Throwing away the chains

My last final was on Thursday; one of the latest ones I guess!!! It was so late that this week the classes started again. During the last two weeks I was postponing everything after the 22nd of January. Finally, after all the exams finished I was feeling like an unchained prisoner. It took me a while to realize that I did not have to sit on the same chair anymore. All the days were the same, study for hours and hours and then go to bed late, wake up early, just give a break for eating something and then continue again and again… After a while, I started to geting used to the idea that from now on I could do whatever I want without feeling guilty for not studying. When I get home, the first thing I did was to throw all the stuff related to the lessons into the paper trash. I guess one of the Erasmus students who left the Stapps for about one month ago was feeling the same freedom when he throw away his/her chains too. Only expressed it in a different way…

Experimental Economics

At the beginning of the semester one of the assistants told that we could earn some money by attending to some experiments. I registered to the website not only to earn some money but also I was very curious about how can they make experiments in economics. Finally I could attend to one of the experiments at CenterLab before I turn back. It was a decision making practice for the prices of a certain commodity thinking that you are one of the only two firms in the market. In the real life you earn some money depending on the profit you make at the end of 40 rounds. Everyone is given a list of profits that will be made (a) if we are the only one to choose it and if it is the lowest price (b) if both firms chose the same price (c) if you are not the one to choose the lowest price (means zero profit). It is a different type of prisoner’s dilemma, meaning that you have to consider the possible decision of the other party in order not to lose a lot. The important point was to offer the lowest price with the highest profit if both of the firms chose it; so that you can be sure that the other firm will also chose it since it benefits the most too. Then there is an equilibrium attained until one of the firms makes the first change. However, it is possible that people do not make the best decision and give a lower price although it is less profitable for them in order to leave you with zero profit. It was very enjoyable for me to live the theories that I was thought until now, just in one hour. Maybe you do not earn a lot but I recommend you to try it once at least…

The last trip

When my friend said that she found a very cheap flight to Stockholm by Ryanair (thank God for that airline, I wish they exist in Turkey too) I hesitated to buy the ticket at first. I thought that most probably it was so freezing that nobody wanted to buy the tickets. Anyway I bought it and leave the decision about whether to go or not to later. While studying for the finals I understood that I definitely needed to travel again to get rid of all these stressful and sleepless nights. Perfect decision!!! I found Stockholm more charming than all the other cities I traveled (including Paris) and the weather was so warm. However this time there was no Free City Tour, which meant that we had to explore the city ourselves. The city is full of surprises such as the modern dance performance that we came across at one of the museums, a reggae bar which is owned by a Turkish man or the best/closest and cheapest (for such wonderful facilities) hostel I stayed until now called City Backpackers etc. However on the way back home I started feeling sad when I understood that it was most probably the last trip of mine to a new country for the next time period…

Drinking from ice glasses

One thing that I loved about Stockholm is that if you say (!) that you are under 18 then you can enter to all of the museums for free. That means you can save up to 30 euro approximately thinking that you will go to four museums at least. (By the way, I recommend Vasa Museum to see an old Viking ship however the Contemporary Art Museum was not so satisfying compared to Pompideu in Paris) At the end of the day we decided that we deserved spending this money that we saved on a once- in- a-lifetime experience. Here we go: 45 minutes in an Ice Bar!!! The bar was smaller than I expected but still it was very enjoyable to try guessing how come they could preserve the temperature for them not to melt while drinking our cocktails from the ice glasses. I don’t know when and how can I make it true but my next dream is seeing the polar lights with my boyfriend… Once you start traveling, there is no end!!!

My Eiffel is purple

10 9 8 … Counting back for the New Year under the Eiffel Tower!! Sounds like a fantastic way of starting a year, isn’t it? Every year they showed a lot of scenes from crazy New Year celebrations around the world such as Paris, Sydney and Berlin on TV. So I wanted to take the advantage of being in Europe and traveling easily without any need for visa. Together with a friend of mine, we planned to spend the New Year's Eve in Paris. However, we were very disappointed because there were not so many fireworks as we expected. Eiffel even did not change the color. It was blue as usual, no one could realize if we entered to 2009 or not by looking at it. Later on, when we wanted to go to somewhere else, we get crushed by the huge crowd in the metro station. The lesson that I learned is that, the best celebration is the one when you have your beloved one nearby no matter where you are!! Here is my Eiffel that I changed into purple at least to remember it in a better way…

Vital information for the dreamers who still want to spend the New Years Eve in Paris: Metro is free and most of the lines are open all the night. Good luck to all..

City of Lovers

Paris has always been thought as one of the most romantic cities in the world… When I saw that writing on the street, it was my last night in Milan and I was going to Paris the next day. It make me wonder whether it was as romantic as it is thought to be ... Later on, when I went to Paris there were young couples everywhere and I decided that it was better to call the city as ‘City of Lovers’. I don’t know where does this fame come from but our guide in the Free City Tour (despite the snow again, I attended to one of this tours in Paris too) told a small story about it. When the world was created, there was only Venus – Goddess of love & beauty - and Paris in the world. You know, when you draw a heart, you start from two separate points but they meet in the end. He told us it was because Venus is at one side and Paris on the other hand; ans they come from the same origin ( because they meet in the end). Could be true, nobody knows...

Enjoyable paintings

Before the trips I was thinking that I had enough of classical paintings after visiting the most famous museums Rijks and Prado etc. However this time in Paris and Milan, we had to go to all the museums that we could, including. all the other famous classical art museums!! Not willingly but just to escape from the cold weather... I could never imagine that so many people could visit a museum in one day as I have seen in Louvre, it was terrific. There were people moving around everywhere so it was impossible to look at the paintings longer than 5 seconds. In our last day, I was very happy to be able to walk around freely when we go to Pompidou Museum, one of the largest modern art museums in Europe with a high- tech architecture design. After that much of classical ones, it was very enjoyable to see Warhol, Picasso, Chagall, Dali,Kandinsky, Miro, Max Ernst, and Marcel Duchamp who are the famous representatives of the Dadaism and Surrealism movements. Look at this painting, would you get bored while looking at it? I don't think so..

A totally different world

Another thing I like about the contemporary art museums is that there aren’t only pictures hanging on the walls; you can also find some interesting videos. My favorite one until now is the work of Jordi Colomer, which consists of a documentary shut in Yemen and also some panels used in the video that are presented in the entrance of the movie room. The actors were local Yemeni people and sometimes children who walk or travel at the back of a truck in the most crowded places and a camera recording them. The interesting point is that they were holding big cardboard panels with the names of some global stars such as ‘Bruce Lee, Barbie, Pikachu, Picasso’ and some famous Yemeni people written. It is hard to explain because you should have seen the reactions of other people with your own eyes. People were smiling, waving and whistling to the camera but it was because probably someone was recording them for the first time. The names on the panels seemed to mean nothing to them; it was like a totally different world. Then I could not stop thinking what would happen if I did the same in here?