The very last part of our meeting was the farewell evening on Sunday. To end the meeting officially we had the "International Dinner" for which every country had prepared something for the menu. We had a colourful mix of different Spanish and Polish finger food, Polish candy, Finnish reindeer meat, mushrooms, smashed potatoes and German sweet rice porridge with cherries.
Everybody dressed up and the room was decorated, so the dinner could start. Everything was soo delicious and everybody ate too much. The atmosphere was very excited.
Before the dessert one of the highlights of the whole week took place: The secret friend presents were handed over and the secrets were no longer secrets. This were moments of big surprises, tears, never-ending smiles, joy, happiness, sadness and excitement.
The country groups also had presents for Eija and the Finnish group and the leaders got something from Eija too. After all those presents, the dessert and some partying everything became calm and melancholic and some of the people stayed awake until our departure at 5 o'clock. We enjoyed the night without darkness and the last hours with our new friends from all over Europe.
by Sarah from Germany
Public Action
On Saturday evening we had our public action event in the youth house of Suomussalmi. We showed some of the things we did to inform the public of Suomussalmi about International Youth Meetings. But because it was Saturdau evening in the middle of summer holidays this public limited itself to some youngsters who took part in YMs before and had friends among our participants, and some parents of the Finnish youngsters. Nevertheless we had a good time, singing some Spanish, Polish and German song together (of course with some creative recreation of the Lyrics, because Polish is so hard to pronounce), and telling the people about our workshops and all our activities. Also Konrad would surprisingly ask some people about their feelings in the meeting and everyone convincingly assured that they had the best time of their life and enjoyed Finland a lot. In the end we showed the audience some funny pictures of the week.
by Hilke from Finland
by Hilke from Finland
Spanish Night
The Spanish group started their night challenging us with a quiz about their country. We were seperated into international teams and had to answer the question as quick as possible. For every right answer we would get one letter, so that in the end we get a mystery word: ESPAÑA!
Then we played a game in which two teams were facing each other and on Anton's shout one of each tema had to run, catch the Galician flag and bring it home before the opponent would reach him. It was a fun and fast game.
The specialty of the night was dancing. The Spanish group played for us some traditional music from their region and we had to invent a dance that would suite to the music. It was hilarious to see all the participants dancing what they thought was traditionally Galician. Afterwards the Spanish girls would teach us how the real dance went. Then we listened some more Spanish party music and had a fiestaaa. It was a great night.
by Hilke from Finland
Then we played a game in which two teams were facing each other and on Anton's shout one of each tema had to run, catch the Galician flag and bring it home before the opponent would reach him. It was a fun and fast game.
The specialty of the night was dancing. The Spanish group played for us some traditional music from their region and we had to invent a dance that would suite to the music. It was hilarious to see all the participants dancing what they thought was traditionally Galician. Afterwards the Spanish girls would teach us how the real dance went. Then we listened some more Spanish party music and had a fiestaaa. It was a great night.
by Hilke from Finland
Finnish Essay
The problems Finnish youngsters encounter in their lives
Finland is among other Nordic nations a welfare state where nobody is left without basic necessities like food, home and health care. Unemployed and students receive benefits that will provide a good quality life even though they don’t receive any other income. In many surveys and studies Finland scores high in such areas as happiness (Finland was the second in the recent World happiness report by United Nations) and education (Finland’s level of education is the highest in the world according to UN’s human development index). You would think that Finland is a perfect place to grow up and study but that is not the whole truth.
Many youngsters are not feeling well in Finland. There is a vast amount of social problems especially related to social exclusion that are bothering many young people. My purpose is not to claim most of Finnish youngsters are having problems in their lives but there is a big minority that has. This can be seen for example in the suicide rates. Especially under 24 year old males are in risk. Their suicide rate is two times as much as in other Nordic countries. Also girls’ situation is worrying. According to WHO in 2006 Finnish girls between the age of 14-24 committed the second most suicides in the world. During past few years Finland has also confronted several school shooting incidents in which the murderer has killed several students or teachers and finally killed himself. The murderer has in all cases been male and under 24 years old.
