WEEK #5

Time flew quickly in the exam week. Tomorrow will be my first Halloween. I should find a turkey costume :))

I looked at Paul's "Left Brain / Right Brain Test" for a few times. The question was: "Which way is the dancer turning, clockwise or counter-wise?" There is no correct answer; your answer only shows which of the one half of your brain you use more often compared to the other one.

And Ayca finds out she does NOT have a left brain...

On Tuesday, I didn't have a left brain! The dancer turned and turned only clockwise, and I couldn't change her turn to anti-clockwise direction.

I must be a rare one... Does it make me precious not to have a left brain? (Say yes) It MUST mean that I have an enormous right brain.
Please agree with me.

But now...

I'm looking at the same link and checking the lady's dance: Thanks God she is turning in both directions, even sometimes she doesn't turn her back to me. I got my left brain back!

Maybe functions of the brain change during the week or even the day, I might be using my brain in different ways at different times. And yes, it means I'm a special one...:)
Say yes.

WEEK #4 Continuing

Today is the end of my fourth week in Canada.

I am at the Vancouver Airport now, going for another weekend in Calgary. I'm not sure whether it will be a real weekend or a study camp: My books are heavier than my clothes.

We made a marketing survey among 60 MBA students for our project: 

"Would you prefer to have your university textbooks as electronic files instead of your usual textbooks made of paper?"

Most people said NO. They want to touch the paper and to take notes on pages.

Paul, Ken and I talked about this after class. The idea of decreasing students' bag weight and saving trees by using technology sounds unique. However, it is hard to change people's habits. Some people are more sensitive to hand-feels rather than sounds and images, since this is how they learn and remember at their best.

Ken and I need to find more emotional reasons for marketing our e-book. After seeing the survey results, it seems more difficult than I thought.

WEEK #4

I discovered CHAPTERS today!
A bookstore!
The Heaven!
:)

WEEK #3 Continuing

Today -finally!- I am home all day, have a lot of time to study, to write, to clean, to eat and to think... I finished the environmental research, but now I need to filter all the documents I found.

Yesterday we discussed Hummers, hairdressers, 3 types of personalities and ‘The Office’ (TV show). I knew I was a relationship-oriented person -it was nice to prove that again today :) I don’t like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Hummers, but I enjoyed analyzing ‘why I don’t like them’ in five steps.

And I am glad for I don't need to go to a hairdresser these days. It means I am in good condition physically... No, in fact; psychologically!

About the OFFICE:
I heard a lot about it -that’s what she said!- but it was my first time watching it. The boss was said to be a very relationship-oriented type, but at the same time he wasn’t really aware of the people’s feelings. I think he was rather goal-oriented.

I had a good party time at Ken's house last night. He organized a fun Pre-MBA party. It made my day longer than 24 hours.

WEEK #3

Today is my first Thanksgiving day.

I hear people talking about turkeys, turkeys and turkeys... I know they mean the dinner but it usually makes me think of my home country.

Turkey is a bit too funny to be a country's name (Sigh). I wish it was Tiger or Eagle or something like that :)
It would be even much better if English-speakers could pronounce Turkey's actual name, which is TURKIYE. It's hard to pronounce some sounds if you are foreign to a language, I totally understand that.
Let me help you: Tur - qee - yeah... Tur-qee-yeah... Turqeeyeah... Turkiye.

A busy week has begun after a good weekend in Calgary. Days are passing fast. I will do some environmental research for the marketing project in the library.

WEEK #2

It was not even five months ago when I started to think about coming to Canada.
Some people say it was very brave to come here by myself, alone.

I don’t feel brave; I just feel normal. Normal like normal brave, or not more brave than normal... It doesn't feel like another planet here. I am a bit far away from home, that’s all. World is not that big. If you stop focusing on the differences, you notice that there are a lot more similarities rather than differences between the people born in different areas on the earth.

