Finland Travel Journal 12-19 May

Let's eat all! We have to say bye bye to our lovely pasta for a whole week!

After the gala, I went home with Alissa and then we went to Alissa’s grandmother house. Afterwards Alissa’s father brought us to visit the Tower in Tampere. There was a wonderful view from the top. Later, went to the Luna Park: there we saw the singers of “Ma voisin olla se” (they are very famous in Finland). Alissa failed to greet them. Later we went to the market and finally we came back home. Alissa and her family offered me a beautiful present. After I had a video call with Viviana (my best friend) to introduce her Alissa. At the end of the evening, I thought Alissa some Italian words and we went to bed. It was the most beautiful day but even the saddest because we had to greet all our new friends from others countries.

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Monday was the first day in Finland. We woke up early and in Helsinki Airport, we took the train to Tampere. We came a little late and missed the welcomed ceremony, but we visited the school and we were amazed because it is completely different from ours. Right after we split into groups based on the color of the folder with kids of other nations and we assisted to some lessons. There is a great school system there because it is not at all heavy: they have 45 minutes of class and 30 minutes of break. They start at 9:00 am and end at 3:00 pm. In the school, nobody wear shoes and this give the feeling to be at home, a comfortable feeling; they have many laboratories and beautiful classes equipped with everything you can dream and need.

I woke up at 7:00, I had breakfast and I went to the bathroom. Once ready, me, Emanuela and Amari went out of the Amari’s house and went to school. After lunch, we did rehearsals for the final show. Finished rehearsals we went to the cafeteria where we ate meatballs and salad. After lunch, Finnish pupils took us to the gym. They made us close our eyes and they reproduced a thunderstorm.&nbsp;After they did it they showed us, how it was done, where we learned so do we. At 3:00 pm, Vesa (Amari’s father) arrived. He is a very hospitable and helpful person, who took us to a big shopping center where we spent the whole afternoon and where we had dinner.

Sunday 19th May: Good Bye Ylöjarvi, Good Bye Finland

Today, on Sunday 19th may, ends one of the best experience of my whole life. I woke up at seven am and together with Giulia, we went downstairs to have breakfast. We felt sad, because we knew that maybe after that adventure we would never see each other again with our host family. At eight, we went out with all the family who took us to the Tampere Train station, where we would meet our teachers and we would say good bay each other’s. At Tampere we found other Italians students and all the Finnish families who host us. It was very hard to greet them but we were also happy to go back home to our parents. After many kisses, cry and hugs, finally we left to Helsinki.

Tuesaday 14th May: In the deep Forest

On Tuesday, I woke up at eight o’ clock, got ready and Ylenia and I went to school with Linnea’s father. When we arrived, I went to my classroom. After eleven o’clock, I went to have lunch in the canteen with my Italian friends. Lunch consisted on a soup with sausages. I did not like it a lot, but later I ate cheese with typical pretzels. After lunch, we all went out to do nature activities. We walked in the forest for hours and played games always divided into different groups. We spent half the day in the woods with Finnish, Spanish, French, English and Romanian friends we had met.

Saturday 18th May: A sunny Day on a Lake

Francesca and I, we wake up in the morning and have breakfast. After Breakfast Katja (Anni’s mother) told us, we were going to a lake together with her husband. We were very happy to prepare our bags with swimwear. We left home and after a while we stopped to go to a supermarket to buy our lunch. Arrived at the house on the lake, Francesca, Anni and her sister Alissa went to the jetty and Anni took us on a rowboat and Francesca and I tried to take it but we didn’t succeed, it was a lot of fun. Later, we wearied swimwear and went to bath in the lake…the water was frozen. After dried off, we had a sauna and then we took lunch.

We arrived in Helsinki around eleven am and we started visit the capital together with our headmaster and with our deputy Mrs. Aprea: we visited a protestant cathedral, the touristic harbor of Helsinki with food and salmon Market and with a nice panoramic wheel. We visited the main important squares and street of the city. After visiting, we took lunch at Mc Donald in the train station where Mrs. De Simone was waiting with our suitcases. Finished lunch we went to Vantaa Airport and a four pm our flight took off and we arrived in Rome at half past seven pm. At The airport all our families were waiting for us, we hugged them very strong, we greet and thank our teachers and we went back home to Naples. I brought with me not only suitcase and stuffs but also a great joy and many emotions. This week made me understand the true sense of being alone on oneself.

Finally...Italian Team passed the examination to became Finnish: hot sauna and swim in a cold lake!!!

Late in the afternoon we went back home where we met Katja who had returned from work. Mom, Anni and Alissa took us shopping, and we went to dinner at Mc Donald’s. When we returned home, our schoolmate Gaia, with her host Alissa came too and we started playing in the garden, then in the evening Gaia and Alissa went back to their home. Francesca and I put our pajamas, we say goodnight to Katja, Anni and Alissa and we fell asleep.

