We woke at 8am on Saturday morning. We cleaned our room and had breakfast. Heikki then came collected us and brought us to the train station. We decided we'd purchase business class tickets so we could have more room and relax for the 4hr 30 min train journey. We arrived in Helsinki and got a bite to eat before going to our hotel and checking in. We spent the day in the hotel as we jut wanted to rest before our flight the next day.
We woke at 4am and got ready for our flight. After our breakfast with got the hotels shuttle bus at 5:30am to the airport were we met the rest of the Erasmus students. We checked in, got our boarding passes and headed for the gate. The flight was absolutely terrible due to turbulence. When we landed we all went our separate ways. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Gti for giving me this opportunity going on the Erasmus program and to thank our Finnish hosts Aku and Jaana for being so welcoming and making me feel like I was just at home. - Dan
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We were collected at 9am from our hostel by Juha, an employee of Aku's business in building safety. He brought us to their office were he gave us a presentation on how they keep their buildings safe in Finland in all weather conditions e.g snow, heat etc. We made comparisons o that of Ireland to see if there were many similarity. The majority were similar facts and we are able to apply to work now back home. We also went in next door to the 'Hop Lop' a children's play zone. We had to locate all the fire exits and fire plans as means of a test to see if we can read floor plans and make our way to our destination. This was very beneficial as the evacuation plan was the same as that in Ireland so we can apply to our own lives and work.
After this we went to the college to meet Aku. We done a summary of our trip, a SWOT analysis and exchanged gifts. We were sad to say goodbye to Aku and the security classes. We have made arrangements to meet up with them if we ever return or if they ever come to Ireland. After this we met Jaana who gave us our documents for when e returned home to Ireland. Once we finished packing we met up with the tourism students in the city center and walked to the harbor. Their was the annual ice-skating marathon on. Luckily enough the Friday was the moonlight skating and firework show. We really enjoyed ourselves and managed to do one lap of the course. They brought hot chocolate and mint vodka! This was the bet thing i ever tasted and was brilliant as it kept us well warm that night. After this we went back to one of the students apartments for a while before heading to the pub and night club were we met the Italian students from the hostel. They made our last night in Kuopio an enjoyable one. Today we were up at 7.30 a.m. We were picked up from outside our hostel at 8.30 where we would be transported to the Toivala unit again, this time for snow and ice construction lessons. There were also Dutch and Spanish students being brought to this unit. We reached the unit where we would prepare for the day by getting overalls and boots. After this we then made our way up to the base where we would construct an igloo.
Our teacher for the day was Eelis, who was joined by another student in their efforts to show us how to build the igloo. We first started by looking at already made igloo's, and explaining how we would make ours. We then began to construct our own igloo. We were given different jobs in order to make the igloo. Ryan's job was to shovel the snow into the box where we would build the igloo up as if it was a stack of bricks. Dan's and Fiachra's job was in the inside of the igloo, to compress the snow so it would be solid. They were in charge of the structure of the igloo. We rotated the jobs so we would all experience different sides to the construction of the igloo. We then went on lunch for a break to warm up from the cold. After lunch we were then given another go on the snowmobiles, where we would drive them out to the lake and we then experienced ice fishing. Juha dug two circular hole's, roughly 100 meters in distance, in the ice where there was a rope placed either side that had a net tied to it that stretched below the ice, which would hopefully catch fish. we then pulled the rope one side in order to bring out the net, in which we found that there were three different types of fish that were caught, pike and perch being two of the three being caught. This was a very new experience for the three of us in which we learned how to fish in a frozen lake and how to do it safely. After this we then headed back to the base where we would complete the igloo and also have turns on the snowmobiles in the forest. We witnessed such heavy snowfall today that when we were leaving we realised we had been snowed in. We were pushing the van for the better part of 30 minutes. This was a real Finnish experience we received as we learned of the hardships the Fins have to endure each day. Today we continued our force training. We had an early start at 6:30am to be at the college for 7:45am. We commenced force training at 8am until 4pm. We learned various types of take-downs, restraining techniques, use of batons and pepper-spray, stress training, anxiety training and a number of self-defence moves. Dan gave a presentation on security in Ireland to the security class as he works as a door supervisor in Electric and Halo nightclubs. He showed them the licence needed for this and made comparisons between security in Ireland and what we have learned so far here in Finland. We ended our day with Russian self-defence martial arts moves which was very interesting and tiring. It was by far the hardest and most physical training we have ever done. Two of the Finnish students collapsed from the intensity of the training.
