The End is Only The Beginnig

I feel so empty right now.
I can't even begin to describe, how odd it feels to think I have to go school tomorrow and You won't be there.
Seriously. The last two weeks were so amazing, I can't stop wondering, was it all just a dream.

At least I feel the conference on friday went absolutely amazing, considering the point we were the day before.
The few glitches caused by the equipment don't mean anything compared to the astonishing work everyone did to make it happen. A huge thank you for y'all. Without the effort it would've gone totally differently, but now I feel so proud to say I was part of it. Thank You!!!

This whole project, the Mine-Ip, was everything and more than I could've ever dreamed. I learned so much about all of our school systems, our cultures and most of all: I had the privilege of meeting all of you. I know it was hard work, but honestly I can say it was worth it. I had had an inner debate for a few months about going to an exchange. Being with you guys and listening all the stories we shared, gave me an insight I'd never before had to the fact how different it's to live abroad. Don't get me wrong, I've always dreamed of living somewhere else, but I'd never heard from a native of different country, speak about their experiences in the same branches of life as I'm currently going through. (It was also one of the best I things I got from this whole journey. Meeting people who are like me. No words can describe, how "perfect" it fellt  to finally meet someone who actually understood where I'm comming from. (If you read this, I hope you recognize yourselves and can feel the love I'm sending towards you)) Now I'm even more sure my place is somewhere outside the Finnish borderline.
I truly feel this experience has changed me, a bit. I never was ashamed of the fact I've never fit the mold.
This is no "coming-out-story", but I feel I've never felt as " in sych" with who I am and what I want from this life. I know, I know that sounds so corny and unbelievable to feel like this after only two weeks. But what can I say... It helped me to get the POV of someone I hadn't met before and for some reason you all got me to open up and show who I truly am, not who I claim or portray to be. From now on, I'm gonna live every day as I should've always done. Proud to be myself.

This is not the end, so I shall not say any goodbyes, eventhough I feel the blues coming.
What I'll do is send you all my love and the best wishes for your well being. I know you'll succeed in whatever you do in your lives.


I know we'll meet again someday, I'm sure of it.


Yours sincerely

Valtteri

  

It's the Final Countdown, or something as corny....

Wow, I can't believe tomorrows already the last day (at least the official last day). O_O'
Better check my tissue situation 'cause it's gonna get emotional, at least for me...

 Truly today was one of the hardest days. Nothing seemed to work and my stress levels flew through the roof.
Still at the moment I feel quite proud for what we've accomplished. Today -or maybe yesterday depending on, when this is posted- I realized how much I actually care about this program. Who'd really thought that after a fortnight I'd be able to say: These have the best times, when studying in a University (of applied sciences).
Seriously I feel I've learnt so much about different cultures, school systems, learning methods, new peole, different temperaments, about myself... Honestly if you'd give me an option to continue this course for longer, I'd take it in a heartbeat, without a moments regret.

See y'all tomorrow, once again.
We'll do Great as long as WE DO IT TOGETHER!!!! 

Valtteri

PS. Thanks for Indri http://indriqytezamine2012.blogspot.com/2012/02/one-weekalready.html?spref=fb,
Jonna http://mine-jonna.blogspot.com/ and Liisamaija http://liisamaija-mine.blogspot.com/ for the dinner. I had a good time, as always :D

Keep on working...

Oh my, how long it's been since my last post. O_O
Honestly most of my time's been spent on trying to get some work done.
Don't get me wrong, I love our group and I'm happy about our subject. It's my own opinion, but sometimes I feel as if I've usually felt way worse while doing our "normal" finnish group works. Now everything feels so well organised within our group, it feels almost... professional?

Just to give you an example, we setteld on what were going to on the first day of group work and yesterday (15.2.2012) we did a rough outlook on our presentation. I even managed to write, what I'm going to say during the student conference.  All and all the most negative thing I've come across has been, how we've had to change our groups part of the presentation THREE times during last few days because of some miscommunications between the groups. The changes haven't been that radical, more or less about the media we're going to use. Still, I think that maybe the last years students weren't that wrong after all for doing the digital story as a one big group. Hopefully I'm proven wrong about my anxiety and everything will run smoothly, as a coherent ensembel and nothing disrupts the flow. 

See Y'all tomorrow!
Valtteri

And so it began....

       Allrighty, so it's now been three days and the momentum just keeps on bilding.
  On the second, tuesday 7th of february, was the day we were told about the digital stories, and were shown the videos we all had prepared in advance. It's was nerve wrecking to watch the videos before ours. They were done in a totally different manner and I felt the tension creeping in- would anyone laugh? would they understand it was done in a joking manner? how fast can I run out of the classroom?
In the end it wasn't that bad. At last a few people laughed, eventhough the voice was so low (still don't understand why, blody computers...). It was really interesting to see, how every country had their own style and genre.
  Finally, at the end of the day we had the International food market. I really, really, really loved it. Good food, Good drinks, Nice people. It was fun to actually be ourselves and get to know each other. :)

  Third day was a bit interesting - some of finnish students, including myself, had to do an exam about first aid in the morning. After that, we returned to the normal schedule. First we heard about the curricula and mentoring in different countries. Personally, I found it fascinating to hear, how our studying differs. I don't wanna give too much away, cause the Finns are yet to give their presentation. But you'll see on friday, promise.
In the afternoon we talked about learning theories. At least for me, they were pretty familiar from my psychology classes. To me, it felt more like an exercise about teamwork and a way to let us get to know our groups. In the end, we had a little time to talk about our tasks for the Mine- ip. I feel our group is amazing and it's really nice to get a little insight of each of us. 

     
See y'all tomorrow

D- Day the first contact

  So as you probably can dicepher from the title. Today was the day.  The Day MINE-IP 2012, here in Pori, was officially opened. It was nice to see everyone and maybe I'll learn some of your names and get to know you better this week. ;)


Hope you had fun. I know I did. See y'all tomorrow.

Valtteri

Ooops....

   So yeah, I've been real good on UPDATING this blog. (Good job, Well done!!!)
At least I can say on my defence that I've been extremely busy getting ready for the MINE-IP to start.
Thank God according to the latest weather forecast, Mother Nature is taking a little break on her rampage. :)

Hopefully the rest of you will get here safe and sound. I know I've acted like a giddy little girl for some days and I'm stoked to finally meet y'all. Safe Travels!


See Y'all in the morning!
Valtteri

FINALLY

Yes! I finally did it, and just in the nick of time, one might add. So here it is. The blog. I know this isn't perfect yet, but I have confidence that it will get better after a while. Presumable, this is new to the most of us. Still it feels quite unnerving to write, for it has been quite some time for me and the ol´anxiety is coming back. 

So how do I feel at the moment about MINE-IP? 
Honestly, I'm really nervous about it. I feel I'm not prepared for it and my contribution for the "finish representative group" has been too little. Still I'm going to do my best and be more proactive from now on.  

The Facebook group has been a wonderful source of information. It's also been nice to learn something about the fellow participants. The wikipages gave me mixed feelings. They have a lot of information, but unfortunately at least the finnish site has some old - hence incorrect- information. I know they are minor details, but I have a little case of OCD...
Overall the site seemed very useful.

I'm looking forward to meeting y'all and I hope everything goes well until then.

Valtteri