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Boarded on the plane we all had a little anxiety, but after a while, we were very quiet. We move at 8:30 in the evening and the journey took 4 hours. It hurtled our head and ears due to pressure. We landed at Vantaa Airport in Helsinki around midnight so we went directly to our hotel where we took a shower while our deputy director, Mrs. Adriana Aprea cooked Italian Spaghetti with tomato sauce at 2 am. It was very funny to eat all together in this nice apartment in the middle of the night. We went to sleep very late and we slept only few hours because the day after, we had to wake up early to reach our friend in Ylöjarvi.&nbsp;

FILIPPO MAIONE IIA

Once we arrived at home, we went a bit on the trampoline with Amari, a little shy girl, but vert sweet and nice. Finished with the trampoline we had a shower; we put on our pajamas and went to sleep.

I left school and I went to Linnea’s house and we had a snack with a croissant; after, I got a bit on the bed to rest a while and about six o’ clock I went shopping with Ylenia, Flavia Emanuela, Linnea, Amari and their parents. We bought many things. Back home, Yle and I, we talked to Linnea’s dad. He was very hilarious; we laughed and joked a lot. Then he cooked a delicious dinner with potatoes and chicken. After dinner, we played all together with Xbox until half past eleven, and then we wearied our pajamas and went to bed. In this family, I felt good, they always laughed, joked and played. They were like a second family to me.

In addition, the habits are very different: we took lunch at the canteen at eleven o’ clock in the morning, and that sounds very strange to me, because in Napoli we take lunch around two o’ clock in the afternoon. The first day, it was very strange to eat something so different from our food. I did not like the soup very much. After school, we met our correspondent Linnea Korpeinen and her family that hosted Giulia and I had a very beautiful house entirely made in wood. We settled in our room but after around five in the afternoon, we went back to school to play games together with other students. Around 8:00 pm we had dinner and then we played with our host family at the typical Finnish table games until late and before go to sleep, we thought our family how to prepare a Neapolitan coffee with moka machine, we offered to them. This day was very exciting.

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Hello! My name is Filippo and I want to tell you about my Erasmus True Week in Finland together with my schoolmates: Francesca, Giulia S., Emanuela, Flavia, Gaia, Ylenia and Giulia P. I was the only boy among all this girls but I enjoyed my experience a lot. On Sunday, we had to meet in Fiumicino Airport in Rome, near a famous statue called "Uomo Vitruviano" by Leonardo Da Vinci. That day I travelled by car with Gaia and her family. We could not find this statue, it took us quite a while but when we found it, we gathered to check-in.

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We dont think we want to try this experience!&#160;

Thursday 16th May 2019: a day to remeber!

On Thursday, the fifth day of our fantastic trip to Finland, my friend Flavia and I,&nbsp;woke up at 8:00, had a quick breakfast and we ran to school where the bus was waiting for us. First, we went to visit a magnificent Protestant church where we were divided into groups and the Finnish students guided us. Later we did a treasure hunt in a huge library full of books for every nationality. Then we headed to the museum where we had lunch and Finnish friends talked about the typical traditions of Finland in the form of a game. We spent the afternoon with the family who hosted us and at 6:00 pm, we headed to the artistic gymnastic competition of our new friend Amari: it was really phenomenal! Finally, to end the evening in the best way, we had a very relaxing sauna, including a swim in the frozen lake. The “Italian team” was the one who immersed longer. When we returned home happy but exhausted, we wished the family good night and we fell asleep.&nbsp;

I woke up at 8:45, I prepared and went to school with Alissa. When we arrived at school I met the others Italian, together with them and the Spanish friends, we went on the carpentry classroom where we created a nut. Later, we rehearsed our music repertory and then we had lunch at school canteen. At 12:40 the gala started. All of us (Finnish, French, Spanish, English, Romanians and Italians) we started with the performance of “Rainforest”: the light were off and in the darkness, we began dancing and recreate all the noises of nature (as birds, water, thunders etc.). When this performance ended the first to perform were the French team followed by the Spanish team and the English one. Every team performed with their own musical instruments and someone of them sang. After English team, it was our turn to perform: We were excited. Emanuela and I presented. I had a lot of fun especially in the performance “O’ Sarracino”. After us, the Romanian and then the Finnish teams performed their spectacular music. Two Romanians students who were very able with guitars and an English student with a wonderful voice impressed me. When all the team finished, we sang all together the Finnish song “Ma voisin olla se” and “All you need is love”.

We want to present you our lovely Finnish families

Thank You for everything: Amari, Maisa, Alissa, Anni and Linnea

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