Getting lost, not finding the Blue Mosque

* Telling the boys to take the ferry over to the Asian side (15 min boat ride) without explaining it well enough, only for them to take a 2h ferry around Istanbul.

* Getting on the wrong bus when leaving Istanbul, being happy to be in the Luxury bus, only to realize 3min later we'd gone on the wrong one!

* Bringing too much packing, half of which wasn't even used

* Wanting to find the Quba club (or was it Kuba) only to after a 5 min taxi drive and arriving when it was closed, noticing it was the Cuba, and that we'd been fooled by the taxi driver. We were about 2min walking from the club we started out at.

* Throwing popcorn in the bus station, only to get yelled at throu the speaker system

* Language barriers - isn't it always funny when you can't really understand each other!

But all of those things made the trip hilarious, and many many more! haha..
And I know that half of those things don't even sound funny, but I can assure you that they were.

Figured that instead of telling u all about it at once, I will tell u little by little!

So, as I told you before, I didn't go to school today... stresses me a lot, cus I had Micro, but well, I couldn't get out of bed.
I'm still feeling crappy, but hopefully it will be better tomorrow!

Should be studying right now, but can't even get my head out of the "fog" it's all blurry and I can't think straight!

BTW, who feels responsible for logging into my fb n reading the msg Jack sent me!?

Hmhmh... not cool!

Well, well, better snap out of my little dream world and go back to reality, cus in 5 weeks n 2 days I will go to Sweden, n before that i have exams and midterms...

back to work... hmhm... as soon as i'm feeling better! haha

PUSS

Istanbul

It was an amazing weekend.
I can't explain how much fun we had or how good it was to finally be able to see Fredrik!

Those 5-6h on the bus, knowing that he was in Istanbul was difficult, and sitting in the cab, that couldn't find the hostel was even worse!

Benoit, Giorgio, Fredrik and I had a lot of fun... I haven't laughed that much in a long time!!

The first night we started off by pre-drinking in the hostel, then left to a restaurant eating some typically turkish food. Fredrik wasn't a fan of either the food or the beer (Tuborg) but I hoped it was ok!!
Then we went on to another bar, and then to another... I can't really remember how many or which ones, but we left early. Both tired after all the travelling.


The next day we woke up around noon or something, and went out. It was sunny, 21c and amazing!
We went for lunch under the bridge, haha, and then we went to the spice market and the bazaar.
We did some shopping and I met my bag guy who sold me two bags and was very nice!

At night we stayed in the hostel with benoit and Giorgio, drinking until 1am, went to a club, decided we wanted to meet up with the others but they were impossible to find.
So at 4-5 we went back to the hostel to sleep.

Yesterday fredrik and I wanted to go see the blue mosque, but well... we didn't find it...we found another one...
it was 24c in the sun and pretty sunny.
At 4 we came back and it was time to leave.

This was the short summary of the weekend, some pretty hilarious stuff happened, but right now I'm not feeling too good...
I got a bit sick and don't even have the energy to get out of bed

So i'm gonna stay in bed the whole day and think about what a good time i had, and how good it felt with fredrik.
We took a few decisions and well, it feels very very good.

I hope all of u had good weeekends too... thou, it seems as if thou back in Sweden u have quite a lot of snow... a huge difference from walking in a top and sunglasses for 2 days!!

PUSS

LOVE

OMG guys, guess what?!

Fredrik is gonna come meet up with me in Istanbul tomorrow.
Such a fucking impulse thing!
We were talking and I honestly don't really remember why, but he started looking for tickets for this weekend, and well... one thing led to another and yeah, I'm gonna meet up with my awesome bf tomorrow in Istanbul!

It's gonna b amazing seeing him, and be able to hug and kiss him...
will b nice for him to meet to other exchange students too, tomorrow we're gonna party our asses of!!!

Haha...

Second good news of the night;

My blackberry arrived at my moms, I'm now a proud owner of this ->

Wow, can't describe how happy I am right now.

I'm in a state of chock I think!!!

haha... I hope you all had as nice of a night as I did!

Return on monday with a thorough story about the trip!

PUSS!!!!!

Adventure time!

Hola people!

Today was a weird day.
Was up talking to Fredrik until 6a.m this morning, so when my alarm went off at 7 I bluntly ignored it.
Usually I remember my logic behind my decision; I usually have a quick run throu in my mind; pros and cons...
Nothing this morning. I just didn't think that Dr. F. Woolley was worth it.

Oh well, went up around 12, got ready and headed to the bus. Had to grab a cab of course, not good, money that could be spent shopping, or be saved for Mexico!

Had a quiz today in Micro, went ok... have been doing good on the past two, with a higher average than the rest of the class, which I can assure you is needed...
As you can see on the picture, we have started with solving utility functions with algebra (maybe) haha, using the Cobb-Douglass, Linear and Leontief methods.
I do not really get it... and he assumes we pretty much understands his logic, which I can nervously tell you I don't!
Ayay, but you know what...

