The most challenging period of all semester has come to an end, the finals. The final exams were like a monster, but the satisfaction of completing them is intense. But that was not the only thing that happened in the last weeks, the first weeks of December were the final weeks of classes, after which the exam period started. This exam period happened during Christmas and during New Year, which was also new for me. It was a month of hard work and big achievements.

The Final Weeks of Classes

In December I had three weeks of classes left. These weeks were fun, but also took a lot of my time. A lot of assignments had to be finished before the finals started. The 19th of December I had my last class of the semester, my last class in Istanbul. It was a weird feelings, time flew by. There were a total of thirteen weeks of classes, and it felt like five.

The overall feeling of my classes were that the quality of education was much higher than I initally expected. I’m used to Dutch university classes, which are of a high standard. However, most classes here were of a higher standard in my opinion.

Beforehand, I was told that the workload in Türkiye was lower than in the Netherlands. But again, in my opinion that is not the truth. I experienced a lot more workload than my study in the Netherlands.

The athmosphere in the classes was also very different than what I expected. The classes here often felt more like a group, while at my home university this is not really the case.

The Finals

I had some mixed feelings about the finals. Some of the finals were very easy compared to exams I make in the Netherlands, while other exams were quite hard compared to this. The results of most exams are not back yet, but the results that I already got back, were positive.

I was quite unlucky with my exams compared to other students. I had 4 written exams and a presentation, much more than most other students. Three of those written exams were after the New Year period, meaning that last week was a lot of hard studying. Yesterday I made my final exam and I’m relieved that all of it is behind me now.

The Holidays

Something that I’m not used to, is that I don’t have a two week holiday at this time of the year. Normally, in the Netherlands, there are two weeks of holiday. In this holiday we celebrate Christmas and New Year. With my exam schedule, fortunately I could spend the Christmas holiday with my girlfriend. However, because it is not really celebrated here in Türkiye the Christmas feeling was not there at all.

The same goes for the New Year period, it was quiet around midnight and because of my busy schedule those days I spend a lot of time studying during these days.

So, the holiday feelings were not really here, but at least the upcoming three weeks will make up for it. There are a lot of exciting things left, before I go back to my country. It has been a rollercoaster these months and it is not finished yet.

Last weeks have been incredibly busy, but now it is time to enjoy a few more weeks. It’s coming to an end…

Thank you for reading, next time we will talk about these last weeks. Don’t forget to follow my socials, and if you have any question or comment you can put it down below!