The students have been billeted with families from our sister school, Toki High School, for the past week. This has been a wonderful experience for our students, some of whom have never really been "away from home" before.

We arrived in Istanbul and were thrown straight into the crowd of 15 million people, among beautiful Ottoman architecture, walled cities, remains from the time when the Romans ruled the world, traffic like we've never seen, beautiful mosques, different smells, and the noise.

Our students have immersed themselves from the start. They have bravely tried new foods, haggled at the Grand Bazaar and remained respectful of the numerous differences.

They even picked up a bit of lingo. Thank you is such a difficult word to say in Turkish, but a shortened version sounds something like "teshekular". Apologies to Turkish speakers.

From Istanbul we travelled to Cappadocia, which looks like another planet, in the best possible way. It ranges from underground cities where upwards of 20,000 people once lived, to rocky outcrops known as fairy chimneys.

Next stop was Ephesus, which has Roman ruins that rival Rome itself. Our students spent a day exploring the ruins, listening intently to our guide and learning.

From Ephesus we travelled north to Troy and then a short drive to Çannakale, where all the fun began.

On arrival at Toki High School on Sunday afternoon, our students put their game faces on to the welcome of about fifty screaming new Turkish friends.

It really must have been a sight to see. If that's what rock stars or famous sports people or significant public figures feel like, well I want to be one. It was something else.

The next fifteen minutes was laughing, yelling (they are all loud), photos, crying, emotion, friendship. I've never seen a group of people so happy and scared at the same time.

A beautiful touch was the signage on the tennis court that said "welcome to your second home" which had our school logo on it.

The next time I saw the students was at school the next morning.

It was again a welcome like you could not imagine. We had TV cameras, press and 600 students to be introduced to. We had national anthems, flags raised and speeches. I hope the kids enjoyed it as much as me because I've got it up there as one of my best days ever.

The warmth of the welcome was expected but maybe not the extent. This will no doubt wear off but at this stage we are being mobbed everywhere we go. It's heaps of fun.   

East Loddon's senior school co-ordinator Sarah (Byrne) and I were spying on the kids all day from afar and they were never seen without a group around them. Many just want to hear you speak English - so clever we are to know our own language.

On Tuesday we visited the Gallipoli Peninsula. Armed with bags of hand knitted poppies, we toured all day, starting at 8am and returning after 6pm.

True to our project’s aim of understanding, we toured memorials to Ottoman and Allied soldiers, with two teachers from our sister school.

You can have as much empathy as you want for the other side, and our students were particularly respectful, but there is nothing that gets at your heart more than standing at Lone Pine and reading the names of our fallen heroes from 100 years ago.

How do you decide where to leave 100 knitted poppies when there are over 8700 names?

Some group members had connections with soldiers and left poppies at their graves, others chose by surname, others were chosen randomly. A lot of time was spent wandering. Surely the quietest moment of our trip.

Yesterday we toured Assos to the South, on the Aegean coast. This was a wonderful day with our host families. Turkish BBQ by the Aegean Sea and picnic games on the grass. We really are being treated well.

We finish our trip of a lifetime on Saturday by attending a dawn service in the town of Çanakkale. 

We want to thank Cliff Richard from the Bendigo RSL and Edith and Ian Dyett, who have shown particular interest in our trip. I hope that the dawn and later services at Bendigo are successful as usual and that everyone takes the chance to remember the fallen from all conflicts in which Anzacs have served.

Lest we forget.

Scott Wilkinson is acting principal at East Loddon P12 College.