Category: Gökhan (TR)

PUBLIKÁLVA by uff PUBLIKÁLÁS HELYE Gökhan (TR)
ÍRJ HOZZÁSZÓLÁST
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Training, trips and friends

As far as I remember in my last blog episode I finished writing just before going to Mid Term Evaluation Training by Erasmus+. So if you are interested, I’m willing to share my memories.
The training was held in Poiana Brasov at a luxury facility. The place was chill and comfortable in every way; rooms, natural environment, foods and so on.
However, some volunteers were not satisfied. I believe they would prefer a place in the city center and covered by local or young people who want to party all night long just like we had in On Arrival Training. But if 90 volunteers are in the same place, location and opportunities do not matter, the party is inevitable. Even though they warn us several times as ‘Do not party at your rooms’ one of my friend’s living room was suitable for a party for 50 people. Thus, we did, every single night. But the fault is not ours, the room’s itself.

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I don’t want to bother you about the content of the training, it was kind of similar to On Arrival Training. But basically, they aimed at the importance of volunteering and opportunities after the volunteering period. Also one of the most useful part for me is the definition of the learning and the learning types. It was a proper Personal Development training I would say.
After training, we had enough time and energy to visit Peles Castle which is 90 minutes away from Brasov. It’s the most beautiful castle I’ve ever seen in Romania so far. Although the guide was not so excited about telling the story of the castle -which I can understand, doing the same thing a dozen times every day, using the same sentences like a robot, not so interesting- even she couldn’t break the enthusiasm that the castle has woken deep inside me. Because at least she was talking English.

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As volunteers, nowadays most of our working hours have been spent to the magazine called “Sulisokk” which we publish soon. Our goal is to explain and introduce the EVS program. From the very beginning to the end the language is English and all the articles created by us. You’ll find anything you may want to find about EVS, so stay tuned and do not miss the chance to get informed. Who knows maybe you’ll be volunteers too, in the future.

Before I left my hometown for the first time, I could not expect that I would find close friends. Because, you know, language is an obstacle, cultures, and ideologies are different. But it didn’t take too much time to realize that you can find people around the world, even though you belong different culture, ideology, and perspective, still, you might be able to think the same way. One of the best decisions of my life was participating in the Work and Travel program and thanks to that experience I have lots of precious friends and some of them came to visit me in Romania. We spent the Easter holiday together. It was an enjoyable journey but at the same time tiring too, because in 2 days we made a big trip included Salina Turda, Sibiu, Sighisoara, and Brasov. Also every night we went back home to sleep that means we spent to much time on the Romanian defective roads. But it

definitely worth it. Even though we don’t talk too much via social media I realized that we didn’t lose anything regarding our friendship.

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So far my life is going that way as I tried to tell you guys. Hope you did enjoy while reading. See you in the next blog article. Enjoy your life.

 

PUBLIKÁLVA by uff PUBLIKÁLÁS HELYE Gökhan (TR)
ÍRJ HOZZÁSZÓLÁST
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Good Vibes, Great Times

We’ve already completed the winter of 2019. I can say that this year started very well for me. I’ve greeted it by two life-changing decisions. One of them is to quit smoking, the other one is to start up a gym. Both of them was the most wanted achievements of my life for around 2 years. So I feel proud to accomplish them during my life changing EVS experience.

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As you know, we were preparing a board game for primary schools about the environment that I mentioned in my last blog article. Now I can gladly say that we’ve completed it and already played more than twenty times with different primary and high school students. While some of them were happy, amused and enjoyed, some of them were shy, hesitant or doubtful. But after we started to play the game all of them had some fun definitely. Thanks to that project we’ve met a lot of precious English teacher and all of them loved our game maybe more than the children. I think they are the reasons for the overall good English level of this city. Children are lucky for having them in their schools.

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Life is good, the weather is getting better day by day. We might plan some trips with my home-mates soon. But for now, the closest future plan is to join the midterm training with other volunteers in Romania. I’m so excited about that. I am going to share all the details with you soon. So far that’s all. Have a great day.

PUBLIKÁLVA by uff PUBLIKÁLÁS HELYE Gökhan (TR)
ÍRJ HOZZÁSZÓLÁST
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Hello dear readers

It’s been a while since I wrote the last blog episode. In that time I did pretty good things, let me write about them…

Firstly if you haven’t been at ”The Lone Rock” in Balan, I think, you should plan a day trip there as soon as possible. One of our friends who lives there invited us. While considering to join him, I didn’t know it will be the most difficult and the most enjoyable hike in my life. We started the trek in the steep trail, we passed through a forest while perspiring excessively. Eventually, we reached the top of the mountain. There is a place which is kind of relaxing spot to look back and feel the achievement. Of course every time there is more thing to achieve. You are not high enough now, take your time to rest, then aim to the top of the rocks near you, as we did.
I assure you it’s not easy at all, but the reward is astonishing when you reach there. Just look at that, AMAZING!

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After the overwhelming hot summer in Turkey, I knew that it will be a harsh winter for me. I accept that it’s way more cold that I confront in my city, but as they said, humans can adapt every kind of condition, they just need some time to adjust. I never thought that the combination of snow, Christmas and Székelyudvarhely would be that beautiful. It helped me to acclimate to the cold weather. Here are some photos as my memories.

