Taneli Hungary: So cheep and so much cheese.

Hello, Szia!

It's already been a while since we got here and this blog has been a little bit forgotten. But better now than never!

So we arrived 19th of March at the Budapest airport with Heikki, Frej and Janne and we were all very excited about the trip, although we didn't knew much about our time here beforehand; where we live, what we do etc. But everything went fine and our apartment in Békéscsaba is simply amazing and there's lots of space. In every room there's at least four beds so we could change the beds for every night.

During our time we've been exploring the internship places which are the local theater in Békéscsaba, the advertising agency called A-team, the cultural house and local TV in Gyula. Me and Heikki are going to start at the cultural house tomorrow and we'll be there the whole week. Then the next two coming weeks I'm going to be working at the theater and Heikki will be in A-team. And the rest of our time we'll be at the local TV in Gyula, where we're going to move also for the rest of the trip.

at the theater

Heikki as a local news reporter.

And a few words about the culture and other stuff! The title of this blog was about the cheep prices compared to Finland and that's something worth mention for. I mean you can manage here 3 weeks with the same money that you can manage one week in Finland. All the food, clothes, bus tickets... Everything is so much cheaper. And something about the food too. It's delicious! Much more greasy than Finland though but it's good! And the cheese I mentioned... They put it everywhere here and a lot. I've never ate so much cheese in my life than here. But luckily I like cheeses very much!

P.S. And so does our subtenant, this little mouse who keeps me awake during nights... Luckily the owners are going tomorrow to get rid of it!

To the next time!

Sandra, Ireland

It's been pretty busy here. (And also I'm blogging with mobile and it's pretty annoying because nothing works as they should and my mom keeps sending me messages all the time because she doesn't know how to use her phone)

It's a shame I don't have many pictures of st. Patrick's day (others than selfies with Lenita) because we were to tired to go and watch the parade on the morning. A day before that we went to school just to realise it was closed. And nobody had told us. But well, that week was still nice.

I went to see a comedy show to The King's Head a bit over a week ago, because I thought it would be funny to see Finnish people starring a comedy show in Ireland. And I really loved it! It was awesome show, even though I enjoyed it alone. After the show I hanged out with other Finnish people for a while before coming back to our house.

Lenita's sister and her friend also came to visit Ireland and lived with us for a week. It was a shame that Lenita was sick almost the whole week. 

On Monday I went to school and I was pretty confused because I didn't see the teacher anywhere, so I decided to wait a moment if he was just late. But when I had waited for another hour, I went to look for anyone to say what to do next. Apparently Sarah had been gone to Finland and our teacher to Portugal. So I found another teacher, who didn't have any work for me so we agreed that I could make my own things for our game project.

We had talked to our host another day, and she asked if we could help her friend with some film thet were making on Tuesday, and of course we agreed. Lenita was still sick so we agreed that Jani could cone and help with me instead of Lenita. Our host, Joyce, almost insisted that Lenita should still come with us to go and see some Connemara, so after helping with the film-making (which was really awesome), Joyce brought Lenita and her sister to the house where we were filming, and then we went to see Connemara.

It was really kind of her to show us places we would've never been to if she didn't show them to us. We spent the whole day driving around, looking at the beautiful view and taking pictures. I'm sure that's one day I will remember forever.

I would show you more of the pictures I took but I haven't had time to edit them all. Also, next week school is apparently closed so I won't be able to edit the pictures there either. But well, in this post there are most of my favorites.

Also after all the driving and looking at the scenery, Joyce brought us to some restaurant and wanted to buy all of us anything we wanted to eat, and after the meal she still insisted that we should take some dessert. I must say it was really awesome, and especially the dessert was super delicious. After eating, she drove us back to the house. 

This week has probably been the best week here. And it was really nice having Nadja and Jani here with us. 

Next week will be a bit different, since our school will be closed so I can't do any digital work next week. Thank god I have my drawing stuff with me so I can make more consepts for the game. And after a week we'll be heading back to Finland. And also it's pretty nice Lenita is feeling better now so she won't be sick on the last week we're being here.

