Vår vecka med engelsmännen

Thursday, February 12th

English students arrive at Vasa airport where they are picked up by the host families. My group spent their Thursday evening getting to know Mathias and his family.

Friday, February 13th

Petalax students start the day with a test, while English students learn Swedish. In the evening we had a sort of prom for second year students. The English student I talked to said the event was really well organized and properly done.

Saturday, February 14th

We picked up Mathias, Manpreet and Danielle from Mathias’s house and started heading towards the port in Vasa. We boarded the ferry about half past eight in the morning and the ferry left the port at about nine. On the ferry there was not much to do, the first thing we did was to go to the cafeteria and have some breakfast. After breakfast we just sat and listened to music and waited for the store to open. When the store opened we went shopping and bought  candy. We played some card games with the English students after we had shopped. Me and Mathias played chess and just waited for the boat to arrive in Holmsund.

When we finally arrived in Sweden we took a bus to Umeå. The bus trip took about 30 minutes to the centre of Umeå. The first thing we did was to eat at a hamburger place that is called Max. We went to many stores that day, the one we went to first is called Game, Game is a store in Umeå where they sell games and game related stuff. We also went to Teknik Magasinet which is a store where they sell phone cases, keyboards, phones and more stuff like that. We went to a place called Hemmakväll where they sell candy and movies, it is also possible to rent movies there. We stayed about 3 hours in Umeå. At half past four we started heading back to the port in Umeå by bus. On the ferry trip back we just played some card games and listened to music and waited to get back to Vasa. We arrived in Vasa at half past eleven, we just drove back home after that. The student I talked to liked Umeå. She said it was colder in Sweden than in Finland.

Sunday, February 15th

On Sunday the English students spent their day with the families they stayed with. My group went with Mathias to the movies, they also went to Åminne and Bergö. They went for a walk in Långåminne with Mathias and looked at the closed shops. In Bergö they looked at the church and also missed the ferry back a few times.

Monday, February 16th

In the morning the Finnish students started working with their projects and the English students helped them. At 11 the English students started heading for Kristinestad. In Kristinestad they got a guided tour and they also went shopping. After they had seen Kristinestad they went to Lind’s Kök and had a buffé dinner there. They got back to the school at half past six and the families they are staying with picked them up from the school. They spent the rest of the night with the families. The English student I talked to liked Kristinestad, she said the houses were small and that they had the same colours. They went to an art gallery in Kristinestad, she thought that it was interesting.

Tuesday, February 17th

The English students went to Pixne Rehab Center and got a guided tour there. They came back at half past ten and continued working on the projects. After the school day the English students and the Finnish students had a dinner in Vasa. They took the bus to Vasa after school, they had some free time in Vasa before dinner. The restaurant they ate at is an Indian restaurant called Kaavya. They had group menus with many dishes. The dinner took about two hours and the families picked them up from Vasa after the dinner.

Wednesday, February 18th

The English students took the bus from their host families to school. At school they said goodbye to the Finnish students and took a bus from school to Vasa. They spent the day in Vasa with their own group and teachers. They took a flight from Vasa Airport back to England in the evening.

 

Ice swimming in Kristinesstad, too cold for the English

Interview with Mathias:

Q: What do you think of this week so far?

A: It was good, much better than I expected

Q: How was it to have English students staying with your family?

A: It was interesting, the English students were so much nicer than I thought they would be, and it was quite sad when they had to go back to England

Q: How was the visit to Umeå?

A:  It was great, the ferry trip was long but Umeå is a really nice city

Q: Do you find working with this project stressful?

A: Yes, I got a quite hard subject about Charles Dickens

Q: Are you looking forward to going to England?

A: Yes, it will be my first time going by plane. England seems like an interesting country and I will be thrilled to visit in May.

Pictures of students

Thursday, February 19th

Today we watched a movie that is based on a book by Charles Dickens. Later we had afternoon tea which consists of tea and scones. The scones were made by a group of students. We also prepared  presentations about our subjects for Friday.

Friday, February 20th

Today we had the presentations about our subjects that we have been working on since Monday.

English and Finnish students playing Slam

Picture and video from Facebook/Facebook group

Author: Alex Piispanen