About duende
According to an Anatolian superstition, a section of the umbilical cord of a new-born baby is buried at a renowned university campus so that the baby can study there when it has grown-up. Since I left my home at the age of 18 to study at a college in Istanbul, a mere 1000 kilometers away, my mother has been grumbling about this superstition not working because she kept my umbilical cord at home, and I ended up going away no matter it was the best college in Turkey. She keeps repeating, ‘I still don’t understand why you are travelling so much even though I kept your umbilical cord at home’ each time she hears where I am traveling to next.
I have been into languages since a very young age. I studied secondary and high school in English while learning German on the side. At Boğaziçi University where I received my BA degree in Business Administration, the education language was in English and on the side I was learning Italian and Spanish. During the college years, I participated in excavations with Italian archeologists to improve my Italian; I worked as a guide at international music festivals for the visiting artists, I volunteered for NGOs to organize and participate in international youth exchanges. I have always been curious to meet new people and hear what they have to say but I was even more excited to discover people from different cultures.
This excitement put me on the roads as soon as I finished my studies. I spent one year in Rome making an internship at a hotel which I found through an international student organization, AIESEC. After one year in Italy I didn’t want to move back to Turkey. I was having a wonderful time living in a foreign country and was hungry to experience more although I still needed a way to finance these continued travels. Then, I was recruited along with other ten fellows to the Sony Eurograd Program, which is a 2-year-rotating on-the-job / off-the job training to develop global managers for Sony. I worked one year at Sony European Headquarters in London and then moved to Munich. Besides having living experiences in 3 different countries of different cultures and languages, my time in Munich rewarded me with a lot of free time to travel. In Germany, the standard holiday time is 30 working-days a year. This way, I took the opportunity to explore overseas traveling through Colombia, Brazil, India, Egypt and Tanzania. My travel experiences enriched me culturally and linguistically. Besides Turkish and English, I speak Italian, German, Portuguese, Spanish and I am learning Japanese. I believe the best way to integrate with the local community is to speak the same language or at least to make the effort.
During my life abroad and trips, I have always been part of the local community and the culture while always giving back either by volunteering or just by interacting. In Italy, I danced more Tarantella at local festivals than all my Italian friends. In London, I played in a Klezmer band with Londoners. In Munich, I organized many concerts and international festivals while I also managed a Brazilian music duo. The only thing I owe in the world is thousands of amazing friends all around the world and an outstanding family I have left back in Turkey.
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