The welcoming party for the first graders = Nahkiaiset

Last Friday our senior high school´s first graders had their welcoming party, nahkiaiset. It was an event where the girls had to dress like boys and the boys had to dress like girls. I was one of those who had to dress like boys. The topic was Pokemon. 

We had a big list of things that we had to bring with us. For example we had to find a stone which weighed 3,01 kg. There were also some string (105,28cm), a chocolate bar (for the second graders, of course), a vegetable, a Pokemon ball, a Pokemon, a mug and a swimming ring in the list. And all that we had to carry in a cardboard box. It was not easy! 

When we came to school there were some instructions we had to follow. For example we had to crawl the stairs and follow the tapes on the floor. Every time we saw a second grader we had to worship him or her. 

In the morning we went to the gym, where we gave the chocolate bar and the vegetable to the second graders and then we got name badges. We had to practice a very embarrassing dance and after that we had normal school lessons. At the lunch we had to eat on the floor. 

It was a pretty hard day for the  first graders, but it was also one of the funniest days I have had in high school. The final ordeal was in the gym. We had to perform the dance which we had practiced and sing a song to the second graders. 

There were also more different kinds of tasks. For example we had to drink something very disgusting, a drink that the second graders had made for us “with love”. We also had to do tricks pairwise. It doesn’t sound difficult now, but try to think of it like this: our feet were bound and we were wearing our swimming rings. It made the tricks a little bit more difficult. 

There was also a competition of the ugliest "nahka" (first grader) award. After that embarrassing day I hope we are now officially senior high school students.  Right?  

Written by Miranda 1B

New school year with new exchange students

So summer holiday is now over and another, new school year has started in our high school. This also means that our last year's world travelers Elli, Laura and myself have returned home from America and Australia, and a couple of new exchange students have arrived from different parts of the world to make the atmosphere of FES a little more international and exciting. This year we are lucky enough to enjoy the company of three foreign exchange students, and I was lucky enough to spend one English lesson by interviewing them. Say hello to Afia Lubis from Indonesia, Kanako Yamaguchi from Japan and Ugo Meresse from France!

Afia, Ugo and Kanako

So, first of all, how did you end up coming to Finland?

Ugo: Well, I didn't choose Finland as my first option because I've stayed here (near Jyväskylä) already for a month last year and I would have liked to visit a totally new country. I wanted to go to New Zealand the most, but I have nothing to complain about, I really like Finland as well!

Afia: I chose USA at first, but then people from my exchange program said it'd be better option for me if I chose a Scandinavian country, so I chose Finland. It's different and it's far from Indonesia.

Kanako: I wanted to see the Northern lights and go far from Japan!

You haven't been here for a long time yet, but what have been the first impressions and differences between Finland and your country you have noticed so far?
Afia: There's so much less people in Finland than in Indonesia! It feels like empty in here since in my city in Indonesia, there's 2 million people and traffic jams every day. School system is different as well, of course.

Kanako: Finland has a lot of forests and lakes and people have bigger houses than in Japan. Sauna is also something different, as well as many people's outlooks with blond hair and blue eyes.

Ugo: The school system is very different in a good way. I think life in general is not that different because Finland and France are both in Europe and not that far away from each other.



What do you think about FES?
Ugo: Everything is so new and better here when compared to my school in France. Like, we have holes in walls at my school. Also, it's good when you can choose by yourself what you want to study. We can't do that in France.

Kanako: Our school is todella hyvä! Studying in English and Finnish is hard for me, though.

Afia: People are so nice and friendly here. The Finnish school system is also great because school starts so late, I mean, at 8:30!

So late, you say? Wait, just to make sure, are you serious?! 

Afia: Yeah, I am serious! In Indonesia, it starts at 6:30.

Ugo: It's the same with my school in France!

Wow.



What has been the best thing so far?
Ugo: Starting school because you make friends there.

Afia: Going to sauna. It was sooo hot, but I liked it!

Kanako: Salmiakki... Haha no, just kidding!



How about the weirdest thing?
Ugo: I think it's strange when people are just staring at me, probably wanting to come to talk to me but then they just don't. Also, when I get these Facebook friend requests but then those people don't ever start a conversation with me. Well, maybe it's just a part of Finnish culture or something. I'm used to it now and actually it doesn't happen so often anymore after a couple of weeks when I've gotten to know people better.

Afia: Definitely salmiakki, it's the weirdest of all!

Kanako: Yeah, I agree with Afia!



What are you looking for the most?
Ugo: Playing ice hockey, going ice swimming and skiing, partying, and seeing my friends in Jyväskylä, of course.

Afia: I'm waiting for the winter because it'll be snowing! I haven't ever seen snow before, and I'm so excited about it. I also want to try ice swimming.

