End of an era

Today is not only the last day of the year for me. But it is also the moment I leave my appartment in Turku. I stay 4 nights at two good friends place befor I move to Kokkola to start overthere a new adventure already on tuesday. But before I begin my après-ski, 19th hole or third half here in Turku for 4 days, I take you all one more time on a quick trip through memory lane through pictures and songs!

 

 

 

Thanks to you all, the amazing people I met in Turku!

Thank you that I may had the opportunity to become a small part in your life for such a small time!

But the honer and the plesure were all mine.

'till we meet again!

The weirdest christmas ever! (With a tear)

While eating my breakfast I realise, this was by far the most awesome and same time weirdest christmas I ever had. Not only because it was a Finnish christmas, but also the weirdest christmas I had. But this was a good one because I spend christmas eve and first and second christmas day with people I like. And what beter celebrations can a person have then with friends?

Christmas eve was by far the weirdest (but at the same time most awesome part) day of my Finnish christmas. I saw the Finnish christmas peace decleration already many times on TV, but this christmas I was there. It was not that hard to attend because it was only 15min walking to the place the where it is declared from my appartment, so it was a small afford to attend. I also exchanged some christmas presents with a friend. Too our enjoyment, also Santa Clause was at the Finnish chrismas peace decleration. He was there, unfortunelly, undercover. So we couldn't ask him for presents or so hi to him, but it was good that he was also attending in this 700 year old tradation. Which was only canceled once in 1939 because of the fear of air raids during the Winterwar. It was nice to be a little part of this long term tradition, long may it last.

After the decleration I said goodbye to some friends to walk with other friends to their place to spend the christmas eve overthere. We ate some food, I made a Dutch soup and they made the Finnish main course and desert. I was glad that my friends really liked the Dutch vermiccelli soup, because it is very simple and fast to prepare. But I can fully understand them when they said they liked, because this soup was one of the things I missed most from the Netherlands while I'm here in Finland. Between the main course and the dessert we had unfortunelly a sad job to do. Nova, their beloved gerbil past away, and it was our duty to give him a proper burial with all the honor he deserves. After 5 attemps we finally found the most suitable last resting place for him under the full moon. When we did our sad job, it was finaly time for the desert. The rest of the evening and night, was hysterical, weird, funny, serious and truth revealing, in the end we end up all drunk.

The first christmas day I spend the whole day with a friend and we just hanged around, like we did for a part on the second christmas day. The second day I had also another sad job to do, saying goodbye to one of the greatest guy I met here in Turku. Altough I was a couple of times on the brink of crying I kept my eyes dry. After we had a drink together it was time for him to leave for the bus that took him to Helsinki. The moment the door of the closes I started to miss already. Although I have great friends we comfort me the whole day, I was a little sentimental the whole. This was enlarged by the fact that I realised that also soon for my my semester in Turku will become nothing more than a great and awesome memory. But I'm also longing to my great adventure in Kokkola. It was also a great comfort that I will see him again, that I know for sure. I promissed him I will hunt him down in Switzerland if I have to and I'm a person who keeps his promisses, because a promise makes a debt. Also I promissed him to explain the weird Dutch educational system and I also bent on furfilling that promise as well.

The last goodbye to my flatmates and Hyvinkää

When I came home from Hyvinkää today I realised for the first time really good, I'm alone in my appartmentfloor for the comming 10 days. And with alone, I mean alone. Everyone is gone and I'm the only one left as the last of the Monicans. I saw everyone comming and I now see everyone leaving. In the beginning not knowing what to espect from my semester here in Turku, now I know what I gonna mis here in Turku. It seemed that behind all 11 doors was a memory, even though I knew one better then the other, but still. The second last door at the coridor is mine appartment and for the comming days it is my floor alone. It felt weird when I wanted to do something in the kitchen and the door was clossed, normally it was always open with the light still on. But now everyone is gone, so there was no one to forgot to close it.

Now facebook and whatsapp is full of pictures and messages of people I know comming home, arriving on homesoil and thanking everybody. With every post I see, I see also a memory, a thought and experience an emotion. I realise: Damn, it is on 30-01-2016 that I see everyone again back in the Netherlands. I'm not homesick, absolutely not! But I get a little sentimental by the thought of being here alone and that I have to miss great people I had an awesome time with. But I also realise, one part of one the greatest adventures in my life is comming to an end. With one thing coming to an end, another is about to begin. Because I'm leaving in January too Kokkola to make also some amazing memories over there and get some awesome experiences there as well.

Luckily I have somethings to look forward to so I forget that I'm here now all alone at this floor.
Today, I visit my friends in their birthtown of Hyvinkää, a city close to Helsinki. They warned me not to expect much, but I think it is a nice city and it could be worse. It was funny that the people in Hyvinkää still have an obsession with wool, even though the woolindustry is already gone ages ago. Still, they name everything after wool, the shoppingcenter, streets, schools, old factory buildings and their childeren. It is wool all over the place. Ironicly, the only sheep I saw in Hyvinkää was a fake one in the christmas crib at the chruch. The church is piramid shaped and the first mordern architecture build church in Finland. The inside of it looked more like an concerthall then a church to me, but the altar, the baptizing pound and the organ made it church enough. It was also great to meet the mums of my 2 friends, they already saw my parents and now I also no a little bit more where they came from. Maybe I go back to Hyvinkää one day, maybe not. But I liked the place a lot, even though we were sometimes wondering what to do. But still, maybe we can go next time exploring the forest area's of Hyvinkää.   

Slipping through my fingers

It feels like yesterday that I first arrived in Turku to start my international semester. It was awesome to meet my friends again and make new friends. I can still recall it like it happend 5 minutes ago how it went. Actually it seems that my whole Finnish semester was one week.

And now i'm already in the closinge fase of the semster. The last reports, the last parties and the goodbye dinners. It seems to me that I could do so much with so much wonderfull people, but the time is running out. But I glad that I'm one of those wo can say that I 've done all that I wanted to do here in Turku, of course I could do more but I have no regrets. Because regrets would be a sad strain on my awesome time here and the more awesome people I met. I've undertaken wonderfull hikes to places straight from a fairytail. The hikes in Lapland and in the national park were my favorites. But every hike was great in it's own way. Although I'm not a club person, I enjoy bars more, I found the party's here in Turku great. But my most favorite was Koulu, I gonna miss that bar and it is shame we don't have that kind of bars. There are still some bars to explore and lucky there is still some time for exploring them.