Je m'en fous, because tomorrow morning, after spanish Benoit and I will take the bus, heading west, to Europe, Istanbul more precisely!
Ahhh, it will be amazing.
Packed my bag, charging my Ipod, made sure I will be able to bring a camera, fixed some provisions for the bus (Coke Zero and the Wasa Rosemary and salt crackers, haha)
I have to admit I'm a bit nervous thou. I haven't really stayed at a hostel before. Not as I can remember at least, well except for Amsterdam, but who remembers that!?
There's no shower or bathroom in the room... wonder how that will go!!? I have to remember to bring my flip-flops!!!

Anywho, as I mentioned in the start, I talked with Fredrik yesterday. I highly needed talk, maybe some of you have noticed that I'm neither in a relationship or single on fb, well that will soon be fixed.
Cus I will "fråga chans" on him later (0; A way of asking someone to be your bf when you went to primary school!! Haha...
It's all good now, I'm incredibly happy, it feels so much better. We were both having doubts about this, but now it's all good! (0:


Btw, for all you with scars, I'm using this product ->
It's coca oil which helps taking scars or other marks on the skin away. Perfect, now i have to admit I'm bad at using it. I will start now thou, the moment I'm done writing this. Will tell you how it goes as time passes! Maybe it's a good investment for all of you like me; scars easily or randomly falls a lot!

Well... have a pleasant evening.

Will say night night later on!!

Excitement!

These crackers are the crackers I told you guys about a while back, they are dangerously delicious! And since they're half-healthy I eat extra many, you know, cus of the whole grain! Haha
No but seriously, they're extremely good without anything on, no need for cheese or butter (if you like that, personally i think it tastes funny)
So you should all run to the nearest store and get some, I bought 3 packs today (0:

Recieved an e-mail from Linnea yesterday with some information about an apartment we wanna rent in Guadalajara.
We're most likely renting a 130mt2 terrace-patio about 30 min from campus, fully furnitured, TV, wireless, washing machine, dryer, also included is airport pick up and a city tour! Me likey! Here's a picture from the living-roo:Not bad eh!? What do you think?

Btw, is any Turkish person readin this? Cus I have two questions.

First of all:
How much can one trust your post service? Is it good?
Could I ask my mom to send my phone by the mail or should I ask her to send it with DHL??

Secondly:
How does it work with Blackberries and Iphones here? Can I buy a pre-paid phone card for one of those or do I need to get a contract?!

If anyone knows anything helpful about those questions... pls write me on fb or smth, or leave a comment, but I highly doubt anyone would do that, people seem to be a bit scared of that.

Hopefully someone out there feels like helping a girl in need of help!! (0:

Just got back from the pool, had an awesome swim! Will be going back tomorrow, figure 4 times a week is more than enough, this week there will only be 2 thou, since I'm off to Europe (haha) on Friday!!

Have an awesome evening!

PUSS

To pull me back to the ground again...

Shortest day of the week.
One 2h class.
Have to say that I'm a huge fan of Wednesdays. Plus I get to have fun with Bettina.
Today we're going to the supermarket, if you've read previous posts I guess you know how childishly excited I become when it's supermarket day!

We're also gonna go to the bazaar, we bought some movies the other day, asked if they were all in the original language, which of course they weren't so going back to change those.

My plan for today is to go to those places, then go for a swim,, study for the quiz tomorrow and once again try to start with my Tetrapak project.
Will b pretty relaxing I suppose.

Otherwise we're pretty much organized for this weekend now. Got the bus tickets monday, Benoit is bookin the hostel today...
And soon we're off... Not looking forward to the h bus ride thou. I'm not good at traveling in cars/buses, I don't like it and my ass always starts hurting because of the seats, and cus it's bony!

Oh well...

Hope you've had a good day so far, mine was ok. Slept a bit too long this morning and had to take a cab to Tunus to catch the bus, but the sunny weather and the 16c helped get my mood back up

I'm gonna have some pizza now...

PUSS

TCK

Ever heard of that!?
Here's what it implies:

TCKs are often multilingual and highly accepting of other cultures. Moving from country to country often becomes an easy thing for these individuals.

Many TCKs take years to readjust to their passport countries. They often suffer a reverse culture shock upon their return, and are constantly homesick for their adopted country. Many Third Culture Kids face an identity crisis: they don't know where they come from. It would be typical for a TCK to say that he or she is a citizen of a country but with nothing beyond their passport to define that identification for them. They usually find it difficult to answer the question, "Where are you from?"

TCKs have a globalized culture. Others can have difficulty relating to them. It is hard for TCKs to present themselves as a single cultured person, which makes it hard for others who have not had similar experiences to accept them for who they are. They know bits and pieces of at least two cultures, yet most of them have not fully experienced any one culture making them feel incomplete or left out by other children who have not lived overseas. Many choose to enter careers that allow them to travel frequently or live overseas.

They tend to get along with people of any culture, and develop a chameleon-like ability to become part of other cultures. TCKs can isolate themselves within their own sub-culture, sometimes excluding native children attending their schools, or defining themselves in relation to some "other" ethnic or religious group.
# 45% of TCKs attended 3 universities before earning a degree.[26]
# 44% earned undergraduate degree after the age of 22.[26]
Read more on wikipedia... it's amazing!


OMG, scarily accurate!

A guy in school mentioned this to me just after i arrived... and it made me feel so much better!
I'm not just a random freak... it's normal that I don't feel like I belong!!

