Third project meeting in Turkey, Eskişehir
30 March - 5 April 2011
The travel by a plane, the metro and the bus took all day. We arrived to Eskisehir around 9 p.m. The teachers went to their hotel, we stayed with our hosts.
In the morning we went to one of the biggest universities of the area. We were amazed that it actually was a very modern and student-friendly campus. What surprised us even more was the Japanese garden which was very beautiful but for some reason, they don’t allow students to walk around the garden. There were cherries blossoming already. Quite frequently we were forced to turn our eyes into the sky – there were air force planes flying over our heads the all day!
In the evening we all decided to go welcome the Spanish students. We met with Alberto, Josu, Borja and Ikerne.
The next day we went to Ankara and visited the mausoleum of Atatürk. He is the most important person of the Turkish history. The bus ride was a culture shock itself. In Estonia the bus driver would have stopped the bus and kicked everyone out if we were dancing and walking around the bus like our hosts and their friends did!
On Monday we visited their school. It was quite different from our school. Every Monday and Friday morning they would line up the whole school and sing for (or about) Atatürk. Then we went to the gym and played some volleyball. We got a chance to see the school house and visit a Chemistry lesson. Even though I know only a little Turkish (like hello, thank you and shopping), I understood what their topic was. The parents had prepared us a very big and a delicious lunch. After lunch we visited the old part of the city which was extremely beautiful and reminded Greece a bit. We went bowling afterwards.
And then it was time to say our goodbyes because we were leaving at 6 a.m. next morning but the Spanish left around noon the next day.
In our free time we went shopping quite a lot but we’re girls! Many things were much cheaper in Turkey than in Estonia. We tried out the national cuisine which was to our surprise very good, I didn’t expect that. There was always plenty of food and fun which made the trip very enjoyable. We all have new friends and good memories from the trip. The trip definitely broke some stereotypes and changed our attitude towards Turkey as a country and its people.
Eva Viidemann - Estonian student
In the morning we went to one of the biggest universities of the area. We were amazed that it actually was a very modern and student-friendly campus. What surprised us even more was the Japanese garden which was very beautiful but for some reason, they don’t allow students to walk around the garden. There were cherries blossoming already. Quite frequently we were forced to turn our eyes into the sky – there were air force planes flying over our heads the all day!
In the evening we all decided to go welcome the Spanish students. We met with Alberto, Josu, Borja and Ikerne.
The next day we went to Ankara and visited the mausoleum of Atatürk. He is the most important person of the Turkish history. The bus ride was a culture shock itself. In Estonia the bus driver would have stopped the bus and kicked everyone out if we were dancing and walking around the bus like our hosts and their friends did!
On Monday we visited their school. It was quite different from our school. Every Monday and Friday morning they would line up the whole school and sing for (or about) Atatürk. Then we went to the gym and played some volleyball. We got a chance to see the school house and visit a Chemistry lesson. Even though I know only a little Turkish (like hello, thank you and shopping), I understood what their topic was. The parents had prepared us a very big and a delicious lunch. After lunch we visited the old part of the city which was extremely beautiful and reminded Greece a bit. We went bowling afterwards.
And then it was time to say our goodbyes because we were leaving at 6 a.m. next morning but the Spanish left around noon the next day.
In our free time we went shopping quite a lot but we’re girls! Many things were much cheaper in Turkey than in Estonia. We tried out the national cuisine which was to our surprise very good, I didn’t expect that. There was always plenty of food and fun which made the trip very enjoyable. We all have new friends and good memories from the trip. The trip definitely broke some stereotypes and changed our attitude towards Turkey as a country and its people.
Eva Viidemann - Estonian student