Pictures from Turkey

Diary from Comenius meeting in Turkey

1/5- 9/5 2010

Pazartesi (Monday 3/5)

Merhaba!

Our first school day in Turkey! I met Ida, Amanda, Beatrice and their Turkish hosts at the school bus and went to the school. The school is in another town which is situated 20 km away from Kahranmanmaraș where we live. I have never gone with a school bus before and it was nice to go together with the regular Turkish students. When we arrived I met Esra, the Turkish girl who stayed in my house during the Comenius week in Stockholm. In their school we enjoyed traditional Turkish dancing (everybody danced!), singing and presentations.  We in the Swedish group held our presentation about Fair Trade as well! At lunch time we took the bus up a bit in the mountains and ate our lunch with a nice view over the landscape. It was lovely just to sit in the warm sun while getting to know the people in the project.

Everyone is great and the Turkish students are very nice and welcoming! At the end of our little lunch trip we returned to our host family’s but in the evening we all met again to eat dinner at a restaurant up on a hill top. We had a beautiful view over the city of Kahranmanmaraș in the night time. We had a splendid meal and ate similar things as we did for lunch; meat (kebab), salad and bread. In the evening we, of course, included lots of dancing and singing. We danced Scottish dances that I actually remembered from Comenius in Stockholm! So much fun!  And we danced “Små Grodorna” on demand and then sang “Vintern Rasar”. Now, I am tired after our first day but I can not wait until tomorrow! Then we are going to the town’s famous ice cream factory!

İyi geceler, Nathalie

Tuesday 4/5

Today we got to sleep in; we did not have to get up until 7 am! We met the other students in the Comenius group outside a shop or a bakery where they produced traditional Maras food. We all tried soup and some flat, white bread made out of yoghurt and flour. It was not my cup of tea, but the Turkish loved it. The main project of the day was to go to an ice-cream factory, but we had some spare time before our appointment, so we all went to a shopping mall. It was not very different from a Swedish one, but it contained a gambling and sports section on the upper level, and that was where most of the students got together, playing games like bowling etc.

 Unfortunately the fun stopped for some; when it was time to go to the factory we had to say goodbye to the Turkish students. When we came to the factory we had a guided tour but to be allowed in we had to wear garments to cower up the hair and make sure no bacteria got in to the ice-cream. We all looked very nice in white. It was very interesting, but I think that the favourite part was when we all got to try the typical Karamanmaras ice-cream called Sade. If you ever go to Turkey, I am sure of that you will see this typical Turkish ice-cream.

 The day was far from over, and we went to a castle in the centre of the city which had been restored and ruined several times. Nearby, down the hill was a mosque which was, compared to the one they are building in the outskirts of the town, pretty small. We continued the tour of Karamanmaras, and went to the Grande bazaar. Here, you could find almost anything in food, e.g. the typical Turkish pepper, meat and vegetables. They sold small casseroles and teapots, bracelets, necklaces and wooden boxes. 

Later on we were free to walk around by ourselves so we went shopping and eating more ice-cream. It was a hot day, so we needed it. Afterwards our host parents came and picked us up to have dinner at home before we all had a party at a café.

Wednesday 5/5

A wonderful excursion to Hatay./ Ida

Persembe ( Thursday 6/5)

The day started with a nice breakfast made by Kubra’s mother Fatma. The breakfast in Turkey is a bit different from the breakfast we eat in Sweden, it is the kind of food I would eat for lunch but it was really good anyway. 7 am we went to the school bus which took approximately an hour.

When we arrived at school no teachers were there yet and they did not arrive until half past ten. So the first hours hours contained dancing, relaxing in the sun and football. When the teachers arrived we watched some Turkish students do a few physics experiments.

For lunch we went to another school nearby. This school was divided into a girl’s part and a boy’s part. The students were really happy to see us; foreign students had never been in their school before.

After lunch and some dancing we visited the mayor of Kahramanmaras. It was very interesting and everyone there was so nice. When we left each one of us got a gift bag. Then the bus took us back to Kahramanmaras city and we spent our free time shopping and eating ice cream.

Thursday night was the time for the beloved Comenius Farewell dinner. We ate nice food, continued dancing and at last had the Comenius Cake.

Iyi geceler,

Amanda.

