Tony, take it easy...

As school gets under way I am beginning to feel the pressures of deadlines and commitments. Time moves at a different pace in Istanbul. Textbooks, which should have been available at the start of classes, are finally arriving in the form of a photocopied reproduction. Understand that bookstores only order a handful of textbooks for each class as they will likely be photocopied and made available to the rest of the university at a fraction of the cost. All copy rights aside, I wish they were copied earlier. In my Psychology of Personality and Psychopathology classes I am over 150 pages behind (in both classes) because of the lag in transfer.
My roommate reminds me to relax as all the students are in this same predicament. “If you can’t get caught up with your studies it’s unlikely that anyone else can,” Chris explains. I suppose I feel a greater responsibility for my studies while abroad because I am unsure of the value of my lectures. No one ever goes on exchange trips for the prospect of academics; I’ll have to strike up a happy medium.