Week 13 - Cultural

This week I have been travelling a lot. I have attended the ESN event called the Sea Battle where all the students from Scandinavia went on a boat together from Helsinki, to Tallinn, and then to Stockholm afterwards. There were students from Finland, Norway, Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. For me, this was an amazing opportunity to experiences cultures from all over the world, as many of the students on this trip were exchange students. The first day, we went to visit Stockholm after travelling all night on the boat. When we arrived in Stockholm it was beautiful weather and the people were very friendly and open to us. We went to visit the palace and several monuments in Stockholm. The currency in Stockholm is the krona (plural “kronor”) and one euro equalled 10 kroner. We spent a total of 9 hours in Stockholm, and for me it was not enough. The city has a lot to offer, and many different cultural events like free concerts and exhibitions. The day after Stockholm, we went to Tallinn in Estonia. Tallinn was also a beautiful city with two parts, the old town and the new town. In the old town, many people were dressed in old outfits, and were giving people medieval coins as souvenirs. They also had people who had stalls on the streets who made traditional Estonian nuts and fruits. They made this food using traditional tools and barrels and this was very interesting to watch. When we arrived back to Finland after the sea battle, the next day i went to St Petersburg in Russia. This trip was interesting to me as we visited different children's homes and centres there. St Petersburg was a beautiful city, but you had to be very careful with your belongings there as there were many pickpockets about. Many of the people in Russia did not speak English and so it was difficult to engage and communicate with them. Also in Russia, it is rude to blow your nose in public, or for a woman to cross her legs whilst on public transport. This was interesting to learn because for me these are normal everyday things and I would not find them rude at all. St Petersburg was a very beautiful city, and it was very different from any other city that I have been in. It is interesting for me to see the differences between all these cities, and I thoroughly enjoyed this experience.

Week 12 - Professional

This week I have been in my placement for only two days. I am nearly finished all my hours in placement, and I want to keep going there for as many weeks as possible, so I am trying to spread out my few remaining days. On Thursday of this week, the children and I visited Turku castle. The children were very excited about this visit and they were thrilled at getting a day out. They thoroughly enjoyed the castle, and climbing all the stairs! The children had a lot of fun there, as there were many rooms for them to hide in and jump out to scare their friends! I found it very strange that my setting did not need the parents’ permission to take the children on an outing from the setting. The parents also did not have to pay any extra money for this trip because it is all included in the price of the day-care. I personally thought that the children were given a lot more independence when they went on this visit compared with the settings of home, because the children were given the freedom to wander around the rooms and explore the different artifacts that the castle had to offer. It was very interesting for me to see this because even though the children were free to explore the rooms and artifacts without a tour, they were very obedient to the teachers and they showed them a lot of respect. On Friday when I was in placement, we took the children for a walk in the Finnish forest beside the placement. This was very beautiful as spring is coming, and the weather was good. We came to a clearing in the forest, and again the children were free to roam around the forest and to explore the different types of plants and animals. The children are given a lot more independence and freedom here in Finland, compared with home and it makes me think that perhaps we should give the children more respect and independence at home. The children seem to appreciate the independence they are given, and then they in turn show respect to the adults in their setting. I feel like this will change my own practice when I return to Northern Ireland as I feel that I will give the children there more independence in these settings.

Week 11 - Personal

This week has been quite busy for me. I have been in placement for 3 days, and I have been exhausted after Norway. I have slept alot and I also had a Finnish exam on Tuesday, which I passed! Unfortunately on Friday, my laptop broke, and wouldn't turn back on so I feel like I cannot keep in contact with anyone. It is very expensive for me to use my mobile here, and I have to pay to use the computers in the Kauppatori (town centre) so I have been relying on friends and the computer labs in the University. This has been quite frustrating for me because usually the computer labs are closed when I get there and so I have to borrow a computer from a friend, but then I cannot use it for too long. On Saturday a few friends and I decided that we wanted to try and do the sauna and then the ice swimming afterwards, before all the ice melts. We went to a place called Uittamo, which is about 10 minutes from the centre of Turku. The sauna cost 4 Euros to use, and you could stay for as long as you wanted. My friends and I watched as people came from the sauna and ran to the water. There were a few holes cut out of the frozen sea, where people were jumping into. When I saw this I felt nervous, and I was unsure if I could do it or not. Anyway, we decided that we would try this, and so we went into the sauna for 20 minutes, which was a mixed sauna. When we felt that we couldn't stand the heat any longer, we ran to the water and immediately jumped into it. When I jumped into the water, my immediate reaction was to get back out again! The water was freezing and it completely shocked me. I got straight out of the water and went back to the sauna again. We repeated this about 5 or 6 times, and each time we did this we could stay in the water for longer. This was the first time I had ever done this and I would thoroughly recommend everyone to try this. There were people of all ages and sizes, and after this, my skin felt so smooth and I felt so refreshed! I think I will definitely be doing this again in the near future, and my only regret is that I didn't try it sooner!

Week 10 - Cultural

This week when I have been in Finland, I decided to travel to Norway with a few friends. We flew from Tampere airport, to Oslo airport. When we arrived in Oslo we decided to rent a car and to drive to the Fjords in the west of Norway. We were unsure of where to go to rent a car, or how much this would cost, but the people in Norway were very friendly and helpful. We were told that we needed a bus to another airport to rent a car, and we were directed where to go. When we were on the bus, the driver was friendly and he informed us when we needed to get off the bus. When we had rented the car, we drove the whole of the first night towards the Fjords. It was very exhausting, and we had to stop many times for directions. However, the Norwegian people spoke very good English and they were always very helpful and friendly to us. There was even a woman in a shop that printed out the ferry times for us along with a map so that we could find our way! This was a big difference to me from Finland, because even though Finnish people are friendly and helpful, they seem very shy and they are insecure of speaking English around people. Therefore at first glance Finnish people may seem to be impolite or unfriendly towards foreigners. After we found the Fjords, we were in awe of their beauty. The second night we were there, we had nowhere booked to stay, so we had asked a few people who were in the town next to the Fjords. Unfortunately as it was not tourist season, all the hotels were closed, except one. This hotel was only open for this night, because some people had booked it out. One lady who owned a coffee shop told us this, and she even offered to ring the owner to try and get us a room. She told us that there was a room available and we should go to the hotel to speak to the owner. We went there and the owner told us he could offer us a room (this hotel was a four star hotel) for only 1000 kroner, which worked out at about 25 Euros each. We got the room so cheap because the owner told us that the nearest hotel that was open was another four hours driving away. I was stunned at this generosity and I couldn't help but compare this with a Finnish person. Personally, I feel that if I was in Finland, I don't think this would have happened, because Finnish people seem to be very sensible and precise. Perhaps in Finland we would have gotten the room a little cheaper, if at all, but not much. The whole time I was in Norway, I was unintentionally comparing the Finnish and the Norwegian people. Generally, the Norwegian people were very friendly, helpful, polite and compassionate to us whilst we were travelling. However I felt that Finnish people may seem less friendly and impolite as they do not like to speak alot of English, and this may make people think they are rude. However, as I have been in Finland for 10 weeks now, I understand that Finnish people may feel insecure about speaking English, so I know that they are not being rude and they are just shy.