More Salo...

So yesterday was quite a busy day for all of us! We woke up early for our first day of Finnish school and took the public bus to get to the school, By the time we got there it was 9 am and we were given a tour of their school. We went into almost every classroom and received a short concert by the steel drum class! These tours given by the Finnish students ended around 10:30 and then we headed to the cafeteria for lunch. The lunch served was potatoes and ham, beets and cabbage, traditional Finnish bread, and maito (milk!) and it was pretty tasty. Then after lunch, we shadowed our host student to class. The class that we went to was ‘computer editing and software’. So, our host Suvi showed us how they learned to make animations and by the end of the hour, we had made our own animation of a jumping cat! Then after that class, all of “Americans” went to the gym to get dressed and prepared for our concert. Finally we were able to perform for the Finnish students! The concert began at 1:15 and I’d say it went smoothly and that the Finns enjoyed our performances. After the concert, a tour bus picked us up and drove us around Salo for a while. Then we returned to the school and had a party evening with our Finnish hosts! The party ended at 8 and then we headed back to our hosts’ homes. When we got back to Suvi’s house, we had kisiel (a liquid gelatin dessert with fruit) with ice cream on top. DELICIOUS. :) Then we exchanged gifts with our hosts who were so wonderful throughout the whole trip. Then we packed our luggage and stayed up pretty late just talking and exchanging stories with our host Suvi and her wonderful mom, Tuulia. It was a great evening.

This morning we woke up early again to go to school with Suvi. Usually they don’t drive the car more than they have to, but we needed the space to take the suitcases. Suvi did not have a class until 10:00, so we went downstairs into their awesome steel drum / music room and we even had a chance to try playing the instruments.At about 9:45 we went outside because in the Finnish school they have two 15 minute breaks every day when they are supposed to go outside. Suvi’s next class was health. At first the students were reading in Finnish and we could not understand them at all. However, the teacher decided to have the students translate their homework assignment for us, which was about the affects of smoking. At 10:30 we went to our early lunch: barley, chicken and gravy, salad, rye bread, and maito. After lunch we said our goodbyes to our lovely hosts and took some last minute pictures. Some people were crying, but we are all hopeful that we will see each other again!

Monika Bueltel & Bridget Gustafson

Chamber Choir- Alto and Soprano

March 29, 2011 11:28 AM