Introduction
For our friends, family or other persons how to want’s now what all the students of the Adventure Education Course Autumn 2019 doing is there a possibility to read sometimes a blog. In the blogs, you can read what we are doing, what our experience is and maybe pictures of that.
Blog 1
In this blog, you can read what we did the first days after arrival and the first days of school. But also what kind of activities we did or what we did in our free time.
First day’s in Finland
Everybody had a different reason to arrive on a certain day. We all arrived early so we could explore the area and slowly get to know everyone. The first day’s everyone chills a lot and there was a kind of vacation feeling. Because of that feeling and time was there enough space and time to know each other. The weather was very good, it was nice and warm so a jump in the lake, even lying on the beach or a nice BBQ as possible.
Most of the people visit Mustasaari, a little island in the middle of Sääksjärvi the lake behind the campus. The make a campfire and listen to music. There was a plan to sleep on the island but maybe we can do that in the op coming months.
Introduction days
The first day of 
school started and the best way to get to know each other is by playing some games. We started in the classroom and had an introduction by Sini and Juppe. They told something about themselves and there was a small introduction to the program. After that, we did 4 games outside (of course). It started with a cocktail party after that we had to make Europe and Canada with ropes. Each person has to stand on the place where they live and tell their name and with the study you do. After that, there was some speed dating, 30 sec for a lot of people to short so that was a good sign. When we are done with the games we reflected with the whole group and that was really nice!
The next day we did more games but than with the students form the 3-year program. In the games, we had to play with different people so you will get to know everybody! After that, we also did a reflection about the games and how it affects the group.
With this experience, we made in smaller groups also a program with games for the next day! That day we did the games with all first-year students of Humak. We had to play games and instruct games. it was a big success!
After that we had some small workshops about First aid, making a flower about our specialties and organizing something for the big opening! These 3 days we learn a lot about each other and how games can help you with that in the good order and instructions.
The first days of school
Already the first days of school were full of activities. We started on Thursday with our first kayaking lesson. To learn the basics, the first lesson took place in the indoor pool. In teams of three, we learned how to get out of the kayak, when it capsizes. We started by using only the kayak and gradually increased the difficulty level. In the breaks and after the lesson there was the possibility to warm up in the sauna next to the pool. On Friday we went to the lake the first time. First, we got a short but detailed introduction to the kayaks and how to prepare them for a trip. Then we took them from the containers to the lake. There, we could prepare ourselves for the kayaking. After a short introduction in a few basics, we went to the water. Unfortunately, we had to cancel the afternoon lesson because of a big thunderstorm. Instead, we started with an introduction to the topic orientee
ring. On Monday and Tuesday, we continued with the kayak and learned more about different techniques and also had our first trip around the big lake. The topic of Tuesday afternoon was the food planning for our first hiking trip to Lapland in the third week of school. We also separated the whole group into groups of three people. These are the groups which will stay together in one tent and will cook together every evening. The whole of Wednesday was about the trip to Lapland. We learned how to build up our tents and tarps by doing it by ourselves and what we have to consider. After that, we cooked in our groups our lunch with the Trangia. On Thursday we did our last plans for the Pallas hike and also the safety plan. After that, there was the grand opening of the HUMAK Campus here in Kiljava.
Free time
After the first days of school we’ve got to hear that there was enough free time left after school. The school ends around 4 pm and after that, you’ve got enough time to practice some skills, for example, kayaking and learn the techniques, orientation so you can read the map for the hike or if you don’t want to improve your skills you can go and explore Finland or another country.
We’ve done that the first weekend after the first week of school. We went to Tallinn the capital of Estonia and explored the city. With all of the 18 students that following this study, we were at Tallinn. It’s was a lovely trip to make and also a big challenge because we were with such a big group and everybody wants to see something else, but we figured it out. In and it was a nice first trip that we made.
Sara, Eline, Iris, Nele
