Comenius Meeting Mai 2010- Feedback of the German students
1. Cem Yada
Before the last meeting of the Comenius Project in Mai 2010 I felt excited as well as nervous, for that there are several reasons: I visited Turkey often before this meeting, but always as usual Tourist and I have only visited my relatives, so I had never got the chance to live in a real Turkish family on my own. This project gave me the chance for that and I feel very thankful to my host family, because they were very friendly to me at all times and it was an honour for me to be Saffets guest for 4 days. All in all the students of the Bursa Polis College were very friendly to us as German delegation. I did not have any problems with any of them. It was really a very interesting stay and I especially enjoyed the talks at the evenings, when students from 5 nations were talking about different themes, their everyday lives as well as about political and economic questions. Of course there were also a few things I did not like very much, but the reason for that is that the life in Turkey is much different than the life I have here in Germany. One thing was for example that it was extremely hot sometimes, especially at the midday it was no pleasure to be on the bus, because it was so much warmer than in Europe. Another point I want to criticize is that I think that at the first day the program was maybe a little bit too much, a little bit too busy as to say but it was great that Mr. Öztürk gave us more free time the following day. The stay in Bursa was all in all very good and I enjoyed it very much, the only real bad thing was that it was so short- maybe it would be better if we had one whole week, because making real friendships takes usually longer than just a few days. The next part took place in Istanbul. This was also real impressive, because the imperial glory of the city with her great mosques and bazaars, her palaces and the Bosporus itself was really a proof for the old Greatness of the Ottoman Empire as well as for the targets the different people can reach if they are working together. As you probably know, at the Ottoman period of the city there were living ethnic groups of different origin in peace and harmony with each other, working and fighting for the Sultan and creating an unbelievable place between two continents, between two worlds. One of my personal highlights also took place in Istanbul, at the Blue Mosque: On Sunday I used the chance to pray there, which was really great and inspiring. In my opinion the Comenius project was one of the best projects I have ever worked for and I would feel honoured if I got the chance to continue working for it, because I see Comenius projects as the first step to a new future of this continent: To a future where the peoples of Europe and Turkey are working hand in hand to create peace for all.
2. Jale Yasan
Yeşil Beyaz- Yeşil Beyaz , Şampion- Bursa, Şampion-Bursa !! Well, I think, this is something we will never foget. The wonderful and proud students who are singing ore better screaming out these words. And there are a lot of other things and memories we will never forget too. It was an awesome and great time which we all spent in Bursa together, and I was and still am very happy to have been able to be a part of this project.
I met so many amazing people and saw so much of Bursa’s culture. It wasn’t my first time there , but I have never seen so many beautiful things. On top, I have never seen so many students who were always saying one phrase aganin and again- Oh no, not again dinner! I’m not hungry ! So, I think the Turkish hosts completely succeeded in trying to make us a “group”- we even had the same thoughts when we heard the words: “ Time for dinner”. But I think the most important aspect ist the turkish hospitality, which I really enjoyed. Their bids for us, to make us feel comfortable really impressed me. But I had the impression that it weren’t really the teachers, more the students who tried this. They always talked to everyone , and tried to make this short time an unforgettable sojourn.
Unfortunately there were some “rules“ for the girls which made it really hard, actually impossible to spend a bit more time with the others and get to know them better after the program. But there was one action which disappointed me most. I was really really happy and glad about the “ Final Meal” in the hotel. I thought it would be a wonderful ending after these days, to eat together with all the other groups. Sadly I was wrong. The turkish students were missing during our meal and so we were really shocked and disappointed about this fact.
Apart from these negative experiences, I really enjoyed our trip to Bursa. With all the police stuff, like driving in the car with the flashing blue light, dalling around with policemen or almost policemen, crossing the streets after someone had stopped the traffic- I really felt like Paris Hilton after some days . But unfortunately there is no one in Germany who stops the the traffic for me ;).
So all in all I really enjoyed our trip to Bursa. It was an instructional and interesting week, with so many fanstastic people.
At the end, I would really like to thank all the involved persons who worked on this project, the teachers, the families and of course the students.
But especially I want to thank all the students of our countries. I really enjoyed our time, and I’ll never forget this trip, where we all made some great expreiences together. You all are very sympathetic and kind persons so that it was impossible not to like you.
Greatings and Kisses from Germany to everyone,
Jale Yasan
3. Vanessa Seifert
My expectations and my cognition
I went to Bursa with mixed feelings.
I already knew some of the Turkish pupils which made me feel more confident.
Of course I was also very much delighted to meet my old friends again.
Because I had already taken part in a meeting here in Germany, I think I knew what would expect me.
I assumed from this that it would be only slightly different from the meeting in Germany, but very soon I had to find out that this was very different. In Bursa we were cordially received and surprised with many program points.
There was so much to see and to find out that you could hardly see everything.
Luckily there were cameras around to take photos of these moments.
Some of the days were very exhausting, so that at the end of these days everyone was very tired and only wanted to go to bed.
All in all, the stay in Bursa was something special and wonderful, because the Turkish hosts have given us an insight into another culture.
This week has helped me to learn something about the culture and to understand some things better, because I have spoken a lot with my host family. My host mother could explain many things to me which perplexed me, because here in Germany you hear many prejudices.
I can say that especially the meeting in Turkey has shown that the different culture cannot be the reason for a lack of integration in e.g. Germany.
All results of the groups and the workshops show to me that the problem is ignorance and lacking clarification what every land should work on. The Comenius project is a very good beginning!
4. Markus Baumeister
It's time for dinner!
Bursa- two million people live in this city, located about 150 km south of Istanbul.
You can recognize these two million people, the city-center is just overcrowded. Bursa is one big traffic jam. Especially on hot days it is difficult to breathe there as a consequence of all the smog.
But that is not the point. It does not matter whether the air is a little bit dirty. What does matter are the people living there and how their mentality is. I really liked the Turkish people. They are communicative and impulsive.
Furthermore, I had the chance to enjoy the Turkish hospitality, for which they are famous all over the world. For instance, we, as guests, received a lot of presents.
Particularly, the food was very, very, very good, but it was too much for my “German-stomach”.
During the stay in Turkey, I learned one important sentence, referring to the meal: “yok, sal”, which means “no, thanks”.
The guys from Bursa Polis Koleji (our partner school) were very interested in telling us something about their culture and their life in Turkey. They even succeeded in bringing the whole group together to sing the hymn of BURSASPOR, the Turkish football champion of 2010.
I really enjoyed spending time together with the whole group (from: Poland, France, Italy, Romania, Turkey and Germany) although there were some language-barriers.
But from my point of view, we had not enough private time with the group of students, because the program was very busy.
We met each other in some restaurants, but every time without the girls. Till today I can't understand why.
There was one point that really irritated me: on the last evening we had dinner together at the hotel where the teachers stayed. It was very nice, with excellent food and excellent furnishings. But where were the Turkish students??? They did not eat together with us. We talked about integration between young people in Europe all the time and then the Turkish group was separated from us. This is not integration!
All in all, I enjoyed the stay in Turkey. It was fantastic to see how real Turkish families live, because I had just known Turkish life from Alanya (in a holiday region). Although there were some problems, we had a nice time together.
At last I wanted to thank my exchange student (Hüseyin Karagöz) and my exchange parents for accomodating me warmly.
With greetings to all Comenius students and teachers,
Markus Baumeister (Germany)
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