Hello everyone. We are Arda, Nisa, Ege, and Gülsinem. We are the Turkish team that traveled to Romania as part of the Erasmus+ Seminar “Green Pro” Project in collaboration with the Pi Youth Association. In this post, we’ll share our journey from Turkey to Romania with you.
We’d like to start this post by talking about the project. Our project was an Erasmus+ Seminar Project. It took place in the city of Horezu, Romania, with a total of 42 participants from 13 different countries and 2 facilitators. Over the course of 8 days, we engaged in various activities. The project was more than just a seminar where we listened; it was a process in which we actively participated and shared our thoughts.
During the project, we worked in mixed teams on discussions, design, and project planning. At the end of each activity, we presented and shared the outcomes with our fellow participants. This allowed us to approach a topic from different perspectives or work on and discuss various topics from different angles, thereby gaining access to a much wider range of ideas. Looking back at the process from the first day to the last, we saw that our horizons had broadened and that we had taken a step forward.
Another educational and equally fun part was the “Cultural Nights.” Over the course of about five evenings, each country organized its own cultural night. These evenings consisted of two parts: a presentation and a tasting session. In the first part, the participating countries introduced their cultures and their countries. Following that, they served us the foods and drinks they had brought from their home countries. This gave us the opportunity to hear about and get to know 12 countries firsthand from
their own people. We also had the chance to taste the local flavors of these countries through the snacks they brought. As the Turkish team, we introduced Turkish culture on our own day. After our initial presentation, we held a trivia contest related to what we had shared. We then performed our Harmandalı dance, which is from the Aegean Region. In the final segment, after teaching it first, we danced the Damat Halayı with all the foreign participants. Since it was a dance that captured the interest of many
people, the other foreign participants requested that we start the next day with the Damat Halayı as an energizer activity. Now let’s move on to our personal experiences.
Gülsinem:
Merhaba ben Gülsinem. Bu Erasmus+ projesi benim ilk deneyimim oldu bu yüzden başta biraz çekinsem de kısa sürede ortama alıştım. Hem eğlendim hem de kendimi geliştirdim. Farklı kültürden insanlarla ilk defa böyle bir ortamda bir araya gelmek ve takım çalışması oluşturmak bambaşka bir deneyim kazandırdı. Farklı ülkelerin çevresel sorunlarını tartışmak, sohbet etmek ve birlikte vakit geçirmek bana bir çok farklı bakış açısı kattı. Böyle bir fırsatı yakaladığım için şanslı ve mutlu hissediyorum.
Nisa:
Merhaba ben Nisa,Romanya’da katıldığım Eco Green projesi, düşündüğümden daha farklı bir deneyim oldu. Açıkçası başta sadece çevreyle ilgili bir eğitim gibi gelmişti ama süreç ilerledikçe olayın daha çok günlük hayatla ilgili olduğunu fark ettim. Yaptığımız aktivitelerde en çok dikkatimi çeken şey, küçük değişikliklerin aslında ne kadar gerçekçi olduğu oldu. Daha az tüketmek, daha bilinçli seçimler yapmak gibi şeyler kulağa basit geliyor ama birlikte tartışınca ve uygulayınca daha anlamlı hale geldi. Farklı ülkelerden insanlarla aynı konuyu konuşmak da bakış açımı değiştirdi. Herkesin kendi alışkanlıkları ve çözümleri vardı; bu da bana tek bir “doğru” olmadığını gösterdi. Proje bittikten sonra bende kalan şey büyük hedeflerden çok küçük ama sürdürülebilir adımlar oldu. Artık bazı şeyleri otomatik yapmıyorum, biraz daha düşünüyorum. Kısacası bu proje benim için bilgi yüklemekten çok, bazı şeyleri fark etmemi sağlayan bir deneyimdi.
Arda:
Hello. My name is Arda. I’d also like to touch on the project’s role in boosting language skills and motivation. I’m studying in a department where classes are taught in English, but my motivation for learning English has been low. Thanks to this project, I’ve had the opportunity to communicate with young people from many different countries and practice the language. My enthusiasm for learning English has rown during the project. Even with my intermediate-level English, communicating is
enjoyable, and I think having advanced-level English would be even more rewarding. I’ve also had the experience of getting to know different cultures and making foreign friends through the language bridge.
Ege:
Hello, I’m Ege. This project I participated in in Romania was very beneficial for me in many ways. First and primarily, my ability to express myself in English improved significantly. Since the project was a seminar-based initiative consisting of activities that required participant involvement, there were situations where you had to express yourself and join in conversations. This was very helpful for me. Additionally, I was
deeply involved in a comprehensive study on sustainability, the focus of the “Green Pro” project. Although I had previously volunteered in the field of sustainability, I gained knowledge on topics I was completely unfamiliar with and viewed them from perspectives I had never considered before. This is another benefit of the project.
