Heinola-Peine international project September 2025

Tuesday 2.9.2025 

On Tuesday we visited the school and attended two classes in the morning, like on a normal school day. In Heinola Upper Secondary School, lessons are 75 minutes long and in Germany they are 45 minutes, so Finnish classes are longer. After the lessons we had a Finnish school lunch. After lunch, the principal gave us a tour of the school. The youth center (lukiokahvila) was very interesting because it was quite different from Germany. After school we went for a walk around the town to see the main places. We visited the railway bridge, the city center, and many other sights. After the walk around the town, we spent the evening with our host families. 

Frida, Onni, Paula, Can 

Wednesday 3.9.2025 

We went to school and ate some finnish school lunch. The difference about finnish and german school is that we have free school lunch and we also have longer lessons here in Finland. 

Then we went to the supermarket and bought some snacks. In Finland we have these things called ”irttarit” that are like candies that you can excatly choose what you want and how much you want. But there wasn’t like very big differences from the supermarkets in Germany. 

Then straight from there we went to the Mayer and he told us about the typical finnish things. 

Then in the evening we went to Heinäsaari to go to the sauna and swim at the lake. Actually the german students went to the lake for longer time and we finnish students looked like cowards compared to them. Then we just grilled some sausages and marshmellows at the fireplace. 

Maya, Emmi, Sylvi, Milla, Vergina, Milla 

Thursday 4.9.2025 

On Thursday the 4th of September we went to the Vierumäki Olympic Sport Centre.  

There we were greeted by the students of Vierumäki. They showed us different sports and we did some warm up games too. 

We played some kingball and floorball, then we did some pair yoga too. 

Then we went outside and played football with a bigger ball aka norsupallo. 

We also played some Finnish baseball but in the ”Vierumäki way”. 

Then the last ”game” we did was playful Olympics. 

We all enjoyed it a lot and many of us tried some sports for the first time.  

After the sports we had some food for instance sausages around the open fire and enjoyed the finnish nature. 

In the evening we will play some discgolf at Kippasuo. 

Ryan, Nooa, Milka, Melina 

Friday 5.9.2025 

On Friday we went to Lahti and first we went to the Pro Puu museum. It was in the harbour area and there was lots of different wood structures.  

After that we ate our snacks at the harbour and then we walked along the lake. Then we went to see the statue about Jari Litmanen who was a really popular football player in Finland. Then we went to see the church. 

Then we went to eat and sat in the city center. 

After that we came back to Heinola and then we went bowling. We also had billiard table where we could play. 

After that we decided to go to an island with the boats. There we ate some snacks and listened some music. It was fun to compare some finnish and german songs. On the island there was also a geocache and we found it. 

Sylvi, Milka, Frida 

Saturday 6.9.2025 

On Saturday at nine o’clock we left to Helsinki. We took the ferry to Suomenlinna and for many Germans it was a completely new experience. We walked around Suomenlinna and did some tasks. There are no places in Germany that look like Suomenlinna. We went back to the shore and went to eat. We wanted to go shopping but there was no time for that. However, we managed to look at the market stalls.  

And end of the day, we escort Germans to the airport. 

Emmi, Maya, Nooa