A transnational meeting in Karlskrona, Sweden, in April 2016

We had a wonderful week in Karlskrona in spring. This is what two of our students wrote about it:

The DIG_IT project (Erasmus+): a transnational meeting in Sweden

The journey

Our journey to Karlskrona began at the Oulu airport on a windy and cloudy Sunday morning. We first flew from Oulu to Helsinki and from there to Copenhagen. In Helsinki we were still a little tired, because of the early wake up call.  There we went to a restaurant, or a sports bar if you like to call it that. And of course, we went shopping for a while, chocolate and sweets mostly. In Copenhagen we didn’t have much time to spend there, not that we would’ve had much to do. Suddenly we were in a hurry, Anja just shouted that we had 3 minutes to get on the train instead of the 20 minutes we were previously told we had. On the train we were like typical Finns, shouting and making noise all the time. But, by the end of the ride everyone was tired and silent.

Karlskrona

When we arrived in Karlskrona we saw our hosts for the first time, it was a little awkward at first. When we got to the hosts’ cars everyone started talking and socializing. The first night went by fast because everyone was very tired after our long trip.

The first day was really nice, because we got to know some of the people from Belgium, France and Sweden. We also went to an ice cream parlour called Glassiären, which basically translates to glacier if we are right. The ice creams there were huge, you could get three balls of ice cream and some soft ice cream on the top. Later that day we also went to a viewpoint and a small park, they also had some animals there.

On the other days we had many tours around the city, and many activities. On Tuesday we had a programming workshop, it was amazing. We learned a lot about coding and making games. The people who didn’t participate went to an island called Aspö (Not sure how it’s spelled), they had a tour around the island. If you ask me, the programming workshop was a lot better. In the coding workshop we also started working on some board games, six groups started to work on their own board games.

On Wednesday we went to the Naval Museum. They had two real submarines there, and a lot of other historical artifacts. There they also had a souvenir shop where you could by many things and small objects related to ships and sailing.

On Thursday we had a group game where we had to get points by taking pictures all around the city and gathering some objects. In the evening we went to Elliot’s where we had a BBQ-party. We played the piano and sang some songs. It was an amazing evening and I think everyone enjoyed it very much.

On Friday we continued the programming workshop. We tried out a 3D printer and an Oculus Rift. In the evening we had a farewell party, where we looked at some pictures that were taken during the week and ate food. When we were eating, Pascal, one of the teachers held a speech. He told us that he had sworn not to cry, but in the end he did. After that we had a really short party, one of the DIG_IT students, Jonatan, was the DJ. Then, sadly, we had to leave.

The Journey back

The time of our departure had come really close. It was Saturday morning and everyone was feeling down. When the train left the station, some of us cried, the time we had in Karlskrona was just so amazing. The farewell was really sad and no one wanted to leave. Our journey back was quiet and we hardly said anything. 

In a nutshell, we will never forget our trip to Karlskrona, the people or the fun times we had together. We all hope we’ll see each other soon again.

- Miikka Kuosmanen and Marjut Juhonen from Haukipudas Upper Secondary School, 

Oulu, Finland