6. - 13.4.2025 Our Erasmus+ Experience in Orivesi
Lue lisää Erasmus+ -vieraiden kanssa toteutetusta aikaisemmasta yhteistyöstä:
Tsekki
https://peda.net/orivesi/kansainvalisyys-ja-kestava-tulevaisuus/oriveden-koulujen-globaalikasvatuksen-blogi/19.-25.11.2025-erasmus-job-shadowing-prahassa
Saksa
https://peda.net/orivesi/kansainvalisyys-ja-kestava-tulevaisuus/oriveden-koulujen-globaalikasvatuksen-blogi/3.-7.2.2025-yhteiskoulun-9.lk-erasmus-ryhmaliikkuvuus-saksaa
Italia
https://peda.net/orivesi/kansainvalisyys-ja-kestava-tulevaisuus/oriveden-koulujen-globaalikasvatuksen-blogi/4.-8.3.2025-erasmus-ryhmaliikkuvuus-italiaan
Tutustu tarkemmin Erasmus+ -vierailuun lukemalla italialaisten opiskelijoiden kirjoittaman teksti viikosta Orivedellä.
Our Erasmus+ Experience in Orivesi
Hello everyone, we are upper secondary school students from Perugia, Italy, and we would like to share with you our Erasmus+ experience in Finland. We are a group of 12 students who visited Oriveden lukio 6 - 13 April.
We had an amazing week in Finland, in a country so far away in the North. We really enjoyed our time here, Finland is a beautiful country with beautiful people. The Finnish lifestyle, climate, landscapes, and even the rhythm of the days were elements that we immediately noticed being totally different from ours. We had the possibility to go to sauna and swimming in a frozen lake - an experience we could never do in our own hometown.
This was absolutely one of the best experiences of our lives. We visited many beautiful places and had so much fun. Despite the run to change trains at Tikkurila and missing our train to Orivesi, these days were awesome.
Before this trip, some of us had never traveled by plane or visited a foreign city before, so everything was new and a bit overwhelming at first. However, our expectations were high.
As we prepared for our Erasmus+ experience in Finland, we were filled with a mix of excitement and curiosity. We knew it would be a unique opportunity for both personal and academic growth, and we couldn’t wait to dive into a new culture. Finland is well-known for its excellent education system, so we were especially looking forward to discovering a different approach to learning that encourages independence, creativity, and practical skills.
At first, we were a bit nervous. We feared that the language barrier would make it difficult for us to integrate, but luckily, that wasn’t the case at all. The atmosphere was always welcoming and inclusive. From the very beginning, we felt part of the group, never isolated or out of place. Everyone made an effort to connect, support each other, and create an open-minded learning environment.
Our destination was Orivesi, a small town about three hours from Helsinki. We think that participation in the Erasmus+ mobility in Orivesi was a unique change for all of us, since Orivesi is not a famous city, and so we would probably have never visited it without Erasmus+ programme.
Although Orivesi is not so big, it has a lot to offer: the school is beautiful, as well as the city centre. Despite its size, Orivesi offered an incredibly rich and engaging experience for us. All the activities we took part in were interesting and interactive, giving us the chance to express our thoughts freely and to be actively involved in the learning process.
One of the most beautiful aspects of this place is the fact that it is surrounded by forests and lakes that create a perfect landscape where you can enjoy the beauty of nature.
Another one was the feeling of cleanness that all Finnish cities we visited gave us due to the clean air and roads.
We also really enjoyed visiting the city of Tampere and Helsinki where we had the opportunity to visit bigger Finnish cities. However, we came to Finland in a fairly cold period, but thanks to this we learned how to adapt to a new environment. In Tampere, we teamed up with Finnish and German students for an ActionTrack activity. It was a fun and rewarding moment of connection, offering us the possibility to communicate and collaborate in English.
One of the things that amazed us the most was the quality of Finnish schools. We now understand why the Finnish education system is one of the best educational systems in the world. On our first day, we had a little tour of the school facilities and it was already a shock as the Finnish education system is radically different from ours. We also participated in lessons of school subjects we don’t have in our Italian school.
