There are millions of blogs out there. What’s the point in opening another one?
Well, this one is valuable to me in many ways. Let me tell you a little bit about myself to explain.
I was born in Istanbul, Turkey as the only child of a middle class, entrepreneur family, working in their own publication business. My parents are well educated, liberal, open minded and they are pretty above the intellectual standards of the society we live in.
My first memory about opening up to the outer world is in high school. I went to a private school with kids from upscale neighborhoods, and this friend of mine, one day came up with some great news: His mother was moving to Philadelphia for a long term duty, and he was going to go after her, as soon as she settles down. As being his best friend, i was invited to go with him, to live with them! Can you imagine how exciting this is for a kid in his adolescence, considering that we’re learning English, seeing United States in great mainstream movies, and envying an American kid in every way possible!
You can also imagine how little my chances are, to convince my parents to be a part of this plan. So, the dreams we had, while looking at the big album with great photos of Philadelphia didn’t last too long. Neither my friend, nor i went to USA that summer.
The first time i’ve been to America is years later, to attend a trade show organised by Siemens, representing the magazine published by my parents, as the best English speaking member of my family. I was really impressed by the Chicago city, and i strongly felt that the love for this beautiful land still existed deep down in my heart.
My second visit was to Orlando, Florida, followed by Miami. As i grew up, i slowly realized that the key element behind my feelings to this country was the size of its economy. The role of government in people’s lives, the concept of “taxpayer rights”, even those skyliners that formed the great view represented the same aspect of typical American lifestyle: “Prosperity”. (I’m aware that this comes at a price, and hope that some day capitalism, which exists in its wildest form in America, manages to find solutions to the problems it causes, mostly addressed by the great director, Michael Moore)
Later on, i got my undergraduate degree, and started thinking about a way to defer my mandatory military service. My GPA sucked, so i had very little chance to enroll in a graduate program in my college, Istanbul Tech. I started searching for private schools, that were more interested in your wallet, than your academic background. They were so expensive that, i found a better option in Virginia, a new college which was not accredited (something i did not care about), thus, was able to offer a very affordable tuition rate, even compared to the ones in Turkey. And there started my US journey, which lasted for one year. I left the Management Information Systems program incomplete, turned back to my country to start my own business.
During my stay in US, i’ve been to New York, Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Maryland and lots of other places. So, now i had a pretty solid perception of American life, and being a foreigner in America.
To cut a long story short, this blog aims to compare Turkey and USA, in terms of business, politics, and life in general, from the eyes of a Turkish citizen, who has spent some time in, and has a love for America.
So, if you’re interested, welcome to my blog, and please keep reading! 
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