School trip to France

I've just come back to the boarding from a three day school trip to northern France. All of the gymnasium students and IB students left Brussels at 8.15 Wednesday morning.
    First we went to the somme 1916 underground museum, in Albert. There we could experience life underground during the war and learned about the trenches during WWI. In Albert there is the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Brebières and during WWI the virgin Mary statue on top of the basilica was bombed and hanged by only a few wires and it was said that when the statue fell the war would be over. Later that day we visited the New Foundland memorial park, which was established in remembrance of the men from New Foundland who fought in WWI.
    On Thursday we spend the whole morning walking through the muddy seafloor of the Baie de somme. From le Crotoy to Saint Valéry. The tides in the area make it possible to walk across the bay at times and the people there use the bay for both fishing and collecting plants.
  Thursday evening we visited the Chateau de Rambures, a castle that looked like something from a fairytale.
   Today we were on a guided tour around the city of Amiens before heading back to Brussels.

Objects found on fields after the war, there are still things and bodies being found every year.

Rebuilt basilika and Virgin Mary statue.

Caribu facing the British front line

Trenches

Most of the soldiers never got any further than this tree.

Panoramic view over the battlefield

Town of le Crotoy

Chateau de Rambures

A goat outside the castle

Amiens Cathedral a world heritage site, more than twice as big as the Notre Dame in Paris.

School

Today its Friday and it's the end of my first school week. The school here is much different from the Finnish schools. The lessons here can start and end whenever and range from 45 min to 1h 40min in length. For example my lessons today started with an hour of Idrott och häsa or P.E from 8.15 to 9.15. Then I had maths from 9.30 to 10.25, and then my last lesson for today was chemistry from 10.30 to 12.00. Now I'm sitting on the students balcony drinking coffee and enjoying the beautiful weather and writing the blog. Have a nice friday!

Welcome to SSB

Second foor 

Lockers on the first floor

Suomi luokka!

Library on the attic

Leisure corner in the library

Sports field

Cantina where you can buy scandinavian snacks

Norwegian school

Gym hall

Basketball court

Entrance hall

Relaxing on the balcony

First day at SSB

Yesterday morning my plane left from Helsinki and landed in Belgium. The students that came with the morning flight were picked up by the school and then we drove to the campus. The place was not like I thought it would be looking at the pictures. It was bigger and more impressive. The chateau is beautiful and the school buildings too. But everything is like a maze here. The staircases and doors lead to different places and I still keep on getting lost in the corridors.
Yesterday we had the time to go into Waterloo and eat pizza at pizza hut. I organised everything in my room and then we walked to the store to buy food for the evening. Later me and Alina did the Ice bucket challenge outside the castle. We went to bed around 12 Finnish time and woke up at 8 this morning.
Today we had a few hours of information about the school and went through the different rules, got a tour of the school and got our own lockers. We had lunch which was delicious, we could choose between pasta bolognese and a vegetarian egg and potato gratin. At 15 I have my first real lesson this school year.
So far I've enjoyed everything here but there is an overwhelming amount of information and stuff to remember. The weather has been sunny and fairly warm but just now it started to rain.
Here are some pictures of the chateau and the school grounds.

The castle from the back

The school cafeteria

Todays lunch - Pasta bolognese

The back entrance and outside dining area

Entrance hall

Staircase up to the first floor

Boarding students balcony

Front side of the castle

School building and sports field

Entrance to the school building