Diaries from Finland, Comenius visit



Diary #1:
At 9 o'clock, we met each other at school and took the bus to Miikkula. There we went to amovie village. It's a village without people; the houses were only for filming. A woman, she was called Jenny showed us the movie park. She was the woman who hadthe idea for this park. Then she told us something about the work in this film village. These houses were very nice, but when we looked inside, we only saw wood and rubbish. In one house we saw another house. It was funny, two houses in one! Later, we went to a lake where we played Finnish games like Whisper in every language so it was very funny. After that some people went onto the lake to fish from a hole in the ice. The others went to make a fire. There we ate sausages with bread. After that, we went into a big sauna. It was very hot and when it was too hot we jumped into the frozen lake…

text by Ines L. 4.4.08

Diary #2:
Monday
The lesson started at 9 and we went with our hosts to classrooms. I had 2 biology, 2 drama lessons, English and history. After 2 lessons we had lunch - pasta with meat souce. I think that the best lessons were English, because we know this language, and drama, because art doesn't need words and I could understand something. But when we had lesson in Finnish, I didn't understand anything. It is so boring to sit in a class, when you don't know, what everybody is talking about. After the lessons I went to Joensuu to do some shopping.

Tuesday

Next day we had official welcome and Anna told us about school and education in Finland. It is similar as the education system in Poland, we have only one difference, and that 7, 8 and 9 classes in Finland are like 1, 2 and 3 Gymnasium in Poland. After that we had a small game to know everybody. We took cards with animals and we must "talk" like the animal. After this we had lunch. About 11:30 we had lessons about food. First we were talking in country groups about our traditional food. Later we worked in international groups. We were talking about food in our country and we did a menu for one day, and we used only traditional and healthy food. After, we went to Kotiseutukeskus and we saw a traditional farm.

Wednesday

On Wednesday morning we went to Kotiseutukeskus for the second time. We were cooking traditional food, it was Karelian pie. It is very difficult but my pies were as good as I wanted. The second group was doing decorations for gala dinner. At about 12 we started doing dishes for the dinner. Germans made soup; we made pierogi, Finnish - main dish and Austrian - dessert. At gala dinner every country had a performance. It was a very nice evening.

Thursday

This day we went to movie village, where a TV serial "Karjalan kunnailla" is made. Afterwards we went to a place, where there was a sauna, where we played some Finnish game. Later we went on a lake. We had lunch - sausages with bread. After that we went to sauna. It was very hot there, about 85 °C. Than we were running into a hole in the ice in the lake. I was in 3 times, once I was rolling in snow and once we had a snow war. It was great and I love sauna!!! After sauna we had too much free time and I was playing in the snow with another girl from Poland. It was a fantastic week. I had fun to there!

by Krystyna Gajczyk, Poland

Diary #3:
Thursday


I think Thrusday was the best day, because first we went to the movie village and then to Kontioranta and there is Avantosauna, a Finnish sauna with a hole in the ice. Some people swam there ( I didn't) and the noise was so loud, because they screamed! Some people went fishing there but no one got a fish. We ate sausages and bread and that was good. In the evening I and Jana went to Kontiolahti´s primary school and we had fun.

by Mia Okkonen, Finland

Diary #4:
Thursday

Thursday was a very exciting day. It was a very long day, but the best one of the week I think. In the morning we all drove to the Kontiolahti Movie village. This is a town with houses which were built like real ones, but inside is nothing. The town is only made for films and series like Karjalan Kunnailla. After that we went to the lake. Some went to sauna and after that into the cold water… Other ones tried to play golf on the water. At the fire we ate sausages and marshmallows. And in the evening we had a party.

By Mia's Polish friend

Diary #5:
What did we do?

Monday

We didn't do anything so different. We just study. Second lesson was Biology. Teachers gave us a paper where we had to put photosynthesis related terms. We had a little problem because I didn't know every word. And the dictionary was in hard use. Then we had lunch. After lunch we had Drama. So we had just an ordinary school day. I like biology lessons and drama.

Tuesday

First we went to the Auditorium. There we listened to the teachers talking. It was really boring. Then we had lunch. After lunch we went to U-wing to do some small talk. My company name was Cake-land. After the talk we went to Kotiseutukeskus. (the heritage center) There was an elderly lady who told us about the history of the house. When we went to Kotiseutukeskus, it was nice because the elderly lady said that I'm really smart.