Because the statistics are so worrying we need to stop for a moment and ponder about the reasons behind youngsters’ ill-being. What makes the life of a young person so terrible that she or he is willing to kill him or herself or in the worst cases also many other people around them? As I have mentioned many of the problems are social.
Finland is a country of low population density. This has its pros and cons. Because of low population we have lots of beautiful nature and low pollution. However nowadays because of urbanization, less and less people are living on more distant areas from big cities. Especially young people are keen to go into growing cities full of opportunities. This causes decrease in the population that hits especially the age group of young adults in more distant communities. Communities become smaller and young people start to have problems because of their social network is quite small. Often they become socially excluded from the society. Usually there is also lots of unemployment in such areas. Finland’s unemployment rate for young adults is as high as 17%.
In very small communities the level of tolerance towards people with some different features from the majority is low. For example different sexual or ethnic minorities often face bullying and social exclusion in school communities. The discrimination can however occur because of any feature, be it personality or the way of speech. These individuals are in risk of depression and in the long term these problems can escalate, if not dealt with, in the form of suicides or murders. I don’t argue this is happens all of the time but even one suicide is too much.
So how can we make a change? I think the focus in dealing with these problems should be in social education. Many young adults especially males are not capable of discussing about their problems even if they had severe mental problems like depression. In dealing with this issue the school system has
very important role. In Finland we have school psychologists, curators and nurses in many schools whose job is to help youngster with their problems, mental and physical. However the focus is often in trying to control the symptoms with anti-depressants that do not actually work well, rather than dealing with the causes of depression and ill being. In the future it would be essential that schools would offer real help to the students.
Finland is among other Nordic nations a welfare state where nobody is left without basic necessities like food, home and health care. Unemployed and students receive benefits that will provide a good quality life even though they don’t receive any other income. In many surveys and studies Finland scores high in such areas as happiness (Finland was the second in the recent World happiness report by United Nations) and education (Finland’s level of education is the highest in the world according to UN’s human development index). You would think that Finland is a perfect place to grow up and study but that is not the whole truth.
Many youngsters are not feeling well in Finland. There is a vast amount of social problems especially related to social exclusion that are bothering many young people. My purpose is not to claim most of Finnish youngsters are having problems in their lives but there is a big minority that has. This can be seen for example in the suicide rates. Especially under 24 year old males are in risk. Their suicide rate is two times as much as in other Nordic countries. Also girls’ situation is worrying. According to WHO in 2006 Finnish girls between the age of 14-24 committed the second most suicides in the world. During past few years Finland has also confronted several school shooting incidents in which the murderer has killed several students or teachers and finally killed himself. The murderer has in all cases been male and under 24 years old.
Because the statistics are so worrying we need to stop for a moment and ponder about the reasons behind youngsters’ ill-being. What makes the life of a young person so terrible that she or he is willing to kill him or herself or in the worst cases also many other people around them? As I have mentioned many of the problems are social.
Finland is a country of low population density. This has its pros and cons. Because of low population we have lots of beautiful nature and low pollution. However nowadays because of urbanization, less and less people are living on more distant areas from big cities. Especially young people are keen to go into growing cities full of opportunities. This causes decrease in the population that hits especially the age group of young adults in more distant communities. Communities become smaller and young people start to have problems because of their social network is quite small. Often they become socially excluded from the society. Usually there is also lots of unemployment in such areas. Finland’s unemployment rate for young adults is as high as 17%.
In very small communities the level of tolerance towards people with some different features from the majority is low. For example different sexual or ethnic minorities often face bullying and social exclusion in school communities. The discrimination can however occur because of any feature, be it personality or the way of speech. These individuals are in risk of depression and in the long term these problems can escalate, if not dealt with, in the form of suicides or murders. I don’t argue this is happens all of the time but even one suicide is too much.
