Greetings from Kaunas

One of our special courses in FES is a geography course no. 15 in which we deal with travelling. The course also includes a trip to somewhere nearby, this time to Kaunas, Lithuania. I think it was a good choice because no one had been there before (expect for the teacher and her husband), and it was an amazingly cheap place to visit! At least I was quite excited already before the trip because of the shoes I was going to buy there… 

 So, now I’m going to tell you via pictures about what we saw and experienced in Kaunas. But first I would like to tell you about our experiences and feelings when arriving to Kaunas. Well, after surviving the flight by Ryanair we stumbled upon the language barrier and also the angry behaviour of some Lithuanians. After this I noticed that we Finns are actually really friendly in spite of our different fame. 

The sights we visited: some monuments, the Ninth gate (a former concentration camp), the Devil museum (the only one in the world!), the zoological museum, Resurrection and another church and two shopping malls, Akropolis and Mega (Mega only briefly). 

  

             Kaunas city, the main shopping street called “Laisves aleja” and our hotel called “Kaunas city hotel”. 

  

                                     The longest (1,6km) pedestrian street in Eastern Europe!

 

                               The old town of Kaunas reminded me quite a lot of that in Tallinn. 

 

        There was a huge, about a 10-meter-high aquarium at the Mega shopping mall! You could also see  

                                                       little sharks there, it was quite amazing!

 .                “Our hotel room”, we were joking. But in reality, it was so shocking to see how cruel people 

               have been to each other –and still are. This was in the Ninth gate (a former concentration camp).

       And when the evening came, we were playing young and wild souls in the streets of the Kaunas city! Unfortunately we couldn’t ease our “homesickness” by watching the World Championship ice hockey, because they didn’t let the interested ones watch it in the restaurants.. It seemed the Lithuanians preferred watching fashion shows or Elvis…  and on the other hand, aren’t the pubs usually the places where you watch sports?

                                 Views from the bridge of love in Kaunas in the evening. Gorgeous!

               We were entertained by  young street dancers in the streets of Kaunas! This little boy in the picture  

                                                 wanted to join the dance, too ;)

                                 There we were, on the roof of the Resurrection church, at the vantage point! 

                                        …and saw the best and the largest views of the whole of Kaunas. 

      We also met a sweet old Russian man who had been in Siberia for a really long time, about 40 years! He just kept talking to us even though we could only understand a few words in Russian. He also showed us his great skis made of bear or some other animal skin. And absolutely wanted a picture of him with his great skis! 

                                          The best students, as our guide said in the very beginning!:)

Great and large shopping malls, small and sweet boutiques, delicious ice cream, lots of amber and shoes, and even more beautiful views and new tastes and experiences! Emphasis on the word “ice cream”.

So, overall we had a really successful trip in Kaunas, the mood was great and at least I had really fun and an exciting time! And this is the saldo of the 4 days: cheeks aching from smiling, feet aching from walking, lighter wallets but heavier baggage and memory full of unforgettable memories (and shoes and ice cream…)! 

…but finally Finland with its thousands of lakes was calling us again. But, I really would like to get back to Kaunas, who will come with me? 

Written by Janette Välimäki, 2B

 

The first of May

The first day of May is a very traditional and famous festival in Finland. It was invented in the Middle Ages, and it’s a national festival for workers. Nowadays it’s also the day of Finnish work. 

The first of May has long traditions also in our school. It’s the day of funny clothes and water war! (Even though we celebrated it a bit too early since the actual 1st of May is a day off.) As many years before, many people had dressed funnily. We had Angry birds, cowboys, animals, almost anything walking in the school’s hall ways. We had donuts after lunch, and that gave us the energy we needed for the war.

                                      Angry birds, the first prize winners in the costume competition.

                                                      Some teachers wore unusual clothing, too.

The war itself was the funniest water war I had ever played. Of course some of the students didn’t take part, but it didn’t matter that much. First those who had the best outfits got their prizes. It really helped them in the war, they got water guns. Then the war began. We split out into teams, 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B were fighting against each other. Every team had a newspaper sheet, and the opposite team had to break it. The first sheet which was broken was that of 2A. They started to help their friends 2B. The next one out was 1B, which then went to help 1A, of course. The game ended to the victory of 2B, but 1A wasn’t much worse.  The main point in the war was to have fun and get wet. That we sure did!

