Can someone please explain how this happened?

You know how you have a switchboard that runs your life?  Dials for "sleep," "stress," "caffeine level," you know, stuff like that.
Okay, fine then.  I have one, at least.

I'm not totally sure how the "homework," "busy," and "stress" buttons got turned up and the "run like you're going to be late, because you probably are" button got hit, but it's all happened.  Just this week, I've had a group project due, a presentation, and a paper, and that's not including all of my usual homework, choreographing a dance for Rugcutters (Coe's swing dance club) to perform at Formal, teaching said choreography, plus teaching basic swing, tutoring, or the occasional things I do for fun, like going to talks on Langton's Ants or row-reduced matrices (and the only reason I get to call them "fun" instead of "homework" is because I currently don't need the extra points for my math classes).

It occurs to me:
Classes:
-History of Western Architecture (okay, I'm auditing it because (1) I've already taken it, and (2) I need the information on Gothic and Renaissance cathedrals for my thesis)
-Complex Analysis (evil most evilistist class of evil ever invented)
-Advanced Geometry
-Fiction Workshop
-Honors: Subversive Theatre (fascinating.  It's all about theatre in Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia communist rule)

It also occurs to me the only reason I'm writing this now is because I'm procrastinating on my paper for Subversive Theatre on Vaclav Havel's The Hotel.  Sadly, my thesis cannot be: "Havel lost his touch for this play, as all of the meaning comes from Pechar's singing the theme from Doctor Zhivago through the whole thing."

m.

The Single Biggest Thing I Wish I'd Known Before Taking Classes In Turkey:

Thanks to a string of connections that began with my mother and ended up with...okay, lots of people, I can now say that this entire trip would have been far easier had I (and Coe) known one thing about how university works here.

First, a quick background on how I obtained such valuable knowledge:

My mom used to work with someone who used to work in Istanbul and has friends who still work here, in charge of a team of twenty-year-olds who work on different university campuses here (oblique enough? Good. That's what I was going for).

One of the girls has a younger sister (I think she's a year older than me) who studied here for a year, and it is she who gave me the Great Advice.

The Great Advice:

Turkish universities (obviously) operate differently from American ones.

Here, it's normal to squash as many possible classes into your week as possible, and then take a couple more. Most students here take at least 21 credit hours--nine, ten, eleven classes are all normal.

When there's a "clash" (when two classes overlap), it doesn't really matter. Most professors are okay with it (I, apparently, got the only exceptions).

Because they take so many classes, it's also completely normal to fail one or two courses a semester and then just take them over again.

Had someone known this going in, holy crap my life would have been easier.

m.