So how can we make a change? I think the focus in dealing with these problems should be in social education. Many young adults especially males are not capable of discussing about their problems even if they had severe mental problems like depression. In dealing with this issue the school system has
very important role. In Finland we have school psychologists, curators and nurses in many schools whose job is to help youngster with their problems, mental and physical. However the focus is often in trying to control the symptoms with anti-depressants that do not actually work well, rather than dealing with the causes of depression and ill being. In the future it would be essential that schools would offer real help to the students.
Spanish Essay
To understand the youth of one particular
moment in history you should analyze all the agents of socialization that are
involving that same point in history (political parties, trade unions, media,
etc.), as well as the historical background of the country, region or place in
which they live.
That’s why although all of us belong to the
European Union, the realities change from one country to another and even
between different areas of the same country or region.
Young Spaniards have a very special family life
which is very different from other places in Europe.
In Spain,
the most normal thing is to be depending on the parents up to approximately 30
years, until you sure a future employment and a salary with which being able to
live independently. It is not easy to study and work at the same time so that
makes even more difficult to live away from home and without any kind of
financial support. There are very few cases of people that manage to combine
work and study.
For our young Spanish, the most important and
disputed problems today are: unemployment, their future houses, drugs,
education and the crisis.
At the moment, the biggest problem of the
Spanish society is the economic crisis that we are experiencing. This crisis
will have different consequences in the lives of children, youngsters and
adults.
Crisis measures being taken by the State have
different readings according to the ages of the Spaniards. Children notice this
crisis through the cuts in the salaries of their parents and tax hikes. This
means that parents need to limit costs which previously were used to please
their children. For example: If before they could please all of their children whims,
nowadays this is impossible. If children used to buy the sneakers that they
liked without even caring on how much they were, if they could have a
next-generation mobile, if they could receive a high pay, etc. Now these costs
have to be reduced and it is not possible to give them those whims, so they
have to try to understand the new economic situation of their parents.
Young people, who are already finishing their
university studies, see the crisis as a problem for their future employment.
The nearest future predictions are quite negative: unemployment is very high,
about levels much higher than other countries of the EU, the salaries are
precarious and the work output is practically non-existent. Every day we are better
prepared to be good professionals but unfortunately it is not easy to find a
job and much less related to your academic formation. All this situation makes
the students raised the possibility of emigrating.
This moment of crisis is helping us to reflect
on how we lived so far and the reasons that led us to this situation. Hopefully
this will be a lesson for people and the state. This lesson that make us
realize that we cannot live above our economic possibilities.
Spain
is a decentralized state, there is a central authority that provides general
guidelines and establishes the bases from which the autonomous regions may
implement their own modifications. Certain powers and competences are
transferred from the State to the different regions or territories.
In Spain, each
autonomous region has its own competences in very different fields as:
education, health, regional budgets, environmental laws, etc. For this reason
the reality that you find can be different depending on the region.
In Galicia people with a mental
disability or a mental illness are not discriminated or treated differently
just because of the fact that they have some kind of limitations.
Since the beginning of 1990s, people with some
kind of disability have gained a whole series of rights and freedoms that have
helped them to be integrated into the society and to live a normal life.
But this is not always so easy…
It is more bearable during the years of
compulsory school. They have a lot of helps but the real difficulties will come
once this vital stage ends and the child becomes an adult. At this time they
have to start facing the problems of everyday life by their own.
When the disabled kids and youngsters become
adults there are just very few public centers of assistance to these issues
where places are very limited and there are meet very strict requirements to
obtain one. Private institutions and organizations are also very expensive and
not everyone can afford them.
All Galician schools have different specific professionals
who are in charge of dealing with cases of students who have problems or
limitations as: mental disabilities, learning difficulties, social skills
difficulties, communication or language difficulties, etc.
These professionals are: the school counselor,
the therapeutic pedagogy Professor and the hearing and language professor.
