Oriflame Summer Internship

Today I began my last week of my internship here in Istanbul. This internship has been an adventure and I have learned a lot about Oriflame, Istanbul, Turkish culture, product categories and to work in an other country. It is with mixed feelings that I will leave for Sweden on Friday. On one hand I look forward to some vacation and seeing my family and boyfriend, but on the other I will miss Istanbul where everyday brings knew knowledge and surprises.

 

This week I have my final presentation for our Turkey CEO, Johan, and I will be working on finishing everything in the best possible way until then. Today I received additional feedback from our marking manager, Muge, which helps me improve my presentation. I'm very grateful for her enthusiasm and help. I keep my fingers crossed for a successful final presentation on Wednesday!

This weekend I took the opportunity to do some shopping, suntanning and visiting some of the places that I have really come to like here in Istanbul. I went to my two favourite breakfast places, Mangerie and Aheste and had turkish breakfast.I went suntanning and swimming in a pool with a friend. I went to the really nice areas Besiktas and Karaköy for some food and shopping. And I walked the beach promenade by the Bosphorous. I have come to like Istanbul a lot and will definitly be back in the future.Pancakes at Aheste

Bosphorous view on the bridge by EminönuBebek beach promenade

/Emilia 

Hello hello!

Lately, I’ve been finalizing the end presentation of my project and my dear friend Andreas visited over the weekend.

Visit from my friend Andreas

My friend Andreas flew in last Thursday and stayed until early Monday morning. There has been plenty of roof top bars, good food and drinks. He arrived Thursday afternoon and we just went out for food in the evening. He spent the Friday river cruising and walking around in the city center while I was at work. In the evening, we went out for food and drinks. Before we called it an evening we took a drink at Kalina Bar, which has a good view of the city.

Saturday, we went to VDNHa, which is a large park with fountains, weird Soviet pavilions and a large green territory. We rented a couple of bikes to go around, which was nice. However, unfortunately the park is getting an extreme makeover renovation this year so basically the whole park except the green territory is a construction site. In the evening, we went out for some dinner and drinks together with my girlfriend. We ended the evening at O2 Bar, which is located on top of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel right next to the Kremlin. The view is unbeatable!

 Fountain in VDNHa.

 SU-27 Flanker on display in VDNHa.

 Andreas and Lolita at Karlson Restaurant.

View from O2 Bar of The Four Seasons Hotel, Old City Hall and the Kremlin.

The visit was rounded off with a trip to Sanduny, the oldest public banya here. Founded in 1808 it is still in the game. Nice way to relax on a Sunday afternoon.

Now  it’s time for me to return to my preparations of my final presentation, which is due on Wednesday!

/Anton

Izabela has gone on vacation now and will not be back here until I have left. She has been a great friend at the office sitting right next to me. Since I only know a few Turkish words, it has been really nice to have somebody at the office that speaks English all the time. I will truly miss her and her enregy!

But before she went for vacation, me, Izabela and Özgur decided to go for a dinner together this Monday. We went to a really nice area just by the sea side, called Bebek. We ate in a resurant just by the water(Acctually on the water), with amazing veiw and had a really nice time! 

This week has been very busy since I will have my first project presentation for our marketing manager on Tuesday next week. I have worked long hours and also worked a bit on Saturday. I still have a few things that I would like to finish before the project presentation. I hope that I will have time to finish everything in the way I want on Monday. 

Today, Sunday, I have been visiting one of my colleagues, Turkan, and her family. They live in Uskudar on the Asian side of Istanbul. Turkan and her son welcomed me by harbor in Uskudar at 12.30 and we went to the market to shop some fresh fish for our lunch.

Me and Turkans son

Uskudar was a lovely part of Istanbul with a lot of coulourful streets and nice people. It felt like I finally got the chance to see some genuine Turkish culture today. I helped Turkan to prepare the lunch(I have really missed to be able to cook since I live in a hotel for the summer) and I got an cook book with Turkish dishes(in English) in present from the family. I'm looking forward to try some of the recipes when I come back to Sweden and my kitchen. After the lunch me and Turkan's family went for coffee by the bosphorus and talked about cultural differences, politics and life in general. 

Me and Turkans family by the dinner table

I had a really nice time. Thank you so much Turkan with family for having me! :) 

/Emilia

Hello!

Trend workshop on Thursday

Yesterday I attended a workshop on market trends. We spent the whole afternoon reading up on new trends and brainstorming new ideas. It was a lot of fun. Twice a year such workshops are arranged to make people here stay in touch with the demand on the market. Around 25 people attended and we got to take part of current trends both in the consumer as well as competitor area. It was interesting to take part of what’s going on. I had already heard of most of the trends since this is what I’ve spent a lot of time working on here.  We spent time in small groups to brainstorm new ideas. It was fun and I think some there were plenty of feasible ideas generated that day! 