Wednesday

We went to Kotiseutukeskus to make Karelian pie and char-bread. We went to lunch and then home-economic-class where I, Mia, Senni and Poland's girl made pirogi. Then we had gala-dinner. The gala-dinner was great. The food tasted fantastic and the company was great.

Thursday

We went to the sauna trip. Some people went to sauna and swam in the hole in the ice. I and Noora visited the hole in the ice maybe over 20 times. And I taught some game called tyynyralli (pillow rally) and rikkinäinen puhelin (broken mobile). I love the sauna and hole in the ice! And maybe you saw that.

text by Raita

Diary #6:
MONDAY

At school we had normal lessons, because there were only Polish students with us. We had physics, math, history and our own school subjects (on Monday I had two lessons with computers). In the evening I had karate lesson. Tosia came with me and watched my lesson. This day wasn't very different than my normal days.

TUESDAY

The students from Austria and Germany had come. We had an official welcome at the auditorium. Later we were working with our theme "Food and tradition" and we did something in small groups. After this we went to Kotiseutukeskus. There we got some information about the life of Finnish people hundreds of years ago. After school we took a bus and went to town called Joensuu. Anna and Janni came with us. Anna, Tosia and I ate in Buffa, where you can eat as much as you want (Janni didn't want to eat there). Later we met the other Polish girls and their hosts. I think it was very nice in Joensuu. I ate too much.

WEDNESDAY

The students were in two groups. One group stayed in school and worked in art class. Another group went back to Kotiseutukeskus and made Karelian pasties and something else. I worked in this group. Later we made food for the afternoon. In the afternoon we had the gala dinner. There we ate a lot. We had different foods from different countries. We sang and watched shows. In the evening Tosia and I spent some time in Joensuu, but nearly every shop was closed. Gala dinner was good because there were so many different foods. The salmon was very delicious. The German's song was very funny! I like it.

THURSDAY

At first we went to Movie Village. Other students had taken a bus but Tosia and I walked, because I live so near of it. Jenni Lähteenmäki told something about this fake village. Then we went to Avantosauna. We played some games on ice and after this many students went to try ice-fishing. Other students (me too) ate something like sausage and bread. Then the first ones went to sauna (it was the girls' turn). I ran between sauna and lake (there was a hole in the ice). Raita and I can't remember how many times we swam. And we played snow fight too (we were only in swimming suits). We were in sauna too long a time, so boys had to come there with us. Luckily we had our swimming suits on all the time. Later we had to go because the bus was leaving. In the evening nearly everyone (Comenius students) came to Kontiolahti primary school. There we played games, ate sweets and chips and drank lemonade. This day was the best! It was so nice in Avantosauna and particularly the evening was great.

the text by Noora Huttunen, 8a

Diary #7:
What did we do?
Monday: The German group arrived in Joensuu at 5.00 PM. We picked them up from the railway station and took them home. When Lynn had unpacked her baggage we went outside to see some places. In the evening my friend Tiina stopped by and we drank coffee with her.

Tuesday: In the morning our vice principal wanted to say welcome to our foreign guests so we went to the auditorium. After that we had spinach soup for lunch. In the afternoon we worked with the theme ''Food and tradition'' and visited the Finnish traditional house called Kotiseutukeskus. The school finished at 3 o'clock and we went home by bus. In the evening we went shopping to Joensuu with the Austrian boys and German girls.

Wednesday: Again we went to the Kotiseutukeskus. There we baked Karelian pasties and rye bread for the evening's gala dinner. After the lunch we started to cook traditional foods in the home economics classes. When the food was ready we started to eat. We started with German's traditional soup called Wedding soup. There were meatballs, eggs, noodles and some vegetables like carrot and leak. Then we ate some Polish pierogi and Finnish Karelian stew, Karelian pasties with egg butter, rye bread and salmon with nuts and almonds. For dessert the Austrian boys had made pancake rolls filled with nuts and apricot marmalade and melt chocolate on top of it. German girls sang to us, Polish girls performed two plays and the Austrian boys told us how to make pancakes. Straight after the dinner we went to Laura's house. There we played billiards, watched a Spice Girl DVD and just talked about everything.

