A Week of Cultural Immersion and Adventure

On Monday, the Finnish students arrived at Schiphol. The flight was delayed and the Dutch students had to wait a little. When we first met each other, we were excited for this new adventure. 

After taking the bus to our school, we were welcomed with all sorts of different sandwiches, including ‘’broodje kroket’’. Most Finnish students liked it. We talked about some Dutch traditions, like cycling to school and of course, the most important one, a Dutch word that can’t be translated ‘’gezellig’’. Then we showed them around the school and they met our friends. We got together again and had a quiz about The Netherlands. We also had some Dutch snacks like ‘’stroopwafels’’, ’’speculaas’’ and  “drop’’. After that, the exchange students met their host-family and had dinner together. Some people had typical Dutch meals like, ‘’boerenkool’’ and ‘’hutspot’’. 

In the evening, the group went bowling. We biked to the bowling center, a really Dutch experience. We were divided into 4 groups and played against each other. After the bowling, we went to ‘’De Poel’’ and sat on the pier to watch the stars. We talked until midnight and biked home. 

Tuesday
In the morning we went to a trampoline park in the south of Amstelveen. We played some fun games while jumping, like dodgeball. After jumping for one hour we played some laser tag in the same building. We did two rounds with two teams, the first one was random, and the second was the Finnish against the Dutch people. 

After the trampoline park and laser tag we all went to the zoo Artis by tram. When we arrived there most of us ate some lunch that we prepared at our homes. The teachers gave us some questions about the animals that live in the zoo that we had to answer. We learned a lot about animals because the zoos are really different in the Netherlands. The main difference are the animals in comparison. For example, in Finland, they only keep animals that live there originally, like deers, foxes, and even bears. In the Netherlands they have animals from all around the world, like giraffes, elephants and lions. We think that’s logical, since Finland has a lot of special animals that live in the wild in the north, while the Netherlands doesn’t really have any special wild animals.

After finishing the zoo assignment, we could roam freely around the zoo. Then we split into two groups and visited the heart of Amsterdam in a beautiful night. The Dutchies showed the Finnish people the highlights like Kalverstraat and de Dam. 

Wednesday
 

We spent Wednesday in museums. The Van Gogh museum is a museum located in Amsterdam. The paintings that are there are mostly painted by Van Gogh but there are many pieces present from other artists.  We had an audio tour that told us more about the story behind the paintings and about Van Gogh’s life. Therefore, we learnt more about  Van Gogh’s life and the artistic masterpieces present.

When we first walked into the Anne Frank house, we were brought upstairs into a classroom. There we could see all sorts of pictures on the wall that had to do with WW2. There was an instructor who gave us a presentation and showed us a video about WW2 and specifically Anne Frank. We could all ask her a question about the war that she would answer. After that we had to think about how the rules of that time would have impacted our lives. 

After the presentation we were given an audio tour to listen to in the Anne Frank house. We could see where Anne Frank and her family were living during the war. It surprised us because the house was so small and they had to live there with 8 people for more than 2 years. It was really special to see the fully intact kitchen as well, for instance. It was weird to think about how they had to live in silence inside of that house for so long. This experience has taught what life was like for Jews during the war and how their lives changed.

Thursday
In the morning, we followed classes, until 2 o’clock. After the classes we went home. When we were home, we started cooking. Everybody made a different dish. Then we had dinner on school. After dinner we watched football and played card games with the whole group at Sepp’s place. Ajax won 5-0.

Friday
 

On Friday the students wrote their reflections on the whole week to compile this travel report. The Finnish students and teachers were give goodie bags by the Dutch. Then the whole group biked to a pancake restaurant called Boerderij Meerzicht and enjoyed a traditional pancake lunch there. Then it was time to pack the bags and travel to the Schiphol Airport to fly back to Finland. We look forward to hosting the Dutch group in Vantaa in late February!