Now everyone is packing and preparing for their return too their home country. I, as last of the monicans, stay a little longer. In January I go Kokkola to learn more great stuff and experience Finland a little longer. But the fact that everyone is going and I'm staying makes me a little sentimental sometimes. Turku stay as amazing as it is, I still have awesome friends living here with who I will have great adventures. But I will with no doubt also mis people, Turku will not be the same without them. But it greatly comforts me that some of them I will meet again to make great new memories in the Netherlands or in their home country. Because the best thing of memories is making them. For sure I will carry them with me in my heart, the persons I'll meet again for sure or I maybe meet again.Even the people I didn't hang out that much, are stored in my memory forever. In one way or another they too contribute to the awesome and great experiences I had in Turku and in Finland.  that more great experiences may come during my stay here in Turku till January and in Kokkola till February!

Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
 

Dancing tomatoes and a chicken on a dress: Finnish independence day.

Yesterday, the highlight for most Finns was on. It was itsenäisyyspäivä, or independance day for the non-Finns among us. While during the day nothing really special happens, because the fun starts in the evening, I was looking forward to this day. Because me and my friends would make a special dish from our home countries. So we had a Dutch starter, a Finnish main course (it is their day after all) a German side dish and a Swiss desert. The combination of the dishes was perfect, although we didn't knew that before. Between the preparing and the actual dinner, we went all together to sauna. As is a custom on this day. (and every other average day in Finland.)

The highlight of this day and for most Finns of the year, is the presidential reception and in particular the red carpet ceremony. In this ceremony, the president shakes hands with al the 2000+ guests. This whole thing is so boring that is really fascinating to see. The only thing they do is shaking hands and walk away and then wait till everyone is in, meanwhile they broadcast the whole handshaking thing. All man where costumes, all women dresses. While the African woman were awesome as always, most Finns wore black dresses. While some Finns felt like a tomatoe and dresses herself up to a tomatoe. Also a woman felt like she was still a chick, so she wore a black dress with a giant chicken. This was the highlight of the whole thing in my opinion, for the rest it was plain boring.

Even the afterparty was boring, were some Finnish artists sang some songs there were a lot of discussion about the dresses. Unfortunelly, not with the chickendress. After the afterparty, we shut down the tv and all 5 of us went into living mosaic mode on the couch. While we lay there for more then 90 min, changing positions in our living mosaic piece.  

Graph: Netherlands VS. Finland

On this blog, Im pretty often whining of how the same Dutch and Finnish culture are. Now thanks to my fellow Dutch Geert Hofstede I have proof that it is actually true. Luckily there are some diffrences, so we can also dive into them as well. If there is only a 5 point diffrence or less, it is too insyncnifinant to mention.

But lets start with power distance, we Dutch and the Finns love equilty and we don't like hiearchy. We both like that our employer consult us on what changes are needed in a company. It also makes us proud that our manager or boss trusts us and values us. Also we like that our manager is excesable to us, in case we needed

Induvalism is one of the prides of Dutch cultures, even it personally saddens me that is. The Dutch think that people should take care of their own problems. Only when they really need help, they can come. And even then it is up to us if we decided to help. If you ask a Fin for help, they do everything in their power to help you. Even if they are not fully able to do it. Also when a Finn calls you a friend, you never get rid of them again. In Dutch sociaty there are 3 diffrent levels of friendship: friends, good friends, best friends. The higher you get, the more we like and trust you. If a Dutch calls you a friend, it most often means that they like to hang around with you but nothing more. When you are in a higher level, we are more willingly to help you with your problems. Never asks in which level of friendship you are, this is the de-friend question. You will notice it in how kindness and willingness to share with you. Like Finns, we Dutch see people as individuals not as part of the group. Thats why we don't like to put in to boxes or be compared to others. We both don't feel responible for actions of others, only for the action of ourself. If you blame us for something, we feel guilty and want to repair the thing we accuesed off

We Dutchies are also much more feminine then the Finns. We reallly love to talk in contradiction with the Finns who like to be silent. Also Finns normally live with descisions giving by their management our school. They complain silently and learn to live with it. In the Netherlands, descisions are normally taken by compromise and negotiation. No other way is accepted by the Dutch. Even our goverment does so, if changes or budgetcuts have to be made they start negotiations with trade unions and/or other organisations before the final descision is made. We can't stand that descisions are made for us without consulting us. It is therefor suprising we have an advisery referendum since 2013. Before that, referendums where not posible by law. But we don't need them that much, because normally a year or more of negtiations take place before the actual change. We even have a special verb for this "polderen". Like the Finns, we like to have our working and privat live in balance. We don't need to stand out from the rest. A good quality in life is seen as a better value in life than being the best of the rest. We Dutch and Finns value equality, solidarity and quality allike.

Finns, like the Dutch, have slight tender to avoid uncertaincies. Although we both welcom new idea's and new way of thinking, we also are not very willingly to give up what we already know and wre we used to be. But unorthodox idea's are welcom from time to time. We both value to be busy and work hard, precision and punctuality. And for some odd reason we also like rules.

Worrying about things that may come is not something for a Finn but more a thing for a Dutch. But than, we live in a country which can get devoured by the sea at any moment. Unlike you might thing our discussions and conversations take a long long time before we finally come up with something, we can be very fast descisionmakers. We trust the knowledge of others so if quick descions have to be made, we making it with the people who know most of the subject. We Dutch are really long time thinkers and we also don't really mind to change plans if the situation or context changes. Finns are a little bit more conservative in this point. Once a descision is made, they stick with it till the end. Which has some positive site also, because they are more often a little bit more self confinend than we Dutch are. We can very easy change plans to adjust. Finns do not adjust, their plan is good is it was before.

While the Finns are shy, the Dutch follow their impulses. Because why wouldn't we? It is fun, brings new idea's and you do something weird. Quality of life is importend and for that, sometimes you need to surender to you inner child and let go te boundries. If nature calls, you have to awnser it. So Finns you can be more rule sticken then we are, but there is deep inside of you also a little Finn who wants to come out and play.

Report: how my practical placement fits in the Dutch system

It is for me really hard to compare the EHO unit of Lauste with something in the Netherlands. This is through the fact that we don’t have something like it. However, we have places who have a similar function like one of the many things EHO does. There for  I shall mention in this task multiple institutions in the Netherlands. Also the way child welfare is organized is different  in the Netherlands then here in Finland. Therefore I shall first handle the differences on a macro level, before I go to the meso level. The micro level is to specialized and too hard to explain in general for the size of this report so I shall leave this out.

