Wednesday 8.2.2017

On Wednesday we woke up to another cold day in Vasa.  The whole morning was spent working on the film project. We are really grateful for the help we got from Erik, he is really talented!

After lunch we got a short lesson about the physics of sound from Nikke. We got to learn about the ”doppler effect” which is most easily explained by listening to an ambulance driving by and the sound waves piling up on top of each other which leads to an interesting sound formation. This day in school was very theoretical, but still really fun and informative.

In the afternoon everyone went for a bite to eat before the charity concert in the evening. Some of us ate tacos at Emmas place, and some of us went to Kaavya for some yummy indian food.

In the evening we got to take part of the schools annual charity concert which is the first big concert for the first graders who are attending the music programme. All the profits that the student council collected were donated to cancer research and to the schools ”fadderbarn”. The music we got to listen to was amazing. Even Fanny and Nellie decided to have an extempore performance. Overall the performances were spectacular and we’d like to thank everyone for the amazing music.

After the charity concert everyone went home for a goodnight sleep after a hectic day.

// Matias & Emma

Tuesday 7.2.2017

Today we started off by having another small lesson in Finnish when watching and following a short exercise video called ”jumppakissa” (P.E. cat/gymnastics cat).
Erik Åhman, known for doing music videos and other productions here in Finland came and helped us with our project work, ‘sound and film’. We all came up with ideas the previous day and we started filming the video part of the short movie.

After working eagerly and having our lunch, we all got together and ate some cake and drank some juice to celebrate Louis’ birthday.

We got the opportunity to observe the social dancing practice of the second year students after finish the cake and juice.

We only watched for about an hour, after that we hurried off to Sandö, a close-by beach where there is a group called the Penguins who go and swim in the water during wintertime. It’s supposed to be good for your blood circulation. Everyone dared to go swimming. One of our teachers met us there and told us what to do and showed us.

The place where they swam.

The Belgian teachers

All of the Belgian students going in the water for a group photo.

Unfortunately the Finnish students weren’t allowed to come because there would’ve been too many people at the same time. Later on in the evening we all went to Öjberget, a hill where we went sledding. Usually people go downhill skiing down the higher parts but due to the bad weather, the lifts haven’t been open.

After going sledding we all went and grilled some sausages and marshmallows and drank some hot cocoa.

Louis’ parents had managed the sneak a present to Louis via the teachers.

Overall, we all had a great and really fun and exciting day!

Monday 6.2.2017

We started our day with a gathering in Runebergs salen at 8:30. Ulla welcomed the group with a presentation of Vasa.

After the presentation the Belgians got to learn some Swedish, and we all sang togheter ”Vem kan segla”. After that our guest’s had a presentation of Belgium, we got to learn a little about the Belgian political system, and some other intresting stuff.  After lunch we had a short introduction of the project, that we are working on in school, and then we headed to Wasa Teater.

Group picture before we headed to Wasa teater

At Wasa teater we got a guided tour from Dennis (the sound tekniker of Wasa teater). He showed us around the theater and we even got to learn some tricks with the mics. After a long day in school we went for a ”fika” to sweet wasa, with almost half of the group.

 

On the schedule for monday evening it said ”family evening”.  Many people from our group went to Sandra’s house for a movie night, while some went to the sauna, and others in the jacuzzi.

// Wilhelmina and Emilia

Sunday 5.2 (Runebergsdagen)

The morning was well spent sleeping, since everyone was tired from the day before. Many had just eaten breakfast when we met at Cinema Bowling at 2pm. Everybody was excited and some of us became really competitive. After an hour of bowling the whole group walked to Frans ans Nicole, where we had three tables reserved for us.  

Before the project many of us were a bit worried about talking English all the time, but already after two days the language is more fluent. Also, everybody is helping each other with words and expressions, which I think is really nice. In my table all the boys were having the french burger and I had the salmon. Both dishes were really tasty!

Today we showed the Belgians what ”Djungelvrål” is, but it was no hit. All in all it was an eventful day when we all got to know each other a little bit more.

Salut, Fanny

Saturday 04.02.2017

Saturday morning greeted us with a mild temperature of around 0 degrees. Many of us headed out for a walk to show the surroundings, since obviously you could not see too much when the Belgians arrived in the evening on Friday.

In the afternoon many of us met in the city centre. Some had time for a lunch at Sweet Vaasa (probably Vaasa’s most popular café) and otherwise we just strolled around showing all the stores and such.

We had decided to meet up in the evening at Fanny’s place in Smedsby, and from there we walked to Mamma Mia pizzeria where we had booked tables for the entire group. Unfortunately Karl could not make it, since he fell earlier during the day and had to get 7 stitches in his forehead…

But the pizzas were good and we had lots of fun comparing Dutch, Swedish and Finnish. For example: ”traktor” in Swedish is also ”tractor” in Dutch, and the word ”internat” was also understood both by the Finnish and Belgian group.

The rest of the evening was spent with talking and listening to good music. All in all, I think we can all agree on it being a good first full day in Vaasa!

//Ronja and Sandra