Kanako: I want to see the Northern lights and go skiing. I'd also like to try DOG SKIING?!?!?



What did you know about Finland before coming here?
Kanako: I knew that sauna comes from Finland, that people are shy and drink a lot of coffee in here and that there are lots of forests and lakes in Finland. I also knew the Moomins, of course!

Afia: Everyone knows that Finland has the best education system in the world! I also knew you have snow during winter in here and that people can be cold at first but be super nice when you get to know them better.

Ugo: Yeah, in France we are studying the Finnish and Scandinavian education systems! Anyway, I have to say I didn't know many things about Finland before my fist visit. I knew Helsinki is the capital city, I knew ice hockey is popular and that you eat a lot of potatoes here. My dad has traveled around Scandinavia and also been in Finland, so he has told me some stuff about it, mostly about things that are somehow linked to my life. Also, Finnish girls are quite famous in France, haha!



Can you say anything in Finnish yet?
Afia: I'm not sure whether you can write this to the interview because our teacher would probably kill us but.. Perkele! I mostly know some random words like jakso, and oh, tomaatti on punainen.

Ugo: I know some Finnish already, obviously because I was here last year. My favourites are makkara and Mäkkäri, 'banaani on keltainen' and 'olen banaani'.

Kanako: Well, what can I say... Huomenta, kiitos, totta kai, vai niin, sanakirja, kirjoittaa, hyvä...

The list goes on and on. Kanako knows, to be honest, surprisingly much Finnish, and when I ask how she knows so much already she says that she learns it all the time, a special thanks to her dictionary. All three say it's not tiring to listen to Finnish, even though it's a hard language and if people are speaking only in Finnish, they don't have any idea what's going on most of the time. They all are studying Finnish here in FES and their goal is to be able to talk in Finnish by the end of their year. And it seems that they are decided to get there!

This was the first introduce of our amazing exchange trio. I'm sure you'll hear about them many times in the future and get to know all three very well. We have such a great school year ahead of us. Stay tuned.

Graduation day

Summer vacation is almost over, and I still haven't written anything about last spring's graduation day on 1st June!

Here come at least a coupleof photos.

           The white caps are waiting.

             Our honorary guests - graduates from 50 years ago.

               The principal congratulating the students and handing out reports.

           Time to put the white caps on.

               The principal's speech.

            The valedictory speech.

           All the graduates of 2013.

Colorful Kaunas

We have an extra course in our school, where we students get some more information about traveling and also make a trip to some city abroad. This year the trip took place at the beginning of May, and headed to Kaunas, Lithuania. A group of 16 students and two adults flew on Sunday 5^th of May with Ryanair to Kaunas.

Kaunas is the second –largest city in Lithuania. It was the capital of Lithuania until the year 1939. Kaunas is also called “the city of students”, because over 25 000 people study in the universities of Kaunas.

During our three day stay we saw and experienced a lot! We saw many museums, like an old concentration camp and also a few churches. We had changes to see the both parts of Lithuania: the downtown,the  part of the richest people and the area right around the city,the part of the normal people. We Finns had a lot of fun walking in the streets, shopping and just spending time with each other. Our days were full of program, which was good, but we also had some free time in the evenings. Food was good, our overseers were great and prices were lower than in Finland. The trip was awesome, I can recommend it to everybody! Thanks to everyone who was with us and made it possible for us to have the chance to travel.

Written by Eeva 2B

Let the pictures speak:

 

 

 

Привет из Санкт-Петербургa и спасибо всем большое! (Greetings from St.Petersburg and thank you all so much!)

(Janette from class 3B writes about the trip that our students who study Russian made in April.)

I'm quite sure many of us were sad to leave Russia behind a little more than a week ago, but at least we have our great memories with us now. And great time we really had, and a great group! We saw a lot, surely learned a lot about cultures and used a lot of Russian -or at least a few words here and there. However, we handled our meal orders, used many complimentary words and greetings, and even had a little chatting with local people.  

Even though it was only four days that we spent there, it was a really useful trip -now we can survive at least a little better abroad next time. Many of us seemed to be waiting for seeing the culture itself and the sights, and those we did see. What surprised some of us were the facts that quite few people really spoke English -but that wasn’t the purpose of the trip,was it? -and that at least in the local grocery store near our hostel there were a lot of Finnish products, even with the Finnish labels!  

We started our trip by visiting the great Grand Duke Nikolay Palace, where we had a dinner of four dishes, including the very Russian blinis. After our long and tasteful dinner we enjoyed the Russian folk dance show -and even our Mexican exchange student got a taste of those dances! The show, including also singing, was very impressive -and very Russian.

