I have been quite late with this, but bear with me, we all have things to do, gossips to entertain with our friends, clients to meet at the end of the office hours, fast rides through the city to get somewhere to get 10 more minutes to talk. So, this is it:
Things I liked at the JCI World Congress.
1. The people.
I met so many like-minded people it would have took me years to find the same number of people one by one. The people I’ve met were fun, wanting to have a better life, wanting to be better (in business, in sports, in life) and wanting to meet different people and culture. It also made me a lot more eager to leave in my trip around the World.
2. The location (Kremlin and Topkapi Hotels).
First I hated the place. We had so much to walk between the trainings, the hotel, the football field… But then I started to enjoy it and ended in loving it. I felt like being in a village where everybody knows everybody. We would meet in the lobby over a cup on internet (or Turkish tea :D ), we would meet on the football field while cheering for our favorites, we would meet at trainings and, of course, we always managed to meet in between all these spots. More, you had the pool there, the sea, everything you wanted. I actually didn’t get out of the complex for the 6 days the congress lasted.
3. The Turks.
I have to make a separate chapter for them, since they were the hosts. I have a more personal reason to like them, but I will try not to let my personal feelings to interfere with it (you will see that when you will read the not so good things about the Congress). Going back to the Turks: they really made us feel welcome (at least I felt welcome) and they went out of their way to make us feel good (even if they didn’t manage to please everybody – I will get back to that). Still, they were always smiling, always telling us everything we wanted to know (and things we didn’t want to: how many of the JCI WC participants knew that you could eat a great soup at 1-2 am in the restaurant of the Kremlin Hotel? We didn’t, but find out from them).
Previously, I thought a lot of bad things about Turkish people. A little history here: Romania was under Turkish control for about 500-600 years, starting with 1300s till the 1880s. All we heard when we were little were how courageous the Romanians fought against the big armies of the Otoman Empire. So, no matter how open minded you are, things like this will stay with you for a long time. As a consequence, imagine my surprise when I have found myself actually liking them and enjoying their company.
There are a lot of things I think could have been better, but those, another time :) Subscribe to the blog to find out.
