On Monday was the time to start the real meeting. Our international coordinator Mr. Karhula welcomed everybody to Finland. He explained in a funny way how Finnish people can survive also in a very cold temperature. Every delegation presented themselves and totally we had 18 students and 8 teachers excluding a big group of people from Heltech and Tavastia. In the afternoon we had some nice presentations about the travelling questionnary. Every school explained for example how long their average school trip is and how much they have travelled around the Europe and the world. After a long school day we travelled to Itäkeskus shopping mall and ate a lot of pizza and salad in pizzeria Rax.
Tuesday was also a school day with full of presentations and program. The main item was a group work with GPS-receivers. International groups were made by students from every delegations. With coordinates and also a help of local students, we got familiar with Helsinki city and its most famous sights, for example Stadion Tower, fish market and German church. In the afternoon we packed ourselves in cars and drove to Honkasyrjä that is a villa of our school by the Baltic Sea. Students were playing with the snow and afterwords it was nice to sit in Sauna, of course with wet clothes. :D In the evening Allu's band was playing us nice music and some brave people decided to stay in a villa over the night.
Wednesday was the moving day. Everybody packed their luggage and we all moved to snowy Hämeenlinna to be quests of Koulutuskeskus Tavastia. On the way we visited in Fazer chocolate factory and ate as much chocolate as possible. Many quests bought also some special filled chocolate to bring their home countries.
In Hämeenlinna we got to know the school and the rest of the day was just chilling out and eating dinner in restaurants or host families.
On Thursday Tavastia students taught for others how to use GPS-receivers and draw with AutoCad. After hard studying was the one higlight of the week: snow activities! Sled hill, snow fighting and other snow games made also teachers to behave as children. After playing we had of course the camp fire with sausages and smoked salmon. We also tasted some Finnish specialities like mämmi. In the evening everybody could choose their activities. Some people went to bowling, some shopping, some walking in the snowy forest and maybe the biggest group to the spa.
And so fast it was already Friday. We saw some last presentations and quests received diplomas that they have survived the whole week in Finnish winter. Later on we made the evaluation that actually told us that mostly people have liked activities. In the evening we had a buffet and disco that we all remember maybe forever...
On Saturday it was time to say good bye for all our friends and let's meet in Hannover in two months!
