Úterý - příprava vystoupení
Tuesday
Today we started the day back at school, where we each attended two lessons of our Finnish partners according to their schedule. I took part in the chemistry lesson and then, as my partner had a free lesson, we left the labyrinth of corridors and staircases and went to the Christmas market in the city centre. Since we were cold while exploring the Christmas markets (well, more like just me), we took shelter in the city mall, where we browsed the shops with Moomins - an iconic figure that has made Finnish culture internationally famous.
After a hearty lunch in the school cafeteria, we moved to the auditorium where we prepared and practiced our experiments for our science show performance together. Thanks to the fact that Finns had prepared the equipment needed for the experiments in Finland and we had prepared the scripts back in the Czech Republic, the preparation went smoothly. We rehearsed several times in pairs in front of an audience of our classmates and teachers, working to make our performance as smooth as possible.
With the school responsibilities behind us, we each had a free afternoon. I took part in a dance training of young but promising dancers from the city of Rusko, which is not far from Turku. I attended not to learn the art of dance, but to witness my partner in her coaching role. Unfortunately, I didn't realise that the whole training would be in Finnish, and I didn't understand a word of it, so I decided to polish up my script for Thursday's science show.
Later in the day, we returned to Turku for a group visit to a traditional Finnish sauna—a truly unforgettable experience. Sweating profusely even before entering the sauna, we alternated between the intense heat, refreshing dips in the ice lake, and relaxing moments in the outdoor hot tub. Although the clock struck half-past nine in the evening, we would have gladly continued our rejuvenating routine. Exhausted, yet pleasantly regenerated by the sauna, we went to bed at Finnish homes.
from Anna´s diary
Tuesday
For me Tuesday began with a traditional Finnish porridge with jam for breakfast followed by a walk to the school. Even around 8 AM it was still dark outside and the temperatures weren’t exceeding -7°C. Despite that I found the walk enjoyable since all the city was shining with lights it almost felt like it was in the middle of the night. When we arrived at school we attended a few lessons with our hosts, personally I got to experience chemistry lesson and mathematics lessons, both in Finnish. We had a lunch at school and wemoved to the main program – the show preparation. While we had a bit of a hard time with some experiments not working properly, we made a lot of progress and got more fluent with our presentation. When we finished the preparations for the show in the afternoon our Finnish friends would take us to Finnish saunas. There we spent our evening going back and forth between saunas and an icy lake. Some of us tried rolling in the snow and the bravest of us even submerged completely to the freezing water. After that we would finish the day by going back to our host families.
from Kryštof´s diary
Úterý
Druhý den se studenty jsme zahájili dvěma hodinami výuky, ve Finsku normální hodina trvá 75 minut, což bylo velice unavující. Po dvou a půl hodinách výuky ve finštině jsme šli na oběd, který nás aspoň trochu probudil. Po obědě jsme se šli připravit na naší show, co nás čeká ve čtvrtek. Bylo to opravdu zdlouhavé, ale velice zábavné. Navečer jsme šli do typické finské sauny, která se nachází na okraji města u rybníka. Bylo tam několik typů saun a také vířivky, rybník byl celý zamrzlý a voda tedy opravdu ledová, ale zážitek to byl ohromný a myslím, že si to všichni užili. Asi po dvou hodinách v sauně jsme se rozloučili a všichni jsme se vydali k hostujícím rodinám.
z deníčku Davida
