Izmir et al.

So, last Saturday I did not even have to get up so ridiculously early to be able to catch my Alitalia flight to Istanbul. It really was quite relaxing just to calmly go to Malpensa and fly there. In Istanbul, a convenient connection brought me to Izmir (after I had noticed that Istanbul is the most outrageously prices airport ever. It's about twice as expensive as Malpensa, and Malpensa is already not-so-cheap. I also noticed that I really hate indoors-smoking. How is it possible to enjoy your teeny-tiny 7 euro sandwich when everyone around you is smoking cigarettes? It's foul!!!). Anyways, I arrived that night and went to the hotel.
The next day, there was trip organised to visit Ephesos, the House of the Holy Virgin (right....) and the little wine village of Sirince. An absolutely lovely day, where I really got to know a few people.



In summary, good times were had! In the evening, it was time for the conference dinner, followed by some drinks in town. Of course, as always with these kind of things, a few drinks turned into too many drinks and it was seriously difficult to get up the next morning. I had no chocie though, as the conference was the next day. After the first few presentations, I felt much better though and I made it through the day alright.
Unfortunately, the presentations I saw were mostly not very interesting to me. Either the level was simply too low (this was a mixed undergrad-graduate conference) or the topic was far away. I did seriously enjoy a paper by an Italian PhD student from the University of Namur, though, and I got a little bit of feedback on my own paper.
At the end of these presentations, it was time for the official celebration of the founding of the University. It was similar to last year, with long-winded speeches and lots of dancing performances. The nationalistic flag-waving and reverence of Ataturk is still something I cannot get used to, though (and yes, that was an understatement, but i don't want to insult my Turkish friends by embellishing on the topic). Oh well, afterwards a nice dinner was had and we hit the town again...

The next morning, I got a ride from one of the guys in order to get to the airport at 6.30am. Mid-morning, I arrived in Istanbul again where I met up with another conference participant and her friend.


I think I am finally convinced that Istanbul truly is a beautiful city, and I enjoyed walking around and visiting the spice market etc. In the evening, Alitalia brought me home again, where Fedor was awaiting my return.

The rest of the week has been hard work, preparing my Political Economics students for their exam on Friday and running lots of computer programs to make sure we have some results before Tuesday, when Idil is going to present our joint work for the first time (and no, there is no paper yet, and not really any results: don't get me started!). Finally, i also got some grading done and went into the weekend absolutely exhausted!
But satisfied.

Uhm, is there anything else I should add now? I did have a meeting with Chris Blattman, an absolutely amazing and interesting economist who is extremely well-travelled and knowledgeable: it gave me happy feelings! Oh, and one more thing: I am moving offices next week or so. There is a new building for the University (which is absolutely unfinished), and I will be sharing an office there with Idil and someone else: it'll be great!

Ciao,
OJ