Our final day in Finland was busy with re-organizing and packing, spending any remaining euros, walking the frigid, but beautiful, streets of Helsinki, enjoying a final group meal of reindeer and salmon, and taking in a pro hockey game.
Aaron sums is up best:
Here are some other photos from the day:
Taking the tram to the hockey game:
Helsinki Ice Hall:
Bonnie hits 2 of 3 shots and wins!
Home team, H.I.F.K. (a traditional abbreviation of Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna i Helsingfors) wins!
After waking up between 3-4am for our early flight home on Friday, we were treated to a full day (24+ hours) of travel - there was quite a scare when it looked doubtful we would get out of Chicago (similar to trying to get TO Chicago on Jan. 6th) because of high winds in Chicago and snow and cold in Minneapolis. We regretfully starting parting ways early (Nikki in Helsinki, Maegan in Chicago) and, eventually, the rest at MSP.
This was truly a fantastic group of people - one of our objectives for the trip was to provide opportunities for students to bond with each other and the new culture, and to push themselves out of their familiar relationships and broaden their boundaries. As we looked (and listened - as we sat in our hotel rooms, we could hear students walking by humming and singing ABBA tunes everyday after our museum trip!) at our group interacting the final few days, we think this happened - everyone seems to have made new memories and relationships that will last a lifetime. This only happens when people are willing to be open to new experiences and are able to bounce back when things aren't familiar and/or don't go the way they were planned (as they never do when traveling) - we were lucky to have students who had these characteristics. Sometimes it's hard to realize it at the time it's occurring, but we do grow when things don't go the way we want them to - maybe that seemingly strange person you were forced to sit with on the airplane ended up being one of your favorite people, or searching for the absent northern lights enabled you to tromp through a beautiful, nature filled area at night with new friends, or getting lost (and found) in a new and strange city helped you gain confidence as you realized you had tools to travel and handle the unexpected. We're still working on what we learned by sitting at O'Hare for 7+ hours yesterday, but like I said, sometimes it takes time! It truly becomes the process and the getting there that becomes so important - in the end, it didn't really matter that we didn't see the northern lights - we found the lights in the people we we were with, thru the experiences we had...
We will end with the top 30 things from our Scandinavian Olympic Quest - from the mouths of our students:
- Reindeer meat
- Singing my heart out at the ABBA museum
- Learning how to dog sled
- The shows on the ferry
- Sitting around the fire at the ice hotel
- Skiing in Norway
- Dog sledding and sitting in the teepee drinking coffee
- Dog sledding and the breath taking views
- Climbing on the rocks on the coast of Summolina Fortress
- Riding a giant bronze statue of a tiger in downtown Oslo
- Going to my first pub
- Being the first up Komsa in Alta, then leading the group the next day
- Walking through the ice hotel
- Last night's meal (reindeer and salmon)
- Getting a traditional Norwegian sweater!
- Meeting the locals in Alta
- Crawling up a mountain in search of the norther lights!
- Beautiful Lillehammer!
- Getting a free bottle of champagne in Alta :)
- Spending time at a Norwegian guy's house
- The ferry from Stockholm to Helsinkig
- Skiing at Hajfell in Lillehammer, Norway
- Snowboarding in Lillehammer
- Relaxing around the fire at the ice hotel
- Learning how to ski in Norway!
- Hanging out with some Norwegians in Alta
- Staying in a haunted hotel room
- Learning how to ski at the site of the '94 Olympic Games
- Going to a pro hockey game in Helsinki
- Meeting an Olympic Gold Medalist
Thanks to all our students for a fantastic trip and to all those who read our blog and supported us throughout Scandinavia!
Bonnie & Aaron
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