I talked to Saba about this yesterday, and Fredrik...
And it's sucha weird feeling not being able to feel that u belong in "your own country"
It was sooo difficult for me to move back "home" aka Sweden... and to be honest, I dont' belong, and I will b leaving as soon as i get the possiblity to.
Even my mom has understood this, which maybe is a bit sad!
As i've mentioned in an earlier post, that doesn't mean that i dont like sweden, I just don't fit in anymore...

Good night ppl

Puss

Semlor

I've seen comments on Facebook as well as some blogs about semlor... Is it the "semeldag" today?
A semla is what you see on the picture.
A bun with a bit of almond paste and a lot of whipped cream!
I love that, they're so good!

Wish I could have one right now!!
So all of you who are lucky enough to be in Sweden; EAT ONE FOR ME!!!

Oh well, I will dream about them instead! )0:

Today was otherwise and extremely LONG and boring day...
Took the bus at 8.35 meaning I left the house at 8.10, only to come just 15 min ago... around 19.30
Traffic was crazy... what usually takes like 5 min took us 20... horrible!! GOD, I wish I could buy myself a driver's license!
And all that time spent in school for only 3h of class.
2h of spanish in the morning and 1h of Macro, well not even, 30min and 10min quiz.

Oh right... haha... I'm a tad annoyed with my spanish teacher.
I don't know if you remember, but when I started Spanish 1 the big question was if Spanish 2 wouldn't be more suitable for me.
The teacher thought that Spanish 1 would be better, in order for me to see the basics.
Well, the 15th of Feb was the last day to change classes.
Today is the 16th right!
Well in the break today she called me, and asked me "you're bored in this class right? It's way too easy for you no?"
Well, yes... a bit... and then she has the guts to tell me that... Oh, I think it's better for you to change to Spanish 2, if not even 3, so there's some challenge for you....
I was like, yeah but... THEN she remembered that it's now impossible to change... so she was like... Oh well... what's there to do!!!
WTF!?!?!?
And on top of that, she knows I go by Helena, and that Anna is my second name.
Even thou, she insisted on callin me Anna the whole class, even took it as an example, we did an exercise which more or less consisted of you asking a question, the person answer what u want, and you say "yeah so i was right"
Well, all of a sudden the lady blurs out "Your name is ana, no?"
And well at first i didn't know she was talking to me, so i looked around, cus my name is not ana!!
Well she insisted, so in the end I just answered "Si" whatever....

Arrrgg...

Haha, naaa, it was a nice day... will write a bit more about it later!

PUSS guapos y guapas!

The city of contrasts...

Like in all capital cities you can see beggars, people trying to sell kleenex next to a huge mansion, while a Porsche is driving by, the difference with this city is that next to that mansion there will be a small little run down house, built with what looks like mud and with boxes and rubbish all over, old cardboard paper covering the windows and no lawn, only mud...

There are huge differences in income in this country, one person told me that managers in Turkey are some of the best paid in Europe, while well, obviously the poor are poorer...

The other day when Bettina and I drove back from the Cepa mall we saw this little dirty girl, pulling a huge cart, full of wood on it.. the cart was seriously 3 times her size... really horrible.
But what could we do?
Us giving them money might not help them at all since you don't know what they will use it for.
The option would be to donate clothes... but we don't have anything to donate, we only brought the things we use here.
We were talking about it the other day... how to help, in an effective way, never came to a conclusion.

Oh well, to be thought about!

Otherwise, I have to brag a bit... To all you who knows me...
I've been drinking water lately... and not just a glass here and there;
Bottles!!!
I'm actually drinking some right now.
Honestly don't remember the last time I had some before coming here.
I still maintain my opinion about it not being tasty or good in any way (why drink water when there's coke right!?) but since I couldn't really justify drinking 3 (at least) liters of coke a day to my dad, I had to!

And well, as I've said earlier, I've been drinking a lot of tea!

An improvement, that I would like to be acknowledged!! haha... Congratulators are free to send gifts of any kind!
I would like a pony please! haha... just joking!!

I hope you all will have a nice night now!
I'm done with trying to figure out the Macro homework, because honestly, I don't really care what impact a tax on each unit produced has on labor demand of that firm... maybe I'll care more tomorrow,
I know the teacher will!

PUSS

Impuls

Japp, and then it was Monday again!

Today was not a very interesting day.
2h of classes, 4h break and finally 1h class
Spent my 3h out of my 4h break with Saba, from my Macro class... me tried to figure out Cramer's rule, not being able to we went to the teacher, who told us that she had changed her mind, it is no longer our homework..
Oh well... only to do the new one. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow morning/afternoon

Otherwise I managed to finally find a bus home today. It was perfect, so now I don't need to waste money on cabs, I can wisely spend it on clothes and stuff instead! haha

Will most likely be going to Istanbul this weekend with some other exchange students... I'm sure it will b nice! Hopefully it wont be raining, or snowing for that matter, like last time..
Got an awesome deal, hotel + bus for about 50ish euros... which is what a return ticket Jönköping-Västerås would cost, Nice nice!
Gotta try to fix my camera first, so I don't need to be worried about loosing the parent's one!

OHOH... this morning when I went to the bus it was like 11c, and Bettina told me that during the day it had gone up to 18... doesn't surprise me, it is very windy, but me and Saba sat outside and talked for like 30min before starting feeling chilly!

