ITC Enrico Tosi in Sotunki

January 22nd to January 29th, 2008

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Day 1: Tuesday, January 22^nd

(Sara, Irene)

At 5.30 we left by bus to airport and at 8.30 we took the plane for Finland!! The journey was very long but we were very happy because Finland was near! At 2.30 we arrived at the airport of Helsinki where our partners waited for  us. After everybody went with partners and host family to house, where we got to know our family and we were relaxing. In the evening some people stayed at home because we were very tired and others  went to Jumbo shopping center and to eat something, but all students went to bed very early because they were very tired. This day was very long...

Day 2: Wednesday, January 23^rd

(Sarah, Lino)

We arrived at school at 8.00 and we met our friends in 316 classroom. Then at 8.45 we started the Finnish lesson with Heidi Heikkilä, in this hour we learned simple Finnish words. After we did a break and the 10.10 some of us went to English lesson, but is was not very good because the teacher didn’t have time to help us during the lesson. At 11.00 we had lunch and we ate rice with sauce and drank milk. It’s very strange lunch for us. After the lunch we caught the bus to visit the Cloetta Fazer, a typical chocolate and sugar confectionary factory. It was very beautiful and we ate a lot of chocolate. The thing most funny was when we put a strange hat. Then after the visit we came back to house with our partners and after we got a welcome party at 18.30; we ate typical Italian, Germany and Finnish foods, and we played all together and enjoyed ourselves a lot. The Italian student was the best!!! At the end of the party we went together to Mc Donald’s, somebody ate something because we were hungry and we took a lot of photos.

Around at 10.30 pm all, by car or by bus, came back to home because it was a tiring day. The second day in Vantaa finished so, and it was one of long week.

Day 3: Thursday, January 24^th

(Alice, Edoardo)

When we arrived at school we met our friends and we went together to attend old dances lesson in the gym hall, we danced with Finnish students, too.

After that we went to Kuusijärvi lake with German students and immediately we walked around the lake. When we finished the turn all together had lunch with typical Finnish food in a small building with a fire place. After the lunch some Italian students walked again around the lake and after that we had the traditional Finnish sauna with the swimming in the icy lake.

We returned to the school for the Sotunki open house and later we went to the mall Jumbo to shop some presents. In the evening I went to Suvi’s house with Alessandro, Mattia and Lorenzo to play poker.

The third was a long day for all the students.

Day 4: Friday, January 25^th  

(Lorenzo, Andrea)

We arrived at school at 8.00 and stayed there for half an hour .

Some of us followed the music lesson, and another group the art one.

At about 10.30 we had got the lunch after that we went to Helsinki by bus, it was snowing, it took a lot of time to arrive.

We walked to the city, to buy some presents for our parents.

Later we went to the harbour to take the boat to Suomenlinna island fortress.

The weather was very cold and the wind was blowing. On the island we saw a lot of beautiful things like the battle ship, the big fortress .

For the visit of the castle, we had the Italian guide that showed and explained the old origin of the construction.

At 6.00 pm we left Suomenlinna island and after the dinner we went bowling together. At the end of the day at 9.00 o’clock we went home. 

Day 5: Saturday, January 26^th  

(Danilo, Alessandro)

On Saturday we got up at 10 a.m., then went to visit Porvoo and Helsinki

sealife. After that we ate at Chico’s.

When we returned home Danilo, Ale, Edo, Lollo and Mattia organized a typical Italian party in which they taught an Italian dance to the Finnish girls.

We watched  funny videos and the Finns taught us some Finnish words.

At 6.00 a.m. the boys had a sauna and after that at 8.30 a.m. on Sunday morning we went to sleep and the boys slept everybody in one bed...

:) good bye Finland. Danilo and Ale  

Day 6: Sunday, January 27^th 

( Luana, Fabio)

Sunday was a beautiful day. Our friends did many fun things like visit the centre of Helsinki, bowling or meet again friends. In particular Federico, Luana and Federica visited a big ship compound about 8 levels and there were many restaurants, bars and a casino. Then they had eaten everyone in our house and in the evening they went  bowling with Emma. Instead Fabio had gone in the centre of Finland with Noa. They had visited Jyväskylä and the old part of the city. Then they had gone home with the car. In the evening they had watched a dvd and they had done a sauna.

And Edoardo, Lorenzo, Mattia, Alessandro, Danilo and Chiara with Finnish students Suvi and Sannu went karting in Myllypuro’s Formula Center. Edoardo was the winner!

Day 7: Monday, January 28^th 

(Mattia, Federico)

In the morning we woke up and we went to school at 9.00 am. We had 3 hours of lessons like: old dances, English, music and arts.

We had lunch at school´s canteen and after we took the bus and we went to the Heureka science center where we saw “cosmic collision” film and we tried a lot of interesting experiments!!!

We took the train and we went to Helsinki to ice skate. We had been skating for about an hour and we walked to our farewell dinner at Cantina West. We ate Mexican food. After, some people went to shopping in Stockmann (typical shop in Finland) to buy the Finland´s flag. Other people stayed in a café and they went home to prepare luggage.

Day 8: Tuesday, January 29^th + final comments

(Chiara, Federica)

Today is the last day... Like every day we are here at Sotunki Upper Secondary School and at 9.00 and we are writing a trip diary. At 11.00 we will have lunch in the school´s canteen and at 12.00 the Italian students will leave to the airport and fly back to Italy. We are happy to go back to see our parents and our friends but, at the same moment, we are very sad to leave Finland because we have spent happy days all together. We think that host families are very hospitable so we had a good time. Finally we think that Finland is a very interesting place, it is very cold and there is lots of snow. So Italian people spent some funny moments playing with snow.  We think that this journey was a very good experience because we spent very funny moments and we liked what we have done. We hope that we come back to Finland very soon.

Thank you for everything!!!

The Italian students :)

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