1. 1st meeting: Samsun, Turkey 23-28 September 2013
Our Comenius project started with utmost success and the first meeting held in Samsun serves as a
bright and strong foundation of our mutual goals – respect for cultural uniqueness, understanding of
educational diversity, intergenerational dialogue all coming together in one common activity, and
that is preparation of food.
Our hosts – Samsun Ilkadim Mustafa Kema Ilkogretim School made it all possible and we thank them
for that. As for the memories and the experiences, the laughs and the smell of food and spices…we
have plenty of proof. This is a short description of this meeting.
Day 1 – arrival. We were all welcomed at the airport by our hosts who drove us to the hotel in
Samsun. Unfortunately, we already knew our colleagues from Hungary wouldn’t be there to say hello
and we hoped this would be the last time.
Day 2-6 - the beginning of project activities. It started with a visit to the host school. Everyone was
there – from the students, teachers, and the headmaster to the special folklore group who
performed traditional Turkish dance for us. We were welcomed like kings. Later we participated in a
project meeting with PPT presentations about Samsun and Turkish cuisine. It was an introduction to
Turkish traditional food followed by tasting samples. We also had a chance to try and prepare the
food ourselves. And we weren’t alone in this. With the help of all the teachers, who were very
patient and willing to explain in every possible way (even with body language) how tasty the food
was, we learned about their culture and what it means for Turkish people to share a meal with
someone.
It is important to emphasise that every lunch and dinner were organized not only as a meal for our
hungry group, but as a different culinary experience, giving us additional information about the origin
and special characteristics of that dish. For example, we highly valued the information about a
certain type of dessert, which is only prepared by the chef of the restaurant we visited. Or the way
we tasted fresh-from-the-oven pastry while having a walk around the town – something that every
citizen of Samsun does in the morning – buys this kind of pastry. These two examples show the
magnitude of this project – we can be treated as guests who for the first time may learn
someinformation about Turkish cuisine, but with a simple bite of pastry we can become ordinary
people just walking the streets of Samsun.
Since we visited this town well known in Turkish modern history (as a place Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
started his revolution from and consequently formed the modern Turkish Republic); we visited
significant places like the Monument of Atatürk and a replica of Atatürk’s house. We learned that
every town in Turkey needs to have a kind of a memorial to their “Father” of the nation.
Samsun is placed on the Black Sea so we also took a ship tour and enjoyed the scenery having – what
else but – black tea.

2. Samsun is also a very old city dating back to ancient times when Amazon women warriors ruled this
place. We searched for further information about the Amazons inside the Amazon museum.
We continued our search for historical richness of the Ottoman Empire and visited the city of
Amasya, known as educational centre for Ottoman princes and ended our trip in Havza where we
experienced Turkish bath (hamam).
We held our first official teachers’ meeting where we once again introduced ourselves and our
personal/professional future expectations of this project. I am confident we all made the right choice
by entering this Comenius project.
After almost a week of Turkish delights (not only the famous dessert) we can say we fully appreciate
their warm and nourishing soup, delicious meat dishes (minced or otherwise), variety of vegetables,
famous pies and burek, really sweet desserts and many more examples of Turkish originality in
cuisine.

3. Report from teachers’ meeting
Report - Samsun meeting 23-28/09/2013
Participants: 10 countries, 11 schools represented by their coordinators in the first meeting held in
Samsun, Turkey. Due to administrative problems Hungary was not present at this meeting.
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5)
Dates for the next meetings
Products
The next meeting – tasks
Organization of meetings– in general
Organization of the next meeting - London
1) We finalized dates for meetings in year 1 of the project:
Turkey 23-28/09/2013
UK 20-24/11/2013
Hungary 13-23/03/2014
Spain 6-11/05/2014
Romania 4-8/06/2014
2) Web page - active
Facebook page –active
Comenius corner – in progress – post photos after it's finished
Poster – “Our typical traditional food” – this wasn’t mentioned at the meeting, but is a part
of our application
eCookbook – 5 recipes per country with glossary of ingredients – a final product
PowerPoint presentations – have to be prepared for every meeting
3) For the UK meeting we need to prepare a presentation about our traditional food – emphasis
on the food we eat in autumn.
Guidelines: up to 10 slides; 5-7 minutes long, with every recipe main ingredients, cooking
method, post picture and point out to the geographical region this recipe comes from.
4) We will try and find suitable accommodation with prices up to 50 euros per person per night.
5) Final deadline for info about the London meeting is 11 October 2013 – our colleagues from
London will give us final information about the hotels and other expenses.
Project coordinator
Dubravka Stiglic - Croatia