English in Estonia in April A trip as part of a course module in English at the Åland Univ. of Applied Sciences, Finland

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "English in Estonia in April 2010. A trip as part of a course module in English at the Åland Univ. of Applied Sciences, Finland"

Alberta Clark
7 years ago
Views:

1 English in Estonia in April 2010 A trip as part of a course module in English at the Åland Univ. of Applied Sciences, Finland Introduction To get our degree we had to have extra language course. Luckily for us, Erik held one English course with a trip to Tallinn. The main purpose of the trip was to give a presentation for the Tallinna Tehnikakõrgkool (TTK UAS) Transportation & Logistics students. Another big purpose was to practice our English by talking to each other and the Estonian students. The schedule for the weekend was to take the Baltic Queen to Tallinn on Thursday night. We had our presentations for the students in Tallinn on Friday morning after checking in to our hotel (Tallink City Hotel). Afterwards we had some free- time to go sight-seeing. In the evening we had dinner together before we met up with some of the students from the University for some bowling that Hedi had planned for us. After the social activities many of us visited Tallinn s pubs and clubs. A tour of the engine room and bridge on Tallink Baltic Queen 1

2 On Saturday we had more free-time to explore Tallinn one last time before taking the boat (Victoria) back to Mariehamn. Erik had arranged for us to have a tour on the boat and got to see the engine rooms and the bridge, many thanks to Leana. As a finish to this wonderful trip we had a nice dinner and cheered for a successful weekend in Tallinn: *Terviseks* In the end the crowd was asked if they did find the presentations interesting and of course pretty much everyone raised their hand, but let s face it, I think most of them were there because they were told to, and not because of the interest in IT. Sebastian and his audience That s some of us and the TTK UAS Making presentations When we got to the classroom where we were supposed to have the presentation there were no people at all. Me myself felt pretty confident at this point and not too nervous, but that was about to change. A few minutes after we ve got there the crowd started coming and the room filled up pretty quickly. It fitted about 30 people; most of them were from the Transportation and Logistic program of the school, and it was a pretty good mix between males and females. So, Sebastian started with his bug-talk and after that it was pretty straight forward, everyone did their presentation and answered some questions which it was very few of, except from our own people and teachers. When Simon had his, there was a kind girl that asked if he was gay, that was funny and we all laughed! The presentations were: Sebastian Sandell, Bug management Simon Norrlund, Nordscrum project Johan Bergman, Nordscrum, aland.com Fredrik Juslin, Scrum as a developing method Heresh Hassani, GPS and how it works Alex Herrera, If a computer crashes Vicente Garcia, Onboard computers Juan Carlos Carcelen, Recovery disk Not bored yet The Tallinn Technical Polytechnic The goal of our trip is to visit the University of Tallinn. It is quite centrally located right south of the old city. The building radiates stability, 2

3 knowledge and tradition. The facade facing the square out front is, in my untraind eyes of architectural history, a mix of some old Roman style and some type of government public buildings. Hedi Pehme, who works as a coordinator for exchange students and contacts between universities, meet us outside the school when we arrives. She takes us on a guided tour round their universitie. It is not as big as it looks to be outside. It consists of five floors and basement. In the basement is the dining room and library with computer lab. On the first floor are the teachers and administrationpersonals offices.in a conference room on the second floor there was an important meeting for the teachers and the managementpersonal. On the topfloor there was a large room which was decorated as a playroom. It is for students who have children with them. There, they can study and have kids with them simultaneously. Practical. Humanities Mechanical Engineering Information Technology Power Engineering Science Tallinn as destination for study tours This last weekend, we have been on a trip to Tallinn to make some presentations of IT stuff in front of Tallinn s students at the TKK (Transport University of Tallinn). After finishing our presentations and talk with some students, they told me that they were expecting something different, but they also say the chat was at least funny. The old town from Toompea After that, we were enjoying a lot of a wonderful city like Tallinn. We had the chance to visit the Old Town, which looks like a medieval one even nowadays. In the different floors are housed the various faculties. The university offers courses in many fields. The areas are: Chemical and Materials Technology Civil Engineering Economics and Business Administration This is an elegant doorway to a nice pub 3

4 It was so nice to have such a trip with such a wonderful people. But, to be honest, where I most enjoyed, was at night, because Tallinn is a city for young people. You can meet there a lot of students and have party until just a little before the sun appears. We knew there another Spaniard, a guy from Santander, and we were talking with him for a while. Definitely, Spaniards are everywhere. To sum up, Tallinn is a great destination for study tours, due to the mixture between the old and the new. I mean, you can visit the historical part of the town, but as well, you can enter in one of the various pubs and bars. Tallinn Night Life Tallinn has a great night life. First of all, I d like to thank to our hosts, Jaana, Sander, Klerky and Häly. They were really nice to us, and they took us to two really good (and cheap) places to spend the Friday evening. and I think we all had a great time there. Irish pub? First we went to an Irish pub (I love Irish atmosphere due to my 6 months in Ireland three years ago). We were there for an hour or so, and we have really cheap dark beers (two beers for 2.24 ). Chatting and playing darts were our main entertainment there. Then we were taken to a pub, with dance music and crowed of people. The Spaniards and I were like fish in the water in that ambient. We stayed there with the Estonians all together until 2 o clock, when Erik and Johan left. We didn t leave the place until 4.30 in the morning, when we had a snack and went back to the hotel. Strike! The warming up took place in the bowling. We were there for two hours and it leaded us to meet the Estonians (thanks very much to Hedi, she paid for everything). After a couple of beers, everything is easier. We were chatting, laughing, toasting (Terviseks) and playing bowls. It was really fun Dancing the night away When I was Spain two persons I spoke with recommended me to take as many of Erik Hemming subjects as I could. Why? The answer was easy; I realize 4

5 after this time that he s simply awesome! activity was the key for having so much fun in there. This unusual course was about to make an IT presentation for showing to the Estonian students. It included: - Ferry, going and returning, 4 person cabin, lunch and breakfast included. - Hotel Tallink city, double room with breakfast. Impossible to believe, that experience cost just 35 euro! - Knowing my IT partners and so all the wonderful Estonian people we ve met: That has no price! I think that the experience of showing to a lot of people our presentations was a really good exercise for us, is really important to lose the fear of talking in public towards the real world job. The only and little bad thing I found in all of this was that most of the people in the conference room weren t IT students, they were studying transport and logistics, so, I think our presentations maybe bored them a little because they had no idea of all this world. Anyway, they had a really good behavior and I couldn t see many yawns. Soome of our Estonian hosts at the Kuulsaal bowling More than a course this has been a English social experience: I talked a lot, laugh, sleep (not too much), drank (just water), ate, met people and dance in English. That was the most important point of the course, learning English but not with the conventional methods, no, once again, Finnish educational system and Erik Hemming demonstrated that you can learn more and more having fun that just obeying grammar orders from some boring teacher. Bamboleo! Hedi who organised our stay so well (left) After all of that I think was great to meet all those Estonian people and Erasmus students in the bowling, that So, thanks first to Erik Hemming and to my partners and friends Alex, JuanCar, Sebastian, Johan, Simon, Fredrik and Heresh, to all the Estonian people we met, for making this course a wonderful experience. 5

Trip to Kristiansund - Norway

Trip to Kristiansund - Norway Sophia, Nico and Vincent from Germany Thursday, 20.09.2012 This is my story of the unforgettable days in Kristiansund, Norway. We went from our hometown Mering with the train