We began our day when Jaana collected us from our hostel at 8:30am. We drove to another unit of the college outside Kuopio in Toivala. We met the tourism the students and their teacher Juha. He gave us protective clothing such as boots, overalls, helmets and neck-warmers to cover our face. He then gave us a safety brief on the snowmobiles before we began.
We first went to the frozen lake where we had a route to go around. This was very exciting as we were able to use the snowmobiles at their top speed. We took turns taking this route for the first hour and a half. Each time we got to use different snowmobiles as their top speeds varied from 80 kilometres to 120 kilometres. We then went for lunch in the college canteen with the tourism students and made comparisons about Ireland and Finland and gave them travel advice if they ever came to Ireland. After lunch we took the snowmobiles into the forest were we had to follow a bumpy trail with many steep hills to go up and down. This was a difficult task but as the day went on we were experts in no time. We took turns again driving the snowmobiles in through the forest while the rest waited in wooden log cabins to the rear of campus. After we went through the trails 3 times each we had a coffee break where the coffee was made over an open fire in one of the wooden cabins. This was a new experience to us drinking "smoked coffee". After our snowmobile tour, Jaana dropped us to the local diner Hesburger where we met our German friend- Belle. She was with her German friend who is also doing the same course as she is. We ate lunch together and we talked to her about our day on the snowmobiles. Later on we went to a traditional Finnish smoke sauna brought there by Anti. This was very new to us. The heat in the sauna blew us away the second we entered it. It was over 100 degrees in the sauna and then we jumped into the frozen lake were the waters temperature was -30. We later ate in a cabin beside the Sauna. We ate a traditional Finnish dish consisting of pork, salads, fish and home made non alcoholic beer. The cabin was very old. When we finished our meal we headed home delighted with our days events. Today we were with Petri and Antero. Petri assigned us a task on the security cameras to research and log an incident that happened last week in the college. This improved our confidence using security cameras as we did this in a foreign language so would be very confident using it back home in Ireland. We went for a walk with Antero, delivering post to different parts of the college. We then met two of the security students who were bringing us to Kuopio tower sightseeing. - Dan + Fiachra Today l went to the office and met Mauno and Jari. They immediately made me feel at ease and not to worry about being in this fast pace environment. I was assigned a number of jobs for my time there. Firstly I had to transport 8 boxes of paper to the second floor. I was told to undertake this job in under 15 minutes. This helped my timekeeping skills greatly. My second task was to deliver post to each floor in the building. This was not a difficult task and it improved my organisational skills greatly. - Ryan We made our way to Kuopio tower. Our host teacher Aku arranged for us to receive free entry upon arrival. It was by far the best thing we have done all trip. The view of Kuopio city and surrounding lakes was absolutely breath taking! It was just above a ski track they have which looked very steep and would have been enjoyable to watch someone skiing on it. At the top of the tower their was a rotating restaurant. It takes 1 hour to get a full rotation cycle of the tower so you can enjoy your meal while taking in all the views from all angles. Pictured here is the skiing track below the tower. Pictured here is Fiachra, Dan and Ryan at the top of Kuopio tower. Pictured here is the rotating restaurant in Kuopio tower.
After we finished our blog on Friday evening we went to the home stadium of the Kuopion soccer team Kuopio-halli. Kuopio (The KuPS) were playing FC Haka in a Finnish cup match. It was a very good game of soccer and a very enjoyable night. We were brought by two students in the security class and our host teacher Aku very kindly arranged that we had free entry.
