Mrs Magda Foik-Winek said:

It was an incredible time which I will never forget. It was a chance to meet wonderful people from diffrent cultures that helped me to understand their life style much better than only literature or common stereotypes.I learnt a lot about our partners’ countries and people who who live there. I’m very happy to be the part of this programme and I am looking forward to seeing them all again. I want to thank, both, teachers and students who came to Poland for their kindness, for beeing so openminded, cheerful and energetic. Those days we spent together were really special for many reasons but the most important thing is, in my personal opinion, the fact that we had an opportunity to make new, marvellous friends.No matter where we live and who we are, if only we can communicate and find all the diffrences fascinating. After that visit I know that learning about each other might be a great adventure!
With greetings and kisses:)

Mrs Beatriz Fernandez Barciela said:

We have just arrived from one of the most interesting activities of the Comenius program: the first meeting of our project, in Poland, where we had got the opportunity to know our foreign colleagues, those who we were working with all these months. There, we share not only the work done in our schools, but our time together and this was the most beautiful thing, the real way of breaking barriers: working together but also spending our time together and getting to know each other. We were sometimes close, but sometimes we were very far because of our different cultures. Now we realise that we are teachers and we have shared different strategies to solve the same problems. And first of all, we are persons, different people from different countries who felt well together.

Finally, this meeting gave us the opportunity to know Poland, the incredible availability of the Silesian people, their kindness, their professional organisation of the events, the implication of all the scholarship community in the project (students, families and of course, the staff) and the marvellous welcome that we and our students received. We left Ruda Slaska with our heart filled with good memories and new friends.

Mr Radziszewski wrote:

Go and see

Now, when thanks to the Internet and airplanes we live so close to each other as never before, and the borders between many countries are the matter of the past it is still surprising that so many stereotypes live on. They live because all people carry them like an illness. But there is a cure for this illness: The name of the medicine is ‘go-and-see’. Very often it is enough to take the stereotypes with you to another place in the world. You return home without them. Why? The answer is easy: they faded away while constant crashing against the reality. People all over the world are usually not as stupid, mad or primitive as you suppose to think before you meet them personally. When you live in fear of any other culture and of being eaten or even left hungry in the center of an unknown town just go there. You will be cured.
A few weeks ago some of us had a chance to see whether our fears of the country of Turkey were real or not. Since nobody likes to be deprived of any of their possessions including stereotypes the visit was painful. We lost all of the superstitions and stereotypes we brought along there. The close encounters with our Turkish friends, living with them, sightseeing, shopping and dancing left no doubt about the great hearts and spirits they have. The Turkish teachers and students made us – their guests – standing speechless. Unfortunately it is impossible to say how wonderful and effective experience was the visit. So much joy and enthusiasm I had not felt for many years. Turkey wants to join the European Union while they are already there.
These memories are important now, when another country will be deprived of its stereotypes. I wish all the participants of Italian meeting good luck and may they experience all we did in Turkey, which is not a faraway place anymore, because my heart is really not far away from me.

Mrs Siwula wrote:

The visit of our friends from Italy, Spain and Turkey was really magical and everybody who took part in it can admit its inspiring nature. During that week we had a chance to invite our visitors to our Polish reality: Polish culture, cuisine, outlook on life. They availed themesleves of the opportunity with an eagerness which constituted to the fact that the visit ended in a success.
Integration started flourishing at the very first day: exchanging opinions or smiles and gestures (when there existed a language barrier), sharing knowledge or simply a mutual observation were only some of the tentative steps towards assimilation. Alleged cultural differences blurred when we noticed similarities concerning our nations. In the end, we understood more because we had learnt through experience.
Adequately, our Sicilian friends gave us also a chance to learn through experience during our visit in Palermo. We tried their local delicious cuisine, listened to their music, observed how they dwell, work and learn and even watched their traditional puppet theatre. The sightseeing trips were very special because our Sicilian friends enriched them with their vivid stories, authentic anectodes and exhiliarating games. The visit to Palermo made it possible for me to experience the mysterious climate of medieval Erice, the breathtaking view of Mount Pellegrino, the ancient atmosphere of Segesta as well as the unforgettable smell of its surrouning spring flowers, the intimacy of the narrow streets in Monreale, the picturesque view of Mondello beach and its nearby houses, and last but not least the cheerful companionship of our dear friends from Comenius project.
Now… when I think about our mutual journey… the fragments of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass entitled “Spontaneous Me” appear in my mind:
“SPONTANEOUS me, Nature,
The loving day, the mounting sun, the friend I am happy with,
The arm of my friend hanging idly over my shoulder,[ ….]
Love-thoughts, love-juice, love-odor, love-yielding, love-climbers, and the climbing sap,
Earth of chaste love, life that is only life after love, […]
The wholesome relief, repose, content… .”
Dear Friends!!! Images of our memories are preserved in our photos, which form a beautiful intercultural mosaic. Everybody is unqiue and diverse but still all together we create a whole. I am grateful that I can belong to the mosaic and I would like to thank you ALL for your belonging. Without at least one person our mosaic would NOT be the same.

Carlo Columba and Antonio Tagliavia project meetinig in Turkey

We experienced a warm and welcoming atmosphere and a real desire to share ideas in relation with the issues of the meeting.
We felt a good relationship among students and teachers from each country, which was principally based on a mutual interest and cooperation to achieve the common aims.
We enjoyed the excellent organization of our journey which was structured in such a good way to enrich various items of our knowledge about the country and the hotel accommodation was definitely perfect.
Referring to the aims of the project, we should underline the opportunity to organize a group works during the international meetings to think about the experience and to help students and teachers focussing the cultural problems underlying stereotypes.

Henar&Remedios&Natalia wrote:

The truth is that Turkey was the destiny that we liked most.Perhaps because it was such a mysterious ans far away place that we lived it as if it were an adventure.
We can only say that the experience was more than what we expected. Knowledge is the best way to fight against stereotypes.
From our point of view the choice of the project´s theme ,“Intercultural Dialogue”, has been the right one, because these experiences help us understand the cultural and plural diversity from a more flexible point of view.
For us, this meeting not only meant a gathering among different countries but, above all, among different people. We were great persons meeting new friends and discovering a marvelous country which has an enormous cultural richness.
The hospitality of our hosts and the joyfulness and closeness of all those who participated in the project have made this meeting an unforgettable experience.
HENAR, REMEDIOS, NATALIA