Finnish Independence

December has been a very busy month for me therefore the posts will be coming a little later than the events themselves.

On December the 4th the Finnish kids at the school celebrated the Finnish independence that was on December the 6th. I was in charge of raising the Finnish flag together with another IB2. Our one rule was not to get the flag stuck between the rope and the pole and we practiced for it the day before. Everything went perfectly during the practice the day before but on the actual event we, of course, succeeded in getting the flag stuck between the pole and the rope. The rest of the celebrations went great and I together with another student performed Finnish "sanalaskuja" as a part of the celebration. Väinämöinen and Aino were hosts ended the celebrations with inviting everyone to eat morning porridge together.

Swiss jump

During the Waterloo market this autumn we received a free trial at Swiss jump Waterloo which is a kind of exercise session on trampolines where you train the whole body. The workouts are fun and challenging and after the first try I have continued going there every Wednesday. If you have the chance to try something similar you should as this is a very fun way of working out and suits all kinds of different people, both men and women, at our practices the age and gender group is quite mixed. Read more about Swiss jump here.

Nordic Christmas calendars

Last week I helped out at an event here at the school where all the nordic Christmas tv calendars premiered.  There were a few hundred kids with their parents who came to see the December 1st episodes. In one room the Finnish and Norwegian calendars played and in another room the Swedish and Danish. During the night popcorn, hotdogs and gingerbread were served and a letter corner was set up for the kids to send personal letters or pictures to the tv channels of all the different countries.

The director of the Finnish christmas calendar personally attended the event and I think the calendar this year is a funny story and definitely worth watching. The Swedish calendar is a good idea with involving education in the calendar and telling the history of Christmas. The Danish Christmas calendar seemed very adventurous and had the perfect christmas mystery plot. The Norwegian calendar has received a lot of criticism from the Norwegians who prefer the traditional Christmas calendars about the blue and red Christmas elves in the mountains. But apparently the new calendar was not a disappointment even though it was a break from the traditions.

Finnish Calendar: Kadonneiden lahjojen tapaus Watch here

Danish Calendar: Absalons Hemmelighed (2006) Watch here

Norwegian Calendar: Julekongen Watch here

 Swedish Calendar: Tusen år till Julafton Watch here