Anywho, will maybe write more tonight... Bit tired now so gonna rest my brain for a bit!

Puss

Dancing queen...

One, two, three, four
One, two, three, four
That's what I had to listen to for about 1½h today...
We danced waltz...
I was partnered up with my dads college. A very nice guy... around his 30ies or well, 35 at least.
After class my dad, Bettina, the guy and I went out for dinner
We went to Eat n'enjoy or something... i had a serloin steak with spinach and white chease... very very good, better than it sounds, oh and teriyaki sauce.

Now I'm off to bed... have to admit I'm a tad tired after both swimming and dancing!

Good night to you all...

And happy valentines I suppose... even if I'm a cynical bitch that doesn't really believe in this day!

PUSS

Sunday bloddy sunday...

Just got back from a nice swim at the pool.
If you read the previous post you might understand that it did my mental health really good.
I had to calm down, having worked myself up during the past well, honestly month or so but especially lately!
So I swam for about 30min, the pool, as you might tell by the picture, isn't completely done yet... but it worked!
It feels a bit better now, but anyone who knows me knows that it isn't good, in no way.

It kinda sucks waking up and feeling that, especially since we had sucha nice day yesterday, my dad even thanked me and Bettina for being with him and going everywhere together.
Today will be about as busy but hopefully with a bit more time spent in the house, finishing up some homework and then out.
I'm going with the parents to dance class today, since I asked my dad to see if I could come in to the office from time to time, they thought it would be a good idea if I came with them, meeting the people from the office.

Hope all of you have a nice Sunday, well at least the ones that deserves it (0;

...

*I've been thrown out

*I've been called easy

*My health problem, could, in the future get annoying

*Noticed that publicly "liking" (fb) someone of the opposite sex's head shot cus' you think it's beautiful is ok

*Ignoring msgs that can be read anywhere because of being able to enjoy internet on my phone is more than ok

*Doing things just to get back at the other, because my mental age is still 5 is everyday stuff

*Suspecting the other of lying; "How could I know you were with your dad?"

*Why try to understand others and the person you love?

*Isn't it always better to see the worst and negative side of everything? OR was it the opposite... (0;

Ahah... the list can go on...

The land of consumption...

There are about 3 HUGE malls next to eachother here in Ankara;
Cepa
Kentpark
and another one I don't know the name of.
When I say huge I mean HUGE; 4 floors, around 50 stores, AT LEAST per floor...
and they're all new... and that's just there
Then there's Ankamall and a bunch of others.
Everytime we go we ask ourselves, how can they go with a profit!?
Turkey isn't the richest country in Europe and these malls are full of pretty expensive places...

I got the answer in my Macro class on tuesday;
When looking at Turkey's GDP they consume a lot more than other countries in their position, and don't really save.
Well well... obviously, I have to say!!

Anywho... we had a nice day.
Picked up my pants, bought a shirt and sunglasses and those things for the hair...
Nice nice!!!

We also went to an open market, lot's of fruits and vegetables, wish I would have brought my camera, but well...
I kinda miss that from France, Julien and I used to go on sunday's from time to time...

We just finished watching "Did you hear about the Morgan's" I like it a lot!!!

Off to dinner soon... don't know where we're goin tonight, that will b a surprise.
Had a really good lunch...Kebab, but not what you think, it looks like this:

*****

Back from dinner now, we went to Mezzaluna, it was pretty nice. I had some grilled chicken and salad and a Crème Brulée for desert, nice nice

Just finished watching the second movie of today; The 6 wives of Harry or something, it was ok... not super nice but watchable.

Oh and btw, yesterday I ordered a Blackberry... should b arriving at my moms sometime soon!! (0: Yayyyy..

PUSS

Cramer's Rule...

Ever heard of that!?
Well I hadn't... It looks something like this --->
I think you can click it...

Ehm, anyways. That's macro economics...
Et moi, je comprends rien!!
In the pause, while I was staring at the paper, trying to figure it out, the teacher came to ask me:
"You can follow right? You've taken math classes before?"
Haha, She didn't really give me an option... So I said yes... A clear lie!!

Oh well, will work on it this weekend since we have some homework to do, i.e. finish what we didn't have time to finish in class
HAHA... oh well!

Otherwise I overslept this morning. Woke up at 8.40 which is when I was supposed to be in Bilkent...
I got dressed and then went back to bed.. haha... Woke up again around 11, got ready and decided to walk to the bus.
Well, after about 10min of uphill, noticing that it was now like 12.25, and the bus leaves at 13, and I wasn't even half way, I decided to take a cab...
Only to, when I finally got one, remembering I forgot my wallet...

Had to ask the driver to take me back to Park Vadi and well, all that, which didn't get me anywhere I wanted cost me 10tl
Thank's god my dad was home for lunch, so he took me to school...
Made my day more pleasant!!

Now I'm gonna enjoy my friday, I just finished copying my notes, and writing down some ideas about Tetra Pak... so.. I'm free...

I will most likely watch "Sherlock Holmes" since I remembered yesterday I fell asleep the last couple of times I tried to...
Have fun!