The child protection and child welfare system is currently in transformation in the Netherlands. In 2001 and 2004 the Netherlands faced major accidents in the protection of children and youngsters. In 2001 we had “the case of the girl of Nulde”, (Meisje van Nulde in Dutch). Her head, torso and limbs were found on the beach of Nulde, a small village in the Netherlands. Her stepfather beaten her so heavily she died. The child protection board just conclude in a report some weeks before the first part of her body was found that she was not in danger and she wasn’t enrolled in to child protection. The biggest and heaviest blow came in 2004 with is now known as “case Savanna” (zaak Savanna in Dutch) were both her parents beat her often, transport her in the cargo hold of the car. And when she died, they try to hide the evidence by putting her body in a plastic sack and put it with the trash. While this all happened, a social worker from the Dutch child protection services visited the family once per week. Because of these cases, child protection and welfare are very high regulated by the government and inspections are much more frequent then it was ever before. Also the Dutch government sought a way to overhaul the whole system and looked behind the borders for solutions. They found this in the Finnish child protection and child welfare system and the whole system is now in progress to become more like the Finnish way handle child protection matters. Our minister of Social affairs called when the change was first announced “A Finnish renovation for Dutch buildings”. Meaning that we don’t shut down the old system and copy the Finnish system exactly, but introduce the Finnish way in to the old system and change it so could handle the Finnish way. Therefore, it is actually funny for me to notice that in Finland, the system also get an overhaul due of budget cuts. Because laws change every year due the transition, I use the situation as it is now. Because that is what I know best at the moment.

Like I said before, the Netherlands doesn’t has places like EHO or Lauste as whole. Instead of that, the child or youngster go into foster care or to an institution if they can’t live at home anymore. These two option are seen as a last resort, in most cases a social worker enters the family and he or she works with to ensure that the child can stay at home. In recent years, they main topic in this became: how can the environment and the family to be as safe as possible for the child. This means that not the behavior of the parent(s) but the situation as whole has to be safe. For instance: If the Father has severe alcohol problems and has even an addiction to alcohol. But the child gets proper food, is properly dressed and gets all the other basics needs. The child can stay at home, because probably the mother is capable of taking care of the child. Child protection then aims to support the mother so she able to do her motherly tasks and they try to control the father alcohol addiction. Main viewpoint is that the child stays at home as long as possible. In general this is the same as in Finland, but difference is that a judge has to decided it a social worker is placed in the family or not. This is unlike Finland were the help is voluntary in some extant.  A social worker is always entitled by a judge in the Netherlands, because he or she takes part of juridical position of the parents. They can’t make legal decisions any more without notifying and the acknowledgement of the social worker.  For some parents it is a blessing that someone is helping them and the report themselves at the proper place, but most parents don’t want this at all. They don’t like that a judge had decided that they aren’t good parents and help is required. In Finland there is no judge and the municipality and the social workers can decided this.  

After the decision is made a child goes to temporary foster care or permanent foster care.  They go actually almost always first to the temporary one, because everyone is hopeful the child returns to the parents. If it is unlikely or the child goes to a permanent foster family. If this happens the parents have no longer the legal right to parenting the child. Only a judge can decided revered this. If the child is going to a temporary foster family. The legal right for parenting is also temporary abolished. This is unlike Finland where parents always have the right to parenting the child they have to be included as much as possible in decisions regarding the child. In the Netherlands we want this also, but the laws curtly still says that if a child is removed from home, the parent(s) greatly lose their parenting rights.  This means in general that decisions can be made without notifying the parents. Only the legal guardian is informed, because by law, every child has a legal guardian. This can be the parent or the social worker involved in the family. Another possibility could be that a child goes to a family replacing home (gezinsvervangendtehuis). These are more intuition like, but can be compared most with places like Lauste in Finland. Mostly kids and youngsters  go their when they have severe behavior and personality disorders or, sadly, temporary when there is no place in a foster family and they aren’t entitled for crisis care. The these are far more intuitionalized than the ones in Finland. The youngsters still have their own room but they have a common living room, like in Finland. But the difference is that it is stricter with more rules. They can’t roam the premises freely but they have to say where they are the whole time. Most often they only leave the place on guided activities. Also common sessions like discussion groups and dinner is done together. Not following the rules means that they get sanctioned. In Finland they want to be as home as possible. In the Netherlands, the main thought is that the youngster will be responsible adults. This might give you the idea that youngsters are in closed settings when they are in a institution. That is not true, because everyone has the right to go outside unless a judge decide that they have to be placed into a closed because of sever personality or behavior problems. Even then going outside is restricted but not prohibited. In the Netherlands this can only be prohibited if a youngster commits a criminal act and is send to jail.

Finland doesn’t have youth prison like the Netherlands does.  Although a prison and EHO are two completely different institutions, they are compatible in some extant. If I compare EHO with the Dutch youth prison system. In both the youngsters are prohibited to go outside, except a small fenced area where they can go  to get some fresh air.  Also their contact with the parents is restricted. They can meet them once per week, but can call them on more moments per week. A difference in this that in the Dutch jail system the phone calls and parent visits are a right of the youngster. In EHO this can be prohibited if it is better for the youngster because he or she is a rape victim or was otherwise abused by the parents. In other places in the Dutch welfare system this is possible, but the jail is mainly for punishment and also in providing help so the youngster will never return to the prison. EHO is mainly to determine what the best course of action in the Finnish welfare system. But also as a wakeup call that something has to change in their behavior in some cases. In both the Dutch youth prison system and EHO, the youngsters have to go to school. And both cases the school comes to them, because they can’t leave the building. A minor difference is the legislation. In the Netherlands youngsters have to go to school till they are 18 years old, in Finland it is 16 years old. But they can still receive education in Finland beyond that if they want continue their studies.

As pointed out in this essay, the Netherlands have a diversion in youth legal issues and youth welfare. This division became into effect in 2004 by legation, but was already in effect in daily situations. The reason for this was that most institutions prisons had already a branch which was more specialist in to helping youngsters then was possible in the legal system. As of 2004, the separation was also put in effect in law so they became different institutions. Therefor a place like EHO cannot exist in the Netherlands because it combines two things that have to be separated by Dutch law. Namely the caring task and the freedom prohibiting and restricting tasks. In the Dutch system you cannot put both accents on one intuition, it has to be two different once. So they can specialize in their task given and support the child the best way they can.

The Lapland journals

Day 1 What the Santa?