Cuma (Friday 7/5)

 We were all tired after the party last night. This was the last day in Kahramanmaras and it was sad to say good bye to the host families and to the Turkish students. Only a couple of the students were going with us to Istanbul. We had a 17 hour long trip ahead of us through Turkey so it took most of the day. We got to see the landscape through half of Turkey and saw mountains with snow. The bus passed the capital called Ankara. Unfortunately were we not able to stop there. We arrived in Istanbul and to our hotel at midnight.

The long bus trip was quite boring and tiring but we had some fun moments as well. The Scottish teacher Cornel wanted to hear some poetry so we presented some Swedish, French, Scottish, Polish and Turkish poems. It was fun and we all ended up talking about poetry and literature.

The trip was tiring but we are excited to discover Istanbul./Nathalie

Saturday 8/5

After 24 long hours and almost no sleep, we woke up at the hotel in Istanbul and met our teachers for breakfast. We got together with the whole group and got into the bus to start our tour around Istanbul. We went to the Blue mosque which is a big building in the centre of Istanbul. The walls are covered with blue mosaic and there are big chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.

 Close to the mosque, an under ground water reservoir lay in where they kept water in case of an emergency or an occupation of Istanbul. The entrance and the path were crowded and very narrow, and the water was very close but happily no one got wet. There were a lot of tourists, and close to the entrance you could try traditional Turkish and beautiful costumes and then take photographs, and so we did.

 Another famous attraction of Istanbul is the, nowadays, museum of Hagia Sophia. It was built 1500 years ago and was remarkable to everyone it its greatness, and even today is one of the greatest buildings in the world. From the beginning it was a church, but then the Arabs came and turned it into a mosque. The president of Turkey decided that it would be neither a church nor a mosque; everyone should have access to this piece of history and therefore it became a museum.

 The Comenius group was invited to have lunch at a company which, in case of emergency provided citizens with food, water, etc. They had enough supplies to help about 100 000 people, and we were glad to accept their generosity. After lunch we went to an outdoor museum in the outskirts of Istanbul called Miniaturc. Landmarks and other attractions from all over the country were represented in miniature models. There was, among other things, a mini Blue Mosque which looked almost exactly like the real one. Some of the students had a lot of fun, riding go-carts.

 In the evening we saw Istanbul from another view, we went by boat on the water surrounding the town. It was very nice and then we had dinner at a restaurant close to the hotel. The day had been great but towards the evening everyone was sad to think of that we were leaving and saying goodbye to everyone the next morning. We had had lots of fun and a fantastic week in Karamanmaras and in Istanbul.

Visit to Munich.

Diary from Comenius meeting in Germany

29.11.09- 5.12.09

Friday 4/12- Alexander Fahnehjelm

This week has been a great experience for me. At first, when meeting all the other students, I was very nervous and almost backed away from them. But I soon made friends with some Scottish girls with whom I believe I will have a great contact with for at least next year, maybe even longer.

This week has been a great experience for me and my friends; we’ve explored Munich, visited a Water plant, the Süd-Deutsche Zeitung (a newspaper in the south of Munich) and even visited the BMW Headquarters.

Ok, so now a bit more about today, Friday 4/12. We had to get up a bit early; we had to be in the European school at 7.30 am, instead of 8.20 am, so I guess everybody was a bit tired. Then we took the U-bahn to Ostbahnhof, and then we switched to the S-bahn and arrived at the BMW Headquarters at 8 am. There we had a guided tour around the factory. I don’t know what the others thought about it, but I found it amazing! The guide showed us first where the ordinary steel plates where cut out and formed into the right shape for the inner and outer frame. Then, everything was welded together by machines and/or humans.

The next step was the painting. There were actually seven different kinds of painting that had to be done, but I don’t remember them all, but for the first ground-color the whole car frame was dipped, or actually rolled, in a pool of some liquid. Next the painting was done by robots, three or four orange robot arms per room, which sprayed diluted paint above the car. But before, the car frame had been negatively charged, so by putting extremely positive charged sticks above the nozzle, the paint gets positive charged and then by magnetic force, the paint gets stuck on the frame.

In other rooms, the building of the car is finished and the instruments, the security of the car and the steering and such are tested. From here, the checked cars that pass the tests are delivered to customers and stores.

