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School trip

On Sunday 28th of February, seven classmates of mine, our English teacher, our principal and I started our travel to Braga. It was a hard day for us while we changed 3 flights and had a long time on the road. We were also anxious about the foreign students we were going to meet. We had a feeling of insecurity because we were going abroad without our family for a whole week, an unknown experience for us.

Fortunately, everything went perfect and all of our doubts were erased throughout the excursion.

Portugal and the host school were fabulous. Braga is a very beautiful town, perfectly organized in architectural level. It has many astonishing churches and squares. We learnt every single street of the town center while we loved walking around. The school is a modern, big building that hosts students with international origins. We were impressed of the severe organization of Portuguese educational system and the opportunities it gives to all students to be occupied with many different fields of mechanic, arts and other.

We had various visits and activities. We were glad to taste the Portuguese cuisine and shop Portuguese handicrafts. The Bom Jesus Sanctuary region was breathtaking, had an amazing view and the atmosphere so sensational, we didn’t want to leave. The aim of the Erasmus+, which was to raise European students’ questions about our educational systems and propose measurements to help students so as not to drop out of school, is totally accomplished. I’m glad to be on the team whose project was highly voted to be sent to the EU. We were pleasured to have plenty of free time to spend with students from the other countries every night.

We had unforgettable time with our foreign friends. This project made people from 10 countries came together, talk about their problems and hang out. We enjoyed every moment with our friends and we had fun like we knew each other for years. The last night, while the farewell dinner was one of our most enjoyable moments, it was the hardest one because we had to separate our paths. One day after – back to reality- we understood that this trip was unforgettably unique!

It’s essential to thank our teacher Chryssa and our principal Roubini, the arrangers of the rest nine countries and the EU that gave us that memorable opportunity. We hope the EU never stops funding these multicultural school programs.

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Portugal and the people I'll never forget

My trip to Portugal was one of the best experiences in my life. I left Braga with a lot of amazing memories.

I was thrilled as it was my first flight. Also, I was a little bit nervous and excited at the same time. However, it was not frightening at all.

When we arrived in Porto we had a scary taxi ride to Braga. The man was driving at “a little bit” high speeds but we arrived at the hotel safe and sound. At first I thought that the hotel was too small looking at it from outside. However, when I went inside I fell in love with the interior.

The second day we went to the school in Vila Verde. The school looked pretty good.  We were divided into three groups and we had our first activities on the project. We worked on it three days and finally my group was voted with the best presentation (thanks to Kofi – our speaker).

While i was in Portugal i met lovely people. I was impressed by the way some of them spoke English. We could communicate without any problems. The students were kind and polite and i hope that we can keep in touch in the future.

The next morning was very rainy, but when it was about time to visit Bom Jesus Sanctuary the sun started shining. I was speechless as the church was on the top of a hill, and we could see the amazing view down the stairway to the city of Braga.

On the fifth day we went to Porto. The town is beautiful and so colorful. Also, we visited a wine cellar in Porto. We tried a special kind of wine and it was delicious.

The last night was our farewell dinner. All the students and teachers had a lot of fun dancing and trying delicious local food. The whole Portuguese week passed by so fast and the hardest moment came when we had to say goodbye. Most of the students cried, not only me.

All in all, I will never forget this nice trip and the amazing people I met in Portugal.

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Good memories

This was the first time for me to take a flight, the first flight to Portugal made me feel uniquely dizzy because I don’t know with what word specifically I could describe the feeling I had. I didn’t look up for any images or information about Portugal so I would not mess up the unknown and unexpected.

I must confess, that on the first day when we landed and got to our hotel, I was put in a skeptic mood. But when we got to our room and met our roommate from Lithuania all changed but it was just a start.

In the next day, when we started to work on the actual task, I met more and more people, I may even call them friends now. We were split in 3 big groups and we had to choose 1 speaker for each group, no questions asked students from UK got elected instantly to be the speakers.

We advanced through the all problems which schools and education system itself has. We found out that we have a lot of common problems and that we can have a lot of fun discussions on what could be the actual solutions and so on.