Alma, Ireland

Easter holiday started last Friday.
Five weeks is behind us, three weeks and three days left. Time has elapsed really fast and it makes me a little bit sad because after the holiday we have little time left at school. It has been really nice to be here. I could stay here for another two months.

Our hostess was in Finland last week. She came back to Ireland a couple of days ago and she had souveniers for us. Now we have Fazer chocolate, dry bread, Marianne candies and most important: more salmiakki. I got two bars of salmiakkichocolate (sadly I have already eaten the other one).

Iida & Anna, Ireland: The Finnish Delight

Dia duit! Tiia was a doll and brought us some sweets last week from Finland that we already missed so bad. Of course we had to see, what Irish people think of it. We brought salmiakki to school and asked some students to taste and this is the result! Bear in mind, this video was edited after a long day really late at night.....
Thank you Level 5 Journalism for being in this video!

Anna is working like crazy, trying to get all done before going back to Finland. I've got school only for two days (today Thursday and tomorrow Friday) and midterm break starts next week so I'll have a few days off before going back home.

Viimeisiä tuliaistoiveita otetaan vastaan,
♥ Iida & Anna

Eva, Juho, Minttu & Neea: Spain

Time has passed so quickly, we have only one month left anymore! Weekdays have quite the same routine - everybody goes to their workplaces in the morning and get back home around four or five o'clock. After that we fix some food and maybe go wandering around the city.

Just to point some highlights out: few weeks ago we went to Art After Dark. It is an event held in the Guggenheim museum. There you can have a couple of drinks, dance to music played by various DJs and of course visit the current exhibition. We have also done some sightseeing, shopping and for an example, once we went to the beach for a walk. It was so beautiful to see the sun setting down into the sea and the lights of the city and villages ignite next to the silhouettes of the hills and mountains.

Bilbao has turned out to be a really beautiful city! The buildings are so pretty and the streets are always really tidy. It's easy to move around here by bus or underground and when it's not raining (it rains a lot...) it's also nice to just walk around and explore little alleys with cafeterias selling pintxos.

People in here are so nice and friendly! Although a lot of people here don't speak English at all and it's sometimes a bit tricky to get your message through, we still have always found a way to communicate.

Last Friday we got a new roommate, another Finnish student. We spent our weekend showing her couple of places here in Bilbao and I guess we will continue doing the same thing next weekend also: Neea's sister is going to come here for a visit!

That's all for now I guess! :-) Here's a couple of photos from Neea's phone:

Iida & Anna, Ireland: St. Patrick's day hullabaloo

Yo yo, what's up! It's been almost a week since St. Patrick's day but we've been very busy: Anna's friend Tiia came to visit us for a few days. We showed her around Galway and went shopping (really hardcore shopping..) We also went to a comedy gig in the King's Head on Thursday and we went to see Manu Raivio and Ismo Leikola! It was really entertaining. We even had the chance to take a selfie with Ismo...


On St. Patrick's day last Tuesday we went to see the parade with our roommates. Lots of people, lots of noise but lots of fun! Later we went to a Silent Disco. Everyone is wearing headphones and you can choose what you're listening to from two different channels. When you take your headphones of, it's (almost) silent - you can just hear people singing to their choice of music.
We've only got a week and a half to go, feeling kind of sad already. But we're going to enjoy the remaining time!

Äiti, lihapullat ja perunamuusit valmiiks tulille!
♥ Iida & Anna

Alma, Ireland

At the beginning of the week we were in Dublin. On Tuesday we went to watch a parade. We should have gone there earlier because the best places were already taken. The parade was really stunning. I had to reach out my hand to get some pictures because there were so many people (and tall as well) in front of me.

At night we visited pubs and bars. We tried to stay away from all jumble and we went to places which were more quiet. It was a really nice weekend.

At school we had a workshop where we had only one matchbox and the matches of that matchbox and we had to build something out of them.

Comics are still in progress. 
Pictures will come later.

Kiia, Ireland, being busy is awesome

Hey! I haven't remembered to post anything here, because we have been doing so much.

