Time to leave

As time already passed by, it is soon time to say goodbye. This semester in Finland went by extremely fast and when looking back I can't believe that I have spent more than 4 months in Finland now. Once you take off, you first think of the time being extremely long but in the end you have to admit that you can't even explain how fast time went.

Going abroad is one of the best opportunities you can get in life and even though I had some difficulties finding the most suitable courses for my studies, I also learnt a lot for my own personality. Being on your own and having to fix things by yourself is one of the best experiences you can make when going abroad. There are always things you could make different the next time but those mistakes make you feel stronger next time. 

Once you have lived in another country, you get more and more into travelling and would like to spend some time somewhere else more often. 

I liked staying in Finland and it was extremely nice to come here during the spring semester because I was able to experience both, winter and spring in Turku. Those two times are completely different and therefore it was a great chance to be here during both seasons. Especially the landscape during the Spring period is overwhelming :)

At the food festival on Friday evening I was able to enjoy the sun outside and try some food outside with a Spanish, Finnish and French friend of mine.

foodfestival in Turku

Last but not least, I most of all enjoyed meeting so many different people. There are a lot of people from all over the world who I really started to like and get friends with. There are people from Spain, the Czech Republic, Romania, France, Northern Ireland, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Finland, Australia, Canada, Britain, ... I am glad that I have been able to meet some many nice and welcoming people. :)

One more picture of the beautiful landscape in Finland!

Vappu (1st of May)

On the 1st of May people start having their picnic in a parc called Vartiovuori which lies next to the Aura river. In the parc music bands are playing and people gather taking their food and drinks with them. 
While lying on the gras, they enjoy eating and drinking and celebrating Vappu's day.
Apart from the picnic Finns also sell different kind of stuff at the market place and the area then looks more like a fairground.

During Vappu people would also make some traditional food. The "Vappumunkit" which look like donuts as well as the "Tippaleipä" are sweets Finns eat during those days. The "Sima" is the typical Vappu drink and insists of lemon and raisins.

Having finished the picnic the people go back home and the city will be quite empty the next few days because people are fairly tired of celebrating for the whole week. 

I really enjoyed Vappu and I was quite suprised that those days are so special. Some students at university have told me before that Vappu is going to be an extremely big and momentous event. I now know what they meant when seeing it myself. I think I have never seen so many Finnish people at one place before.

Vappu (30th of April)

The week of the 30th of April and the 1st of May is seen as one of the most important times of the year. Not only celebrating labour's day on the 1st of May but also the beginning of summer including barbecues and sitting outside means a lot to Finnish people.
That is the reason why they start celebrating this day already at the beginning of the week. 

On the 30th of April people would then meet at their houses having brunch together and heading to the city centre afterwards. 
Following the finnish tradition, I also went to a Finnish student's place together with a friend of mine where we had a really nice barbecue and lots of sweet pastries such as: three different apple cakes, pancakes, salmiakki, donuts and a lot more. 

Brunch at Jutta's place

At around 5 pm we started walking towards the city centre because there was the ceremony going to take place at 6 pm. 
Usually Finnish people all meet up at Kauppatori and exactly at 6 pm they all put their graduation caps on while having some sparkling wine. 
It was incredible that there were old and young meeting at the city centre, all with their hats on.

Students organisations hold speeches and people are singing and standing all along the road at Kauppatori.
One road at Kauppatori is dedicated to all the Finns who are Finnish speaking and at the other one for the Swedish speaking population in Turku.

Lots of Finnish people with their hats at Kauppatori

After this, people leave Kauppatori to walk towards the river where they sit down talk and drink. Some also go to clubs or continue the rest of the day celebrating at their houses.

St.Petersburg

Because of the fact that St.Petersburg is utterly close to Finland and you can get a Visa-free trip when staying there for no more than 72 hours, I decided to go to St.Petersburg with a friend of mine. 

We started our trip on Friday afternoon when leaving to Helsinki by bus and taking the ferry to St.Petersburg. At first, I was a bit sceptical because it was only us two travelling there on our own and I have been told by some friends that St.Petersburg is an insecure city for girls to travel to but I luckily did not have any bad experiences.

When we arrived in St.Petersburg on Saturday morning we started our city sightseeing tour by foot. This was an easy way to see a lot of sights and we were able to stop at the points we wanted to have a closer look. During this tour we passed for example the saviour church of the spilled blood, the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Hermitage, etc. 

The saviour church of the spilled blood

All over the city, you can find some lovely cafés and bakeries and get some coffee and pastries. 
The next day we went to the Hermitage museum which is free of charge for students. The building is immense and we did not manage to have a closer look at everything even though we spent approximately 2 hours in the museum.

In the evenings we went to have some dinner. The first evening we went to an Italian pasta restaurant and the second evening we tried some traditional Russian food in a Russian restaurant. I took a "Borsch" soup as a starter and some Russian ravioli with vegetables for the main course.
Borsch is a soup with lots of vegetables and tomato sauce. The Russian usually eat the soup with bread and sour cream. I tasted delicious. 