Written by Eeva Linnainmaa 1B

Psychology a little closer

In FES we have many applied courses. One of them is psychology course 7, which is done in cooperation with the Open University of the University of Jyväskylä. In practice this means that we are registered into their website and we do exercises there. This time we chose an assignment including three parts in which we deal with mental health and its problems.  We chose one mental disorder that we are examining more closely. The assignments include exams via the Internet, special reading material (even in English!) and some views of our own. 

This course is known to be a little harder than the other courses in psychology. At the beginning of the course we could choose what kind of assignment of the three we wanted to do.  We don’t have actual lessons; we only meet briefly occasionally.  This means that we have quite a lot of independent work, which we have really seen during this course… Luckily we have more time than just one period. 

This course isn’t compulsory for those who are going to take psychology in the matriculation examinations but it gives you better chances to do your best.  We do get more and closer information, don’t we?;) 

This course is also special because we will get a real diploma from the Open University of the University of Jyväskylä as we send our assignments there and they grade them there.  In addition, this course costs a little bit because of those exams and other materials and escpecially because of the diploma. 

This course can give you so much if you really invest in it – which may be hard when having all the other school work to do at the same time, though.


Written by Janette Välimäki 2B

Young entrepreneurs

If you are interested in business and employing yourself, you can also attend an entrepreneurial course at our school.  Part of the lessons are in English so that the students can learn the basic terms of business communicaton in that language.  Part of the lessons consist of visiting some major companies in this region.

On 26th April the students and the teachers visited Ikaalinen Spa, where marketing director Harri Laine gave us a lively and thorough lecture on marketing and developing new business ideas, especially dealing with tourism.

  

Team spirit of the French group

During the following weeks, we are going to visit some courses and tell you what they are doing. 

One special thing in our school is the possibility to study very many languages.  Even though the number of students who want to study an extra language might be small, they still have the opportunity to learn the language they like.

Maiju visited the French class of the first year students  (at the moment the only students studying French in our school) :

The number of the French students is quite small (3) but despite the small size of the group,  the lessons are held as usual.   Annamari, Kalle and Juuso told me what their French lessons are like.

First we talked about the pros and cons of the small size of the group.  The students found much more pros. In a small group they find it easier to ask for help if they have problems with their studies. They can progress at their own speed and nobody will be overshadowed by the others. They don’t feel any pressure in the group because they have known each other since primary school – everybody feels comfortable and the team spirit is great. It is also really flexible to study in a small group.

Then I asked what kinds of methods they use in the lessons. The teacher, Jaakko Laaksonen, told me that they do a lot of listening exercises and practices with computers – the students use them in almost every lesson.  All of the material is also in a digital form and the students don’t use much paper or notebooks. That sounds great!

Annamari and Juuso are also studying Russian in addition to French - and all of them are of course studying English and Swedish.

I asked them a few more questions:

Do you think you will need French in the future? Maybe in the working life?

-          I might be interested in some kind of international work, so it would be useful to  
       speak French in the future , says Annamari.

To whom would you recommend French studies?

       -          Anybody can study French – all of us have started from the zero, says Juuso.

-          It requires  nerves to study French, it is not the easiest language to learn, Kalle says.

-          French is worth trying and it’s possible to cope with. Don’t be scared of it!,   Annamari exhorts.

After the “interview” Annamari, Kalle and Juuso begin to focus their attention on the vocabulary test which Jaakko is going to have for them. “Good luck!” I say and leave the French students studying.

Maiju Aalto 2A

Gaudeamus Hodie

Gaudeamus Hodie

Let’s be glad today!

Our school is full of sunny, glad and happy people. On Wednesday the 18^th of April some of them shared their happiness and joy to older people by singing. The students of one of the extra music courses went to the local old people's home to spend their lesson there. Their energetic teacher Johanna had planned the program, which included one hour singing to and with the old people. She had also made booklets of the notes, so everyone could sing along. 