Good hamburger afterwork

This Friday I went to my girlfriend’s graduation ball on the Moscow river. After another week with intense rain and low temperatures it was nice with a moment of celebrations, food and dance.

I took off from work around 18:00 on Friday afternoon and met up with Lolita at Kievskiy Vokzal, one of the major railway stations, at 18:45. The boat was waiting for everyone down by the pier. I had put on a dark suit for the occasion. The invitation said black tie but I thought I could get away with an ordinary suit. I was right since there were only artsy and theatrical people at the ball and most people of them have probably never had a reason to dress up in a smoking. One girl had even misunderstood what black tie meant and came to the ball in a black dress and a black whip(?!) as accessory. :) At 20:00 the boat took off and cruised along the Moscow river for a couple of hours. There were speeches, a lot of them before they served the food. The student in me still threw itself on the occurrence of unlimited free food and wine. It was good and tasty. They had a couple of jazz bands, who played during the dinner and afterwards a DJ took over and everyone went to the dance floor. We also danced and had a good time. Overall, it was a great evening with nice view of the city, good food and fun times.

 The dance floor is open!

Stay tuned!

/Anton

 

 

Hello!

I’ve been quite busy the last week with both work and leisure. Unfortunately had to postpone some blog writing. I am closing in on the end of my project as well of my staying here. There has been a lot of meetings and some minor presentations at work since last week. It as a lot of fun and I have taken on some new tasks for other stakeholders as well.

Farewell celebrations and banya

This weekend I said my farewells to a friend who’s leaving Moscow for new pastures. We were a gang of Swedes, Finns, Latvians and Russian who spent the evening together. First the larger part of the group went to Sandunovskie Bani, which is a Moscow landmark and one of the oldest banyas in central Moscow. It was nice just hanging out, having some beer, vodka and snacks. Afterwards we met up with some more people at a trendy Mediterranean restaurant.

Coldest summer in 130 years

Since Monday I’ve been digging into my work tasks. They say this is the coldest summer in 130 years here. The weather has been quite terrible since my arrival. It feels like it has been raining every day and rather cold. This is strange because usually Moscow summer are very hot! Anyway, it has been easy to focus on work. Just looking out the window and seeing all the grey clouds, rain and thunder makes it feel quite cozy to sit behind the computer in the office. :)

 Lovely company.

It hasn't been raining all the time so yesterday I could take a walk in the Gorkiy Park with Lolita. The Gorkiy Park is Moscow's main city park. Summertime, it is green with trees, flowers and park ways. There are a lot of cafes and restaurants there and it is one of the most beloved places by Moscovites for leisure time.

All the best,

Anton

Hi! 

This weekend my mom came to visit me here in Istanbul. The beautiful and modern Istanbul surprised her - she liked it a lot more than she thought that she would. I was offshore very happy that she was here and showed her around in the city. Mom happened to pick the warmest weekend here so far (and apparently also a record for this month in Istanbul I heard?) and we were sweating the entire weekend in 35-40°C. Puh!

When She arrived Friday afternoon I went to meet her at our hotel(The Marmara pera) and we went up for a drink on the hotel roof top bar. One big reason for choosing that hotel was that it had a pool on the rooftop, but the roof top bar was really amazing! The hotel is one of the highest buildings in the Pera area in Istanbul and you can see the entire city while lying in the pool or taking a drink in the bar. After telling mom about the different areas of Istanbul from above we went to eat traditional fish meze at a restaurant with a view of Bosporus. The food was not really her cup of tea, but at least she got to try some traditional Turkish food. 

Saturday morning, we woke up early to take the ferry to an island group called "Princess Islands" just outside of Istanbul, to escape the heat in the city. It was a pretty long and hot boat ride, but when we got there it was definitely worth it. We rented two sunbeds and one parasol and alternated between reading books and swimming in the ocean the entire day. 

On Sunday we sunbathed on the hotel rooftop and went for a city tour. We had seen a nice looking restaurant in our area the night before that we planned to visit for lunch, but when we came there they still only served Turkish breakfast (this was 3 pm...). Anyway, we decided to go for a second breakfast instead of lunch - and it was very tasty! It included all sorts of small dishes. Cheese, jams, olives, yoghurt - and everything in all you can eat style. I really want to go back to that place. The rest of day went by very fast and on Monday morning I hugged mom goodbye when I took the subway to the Oriflame office. Thank you so much for the visit mom!

/Emilia