Movilidad a Finlandia - Domingo

  FINLAND: MUCH MORE THAN SNOW

We participated in the ERASMUS project as EOI of Alcalá de Henares representation.

In this way, we were able to learn firsthand about the education system there.

We arrived in Helsinki on February 26th.

 Thanks to the efforts of the management of the  EOI Alcalá, we were able to go to the multidisciplinary school OMNIA which is located in Tapiola, a neighborhood east of Espoo with many parks and hiking trails.

 

The Ainoa shopping center shares a building with the Tapiola metro station and has many stores and restaurants.

Right next door is an outdoor ice skating rink.

Thanks to the subway you could go to and from the center of Helsinki in 15 minutes.

We arrived very hungry and went to dinner early (18:00) at an affordable Vietnamese restaurant. The food was delicious.

Helsinki's metro is clean and original.

The next morning was our first day at the study center, where we were warmly welcomed and even invited for breakfast.

My first class attendance was this first morning in English B1-B2 class, where I met two students, Mimi and Maud, who were studying to graduate there, specifically Mimi was studying to get a grade to go to college.

We attended their Spanish classes and each of us made a presentation on topics related to Spain. 

My topic was the reconquest of Spain in the Middle Ages.  

That afternoon a few of us went to the Allas Pool Resort in the port of Helsinki, and we had the pleasure of bathing in a pool with Baltic water at zero degrees, previously you warm up well in a sauna. 

In total there were 10 of us in the group, and all of us were very nice people, especially Nicola, a real piece of bread. Here I am with my roommate Roberto, also known as "Brown Sugar" elsewhere, He has been a great roommate.

Jorma, a Spanish teacher who has retired but still works with the school, took us on a tour of the Espoo Cultural Center and the Tapiola School and Upper Secondary School on Tuesday morning. In the afternoon we continued with the classes, I was enrolled in English, Italian, and Finnish. And  I was collaborating with Spanish.

In English class I met a Syrian of Kurdish origin named Abdu, he already spoke Kurdish, Syrian, Arabic, Turkish, and Finnish. He accompanied me to visit the Helsinki stone church (carved in the rock). Many refugees are currently living in Finland, especially from Syria and Afganistán. 

The teachers at the school are lovely, here are Nicola and I together with Aino who gave us some hats made by her out of mohair wool.

On Thursday, a very kind teacher named Pirjo took us to Aalto University, great university campus, very well located and with all the facilities. The people are very friendly, they make you feel at home. Surely the best university in Finland. There we ate very well at a low price.

Friday was a public holiday in Espoo so we took advantage of the day to visit Tallinn, a beautiful Baltic city, the capital of Estonia, whose origins date back to the 13th century, with the building of a castle by the crusader knights of the Teutonic Order.

 

It is a great experience that I recommend to everyone!!