2014-04-15 Finland

Finland

The Flag of the Finland is white with a blue cross.

Finland is next to Sweden. The capital of the Finland is Helsinki.

In Finland there are 5.414 million people. The president of Finland is Sauli Nünisto.

The currency of Finland is the euro.

The climate is cold in winter and and rather warm in summer approximately 15 to 20°c and sometimes hotter.

The official languages are Finnish and Swedish near the Baltic Sea in the south.

Some famous cities: Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, Oulou, Turku, Jyvaskyla, Kuopio, Lahti, Kouvola.

The highest mountain in Finland is Halti (1,328 m).There are 187,888 lakes in Finland.

Lapland is a well-known region in Finland.

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2014-04-15 Finland

Ekenäs

Ekenäs (Tammisann in Finnish) is situated in the south of Finland.

It was merged with Pohja and Karis to form the new municipality of Raseborg on January 1, 2009. There are 14 646 inhabitants and most of them speak Swedish.

The density of Ekenäs is 8.5 inhabitants per km2.

On the coat of arms, an oak is represented and the crenels of a castle.

The oak is typical of the vegetation in the area (Ekenäs means the oak peninsula) and the crenels symbolize the old castle of Raseborg built in the XIVth century.

In the centre of the city, there a a lot of charming painted wooden houses mainly built after the great fire in 1821.

It is noted for its archipelago, part of which is the Ekenäs Archipelago National Park. It counts 1 298 islands and the coast is 1 671 km long.

There are more than 5 000 holiday houses, making it the capital of the Finnish summer. .

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2014-04-15 Finland

Floorball

Floorball was invented in the 1970s in Sweden. It is a sport commonly played in the north of Europe.

It is a sort of floorhockey played indoors. It is played with a ball, a stick, a pair of shorts, a shirt, socks, and indoor sport shoes. A floor ball weighs 23 grams and its diameter is 72 mm. It has 26 holes in it; each are 10 mm in diameter.

This sport is played with 6 players; 2 forwards, 1 center, 2 defensemen and 1 goalkeeper.

The world floorball championships are an annual event where teams from across the world gather to play in a tournament in order to win the world championship.

The Czech Republic, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland arethe only five countries to have ever won a medal at a World Championship event.

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2014-04-15 Finland

Food in Finland

During the week, we ate several Finnish specialities such as Karjalanpiirakka which consists of a rye crust with a potato filling . We ate it warm with a mixture of melted butter and egg on the top.

We also tried mâmmi, a traditional Easter dessert in Finland which is made with water, salt, malt flour, rye flour, orange peel and a little sugar, served with some cream and sugar on top. We ate blackberry pie served with vanilla cream as well.

People in Finland always drink milk or water with their dinner.

They eat lunch everyday at 11.30 a.m and dinner at 5.30 p.m.

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2014-04-15 Finland

Helsinki

On Thursday, April 10th, we went to Helsinki for the day.

Helsinki is the capital of Finland, it is also the largest city of Finland.

It is situated in the south of Finland on the Baltic Sea.

It has a population of 614,074 people. (31st January 2014).

We arrived in Helsinki at 13.30 and we discovered part of the city on the coach. We left the coach in the centre and we had 2 hours and 30 minutes free time. We walked in the shopping streets and had a look at the windows. Some bought souvenirs.

After that, the driver took us for tour in the city by coach. We saw the harbour,

the cathedral, the sea. It was very sunny but it was very cold and windy.

We had a very nice day and we found that the stores were big.

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2014-04-15 Finland

Activities in families

On Saturday April 12th, Sunday April 13th and in the evenings, we shared time with the families. I made a survey among the students to find out what they did during these moments.

Some went on excursions in the neighbouring villages.

Some went to the sauna, to the circus, to the swinming-pool, to the cinema or went shopping.

Some did some sport. They played table tennis, football, airsauft.

Some played video games (Wii,Ps3 … ) and some played with the family’s pets.

Camille went to the theatre.

We met our French friends again at some of the Finnish students’ houses.

French students ate at the restaurant, in a fast-food, or a pizzeria. Some had a barbecue on a big bonfire.

Laurine and Mélanie celebrated their birthday in the Finnish family.

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2014-04-15 Finland

School

In Finland, school is compulsory between seven and sixteen years old.

The students start school at eight o’clock and finish at two o’clock p.m. The lessons last 45 minutes with a break of 15 minutes between them.

The children have basic subjects like in France but they can have religion or cooking optional. The canteen is free and the French students liked the meals very much.

The Finnish students have more freedom because they can use their phone or listen to music for example during some lessons.

The school has no gate, we find it very strange. And the school is big.

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2014-04-15 Finland

The trip to Finland

On Friday, March 21st we missed the plane because there was an accident on the railway line in Belgium.We were very sad because we had to go back home...

But, on Tuesday 8th April we started again. The meeting point was at La Panne station in Belgium at 10:30.

Our parents said goodbye to us and we left. We were sad, but also happy.

We took the plane in Bruxelles at 17:20 and we arrived in Copenhague at 19:00. We ate at the airport and we took the plane to Helsinki.

We landed in Helsinki at 22:40, it was very cold. We took a bus up to the middle school in Ekenäs. Our correspondants and their parents came to pick us up at the school.

After a fantastic week in Ekenäs, on April 15th, we had to leave…

We set off, with many tears. We took the bus at 10:00 a.m. and we arrived at the airport at 11:30 a.m. We enjoyed ourselves at the airport while waiting for the plane to take off.

At 13:55 the plane took off. We changed plane in Copenhague at 14:40.We arrived in Brussels at 16.40. We took the train in Bruxelles at 17:51 and we arrived at La panne station in Belgium at 20:00. The journey was ok. We had no problems this time...

We found our parents. We were happy to see them again. The trip was not boring. Everything went well.

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2014-04-15 Finland

Viking Village

On Monday we took a bus from the school to go to Kasnas and after that we took a ferry-boat for Rosala where the viking Village is situated.

At first we were welcomed by a red-haired girl dressed like a Viking.

We watched a little movie. In the movie they told us something about Scandinavian mythology. Then we went into a big wooden Viking house. We ate a Viking soup with potatoes and sausages. A lot of people didn’t like this, but it was fun to eat like the Vikings.

And during the second part of the day, we played 3 games : archery, throwing axes, tug of war. It was very funny!

After that we could buy souvenirs in the small Viking shop!

We came back to Ekenäs the same way by coach and ferry-boat.

It was a very good day,and we had very good weather.

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