One of the Hume family kids had birthday week ago, on the same week's Thursday there was Finnish get together at the Doc No 1 which was for Finnish people, Irish who are going to Finland and people who have been in Finland before. It was really nice to talk to people and I got many new friends!

Then we were watching the Hume family kid's rugby game, then we have just being in Galway city shopping and listening amazing music. You all should check out band named Keywest, I really loved their music!

That was just one week. This week we were visiting Dublin, because we wanted to see the big parade. It wasn't that much fun that I hoped for, because we went there little bit late and got really bad view(also because I'm pretty short and everybody was taller than me). I got few nice pictures when I was reaching over the people with my camera.
Other days we have been in school, got new project called Matchbox (we have to do art by using only that one matchbox), showed the city for new Finnish girls and we had peaceful Friday night playing UNO.

See  you next week!

- Kiia

Lenita, Ireland

On March 12th we had a gathering for Finnish students (and people who were going to go to Finland) at Dock No. 1. Sandra and I thought it was a week earlier, so we went in and we were really puzzled because it was so quiet. Then we called to Sarah - and found out we were at the right place at the wrong time. But yeah, when the gathering really took place a week later, it was really nice! There were nice people and some really good food.

After that it was pretty much just school stuff, until...

...St. Patric's Day!! It was our first one ever and we celebrated it by going from pub to pub. We danced and talked to people we didn't know - in general we were having a good time.

It's been really nice here in Ireland, although we both miss Finland. Some little things just remind us how different it is here compared to home!

Toni & Toni, Ireland, Travelling

Hi!

Our last days have been really busy! We had lot of work.

We also move to Hostel! There we meet very mutch nice people! And we also make couple trip whit those guys! For example we visit on Cliffs of moher!

Now Toni K is time to leave back to Finland! Our original project is still in progress but we make one same kind project. We could not leave anything to chance! We make little document/interwiev girl name Kati who work in Hostel!

Our Finnis vlog received couple epsiod! So if you want see episodes, write youtube Matkassa Toni & Toni!

Alma, Ireland

This week I started making a comic about GTI. I had many comic-sketches before that but none of them really looked good (in my opinion) but maybe I fin(n)ished all of them.  Something interesting happens every day, in school or in freetime so there are lots of comic-ideas which I need to draw.

On Thursday there was a gathering in Galway (bar Dock No 1)  for Finnish exchange students and for those who are going to Finland. I talked to some people who are going to western Finland. It was also nice to meet other Finnish students I know but with whom I have never been talking so much.

Tomorrow we are going to Dublin and we will come back to Spiddal on Wednesday. In Dublin we are going to take a look at St.Patricks Day parade. It's going be amazing although I'm a little bit nervous about the great number of people who are there on those days and if/when there are pickpockets. Well, we have to be extra careful with our belongings.

Pictures will come later.

Sandra, Ireland

We have been here for two weeks now. Navigating from place A to B feels a lot easier now that I know the city better. I don't feel so lost anymore.

Galway is really beautiful city with all it's cute little shops and bright colored doors. The small talk in shops is something I'm not very comfortable with yet, but it's a nice change compared to Finland where no one talks to anyone. I'm also frustrated about people talking so fast I can't register all the words and then having to ask them to repeat themselves at least two times before I get what they're saying. At least that's the case with a couple of our classmates, (fortunately most of the time I understand what people are talking about.) I was aware of this before I came to Ireland, of course they will talk faster because they speak English every day. 

On Thursday we were at Dock no.1 because Sarah had invited all Finnish people and the ones that are soon going to Finland to meet each others. That was pretty nice, we spoke with a couple of Finnish girls and agreed to meet some day and hang around. I was pretty anxious there and Lenita was tired so when others apparently went to another pub to listen to music and hang around, we went home.

It's so awesome to see the nature coming to life. The weather has been so pretty over this weekend so on Friday I decided to go out for a walk, and I actually enjoyed it.

These two weeks have been really nice here, but I still kinda miss home already. But I hope the last three weeks are going to be as great as the first two!

Iida & Anna, Ireland: Finland is...