Oriveden lukio and yhteiskoulu are amazing places where you can learn and have fun at the same time, thanks to the several students’ rooms in which you can relax and meet people from different countries.
It was fascinating to see how the Finnish education system works and how different it is from our own one: the atmosphere here is very relaxed, teachers and students seem to have a very respectful and friendly relationship and the Finnish education system focuses a lot on student well-being, encouraging creativity and independence. The best thing for most of us in this Erasmus+ group mobility to Finland was learning about these differences. We enjoyed this opportunity to live for a while, a school experience a lot different from ours!
In Finland, students are required to take not only academic subjects but also practical courses such as cooking, carpentry, and woodworking (at least until middle school). This hands-on approach really impressed us, as it helps students develop useful life skills from an early age. Here students have the possibility to choose their subjects and most of the school material is given by the state and are free even in university.
We also had the opportunity to attend the school's 100th anniversary celebration, which made us feel honoured to be here at such a special time.
This Erasmus+ journey allowed us to explore new places and cultures. What we appreciated the most was the opportunity to share this experience not only with other Italian students, but also with people from different countries: Workshop participants from Germany and Finland made the environment even more enriching.
On Tuesday, we took part in sustainability-focused workshops with an UNESCO programme. We talked about climate change, storytelling, and youth activism—it was inspiring to hear different perspectives and work together on common goals.
During the different project workshops at school and at the Orivesi Blue Lights event at Kampus, we learned about topics that involve us students and we had the possibility to express our opinions regarding them. We worked on climate change and active citizenship. We created presentations about ecology in the world together with Finnish and German students. We learned the importance of being active during school hours and we discovered the essential nature of the English language which is very important to communicate with other people from other parts of the world.
However, the age gap between us upper secondary students and the other students, who were all 9th graders, and the fact that German students were hosted by Finnish students, made us feel that our group was left out. We believe there would have been more opportunities to interact and converse with local people in English if we had been hosted by families. Still, at the same time, one of the most beautiful things was staying together at Kampus and meeting again our friend Akseli from Orivesi who had participated in an Erasmus+ long term mobility in our class in Italy.
Living at Orivesi Kampus with other students was a great experience because it gave us a sense of independence and responsibility. We learned how to manage grocery shopping for everyone. We also learned how to adapt to a new environment, deal with challenges, and appreciate the differences between us. One of the most important lessons we’ve learned is that stepping out of your comfort zone can lead to amazing growth. On top of that, we made new friends with our Italian classmates. Sharing this adventure together brought us closer, creating bonds that we'll cherish for a long time. Every evening we laughed, shared stories and enjoyed each other's company. This experience brought us closer and created memories that we will always carry with us. This week in Orivesi allowed us to get to know each other better, support each other and create a climate of trust and collaboration.
Looking back, we can say that this Erasmus+ experience in Finland was truly unforgettable. This trip allowed us to build friendships, practice speaking English, and discover typical food and traditions, thanks to our Finnish friends.
This Erasmus journey was not just about seeing a new country, but also about getting ourselves involved, dealing with the challenges this new experience brought, and, thanks to this, we’ve come back with beautiful memories and a stronger sense of what we want to be. We experienced how it feels to be more independent and responsible.
We gained a deeper understanding of sustainability through the workshops and witnessed how education is approached in a different culture. Most importantly, we understood the value of international collaboration and communication, which we believe will be invaluable in the future.
We are really grateful for this opportunity and would encourage anyone to take part in a similar experience, both to take a break from the usual routine and to just focus more on yourself, on learning something new and interesting too.
This experience helped us to grow, learn, and see the world from a different perspective. During our Erasmus+ week, we learned a lot of new things like how Finlandʼs school system works, how to organize city tours and we got to know people of other nationalities. All these things were accompanied by the visit of wonderful places.
We know we will miss this place so much and we hope that the future students who will come to Finland will love this opportunity like we loved ours. We will always remember this wonderful experience!