They started their show with a song in Latin! It told us what the show was all about: Let’s be glad today!  An hour included a lot. Many well-known, evergreen songs, singing together, tears, laugh and of course, happiness. We made even the sun come out! Some of the old ones were deeply touched, but still they sang with us. The songs were traditional Finnish songs, so all of the audience knew them. The songs may also have reminded them of something from their past.

It was very nice to see how much light and joy we can bring to this world just by singing. The old people were very happy to see us there and wanted to talk with us. It shows how we should not forget anyone, not even those who may forget us in five minutes. This visit gave at least me happiness for the rest of the day and made me open my eyes for the power of music. 

Written by Eeva Linnainmaa, 1B

Diploma in visual arts

Besides taking the matriculation examination in the academic subjects, skilled students can also earn a diploma in drama, sports, music and visual arts.  However, it is not a very common thing for our students to do as it requires a lot of work on top of all the studying.  So it was very great news to hear that Emmi Turppa (3B) just earned a diploma in visual arts, and with flying colours.  She got the very best grade for her work of art.  Emmi wrote a story about heroism and illustrated it in the form of a cartoon.  She then had it printed.

     

I wanted to ask Emmi a couple of questions about her project:

1.  When did you decide to start doing this project?                                                                            
-  When I applied to this school, it was clear to me that I would do this because both of my brothers had also earned this diploma.  On the other hand, I don’t honestly know what kind of reason that is for doing something that requires such a huge amount of work.

2.  So it must have been really hard to find time for creative work while studying for all the other subjects.  How long did it take?                                                                                                            
-  I worked four months on it, little by little. I was awfully busy in the autumn as we always got loads of homework in mathematics. Towards the end, I started to feel bored but, after all, it was great to notice my own progress as time went on and I created more and more pages.

3.  You had six topics to choose from.  Why did you want to draw a cartoon on heroism?
-  I have been interested in the Japanese cartoon culture for a long time.  So that task attracted me more than the others, and I was quite lucky to be able to choose a topic that I was already interested in.  This topic also made it possible for me to deal with the Christian Faith which plays a very big role in my own life.

4. Have you drawn cartoons earlier?                                                                                                      
-  No, this was my very first cartoon.  I usually like to concentrate on one picture for a longer time, so I draw and paint separate pictures and convey opinions and feelings without any text.

5. Was it difficult to create the story?  How did you get the idea for it?                                            
   - At first it was difficult as I didn’t know how to approach such a large concept.  I got the idea one day when I was walking my dog as usual, pondering my more or less profound thoughts.  I just started to look at the sky and interpret it in a symbolic way.  At first I looked at it in the same way as you do in the beginning of my book but then I realized something and you can find this final interpretation in the end of my cartoon.  I noticed that this was a good starting point for the cartoon, and these thoughts formed the frame work for the story.  After this basic plot, the rest of the story came quite easily, e.g. bullying which has been a very actual topic for a long time.  (Even though in Zenith’s case it was more about discrimination than about active bullying by calling names etc.)

                                                     The first page of the story.

6. The name of your cartoon is Zeniitti (the Zenith).  What does is it mean?
-  The zenith is the highest point in the sky, directly above you. The term is used in astronomy, so with it I was able to combine science with my art.

7.  Are you going to apply to study visual arts, will you become an artist?   
- No, I’m not.  I don’t think that’s the way to help other people, especially now that Finland is full of talented artists. But I will go on drawing and painting on my own.

8.  To whom would you recommend this kind of project? 
 - To all students who are interested in visual arts, ready to work hard and develop.  When you work for this diploma, you have a great possibility to learn everything, from different visual techniques to drawing the human anatomy in the correct way – whatever you want to learn.

9.  Any other
comments?                                                                                                                                
  -  The aim of my cartoon is to make the readers think about heroism themselves to find out who their own heroes are. My own opinion is very strong but the readers may and are allowed to disagree.

So if you want to have a closer look at Emmi's book, you can find it in the school library.