PUSS

Nationalism

Ayayay... Right now I miss Sweden!!
Had an awesome talk with Cassinha tonight, awww, it was amazing seeing her and talking to her!!!
And it made me miss Sweden so much, and on top of that I talked with my mom today...
well, we talk almost everyday but still...
I talked with many people back home today;
Cassinha
Fredrik
Carlos
Tino
Mamma

Perfect day I have to say...

Well right now I wish I could sit in my moms kitchen eat some awesomly tasting meatballs with MASHEDPOTATOS.... OHOH, and Slotts senap, mmmmmmmm.... FY FAN que bueno!!! Åååååååååå, and a Chokladboll... or some Pucko... or maybe just some "Light Crème Fraiche with Chili and Pepper" with celery sticks... aaagghhh...
Did you know that they don't sell that vegetable in all supermarkets here!? We've had difficulties finding that!

Sucks that I speak so little Swedish when I'm abroad, was the same in Paris and London...
Dad and I just always speak in English, only when we're alone we speak in Swedish, which is very rarely! Makes me say random words in english when speakin to my mom, dad or Fredrik (the only ppl i talk in swedish to)

Oh well... it's too late now...
Already 12 n as i said earlier, wake up call at 6!!!!

*** Tonights picture was taken in Vätterstrand (typ) in Jönköping, Sweden , fall 2009

God natt

And then you come and spoil it all...

The week is almost over... It went amazingly fast I have to admit

Micro quiz today again. It went well, at least I'm sure about 4 points since, and this seems to b standard on his quizzes, you got that by writing your name!
But as I said, I'm pretty sure I did good on the other two questions as well!

Otherwise today was a pretty random day. Nothing really special happened. Was hopening for the pool to be open but their still doing some kinda work on it )0:
So instead I watched a movie, figured it's about the same! Haha

I watched "Surrogates" with Bruce Willis, it was ok... not as good as "The time travelers wife" that I saw yesterday, that one I liked!

As I said, the week is almost over, but the worst is to come. Fridays are awful...
I start at 8.40 which means I need to take the 7.20 bus, sitting in school for like 30 min before class starts, nothing open... for only ONE hour of BASIC Spanish... and then I need to wait until 13.40 for Macro... BUT THEN... after that it's weekend... and I will SLEEP!!!!!!!
Oh, and go shopping! I'm gonna pick up the pants I talked about yesterday and some other stuff... Haha, and maybe, maybe... be able to go to the pool!

Anyways... in order for you to understand how HUGE this campus is... maybe this will help...
There's a health center; open 24/7, I've seen ambulances
There's at least 5-6 restaurants, one Starbucks and 3-4 other Cafés
There are like 7 ATM's
There's a travel agency
There's a gym or two and a huge sports complex where you can play squash and soccer n stuff
And well, then of course a concert hall, a greek style outside amphitheater and yeah, those kinda "normal" stuff on a campus

Yaya... now I'm gonna do some research about Tetra Pak, which will be my 15 page "homework" subject!

PUSS

It was a beautiful day...

Shopping day!!!
Went a bit crazy in Mango... got myself two pairs of pants (the jeans are in the picture), a shirt and a scarf!!

We went to a mall that is on the way to Bilkent, next to "Kentpark".
I would say it a bit of the French district of Ankara, haha...
No but jokes aside, there's Carrefour, Morgane and l'occitane plus they're opening Darty and Decathlon soon!

It's a nice mall, good stores and the food court was really awesome. We had Chinese food, I LIKE a lot. I had some Chop Suey with rice.... mmmmmm!!!

We also found a book store where they have a good selection of english books as well as some in french and german... so we will definetly come back there soon!

Otherwise we're goin back on saturday to pick up my pants and go shop some more. I found a pair of shoes that I really like, plus there's Accesorize which I love!!

OHOHOH... and BTW, me and Bettina discovered there's a pool in our building!! NOW I know where I will spend my nights. Swimming! Perfect exercise. It's not really done yet thou, but soon I hope!!

Puss puss

When love takes over...

I'm incredibly happy to be done with these two days.
Tomorrow it's Wednesday = I only have on class, starting at 10.40! Can you imagine!?

Yesterday I had classes all day from 10.40 - 16.40 and today from 10.40 - 17.40 although, all that time spent in school, only 3h were classes...
That's not ok! I could have been home enjoying my bed, instead of sitting in the library with a crappy internet connection!

I got my studying done for the quiz and did some research about China's economical growth.
Went through the economist's webpage and checked on wikipedia.. haha!!
Did good thou, well my addition to the discussion might not have been the most intelligent, but since we are marked after being involved in the discussion and not after WHAT we contribute it was good.
The quiz also went great. Two simple questions, very basic Macro theory! Me like very much!

Have been trying to finish all these Innovation Management articles we are supposed to read, but there are so many, and since I insist on taking notes and make a summary of each and every one of them, it takes some time.

No my day is over... I get to take some time to myself. I'm gonna take a shower and then I'm just gonna lay down and see what happens... maybe sleep maybe watch a movie, doesn't seems as if thou there's much else to do!!!

I'm thinking that I want to go to Ankamall tomorrow, check out the shopping there... who knows maybe I'll find a cute skirt or some jeans!

Additionally I would like to remind everyone that it's Nastia darlings b-day today... CALL HER! I did! (0:
Love u sweetie!

