What did we learn about our countries?

Emilia, Finland

What I learned most about Bulgaria as Finnish young was the culture in Bulgaria. We have many differences with the society and the model of the family between Finland and Bulgaria. For example, grandparents belong to the nuclear family or are very important part of the family in Bulgaria. They aren’t often so nearly in the everyday life in Finland.

We cooked Bulgarian food and I tasted first time baklava which is a Bulgarian dessert. They eat baklava at Christmas time and I can see why. Baklava was very delicious and festal dessert. There are big sales in Bulgaria under the other international celebrity, Eastern. They also solemnize Grandmas day there. I’m not sure if it is like Mothers’ day in Finland or not, I have to ask. Anyway, I didn’t know about the tradition of Marteniza before. It was very interesting and beautiful tradition!

I heard the national hymn and language. Actually, I also learned couple words in Bulgarian. I can’t remember every word anymore but at least I would recognize the language if I heard Bulgarian. We danced their folkdances. I didn’t know how popular folkdances are there.

The theatre styles are different. Both traditional and modern theatre is more artistic in Bulgaria. The style of Finland is often entertainment, like summer theatres. Bulgarians told there are coniferous trees on mountains; we have these everywhere. I noticed they use more perfumes and make-ups in Bulgaria than in Finland. And ketchup is more popular too, some guys put ketchup almost to every food!

Can Finnish person learn anything about Finland? Or does everyone know everything about the home country? Of course not! I surprised because everyone didn’t know Finland for Nokia! I have always thought it’s one of the famous things which from people know Finland. The other interesting surprise was difference with shops. There are different shops in Bulgaria than in Finland. I have supposed that big Swedish companies (for example H&M and KappAhl) are over the world!

What else… At least I learned to dance cicapo. It is nice because I didn’t choose the course of old dances in the upper secondary school. It was like our own old dances with our international group.

Elena, Bulgaria

I learned that Finland have lots of woods,bricks and mountains.I learnt what is the traditional food and I really enjoyed it.I learnt how in Finland dance at their home.I learnt the system of finnish school. Now I know more for the Bulgarian Nestinarstvo and practice more rachenitsa. I learnt that Finnish are really great friends.

Summary of thu 13.10. & fri 14.10.

Thursday

Notification!

You can find pictures of our project in social media by using hashtag #themanual2016

Bulgarians arrived to Helsinki. We went to walk in Helsinki city center, where we went to see Senaatintori and Tuomiokirkko. After that we had a tour at the National Theatre of Finland. It was a great success. Everyone seemed to enjoy to see the theatre. When we came back to Loimaa, everybody was very tired (Bulgarians had started their traveling at 2 a.m. on Thursday night so they had been awake almost 24 hours without good sleep) so we just sorted out mattresses, duvets and pillows and went to sleep.

Friday

Day started relaxedly. People woke up at 9 and had breakfast. After that we went to see Loimaa High School. There the international group of the school had prepared an informative slideshow of Finnish education system for us. They also guided us a tour at the school. Bulgarians seemed to be very excited about the school and people there. After visiting at the school, we took a little Loimaa sight-seeing by cars. We went to see two summer theatres in Loimaa: Krekilän myllyn kesäteatteri and Kertunmäen kesäteatteri. Our guests were excited about those places too. Then we got back to theatre. Finns arrived and we could officially start the camp. We had ice-breaker games and got to know each other, at least everyone’s name. In the evening we leaders were so glad to see that Finns and Bulgarians started communicating and spending time together immediately, on the first day of the camp.

What do we know about Finland?

Hello!

We are Cvetelina and Plamena ( Bulgarian participants ) and we decided to write for this topic because we want to learn something for Finland before the camp.

The capital and largest city is Helsinki . Finland is a land of thousands of lakes. The traditional dish is in Finland's kalakukko.

All in our group are so excited to meet in this camp. And we hope to really enjoy in this period of time when we are together. We can't wait already to work and have fun together.