Dieser Reise hat viel Spass gemacht! Ich habe viel Deutsch gelernt und gesprochen, und ich habe viele neue Freunde getroffen.

Thursday 3/12- Fabian Sund

Today we started school at 8:15. Then we took the bus to the water reservoir. First the guide talked about the water in Munich and then we saw a film about the water in Munich and after that he showed us how the water in Munich is transported to all the parts of the city and where and how the water is kept. We walked through the forest to some water reservoirs and it was very interesting. The water was very clear and clean.

Then we ate our lunch-pack and walked around a lovely lake. It was pretty cold but it was fun and relaxing. After that we found a nice little café. We sat down and ordered some food and hot chocolate. We relaxed and made friends and learned new Turkish words.

Heute haben wir ein Wasser Anlage besucht. Dann sind wir um einen schönen See gewandert.

Wednesday 2/12- Carl-Christian von Kauffman

We gathered in the school at 8:30 and I could see on every ones face that they were tired. We went to the Europe hall to listen to presentations and did some dances, one dance for each country. We from Sweden presented “Små Grodorna”. The time went past very fast, and after, what felt like a second, we had a ten minute break. After the pause we had language lessons in the “green container”, a room on the third floor, even if it was named “the green container” it wasn’t green, . You could choose between three languages, Spanish, Italian and German. I took German with most of the Swedish guys, the only one that didn´t choose German was Sara, she studied Spanish.  After 10 minutes of serious learning the teacher disappeared… and we started to learn swear words, I think that was the funniest part of the day. After one hour and 40 minutes it was time for lunch, it was some kind of cheese speciality and soup and some vegetables. After lunch it was time for Turkish and Scottish presentations. We were supposed to listen to the presentation for an hour but they only took about 20 min so we started to prepare a movie, we interviewed each other in strange places. When were done we were supposed to go to a sport  activity, but it was only Jönis and Fabian who went there and they danced and had a good time. At 15:30 we went to a newspaper factory, we saw a film and enjoyed a long guided tour, nearly every one “fell asleep”. After that we went to an English host family and had an English BBQ. We really had fun.

Ich finde die Zeit am See sehr toll und ich habe viel gelernt.

Tuesday  1/12 – Johan Jönhagen

Today we listened to some interesting presentations and gave our own presentation. It went pretty well and it was very fun to present it.

We have also been to a geothermal-plant and learned about geothermal energy.

We ate sandwiches for lunch after a speech about the fall of the Berlin wall “ der Mauerfall” by the principle. It was hard to understand because he talked very fast in German.

After our presentation we went to the Polish consulate. We couldn´t understand everything, the speeches were in very fast German and Polish! After the speeches we sat down and ate some cakes and had some nice chats.

Then we went to the “Marienplatz” and saw the “Frauenkirche”. We went to the stores and bought some chocolate. It was fun to get to know everybody!

Then we went back to our families.

Wir haben unsere Powerpoint-Präsentation gehabt. Das war sehr toll!

Wir haben auch die Geothermie-Plant gesehen.

Dann haben wir den Marienplatz und die Frauenkirche gesehen. Das hat mir sehr gut gefallen!!!

AUF WIEDERSEHEN!

Monday 30/11- Sara Apéria

It is twenty minutes past eight on a Monday morning. For many people; for my classmates in Sweden, for the pupils at the ESM-school and probably for the majority of the inhabitants of Munich this is a regular and very common Monday morning. For me, for the other representatives and for all the people involved in the Comenius Project, this is not at all an ordinary morning. This is the first day and thereby also the beginning of a new, important and very exciting chapter of our lives.

My first thought was how big the school was and I extra-checked with the daughter of my host-family that this really was the meeting-point that I now had before me. My second thought was how many pupils there were in the school. They were socializing, laughing, talking to their friends and running around everywhere.

I headed  for the meeting-point and went to sit with the other Swedes; Fabian Sund, Alexander Fahnehjelm, Johan Jönhagen and Carl-Christian von Kauffman.

After a while some of the other participants of the Comenius Project arrive; the Scottish representatives and the Turkish representatives.  An hour or two later the Frenchmen and the Polish representatives arrive. We socialize and talk to the other representatives until the school-day starts half past eight.

Then a German girl named Julia showed us around at school.

After this little “sightseeing-tour” one of the teachers, Mr Holger Lindermann, tooks us to a classroom where we introduced ourselves and played some games to get to know each-other better.