Enjoy the night and sleep tight!

Puss

Sola...

I thought weekends were invented by god in order for all us early birds (OH yes, I count as that now) and hard working/studying people could rest!?
What happened there!?

Friday I was incredibly happy to come home, I've rarely been that excited about taking it easy on a Friday night!

It was a really nice night. We had a nice dinner... some good wine and a nice movie. A real family night. It was so nice just forgetting about all the "have-to's" of the week to come.

Sadly my new and extremely annoying body alarm woke me up at 8.30!
8.30 on a Saturday. That's NOT ok!
Was up and about in the house for a half hour before I forced myself back to bed in order to enjoy my Saturday morning the only way Saturday mornings are supposed to be enjoyed! SLEEPING!

When the whole house was up and working, around noon we went to the (or one of many) malls had lunch, some creepy Turkish pizza thingie... not my cup of tea...
Where's the cheese?!?!!?
Anywho, I manage to finish half by adding salad on it, they probably thought I was crazy... but to be honest it was awesomely tasty!

We went suit shopping for my dad, who insisted on buying a blazer instead... where did he get that idea from!?!? No one knows... but he seemed happy.
From that mall we moved on to the next where we played bowling...
I actually did ok for once...
Beginners luck the first round: 72 points
Second round looked more like me, when I managed to reach a whole: 34 points
Not bad! (0;

After being crushed in bowling by my dad and Bettina, Vodaphone went on to crush me even harder by telling me that the turkish system doesn't let open a contract, and pay off the phone every month... no no... you pay €35 a month AS WELL AS €325 for the phone... NOT OK...
So... now my plan is to acquire one from else where... hopefully Paris... but maybe Sweden in April... we'll see! Soon soon I hope!!

At night we went to "Kitchenette" a French restaurant/bar... AMAZING!
I had "salade de chevre chaud" SOoooooo good, I haven't had that in 2½ years... OMG, it was better than sex.... seriously!
Then we bought some Macarons to bring home... incredible! LOVE THEM!

Yesterday; Sunday, I spent the day studying and reading my new book;
"Killing Pablo, the hunt for the richest most powerful criminal in history"
I highly recommend it, especially if you like true stories and a bit of weirdness! It's cool

Now I'm off to watch a movie... haven't decided which yet, but I'm sure that it will make me fall asleep!! I'm really tired and even thou it's only 11 I don't see a reason in staying up any longer...
Internet has finally bored me!

Haha... PUSS PUSS

Russia wants to stay in the game with the big boys!

Our good neighbors in the east has once again decided to come with some pretty interesting news.

Russia has decided that Nato is now officially a threat and, instead of wanting to keep the world peace and the environment safe, they believe that the answer to this is nuclear weapons.
Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with anyone having or threatening to create nuclear weapons!!!!

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article6554621.ab

It would just be nice that if at some point the politicians in our world would realize how stupid it is and just stop... drink some tea and go for a walk in the forest... that always makes me feel better at least! (0:

Good night n sleep tight!

Is this the real life?

Security checks in Turkey are pretty crazy.
Whenever you go to a public place; Mall, government building, Uni you have to go throu one of those metal detectors.
Now, personally I think it's really good. You never know, and in that way you feel safe. Not that they check you every time it beeps but still.

The other day I found out the reason why there's so much security at my school. Whenever you take the shuttle bus you have to show your ID, and sometime when the bus goes throu the security gates at school they stop and the guards goes throu the whole bus, checking the ID's of everyone.
Also when you want to enter the B-block you have to go throu one of those metal thingies and pass your card, and the guards see all info available about u.
All this fuss is because last year a girl entered the school, and had for a goal to go blow the presidents office up. She had bombs all around her waist!

WTF liksom!! So I'm very happy to give my card every time, as long as it means I wont get blown!

Anyways, we still have problems with the warm water.
In the mornings it's ice cold, around 4-5 p.m it's about 25c and doesn't get nice and cosy before 10ish!!
Not nice.
Well I challenged the cold and took a bath at 5 today.
Just because I had looked forward to it.
It was pretty chilly, but I used this Bath-thingie from Sephora (Picture) that was really nice. It's smelled extremely good.

I just talked to Fredrik and Carlos, they're up in Åre.
I miss them soooooo soooo much, it's unbelievable... seriously!

Talking about Carlos, this is the phone I'm getting (this weekend hopefully)
Hope you're all enjoying your Friday nights!
I certainly did.
Had a nice dinner, a lot of wine... can't ask for more!!

PUSS

The title comes from;

Don't stop believing

I am currently writing from the library, where I am supposed to study macro.
But I think that I deserve a break after the 2h of Spanish I just had.

As it should, we went through the alphabet, again... Not very exciting I have to say. But the second hour was a bit better. We started with feminine and masculine. Still not something that is very exciting or difficult for that matter, but I am happy as long as we're not doing the alphabet!

I don't know if u remember, but on monday it was like +15 here, amazing spring weather. I bragged and was overly excited about this change in temperature.
Well, I should have known better than that. Because, which I also wrote, we've had snow since wednesday. It doesn't seem to want to stop. Nothing compared to Sweden of course. It was only -4 this morning when I took the bus (left the house at 7 a.m) So scarf and glove weather today. Even used my new cup n brought some cinnamon tea with me! Very very good I have to say.