Thursday: We went to Kontioniemi to see the movie village. There a woman called Jenni told us about their props and how they are shooting the TV-show called Karjalan Kunnailla. After that we walked to the cottage where the saunas were. We had over three hours time to swim, fish and bathe in the sauna. We grilled marshmallows and sausage on fire. In the evening we had small parties where we ate candy and played some games.
text by ?

Diary # 8:
How was it?
I enjoyed everything that we did during this week. The most I liked to bake Karelian pasties and baking rye bread was a whole new experience for me. I also found it very interesting to see that movie village. I loved that when we were lying on the ice and tried to catch a fish.

Monday : At school we had a normal lesson : 1. Physics
2. Physics
*
3. IT lesson
4. IT lesson
5. Math
6. History
* After 2 lessons we had LUNCH. One hour is free. At lunch we had pasta with meat sauce.

I think the lessons were boring for me because I didn't understand but the IT lesson was nice because I can play on the computer. After all lessons I and Noora went to Karate lesson.

Tuesday : First we went to auditorium and said WELCOME !!!!! After we had a funny game with animal sounds. When we finished the game we had lunch. For the lunch we had spinach soup. I think that on Monday we had better lunch. After we worked in internationals groups. We made our new countries and my group was MUSHROOM LAND. Later we went to Kotiseutukeskus and we had a presentation. After we came back home. After lessons I went to Joensuu. I think it is a nice town but the shops are closed to early.

Wednesday : At school we were divided into two groups. First group went to art lesson and second one went to Kotiseutukeskus to made traditional food. Later we made food for gala dinner. After we had eaten all the dishes we saw funny games and a song and a show.

Thursday : The best day on the week !! We went Kontiolahti Movie village. After that we went to AvantoSAUNA. We ate sausages and bread. And later I and my friend from Poland took a photo of a physics project. After that we come back home. And in the evening we had a party for Comenius kids.

text by Tosia

Diary # 9:

What did we do? How was it?
Monday:We came at 5:00 p.m. to Finland ( Joensuu). Then we went to our Hostfamilies who picked us from the station. Then I packed my things out and in the evening came Noora's friend Tiina. I felt very good because because Finland had snow and the Hostfamilies were nice.
Tuesday :On Tuesday we worked on the project ,,Food" with the other pupils from Finland, Austria and Poland about the tradition food in their countries. In all countries potatoes were traditional food. The Finnish school was very big and I liked it. In the evening the Austrian boys, and we the German girls went into the city. We bought something for our families and saw the big city. I found it very interesting what tradition food were in other countries and I loved the old houses in the city. It was very nice.
Wednesday: On Wednesday we went to the Kotiseutukeskus, it's a farmhouse. In the farmhouse Ritva told us something about the house. After that we make pasties and rye bread for the gala in the evening. The other group was at school. When we were back at school the groups from Finland, Austria,Poland and Germany make traditional food from their countries.Later there was the Gala dinner and all the pupils ate the traditional food. And all countries did something. The German group sang, the Austria group made a game, the Finnish group too and the Polish group had a theatre. After the gala dinner we all wentto Laura's house and played billiards, sang Spice girls songs and were at the computer. The day was very cool I loved the farmhouse and the cook was nice. The food from Poland and Austria was very good. It was so nice in the evening. I liked this day.
Thursday: On Thursday we all drove bus to the moviecity. There we saw the movie houses and the woman Jenni told us something about the houses and how her crew Before we went into the sauna we ate something by the fire. Many children were on the ice and looked for fishes. Many other children played golf on the ice. Then it was sauna time. After the sauna the children went into cold water. They all cried but it was very funny. After two hours we drove with the bus back to school.We all saw each other in the evening because there was a party. Then we ate something at home and at 6:00 p.m. we went to the party which was very good. We make a snowballmatch and went to a school. At 21:00 the party ended and we just said goodbye to the Austrian boys. Bye Bye. The food at fire was very good and I loved it. We played golf on the ice makes a film. Then we went to an place where the saunas were. . It was funny to see the cried children. The party was very good because all the children had fun. But it wasn't good to say goodbye to the boys.

text by Lynn Valerie Unland

Kontiolahden koulu-Comenius- Food For Thought- 2008