Turkey Reunion 2002

2002 THEN:



It all happened in the peak of summer in Istanbul in the year 2002. There were about 50 + trainees brought together by AIESEC from all corners of the world; name a country and they had a global representative. The trainees were placed as interns in Turkish companies and organizations for a duration of 1 to 6 months. Besides the internships, they went out on excursions all around the country, partied on weekends (or sometimes week days) on Istiklal street, lived in Turkish dormitories, ate kebabs, drank ayran and even printed their own t-shirts for it. A random bunch of people from all over the world tossed together for a split second : it was a summer in Istanbul which would shape their lives in the future.

2009 NOW

7 years later, we still kept in touch and had the good fortune of meeting (just a fraction of us) in London. Although we'd lost touch and had nothing in common at present, there was something we had shared once upon a time in a land called Turkiye. We retraced the threads of our lives that crossed then that afternoon in Covent Garden. The random memories within us started popping out of the blue; bargaining with Turkish taxi drivers, so and so person who we remember the face but not the name, the dorms in Maslak and the Bursa spor stadium, the mud baths in the hamam, the snoozes at work in the library, the roof top bar where we used to party... It was strange but mysterious how we'd carried a part of that fateful summer within us across borders and time up till today.