Everyone's asking me about my plans when I come to Sweden.
Honestly I don't know, and if I know myself well enough I will decide, definelty, just before arriving.
But I since I arrive to Gothenburg I will mos likley first go to Jönköping, then up to Västerås only to come back the last days to Jönköping again.

BTW, should I be alarmed that the security guy at the library entrance recognizes me!? I don't have to show any ID entering here anymore... Nörd varning!?

Well, need to continue with the problems and issues related to CPI...

Have a nice day!

PUSS

Horrible world...

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article6547453.ab

It's 6.30 a.m here. It's early. Goin throu my morning rutine I saw this article. Horribe.
A Turkish girl was buried alive by her father and brother!

Gotta run now!

PUSS

You spin my head...

** If you want you can follow my blog on: Follow my blog with bloglovin**

The Picture to your right is of the evil eye, which explained by wikipedia (my educator) is:

In Turkey, evil eye jewelry and other such trinkets are particularly common. A nazar or evil eye stone (Turkish: nazar boncuğu) is an amulet that protects against the evil eye. (Wikipedia)

The evil eye being someone with evil intentions for example.
They have this everywhere you go;
*Airplanes
*Houses
*Bracelets (I have one)
*Key chains (that one too)
*Cars
*Buses
*In my school

So I feel pretty protected here! We have a million things in the house with the "eye", door mat, tea cups, jewelry, a stone (like the one on the picture) and more!

I'm not sure "the eye" did anything for me today thou. The quiz didn't go as planned.
At least I'm sure I got 6 points; collected through getting your name and student class id right, well assuming that "exchange student" is counted as student class id!
There's a whole story to how I got to the micro class today actually.

I had a class in the morning. Cross-Cultural Management with Frederick Wolley. After the class I went to the library to study a bit for my quiz (which, if you read the blog earlier today, I didn't really do). I decided to leave a bit early in order to be able to find the room, BZ07, which obviously is located in the B block.

So I headed over there and asked the guards, as I always do since I never know how to find the rooms, where exactly it was. WELL...
As I pointed on the 13.40 class on Thursday they thought I pointed on the one on Friday, which is in the A block.
So they kindly told me it was in another building. So I go there, still got like 15 min til class starts.
I sit down (there are other people in the class room), I eat my energy bar, drink some coke, put on some hand cream and day dream.
I was sitting there thinking about how amazingly fast this week had gone;
"already Friday"
(YES YES, in some way those guards managed to make me believe it was Friday!!)
When all of a sudden, it hits me... It's not fucking Friday, it's Thursday, and my class is in the B block...
SO after having been sitting there for 10 min I run up and manage to get to Micro in time!!!
Stupid guards!

As I said before, the quiz sucked, but as long as you attend it's ok!! CHECK!

Went to Metro (big ass supermarket for restaurant owners and foreigners) with Bettina when I got home, we did some serious grocery shopping. I got tea and water and juice and energy bars... Even one of those thermos cups... so I don't have to run over to the Management building every time I want a tea! I'm happy.

When we got back we watched "The hangover"!
I love Allan... was probably the 6th time, if not more, that I saw it!

Voila, that was my day. A new one tomorrow. Wake up call: 6 a.m!!! SHIT!

Oh, n btw... I just wanna say that I love my friends very much!
A special thought to Cassinha tonight! Just because she's so cute!!!

PUSS och Buenas Noches!

The new adventures of Old Helena

Good Morning/Day...

I've accomplished a lot today, as always here in Turkey. The most important would be:

! I managed to log into the school network! Yaaayyy!!
So right now I'm sitting in the library (which I found my way back to, haha)supposedly studying for my Micro quiz, but now I ended up here and talking to Fredrik on MSN.
To be completly honest I didn't manage to log into the network on purpose.
I tried, it didn't work. I studied for 1½ and when I checked the time I had a connection!

Micro is going ok, I don't understand-understand, but I've learned most of the equations he wants us to learn.

Class starts in 1.20 so still got time to learn!

I'm still freakishly excited about seeing my friends in April! Can't wait. It's gonna be so so nice!

Jaja... might wanna continue learning about the Perfect compliments utility function!

Have an amazing day

PUSS

You know you're my saving grace...

Good News tonight!!!

First and foremost:

CSN finally sortie leur tête du cul, I'm getting money!!! (0: Hopefully in a week or so!

Secondly:

I booked my ticket to go back to Sweden for spring break!!!

1st April - 10th April

I'm finally gonna see everyone I miss in Jönköping before we leave for the second exchange, and my mom n sister. And of course, go pick up my spring/summer clothes!

Well actually those are the news! I'm so excited

My plan now was to go take a LONG warm bath and study for the micro quiz, felt that I deserved some relaxation while studying.
Thought it was a good idea to multi-task:
-Bath
-Micro

But the gods didn't want me to. There's no warm water. Which my dad says is very weird since in Turkey you don't pay for warm water, there's always warm water, what you're paying for, and what could run out, is cold water. So I'm a bit worried that a pipe broke or something.
I need to take a shower and preferably tonight, not at 7 a.m (6 a.m Swedish time)!
Oh well, gonna go check soon again, hopefully it magically comes back!