And you call me brave?
Taking this journey was not difficult enough to be considered as significantly brave. Even my suitcases somehow(!) traveled by themselves, got lost and found in the US! I am not more brave then my suitcases :)

Building the Marketing Team:
I found the greatest partner to work on the course project: Ken. And lost him as soon as I found: He fired me when I was 5 minutes late for the meeting in the shopping mall today! Now I'm busy re-marketing myself as a good marketing partner.

We went to a Sony store to meet with a manager. I can't tell why. Our project is top-secret for the time being. We will be in contact with the store during the next couple of weeks.

This project will be an +A! And I want to buy one of those... Oh I can't tell!

WEEK #1 Continuing

Today I took my first Marketing class and I think it will be my favorite course.

There are many students coming from Asia in the class. While discussing cultural factors on advertisement success, I am comparing Turks with North Americans and Eastern Asians.

Turkey is geographically in the middle, and culturally in the middle, too. The most popular career fields are quantitative sciences in Turkey. Parents want you to be doctor, dentist, engineer, etc. I remember my mother saying “Just have a doctor diploma, but then, if you want, you can be a guitarist.” She was worried about that I wouldn’t earn enough to survive if I kept playing Bach, Tarrega and Sanz.

I recall dreaming of being a guitarist -one of those typical teenage dreams.
My dreams changed in time, but not to be a doctor: I told my mother that my grades were not high enough to go to a medical school. I was lying. Years later I told her the truth.

In my first week in Canada I have started this blog as a project given by my Marketing Prof. Paul Kuruzc. I am excited about every new day I wake up to. I wonder what I will think about the posts I am about to write today when I read them after years. Will I find my past-self smart or not?

In any case, I can guess what my future-self will tend to do if she hates the quality of my current writing skills in this blog: She will edit them without changing any thoughts and feelings expressed by the Ayca-who-lived-in-2008.

WEEK #1

My first week in Canada.
Everything is new, unexpected, difficult and great!

It could be even better if my suitcases were with me. They got lost on the way from Turkey. KLM Airlines informed me a few days after my arrival that both of them were sent to Boston by mistake...
(Sigh)

In the meantime I am happy even with just a few items -a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, a sweater, a small towel and a pair of socks. I had never thought life would still be quite normal with such little fortune.

Let me introduce myself:

I am a Textile Engineer. I worked as an Assistant Merchandiser for two years following my graduation. As an engineer, I followed human beings (clients and manufacturers) rather than the textile machinery. One of the lessons I learned in this period was that the right product is not the one with perfection; it is the one which the market desires.

Marketing is not only fun, but also a serious science. Most people are not aware of that every-body (even babies and cats) involves in Marketing. We continuously market our ideas, feelings, bodies, voices, personalities, capabilities -everything we have- to be accepted by the world and to get what we want.

If you ask why I came to Canada

I will number the reasons which brought me here, because I am such an engineer :)

1. I wanted to go abroad... to see the world... to look at my country, my family and myself from a foreign point and in a foreign language.

2. No matter how well you understand the machines, it doesn't really matter if you cannot understand your customers, colleagues, managers and your society well enough. I want to be professional in it; want to learn the art and science of business involving with humans.

3. I want to work in the international arena. Globalization is growing so fast that one will not be able to cope with business if he/she doesn't have an international perspective. I want to have the ability of understanding different cultures and their ways of doing business.

For these reasons, I think I have made a good decision by coming to Canada.

Now let me tell you the first impressions I got in your beautiful country:

1. IT IS BEAUTIFUL. I love the red maple trees. You care about your natural environment so much that it makes me jelaous: Could your government or a committee of your guys kindly go to Turkey and teach my people how to be gentle to our natural sources?

2. Canadians are spiritual, sensitive and friendly. I have already met lots of people at school, on bus, on streets, at the guest house,... They are talkative, warm, curious, and cheerful.

3. Nanaimo is a small town. It doesn't feel like a city at all. I came from a city with 15 million population. I am more used to crowds and noise other than this peaceful silence. It feels like I am in a village here.

Today, we the pre-MBA students had our first meeting at the campus pub. It was fun. My mind has split into two: One side is trying to socialize, and the other side is observing. It's quite tiring.