We saw many churches and statues, and the Russian architectural culture in our trip.  This one was the beautiful Church of our Saviour on Spilled Blood.

                                    The boys went really Russian with their furry caps

We really got used to the populous public transport in Russia, and I have to say I'm really impressed with the metro stations there -and the lenght of the escalators there was quite impressive, too... 

 We had a chance to visit Russian school, in which they also teach Finnish starting at the second grade. The teacher had made us a great presentation about the school -in Finnish! It was impressive to see how enthustiastic they seemed to be about our language and country, and the possible cooperation with our school.

 .  

We also visited the museum of natural sciences and had a chance to get to know about the Finns' life in Russia. All in all this was really rewarding, but also a little tough trip with all the places to visit. Hopefully everyone had a time of their life and will possibly visit Russia again!

Now, the last goodbyes to Russia, and in the Russian way:         до свидания!

Feelings after the matriculation exams

It's been already almost two weeks since the matriculation examinations were finally over, but somehow I at least don't feel so relaxed yet. Maybe it's the admission exams ahead and the summerjob that give me a headache... However, I feel relieved - and unfortunately disappointed,too. I'm relieved, because finally I have some time for myself. I'm also disappointed, because it feels I didn't do even close as well as I could have done. Luckily mother language went really well, and so it compensates for the other subjects that didn't go so well.

Besides my own feelings, I also wanted to know how two of my friends felt after the matriculation examinations.

Veera, 3a

- Well, I did reach my goals, but I still feel stressed. But mostly I just feel relieved, and I'm most satisfied  with English. And I'm so glad I can finally watch tv-series without feeling guilty about not doing something mandatory!

Julia, 3b

- It disappointed me the most that I've worked so hard through my entire high school time, but now when I should've been most efficient I just felt so exhausted, and so it didn't go as well as I'd hoped in every way. I should've slowed down earlier and saved resources mostly for the matriculation examinations. In university this baccalaureate affects quite much besides the entrance examination, and I had wrong kind of strategy for that and that's a shame - and I've been heading for university after all. Because of the matriculations my motivation is lower now , and if it had gone at least a little better I would've had more self-confidence for the entrance exams.

As we can read, the feeling of relief isn't always the only one after the matriculations, expecially when the entrance exams are still ahead. Luckily summer is almost here, and so probably the sun will help us all to survive.

Even though it's been tough few months, we're still able to find joy, like in this cruise right after our school leaving party on Valentine's day.

Written by Janette 3B

Future plans

Matriculation examinations are over, but for most third year students admission exams are still ahead. However, not everyone has very clear plans even now that the time for applications is over -and actually I don't know if people's plans have changed after this interview since it's been already a few months when I asked the questions. However, our students had plans like these at least then:

Iida, 3a

- I've considered the university of applied sciences, or at least I'm not planning to go to university. Helsinki is my first choice, Tampere the second.

-I got the idea to go there from a magazine article about a tv-cameraman actually only about a couple of months ago. I'm planning to study working among the media. Before this I had thought about getting a degree as a bachelor of social services.

-If I don't get in at the first attempt, I'm ready to try again. If I am not lucky even then, I think I'll figure out something else. A year off would also be an okay option.

Mikko, 3b

- I'll probably head for university to study history or social sciences, and it would be an okay option to get a teacher's or a researcher's education. But it's not yet clear. I want to travel a lot, and so I'll apply when it feels right, and I think I'll head for eastern Finland then. A year off sounds good, too!

Jasmin, 3b

- I think I'll have a year off, and I'll use that year for cycling and attending cycling competitions. And depending on what happens, maybe I'll head for the Vierumäki sports institute.

- I am dreaming about becoming a top athlete, and that's been my dream already for a long time. And so, at least I know I would like to do something with sports now.

- If I don't get in at the first attempt, I'm ready to try again, or then I'll try to apply to another sports institute, Varala.

I, the writer, have no very clear plans either. I've been talking about going to a restaurant shcool in Helsinki for about two years now, but I realised recently it's not maybe the best idea - becoming a waitress or a receptionist isn't exactly my dream, and maybe I should take some challenge and at least try to head higher, as so many have suggested. And so, I really did apply for university (in Vaasa) to study English. However, I also applied for the restaurant school.  If I don't get in, I'll just try to make new, better plans. Probably I'll try to apply for university again or for a university of applied sciences (to study travelling/cultural/theatrical studies for example). A year off isn't exactly on my plans, but it sounds good, too. What I really would like to do now is to travel, but I also want to finish my studies for good as soon as possible. But, only future will show me what happens, and how knows, maybe my true dreams will come true!

Now, may the odds be ever in our favor!

By Janette 3B