12 students, 2 teachers and the mayor of Dunaharaszti set off in the early morning of Friday. At 10,20 (CET) our aeroplane took off from Ferihegy 2B. After a bit more than a two-hour flight we arrived at Helsinki airport. Then we had no time to take a look around, because the plane to Oulu was going to take off in an hour. So we went to the plane directly. After a short flight we arrived to Oulu, where the Finnish group was waiting for us.

We met our partners there and everybody was taken home. We had a little talk at home and then we went to a cafeteria, where the mayor of Ii greeted us and gave a small present to us. And so did our mayor. We had a very tasty dinner there.

About our first impressions. We are not used to the long distances between two towns (we had to travel approximately 40 km from Oulu to Ii). It was good to see so many forests, and it is a bit strange to us to see fir trees. And another strange thing is that the houses are not stuffed in one place. There are quite big distances between two couples of houses.

Then everyone went to Essi`s house. We had a "warming-up" party. We talked and played as much as we could, but after such a long flight we (the Hungarians) were a bit tired, so we went so not so late…

What a beautiful scenery at Ylä-Kitka riverside!

It was one of the most interesting days of the week I think. We got up at nine o`clock, we had breakfast, and then we went shopping in Oulu, but the prices were expensives for us. After this all the group met before the Megazone. In this place Leena, Maria with the Hungarian students killed each other but nobody died, because we used just harmless laser guns. The play time took half an hour, but we enjoyed it very much.

Then we walked in Oulu`s centre and we had lunch. The city was beautiful and the meal was also good. The top of the day was the swimming in Eden. There were two slideways, some waterfalls and a turkish sauna of course. If somebody didn`t want to go swimming they could play volleyball and football on the beach. The water and the games sucked our energy so we went home and some watched the hockey match on Tv.

It was a hard day so at the end of the day we could sleep very well.

From Iin Hamina market we found some lampreys to taste though this autumn has been especially bad in that respect.

At six a´clock we started the journey from school by bus. Everybody were very tired, but when we started to play UNO cards, the travel was better. We stopped in Pudasjärvi for a 15 minutes break, to have a cup of coffee. Then we drove through Taivalkoski centrum and saw the rapid slalom route in the river.

At 09.30: We were in Ruka and there we had to take our equipments: lifewests, raincoats, raintrousers, helmets, and rubberboots. The weather wasn´t very good, but we were looking forward to floating in rapid water.

After 20 minutes drive in the bus we were ready to go to the boats. We were a bit afraid of this journey, because to many of us it was a new experience. There was four boats to us and in every boat it was eight persons. The journey trough the upper part of Kitka-river took 1.5 hours and there was six rapids. Finally, everybody had funny.

The adventure is a´head!

At the break we got some juice and a peace of cake and we could admire the beautiful riverside.

At 12.30: We visited in Ruka again and most of the group wanted to climb to the top of it. Then we were eating excellent food in ABC restaurant.

14.30: We had a little bustravel to look the bears and other animals in The Suurpetokeskus in Kuusamo. There we saw bears who were very tame. They were eating bread from the hand of the man who takes care of them. Then we saw foxes, reindeers and a volverin which is very rare in Finland as a wild in nature and in the zoo as well.

17.00: we were going to home. Everybody were tired but we still played cards again in the bus. In Ii we were at half past eight.

In general, it was very interesting journey! =)

On monday we had a Finnish schoolday. At first in the morning we had a meeting with all the students and taechers of Iin lukio in the gym. There the Hungarian guests were welcomed by the headmisstress and Iin lukio got a present from Baktay school. It was a fine painting. Then a reporter from the local newspaper Rantapohja interviewed the students and the teachers, You can find the article on the newspaper 09^th Septemper .

During the rest of the day we visited several lessons and got to know the Finnish school.

On Tuesday morning we visited the Town Hall. There we met important people from Ii Municipality. We heard a lot about how the Municipality works. After that Adam gave us a short lecture about Dunaharaszti. Then we got pens and coffee, and it was pretty interesting.