On Saturday we went in to the city centre for a browse around and to do some shopping. After we finished shopping and got something to eat we went to the local cinema. This was a new and very interesting experience as before the trailers come on they have a game, on screen like space-invaders. You download an app and scan your ticket before you can play. You must shoot objects on screen to win and the person with the highest score wins vouchers to the local Finnish diners- Hesburger. This was very enjoyable to watch as some people got very competitive. The majority of films are in English with Finnish and Swedish subtitles on screen. On the TV, 5 out of 17 channels are in Finnish and the rest are spoken in English with Finnish subtitles which explains why a lot of the Finnish people have good spoken English. In the evening when we got back to the hostel we played chess with a German woman who is also staying in the hostel. We then went to bed for a well deserved sleep. On Sunday we had a lie in. When we got up we made a trip to Lidl and got some food to see us out the week. When we got back we had a small snack before relaxing on the couch and playing chess. So far we have met over 7 different nationalities in this hostel including Finnish, German, Russian, Austrian, Netherlands, Polish and Italian. We watched some t.v. shows in English before calling it a night and getting ready for what would be our last Week in Kuopio. Last night Dan helped an elderly Finnish man get back in his room as he was locked out. This was very difficult for Dan as he had no Finnish and the man had no English and was unable to use google translate. It was a beneficial experience for him however having a conversation by use of hand signals. Eventually he got the man sorted and went to bed. He spent 1 hour doing this.
This morning the three of us were up at 8 a.m, to be in the college for 9 a.m where we would meet Aku. We left the hostel at 8.30 a.m and as we arrived in the main entrance of the college we bumped into Jaana. She stopped and had a few words with us, telling us that there are changes to next weeks schedule. She also gave us details about the events next week and the time she would pick us up from the hostel. After this she then asked how we were getting on and if we had anything planned to entertain ourselves for the weekend. We then met Aku and explained we were delayed a small bit from talking to Jaana. He was fine with this and sent us with two students to the construction room. We started off the day by finishing our door lock. This is a hard project to construct but we worked as team to complete the project using our previously learnt skills from past experiences. The three of us combined using our teamwork skills we learnt from our teacher Andreas back in GTI, and we were able to effectively complete our task properly and on time. After work, we made our way to the prom dance with students from the security course in the college. We walked to a different school where the dance was taking place. When arrived at the hall we were blown away with amount of people were going to be dancing and they were all dressed up in there finest clothes. We then sat down in the hall waiting for the dance to begin. The dance started at 11 a.m and was absolutely brilliant. It was very interesting and enjoyable. It was an amazing experience as we have never seen anything like it. Another early start today, we were up at 6:30am to be in the college for 7:30am. We were in their combat room all day doing force techniques, combat training and self defence training. It was a very productive day as we learned an abundance of new things which we had no knowledge of before hand and we can now apply to our own lives and future careers. We learned how to properly use the equipment, how to use reasonable force and not excessive force, and we learned how to react in a stressful situation. We cannot say anymore due to contract agreements.
Today we were with Petri. He gave us a tour of the building. We were amazed at how advanced their education system is in some ways in comparison to Ireland. They have state of the art equipment and machinery to use for their practical training. They have a mini dentist surgery, therapy room, pharmacy and hospital wing all fully equipped with the equipment that is used for each job. It very interesting and valuable. We met a Finnish teacher who offered to let us in on a couple of her Finnish classes as she teaches immigrants Finnish. Sadly we are unable to avail of this offer as our timetable is fully booked. After lunch, we discussed many topics with Petri such as the cost of living in both countries with regard to alcohol, cigarettes, food activities, groceries etc. We compared the nightlife culture in both countries and came to the conclusion that they Irish drink and celebrate a lot more than the Finnish people. We also spoke about the weather both here and in Ireland. Petri said the hottest summer on record in Finland was 37 degrees and the coldest temperature in Kuopio was -40 degrees. - Dan and Ryan Today I was with Mauno and Jari. I met Mauno in the office when I first arrived in the college at 8am. He showed me the office and told me to take a seat, where he went through the day to day activities that they do, and told me I would be taking part in some of the activities. After this Jari came in, and he brought me to the supply room where all supplies are kept. We then transferred the supplies to the different areas of the college. After we moved the supplies we went on lunch. Jari showed me different facilities they have as employees. After lunch we continued with similar jobs, and then finished the day in the office again. - Fiachra |
Security/ Fire + Ambulance 2016/17Daniel King Map of Finland |