2012
A N N UAL
U P DAT E
FREE
TURKEY Istanbul - hospitality, history and gourmet food
In the end of April it was time for the 7:th mobility, where Didem, her colleagues at Yahya Kemal Beyatli Anatolian High school were hosts. I like to start to say “Thank you” and “Well done” to a absolutely phenomenal mobility. Our students instantly made friends for life and everybody was like a great big family. - It was really nice to see how everyone seemed to like each others company, and the sparkle in the eyes and smiles on the students faces couldn't have been bigger, said Rose-Marie Conway, Swedish coordinator. On Monday the 28th of April the deputy headmaster and the Turkish team opened the meeting. We learnt a lot about Turkey in general and Istanbul in particular, by the students whom held presentations and showed a movie. After the presentations we had a tour around the school and the students had two packed days with workshops. The students really got the chance to get to know each other, work together and learn new skills such as drama, traditional folk dance, percussion and photography. In the meantime the coordinators had meetings and evaluated the different outcomes of the project. We also had the opportunity to learn something new, we tried paper marbling. - I was very happy with this first attempt, said Ulrika who made a beautiful two coloured tulip. The two last days were filled with culture activities. We spent a full day in the Historical Peninsula, where we visited the Topkapi palace which was
the heart of the Ottoman empire and the palace of the Sultan, where more than 5000 people worked, and todays is a museum with relics and treasures.
Hagia Sofia built 1500 years ago, which for long was the worlds largest, church, later a mosque and today a museum. The Blue Mosque. The only mosque in Istanbul which is surrounded by 6 minarets. The reason it´s called the Blue Mosque is because of the lovely interior made by Iznik tile. Yerebatan Saray, The Sunken Palace. A water cistern which was used in times times of worry. Inside the cistern is a lot of pillars which makes it look like an Sunken Palace. I asked my student Victor about what he enjoyed most during this eventful day. He said; - Everything was very interesting, but what I enjoyed the most was Hagia Sofia. It is amazing because it´s so old, and the mixture of a a church and a mosque. On the first of May we left the city for a boat trip on the Bosporus, the strait
that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. It was lovely to sit on deck and look at the waterfront houses and Palaces.
We also took the opportunity to brush up our folk dance skills.
The last stop on our cultural trip was Miniaturk, an exhibition of miniature Turkish landmarks. The students really enjoyed going on the small train that went around the whole area of Miniaturk. We also want to say a big thank you to the amazing hostfamilies and students for taking so well care of our students. Without them, this would not have been possible.