Friday night – lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng day

November 10, 2012 johncohn Leave a comment

Sitting in newark airport on my way back from Turkey.. Flights been delayed about 3 hours making for a really long day. It started early with me getting in some good programming time in the hotel room. I’m trying to learn some new software at workso it was great uninterupted time.. My flight home left about 3OM Istanbul time .. First flight was 12 hours which again was very good uniterrupted work time.. Then an unwelcome but otherwise peaceful 4 hour layouvr in Newark. The new departure time from here is posted at 12:18 AM.. but it sounds like we actually may get out a little earlier 🙂
then another hour or so to hime.. then a 30 min cap ride that will make for… hmmm.. soemthing like 17 hours of travel.. no wonder I can’t see straigh …

ok.. looks like we’re ready to board.. more from home tomorrow ..
-nite all, nite sam

-me

Thursday night – teşekkürler Istanbul !

November 8, 2012 johncohn 1 Comment

Last night in Turkey.. had a really good day.. got some good work done, a little sightseeing and gave a talk at beautiful Koç Üniversitesi . I apologize, but the way I
m uploading pictures here won’t let me inter space comments, so I’ll have to describe the day and put my pics afterwards.
The sightseeing was really fun. My friend Esra offered to be my tour guide as we talked about IBM Smarter Planet stuff and life in general.. She was the local lead on a very cool Smarter Transportation project called City in Motion that used cellular data to map out the travel patterns of groups of people around the city without violating anyone’s privacy.. it was really cool We took the funicular and tram down to the old city. We took a quick but exciting walk around the town..
and got to see the Hagia_Sophia.. which was a church, then a mosque and is now a museum.. The ceilings and window were gorgeous. There was this really cool place where you made a wish and put your thumb in a hole. If you could turn your hand all the way around without taking your thumb out.. you got your wish.. I did it.. but forgot to make a wish.. I guess I’ve got my wishes already.. 🙂

From there we walked right across the courtyard to the amazing Blue Mosque.. Its still an active mosque.. we took our shoes off and quietly walked around as folks prayed. it too was a wonderful building..

From there we took the tram back to the spice markets.. what a scene.. blocks and blocks of folks selling everything from pet food to leeches.. the smells and colors were amazing..

We then grabbed a quick lunch and went back to IBM.. There met Engin and Jale and we headed of to Koç University.

Koç is another university funded by a private foundation. the campus was one of the most appealing university campuses I’ve ever seen. the buildings are only about 5 years old and stand on a hill overlooking the Black Sea and the Bosforus . I got a very warm welcome from Prof Türkay and the Dean of the college.. They had done great publicity on the talk so the auditorium was pretty packed. It was a great audience.. I got a great treat afterwards by getting to hang out with the Society of Women Engineers chapter. We talked about how to encourage kids.. women and men kids.. to go into engineering. We even did some experiments and blew up the schools microwave in the process. They are great and powerful women ..
The night ended with a very nice dinner with Engin and Jale at a river side fish place hosted by Prof Türkay. Fantastic food. Lots of small plates..cool tasty things I couldn’t pronounce..

now back at the hotel and a couple of hours of meetings to keep up with day job.. I’m beat. Heading home tomorrow after a really good and welcoming trip here.. I just love this place

teşekkürler (thanks) istanbul !

nite all, nite sam

Wednesday night – Constantinople

November 7, 2012 johncohn Leave a comment

Greetings form the city that spans continents.. Once again I’m up too late trying to do a full day of work here and a full day of work at home. Last night I ended up working late at ibm then taking the subway back to the hotel . I ended up going to a grocery store and buying stuff to eat in my room so I could work.. it was delicious !

It was a very good day today ..I was so happy to wake up to the news of the election. I know that you’re not supposed to discuss religion or politics publicly.. but I’m very happy with the result.

It was also a very good work day. I gave a talk and had interviews and talked to clients…. I got to meet some absolutely awesome folks. The Turkish people are so warm and friendly and fun.. and this city is really beautiful . The meeting today was in a cool rebuilt palace of one of the sultans.. It was right on the Bosporus and looked out over the river with a view of the Asian continent right across the water. The castle burned down in the early 20th century.. but was rebuild in th 80’s.. only the ornate marble Turkish baths survived (pictures in here somewhere) .

After the meeting we went to a great fish restaurant on the river with a gorgeous view of the bridge..

As beautiful as this place is.. the Turkish internet providers are blocking the photobucket site I use to post pictures.. I’m going to try and post them from my phone.. but if that doesn’t work.. I’ll have to upload them tomorrow..

for now.. time for sleep..

nite all, nite sam

-me

Tuesday night – Election day

November 6, 2012 johncohn Leave a comment

Happy election day. I’m thousands of miles away and waiting like anyone to hear how things are will come out
I got in some crazy politics discussion on the flight over.. and even here.. the whole world is watching.

I had a good and busy day here.. Stayed up late last night working on my day job stuff.. then went to IBM Istanbul.. from there we drove across the Bosporus to Özyeğin University..

It was so cool driving from europe to asia in minutes. I chucked a samstone off the bridge.

‘

I loved the folks at Özyeğin .. the students and faculty were wonderful. they took me down to see their robotics club workroom.

on the cab back I saw collection box in the cab.. it’s fa religious charity. it’s funny the word Sadaka is just like the hebrew word Tzedakah ( צדקה ) or arabic صدقة‎ there’s ‘s a little bit of arabic in turkish.. those are the only words that i even vaguely recognize.. the rest is impenetrable to me .