FOR BEST VISIBILITY, READ ME OVER THE BLUE ALBERTAN SKY
Saturday 21st May
The first day was the travel day. At 2am we started the journey by bus with eight students and two teachers. We arrived at Helsinki-Vantaa airport at 5am and continued onto the plane at 7am. We flew to Schiphol airport where we had to wait for a few hours before getting onto the airplane bringing us to Calgary (Canada).
We flew for 9 hours but due to the time difference we arrived at 13.25 which was one hour after we left according to the clock. In Calgary we went to a park called Bowness park after arriving. At the park we played some Canadian games and showed the Canadians some Finnish games.
Sunday 22nd May
We left Bowness high school on the school’s yellow school bus driven by Mr. Cheney (Teacher from Bowness) at 7.30am on our journey to the mountains. On the way we took a detour to visit a historic site where German prisoners of war had been kept during the Second World War. After this we drove to Kananaskis where we hiked the Barrier Lake hike. The view was very impressive, the pure scale of the mountains…
After the hike we went to Banff, which is a small town but a big tourist attraction. There we did a lot of shopping and ate dinner. The mountains were very well visible there too.
by Luka & Sietse
Monday 23rd May
The third day of our trip happened to be Victoria Day, which is a Canadian public holiday and thus a day off from school and work. On this particular day, instead of participating in group activities, each student was encouraged to make plans for the day together with their host family.
My host family offered to show me around downtown Calgary so that I could have a glimpse of the lifestyle in the city and see some of the most famous local sights. The weather was most definitely on our side as the sun kept shining throughout the day and the temperature rose sufficiently to create a warm, summer-like atmosphere. The first city sight we stopped by was an impressive manifestation of the local architecture, a skyscraper called The Bow, and “Wonderland”, a beautiful sculpture of a girl’s head situated right in front of the building. Overall, Calgary’s architecture and especially the newer buildings looked quite different from the ones that I am used to seeing in Finland, as many Calgarian office and apartment buildings are skyscrapers in various shapes and sizes.
I also got to visit one of the most famous buildings in the city of Calgary: the Calgary Tower. We took an elevator ride up to the top floor and the sight of the city from up there was amazing! I was able to see almost every corner of the city, the surrounding prairies, and even the Rocky Mountains far on the horizon. In some ways, Calgary Tower reminds me of a building that is likely to be more familiar to many Finnish people: Näsinneula in Tampere. Just like Näsinneula is the tallest building in Finland, Calgary Tower once used to be the tallest building in Calgary. After visiting the tower, we headed to the city mall and had a little walk around Devonian gardens, a huge indoor garden built on the top floor of the mall.
While on our day-long sightseeing tour, we did not forget about food! In fact, I had my very first experience tasting traditional Canadian poutine, a meal consisting of french fries and cheese curds topped with gravy. I have never encountered a similar kind of meal in Finland, but I must admit that I really enjoyed it.
Even though all the day’s activities were amazing, my personal favourite was walking around the Prince’s Island Park, located on Prince’s Island on the Bow River. On our way to the island, we crossed the Peace Bridge which is one of the most iconic landmarks of downtown Calgary. The park itself was full of families enjoying their holiday in the warm and sunny weather. I even had my first experience encountering the bird that is often considered a national symbol of Canada, the Canada goose.
by Elisa
Tuesday 24th May
I was also excited about musical theater, but unfortuntely they had had the performances a week before we went there, and so there was mostly only cleaning up left. In the last ten minutes of the lesson they taught us Canadian line dancing which was so much fun though!
by Helmi
Wednesday 25th May
We started this day’s activities by visiting Niitsitapi school, which is an indiginous elementary school. We were warmly welcomed to the school by the Principal, Miss Allison and one of the teachers Miss Harmony, who were our guides during the tour.
They started our tour by telling us how the school building mimics a teepee. This is something that I found interesting; how they bring indiginous traditional design to the school building.
Before we got inside the school, Miss Harmony told us how the pupils are welcomed to school by the rising sun and song that they play, when the kids come to school. Miss Allison also told us how in the school ceiling there are written greetings in 70 different indiginous languages. They also highlighted the importance of children feeling proud about their background.
From the front door our tour continued to the ceremonial room, where they ask elders to perform rituals. This was interesting to see and hear, since this was our first time even hearing about a school that has a ceremonial room.
Ms Alison and Ms Harmony told us how it is important for children to have play time. However, they tried to create a continuation by sitting them in a circle once during the day and visualizing through pictures what will happen during the day. They also document children’s development with pictures that are hung in the playroom, so parents can see them. The pictures have explanations of what they are doing and why.
They also wanted children to feel connected to land, so they have windows in almost every room, and children spend a lot of time outside.
They had these rock formations outside where they can have performances or just do school work. They also had a garden, where they grow herbs and medicine plants. Older children can help with the garden, for example gathering herbs, when it is the time.
I personally loved how they include nature to children’s studying, and how it is important to them that the children feel connected to nature. I wish that we could have more lessons outside, instead of sitting inside the whole day.
Our tour ended in this room, which has lights on the edge of the ceiling to mimic northern lights. There we sat in a circle, and we tried a ceremony called ”smudging”, where a seashell that had burning herbs on it was passed on from person to person. The seashell presented water, herbs presented nature, burning herbs presented fire and smoke presented air. The idea of this was to cleanse yourself from negative energy. For me this was a very exciting and peaceful moment, and I enjoyed it a lot.
