Performances

Today is our final day of business visits in Ankara. I'm pretty tired from staying up last night, so I decided to skip the gym this morning. I showered and dressed, and by 8:30 we were on our way back to the Ministry of Industry and Trade. We were to pick up Mr. Eser and a colleague, and then drive out to the Industrial Zone.

The Industrial Zone is pretty far from the City Center. It's almost 40 minutes of highway driving. This gave us plenty of time to chat with Mr. Eser and his colleague. Mr. Eser was asking how we were enjoying Ankara, and he asked if we had enjoyed any of the nightlife. We told him about the Jazz Club we went to the night before, and he smiled and told us our Turkish friends took us to the right spot. I did a double take! Did the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Assistant EU Expert just give us props for going to a Jazz Club? He's a pretty cool guy!



At the Industrial Zone, we were led into a conference room where we were going to receive a presentation on the Industrial Zone. It is a section of the city that is dedicated to industrial development. Companies buy or rent space in an Industrial Park where they are subject to Environmental Monitoring and Industrial Zone standards. The biggest incentive for companies to locate themselves into an Industrial Zone, however, is the tax benefit. Industrial Zones work in conjunction with Incubation Centers (where business ideas are developed and nurtured) and TechnoParks (which is where R&D is supported).The presentation was good (well, kinda cheesy, but very informative). As the presentation was going, we noticed that there were some extra people in the room. A reporter, his producer, and two cameramen! Apparently, our visit was big news, and Channel A was going to do a story. They wanted to video our tour, and do some interviews! Wil, Becca (who was temporarily nicknamed "Connie Chung" by Yaseen) and Scilla (who was dubbed "Diane Sawyer") all gave interviews. Becca says that she recorded the report on her camera, but I haven't had a chance to see it yet.

We visited the Industrial Zone's environmental monitoring lab (with tons of machines with acronym names like GCMS), an electronic component manufacturer (they were making circuit boards), an electronic device manufacturer (they made residential utility meters), and a plastics company (they made… well, a lot of stuff like headlights and dishwasher components and the like). They were pretty interesting tours, and I felt I got a better idea of what the Industrial Zone is all about.

The best part of the tour was watching the interaction between our handlers (the governors of the Industrial Zone) and our company hosts. Being were aware of our 1:30pm meeting with the US Embassy, the governors were working to move the tour along quickly. They were putting a lot of pressure on the company hosts to tour us through quickly, and the company hosts were becoming visibly agitated. I felt bad for the hosts, but we really did need to be on time at the Embassy, so I was actually thankful for the governors' insistence!

After our meeting at the electronic component manufacturer, we went outside to jump into the minibus to go to our next meeting. For some reason, Baki Bey didn't sense our arrival. When we came out, he was there with the bus. But he was busy washing it… soap, brush, and everything. In his business suit. I'm telling you, this man is awesome!

I have to tell you about one of the company hosts. The electronics component and device manufacturing plants were both toured to us by a gentlemen from the Electromed company. We were seated in a small theater hall, and there was a raised platform with a built-in curved lectern in one corner. The Gentleman walked in wearing a white lab coat with red sleeves and red along his upper back. His breast pocket was emblazoned with the Electromed logo, and he walked with a smooth gait. He moved to the lectern and began speaking to us. Wil said it was very "Captain Kirk-ish." I understand what he meant. His lab coat and the curved lectern gave a futuristic feel to the scene. But I don't agree with Wil. I think Mr. Electromed reminded me of a creepy scientist in a horror movie.

Things only went downhill when we met his boss. This guy must have been at least 6'7", slightly hunched over in his blue business suit as he watched us tour. This gentleman reminded me of the company owner who hires the mad scientist to perform inhumane tests on the heroes of the film.

Real quick story about the Electromed Mad Scientist guy person. When we first got behind the lectern, he was speaking to us, giving us an intro on Electromed. Then we heard a cell phone ring. We looked around to see which idiot left their ringer on (I was hoping it wasn't me), but it turned out it was the Mad Scientist! Without missing a beat in his speech to us, he answered the call, and while still speaking to us, slowly lifted the phone to his ear. As soon as the phone was up, he switched from English (to us) to Turkish (to the caller). Weird. No "pardon me," no "I gotta take this." Just the seamless switching of languages!

As they showed us some of their test labs, I was convinced that this was actually a horror film that was playing out before me. There were these large soundproofed rooms with a huge antenna on one end, and a table (complete with burn marks!) on the other end. The were used for EM wave testing, and I'm sure it's all legitimate. But listen to me here, people. If any of us on the IST go missing, Electromed in Ankara is the first place you should look. I'm not sayin', but I'm just sayin'.

The tours were taking much too long, and our handlers were getting real nervous. They finally pried us away from the businesses, and soon we were being whisked to lunch. I thought we were gonna grab a lunch tray at their cafeteria. I was wrong.

