Interesting stories

hey,



Always when moving to a new place, many things happen in the first weeks until things settle down. I got to visit a bit of the city (had trips of even 1h30' and I was still in Istanbul ;) ), went to some parties, getting more and comfortable with the job, meetings tones of people and so on.



But there are always some experience that stand out of the crowd :)



1. Hairdresser. I decided to get a haircut and went alone to the closest one to the place I live. I went in, said "Merhaba! Do you speak English?" the answer came straight away "Of course my friend!". I got on the chair and tried to explain that he should leave abt 2 cm and at the back to make it natural and I was showing him with my hand. I asked "Do you understand?", he said "Of course I understand my friend!". Next thing he does he takes the machine and starts to cut it very-very small at the back so for a few second I didn't see what he was doing. When I did it was too late, he was making me bold :P



2. Taxi. When coming around 1 a.m. from the airport I decided to take a taxi and I went to the taxi that was closest to walk to. I didn't know that I should have gone to the 1st in the qeue not to the 3rd as I did. As soon as I got in, all the taxi drivers (about 20) came to my driver and started arguing with him. I deducted that they were angry with him that he accepted me and didn't send me to the first one. As he was stubborned they started screaming, heating the car, took the keys of the car and came to me and asked me to go out of the car. I told them I wanted to go with this car and that I don't want to go to the first one. One of the drivers got really angry, that was unacceptable for him, pulled me out of the car and pushed me towards the first car ... Finally I went with the first car and I learned a lesson which is valid for every culture: "don't fight it, play by their rules and forget about what was normal for you". From now on I wil go to the first car ... :)



3. CEELDS (Central & Eastern European Leadership Development Seminar). After 5 years of attending tones of conference in all possible roles the time came to try a new role: external :P

So I was given the opportunity to attend this conference as representative of Microsoft together with Emel and deliver a workshop on "Information, Communication and Technology". We also attended the World Cafe and as you imagine there were people all the time asking about what I am doing at Microsoft, why Vista is not good, why is Microsoft doinf Community Affairs and many-many more ... It was a lot of fun, of course many of the questions I couln't answer but it felt very weird ... one of the OC members came to me wanting to ask me something and started with "Mr. Rosca ..." and I reacted spontanuously "WHAT??!?! Please call me Daniel" :)



Oh oh!



For now things are going well, I like the job, I like the city and I met interesting people :) and today I got my residence permit until Feb 2009! I am a local now!!! :D

Of course, pictures on facebook :)



Hasta la vista!