It has been almost two months since we came back from Scotland, and now we have finally decided to write this blog post. Enjoy!
On the second of October we had to wake up really early in order to catch our first flight from Oulu to Helsinki. By “we” we mean Saana, Hilla, Helmi, Nelli, Miia and Fanni (and our teachers Sanna and Anna-Maija). In Helsinki we had a few hours to spend at the airport before our second flight, so obviously we had to get drinks from Starbucks.
We arrived in Edinburgh at 5pm, and then we had to take a taxi to Kirkcaldy, where we finally got to meet our host families.
On Monday we had our first day of school and we got to meet everyone. We played a lot of games in order to get to know each other better. We also did our presentations and had dance battles during the breaks.
After school our hosts Lia, Rachel and Catriona took us to the high street of Kirkcaldy. We did some shopping and just walked around. Kirkcaldy really looked a lot different than our hometown Kalajoki. It’s a lot bigger and the buildings are older and more detailed than the ones we have here.
That evening we went back to the school with our host families and brought some Finnish food with us (mostly chocolate and sweets). We also got to taste food from other countries, too. We had a fun night and we also got to enjoy beautiful music played by a bagpiper.
On Tuesday we went to Edinburgh and had a Q&A session with the editor of the Scotsman newspaper. We also had a guided tour of the offices of the Scotsman.
After that we had lunch at the National museum of Scotland and then we had some time to go explore the museum. After our visit to the museum we went to the Royal Mile and just walked around. It was great.
After school all the Finns and our hosts had a pizza night at Rachel’s. We ate a lot, played Just Dance and forced our hosts to listen some terrible Finnish music. It was fun.
On Wednesday we started to write our articles about our trip to the Scotsman and also did some crafting. After school we went bowling with the whole group and had a lot of fun, even though we didn’t win. We also got a new friend, Rasmus the Whale.
Thursday was the last day of the exchange week in Scotland. We finished and presented our articles and made some videos for the Instagram account (@eumediacitizenship).
After school we went to Edinburgh and had a fun evening shopping there. Edinburgh is a very beautiful city and we’d really like to visit it again!
On Friday we had to wake up at 3am. We had three flights that day, and when we finally got to Oulu, our taxi was late. Our driver had forgotten to come! We had to wait an extra hour at the airport, and when the taxi driver finally came, he was driving a bus! We had the whole bus for our little group and it was pretty funny.
The week we spent in Scotland was educational. We learnt a lot about media, Scotland and the other countries, their languages and cultures. There are a lot of cultural differences between our countries. For example, the Portuguese people were much more outgoing and expressive, whereas us Finns can be a bit shy and introverted.
The school was also quite different compared to ours. It was a lot bigger and a bit hard to get around. They also had some one-way corridors, which we don’t have here. In Finland we don’t even have dress codes and we can wear pretty much anything we want to, so the uniforms the Scottish students have to wear seemed quite unnecessary. It also felt a bit strange that the Scots don’t get a proper meal at school, because we get free lunch every day.
The everyday life in Scotland is surprisingly different to Finland, too. The Scots ate dinner later than we do in Finland. The houses were located closer to each other and they were smaller. Many of the houses were made of stone, whereas the houses in Finland are usually made of wood.
The week was really interesting and educational experience and we’ll never forget it. We made a lot of new friends and want to thank everyone for the amazing time that we had!
