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Hi, my name is Ahmed. I’m from Egypt, I come from Egyptian culture. I’m an exchange student here for 1 year and I have 1 more to go.

1. Why Istanbul?
So, coming from Egypt, really close culture as Turkish, it’s a really great pleasure. You travel and you see new stuff but at the same time you have this old feeling taking you to your own country which is really really welcoming and warming
2. What was your doubts before you come and which ones have changed?
I’ve kinda thought that it’s not so diverse. I thought it’s like quite similar to Egypt but at the end it’s so NOT. It’s much larger. Lots of people come here, lots of people love here. And like I said it’s really warming, it’s beautiful. Is it safe? Well, safe is a relative thing. If you ask me when I’m with friends or anywhere I want, yeah I’m safe but if I’m alone somewhere that can happen anything.. I don’t know but who cares? If you’re around people that you like and somewhere you want it keeps you safe in a way that you want. Also the safety topic is kinda similar in Egypt. You might hear some attacks but it’s not necessarily like that. Terrorism is all around the world, you can never hide from that. You just have to find a place where you wanna go and that’s just the main way to look at it basically.
3. What is the best thing that happened to you in Istanbul?
Meeting new friends from other cultures. They taught me new stuff, I’ve learned their cultures. It was my own experience that was really much more than I expected. A person can learn so much just by traveling and definitely Istanbul gives you this lecture.
4. What do you want to say to those who want to do Erasmus in ITU?
If you don’t come, you will miss lots of things basically because ITU is a part of a community here. Not coming is really losing lots of stuff. That’s something I can say for sure.