From the Ministry of education it tends to the
inclusion and the integration. It is always ensure that all cases of pupils
with disabilities, mental illnesses and other similar problems could have a
life as more normal as possible, that’s why the first option it is always to
make them go to school with other children without such difficulties or
limitations. A combined schooling is performed only in the most serious cases
of mental disability or mental illness. It consists of this student to attend a
few days of the week to the college of special education and the rest of the
days of the week to the regular college.
The State and the autonomous region, give them a
whole series of helps according to their degree of disability, their family
finances and their particular problems.
There are also private professionals. The
problem is that not everyone can afford to go to these centers or private
services, since the economic possibilities are not the same for all families.
There is no Centre (no private or public) which
handles the cases of mentally ill.
Trip to Ämmänsaari on Saturday
Because of the fact that many of the Finnish participants come from
Suomussalmi we also spent one day over there. On the drive we stopped at a
place where some pieces of art are shown. It is called “Silent People” because
there are hundreds of dressed dolls with grass heads.
by Sarah and Gritt from Germany
In the center of Suomussalmi we first got almost two hours of free-time
which were spent in the streets and different shops to buy candy, souvenirs,
postcards or the last secret friend presents. We met again at a restaurant
called “Kultainen Kukko” for lunch before we went to the local Youth Centre
together. After two energizers we were separated into groups to start the
”healthy food workshop”. The task was to cook a healthy meal for the group
after spending 4€ per person at the supermarket. In one hour all the groups
prepared, decorated, cleaned up and cooked the food and then the two judges
Prrrtsi and Konrad tasted judged the meals by also keeping an eye on the
cleaning, the decoration and the diversity and they asked questions about the
experiences we made during the workshop.
They presented the results and then we needed to be very quick at cleaning up and preparing the public action which followed at 6 o’clock. There Konrad presented the activities we did and Joona translated everything into Finnish because there were people from the Youth Centre who of course were Finns. We sang three songs in Spanish, Polish and German, showed some pictures and also the creative results of the music workshop.
They presented the results and then we needed to be very quick at cleaning up and preparing the public action which followed at 6 o’clock. There Konrad presented the activities we did and Joona translated everything into Finnish because there were people from the Youth Centre who of course were Finns. We sang three songs in Spanish, Polish and German, showed some pictures and also the creative results of the music workshop.
As a surprise Eija made delicious strawberry cake for everybody, then we
relaxed some time at the Youth Centre playing or chatting and after tidying up
we returned to Hossa where we spent the evening at the campfire or in the
sauna.
The Polish night
On friday, the Polish group made us have a really good night. They started with a presentation of the Polish persons, like teenagers, old women and tourists. It was quite fun.
Then we had a food test. I really liked the food, it tasted really nice.
Then we played the "Krzesełka"(Musical Chairs) and I enjoyed it, but I lost.
What I didn't like was the game of passing the glass and the ball.
But I think it was a quite nice night.
by Pablo from Spain
One part of the Polish evening was a really cool game about the Polish language. We were sitting in a circle and we had a cat (ball) and a dog (glass). Those two started circulating in two different directions. We had to pass them on, telling our neighbor in Polish "This is a cat"-"To jest kot" and "This is a dog" - "To jest pies". Then the neighbor would ask "co?"-"what?" and we would have to ask around all the way back, if it really was a kot or a pies. Now we can say by experience that Polish is a really really difficult language, and we will never ever forget these words in our lives.
by Mareike from Germany and Hilke from Finland
Then we had a food test. I really liked the food, it tasted really nice.
Then we played the "Krzesełka"(Musical Chairs) and I enjoyed it, but I lost.
What I didn't like was the game of passing the glass and the ball.
But I think it was a quite nice night.
by Pablo from Spain
One part of the Polish evening was a really cool game about the Polish language. We were sitting in a circle and we had a cat (ball) and a dog (glass). Those two started circulating in two different directions. We had to pass them on, telling our neighbor in Polish "This is a cat"-"To jest kot" and "This is a dog" - "To jest pies". Then the neighbor would ask "co?"-"what?" and we would have to ask around all the way back, if it really was a kot or a pies. Now we can say by experience that Polish is a really really difficult language, and we will never ever forget these words in our lives.
by Mareike from Germany and Hilke from Finland
Trip to Kuusamo
On Friday we had to leave our huts very early in the morning to go on a rafting trip in Kuusamo.