From the city hall we went to the Northern Ii Elementary school. There were a lot of children playing and learning. One of the teachers showed us the classes, the kitchen and the gym and so we could see how good the Finnish school system is. The children were very excited about our short visit.

The next stop was the Open Service Centre where we saw how they take care of the old people. There the old people could live and have some activities and they could also eat there.

At Open service center we were quided by Aila Rahkola and she told us many interesting things about those services.

It was the one of the most interesting days of the week. First in afternoon we were in Micropolis. We were eating and listening lecture…about Ii-city. The food was very delicious. After that we left by bus to healthcare center and there we were also listening a lecture this time about Ii`s healthcare. There were many sick people. We were not so interested about that, but we are still alive aftre that lecture, jeei.

At night we were in a cottage middle of the nothing and we had really good time in there. We were dancing(4hours), burning sausages(yes,burning) and playing different kinds of games (like own hole and the other hole). After we had danced whole cottage was in steam because there was so cold in outside and so sweaty inside. We are sorry…we didn`t see any Santa Claus. And then the day was over. Best looking people were Piia and Tiina.

Wednesday´s afternoon we went to see Kierikki´s Museum, we travelled by bus after lunch. First there we heard a presentation of Oulu Arch -region and that place´s archeolocical sites by Rauni Nokela the Mayor of the Yli-Ii municipality. It was very interesting and gave a lot information for us. It took an hour.

The main building of Kierikki Center is a very impressive timberhouse.

Then we went to see the exhibition inside the museum of those objects what were found there. Then we went out to see the ancient village´s ruins, the already reconstructed buildings and ancient traps. We saw ancient fireplaces which were outside and inside the ancient houses which had been built of wood and mud. We saw how does it look like when the animals make the trap works. Some students were interviewed by the Kaleva newspaper. You can find the article on 10^th September´s paper.

On thursday afternoon we were cookinf food for the farwell party at school kitchen.

On Friday a small group of our school have left Hungary at 10:20. We arrived to Oulu at about half past three. The families was already waiting for us. Then we welcomed each other and went to our "new homes".

Later that day we had dinner in Huilinki with the mayor of Ii. After that we went together to Essi’s house and made our first party. We played different card games and Twister. And we also talked about music and not the most beautiful words… J So we learnt a lot of Finnish words and they also learnt some Hungarian words. But later we had to go home.

On Saturday we went to Oulu to shop and swim, but in this night we didn’t do anything else together expect some people who watched ice-hockey.

On Sunday we went to Kuusamo. There we were rafting for "hours". And after it some of us climbed up to the hill in Kuusamo. We went to watch Finnish animals, for example bears, foxes, reindeers and (a not photogenic) volverine. So we got really tired that day and just went home and fall in our beds.

On Monday we had party at Jonna’s house. Jonna is Robin´s exchange partner. We watched Lion King 3 while we was playing card games again. Robi was sad because he had to leave early as usual… Saara studied some Hungarian words and we also wrote on a paper some Finnish greetings, numbers and a couple of those Finnish words which are similar in Hungarian.

We went to Maria’s cottage on Tuesday. I think it was so far the biggest party! It was next to the Iijoki river and there were lots of stone in it and Erik and Evelin went through the river. We played card games, football, twister and there was also another game but i don’t know the name of it. We made a camp-fire where we made some sausages. We laughed a lot that day, but we had to go home and Robi was sad again…But I’ve heard later they danced at the party and have a lot of fun.

On Wednesday we went to the middle of nothing! This place was in a forest. We listened to music, made again a camp-fire, some of us went to sauna. This time we left together.

Now, on thursday evening, we’ll go to Maria’s cottage again and we hope it will be the best party what we ever had.

Here we are all! Just before the leaving ceremonies at the school entrance. The tears are not yet to be seen. We will meet again in May!