After our tour we headed to Glenbow Ranch in the prairie, where we first ate our packed lunch. After eating we went for a walk. In the prairie we saw cows, and were told the reason for cows was that there used to live buffalos that kept the grass there short without harming it long term. Since there are no buffaloes anymore, they use cows to do something, even though it is not as effective. We also spotted some gophers and even a coyote.
My host Callie and another girl from our group called Ava, had a field hockey game that afternoon. It was interesting to watch, since it was my first time in a field hockey game. They won by 6 goals.
The whole day was interesting and exciting. My favorite parts were the school tour and field hockey game. I found it very interesting.
by Siiri
Thursday 26th May
by Viola
Friday 27th May
On Friday, our group was in Bowness High School. At 12.00 we went to a social science class to discuss what makes us feel Finnish and Canadian, how we differentiate ourselves from the Swedish or the Russians or how the Canadians differentiate themselves from the Russians or the Americans.The class was interesting and it was nice to answer questions and see how interested the Canadians were in Finnish culture. On the official discussion the first point we thought of was the language. For example, when Finland was under the power of the Swedish empire, Finnish was a home language that wasn’t used in schools. We are pround to be able to say that upper secondary education in the Finnish language first started at our school, Jyväskylän Lyseo in 1858.
One of the topics of this project was to compare the status of the northern indigenous peoples in Finland and Canada.The Sami people (Finland’s indigenous people) don’t remember all of their language anymore and it is spoken very sparsely. Finland has a law that at least your grandparents had to have spoken one of the three Sami languages. The law is harsh, since around the age of the grandparents, Finnish schools didn’t accept Sami languages and if a child spoke them they would be scolded or punished. Nowadays the Sami people are praised if they take courses in their own languages and are looked up to as examples of how to help people preserve culture and languages. In Canada there are schools for First Nation children to learn the languages of the indigenous tribes. One of those schools is Niitsitapi school. Comparing these schools, in Finland the language courses are for teens or older people, but Canada has First Nation languages courses for all ages.
When discussing the topic, both Finns and Canadians felt the need to acknowledge racistic attitudes and behaviours the indigenous people have experienced. It’s an ugly part of history, but should not be forgotten or overlooked. In Canada the First Nations people still face challenges, with systemic racism as the police sometimes treat the indigenous people as more of a threat than someone to protect. The Finnish police seems more unbiased, but some people are still uneducated and afraid of the Sami people and their culture. On a brighter note, most Finns and Canadians try to be respectful and try to support the indigenous people in any way they can. A lot of the discrimination directed at the indigenous people in both countries came from ignorance and fear of the unknown, so both countries have started to teach more about the indigenous people in schools. Also, to bring the cultures to light Canada has a rodeo called Calgary stampede, which brings the indigenous people together by creating jobs and rodeo fans. In Finland schools invite Sami people to present their culture and perform dances, songs or tell traditional stories. Under this paragraph we have a picture of the traditional clothes of the Sami people. The other picture is of one of the traditional First Nations tribe clothes from the Niitsitapi school.
Sami costumes picture wikimedia commons, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.fi
Later that night we went to a social meeting at one of our hosts’ houses and Sietse and Luka gave a presentation about Finnish forests. After the presentation we and the Canadians bonded through games and talking. The day altogether was tightly scheduled and fun. If the Canadians who were involved with the project are reading this, we’d like to thank you for a fantastic trip and for the amazing memories we made.
by Nico
Saturday 28th May
We’re in Bowness Park. 10 am
It’s kept clean for everyone and there are a lot of trash bins to keep it this way. People enjoy the sunny weather outside. In the park there are a lot of families having picnic’s, barbecueing and celebrating someone’s birthday. People enjoy the sun and warmth as much as we do in Finland.
We order food for everybody with the money the teachers have given us. I got a chicken rice pasta with lemongrass. Many of us took a mango boba with some fruits. We played some games like spike-ball, rugby and basketball. I went and looked at the play park. There were a lot of little children who were playing games. In the weekend lots of families take the children out to have fun in the park.
We ate lunch at Taylor’s house. It was some fish with potatoes and salad. In Calgary not many families eat fish for lunch. The fish was caught in the ocean because not many of the fishes are good in the ponds or rivers.
After lunch we went around Calgary shopping in thrift stores and looked at many weird items. I bought some gifts to take home to my family. Paige invited us in her house and there we continued playing games like bola-ball, mafia and questionary, and danced. The Canadians taught us a new dance named Cadillac Ranch. Inside we played some Mr. President and Blitz. After tiring myself, the others went back outside to learn new dances. There was a lot of outside partying in the evenings, so, people didn’t mind us dancing and having a lot of fun.
by Vanessa
Sunday 29th and Monday 30th May
A very sad day for all of us to part ways with our new Canadian families. I was thinking how I was probably eating these eggs that are half cooked and still runny in the middle for the last time. I would miss them as they would miss me. In the picture Taylor, Ella, Jody, Trevor and Maila.
Taylor dropped me off to Cadence’s home where I stayed for the first few days. I tried not to cry as I said goodbye to Taylor. I will remember the fantastic trip we’re talking about in this blog. The mountains, nature, school, culture, Infinitely Arts, food, friends and families. Canadians were very friendly as hospitable towards us here in Calgary.
Arriving at the airport where we leave back home. We’re all sad and happy at the same time. We must leave all this fun we were having. Hugging, chatting, waving and taking last pictures.
Saying our final goodbyes. Walking away through security. It’s our time to leave. To go home. Back to Finland. We’ll miss them a lot. They will miss us. Thus, ends also this blog. Saying our final goodbyes to all its readers.
by Vanessa
pictures by Luka, Sietse, Elisa, Helmi, Siiri, Viola, Nico, Vanessa, Raili and Anu
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