Then we visited “Bom Jesus do Monte” (Bom Jesus cathedral), Porto and wine cellars, where we had a sip of wine, the taste of the wine I thought represent Portugal as the wine seemed to be unique with interesting mixture same as the structures and outstanding sights of Portugal that’s something you cannot forget the same as the people with whom you have spent the time there.

When it comes to food it depends on the taste, but I do not prefer to eat fish. However, the way how the fish dishes were made in Portugal changed my eating habits just a bit and I could say that I did enjoyed the food.

All week working together, improving our English knowledge, finding solutions spending free time together had been gotten us really close, which made us not willing to leave.

At the formal dinner we had enjoyment we had cheers, but the feel of leaving made everyone helpless in some way. Tears falling… from one side they were from happiness, but from the other side? The feelings what we had started to come out with an explosion but none regretted anything and the things we did together probably will stay with us and in Portugal for a lifetime.

I would like to end up by saying that this was the best time of my life so far!!!

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My visit to Portugal

I was standing in the little market by the Rio Douro river and staring at a little snow globe, which I had just picked up from one of the seller’s tables. It seemed so magic and special to me. As I shook the specious thing, snow fell on a mini Porto city, covering tiny buildings in white. ‘’If you like it so much, you should get it,” said Gabriele as she was looking at some lighters. But at that moment my inner adult kicked in. ‘‘What is the use of it? “ I wondered and put the snow globe down.” It would just collect dust on my bookshelf. Come on let's go “.

The sunlight emerged from the clouds and I couldn't help but smile. We reached the end of the market and decided to rest on a wide stone fence by the river. Before I sat down, I looked down at the water, gently moving by the stone wall and thought “What it would be like if I  just took one step forward. Dear reader, I'm sure that you have experienced this too, when you are standing on a very high place and just for a second you consider whether to jump or not. By just standing there I really scared my friends who immediately told me to sit down. When I was safe  that is when I relaxed on the stone fence, I still looked at the water. "I’ve changed," I thought. The sunlight was gently stroking my face and I felt so blessed at that moment. "I'm not afraid anymore..." The wind blew mildly on one of the seller’s white embroidered  beddings and they gently flew up the air from their hangers. "Did I break out of the shell that was holding me back?" I wondered as I threw one of the pieces of shattered glass in the river. "I was always afraid... Now... Now I just want to live.”

The plane had just taken off and the sun just started to come down. The clouds were in all kinds of colors, from purple to dark blue. Luckily I was sitting by the window and I couldn’t take my eyes of that amazing view. Dear reader, I think that you were expecting a typical piece of writing about my experience, what kind of museums I visited, were I went and what I saw. I'm sure that you already know everything about this trip. What you don't know, is how this journey affected my inner state. When I was flying back home I had a lot of time to reflect, since my friends were dead asleep. Before Portugal I was trapped in a dull routine. I didn’t feel alive, I felt like a robot doing its function without any emotion or excitement. Any other activity that included something different would always frighten me and this fear wouldn’t let me experience the best things in life. It was like I was living in a shell. This trip broke that shell. Not only I got to see amazing things and meet the best people, I also took part in something I was really passionate about and all that changed me. I’m proud that I had a chance to present my ideas about educational problems and also suggest some solutions. After visiting beautiful places, I decided to travel as much as I can. After I met so many different people, I wanted to learn about other cultures. After I took part in discussions, a strong desire to change the world for the better started to grow inside me. When my dad picked us up from the airport, I couldn’t wait for the next day to begin. I was inspired not to be afraid anymore and accept every single opportunity and live life to the fullest.

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Portugal

When we first heard about the Portugal trip we knew that we were going to be there and discuss school. What we didn't know was that we would be left with so many funny memories with so many amazing people.

On the way to Porto we already wanted to go home again, we had long hours at the airport and were just generally really tired. But I am almost confident to say that when that last day came and went we didn't want to leave. It had been worth all the tiredness and stress, because we had met so many different people and we had learned so many new things. The most memorable experiences where at the school, its where we all had to meet and where we all learned out each other.

The long days in the cold auditorium is not the thing that stands out the most by memory, but it was certainly where we spent most of our time. The day at I remember the most was the day out in Braga, it was such nice weather and walking and looking at houses was a nice way to see some history.