We had to take waterproof clothes and life-jacket and then we seperated into 3 groups. For each group there was one boat and one leader.
We went through 7 rapids with different difficult-levels. In the end we all got very wet, but we arrived safely back to the land and we had a lot of fun together.
Then we went to Ruka, where we seperated again into two groups. The first group went to have lunch and the others started with doing the sled track. We went up to the mountain with a lift and then down again - alone or together with another person - with the sled.
Then we changed the groups and everybody had time to go to the souvenir shops or to take an ice cream.
After that we went with the bus to the shop of Kuusamo. We had some time to look around and to buy our secret friend presents. In the evening we came back to Jatkonsalmi, where we had dinner and the Polish evening. All in all it was a nice and exciting trip.
by Mareike and Fabian from Germany
We had to take waterproof clothes and life-jacket and then we seperated into 3 groups. For each group there was one boat and one leader.
We went through 7 rapids with different difficult-levels. In the end we all got very wet, but we arrived safely back to the land and we had a lot of fun together.
Then we went to Ruka, where we seperated again into two groups. The first group went to have lunch and the others started with doing the sled track. We went up to the mountain with a lift and then down again - alone or together with another person - with the sled.
After that we went with the bus to the shop of Kuusamo. We had some time to look around and to buy our secret friend presents. In the evening we came back to Jatkonsalmi, where we had dinner and the Polish evening. All in all it was a nice and exciting trip.
by Mareike and Fabian from Germany
German night
The German night was really interesting and funny. We could learn more things about all the participants of German group and we got to know games.
Later we played two German games.
The first task was guessing what things belong to who. The Germans gived us some things that represented them, and we had to guess.
In the first, one person of each group have to close the eyes and try to find a pot which was hidden in the room.
Next and last game was to teams with a ball they had to make fall a bottle and when a team do that the other team had to run to take the bottle and put it in this places again. And the team wich make fall the bottle had to turn around and drink as uch water as they can.
And the team who finnished first the water won.
In this case was the Finnish Group and they recived german chocolate and it was so good.
We really enjoy this night but we're sure that Spanish night will be better ;-)
by Sara and Inés from Spain.
Later we played two German games.
The first task was guessing what things belong to who. The Germans gived us some things that represented them, and we had to guess.
In the first, one person of each group have to close the eyes and try to find a pot which was hidden in the room.
Next and last game was to teams with a ball they had to make fall a bottle and when a team do that the other team had to run to take the bottle and put it in this places again. And the team wich make fall the bottle had to turn around and drink as uch water as they can.
And the team who finnished first the water won.
In this case was the Finnish Group and they recived german chocolate and it was so good.
We really enjoy this night but we're sure that Spanish night will be better ;-)
by Sara and Inés from Spain.
The blog workshop
The blog workshop was obviously supposed to write this blog.
Every youngster wrote an article about some activity we did or some topic connected to the meeting that they liked and considered interesting.
We hope that this blog will become a nice source of information about International Youth Meetings, about How to make it through life and a nice memory for us after the week is over.
Moreover in the blog workshop we are collecting everyone's photos, so that we can put them on a CD as a memory.
by Hilke from Finland
Every youngster wrote an article about some activity we did or some topic connected to the meeting that they liked and considered interesting.
We hope that this blog will become a nice source of information about International Youth Meetings, about How to make it through life and a nice memory for us after the week is over.
Moreover in the blog workshop we are collecting everyone's photos, so that we can put them on a CD as a memory.
by Hilke from Finland
The music workshop
The music workshop included one national song from every country and a general discussion about which impact music has on our lives. In the second part we were very creative and expressed what music means to us.
