A journey to Belgium
One week in October, 2016
We started our trip early in the morning on the 9th of October by travelling to the Oulu airport. We met each other feeling anxious and excited about our trip. Our journey didn't start without issues, as there were no personnel in the flight control tower to give us clearance for a take-off. Finally someone made it up there and gave us the green light to start our flight. In Helsinki we had some time to have breakfast, as most of us were already hungry. Our flight to Brussels was long, and some of us got some much needed sleep.
When we arrived in Brussels, we went straight to the train station and got on a train that took us to Mechelen. We were ahead of our schedule and got a couple of hours to look around the magnificent city of Mechelen. After our first look at the city, a Belgian teacher Jeroen walked with us to the school. We made acquaintances with our fellow students from Belgium, France and Sweden. After chatting for a bit, we left off for our host families' homes. Our first day went nicely with our host families.
On the second day we made our way to the city hall. We had an official welcome from the city of Mechelen. We split into two groups, one climbed the tower of a church and the other got a tour of the city. The view from St. Rumbold's Tower was amazing and we learned many facts about the history and the significance of the tower.
On our third day we visited Telenet, which is the largest company in Belgium that provides analog and digital cable television and mobile telephone services. The rest of the day we were free to do whatever we wanted, and many of us went to visit the city of Brussels.
On the fourth day we visited a train museum called Train World. It is located just outside of Brussels. There were a lot of different types of trains from old to new. We also got a lot of information about the history and development of railways and trains. In the afternoon we were supposed to have a few workshops, but the plans got cancelled. For that reason we got plenty of spare time for the rest of the evening.
On the last day of the trip, the students got to choose whether they would continue the game development, update their avatars, or create videos of the journey in Belgium. After that we got a little free time before the upcoming evening’s farewell party. All of the students and their host families were invited. We got to enjoy great food and also brilliant live music. Everyone had a really fun time.
The next day we had to wake up rather early, because we had to make it to the airport on time. The Finnish team arrived in Oulu approximately at 5pm. The trip was unforgettable in every way. All of us got new international friends and our English language skills got better. However, it was also quite nice to be back home.
* Arttu Rissanen and Joni Moilanen, Haukipudas Upper Secondary School, Oulu, Finland