After a busride of a little more then 15 hours, too much stops and too less space. We arrived in Rovaniemi, proud capital of Lapland. We went to a very intresting museum about the north, Lapland and the Saami. The Saami are the inginous people of northern Scandinavia, who lived there before the Finns, Swedes and Norwagians arrived. The museum was very intresting designed in my opinion, on side was about the land it self, the other side about the people: Finns and Saami alike. In the museum there was a very enthousiastic guide. The coincedince was that we encounter her a lot, but this was absolutly not a shame. She had a great knowledge about the museum and it's subjects. Also she was very enthousiastic in explaining, so it was also very appealing to listen to her. We thought we had two hours time in the museum, but it was 90 minutes so we had to go earlier then expected. Although it was disappointing, I was also looking forward to explore Rovaniemi. Unfortunelly, disappointment again because we had only free time in a shoppingmall far outside the citycenter for only an hour.

But after this we went straight on to  the big boss of Lapland Santa Claus. His little village was overly commarcialized, but that didn't stoped the fun. We went straight to him before the others also found him. We were lucky that there was only a small queue so we could watch pictures of famous people. While waiting, a friend and I discussed which language he would speak to us, because the signs were everytime in 6 diffrent languages. We conclude it would probably a mixture of German and English. But we were supprised that Santa Claus could also speak some words in my native Dutch. It was only the greetings, but still he knew them and I could understand him even he had a thick accent. After meating Santa Claus  we wanderd around Santa village before we finally left to our main destination, Vasatokka in Inari. After we unpacked our suitcases, my friend and I went on hiking and on aurora hunting. We didn't find the nordic lights, but we found a beautiful scenery of a house at the lake and snow.

Day 2 Quinzee me up

A new day and a new adventure in front of us. This day, the artic skills and snowscooter ride was on the program. After a short instruction on the basic survival skills in the artic region, don't forget we were around 340 km above the polar circle, it was time to bind the ski's under our feet and go for cros-country skiing. Lucky me, I had broken ones so I had to change ski's before we went in to the forest. Although I missed more than half of the explenation because I had to change ski's, I was suprisingly good in it. I was al of the time at front of the group. I didn't expect this because normally I'm very clumbsy in these kind of things, but I did to much of my own suprise.

After a quick lunch, the real artic survival began by building a quinzee. A quinzee is nothing more then a big pile of frozen snow, where you dig a small hole and room in. It is not warm in a quinzee, but at least it is warmer then outside. The maximum temperature in a quinzee is around 0°c, even if it is outside -50°c. This is because snow is very isolating, from the inside and the outside. So it keeps your body warmth in and the cold out. After our amazing quinzee was finished. We went on for icefishing. Maybe the fish overheared us, maybe our holes were to close to each other, but no one catched a fish.

The adrenaline levels keep on rising as we went on a snowscooter ride in the evening. Although I was nervous as hell of doing it at first. It was amazing to do it, riding it at first and sitting on the back after that. Although I was very insecure about my riding skills and I was afraid that my stupid behaviour would cause a serious accident, I managed to ride at a stable 35km/h. When it was my friends turn, I sat behind and I had a amazing view of the nordic lights shining from behind a hill. Unfortunally I couldn't take a picture. After the snowscooter ride, me and my friend went on hiking again. This time we returend to the lake where we build our quinzee. We enjoye our staying there for a little two hourse and we went also inside the quinzee to get a drink in there. Afterwards we returned to Vasatokka to enjoy the sauna.

Day 3 the way to Norway

We had to wake up early today, because we went even more notheren then we already were: Norway. After a couple of stops at a Saami resting place, Utsjoki, the most nothern village of Finland, Nuorgam (Were I and a friend took the opertunity to ride a sledge.) and a stop with an amazing view on the artic ocean and mountains, we arrived at Bugøynes. A Norwegian village which was populated by Finns. People speak there Finnish, Norwegian or Saami. The village is rich and famous for it's king crab production. The king crabs became there by acceding because the escaped their cages in Murmansk, Russia and found their way to Bugøynes. At first the citizens thought it were creatures from hell and abonded the place. Later, people returend and the place florished again. We ate there some delisious fishsoup and went to exploring the town. We ended our visit with sauna and a dive in the artic ocean.

Back in Vasatokka, I went on a snowshoe aurora hunting trip trough the forest. Trip was pretty awesome as we were to parts of the forests I was never before. Also I liked the walking through the snow, this time I didn't sank away thanks to the snowshoes. Our hike was fruitfull as we saw vague pink nordic lights and a very rare moonrainbow. After the hike we had a barbeque around the campfire. I as a veggie could enjoy some very tasty sweet corn. I conclude the day with sauna.

Day 4 happy rendeer and the lame

Today was the day that we dived a little bit more in the local culture. As we visit Saami and a Saami museum. The museum about Saami way of life and the north was very intressting and the exibition area's gave good inpression about the north in all it's facests. It was also quite intresting to see that more then half of the group had a hangover or was at least very tired of partying the last night. So they all sleep in the cafetaria of the museum. After a quick stop at a shop it was time to go to the reindeer farm.

The reindeers at the farm were really cute, I even feed 3 rendeers and huged one. Even though the people said over there that the rendeers are not the cuddely type, this one tried to follow me when I walked away. But unfortunally I couldn't fit him in my bag so I had to leave him there. I went on to ride in a rendeersledge. After that we enjoyed a warm drink in the kota and a Saami woman sang for us. I really liked the singing and I wish someone will book her for my 25th birthday in may. That would be really awesome.

When we were back in Vasatokka, my friend and I geared up after dinner to go hiking again and on the hunt for northern lights. A Hungarian couple joined us in our hike. During our hike we were disappointed that we didn't see them. But when we were almost back, the northern lights showed up right above us and stayed there for more then 20 minutes. The swirling of the blue, white and green lights was really amazing and ashtonishing. It was a little sad when it was over, but nothing last forever. Me and my friend enjoyed the sauna as dayclosure.

Day 5 Horny husky ride and on top of the mountain

The last day in Lapland had arrived and I found it a pitty that I had to leave already. I really enjoyed my staying there and I had the feeling I had much more place to explore there. But as the saying goes: all good things come to an end. But before we left Lapland, there where a couple of things still on the program and one of them was riding on a husky sledge. It suprised me that we could ride our own sledges, but it also sounded cool to do so why not. Since I was the first to ride on a snowscooter, it was my friend's turn to ride the sledge first. The dogs who had to pull our sledge were far more calm and relaxed then then the dogs at the other sledge. We hoped that they were serving there energy for the ride. Unfortunally, our fear became true because our dogs were pretty lame. They didn't run that fast and in the beginning they wanted to pie against every tree we encounterd. Later they run faster and skipped the pieing. But one habbit they had the whole ride. Namely everytime we had to stop, they tried to bang eachother. And for the record, they were all male dogs. So our huskey team concesded from gay huskies who were appartently very horny at the moment. Everytime it was time to go again, someone of the staff had to come to our sledge to unwire the leashes and to tell the huskies the orgy was over. We had to stop quite many times, so we felt ashamed of our horny huskies quite a lot.