Although it wasn't really what we expected from a music workshop (like singing/ playing/ making music on our own) it was a very intense workshop because there was a lot of exchange of opinions and experiences of every single person.
by Gritt and Sarah from Germany
Although it wasn't really what we expected from a music workshop (like singing/ playing/ making music on our own) it was a very intense workshop because there was a lot of exchange of opinions and experiences of every single person.
by Gritt and Sarah from Germany
The art workshop
The art workshop was supposed to activate everybody to design their own t-shirt. By using the same symbols on each t-shirt we show a strong connection and equality but because everybody could arrage it in his own way every t-shirt became individual and creative.
Although there were breaks during the work because only a few people could work at the same time and you always had to wait between the different steps, it wasn't boring: The workshop was well organized so we got the chance to paint little stones or add something else on the t-shirts.
All in all everybody was able to enjoy the workshop time outside and also got a unique souvenir.
by Gritt and Sarah from Germany
Although there were breaks during the work because only a few people could work at the same time and you always had to wait between the different steps, it wasn't boring: The workshop was well organized so we got the chance to paint little stones or add something else on the t-shirts.
All in all everybody was able to enjoy the workshop time outside and also got a unique souvenir.
by Gritt and Sarah from Germany
Our food
Every day we're eating about 5 times a day. We're think the food is very good, because it tasted great. The food is for everyone, becouse our chef cooking for the vegetarian and for people wich eat meat. We're have a few of the types of food, so everyone can find some wich like to eat. The food is really good, because we're not hungry and the food is light. We're want to say we eat really ekology. We think, in the other countries it's really hard to find something like that. Every day it's something else to eat, and we can have water or juice to drink. We're really happy, because that food give us energy to play games and thinking. Ewvry day we have something sweet to eat. Our's favorite food is pancakes, we're eating it a lot of. We're want to say thanks you to our chef, because, she's give us good food.
by Mary and Klaudia from Poland
by Mary and Klaudia from Poland
Workshop "Sport and Relaxation"
Wednesday morning we went outside to do sport. We played Finnish baseball, it was really funny. There were people who beat the ball too far and there were others who couldn't beat it at all, so we laughed a lot. There were also people who after beating the ball were so happy, that they forgot running.
Later we played "two fires", it was a game about throwing a ball to the other team to defeat them. We played twice, and one of the teams won the both games.
After that, we did some relaxing exercises. Like rolling on our partners, doing a circle and massage them or sitting on their legs. Then we went to have lunch. We were tired but happy.
After that we had free time. During this break we played more baseball with Niila from Finland and we went to the dining room In the afternoon we had workshops and we had more free time, and we could relax.
At night, we went to sauna, and it was the most relaxing thing we did.
by Anton and Pablo from Spain
Later we played "two fires", it was a game about throwing a ball to the other team to defeat them. We played twice, and one of the teams won the both games.
After that, we did some relaxing exercises. Like rolling on our partners, doing a circle and massage them or sitting on their legs. Then we went to have lunch. We were tired but happy.
After that we had free time. During this break we played more baseball with Niila from Finland and we went to the dining room In the afternoon we had workshops and we had more free time, and we could relax.
At night, we went to sauna, and it was the most relaxing thing we did.
by Anton and Pablo from Spain
German Essay
Problems German youngsters encounter
Computer addiction, alcohol, stress, problems with parents and even drugs
are now one of the everyday problems of adolescents. These problems are increasing
constantly, partly because of group pressureand thereby there is some young
people get pulled in, but also our role models, like our parents or famous
people, we encourage to try out this problem. Unfortunately, only very few of
the addictions come away again and this causes many other problems like
problems with parents, stress, bad grades and health problems are caused. It is
with very many young people so often, that they sit a day for 4 hours at the
computer and cut it apart from the outside world and no benefit from social
contacts in Real life, they communicate only via the Internet with many people
they had never have seen. For young people it is not too difficult to get
alcohol, which they sometimes drink really in a coma, just to make it because
everyone else. These problems can be prevented but not as fast, but there are
already many organizations and support groups to which one can turn to.