After this we went to a computer-room where we answered some questions from a quiz about Bayern, München and Germany.

Then we went to a big hall were we watched a  show made by the pupils of ESM. First of all we watched a beautifully organized flag-ceremony, which welcomed us to Munich.  The pupils carried flags from all the European countries. After the ceremony we continued to watch the show, where the German pupils entertained us with their singing and dancing. It struck me that they all were very talented and I was very surprised that one single school could have so many talented students  in singing and dancing.

After lunch-break we went back to the Europa Halle, where we listened to some powerpoint-presentations about  Sustainable Energy. Besides the good presentations, we were also offered a performance of Polish folkdance performed by one of the Polish girls.

Afterwards we went sightseeing in the city-centre of Munich. My group went to the Christkindl-markt, a wonderful and yearly held Christmas-market.

Am Christkindl-Markt verkaufen sie viele Süssigkeiten, zB Schokolade, Mandeln und Früchte. Wir sind auch an der Frauenkirche vorbei gegangen und  haben viele andere Wahrzeichen von München gesehen.

International Comenius Week 41

Amanda, Nathalie, Alice, Ida and Marylin

Monday the fifth of October

Today was the first day of the Comenius project; we got introduced and selected into groups. We started by doing a brainstorm about things we would like to do during week 5. After a while we went to the library and we began planning our guided tour that will take place in The old city (Gamla stan). In the library we also took pictures of the groups. 

After our lunch break we watched a movie called “Home”, that was about the earth, the climate and the global warming. It was a good way of telling us how our action affects the earth and its inhabitants. Tomorrow we will discuss about it in our groups.

Now in the end of the day we will progress with our guided tour. We, in group 1, are looking forward to meet you and guide you!

Amanda Livehed, Caroline Litsander, Julia Wilhelmsson,Hillevi Johansson Lignell, Karl-Oskar Karlsson and Beatrice Jansson Palmer.

Tuesday the 6th of October

Today we began working with the practical tasks, such as making the guide signs. After that we continued preparing our tour of the Old Town (Gamla Stan) and the southern part of Stockholm (Söder).

After lunch we discussed some environmental questions together with our chemistry teacher, Leelo Puuk. We arranged these questions between our five groups, in which we shall investigate in during this week.

We are looking forward to meeting you in February. We hope you’ll enjoy your trip to Stockholm, Sweden.

Best regards, group 2!

Fanny Wiklund, Ebba Wikström, Elisabeth Wäreby, Charlotte Fahnehjelm, Ulrika Blomström and Madeleine Lidfeldt.

The 7^th of October, we started the day by printing out maps and preparing our routs for the town walking tours. In the afternoon, some groups went to Södermalm and some to the Old Town for preparing their guided tours. Our group (group 5, the hottest group) took loads of photos, for our brochure, and walked around Södermalm, just enjoying the atmosphere and the lovely weather. Anyways we also took time on our walks, so that you won’t have to walk for fifty hours in the middle of the Swedish winter. But don’t worry. Dress properly, bring your down jackets and furs, and you will be just fine, the walks will be approximately two hours long. Looking forward to see you all!

Love, group 5

Thursday the 8th of October.

Today was the last working day of the Comenius project, four long and hard days are finally over and we can all now lean back proud of our work. In the morning class we went through the changes in the time table and had a talk about the goals for the day, then we all split up in to our groups and as the groups we went our own way, some of us have been in one of our computer rooms others in the library. Stressed to the max we all came hurrying in to the final reunion, all carrying our brochures, guide notes and maps. The only thing left today is to write our logbooks, since all of our works passed.  Tomorrow we will have our presentations and then we will wait for our guests to come, but the time is running away and the school is over now.

Ferdinand, Julia, Frida and Magdalena G.

Friday the 9th of October

We began the day by presenting our projects of the week. We had planned guided tours of Stockholm. Three groups did presentations about the Old Town and two groups did presentations about the southern part of Stockholm. After each presentation we gave each other feedback about what was good and what we could improve.

Afterwards we did individual evaluations of the week. We are satisfied with our work and we are looking forward to meet the international students in February next year.