After the huskey orgy, we went to Saariselkä as a final destination point were we could ski. My friend and I didn't want to, so we went on hiking on the mountain. He probably thought I was a crazy fool because I went all crazy on the mountain. But I explained him that for us Dutch mountains are really magical. Some Dutch will never see a mountain in their intire life. We always have to go to France, southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Lichtenstein, northern Italy, Czech Replic, Slovakia or Slovenia to see mountains. Because we are a really flat country, we think that everything above 500m and a incline 4%  or more is a mountain. He couldn't imagine it was true because he is so used to mountains because he is a Swiss, but it is true. After our hiking we hang around in the small village before we headed back to Turku in 15 hour busride in the same uncomfortable bus as we came.

onnellinen laulujen maa

The Finnish music scene is much more intresting then it's Dutch counterpart. In the Dutch hitlits you only find American and Brittish artists. Sometimes you find Dutch artists who sings in English. Dutch artists who sing in Dutch are very very rare. For some reason we only like songs in our own languages when we are 50+, unemployed or completly drunk. In other words, you are not in as a teenager if you like Dutch language music. Of course we have some Dutch language hits, but they are extreemly rare.

In Finland it is compleetly diffrent. There Finnish language music rocks the nation, as it's dominant in the Finnish hitlists. Finnish language can be found in all music genres known to man. I think this diffrence is part due that Finland is a much younger country then the Netherlands is, we are already there in th 16th century as the United Provences and Finland is celebrating its 98th birthday on 6-12 this year. So they are much more nationalistic then we are. I can scence that the Finns are still proud they became independend from Russia and still hold a grudge against them and Sweden, the former rulers of Finland. We had our wars agains Spain, from which we became independend, but knowone holds a grudge agaist them. And we had also our wars against them and we even make a mention of our common past in our national anthem.

But back to the music.

Al lot of Finnish songs go about love, friendship, sadnes, anger, Finnish culture or Finland as a nation. While in Netherlands, we try to avoid the last two as much as possible. We think it is way to nationalistic and wrong. Even if you make jokes about it. It is somewhat tolerated in protest songs, but not more then that. Still, I find it a little shame that Finnish songs are only known in Finland, hence some exeptions. Like the songs Freestyler from Bomfunk FC's, Sandstorm from Darude or bands like HIM, Nightwish or Childeren of Bodom.

So here are some Finnish songs for you to enjoy:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going Dutch

My time here in Turku is amazing and I've met new cultures and and people. Altough I already discribed many times Finnish cutoms and etiquette, it is now time to get a closer look at my own culture and how others may see it. Cause Dutch culture is a hard one to get allong with. We have almost none social rules. These seems easy for most foreigners as a blessing and a welcome thing to escape from their tight social rules, this is noting true. We have a great eye for detail, so our social rules are in the details, unlike most other cultures. Failing to mark an importend detail can enrupt some annoyence in us. But we are a forgiving people, saying that you didn't knew comfort us a lot. Never under estemate the power of sorry in our culture, if we have the feeling you use the word without any meanin we stop liking you and then there is no way back. We Dutch can be quite stuborn, like Finns.

What most foreigners don't like about us, that we like to have eyecontact with someone we are talking with. Loosing eyecontact means in our culture no intrest and no respect. We like to see eachother faces so we can see the facial expression. This makes a concersation much more lively for us, we like the emotion. But don't think you can be an overemotional being in our culture, we dump you. You only show your emotion on a funeral or at your wedding. Otherwise we try to avoid them, we not realy into the emotional stuff. Although we like to have a discussion about it if you like. This discussion can go as deep as you want, but pleas don't cry. We will comfort you, even we feel uncomfortable with it. We also don't hesitate to tell you that you can stop being a emotionalwreck now, because then we realy think you can stop doing it. We think honesty is polite, not being honest is not polite. So you can say what ever you want to us and we don't feel offended. We like  to argue about it, but that is because our culture likes arguements and opinions. So don't feel shocked it you spark a discussion, we like it and love you even more. But you can be as honest with us as you want, but to make it a little bit harder for you we also want you to remember that even Dutch people are human. With their own feelings, which we will never express, and thoughts, which we express a lot, so as long you remember that you can say everything to us.

In Dutch, we can use formal speach or informal speach. We prefere the last but always start with the first. But we are waiting for the moment that the other, usually the older conversation partner says it is ok to use the informal for. We litterly say this so you can make no mistake in this. If you are the oldest, please say after approxymently 15min we can switch to the informal for of speach. Forgetting this and we find you stuppid forever. Once someone says it is ok to use the inforal form of speach, it becomes imidiatly unpolite to use the formal form of speach and we think you are stupid. Because we said it was ok for us to use the informal form, right? Also in conversations, we forget that in English or German the word please exist. We don't use it very often in our language, only when we give something to someone. The way we build up the sentence is polite enough for us, so don't push it. If someone uses please al the time we think he is pleasing us and we start feeling uncomfortable. We thing the word pleas is a superlative and we hate them. We also hate making compliments or getting one. Just say "well done" and we are happy. Also "not bad" will do, because we are not that bad to handle. Also don't touch us in public, dispite popular believe we hate it. Only very good friends and family are aloud to touch us. Doing it in public shames us to dead, if you want to touch us, be sure you have a reason for this and als that we know it as well. Otherwise things can get awkward as we step back or push you back. We like a direct way communication, even in body language which we seldom use. You can kiss us if we are a couple or at our birthday or on new years eve. Otherwise we burn you lips a way with a lighter. We value our personal zone and kissing us is a major breach of this. So don't do it.

