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MY CULTURE - YOUR CULTURE - OUR CULTURE Newsletter #1

After our project had been approved, all partner schools announced the project on our school' s

project boards and informed and motivated our students to apply. Coordinators conducted

interviews with applicants and formed project teams.

My Culture - Your Culture - Our Culture is the Erasmus+ project, type KA229, school

partnerships for the area of general education. The topic of the project is cultural heritage and

the aims are to present each other’s history, dances and costumes, songs, literature, art,

cuisine and other cultural activities at local, regional and national level.

Partners in the project are the following schools:

Derici Mustafa Gürbüz Anadolu Lisesi from Kuşadası in Turkey, Istituto Istruzione Superiore Orso Mario Corbino from Partinico in Italy, EPAL Alexandrias from Alexandria in Greece, Liceul Regina Maria from Dorohoi in Romania, Agrupamento de Escolas de Vila Real de Santo Antonio from Vila Real de Santo

Antonio in Portugal and Ekonomska škola Požega from Požega in Croatia.

The first activity within the project was the LOGO COMPETITION.

The criteria for the competition had been determined and each school chose the winning logo

which was to be presented at the Croatia mobility.

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Before the Croatia mobility, eTwinning group, Twinspace, Facebook and Youtube channels were

created. Each team made a video about the history of their town and presented it during the mobility.

Videos can be found on the project Youtube channel.

LOGO PROPOSALS:

#MCYCOC

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Host and guest students had been

determined a month before the

mobility and students started

communicating.

Agenda for the Croatia mobility

was created.

And the adventure began

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The official logo of our

project has been chosen!

CONGRATS TO

THE TURKISH

TEAM!

From 10 to 14 December 2018, Croatian

partner hosted the first mobility and

welcomed 35 foreign students and

teachers. Students were accommodated

in the host students' homes and teachers

stayed at a hotel.

As the aim of the project is to present

cultural heritage, and the topic of the first

mobility was local history, the Croatian

host prepared a week full of culture and

history related activities, visits and

workshops.

After the welcoming programme which

Croatian students enriched with songs,

music and presentations of their school,

town and country, a tour of the town was

organised and the host students

presented the most important cultural and

historical monuments of their town.

During the tour, we visited Požega Town

Museum where we listened to a lecture on

the history of the museum and the heads

from Rudina, the romanesque stone

heads which originate from the 12th

century and which had been discovered in

the vicinity of Požega. The teachers held

their first meeting and voted for the official

logo of our project.

The next day we went on a trip to Vukovar

where we visited the Museum of Vučedol

Culture, located just 4 km from Vukovar,

on the right bank of the Danube river

which is one of the most significant

archaeological sites in Europe as this

attractive location was first inhabited as

early as in about 6000 BC. The Vučedol

culture flourished between 3350 and 2300

BC and is therefore contemporary with

the Sumer period in Mesopotamia, the

Early Dynastic period in Egypt and the

earliest settlements of Troy. We visited the

centre of Vukovar as well and the host

students spoke about the town, its

suffering and destruction during the

Homeland war in 1991 in Croatia.

Nowadays Croatian people regard it as a

symbol of peace, resistance and survival.

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Wednesday was a day for workshops -

students participated in workshops in which

they made Rudina heads out of modelling

clay and the one in which they learnt about

and wrote in Glagolitic script, the oldest

known Slavic alphabet. Meanwhile, the

teachers listened to the lecture and

participated in a workshop related to thinking

routines and visual thinking. Our foreign

guests had an opportunity to learn some

phrases in Croatian language as a lecture

and workshop on Croatian language was

organised for them as well.

On Thursday we visited Zagreb. First we

explored the Zagreb City Museum and then

we enjoyed the professionally guided

sightseeing tour of the old city centre and the

Zagreb Christmas Market. After that students

were divided into international teams and

embarked upon a scavenger hunt activity

which was devised to enable them to see and

explore the city, take plenty of photos and

videos and turn them into videos which will

remind them of this visit once they return

home.

On the last day of this mobility we visited a

local radio station, were greeted by the

deputy county prefect, held a prize quiz on

cultural achievements, handed out

certificates and gifts, some experienced snow

for the first time and had a lot of fun and

happy moments at the farewell dinner where

we celebrated this new partnership and new

friendships with music and dancing.

Enriched with new experiences, enthusiasm

and appreciation we look forward to the next

mobility that will be held in Italy in March

2019.

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It was a fantastic experience. I was hosted by a Croatian student. Her family treated me like a princess. They were very kind to me. I learned some Croatian words and above all I have new friends in Croatia.

I made a lot of friends. The town where the project took place is small but Croatian people have a big heart.

For me, the mobility was something unbelievable, it was an amazing week, actually the best week of my life and I'm very happy because I had the opportunity to be there. In that week, I made myself a lot of new friends and built stronger friendships, I'm proud to say that I became of another family and also I discovered some amazing places from Croatia, like Zagreb. I felt amazing, I didn't feel like I was surrounded by strangers, just by friendly people, people who I am not afraid to call my 2nd family! I can't wait to meet them again and to be again in Croatia!

I I was amazed by the school because It is completely different from mine. I would love to visit Croatia again in the future. Požega may be a small town but it sure is a beautiful one. The colorful houses and the scenery were eye catching but what really intrigued me the most was the passion the students had for the local history.

Amazing. Perfect. Special!

Flabbergasting!

First when I got into this project I really thought this is just about travelling, meeting new people and cultures. But guess what? I was really wrong. The week of the mobility in Croatia was for many of us the best week of our lives. Why? Because we made so many real friendships, the best memories and now we all have one big family which we like to call "Erasmus+ family". I heard a lot about this kind of projects from our teachers and other students, but this experience was 100 times better than I could ever have imagined. Starting with the program, I really had fun every single day. On the days when we were travelling I visited places I had already seen 1000 times in my life, but this time they looked different to me, somehow special. I learned that places are not the ones that matter, the people with whom you are surrounded are the ones who make the places special. I really liked the activities that we had during the mobility, especially the scavenger hunt. Usually I'm very shy and when it comes to public speaking I really fail every time and I'm scared of talking in front of more than 2 people, but this time I wasn't afraid at all and I actually did have a lot of public presentations during the project in front of 60 people. I think it's because the group of foreign students and teachers who came to Croatia was just amazing. Everyone was very kind and supportive. It was just amazing how such different people connected so much during just one week. On the last night the Croatians planned a little surprise; we sang 5 songs in 5 different languages. We had been preparing that for 2 weeks and stayed many times after school, missed some classes etc. The foreign students and teachers were really touched and it really meant the world for me that they reacted like that. And in the end I want to focus on hosting. I hosted a Romanian student, Ionuț. I never thought that I'll connect with my guest that much. Some people asked me how am I not afraid of having a complete stranger in my house for a week... He is the most kind and polite person I have ever met and since day 1 in Croatia he wasn't a stranger anymore, he became a part of our family. Everyone still misses him at home and I am very happy that I got to host him. The hard work really paid off because now I'm richer for 38 friends and 1000 memories.

Jorge and

Maria from

Portugal:

Serena and Victor

from Sicily

Ionut from Romania

Athanasios and Anastasia from Greece

Murat from Turkey

Here is Marijana's ovierview

of the Croatia mobility week

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This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Some more photos

and a video …