I arrived at Montreal on August 21st, and I have been experiencing lots of orientation activities for past week. It was an awesome beginning; I met lots of people that I will be dealing for next 4 years. These were the activities I was in:

August 23 – Rez Fest
August 24 – Discover McGill & Street Fest
August 25,26,27 – Science Frosh Mardi Gras
August 28,29 – SSMU Frosh

I just toured around the city with my friends on August 30&31. Signed up for the gym, looked for the buildings where my classes will take place. Tomorrow is the day! Classes begin! After 5 days of laziness of the frosh week!

I have been recently working on the information about my school in Wikipedia. Even though I have came to an end with my high school life, the journey of Tarsus American College has just begun for me since the taste of its traditions and spirit flourishes with graduation and never ends. I have been reading about school’s history for a long time and now that I am graduating from high school, I believe that this is the time for me to share some authentic facts and unique documents about my school which has a history of 122 years, Tarsus American College in Turkey.

The last year of my high school education started this week on Monday. As the followers of the school tradition, we came into school with t-shirts, flag and poster that I have designed. Additionally, I received the Guner Baykal Award which is given for the first time to the student with the highest honor points. That was me last year; therefore, I won a ticket to New York as a prize. In short, everything went fine this week; I hope it will also on following days.

Italy is shocked with the 6.3 moment magnitude earthquake which happened in the historical region named L’Aquila 4 days ago. They are 290 casualties, 1174 injuries and 11 missing people as the authorities noticed. Emergency workers are trying hard to save lives while the hopes are descending to save new lives because the time is passing by.

It is stated that an Italian seismologist, Giampaolo Giuliani, reported the earthquake a week before it happened, but no one listened to him. Giuliani said that he was silenced by prosecution; moreover, he stated that he was able to foresee the earthquake by looking to the increase in the spreading amount of the radon gases.

The prime minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, cancelled his trip to Russia and announced mobilization in the country. People who lost their lives in the earthquake are buried by government ceremony. May God have mercy on all those people who lost their lives in the earthquake.

Planned a month ago, Obama’s Turkey trip has created a big sensation in Turkey. Obama’s polite and graceful attitudes showed his endeavours to change the view of United States for Turkey. It was Obama’s first visit to a country as the president of the United States as he stated. Obama is welcomed excitedly by the Turkish folk comparing to the any other previous presidents of the US.

Obama’s plane Air Force I arrived to Ankara Esenboga Airport on April 5th, Sunday night, and he went to hotel that night. On April 6th, Obama’s trip started formally. First of all, he visited Anitkabir, the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who is the founder of modern Turkey; therefore, he is appreciated because of this trip since he showed his regard to the modern, secular Turkey and its founder. He left a note to guess notebook of Anitkabir concluding with Ataturk’s famous quote: “Peace in the world, peace in the country.” After that, he visited Abdullah Gul, the president of Turkey; furthermore, he went to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) to make a speech. This speech was the most important speech during his trip, and I watched it live.