I went to Istanbul 🇹🇷

It’s already been around three months since I posted about heading to the UK. I’ve now settled into life here and recently completed Term 1 without any issues. While my days are busy with lectures and working on different research projects even as a first-year PhD student, I’m finding my life here very fulfilling. In particular, having been a teacher before, I struggled to carve out time for research, so now I truly appreciate being able to dedicate myself to it every day.

The biggest culture shock I’ve experienced here so far recently was the attitude towards work. Personally, when I think about post-PhD job hunting (assuming I aim to stay in academia), I feel the need to not only build a solid foundation of knowledge but also produce tangible achievements to stay competitive in such a challenging environment. This drives me to actively push forward with my research and make efforts to publish my work. However, I’m often told here, “You’re overdoing it” or “Take it easier and just enjoy your first year.” Of course, there are individual differences in perspective, but I strongly sense that these views stem from a significant cultural difference.

With that in mind, and at the encouragement of colleagues who kept telling me to take a break and travel, I decided to go on a trip. I visited Turkey for the first time, and it was an incredible experience, especially the food—it was nothing short of amazing. That said, Turkey’s currency, the lira, has been extremely volatile and is currently plummeting, leading to significantly high prices. In restaurants, most menu prices were written in marker pen, and you could see marks where they’d been updated multiple times. To be honest, I’d never been particularly interested in Turkey before this trip, but after visiting, I’ve developed a strong interest in its economy, politics, religion, and much more.

I had no idea about Turkey before, but I learnt that Turkish people always drink "çay" after meals. It was incredibly delicious, and I completely fell in love with it, rather than drinking coffee. I think I ended up drinking at least 15 cups during my stay 🙂