During this week we have tried to learn from the other countries’ mistakes to make their stay better and easier

Posted in European Language Day | Edit | No Comments »

The Swedish students have prepared questions about the environment for panel sessions in Sweden week five 2o1o. The workshops’ goal is to discuss, summarize and perhaps find solutions to the enviromental issues below. The sessions will be lead by Swedish students and the guests will prepare the following questions in advance:

Group 1- Amanda, Ida, Nathalie, Alice och Marylin

 The pollution changes our environment in a drastic way and it´s our responsibility to deal with the consequences. We have put together some questions to discuss on your visit in Sweden. We also appreciate if you prepare yourselves with information about the different questions.

• How has the global warming affected you, your daily life and your country? For example: the temperature, the weather and the nature? 

• How does your country try to defeat the global warming and it´s affects? What changes have your country done?

• How high is your country’s emission of carbon dioxide? How high are they compared to the EU standards? How does the emission affect your country?

• What does your politicians do to reduce your country´s emission of carbon dioxide? What are they planning to do?

• What do you think is necessary to do about the environmental problems in your country? What can you do as a single person?

Group 2- Amanda Livehed, Beatrice Jansson Palmer, Caroline Litsander, Hillevi Johansson Lignell, Julia Wilhelmsson, Karl-Oskar Karlsson

Agriculture

How does this work in your country?

• Fertilizers
  Is it used a lot? For which purposes are you using it? Can you see any consequences on the environment?  Are there any alternatives to food produced by fertilizers? (Organic food)
• Animal conditions
  Treatment? Food? Environment/surroundings?
• The workers’ conditions
   Children or adults? Salary? Living conditions? Working hours? Insurances?
• Local production/import
  Self sufficiency? Transportation? Environmental marks?
• Course of action
  Machines? Fuel /resources?

Forestry

How does this work in your country?

• Import or logging of your country’s forests?
• Plantations or of wildwood?
  Planting of new trees/selective logging?
• Consideration of ecosystems?
• Course of action
  Machines? Fuel? Working conditions?

   Group 3- Elisabeth Wäreby, Fanny Wiklund, Ebba Wikström, Charlotte Fahnehjelm, Madeleine Lidfeldt and Ulrika Blomström

During the last century we have been consuming more and more fossil fuels than ever before. Over the last generation we have consumed more oil than all the earlier generations have together. If this continues we will have to change our habits and start using renewable resources instead of fossil fuels.

Here are some questions for you to answer  about your country:

• What renewable resources are being used in your country?
• Which renewable resources can be developed?
• What procentage of the total energy comsumption comes from renewable resources?
• What can the politicians/ citiziens do to make your country more environment friendly?

Group 4- Martina, Klara, Jacqueline E, Jacqueline S and Maggie

1. Where do you get your drinking water from?
2. Is your tap water drinkable? Will it be drinkable in the future?
3. How much water do an average person in your country use per day?
4. How is your water cleaned?
5. Are there any pollutions in your lakes?
6. How would a raise of the sealevel affect your country?

Group 5- Ferdinand, Julia, Frida, Rebecka  and Magdalena G.

Introduction

People fill their trash cans every day. In average, each citizen of America makes five pounds of garbage during a weekend. But where does the garbage go? Not many know where their waste products end up, how they are treated and if they are recycled. In 1991 Japan enacted the Recycling Law with the objective of reducing garbage, promoting recycling and composters for organic waste. Are laws and government actions what we need to change the current situation? Or do people need to be taught how to take responsibility?  Many cities in Europe generate thousands of tons of garbage from constructions, businesses, visitors and inhabitants and many problems such as stinking, environmental impact of the accumulation and economical issues from too much waste have occured. 

 1. Do you recieve any credit if you recycle cans or plastic bottles in your country?

 2. Does your school systematically recycle? 

3. Does your family recycle? If so, explain how and why.

 4. Where in your home town is the garbage stored? What kind of jobs are connected to dealing with garbage and are these well-paid?

 5.What are the main problems in your country today in garbage matters?

 6. What has the government done to improve the situation? What should they do in the future? Suggestions?

 7. What was the trash crisis in Naples, Italy, about? Why did this problem occur?

 8. Among today’s youth there is a lack of knowledge in recycling matters. How do you think we can solve this problem?

 8.Final question

Ask and interview someone from another generation, e.g. your grandparents or teachers, and write down their memories and experience in trash and garbage matters. How did they recycle? Was it common? What differences are there between then and now?

