Hi! We are Martina and Roberto. We are the students from Palermo, together with Gaia and Riccardo, who travelled to Tampere in January 2013. When we arrived at Tampere Airport in the evening, our twins Helka and Olli were waiting for us and we were all excited! The families were very friendly as well.
The next day we went to school. It is a beautiful school although the building isn’t new. We met other Finnish students and teachers and the headmistress welcomed all the Comenius group.Then we had a short and interesting history lesson about Finland. After an Englishman who teaches English at this school talked about Finnish people and his experience of living in Finland. It was very funny! We had lunch in the canteen with our friends.
Then a professor from Tampere University talked to us about courses in English that are open even to students coming from other countries. That can be very useful for us in the near future!
After that, we went sightseeing and spent the evening at home with our families. We were happy to stay indoors because it was very cold outside! Some of us tried the sauna, another new experience for us!
The next day every school group made posters about the school system in their countries and then had to present them to everybody. After lunch we took to coach to Kuru College of Forestry, situated in fact in a forest. A teacher there informed us about what students learn there and how they are trained.
It was around -26 degrees! And we went on a short walk in the wood with a guide. Luckily there was a centre in the nature reserve where we went to see a documentary and buy some souvenirs and of course find some warmth! After the teachers of the Finnish school took us to a beautiful frozen lake. It was awesome with the sun setting! Nearby we had some tea and cake.
The following day was Saturday and we spent the morning in two interesting museums in town. One was inside an old textile factory and in fact it was full of information about the industrial past of the city. The second had several exhibitions. Very interesting the one about the war.
We had a free afternoon but the real highlight was the farewell party organized inside the school. There was a great buffet and then we saw videos and funny sketches in the school theatre. Riccardo showed off on the piano! And after games and lots of fun with the fabulous guys of Tampere and all the others. It was a fantastic way of ending a short but intense international meeting.