A guest of Ministry of Food!

Dear All,

Yesterday, i surprised myself and joined a cooking class with my very food-freak-dear Cami!

You know when you have a close friend and that close friend has a hobby which you think she d be kidding, there is only one way to do: align with that hobby and try to understand what is fun about that. This time it was cooking. You know i like having friends who like cooking:)

SO yesterday, i found myself in the middle of the city markey, sorrounded by glass walls cutting parsley, chili pepper, cherry tomatoes, slicing chicken,onions... and SMILING! it is quite a surprise ha?

Ok, guys i did my best and the result is not too bad. I did chicken fajita as everyone else did. Besides the cooking part, actually i like the idea of Ministry of Food. Jamie Oliver, darling of many including Cami and Mareke, is the founder of this ministry and his students are teaching people what is healthy, how you can cook your own meal without wasting the ingredients, how to decide what to buy etc. This ministry teaches why not to buy packed food.

Lessons to learn:

1) Give it a go!
2) Reduce packed food use as much as you can! (This is also a message from ministry of food. If you can't totally stop buying packed food, try to reduce the amount.)
3) Don't trust weather forecast and always wear your scarf in Leeds!

Cheers!!

PS: I want to thank the old lady who were smiling at me by looking through the glass wall while i was preparing my wrap! She made my day!

Ethics vs Money

When did it happen?

Reading all these articles related to project management and success criteria and so on, i sincerely wonder when money and profit became the most importanat success criteria over human.

Whenever someone writes about stakeholder engagement, they emphasize how hard to reach a consensus since all stakeholders have different priorities. Mostly the project owners/clients focus on financial gain. It does not sound that evil when i write financial gain, right? But when i write money, probably it bugs many of you... or at least i hope so. They have the same meaning!

Going back to main concern... Other stakeholders who are not directly involved in the project but effected by the outcome or the process cares other stuff. Clean air, employment, development of region, contamination, labour rights, or human rights in general... Listing the second group as such makes me feel like... Come on people! When did you stop caring those? or pessimistic side of me can paraphrase the question: Have they ever been among your concerns?

Btw, i don t want to blame all clients/project owners whatsoever. But don t you think that somethings should be above every others?

In one of the articles which i totally forgot the author's name(that explains why i always get warning about referencing), s/he says something like that: if you aim profit you mank profit, if you target sustainability then change your objectives!

Ok, enough complaining! I ll go back to academic world which i am not welcomed:D

Cheers!!

A story, a girl & many thanks!

Dear All,

I am happy! i know i didn t write too much since i went to Leeds but believe me it was only bec of the curse that finally found me!

Let me start from the beginning:
Once upon a time, there was a little girl who was hardly studying. Mark the words, not studying hard! She thought she did study anyways, and she also thought that it was just normal for a student to study that much... There were green trees, beautiful rivers, pink houses and stuff (imagine something cute) in her life.

But there was one girl who knew what 'studying' means! Despite being very close friend of the little girl, she was complaining about the people who don t understand her when she had no time. Literally! One day, like many others, she told the little girl that she was going to study... like HELL! The little girl, as always, ignored (let s say did not want to hear) her. What she did not know was, that time she was cursed!

That girl was me! and the other girl was my Roomy! For the last two and a half months, i was struggling with... Ok, again let s start from the beginning:

First of all, i refused to change! First weeks, in my claender include first 4- 5 weeks, were the period that i was NOT supposed to study! Life was not that easy and to be honest made it very clear that it won t work. When i received my first assignment's grade, i had been shaken with the reality that i hardly passed :S Sigh!!

In the following period, i tried to adapt to the system and i guess the system tried to understand me as well! The latter, probably, found it really funny! The more i understood, the more i believed i was cursed: What the HELL!! i studied a LOT! i mean when i studied less than 3 hours a day, i was feeling like i haven t done anything!

You know what, hell became a nice place! Despite losing many stuff and breaking many others and getting mad due to studying and burning my nerves, good things happened. i learned one more thing about myself: i CAN study! i am proud to say that, bec i studied as i have never done before! Seriously, this is a capability and i am flattered to discover my brandnew capability!

As you may notice, that curse was a bless and i can t thank more to my Roomy for triggering that change!

i have many other thanks to people who made my life easier during this semester!
i have finally had a friend from my class. i mean lifetime friend:D
i have amazing friends in my flat and i met many precious people in our residence.
i have my 'girlies' group!
i have CeC who was with me from the beginning!
i had a special friend who has had many stories to tell and many recipes to cook!
No need to tell, my volvox and my family... they were always with me!