Sweden

Enskilda celebrates EDL- European Day of Languages

In 2001 the Council of Europe declared 26 September an annual European Day of Languages ( EDL( to show people across Europe how important languages are.

In our school we celebrated the whole week with the following activities:

* Exhibition presenting our European partnerschools from Scotland- Smithycroft Secondary School, Germany- Europäische Schule München, France- Lycée Général Rosa Parks, Turkey- TûrkoĞlu Anadolu Lisesi. and Poland- Gimnazjum nr 18 z Odzia³ami Inegracyjnymi im.Kazimierza and  Zespól Szkol Ogolnoksztalcacych Wolowie.

*Mini-language dictionaries made by students from partner schools.

*Quiz- Students from Scotland, Germany, Poland and Sweden presented their country by a quiz. Learning objective: students get to know key facts of each country.

*Chat room for young people- students talked online with students involved in our Comenius project.

Links:

www.smithycroft-sec.glasgow.sch.uk

www.esmunich.de,

www.turkogluanadolu.gg.tr

http://www.gim18czest.scholaris.pl

International Comenius Week 41

Amanda, Nathalie, Alice, Ida och Marylin

 

Monday the fifth of October

Today was the first day of the Comenius project; we got introduced and selected into groups. We started by doing a brainstorm about things we would like to do during week 5. After a while we went to the library and we began planning our guided tour that will take place in The old city (Gamla stan). In the library we also took pictures of the groups. 

After our lunch break we watched a movie called “Home”, that was about the earth, the climate and the global warming. It was a good way of telling us how our action affects the earth and its inhabitants. Tomorrow we will discuss about it in our groups.

Now in the end of the day we will progress with our guided tour. We, in group 1, are looking forward to meet you and guide you!

 

Amanda Livehed, Caroline Litsander, Julia Wilhelmsson,Hillevi Johansson Lignell, Karl-Oskar Karlsson, Beatrice Jansson Palmer.

Tuesday the 6th of October

Today we began working with the practical tasks, such as making the guide signs. After that we continued preparing our tour of the Old Town (Gamla Stan) and the southern part of Stockholm (Söder).

After lunch we discussed some environmental questions together with our chemistry teacher, Leelo Puuk. We arranged these questions between our five groups, in which we shall investigate in during this week.

We are looking forward to meeting you in February. We hope you’ll enjoy your trip to Stockholm, Sweden.

Best regards, group 2!

 

Elisabeth Wäreby, Fanny Wiklund, Ebba Wikström, Charlotte Fahnehjelm, Madeleine Lidfeldt and Ulrika Blomström

The 7^th of October, we started the day by printing out maps and preparing our routs for the town walking tours. In the afternoon, some groups went to Södermalm and some to the Old Town for preparing their guided tours. Our group (group 5, the hottest group) took loads of photos, for our brochure, and walked around Södermalm, just enjoying the atmosphere and the lovely weather. Anyways we also took time on our walks, so that you won’t have to walk for fifty hours in the middle of the Swedish winter. But don’t worry. Dress properly, bring your down jackets and furs, and you will be just fine, the walks will be approximately two hours long. Looking forward to see you all!

Love, group 5

Jacqueline E., Martina, Klara, Jacqueline S and Maggie

Thursday the 8th of October.

Today was the last working day of the Comenius project, four long and hard days are finally over and we can all now lean back proud of our work. In the morning class we went through the changes in the time table and had a talk about the goals for the day, then we all split up in to our groups and as the groups we went our own way, some of us have been in one of our computer rooms others in the library. Stressed to the max we all came hurrying in to the final reunion, all carrying our brochures, guide notes and maps. The only thing left today is to write our logbooks, since all of our works passed.  Tomorrow we will have our presentations and then we will wait for our guests to come, but the time is running away and the school is over now.

Friday the 9th of October

We began the day by presenting our projects of the week. We had planned guided tours of Stockholm. Three groups did presentations about the Old Town and two groups did presentations about the southern part of Stockholm. After each presentation we gave each other feedback about what was good and what we could improve.

Afterwards we did individual evaluations of the week. We are satisfied with our work and we are looking forward to meet the international students in February next year.

During this week we have tried to learn from the other countries’ mistakes to make their stay better and easier