Hey hey, what's happening Finland? Yesterday we went to a gathering to Dock no 1 of all the Finns in Galway right now and all the local students going to Finland this spring. We wanted to ask the people travelling to Finland, what they think about our country. This is the result!
Our life here is still the same: school and work. We've got a long weekend because of St. Patrick's Day, and we are really looking forward to that.

Äiti lähetä rahaa,
♥ Iida & Anna

Eva, Juho, Minttu & Neea, Spain: First weeks in Bilbao

Hola!

Here we are - in Spain! We arrived in Bilbao few weeks ago, but there has been problems with our internet connection so that’s why we are so late with this blog.

Anyway, everything has been really nice so far! The weather could have been better, though. It was rainy and chilly for the first two weeks, but now it has been a lot better. The time has passed so quickly: in these few weeks we have just been wandering around and getting to know the city.

Neea and Juho are working in Groupo Lidertel together, Eva is at ADN Design and Minttu spends her days at ZAWP. We all have liked our jobs: we have done a lot of stuff related to graphic design - posters, logos, retouching pictures…

We will make a better post with a video and pictures soon! :-))

Sami, Ireland, Everything is fine

First week in Ireland was fine. Weather in here changes all the time, it can be raining then shining then raining again, all this in one hour.

I have been working on the photo studio, mostly helping with the lights and the stuff and I have done some Photoshopping too

Tomi, Iceland, Everything is going on 3.

This is a picture of that school where I'm working. The name of school is Borgarholtsskóli but they usually call it Borgó.

Allright, The first week, 16th - 22. of february.
I have in my school schedule two courses, car's plastic repairs and car painting. Both courses fill my whole day at school. Plastic repairs starts at eight o'clock and ends 11:30 and car painting starts about one o'clock and when it ends around 16:30 - 17.00, my school day finishes. Between these two courses I have of course a lunch break which lasts from 12:00 to 13:00. So, my school day is quite long, about nine hours and I'm almost every day quite tired when coming back from school. But I don't complain anything because I've enjoyed every moment of being here and I like very much working at school like this. So, here's couple of pictures about my work. And I can't explain the details of these jobs because they're so complicated to tell step by step.

I painted this car's body part myself... well, the teacher of this course was following my doings and helped if necessary.

In plastic repairs I simply practised fixing cars' body parts by cutting them first two peaces and then welding them back together.

I was very suprised when in thursday, 19th day one teacher asked me, if I'd wanted to go with some other students to the polar truck trip to glaciers. And it was very exciting! Here's couple of pictures from that trip.

Iida & Anna, Ireland: Gibberish phone-vlog

Hello, hello! It's been a while.
Our life has been changing a bit here in Ireland, because we moved to a new place. I have been going to school every day and Anna has been working like crazy. Click here and you can read about Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät and other stories I've been working on at school!

I don't know what this is - happened to me last year too: after being here for a few weeks I'm just tired all the time. After school all I want to do is take a nap, wake up to eat and then go to bed for the night. I hope this feeling won't last long! It's all sunny and nice here in Galway so it would be really nice to gain some energy and go out and explore.
But we're really enjoying ourselves. We really are.

Terkkuja kotiin,
♥ Iida

Kiia, Ireland, First sunny weather since we arrived

Hey! Second week has gone by really fast (same time really slowly). It has been quite busy here which is really nice. We have seen more about Spiddal (place we are staying) and we got new roommate.

On Tuesday, there was open day at GTI and we got some new Finnish friends. We also went to see what courses there are in GTI, like we got to see live music, free manicures and just listen what they have in different class rooms. In school we haven't done anything else than drawing, with Alma we were in living model class.

Last of the school week was quite normal. We sit in school little while and then went to the city, I have taken many pictures of the street performances. One day there was dancers who where advertising Three (which is mobile connection shop). I have taken pictures for school applies, what is the main things I need to do here.

Outside of school we have seen little bit more of Spiddal. I have been jogging twice and it's more fun to jogg here than it's in Finland. Because Toni and Toni are going away we got delicious meal at Marie's place. I think there was nothing else to be said.

See you next week.