Hello
there!
It's just about midnight in Finland but when I look out of the window,
there is no darkness at all. Nights in Helsinki are pretty light and I don't
really believe it is already too late. A lot of things have happened and I
won't even try to describe all of it to you - it' simply too much. Instead, I
will highlight some of the stuff I am thinking about right now.
Let's start
with all of these people. All the guys I had the pleasure of talking to seemed
like amazing persons and I am really enjoying discussing these interesting
opinions and cultural differences. Everyone is so friendly - campers, guides,
experts and the rest of staff. The first day was pretty much about meeting
random persons and starting conversations, but now we do spend a lot of time in
groups. It doesn't mean you cannot talk to someone else, though - it is
absolutely fine if you just walk to some person you don't know and start
conversation (well, if you are not terribly shy as me).
The second
thing I would like to mention is that the food here is great. Not joking, we
had a lot of tasty meals and you simply cannot starve - there is this wonderful
thing called evening snack, which is basically second dinner for the poor
exhausted campers. It's a good time to discuss all the events of the day with
others. Afterwards, you can wander around, go explore strange new world of
Finland or just sleep. Both are fine.
The third
thing is the program. There are so many different things to do every day and I
can't help but feel kind of exhausted. I am really grateful that I and other
Czech people arrived early in Tuesday - these poor guys from Brasilia arrived
at three a.m. How did they even manage to survive with only three hours of
sleep?
Anyway, what
have we done during the second day of the camp?
- We had an opening ceremony at university of Helsinki. This included President Tarja Halonen's speech, a song played only by using laboratory equipment and lot of different people who support the camp. Also, we had an opportunity to ask our experts some questions about sustainable development.
- We have experienced first hours of project work. Urban planning group is designing a campus for Aalto University so we were told some facts about Helsinki in terms of urban planning and we have created our own maps concerning population distribution and transport.
- There was this "Amazing Tiring Race of Science", as named by my group member Polina. Basically, it was just bunch of campers running around and getting lost (well, at least we did). Not kidding, it was pretty easy to get lost in the University and some of the tasks we had to perform were rather difficult. Shout out to Matthew for his biology knowledge and Akila for her plane throwing skills. We would fail without you. (Forget about the balloon horror.)
- StartUp Sauna. Jordan already talked about that so go on and read his article.
- After we returned to the camp, we went exploring a bit. The nature around hotel is really beautiful - lots of flowers, lots of trees, lots of grass. It is nice to wander around and take some pictures - but beware of mosquitos; these monsters are everywhere, especially near the water.
Alright,
it's getting late and I want to get some sleep before tomorrow. Perhaps I will
write about something else later, but for now good night, all of you!