Also working with us in intercultural groups can be chalanging, but not impossible. We like to argue or exchange opinions a lot, be silent is regarded as not active and we Dutch don't like inactive persons. We don't mind kick you out of our group after a warning. We always give people a chance to prove themselfs, so take the second chance and make the most of it. It anoys us greatly if you don't have an opinion about something, it doesn't exist in our country so we aren't use to it. Also state problems are solved by the goverment trough discussions, we even a word for this: polderen. Meaning that you discuss and negociate as long as it takes to come with a solution that is feasable for everyone. Knowing this, it comes as no suprise that we don't like hierarchies, we think our boss is just a person who earns more salery then we do and is responsable for all our missary. So don't boss us around or we start to ignore you. Altough we know that there has to be someone to make the tough dissions, we only accept this after a good discussion. We can be very strict in rules and discionmaking, because we base everything on facts. But we think the human compoment is also importent. Mind the choice of words: human compoment. It is very importent for us, but rules and regulations are more importent. Maybe that's why the international criminal court is within our borders, we have a great sence of justice, rules and equility. We also think the truth has to bespoken out, so diplomacy can begin. So everyone knows what they are dealing with, we don't like suprises or hidden agenda's but like to know what we are dealing with.

Getting back to the boss thing, we are not polite against someone in a higher standing or position. they are also humans like we do and they al have to shit every day. So we are not extra polite against police officers, parlement members, docters, judges, etc, then we are to normal people. Unlike our German and Belgian neighbours. We like strict equility and think all persons are the same, no matter what job, gender, etnicity or sexuallity someone has. Dutch man don't find it strange to have a female manager or boss. As long as she has the capicity to do so. We value knoledge and skills more in these maters then someones background and privat life. Our privat life is very strictly seperated from our working life and we dont like that they get mixed, only trouble comes from that. But we like to have a friendly standing among our colleages. Because we think work should be joyfull, not hatefull. We work to live, not live to work. But work is an aspect of life so also importent to feel good there. Because sometimes we can be social, if we want to. Because we have always the all inportant human compoment.

Life in the moominvalley

My time here in Turku is really amazing, I met some awesome people, made great friends and have undertaken and seen unforgetable things. I have an amazing practical placement were I learn al the things of the social welfare system and how it is changing, but also what it takes to work in a ward where youngsters are observed, assessed and their problems explored while they can't go anywhere. I learn and discover everytime I'm there. I even learned a few new cardgames and the positivity of some youngsters I will always cherish in my heart.

 But also the rest of my staying here is memorable. I've visit forests which gave me the feeling I was walking around the Shire of Lord of the Rings. Visit islands with gave me the feeling I was traveling trough Moria, also a place in Lord of the Rings. Been to amazing cities, where nature was also closeby. This gave the impression that Narnia is real. But instead traveling trough a wardrobe, I traveld by bus. Because who uses wardrobes anyway these days, it is all clossets. I ate Finnish, German, Swiss, French, Turkish, Korean, Chinese, Italian, Dutch, Austerian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Greek, Israeli, Pakistani, Mexican, Belgian, Canadian, Kenian, Maroccan, South African and many many more food from many many more countries and cultures. I've seen icehockey, volleyball, honkball and floorball matches. Some only once, some many times already. I myself sports also quite a lot, I swim, run and do yoga. And soon I will have my first steps into artic survival and huskey racing. I also have plesure that I can enjoy the sauna at least once per week with great company. I also have great company when I go to clubs, bars or hang a round at my or someone else place. I learned more about other cultures then I could ever dream of and also new and intressting things about my own Dutch culture. I'm glad that this big fairytale of cultural experiences and friendship continues for a couple of weeks.

Unfortunally, life is not a fairytale. Unfortunally, not everyone embrasses cultural diffrences as I (and luckily many others do). The attacks in Paris are a reminder of this. But also the bombing in Beirut, Libanon shocks me. But what about the other horrors in the world: east Ukraine, Syria, Irak Africa and many more places we don't hear. Who knows  how many horrors the world has to endure. And still it saddens me everytime when I hear it. But I don't let the sadnes ruin my life, I'm to much idealistic for that. I know that Turku isn't the only city in the world where diffrent cultures meet eachother and learn from eachother. My mom always told me when I was little that I should never gave up believing in fairytales and dreams, because there could always a time and place I need just that. I believe and dream of the fairytale that in the end, we can all get along with eachother. If we give up that dream, the whole world will fall appart. Or as A Friend In London on the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf once sang:

Come on boys, come on girls
In this crazy, crazy world
You're the diamonds, you're the pearls
Let's make a new tomorrow

Come on girls, come on boys
It's your future, it's your choice
And your weapon is your voice
Let's make a new tomorrow
Today

wandering between wards

I had an intresting week at my practical placement last week. Instead of working in my own ward, I visit each day an other ward which is specialised in diffrent problamatics then the ward I normally work. This way, I could get a beter view what the orginisation I have my practical placement has to offer to youngsters. I really looked forward to it and I'm glad I didn't was disappointed in my expatiations.

On Tuesday I visit a ward in transition, they normally have youngsters who are in fostercare there, but they are quitting that and become a ward for emergency placement. The youngsters who are already there, can stay. But if they leave, they don't bring in new youngsters for fostercare there. The ward was much more open then the ward I normally work, there they can't leave the building at all and here they can leave as much and often as they want, as long as they are return before 20:00. The youngsters were very shy to speak English with me, like most Finns. Later a girls starts a conversation with me and translated all for the others. This helped me to get in conversation with the others, because when the personal translated all for me the youngsters where very shy and didn't said much.

Thursday I went to the 'normal' ward. Here are only youngsters who are in fostercare. They also can do whatever they want and they even get pocket money to buy things on there own. Also, the rule here is that they have to be in before 20:00. I didn't see much youngsters because they were outside. But the once I saw, I saw only for a very short time. Because they came back and went to their room, or they leaved the place to hang around outside. The main thought of the ward is that it is as much as home as possilble. So they even have a sauna there. I find this really amazing, because sauna is typical Finnish and most homes have it. They want to be like home as possible so they also have a sauna the youngsters can use when they want. In the Netherlands we don't do this, there is for more institutonalised. But then again, we don't have a saunaculture like in Finland. I find it also suprising that also a nurse works there. She does the same as the social workers, so for the youngster isn't a big diffrences. But she is also in charge that medicines are properly distributed. As suprised I was they have a nurse working in the ward, so suprised she was that we don't have it in the Netherlands. Of course there works someone with a medical background, but he/she is responsible for the whole organisation and not only one ward. Of course if it is big organisation, there work more. But not that much as here in Finland.