Borsch-Suppe

Erasmus in schools - school visit in Forssa

On Thursday, the 16th of April 2015 I visited a primary school in Forssa because I was taking part in the Erasmus in schools programme. The school in Forssa is called Vieremän koulu and has about 100 pupils.

The classroom

I left to Forssa at 6.30 am and wanted to take the train from Turku to Loimaa where the teacher was supposed to pick me up by car. Unfortunately, the train was not taking off at 7.00 am because of some technical delays and therefore I had to take a bus which was organised instead of the train. In the end, I was about 40 minutes late and the teacher had to wait for me. Even though it was not my fault to be late I felt quite bad that the teacher got into a rush just because of me but I was really lucky to have such a nice teacher. On the way to the school I talked a little bit to her and found out that she once drove through my home town which is utterly small because she has some relatives living in Vorarlberg.

My school day started with some lectures for the first graders. At first, they had some Mathematics, Finnish and then Music. My main tasks were to help the children which was kind of challenging for me because of the language barrier but nevertheless I managed to say some words in Finnish and use hand signs. Getting involved in this tasks and trying to help even though you can't really talk was in my point of view extremely instructive for myself and my following career as a teacher.
After that, they performed an English and a German song with some movements. The children were quite good at it and I really liked the song and the enthusiasm the children had. Then we went to have lunch at the school canteen and together with the teacher I did the supervision at the school yard afterwards before telling them something about Switzerland where I am studying and playing a word game. 

Verbs for the game

I would like to add here that I think one of the main reasons why Finland succeeds so well in the Pisa studies is due to these breaks. During a normal school day the children would have a 15 minutes break after each lesson (45 minutes). One of the lecturers at my home university told us that an average concentration will just last for 45 minutes and that's why I think that those breaks in between each lesson are really useful. Then it was time for the first graders to go home. After this, I was teaching the 4th graders in English and helding another presentation about Switzerland for another lesson before I started my way back home to Turku.

I highly enjoyed this day at a typical Finnish school and really appreciated the opportunity to visit this school in Forssa. In addition, I liked the idea of working with smart boards in class because it seemed to be effective and easy to use.

Learning Finnish while using the smartboard

If you ever get the opportunity to take part in the Erasmus in schools programme I would highly recommend to take the chance. :)

blueberry pie

On one of the Sundays here in Turku I was able to try a finnish blueberry pie which is known to be a traditional finnish dessert. I was spending time together with my finnish friend this day and she baked a blueberry cake for me.

Blueberry pie

A really nice Sunday afternoon

When I walked into her apartment at the student village I could already smell the cake. I was such a nice odeur and tasted delicious. Once I tried to do a blueberry cake on my own but it turned out a little bit different. Essi's dough was more thick and did not look like the flaky pastry I had.

The cake was amazing and perfectly fit with a cup of tea. During our tea break we had been talking to each other and Essi informed me about her plans to go skiing on Easter.

In Finland a lot of the people are able to ski and when travelling more far up to the North some skiing resorts offer various kinds of winter activities so for example in Levi or Saariselkä in Lapland or in Salo which lies next to Turku. But those mountains are not comparable to the ones in Austria or Switzerland at all. They equal more a hill than a mountain but I still like the opportunity that you are able to go skiing in Finland. 

Aside from that the landscape is perfect to do other sports such as cross country skiing or skating. Having said that, I have to mention here that those activities are easier to do in Northern Finland because normally in Turku it is snowing just a few times in winter and the city therefore sometimes looks more grey and dark. But anyhow, I still like the city and now when it's getting lighter and brighter every day it's becoming even more pretty. 

Nature and silence in Lohjansaari

After Easter my boyfriend and 4 of his friends came to visit me and with them I explored the nature and silence in Finland. Therefore we rented a car and went to stay in a cottage in the middle of nowhere near Lohjansaari which is located between Turku and Helsinki.
At first, we had some difficulties finding the cottage because it was situated in the countryside of Southern Finland and we had to pass a forrest with some really bad roads until we finally arrived at the cottage. But nevertheless, in the end we managed to get there.

The lake near the cottage

The cottage

The location of the cottage was overwhelming because it was absolutely peaceful and silent. Next to the cottage there was a lovely lake where we went swimming after the sauna. The sauna was heated up with wood and therefore we got the typical Finnish feeling of sauna even though it was quite smoky sometimes. Jumping into the lake afterwards was just the icing on the cake. 

This weekend I also had my first barbecue for this season. It was huge and included not only meat like steak and sausages but also different kinds of salads, barbecue sauces, ...

My first barbecue for this season

I also went for a walk there and enjoyed being part of the nature. Near the area there were quite a few summer cottages where some other people spent their weekend as well because of the fact that the weather was extremely nice. Discovering the area not only by foot but also by car we did some grocery shopping. In the mornings we had a lovely breakfast and after 2 nights we drove back to Helsinki where I had to say goodbye to my visitors and take the bus back to Turku.
This weekend was intensely relaxing and I really enjoyed the time in the Finnish nature together with those 5 guys.