Fenerbahçe Ülker rules Euroleague but…

I like basketball and I’m a fan of Fenerbahçe. This year, we have a great team, McCalebb, Bjelica, Kleiza, Bogdanovic are some of the international players of the team. Obradovic is a famous coach who has many Euroleague titles.

At Euroleague, we have beaten Barcelona, CSKA Moscow, Nanterre, Partizan and Budivelnik so far. In fact, we won all 6 matches. However, at our national league, we lost last two away matches. Today, I watched Banvit match. Before the first whistle, everything was great. We were watching the players and the coach getting ready, the supporters were chanting.

 

But the match was a nightmare for us. Our defense was weak, we couldn’t make score from 3 pointers. The best of the team was 18 year old playmaker Kenan Sipahi. He was hardworking and ambitious.

 

At the end, the score was 91-76 and we lost the game. The reason could be our players being tired, they had a Euroleague game just one and a half day ago. It can’t be an excuse but the players couldn’t struggle at the second half, this was obvious. I hope this would be the last defeat.

 

Cooking Contest in Barcelona

In Sant Llorenç Savall, Barcelona, we participated in a cooking contest as a part of our Comenius Project. We wanted to prepare some traditional Turkish food. Honestly, our dishes were the most difficult to cook: Mantı and Sütlaç.

 

Our team consisted of eight students, seven girls and a boy. They had a great job that morning. They kneaded the dough, spread it, filled it and cooked it themselves and prepared Mantı in two hours! Meanwhile, they also prepared Sütlaç.

This is how it looked like after two hours’ effort and then we waited for the results to be announced.

 

Finally, our dishes got “The Most Original” prize. I believe our students deserved it. I also liked the meals of our partners. After prize ceremony, we tasted all the dishes, Spanish, French and Italian food.

  

Castellers from Catalonia

On Monday, we are flying to Barcelona. Before going, I want to add something about Catalan culture: Castells (Human Towers). People come together and build towers. They are mostly seven levels. But the record is 9 levels!

 

The origins of this Catalan tradition of building human towers dates back to the 18th century. It was in the small town of Valls, about 40 km west of Barcelona, that the inhabitants started building the towers. The castells have their origins in a traditional folklore dance. The steps of the dance were accompanied with the flute, as it is still played today during the tower building. At the end of the dance a small human tower was built.

Traditionally, the castellers perform their tower building during the main parts of larger festivals. Nowadays, the towers are also often built outside of the festivals – the actual season goes from June to November.

     

Last year, at these times, I was in Barcelona again for our Comenius project and I had a chance to see the last show of the year in Vilanova. For a few hours, they made many towers. It was a real show!

The motto of Castellers is “Força, equilibri, valor i seny” (Strength, balance, courage and common sense).

We are going to Barcelona!

We will go to Barcelona next Monday for the fourth mobility of our Comenius Project “Hello to Countries of Mediterranean (HELLO.COM)” Our group will present our cuisine there. They will teach our partners from Italy, France and Spain how to prepare Turkish food. As you see, they are ready to cook delicious Turkish food.