Yesterday, on friday, I want to the ward where youngster with an adiction live. I find it always sad and heavy that there are kids below 18 who are already battleing against an adiction. I always wonder how harsh live must be for them that drugs was the awnser to their problems. Because I'm from the Netherlands, a country with a very libral drugspolicy. Some youngsters knew this, so I had a perfect opener to enter conversations with them on drugs, the effects, but also which system is beter in there opinion. Some youngsters had the courage to talk to me directly in English, some needed help from other youngster or the workers. The conversations were very intresting and very open, I really liked that. It impressed me that one guy said, that he liked the Dutch drugs policy. Not because it was then legal and easy for him to get cannabis. But he thinks that he would have a less thrill to aquire heavier drugs and use them. Because he not only likes useing drugs, but he gets it mainly for the kick and thrill to aquire them because all drugs are illegal. It shocked me somewhat that he does it mainly for the thrill to get them, but I admire him that he knows it and that he works very hard to conquer his addiction. Of course I said this to him and I could see it made his day. In the ward, they also try to be as home as possible and try to get the youngsters over their addiction. The amount of free time outside depends on which fase they are in the treatment and how well they are coöperting. They also get pocketmoney, but they also have to bring in recieves in how they spend it each week. No recieves, means no pocketmoney the next week. Unless ofcourse they can proove they didn't used the money at all, but accourding to a worker that never happens and they use all the money they get on stuff. They get the pocketmoney if they are allowed to go outside. This ranges from 30 minutes per week, till two times 30 minutes each day. If they need longer time, because they need to go clothes shopping or argange someting official. Then they can ask for extra time, as long as they can prove that they have to go and that they also were there. This ward was the ward I liked the most in this week, I wished I could stay longer. Unfortunally I had other appointments so I had to go. I liked the working style, the youngsters and the whole system that they can earn freedom, but besides the general rules of the ward, each youngster has special rules for their own. The suggest them theirselfs and they can also request to change some by themselfs, of course their mentor has to agree with it but they have a great influence in there own treatment. Also when the whole ward is behaving well, they can all together to theater, swimming, icehockeymatches etc. The expences are paid from "wardmoney", this is money the youngsters can use as a whole and not individual. This system stimulates that they also help eachother with their addiction and that they correct each other. They also share experiences with each other quite spontaniously, because no other understands a youngster with a drug addiction, then a youngster with a drug addiction

FinnArt

For our Finnish class we had to visit diffrent art exhibitions here in Turku. Although I still fail to understand what Finnish art has to do with Finnish language, I went there. I actually quite enjoyed the trip to th exhibitions. Maybe it was the company I had, maybe it was the art itself or maybe the hot chocolate afterwards. A fact is that I like more classical art then modern art had something to do with my relucentces at first. I like paintings and other forms of art, but I rather take a dive into ancient history. I've been in to the Rijksmuseum" in Amsterdam and I enjoyed it, especially the "Nachtwacht". But I've been there and I don't have to go for a long time. I liked "het Anne Frank huis""with it's eternal long queue or "het Nationaal Historisch Museum" more. Because those set my thoughts and emotions in motion. Of course every museum does that in a certain way with me, but like I said: I rather take a dive into ancient history.

The first exihibition we visit was a small and depressing one. It futered paintings with dark nature, mostly forests, and other dark places. I felt quit depressed by it, it were dark painings in a small room. One painting reminded me of "The Blair Witch Project", because it futers a dark never-ending forest. I felt almost I had the solution why Finns get depressed, so much dark forests around here and you even turn it into art. No wonder you feel sad all the time because of the darkness.

The next one was also quite small, but slightly bigger then the previous one. With all the happy animals it was much happier that the first one. It futers happy cows, sheeps, foxes, bears and mooses. The artist did a really good job here because you sometimes even felt emotions from the animals, even tough they are just paintings. I felt happy when I left the exibitions and I forgot my sad and depressive feelings from the other one and I was up and ready to visit the next one, because I had the feeling that one was the most intressting.

And I was correct! The last exhibition we had to visit was the most enjoyable and fun to visit, even it was modern art. It setted my thoughts and emotions in motion and I think art has to do that with someone. In the first hall, the thoughts of me and my companion were about cumshots and blowjobs. But for me as Dutch that are perfectly discussion topics, so no shame there in discussing that there. Lucky me my companion wasn't that ashamed of that thoughtflow, so we discussed it quite extend. In the next hall, this exhibition was also the biggist, the art get somewhat weirder but not less intresting. So was there a giant purble thingie, a poluted lake and prehapes the weirdest of them all: a ropeskipping-rope made of barbed wire.

After the exibitions we went to a cafe to make the assignments we had from school and enjoyed a nice glass of hot chocolate. Which was actually the best part of the day because I really love hot chocolate and the hot chocolate overthere is really great. But I had a great day over all, because I had great company and the exhibitions were quitte intresting. I wouldn't go there by myself in the first place, but I have no regrets I did the assignment and visited the places. Maybe I can also go to some museums here in Turku, but that is something when the weather gets really bad.  

Suomalaiset & jij

I always found Finns funny and adorable. They all have a national low self esteem and an minorty complex. I think this is partly given in because they are a reletively young country and their culture is not that much known in the world. At least they think that, but their sauna is known over the world and Nokia has still a cult status around the world. Also according to research, people think if they hear Lapland more of Finland then any other Scandinavian country. Finns have the strange habit to think of themselfs only in stereotypes, more then any other people. This form of selfspot I can admire and I think a healthy dosis of selfspot doesn't hurt anyone, but in Finland is the norm and is sometimes quitte scary I think. But still, Finns are cute and lovely.

I think Finns have to get used to the idea that the are independed, for almost 98 years, and they have to forge their own destiny. Not thinking of what others think of them. The Netherlands is stubborn and weird for a long long time and as small country as we are, we have our own etiquette and own social rules. We are still here and some people like us and the others we ignore. So ignore the Swedes little Finns, they are weird any way and Finland is far more awesome then Sweden. People only like Sweden as long as Swedes not speak Swedish because that is absolutly horror for most people. And the Swedes only do well in Europe, after that it is just all Scandinavia with the weird part. And the weird part is Finland. Because the language is diffrent from the rest of Scandinavia, but that makes it more awesome. Also because Finland is quite mysterious and unkwown. So go on and exploit that. And forget that Sweden, they are just Sweden. Finland is one of only 5 countries in the world that always played in the championship division in icehockey. Your Eurovision win is one of the most memorable wins ever in Eurovision. The Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki is regarded as one of the best over (Finland was the highst ranking western country of that edition) Jaana Pelkonen and Mikko Leppilampi are regarded as the best hosts ever, if you exclude the solo hostings. So there you go.

