Today noticed a really funny thing for me, it is pretty hot here now as I told you and I observed a man who was wearing his ordinary shoes but as slip-ons to let some air into his feet (however still wearing his socks) and I asked someone about this and they said oh yeah the people do that then they do not need to buynew shoes their winter shoes easily turn inot summer sandals...they are so resourceful here!

It's a sad day for me today, leaving my office where as some of you probably realised I spent too much time e-mailing and writing my travel stories, however when I was not doing this I was researching multimedia design and finding some cool visuals too to present in the classes. This week the students from my class had their final jury, it is called jury as the lecturers come from all modules to a 7 hour exam viewing each student's work and critiquing it heavily, they are honest and do not fear saying 'you will get 50% as you did not even attend the classes' for example! I attended to view them too and to my surprise my lecturer I assisted asked me to step forward and pulled the chair out for me to join the jury, as he did this there was some shock in the room as the students rushed to change their project proposal, if they had not done already so, to English! It was a great way to finish my time working at the university.

Also asked for a reference letter and of course one of my tasks here was when a foreigner needed a reference letter I would write as the only native English writer, so of course I also wrote my own reference. So I can say for sure it reads pretty dam good!

So how will I spend my last weekend? Am going on a boat trip tonight with a bunch of foreigners. Probably will involve drinking beer, not sure if that is a good combination!?

Tomorrow will go to a place called Sile, on the north coast outside of Istanbul to swim in the beautiful Turkey blue sea and soak up the sun's rays one more time and on Sunday should be going to Edirne a city north-west of Istanbul for the annual olive-oil wrestling competition, yes really the men wrestle while covered in olive oil!

Monday night will have my farewell party in a place called Ferdane, where I always go to drink cherry wine, and they also sell beer in a 1.5 litre glass...so I think on Tuesday when I fly home I will still be a bit worse for wear.

One last thought: on my notice board at work I have left a note that reads:

I have left :(
You can contact me at:
charlottejoyce@hotmail.com
Enjoy hot Turkey and think of me in cold England
Charlotte