The trip to Portugal thought me that there where people close to my situation, but in a whole different place in the world. I think it is really important to make international project like this for youth so that they will become aware of the world around them. Which is certainly what it did for us. I really hope I will see you all again one day.

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MY EXPERIENCE IN PORTUGAL

The meeting here in Portugal was one of the best experiences that I had. I learned a lot about others countries because when we speak with different type of people, we learn habits, traditions and characteristics without realizing the importance of that at the moment and it was good to see some familiar faces.

But in the future this can give us advantage in the work, because we will need these skills to communicate with other people that can be really different from us and speak another language for example.

We are "obligated" to speak English so our language skills in English improve a lot and sometimes without realize was speaking English fluently and went to home speaking English too. I have always been participative in the English class but now I’m more confident in myself and now I participate more. The small things have value too. Sometimes when someone forgot a word the others try to help because we are there for the same and we don’t need to be afraid of failing.

Overall the meeting was a way to become us even better and improve our future in Europe. The solutions that the groups gave are good if applied in the educational system.

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UNFORGETABLE EXPERIENCE IN PORTUGAL

The Erasmus trip to Portugal was a great experience and I would thank the EU for giving this opportunity. My trip to Portugal was one of the best experiences in my life.

I left Braga with lots of amazing memories.  Our trip to Portugal was very long as we traveled via England. We left at 7 am Cyprus time and arrived at 11 pm Portugal time. The second day we went to the town hall and were welcomed by the mayor. The hosts showed us the traditional museum where we could see Portuguese traditional crafts. The school is in a modern building and has many technical subjects. At school we met many people from different nationalities. We could communicate in English. We made new friends and we learnt more about different cultures. Moreover we like Portuguese girls.

Braga has many old churches. We had the opportunity to visit Bon Jesus Sanctuary which is situated on top of the hill. The view was breathtaking. We visited the Douro River and the Atlantic Ocean where we took many photos. Porto is a beautiful and colorful city. We visited wine cellars. Their ports wine is delicious.

Last night was our farewell dinner. All the students and teachers had a lot of fun. We danced traditional dances. The local food was great. The whole week passed by so fast and the hardest moment came when we had to say goodbye. We took photos and they publish info about us in the local newspaper.
The project was planned very well and I would like to congratulate Mr. Pedro, Mrs. Sandra and Risabelt for the great work. I would like to thank our teachers Mr. Socrates and Dr. Louvaris for taking us. We had a great time. I will never forget this nice trip and the amazing people in Portugal.

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Great Days in Portugal

Before you set off on a journey you make plans, furthermore, you dream about it. My dream begins with taking part in an Erasmus project. When you take part in it, you also start the preparation process and targets for the future.

Many Turkish people do not get the chance to leave the country. And so, we don’t have impressions of what out of the country before. While I was so excited for my trip to Europe, I was nervous too.

Before going, my impressions of Europe made me ask some questions to myself: “Is Europe really like as it was in the movies?” Of course, I realize that these aren’t realistic, but it made me curious to what Europe is really like. As I said I was so excited to leave Turkey and travel, but I was also nervous for many reasons. I don’t speak any other language except a little bit English. I was worried that I would not be able to understand people and they won’t understand me or how I can adapt there. However those were only unnecessary concerns, when you get there. You realize that there is no need to worry.

Upon our arrival to Portugal, I had very complex feelings. This was my first trip abroad and I was feeling over the clouds! On our first day, all students came together at the hotel and all of us had the same thing in our minds: full of excitement and new friends.

One of the fantastic sides of the project is that you meet new friends, experience different cultures and language; however, I was curious about the European culture most. Normally, I already have this knowledge from the web, but meeting a European in real life was a different experience. After you meet and learn about their culture, you can have closer friendship and sincereness. I have showed Turkish greeting to some of these students.  Afterwards they greeted me in that way whenever we came across.

This was really kind of them, as someone from a different culture was greeting me in the way we do here in Turkey. I also had many experiences in Portugal as well as the culture. While discussing the education system, we understood that the major problem was the lack of motivation. This is really important: If you do a job or learn something under high motivation and concentration you really enjoy it. However, when you are unwilling to do something, you can get nothing. This is what the education problem really is in most countries.

