hi everyone,

Phil told me that today it was hotter in Utrecht then it was in Istanbul! Good to hear you have nice weather too. I put up a few new pictures. Yesterday it was 'Republic Day', when the Turks celebrate their victory over the Greeks in 1922, after which Ataturk founded the Republic and started his secular reforms. Everywhere we were, masses of big Turkish flags. I have been meeting more and more Erasmus students, and on Republic Day a big group of us headed for the beach about 1 hour outside of Istanbul. Especially the big group of German students was sensitive for this all this hyper-nationalistic energy. But on the beach itself we did not notice anything at all, and I was relieved that we fitted in perfectly with the locals who were also wearing bikini's. 

Tomorrow my language course starts, and I can't wait to get to know more about the Turkish language, and meet some new people. I am pretty happy in the end that I am not in the Erasmus course, since it is pretty massive, and now I will also meet some non-students.

I hope everyone is doing fine, with starting up there schools and jobs also, although most of you are already working again.

Hope your weather lasts for a bit,

love, sacha