German Travel Report from Turkey

Day 1 Sunday 27/11/2011

At a little past eight o'clock, our Comenius group, en route to Turkey, met at the railway station in our hometown of Loxstedt.  From there, we traveled to Bremen central station.  We waited nearly an hour before boarding a train for Hannover. From Hannover, we took a plane to Istanbul.  When we arrived, the bus that came to pick us up was much too small for the size of our group.  We managed to pack ourselves in the bus and went on our way to Körfez.  Everything was fine until we were stopped at a police control point.  It was then that we discovered our bus driver was driving without his license.  When we finally arrived in Körfez, we went to the homes of our host families. 

Day 2 Monday 28/11/2011

On the second day of our journey, we had our first real taste of Turkish culture via their school system.  At the Turkish school in Körfez, we met our international friends that are also part of the Comenius program. They came from the nations of France, Holland, and Denmark.  The Turkish students then put on a play for us to describe a typical day in Turkey.  After that, we gave PowerPoint presentations about ourselves and our futures in Europe.  Then some of the Turkish girl students danced for us.

Day 3 Tuesday 29/11/2011

The first thing we did on Tuesday was visit Körfez once again.  That day we properly introduced ourselves by presenting powerpoints about us.  When we finished at the school, our bus driver drove us to the top of a mountain.  Everyone was laying on the ground. So our Comenius group took part in a friendly snowball fight against the blue deer Herr Brunschede.  When Lennard tried to attack him from behind with a huge chunk of ice, he fell on his back and the blue deer pressed Lennard into the snow.  Afterwords, the mayor of the town of Körfez invited us to dinner for the evening.  After dinner, we went back to our host families.

Day 4 Wednesday 30/11/2011

We visited two museums on Wednesday.  The first displayed famous buildings and stuctures from Turkey, in miniature.  We saw the Blue Mosque and the fountains of Pamukkale under 2 meters tall. The next museum we visited had many Turkish vehicles including classic cars, tanks, planes, and even a submarine.  That afternoon everyone went to Istanbul and shopped and sightsaw.

Day 5 Thursday 1/12/2011

This day we met yet again at the school in Körfez.  After we were finnished at the school, we went to a world renowned carpet factory.  Many famous world figures have recieved carpets from here.  We had to wait to get back onto the bus because our bus driver had gone to a mosque to pray. When he returned, we went to the Ipek cake factory.  

Day 6 Friday 2/12/2011

On Friday, we all did a little shopping.  When we were finished with shopping, we went to our host families and spent some time with them for a while.  Later that night, we went to a good-bye ceremony.  There was much fun and dancing. 

Day 7 Friday 3/12/2011

Our Danish, Dutch, and French friends had left early this day but we were lucky enough to get to spend some time with our host families.  It was a time for bonding and saying good-bye.  Then in the late afternoon, we boarded our buses and headed to the airport.  Our journey was over.

French report of the trip to Turkey

 

 

 

We really looked forward to going to Turkey. Some of us dreamt of visiting this country and some of us had never taken a plane so it was very exciting. Our plane was late so we arrived quite late at the hotel. We met and introduced ourselves to the Danes who were at the same hotel as us.

After a short night, we had breakfast at the hotel (chips and chocolate paste for some of us! Yummy, yummy!). Then, we went to the Turkish school with Mesut our Turkish guide.  The Turkish pupils were very happy to see us and they kept on asking us our names and where we were from. We felt we were Very Important Persons. The school is different from ours: the pupils have to wear uniforms and there are many more pupils.  Pupils from each country showed their powerpoints about “me and my family”. The Turkish students performed a short play about how a Turkish family lives. Then, girls danced traditional Turkish dances for us. We played board games with all the other students. We had brought a game called Jungle Speed and it was quite successful.

We had lunch at school, it was typical Turkish food cooked by the mothers. It was surprising but we were glad to taste it.

In the afternoon, we went to a mountain and it was freezing cold so we chose to stay at the hotel and played jungle speed with the Danish students.

On Wednesday, we discovered Istanbul. It was great, we visited museums, Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. We had lunch at MacDonald’s and we did some shopping.

On Thursday we had dinner in a Turkish family. We really had fun and wanted to stay all night long.

The last dinner was a Turkish evening. We danced Turkish dances, students wrote messages on our t-shirts and we were given a certificate which proves we were in Turkey. It was really moving.

Our journey to Turkey was amazing and we learnt a lot. We had to speak English all day long even with our French friends and teachers, so we improved. We discovered other cultures and now we have new friends.

We wanted to thank again our Turkish hosts for our stay in their country; they are very nice and welcoming people.

 

 

 

Travel report from Team Denmark

We had an exciting and eventful journey to Turkey! One of the first experiences we had was a visit to the school. The Turkish school was very different from our school in Denmark with the school uniforms, the many students in each class and the fact that they have special subject rooms. At the school we were almost jumped upon by the small children, who wanted to ask us our names and where we were from. They were very fascinated by our fair skin, hair and blue eyes.
Everybody was excited about our visit and we had dinner with the mayor and governor and the press filmed everything. Speeches were given, lots of pictures were taken and we got a very nice pen and pencil as a present.
We found out that plans change in Turkey. Tuesday we thought we were going on a little “walk and talk” by a lake. We were loaded in a bus to go there. We were all tired because of all the new impressions and when we woke up we found ourselves on the top of a mountain with snow! We were not exactly dressed for the occasion so we had hot chocolate with the French students instead of hiking in the mountains.
We found Turkey – both the country and the people there – to be very different compared to our own country and Danish culture. It was SO interesting to visit Istanbul. When we were in The Blue Mosque the girls had to cover their hair with a scarf and we had to take off our shoes. It was a very different experience and good fun. We went shopping in the big city, too. And everywhere we went people came up to us and asked us where we came from and if we were athletes and why we were there. We saw lots of water pipes in the streets and we think Turkish people have a very different view of life.
Of course we had some spare time, too. We spent a lot of time with the French students because they also stayed at the hotel. We had some pleasant hours playing Jungle Speed and luckily we have Facebook so we can continue our newfound friendship there!
We had one golden rule: “Always speak English”! But sometimes we did speak our native language. Some students more than others!
The huge farewell party on Friday night was very Turkish. We all had to dance (or play as they said) and listen to Turkish pop music. We will never forget when all the lights went out and the emergency generator that filled up the room with smoke. We had a wonderful time, though! And we will never forget the absolutely fascinating friendly and very exotic country we have visited.
Katrine, Patrick, Benjamin, Emma, Mikkel and Nikolaj, Brenderup og Omegns Realskole

Comenius

Comenius Multilateral School Partnerships - Me and My Future in Europe

This summary explains what we're doing and why!

 

Summary of project (PDF)