The dining room had been set up so the tables were arranged in a long U shape. The salads were patiently awaiting our arrival, and we seated and were told to eat quickly. Wil was seated at the head of the table, surrounded by the other big-wigs. The rest of us scattered around the sides, and soon, we were eating away. What was supposed to be a 20 minute meal became a 45 minute meal. We were getting late, and I was starting to get nervous about making it to the Embassy on time. Baki Bey was ready and waiting, and as soon as we left the building, we crammed into the minibus and were racing back to the city center.

We were dropped off at the hotel, and we ran to our rooms to grab our passports, and in no time flat, we were walking across the street from the hotel to the American Embassy. We went through Security (twice!) and filed into a conference room for our meeting. Four gentlemen sat down to meet with us. Their names were Jerry, Jeff, Jim, and Thomas (he was new to Turkey). Jerry spoke very softly, and slightly monotonously and he specialized in Politics. Jeff spoke extremely monotonously, and specialized in Economics (and as we soon came to learn, commented on anything and everything). Jim spoke monotonously and specialized in Commercial Services. And Thomas, well, he spoke EXTREMELY softly and monotonously, but didn't get much airtime in the meeting because of the other three speakers.

I was still feeling tired, and the monotonous talking from the four guys wasn't helping matters. I was doing my best to stay awake (apparently not good enough because Scilla called me out in front of the group afterwards), but if you're gonna be speaking to me in the afternoon after a meal, you'd better be exciting. It ain't my fault if your'e not!

They did their introductions, and then they started to give us an overview of their respective specialities. It was rough, folks. It was very interesting, but they were very soothing and very monotone and very sleep inducing. I wasn't the only one having trouble. Spencer was feline' it, so was Yaseen. Some were doodling, others were looking around the room to stay with it. But it was a whole different story when the Question and Answer session began! Most of my questions centered around Turkish politics, and I was amazed by Jerry's depth of knowledge. He seemed to know everything about anything politics. Despite his soft spoken-ness, he was fascinating. I could have talked to him for hours learning more about the political trends, the reasons behind recent political reforms, and his thoughts on where the political scene is moving in Turkey today. I didn't get that much time, but what answers he did provide, they were very informative.

Soon the meeting was over, and the overall reaction to it in our post meeting was "What?! No tea??" We've become completely spoiled with the tulip shaped glasses in our business meetings! Our business meetings were over for Ankara, and we were free to enjoy our remaining time in Ankara. Yaseen and I made arrangements for busses to take us to Istanbul, I changed out of my suit and took a catnap before the evening.

We were meeting back up with Başak and Ezgi in the evening. There was a performance of "Sweeney Todd" by a local theater group, and they had invited us. I was pretty excited to see a play in Turkish, even though it was the story of a movie I have not yet seen!  Spencer was excited to see Başak again, and I figured I'd have a little fun.  He had trimmed his goatee earlier in the day with my beard trimmer.  Being unfamiliar with my trimmer, he had gone a little too far and shaved his goatee paper thin.  He shaved the rest of his face, it it provided enough of a relief to make his goatee show through.  But before we headed out in the evening, I started to prod him about how he should shave it all off.  I was trying to hold back laughter as I told him that Başak probably found him exotic, being a tall, blond, American guy.  He's really not very Turkish... he's not dark and he has natural separation between his eyebrows.  He should go all the way not be hairy like a Turk, too!  I was having fun to see if I could pressure him into shaving it off.  I'm here to report that it didn't take much goading to get him to do it, and I'm open to suggestions on what you'd like me to pressure him into doing next!

So Spencer, Nick, and myself joined Başak and Ezgi for a walk through the crisp Ankara evening to the theater where we were to meet Gizam who was saving seats for us.  Well, it turns out we had a few details wrong. It was going to be "Sweeney Todd," but it was going to be in English. It was being performed locally, but it wasn't a completely Turkish cast. It was being performed at the Turkish American Association, and many of the parts were being played by Americans. The lead role was a Turk with a heavy accent, so it made his lines and music numbers all the more interesting to listen to with his Turkish flair. It was a nice evening. It didn't feel foreign. In fact, it felt a lot like watching a play at home. I guess it was a nice reprieve from the trip! (On a side note, the concession stand was selling meat pies… and Nick had one!)

After the show, we walked back to the hotel. I called it a night, despite protests to go dancing again. I wished the revelers well, and went up to my room and packed. I worked on my blog and posted some pictures, and I was awake to let Spencer in the room. Soon, I was fast asleep with Saturday quickly approaching.

I didn't take any pictures of the business visits today, and I only took a few pictures of our evening. There were a lot of photo restrictions at today's meetings, and I didn't want to deal with trying to figure out when was okay to pull my camera out, and when was not. You should check out everyone else's pictures on the Trip Website to see some of what we saw today.

Today was full of performances. Between the interviews by the reporters, the perspectives shared by our hosts at the Embassy, or by the performers of "Sweeney Todd," Ankara served as the stage today. Tomorrow morning will be the final act of our play here, and our next performance will soon begin in Istanbul.

Be safe and be kind.

With love,

SoJo