Friday November 28th was the fourth and last day of our meeting in Loimaa. Vesa Parttimaa, the student councellor of Loimaan lukio, had arranged an interesting event for the whole school. Four students who had all participated in some kind of exchange program had prepared presentations with photos and told us about their experiences abroad.Sofia had taken part in two different short exchanges, one through the Lions club and the other through the local Rotary club. Ellinoora had arranged a one-month exchange trip to a school in Denmark, all by herself. Vilma spent a year in Brighton in England and Siiri went on a Rotary exchange in Hungary for a whole schoolyear. They had some intriguing stories to tell and they all thought it had been an experience of a lifetime and to be recommended to anyone who wants to learn about other countries and, above all, about themselves.
Y.E.S. teachers with Sofia, Ellinoora, Vilma and Siiri
<3 Some delicious cakes and biscuits were served by the Spanish colleagues!
It was time for our guests to say goodbye to Loimaan lukio at 10 o'clock because they would spend the rest of the day in Tampere, seeing some sights and shopping. Mikko, Janne and Leena had decided to show them some 'Finnish specialities'.
Although the weather was very foggy, we drove to Pyynikki ridge where we climbed up the view tower to be able to see the town around us. Of course, we also bought a box of those famous doughnuts to taste.
The rest of the day was spent in the centre of the town. After a little tour in the cars we walked around, popping in some shops to buy souvenirs and discovering some Finnish tastes in Kauppahalli.
We had a traditional lunch in Tillikka eating pyttipannu (which is a kind of bubble and squeak dish typical of Finland and Sweden).The atmosphere was quite relaxed and we enjoyed the meal - and the portions were big enough!
Christmas coming upon us, we had some more traditional Finnish foods to taste in the evening: glögi (mulled wine), Finnish minced pies and ginger bread cookies, let alone some Finnish rye bread and black sausages with cranberry sauce we had bought in Tampere.
