I am a university student from Istanbul and I am studying physics and electrical-electronics engineering. I love travelling and learning new things about the world we live in and I love discovering new places. That is why I am currently in Spain for Erasmus exchange program, which I would have never imagined 2 years ago!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

When travelling, meeting local people is the best way to connect with the place that you are visiting and learn more about the people and the place. That is why I wanted to try couchsurfing when travelling, because it gives me the opportunity to see the city or country from a different perspective.

Interests

• cycling
• geography
• languages
• physics
• linguistics

Music, Movies, and Books

Favourite songs: Viva La Vida; Adventure of a Lifetime; Bu Son Olsun; Deli

Favourite movies: Memento; Interstellar; Lord of the Rings

As you can see, I like movies that make the audience think and that surprise the audience. You may have guessed that Christopher Nolan is my favourite director :) I am also a huge fan of the fantasy genre in movies, TV series and novels.

Favourite books: Guns, Germs, and Steel; Harry Potter; Statistical Physics by Frederick Reif (yes, seriously)

I put Guns, Germs, and Steel in this list because it is a nonfiction book that makes its point by drawing arguments from many diverse disciplines, such as linguistics, anthropology and archaeology. That is why I liked it a lot, that approach made it a lot of fun to read and also contributed a lot to my knowledge about peoples of the world.

Harry Potter, because it was the first book that I seriously enjoyed reading in my life. I read it when I was in middle school and it made me love reading and discovering fictional worlds. I still come back and read it in languages that I try to learn from time to time.

A textbook would not be in many people's favourite books list but I loved learning from Statistical Physics by Frederick Reif. It has a very clear but distinct approach to thermodynamics, it starts by teaching the statistical aspects of physical systems, then moves to topics like statistical interpretation of entropy and then leads to the classical thermodynamics. I absolutely loved this approach and it made learning thermodynamics much more intuitive and made me look at it from a different perspective. If you want to seriously learn about physics, I absolutely recommend it :)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Coming to Malaga for Erasmus is on top of this list for me. It was the first time in my life that I made the decision of not only going out of my comfort zone, but running away from it. I also could have chosen other amazing countries and universities that would have contributed a lot to me, both intellectually and academically, but I decided to chose the option that would give me a more unforgettable life experience instead of academic experience. I never regret this decision, I love being in Spain and getting to see places that I never would have seen otherwise and having experiences that I never would have had otherwise.

Teach, Learn, Share

I believe I can give many people a different perspective to look at many things. I am from Turkey and when people from different places meet each other, they all look at things from a different perspective because the things they experienced in life are vastly different. That is why I think that getting to know people from many different backgrounds is one of the most eye-opening experiences in life, because we can all teach each other what we see in things we look at.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Like I said, meeting people from diverse backgrounds is the best way to learn new perspectives, and I absolutely believe that I have something to contribute to everybody :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Gibraltar, Spain

Countries I’ve Lived In

Spain, Turkey