The social skills of Finns is regarded as far to negative, especially by some Dutch folks around here. I think Finns are very social. Because of the long distances in Finland, they are not very used to be social and they are very on their own, but if you give Finns time you wish they were silent again. Like some Finns I know who live in a certain appartment in a certain appartmentbuilding next to a certain Siwa in a certain city in a certian country and in a certain continent on certain planet in a certain milky way. I also know a women who is one of the most kindley spirted souls I met and she hosted me for 2 times now in Kokkola. I think it sometimes it requires a little more afforts from us foreigners but when you have Finnish friends, you have them almost for ever. Because even Finns die, unfortunatly. So don't be frighten of their silenceness, their grumpy looks or there barely understandable language. It is like a test if you want to get all trough that and are worthy of their friendship. Also remember their natioal low selfesteem, because that always pops up every 15 minutes. But then you have more reasons to party hard with them. Because Finns are the party people of Europe. Probably because you don't have to talk that much while partying. But even talking is not that hard for a Finn if they are used to you, then they barely shut up. You have then the chance to observe and hear their cute accent in English. Because even then their hidden nationalistic tendencies pops out, you hear they are Finns and speak Finnish. And it doesn't take long before Finland is the main discussion topic.

The Perkele situation

It is some time ago that I last made a blog entry. I was pretty busy this week with school and practical and also a situation at my home university occupied most of mine attention. My school suddenly doubts if I can graduate this school year and a couple of teachers weren't very cooprative. I have a hard time to stay in contact with my school because we only have contact via mail and I don't always have possibillity to check my mail.

The whole situation is the fact that suddenly my school thinks I have not enough credits to graduate this year. I knew already before I go to Finland that I have to do a course which I missed in my second year. I have no problems with this, you have to do, what you have to do. And I make also good arrangements with school. Suddenly school doesn't really follow this arrangements and a teacher started to complain about a report. Although I knew this for some time, this week it went a little bit more serieus because my mail contact with school was intensefied. Also it affected my daily life situations more and more. I became a little bit grumpy and felt a little depressed. I was not ashamed of myself that I possible not could finish my studies in the normal time, because sometimes it isn't possible. But the way it al went made me feel sad. I had the feeling it was all out of my controle and the more I tried to come with a solution, the harder it went. But now, suddenly, they went into cooprative mode again. My teacher filled in my grades and school sees possibilties for me to graduate.

My relation with schools and teachers is alway somewhat rocky. I never get allong with teachers for some reason. Probably because in my past I had some very bad experiences with teachers and I tink that those experiences still reflect on how I think of teachers today, the neccesery evil everyone has to experience during his life. Of course I have some teachers I can realy get allong with, because not all teachers are the same. But I think in general me and teachers are not the best combination. I need a teacher we can keep his distance but also helps me when I need it. I'm the kind of student who has to experience by himself that something is impossible. If I don't see a way out, then I need a big kick and a teacher who helps me to get out of the situation. For some reason, most teachers are big ego's who think they know it all because they are a teacher and like to help the easy and quiet students. Í'm the kind of student who is critical at everything and everyone and had some tough episodes in my life. But I can handle critics on my own preformes, as long I can learn from them.

For some reason, I can go quite wel with the Finnish teachers. Maybe they have just that edge I need from a teacher to like them. Maybe I only have hard time with Dutch teachers. Or maybe they are Finns and everyone knows by now what I think of Finns. The Finnish teachers don't want to become friends with you, they are just your teacher and it doesn't get more awkward then that. Also in my experiences, they are better prepared for their jobs then their Dutch counterparts. Of course you have always exeptions in both countries, but still. Another possibillity could be that we just give the best of ourself, because we are both foreigners for each other and we don't want to be hard on eachother. Or I do better in Finnish sociaty then Dutch sociaty.

Kokkola memories

Today I did nothing but laundry, learning and complaining about my home university. Because things go not the way I wanted them to go, but schools do never that so I used to it. How anoying it is sometimes. I survived worser things and I think I'll I survive this as well. Lucky me is having nice memories of Kokkola, from which I returned yesterday evening. Those memories made me daydreaming all day long, because I'm really exited to go study there for a full month upcomming January.

Yesterday we had an relaxing day in Kokkola, the day before we went out and it went pretty late. So we all slept almost a hole in the day. After breakfast, we went in to Kokkola self to hang around for a little while and do some sightseeing. Kokkola has still some old buildings so it was nice to walk there. I can only dream of how it is with snow, then it must be almost looking like a winter wonderland. I really hope I have the chance to see that when I'm there in January. We also went to the park to see some history of Kokkola, because there is in a little house is still the only British ship in foreign posession. It is an old gunship which was captured by the Finns during Crimean war. The British are eager to get it back, but the Finns keep it on display in the English park. Which is actually the real name of the park, because of the British boat.

After the walk, we had lunch. After that, we visted the school were I will study in January and which was or is the school of all the Finns I know in Kokkola. There we also met the teacher, which I also know from the same international project I met the Finns in Kokkola and who will be my  tutorteacher in January. During the tour, I was shocked that the room for tutormeetings was next to the teachersroom, so other teachers can intervine when it's necessary. According to the teacher, it happend already sometimes. This really shocks me, because it is a Universty of Applied Sciences and you can espect that they are not that violent. Also in the Netherlands this is something quitte unheard of. Of course we had some incidentes, but not that often. Also never that someone commited a schoolshooting like in already twice in Finland. We don't take precossions in case a student gets violent, because it almost never happens in the Netherlands. But unfortunally according to the teacher, it sometimes happens there. This saddens me, that it is possible. I'm not an inocent child, I have sometimes pretty hard and rough discussions with some teachers and I don't always agree with them. In frustration I can sometimes think that I will hit them, but I shall never ever do that. Because we are descent people and we can solve this with words, not with violence. Violence is never the solution to problems and it never will be. The rest of the tour was quite intressting and it gets me more eager to start there in January. I found it intressting that for some studies, they even have a practical placement at school where students and teachers can make use of like hairdressers, feet therapy and gymclasses.

After the tour we relived some good old memories from our international project and how life went on after that. But also about my studies there in January. Unfortunally we had to go quite quickley because me and my fellow Dutch student had a train to catch. He to Seinäjoki, which takes approximently 90 minutes. I had to catch the same train, but unfortunally I was 5 hours traveling for me to get back to Turku. So I arrived around midnight back home. With memories of a great weekend and with the prospect of being there again for a full month in January.