There are
two bigger services, which you can ask for help while university. The Student
Advisory Service helps you with choosing the best field of study for you and
informs about contents, structure, needs and conditions for entrance of every
field of study. The service also helps you, if you have troubles while
studying, questions about your field of study, when you think of changing your
place of study or if you want to stop you studies and about the changeover to
work life. The other one, which can be asked for help is the Student Union. It
administrates flats for students, the canteens and is also the one, who gives
out loans, so that it is no problem to afford the money for studying. They
help, if you have a child and want to study nevertheless, if you are a disabled
person, or from a foreign country. The Student Union can also be asked when you
have personal problems, exam nerves or problems with your studies (psychosocial
advice).
The training may encounter various problems. For example, if
annoyed, the apprentices at work, problems with staff
and physical problems.
Trainees can contact a training consultant, chef,
educator or a
teacher. In addition, one can
say with colleagues
and attend a
support group. In Germany there
are training organizations
(chambers), where trainees can address and
treat the problems.
Many
students do not only face problems in school but also in their private life.
Although these might also be solved in school with the help of teachers and
social workers, there are other possibilities. On the one hand people would
talk to their parents, families, friends, because they can be sure that they
can trust them. If there isn't any trust or if youths feel like their problems
can't be solved in a familiar setting there are many institutions which offer
help. This includes a variety of therapies (single or in groups), family or
just somebody who listens to their sorrow. Very important to mention might also
be the "Nummer gegen Kummer" (number against trouble) where youths
can call for free and keep their anonymity. You might feel very comfortable and
secure when you can talk on the phone with people of your age. In case that
there are very hard cases there are
always trained psychologists to whom the young telephonists may pass the phone.
In
Germany you have many possibilities as a young person to arrange your free-time
with activities, that fit your interests and in which you can easily get to
know new people. That is a good method to bring fun and variety to your life
and to get to know something different than your daily school-/university-/
working- life. Thereby the possibility to get mental problems, to feel alone or
not satisfied with your life gets even smaller. You can get active in many
ways: There is a big variety of different sport groups or clubs, you can learn
an instrument, sing in a choir or participate in a band, you can join a theatre
group or engage in a political or social organization, that deals with topics
you are interested in. Usually schools or universities also offer some
free-time activities for their students. Just inform yourself about the choice
you have in your city or your village and most probably there will be something
you could imagine to participate in.
The secret friend game
The secret friend game is a game that we play through all the week.
On the first day everyone had to write their own name on a small piece of paper. These papers were mixed and then everybody picked up a paper. The name which was written on your paper was then your "secret friend". The task is to write a letter to this person every day. This letter you put to our special letterbox in the diningroom and every evening at dinner the letters are handed out. It is important not to sign the letter with your name, because your secret friend should not know who is writing to him/her. Besides writing a letter it is also possible to do something else to make your secret friend happy. You can for example ask another person of the group to give a massage to your secret friend or to sing a song for him/her. The sense behind this game is to make your secret friend feel happy and comfortable during the meeting. On the last evening, at the intenational dinner, the game will be solved. For that everybody should prepare a little present for their secret friend. Then one person of the group starts and goes to his/her secret friend and tells "Hey, I was your secret friend!" and hands out the present. This person continues and goes to his/her own secret friend and so on, till everybody knows, which person was writing to them.
By Fabian and Mareike from Germany
On the first day everyone had to write their own name on a small piece of paper. These papers were mixed and then everybody picked up a paper. The name which was written on your paper was then your "secret friend". The task is to write a letter to this person every day. This letter you put to our special letterbox in the diningroom and every evening at dinner the letters are handed out. It is important not to sign the letter with your name, because your secret friend should not know who is writing to him/her. Besides writing a letter it is also possible to do something else to make your secret friend happy. You can for example ask another person of the group to give a massage to your secret friend or to sing a song for him/her. The sense behind this game is to make your secret friend feel happy and comfortable during the meeting. On the last evening, at the intenational dinner, the game will be solved. For that everybody should prepare a little present for their secret friend. Then one person of the group starts and goes to his/her secret friend and tells "Hey, I was your secret friend!" and hands out the present. This person continues and goes to his/her own secret friend and so on, till everybody knows, which person was writing to them.