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Being a member of UFF feels good. All the activities, events and concerts make me feel alive. We’ve been volunteer jury members in the Peron Music competition which was a joyful event with skillful musicians and well-quality songs. We had a difficult time to decide who showed the best performance however the Road Of Life deserves the first place according to our and the musician jury’s votes. I wish them to keep doing the great job they do. Furthermore, as you know, every year there is a great event organized by UFF. At the beginning of the evening, we present ourselves, our projects and life to the members then enjoyed good music provided by FUNKorparation.

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I would say that for me the most enjoyable hobby is playing video games. That’s why I was spending most of my free time in front of my TV and PlayStation. More than three years ago, one day I met a French guy while I’m playing a multi-player game. After that, we started to play together and speak via voice chat. Eventually, we became good friends enough to decide to see each other. So he was here in Romania for 5 days including new years eve. Despite the fact we see each other very first time, after spending some time together, I felt like he is a friend from my childhood. I think it was the best time to visit Romanian cities during the new year’s excitement. Shining Sibiu and beautiful Cluj were great, no need to explain you know that. Also, we wanted to show him our city, therefore, decided to spend new year’s eve in Székelyudvarhely with the firework show and of course a bottle of champagne.

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I don’t want to take more time of yours, but let me write something about our projects too. So, we repeated some English words and sentences briefly as the last thing and said goodbye to kindergartens recently. Next semester we’ll focus on primary schools. Already started to prepare for them. We put a grand effort to create a room-size board game which is 3*4 meters. The aim is to teach them the importance of recycling, energy saving,  keeping the world clean while taking care of the different type of trashes. In a short explanation, the goal is to teach them how to save the future of the planet earth while helping them in improve their English.

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PUBLIKÁLVA by uff PUBLIKÁLÁS HELYE Gökhan (TR)
ÍRJ HOZZÁSZÓLÁST
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ALL IS WELL!

Hello guys, I would like to share my last memories in my EVS experience;

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    Firstly I want to say what have we done so far. Our main goal is providing basic English education for kindergartens. So, we’ve started to do that with three different kindergartens. We have at least two children group in each kindergarten. Every Monday we assign a subject to teach then prepare a presentation and activity for interactive education and a game or dance to get their attention longer. They have already learned numbers, colors, body parts, weather conditions and basic sentences in English. As far as we can see children are grateful for these lessons. Also, I think they like that to have two strangers who can’t speak Hungarian. But still, sometimes they forget about that and trying to communicate with me in Hungarian when they do so the best option is, if there is no English-Hungarian translator(Hungarian volunteers, Merci and Zsuzsi) near me, to say Igen, and pretend like as I understand them . For now, kindergartens are going well. I hope that the end of the year they will remember all these things that we taught them. On the other hand, we created the UFF English Club for practice our English with youngsters who interested. We’ve had too much fun so far and I believe our Club will be a better place day by day.

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I would like to say something about my travel experiences too. Last week I spent 5 days in Cluj-Napoca. One of my friends was saying that ‘ If you like Cluj, you like it too much if you don’t like it, you hate it, there is no middle point.’ And I clearly can say that I love that city. It’s a small city compared to Turkish cities, but it felt me superb. The main square, parks, pubs, restaurants, lights in the streets and so on. Probably I will spend my new year’s eve there. Moreover last month I went back home to Turkey to get my long-term visa and stayed there for 2 weeks. That was a great time with my family and friends. Also, I was able to eat my most missed flavors like baklava, iskender kebap, and kunefe…

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After all, I came back to my lovely city Székelyudvarhely to keep going my life. I’m excited about the next days. I hope everything will go with the same rhythm.

PUBLIKÁLVA by uff PUBLIKÁLÁS HELYE Gökhan (TR)
ÍRJ HOZZÁSZÓLÁST
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August and September

Hello all;

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My name is Gökhan, from Turkey. I’m a volunteer in Székelyudvarhely. It has been 45 days since I came here and I want to share my first impression of the city and my life here.

First of all, I should say that my expectation was a bit different from what I saw. This city is more active and social than I thought.  People are friendly and smiley, sometimes It’s a problem to communicate with them but soon I believe that I will solve this problem by learning Hungarian. My co-workers are so kind, we have already became friends. We had enjoyable activities in that short-term such as English camp, team building meetings, concerts and so on. I even participated in a wedding ceremony of one of my colleagues and I loved it very much.

Basically, I can say that I’m here to provide utmost benefit for a target group. It could be kindergarten kids, high school youngsters or a part of the society. We started in kindergartens by teaching English at the basic level. Communication with such small kids it’s the most difficult part of this right now, but it will be easier when we get used to each other. Also, we are planning ‘English Speaking Hour’ event for youngsters who are interested. Our aim is to improve their speaking skills and make them feel comfortable while speaking English. That will be a great opportunity for them to express themselves to foreign people. In addition as volunteers, we are helping our co-workers about on-going projects. It’s just a beginning,  we’ll add new projects to benefit society.

Everything is on the right track so far. My new life exceeded my expectation. I’m glad to be here. I hope I can say the same thing at the end of my project.