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Saturday, 23 November 2013

Reflections upon 1st Comenius Project Meeting – Yalova, Turkey


Viribus Unitis
http://viribusunitis.org/
6th -9th November 2012
Written by the students of VIII PALO Kraków, Poland
IB2 class student: Maciek Bielski :
Preparations for our meeting in Yalova within the Comenius project started in mid-October, just after we
made our team consisting of me and my three classmates: Gabriela, Karolina and Weronika. We have started
from gathering useful data that would help us with preparing the presentation on the project’s main theme
– water. Each of us was allotted the questions that we were supposed to answer the presentation. We were
also asked to prepare a questionnaire that we published on the Internet in order to get as many answers as
we could. In the mean time we managed to make a plan of our preceding visit in Istanbul and organize things
such as hostel etc. Then, after collecting all needed data, we made the presentation that we were about to
show in Turkey.
Istanbul welcomed us with warm weather and great atmosphere. Three days we spent there were great part
of our whole trip, as we could not only see but also experience life there. We were sightseeing the oldest
part of the city with all the monuments and mosques, which will certainly be remembered for a long time.
Then we went to Yalova for the project itself. Our host-families greeted us with great hospitality, it is
perceived as really enlightening experience. We managed to make new friends and we are looking out for
other meetings.
VIII PALO – IB World School – Kraków, Poland. http://www.viiipalo.krakow.pl/
Page 2
IB2 class student - Weronika Kiebzak:
Our trip to Turkey was undoubtedly an interesting experience. We started our preparations long before the
actual depart by gathering information on conditions of water in Cracow and preparing a presentation. We
carried out a penetrating research that deepened our knowledge on this subject. In Turkey, we were able to
watch the presentations of other countries. During our stay in Yalova we found various ways to
communicate with our host families and other participants of the Comenius. Luckily, we were able to make
new friendships. We were also astonished by the great hospitability of Turkish people. We were treated as
members of our host families and our correspondents saw us off with tears.
During our stay we spent 3 days in Istanbul and a few days in Yalova. We were able to observe cultural
differences between Polish and Turkish people and even between citizens of those two cities. Moreover, we
were very pleased with the atmosphere of Istanbul, which was rather surprising, as we had heard that this is
a dangerous city. Still, it must be admitted that Istanbul has a specific atmosphere that can’t be compared to
any other European city. Is it surprising how many differences there are between Istanbul and Yalova
although they are so close.
All in all, our trip to Turkey was very inspiring. We have many new experiences, we managed to work
collaboratively with others on WATER, we developed our organizational skills and increased our awareness
of the cultural diversity across the world.
IB2 class student - Karolina Sioda:
On 10th November me and three other students from my class had a chance to go to Turkey for a six day
trip. Three days of our journey we spent in Istanbul living just by the Blue Mosque. We saw a lot of amazing
places and monuments and mosques including Hagia Sophia and Marmara Sea coast. After three days of
fruitful sightseeing mostly around Sultanahmet district, we went with students from Partner countries to a
small city called Yalova. It is on the opposite side of Marmara sea and it is a small village. We went there for
the Comenius project, which aim is to unite people from all Europe, exchange each participant country's
culture and to discuss a important ecological issue. In our project, during the first meeting we were talking
about water and it's resources. Each group talked about their water reservoirs, drinking water and sewage
systems. We also had a chance to see water treatment plant and Yalova's water source.
The whole trip was a great experience and opportunity to try Turkish cuisine (kebab is much better in
Poland, but Turkish tea is just amazing!), know their religion and customs better. Also knowing people from
Slovenia, Latvia or Finland and other partner schools was really nice and we had a great time there. We are
all looking forward for next meeting hopefully in Slovenia!
Organized by PACK school project coordinator AK-K

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