Before he left Turkey for the US to study civil engineering at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Husnu Ozyegin bought a notebook and started keeping his accounts.
The first entry was made on July 11, 1963 under the heading "my financial standing", and consisted of the following list:
1,000 Swiss francs
2,350 Turkish liras
2,000 Italian lire
100 American dollars
120 Deutschmarks
100 French francs
24 American dollars (in coin)
"With so little money to start with I thought I might spend less if I actually put down every cent I spent," he says. He kept changing his money into different denominations as a hedge against currency fluctuations.
On July 29, having bought boat tickets from Izmir to the States via Venice and La Harve his financial standing was reduced to $572 and 30 Dutch guilders. After he reached Corvallis the money started running out quickly and not only on account of blotter, pencil, erasers $4.38 or physics lab notes $0.90. Non-academic expenses such as California trip (gas + food) $8.00, Fran's flowers $3.00, liquor for house dance $4.00