We, students, had very pleasant journey to Turkey, precisely to Istanbul. We are always very thankful about the opportunity that we got to meet all of Erasmus+ group. This is a little story about our journey to fascinating Istanbul by the students of Finland.
On Sunday, 4th of October we arrived to Istanbul Ataturk Airport in the evening, approximately 5p.m. Our host families were waiting for us at the airport. It was such a warm welcome. Host families were polite, hospitable and helpful from the beginning until our journey was over. We were like a big family. On Sunday we just got to know each other. Our host families presented their homes to us and we changed our “background stories”. Lovely teachers took good care of our teachers .They were accomodated to a beautiful hotel near the school with teachers from other participating schools.
On Monday, October 5th was our very first day at school, Doga Beykent koleji in Beylikduzu. First we had welcoming ceremony. There were many incredible performances at the ceremony.
After those performances we introduced ourselves on the stage.
We met teachers and our hosts’ classmates. Most of the day we were listening lessons. We were amazed by the school. The school was very modern and beautiful. There were many canteens and food was brilliant. There were smart boards almost in every single class!
The school was very beautiful inside. There were a lot of paintings around and everything was very clean. All pupils also took care of that.
There were also cute animals on the schoolyard.
On Tuesday, 6th of October we had different kind of workshops about our project. For example we painted a sunclock on the ground of school area. We had an interesting chemistry workshop about sodium and toothpaste of an elephant. We were all very excited.
On Wednesday, 7th of October we visited in Miniaturk. Do you know what is Miniaturk? Okey, I’ll tell you. Miniaturk is a miniatur park, which is located in Golde Horn, in Istanbul. We go to the Miniaturk by minibuses. On our way there we stuck in the traffic jam, that’s why our trip to Miniaturk lasted longer than we expected. Miniaturk was very beautiful place and we learnt a lot about the history of those miniatures.
On Wednesday we also visited in the University and we saw prototypes of cars which worked by solar energy.
Next pictures are from the University entrance and about the solarcar.
These pictures are from the design department of the University.
On Thursday we did workshops. And we finished the dictionary about Solar system. It was wonderful to work with different kind of people and got to know them. And now we have many new friends from many different countries!
Friday was the last day when the whole group was together. We went to visit Hagia Sofia, which was the most beautiful mosque we have ever seen. It was quite an experience the evening we went boating. In the boat we ate mouth watering meal. It was delicious! We also listened to music and just enjoyed each others company. In the end of our boat trip we had to say goodbye to our new friends. It was heart breaking moment…
On Saturday we flew back to Finland.
Our journey to Turkey was the best trip we have ever had. We got to know new cultures, new people and we learnt new things. There are not enough words to descripe how amazing our trip was! We saw and experienced so much we will never forget. We would like to thank all of the Erasmus+ group.