Second Full Day in Istanbul

Why is it that people come to a meeting totally unprepared?  We met today at two Universities and had presentations from 3.  At the first one (we had to leave the hotel at 8am) they had a very formal set up.  Reminded me of the meetings the old Soviet Union used to have.  Flowers on the tables, mikes, coffee/tea/water at each place and a plate of cookies.  The woman who made the presentation was nervous, she read from the slides which had way too many words on them, and kept sighing.  It was horrible. And this was from a University that focuses on technology. We then got on the bus and went to the Turkish Cultural Foundation where we met with representatives from three universities.  One was very prepared and very professional.  The other two did not have cards nor did they have materials and all they did was read from their slides.  Poor poor presentations. We then when to the spice market.  What a hoot that place was.  We  basically rebelled and told the folks running the trip no more, we need to shop and we need to walk and we need down time. So we went to the.  After that we took a boat to the Asian side of Istanbul.  Much more residential.  I liked it better.  We went to a local artist that specializes in marble art. After watching her we all took a turn at creating our own marble art.  We then took the boat back to the European side and had dinner at another University.  This one was done right.  No power points just a few remarks of welcome, good wine, good food, good company.  We all were moaning about how tired we were and were dragging into the place.  But moods quickly changed when we were taken to the top floor of one of the buildings to the faculty club for dinner.  Once up there we discovered it overlooked the Bosporus and we watched the sun set over the Bosporus.  Absolutely stunning.  No wonder they call it the Golden Horn!!!  The President of the University came and sat next to us and we discovered he spends his spare time (?) writing mystery novels and have had two published that are best sellers.  He is working on a third.  Unfortunately they are only in Turkish.
We had a wonderful evening.