These days, Istanbul has become unbearably hot, and it's only going to get hotter. Being between two large seas has pushed the humidity beyond tolerable limits, reaching 70%. This makes the evenings particularly challenging, walking the 600 meters from my apartment to the office leaves me completely drenched in sweat, and surviving the rest of the day without a shower is impossible.

The problem wasn’t noticeable during the hours I spent in the office with the air conditioning set to 18°C, until my Arab colleague, Mahend, finally spoke up and said he couldn’t concentrate or work even with his jacket on. Worth mentioning: he’s spent half his life working in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Africa, and similar countries, so he has no idea how I manage to set the room to 18°C in just a T-shirt.

After much back-and-forth, we finally agreed that the temperature would be 18°C before lunch and 28°C after lunch. That’s how I end up feeling like I’m in Tabriz in the mornings and Africa in the afternoons.

Mohanned's parents live in Syria, and his efforts to convince them to immigrate haven’t succeeded yet, despite a bomb going off near their home in Damascus. I silently hoped that such a challenge would stay far away from me.