Otherwise I would like to watch a movie tonight, which well, will be tomorrow since it's already almost bed time... and it takes a while to download here.
Anyone got any recommendation, any good movie you watched recently??

I watched "The stepfather" and "Couples retreat" the other day, both ok movies. Perfect to watch by yourself! Well "The stepfather" was a bit scary... or maybe fucked up is better fitted!!!

Oh well... tell me if you come to think of anything!!

Vivir sin aire... (re-post)

Happened to delete this... so here it is again... the new post is further down!

Vivir sin aire...

Rain storm in Ankara
Up here on the 10th floor it incredibly windy!!!!

Have been studying the whole afternoon and night, with a small break to skype with my favorite Tino and dinner with Bettina...

Now I'm gonna try to sleep and be well rested for tomorrow. I need to study even more. I miss Jönköping. There we didn't have to study our asses off until two weeks before the exams!!
The Swedish system is awesome!

Bonne nuit!

Sorry I'm a champion...

Ojojoj!
Over night we went from being in the middle of a pretty rough rain storm to being in a even rougher snow storm!!
Looking out my window you can't see very much at all as you can see.
It was pretty bad walking home the last bit!!
Oh yeah, forgot to mention!!

I've come up with an incredibly smart idea.
So instead of dying everyday trying to walk up the hill,
while still getting an acceptable amount of daily "work-out"
and saving money not buying a gym card I've decided to:

Walk the first bit from the bus stop (5-10 min) until the beginning of the hill
TAKE A CAB up the hill (only)
and then walk the rest (5-10min)
Smart no?!?
It cost me about 5tl going up the hill (€2.50) which I think is ok!?
I'm so extremely proud of myself for having come up with this genius idea!

If there was something I never really understood in Micro it was MRS and the utility function.
I understand the theory and what it means and shows, but never really got how to calculate the budget line and indifference curves.
The issue is that I have a quiz on that in the morning! Arrgggg.... ANYTHING but that for god's sake! Elasticity, supply-demand, game theory, equilibrium... but not the utility function!!!!

Today it wasn't sailing weather as you might have understood! Today it was Ugg's weather, mössa and gloves... I didn't bring a "mössa" (hat) or gloves, since... and I don't know HOW I managed to completely ignore my panoramic view this morning, cus I didn't realize there was snow until being late for the bus!!!

Eres como una mariposa...

Finally got all the books and documents I need for class, as you might see.
Quite a lot I would say.

In Micro and Macro, as I've already mentioned, I have weekly quizzes, two midterms and one final exam in each class.

In Innovation Management (the huge pile of paper you can see on the picture) there are two or more articles to read PER CLASS (two a week), a homework (15 page project, not a homework in my eyes) and a group work. And of course a mid term. Luckliy this class is very similar to Strategy & Technology!

In Cross-Cultural Management, which by the way, has an awesome professor, we have a one to two pager to write a week as well as two group projects and an individual one! Amazing! Plus, two midterms and one final.

In Spanish... well who knows!!??? I had spanish this morning, and well, for me it's more or less basic turkisk I'm taking.
Once again we went throu the alphabet and how to say "como te llamas?"... and even better, the home work for friday is to learn the alphabet!! Back to pre-school!

Anywho, this morning before going to class I had a small skype session with Fredrik, he left with the boyzz to Åre for more or less a week. He said I looked like a sailor girl... I don't agree...




Vous pensez quoi vous?!

Today's titel is from Mariposa Traicionera, by Maná... I LOVE IT

I'm sending this out to the gentlemens club...

As you might tell by the title I'm listening to Wyclef Jean. Love it!

Just got back from an awesome bath...
OMG, it was so nice, warm, perfect after my day of sweating and acing muscles!!
Did some Spanish homework.
Hopefully the right one, but there's no way to know I suppose.

Used the gift I got from Fredrik for christmas. Have to say I'm totally in love with this product!

O.P.I Manicure/Pedicure Cucumber Massage and O.P.I Manicure/Pedicure Cucumber Scrub!

Makes my feet as soft as a baby's bump! (0: It will be even more needed now that I will start walking up that hill more often.

Tomorrow I'm buying books for my classes. I just have to mention that prices are way cheaper here. The only book that was expensive was Spanish, well expensive if you think about how little it will teach me compared to the others.

Micro: 40tl = €20
Macro: 60tl = €30
Cross-cultural Management 60tl = €30
Spanish 1 : 75tl = € 37,5

Way cheaper than our €60 books in Sweden, I even think Carlos paid over €100 once! Way too much.

Tomorrow I only have one class, so except buying the books my dad wants me to find some kinda Cantine (cafeteria). I know there are several. I've seen Cafés and today I saw smoke and smelled bbq, but well... it's like the other day. I obviously knew there was a library, had been there before, but that doesn't mean that you find it. Bilkent is HUGE and all signs are in Turkish!

Btw, to all you animal friends. All those homeless dogs walking around the streets of Istanbul, the government takes care of them, makes sure they get the vaccines they need and mark them in order to be able to keep an eye on them.
I thought that was cute!

Chui en train d tou laché... c tro difficil...
Mai bon...

Puss och god natt!