By Fabian and Mareike from Germany
Sauna Tradition
When we came o Hossa, the finish group told us about "Sauna Tradition". Thats reallt good operation for skin. Finish people go to sauna for relax and for health. The hot air in that location have 60°C-80°C!!! In the summer citizens from Hossa, go to sauna, stay there 15 min.and after that they ran and jump to the lake. After swimming they are coming back to sauna. Sauna do the great atmosphere, so people there talks more. If u want tou can go to sauna naked or if you are not used to that you can go there in your swimming suit. It is a pitty that u can`t go to sauna together in mixed sex.
by Maciek and Seba from Poland
by Maciek and Seba from Poland
Place of living
During our Youth Meeting we are living in the national park of Hossa, which is situated 100 km east of the city Suomussalmi and about 100 km from the russian border.
The place where we are living is called Jatkonsalmi. Our huts are laying in the middle of a conifer forest and next to a big lake.
We have two huts here: The first has a big room for eating and all kind of group or freetime activities, a big balcony, the kitchen and some bed- and bathrooms for girls and boys. The second hut is smaller and includes some bedrooms and a freetime room. We sleep together with 3 to 6 persons in one room.
Moreover there is a sauna house which is directly laying on the lake, so you can go swimming after you went to the sauna.
Outside you have the possibility to play football or volleyball and you can also go jogging or hiking or do other outside activities.
Furthermore there are two boats that belong to the huts. Whenever you want you can take them and go to a boating trip on the lake.
By Mareike and Fabian from Germany
The place where we are living is called Jatkonsalmi. Our huts are laying in the middle of a conifer forest and next to a big lake.
Moreover there is a sauna house which is directly laying on the lake, so you can go swimming after you went to the sauna.
Outside you have the possibility to play football or volleyball and you can also go jogging or hiking or do other outside activities.
Furthermore there are two boats that belong to the huts. Whenever you want you can take them and go to a boating trip on the lake.
By Mareike and Fabian from Germany
The Finnish Evening
The Finnish Evening took place on tuesday. We would do some typical Finnish things.
We started the evening hiking through the
forest. Here we could feel the special atmosphere in the middle of the nature.
Although we are used to be in the nature, being here made us feel something
different. The beautiful lakes made us feel as being in paradise. Everything
around us was new.
We walked until we arrived in a really nice
place next to the lake where the Finns showed us some nice traditions. We could
share a really nice time cooking pancakes and sausages in the open fire and
eating them.
Afterwards we walked to the canoe point to go
back to the cottage by crossing the river in the canoes.
When we arrived to the accommodation we could enjoy typical Finnish sauna.
When we arrived to the accommodation we could enjoy typical Finnish sauna.
That was a nice, different way to learn about
Finnish culture. We had so much fun!
by Anita and Lucía from Spain
TV-Shows
To present their countries and the participants, every national group prepared a TV-Show to show to the others.
The Spanish
group showed us an intereresting film, in which they presented themselves and
places where they come from. The film had a lot of scenes with beautiful places
from Galicia. The production was based on one of the Spanish TV-show.
The group
from Germany made a performance which took place in typical German School.
There was a teacher, who was asking his students about important things about
Germany. After that they showed us a “volkswagen”
commercial. It was humorous.
The group
from Finland was making a very funny show about how they deal with extreme
situations in their country. We could learn how to survive in Finland with lost
internet connection, with too much mosquitos or with lack of sun. In the end
original Finish Santa Claus gave us nice gifts.
by Agnieszka and Adrian from Poland
In Polish presentation there was a video which contained introduction of all group members individually. Ther was like listing about the things that people like to do. I liked it because it was funny a, well executed and clear.
by Eero from Finland
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