What a marvelous day!! Early morning we were up and at ‘em on our way to Canakkale. The farewell was beautiful from the lovely Kum Hotel where we gave the staff a book which all of us had signed. The trip seemed to go quickly (I am unsure of how long it actually was all thanks to the brilliant Bruce and Jayden’s Ipod!)
We all loved the ferry ride across the Dardanelles and by the time we reach the College we were all buzzing with excitement. The 17 students from the College were nice straight away and eager to test their English on us. (It’s pretty scary how good they are). Basically all round they were aged 15 to 16 years old. It certainly didn’t surprise us that we all got along like ‘houses on fire’.
After being assigned to our own students (I got two bubbly girls…a few others had 1 or 3 students) we jumped on the bus and went straight to Troja or TROY!!! Ancient Troy to see the walls and be given the story about why the buildings are the way they are from our knowledgeable tour guide Bitz we were able to learn so very much about the city, its facts and fiction in relation to Homer’s ‘The Iliad”. It was so clear to see the civilization…and its levels. Ohhh!!! I must must mention that Cara and I performed on the Odeon (like an ancient Greek stage!) as did the brilliant George and a couple other Turkish girls. We all could see quite clearly where the amateur architect Schlieman had cut through the levels and mixed a few of them up. Walking around Troy was amazing and before we left we managed to get a few gifts for friends and climb up with the Turkish students into the giant Trojan horse on display.
With our new found friends we headed back to the school for lunch we caught a glimpse of the schooling system here in Turkey. As gifts I certainly say that us Aussies think alike for we all had pencils and koalas and stickers for all the students (and of course the kangaroo key rings from Jayden)!! The gifts presented by the government were quite lovely indeed. They were presented a footy (AFL football that is) and a few books about Australia (including one about cooking!). (btw: they have a Zoo at their school!!!)
After lunch we all got back on the bus and headed down to the town were we went to a Navy Museum (on this boat!!). The stories about the Strait were told through a voice over, a diorama and projector. It was fascinating. Singing at the top of our lungs all of the Australian songs we could think of we headed back to our hotels…just to put our bags away before we were off again. Together as a group we explored the city, the students took us to this park and a market (more shopping!) and we took many many photos before returning to the hotel for dinner.
We are currently at dinner and afterwards we are meeting up with the students again to explore the city for another hour and a half. It is very very exciting to see a Turkish town/city from these local youth perspectives.
Evdeki herkese selamlar!...(Hi to everyone at home!) Georgia Lee
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