To sum up, with this project we both had intercultural and multilingual relationships and had the chance to compare the education systems of other countries and ours I believe that, people should participate in these kind of projects and support them more.

I never forget those beautiful days. Thanks for everything to everybody…

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My experience in Portugal

”Cabin Crew be ready for landing”. My heart was beating fast.

I had never been abroad before. The Erasmus trip to Portugal was my first experience. I was so excited when the taxi was taking us to the hotel. Looking out of the window everything seemed so familiar. I immediately felt at home! Also the small room shared with my friends was comfortable. The “pastel de nata” at breakfast on the first morning reminded me of  Lecce “pasticciotti”, both of them delicious! I decided: I love Portugal!

Of course I enjoyed the beautiful places visited and the welcome of our hosts. Braga, the hotel, the central Avenida and its Garden where we walked up and down in the evening, the school where we spent most our mornings to exchange opinions about educational problems .I was impressed by the students who cooked and waited on our lunches. I ate ‘bacalau’ for the first time in my life ,there. Never eaten at home when my mother had cooked it, now she is happy I “am friend with“ bacalau!

This trip gave me the chance to build strong relationships with most of the students in a few days. I will never forget the cheerful atmosphere and the laughs  we had all together. This experience increased my knowledge of other customs, traditions, way of life and of thinking. I think we all contributed to break stereotypes or to make them stronger (like Italians and pizza!). When I was there I thought “I'm in the right place" or "That's how I want to live!":getting into touch with other cultures, travelling, learning new languages. Once I came back to Italy I started to appreciate also the simplest things because I missed them when I was in Portugal. I can say this experience has made stronger my emotional bond with my country too. When you miss something you become aware of its importance.

This trip has changed me , it has opened my mind and gave me the chance to visit some amazing places like Braga and Porto, two towns that will be in my heart forever both for their artistic and natural beauties and for the fantastic friend I met there. I left Portugal with the promise I would come back. I will do!

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Worthwhile experience

We came from different countries, but we share the same concerns. In Braga, we were united through the challenges that we, as young people, face in education today. In Braga, we represented not only our own school communities, but also a wider European community – a Global community. It’s an enormous responsibility for us to carry on young shoulders, but carry it we did. Through a parliamentary setting, we placed ourselves in teams and, after identifying key issues troubling our futures, we debated them, considering them all from a range of perspectives in order to fully explore all options available to resolving these issues. These are not issues we’ve seen on television. These are not issues we’ve read about. These are issues we face, experience and suffer every day. These are issues that are unnecessary and we, the Erasmus+ team, have taken responsibility to move things forward. I’m proud to say that I was the speaker for my team and that we won the competition. It left us all with a great sense of achievement.

I’ve never been to Portugal before. I have done very little travelling in my life, so far. The opportunity to travel to another country, to meet people from all over Europe, whom I’m glad to now call friends, is something I will keep with me throughout my life. On this trip we made memories and they, more than anything, are the things I value most. It was inspiring to see that my peers, other young people, are not apathetic towards society or education, as Media might have us believe.
During this wonderful experience, I met very enthusiastic students from countries like Italy, Portugal, Greece and many others. The most amazing moment I had abroad was the time I had to spend with people like Dimitra, Georgia, John, Jason, and all the other Greek students.

We were able to visit the Portuguese team’s school and gain an insight into their learning environment. I was thankful that the common tongue was English – it’s made me realise that we need to focus more on languages, as we take it too much for granted that others will know how to speak ours.

While in Portugal, we visited the Bom Jesus Sanctuary and thankfully the weather was wonderful. It was picturesque with the views and its location high on the hilltop. We also visited a wine cellar, where we were allowed to try the wine! I was privileged to be trusted to do so.

The last day saw a celebration of the week’s activities and successes, in the form of a farewell dinner. It was an exciting evening, but bittersweet as we had to say goodbye to our new friends.

When I arrived back on British soil, I was excited to get back to college to tell my peers what we’d discussed and to create a buzz on campus, getting other students to debate the same issues to create awareness. This has been an experience I will never forget. I feel very lucky to have been chosen as part of this project and it’s motivated me to value education more and to try and impress this on others, too. I’m grateful to all of the others who took part for welcoming me so warmly and allowing me to be a part of the project. It really has been very worthwhile.