Ii Upper Secondary School – International Course 2016-2017

This course started in 2015 and now it’s going to end. In this group belongs 13 students and a couple of teachers. The content of the course included the visit of Hungarian students from our twinning school Baktay Ervin Gimnazium in here Ii and also our visit to Hungary.

The Hungarian students visited here in February 2016. Four students stayed with in host families. The visit lasted about 10 days. We studied, made projects, visited the sights, spent time together and let them get to know Finland. We also made things in nature for example skied.

Before our visit to Hungary we had to collect money. We sold clothes and socks, organized a Halloween event for children and were serving in an event. All of these we received enough rewards for the trip.

In the spring 2017 was our visit in Hungary in Dunaharaszti. The whole group travelled to there and we stayed in host families. We spent there one amazing week! The weather was warm and sun was shining. People was kind and we had good time with them. Everyone enjoyed and the trip was absolutely great and unforgetable.

Anna Lappalainen

13.5.2017 Saturday

The first full day in Hungary.

On Saturday, almost everybody had their own program so Petra, I and our hosts Anita and Tamana went to Budapest. We spend almost the whole day in a mall in the central of Budapest, where we did our shopping and watched a movie in movie theather inside the mall. The name of this particular movie isn’t in my memory but it was in English and a comedy.

After we ate something we continued to local park. The park was on Margaret Island in the middle of Danube -river. It was really breathtaking to walk there, because everywhere were old giant trees and nicely green grass covered the ground.

When the sun went down it was time for us to go home. My host’s dad came to pick us up and we drove through the beautifully lightened city back to our homes.

Picture 1. Budapest

14.5.2017 Sunday

Buda Castle and Matthias Church.

When Sunday came as beautiful as ever, we took a train to Budapest once again. In Budapest whole Finnish group had a walking tour in Buda Castle and in Matthias Church. I can say that the these two buildings really were beautiful but I can’t forget to mention the view up there was incredible: you could see there whole city from there!

After Buda Castle and Matthias Church we continued separately our walk in Budapest. Petra and I with our hosts headed to 360 degrees café in the middle of Budapest. The café was located on rooftop and you could see the city from there. 

When the rooftop bar was enjoyed enough we continued to local park, different one than before, and just sat there and relaxed. I can say that it was relief for our feet because we had walked so much along the day.

After sitting there for some time we headed back home and spend some time with our host families.

Marianne Vanhala

15.5.2017 Monday 

Picture 2. - Fenyes Nature Trail, Tata

In the morning we went to school and travelled by bus with the Hungarians and Italians to Tata. There we walked through the nature park and we saw many turtles. I had never seen turtles before so seeing them was an amazing experience for me. They were so cute.

We walked for one and a half hour and everybody was sweatting. There was quite hot but all of us smiled and we had fun time together. After that we went to centrum of Tata and went to eat with our hosts. Then we went together to castle. We walked around the castle and then spent time in a park. Then we travelled by bus uphill and saw statue of eagle. Then we went stairs down to a huge cave. Finally we came home at seven o´clock.

Salla Sassi

16.5.2017 Tiistai (Tuesday)

Tiistaina kävimme kiertämässä Budapestissa. Mukana olivat meidän lisäksemme myös host-

Picture 3. - Cave Excursion

oppilaamme ja opettajat. Aloitimme päivän junareissulla Budapestiin ja suuntasimme ensimmäiseksi kohti parlamenttitaloa. Valitettavasti emme päässeet parlamenttitalon sisälle, mutta rakennus oli onneksi kaunis ulkoapäinkin. Sen jälkeen kävimme Tonavan varrella katsomassa muistomerkkiä, jossa oli nostettu Tonavasta löytyneitä juutalaisten kenkiä ylös joesta ja aseteltu niitä kivetykselle. Kengät oli heitetty jokeen toisen maailmansodan juutalaisvainojen aikaan. Tämän jälkeen suuntasimme toiselle toisen maalmansodan muistomerkille. Sen jälkeen meillä oli hieman aikaa kierrellä ympäriinsä ja käydä syömässä lounasta. Moni suuntasikin jäätelöille tai matkamuistoliikkeisiin ja ravintoloihin. Lounaan jälkeen kävimme katsomassa kirkkoa, joka oli nimeltään Szent Istvan Bazilika. Se oli hyvin kaunis ja koristeellinen. Pääsimme myös kiipeämään ylös katsomaan maisemia kirkon huipulta. Matka ylös oli hieman uuvuttava, sillä kiipesimme varmasti satoja portaita. Onneksi maisema oli kuitenkin sen arvoinen. Kirkolta lähdimme kohti tunnettua kauppahallia. Matkan varrella oli monia kauppoja ja meille annettiin aikaa myös niiden tutkimiseen. Kierrettyämme kauppahallin lähdimme kotiin. Illalla perheissä ei ollut paljoa ohjelmaa, sillä olimme kaikki niin väsyneitä päivän kierroksesta.

Anna-Maria Pauanne

Picture 4. - Budapest Parliament House

17.5.2017 Wednesday 

Picture 5. - Kayaking

On Wednesday everybody had to wake up early in order to arrive to the place appointed on time. There where we gathered you could rent kayaks. In the morning we did some kayaking on the Danube river with the Hungarian and the Italian students. After kayaking some of us played football and other ball games.

Around 2 p.m. everyone was ready to leave. There were no organized activities, so everybody was able to do what ever they wanted to do with their hosts. We decided to head to a shopping mall which was located in Budapest. There was an aquarium park in the mall and there we saw sharks, alligators and other exciting creatures. After that we did some shopping and then we were tired enough to leave for our homes.

Atte Siira

Picture 6. - Aquarium at Budapest

18.5.2017 Thursday

This day was our last full and organized day together. Because this project was part of school, so we went to a Hungarian school. We had different lessons like music, art, chemistry and PE. We sang the songs in Hungarian, Italian and Finnish, we made usable things from recycled objects, we saw a presentation of the chemical reactions and at least we had a volleyball tournament. The lessons were instructed by Hungarian teachers.

In the evening we had a barbecue party. There was a lot of good grill food, nice music and some program. We played some games and every group sang a song from its own country. We also got our diplomas and when evening was going to end, everyone were saying goodbye to each other. The evening was enjoyable and it was good end to our trip.

Anna Lappalainen

Picture 7. Students from Ii held a presentation about their home municipality's
 long term project on sustainable development.

The group members: Saara Alamäki,Veera Annunen, Eero Koivuvaara, Jere Kärsämä, Anna Lappalainen, Kaisa Paaso, Anna-Maria Pauanne, Petra Sankala, Salla Sassi, Atte Siira, Salla Siurua, Marianne Vanhala, Inka Välipakka

Teachers: Teijo Liedes, Minna Saari, Tuomo Mäki, Jukka Ervasti

Pictures 1-4 and 7 © Jukka Ervasti