After writing those, let me tell you one more thing! Sİnce i know how the system works now, i may create more time to write about sustainability! YAY! i missed it!

Lessons to be learned:

1) Keep learning!
2) Keep loving!!
3) Keep in touch :D

Cheers!!

Tea and its relaxing effect

Dear All,

Every day is different than the previous one. Not because my activities changed, but me.

I have always been in peace with myself. I always thought -and it would be approved by many close friends, especially by my Roomie- I am content with whatever life brings to me. Even though there were some really hard times.

What i m realizing now is... Last year, without noticing that time, i went along with my "growing pains". It did not hurt... not as much as i expected. To be honest, i did not know that i was growing up. Probably, i ll keep changing since life is full of new experiences, new people, new ways.

Today was a looong day. It was nice though. Making new friends and seeing that i am lucky about friends... Hope it ll always be the same.

Now, i am home, had my dinner with my chopsticks which MTD brought me from China. It s been a while i could not feel like listening to Norah Jones- Come Away With Me(There was no problem with other songs). Today is that day. i am having my tea, listening to "come away wiith me"...

Life is beautiful!
i love my purple nail polish!!

Cheers!!

PS: i know i m not posting any sustainability related thing, but i guess it is because i hear the word every day and do loots of readings about that. No complains:)

Cheer up!

Dear Me,

You are in a soooo new place. it is normal that you checking your friends photos, searching for something familiar and feeling a little bit depressed. Oo, maybe "depressed" is very heavy to define how you feel, let s say "not didem's style happy":)

it was nice to eat 3 mandalin today!!
i ll get used to studey soon and won t look blindly to the slides... sooon!!

Have a little faith in you girl;)

Tomorrow i m gonna have a bike! i don t know why but i feel like riding bike when i m not in Turkey. Besides, i think it ll take less time to come to uni with bike:) Again, i don t know how but traffic is unbelievable here. TG, the city is small!

Anyways, have a nice sleep!

Cheers!!

Leeds... Finally!!

Dear All, i am in Leeds and here is much bigger than my expectations. Probably, i was expecting to have everything same as i do in Tilburg. i was planning to go to uni by bike, stay in a dorm where i can have many tea times with my roommates, be able to everywhere in 15 mins. i feel like Ted Mosby. Those did not happen... BUT! it was too early to talk about my roommates at least. i met many people in the last 2 days in the dorm and especially our wardens are sooo friendly that they came with me(and some new comers) to the station and market. Also i was lucky today 'cos i saw two guys going to uni, very early in the morning when i was trying to find my way to bus stop(i did not try to go to uni by walking:S) If you know me a little, you know also it is one of the top 87 things that you can do as a favour... taking me to the place where i am trying to go. i am using "try" on purpose, because i have never found any place easily. Especially if it is the 1st, 2nd or 3rd time(it can go like that till 10th)! Lastly, i was also lucky because Cemre is here! She came here before me and she is much more talented about finding ways. Unfortunately, she does not know my neighbourhood. That brings us to the fact that Police men/women are impressively helpful! Yesterday we got lost together and ask the police the address. They immediately suggested to drop us to the dorm. That was the first interaction between me and the police. Hope it won t be worse :D Lessons to be learned: 1) Try to clear your mind for new experiences. They are aall unique! 2) If you forget all of the people who were helpful, remind the ones in the market :) 3) Learn to read MAP! Cheers!! Tomorrow: How i met my classmates? PS: Yes, i am happy "How i met your mother?" started!!!

Almost there!

Dear All, i am in Istanbul now. In three days, i ll be in Leeds, meeting my new, nice friends. Even though i missed two orientation sessions out of three, my expectations are high as always when it is about new friends. (My loveable crew, you are always with me and i am a good skype user;) I received an e-mail from the coordinator about last orientation activity. She asked us to bring something that illustrates our perception of sustainability. That reminded me of GEF. i felt lucky that i was in Brussesls in last December, met people who had noteworthy thoughts, ideas. (btw, one of the ideas became a project by beloved Thomas and here is the FB page. i am sure you will find it interesting!) Then i felt even luckier that i have friends that i could ask them what i am supposed to bring with me. Liz suggested that i can prepare some pictures taken in Turkey to tell what the problems are here. It is definiitely a great idea since i am interested in local problems and making global trends applicable for Turkey as well. Another idea by JOY was bringing NOTHING! Just like what i have been up to for last year and now. i can talk about my blog also, but it may seem a bit narsistic to tell people about my blog. In anyways, i will talk a lot! Please someone stops me!! Cheers!!