Finnish Fashion

Happy Birthday in Helsinki

I had a great time celebrating my birthday in Helsinki today. We had a wonderful "Farewell to Finland" dinner tonight at Kaarna. Some people said it was not only the best meal they have had in Finland, but it was the best meal they have EVER had!

We started with a smoked game plate...elk is on the top in this photo with reindeer mousse in the center and reindeer meat on the bottom of the picture. Most everyone at least tried these meats, some ate more than others!

We ended the meal with Finnish blueberry pie...I had special birthday decorations on mine. 

To "Finnish" a fabulous evening, we saw a rainbow as we walked back to the hotel. It is still light here at 10pm.

Fazer Souvenirs

Some of you who are reading this post may be lucky enough to get some souvenirs from this place...if they survive the plane ride home! If there are delays again, I cannot guarantee that my entire allotment will survive!

Finnish Animals

During our free time this afternoon, I took a ferry over to the Helsinki Zoo since it was another beautiful day to be outside. The zoo was very nice, with several baby animals on display that had just been born this spring. Here are some native Finnish animals that I saw...see if you can identify them.

Our group had all ready noticed that the rabbits here are HUGE!

Finnish School Visit #3

We took the scenic route to visit the third and final Finnish school on our tour.

This school was on a small island just west of the city. We took a city bus and then walked in the park to get there. Lauttasaaren Yhteiskoulu is a school building that includes the upper grades of the compulsory school in Finland. So the classes we saw today had students aged 13-15. We saw the students cleaning the kitchen areas for the end of the semester and heard some students practicing a farewell song, which was appropriate for our group today. 

One of the foreign language teachers, Heikki, gave a brief presentation on the school and answered our questions very well. Heikki was pleased with the La Roche pennant and picture frame that Azlan presented to him as a small thank you, or as they say in Finland, "Kiitos!"

Day 3: Visit to Fiskars; and Day 4: School Visits

On Sunday, we took a drive to Fiskars, the home of the famous scissors. The village has been rejuvenated into a tourist magnet since the iron industry left . Some photos of Fiskars not already uploaded are posted below:


A pretty picture of a waterfall

 

There's always a place for kids to work off their energy

Back in Helsinki that evening, I left the students with Kate for dinner while I met up with some members of the various minority and refugee communities at the Dakwah Multicultural Center in a northern suburb outside the city. I had earlier contacted them to arrange for my visit and they obliged by giving up their Sunday to meet me. I managed to involve myself in very fruitful and informative two-hour dialogue on the various challenges and experiences of this group as they struggle with their present situation and prepare for their future lives in Finland.

DAY 4: School Visits:
On Monday, we took a tour of Vantaa Vocational College just outside of Helsinki. Like elsewhere in the world, vocational training carries the stigma of being less prestigous than the upper scondary track, where students would likely enter university in Finland. Nevertheless, the country has invested a lot of money to keep their students from falling off the radar and into some form of technical training. According to many Finlanders I have personally met however, they now favor the vocational track for their kids since there is  a surplus of overqualified graduates in the country. With free healthcare and generous social benefits, a secure technical and service-based job would only make sense since this sector has increasingly grown in demand.

Presenting Ms Veera Lanttola of the Vantaa Vocational School with a La Roche souvenir after taking us around for a tour.

Our group poses for a photo in one of the vocational classrooms.

 After this visit, we went on a tour of the Sotunki Secondary School, also in Vantaa. We had a nice lunch at the cafeteria, visited their sports activities, library, maths and home economics classes, as well as a couple of English classes. We also had interesting conversations with students in the school on topics ranging from culture to politics to sports. Here is a photo of me and Rebecca with a couple of 16-year olds, who earnestly presented us with information on the country's social security system.

Sauna

Yesterday I tried the sauna in Finland. I've gone to a sauna before at the gym I belong to, but I had to try it here!  Saunas are a huge thing in Finland.  Many of the people we have met here have said they use a sauna a couple times a week.  Some do a couple times a day. Most of them have them in their houses!!  The temperature was comfortable for Jess and me, but apparently a lot of the other La Roche students had temperatures a lot higher than we did!