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Friday, the 26th of April

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On the last morning in Ballinasloe we had time to enjoy one more breakfast at the hotel. We had packed our luggage on the previous evening, so at 9.40 we were ready to leave for the Ballinasloe train station - except that our booked taxi didn't arrive! We got pretty nervous because we had tickets for the 10.10 train, but with the help of the hotel reception we finally got a taxi. The driver was very friendly and apologized for the mess with the booking. Luckily we made it to the train and got yet another example of how extremely friendly and helpful the Irish people are! Our train arrived in Dublin just before noon. We were quite surprised of how poor and complicated the public transportation is in Dublin. It was impossible to reach our hotel in time by buses and trains with our luggage, so we decided to take a couple of big taxis. We had pre-booked a walking tour that was supposed to start at three o'clock from the city centre. Luckily we had just enough time to grab something

Thursday the 25th of April

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We left our hotel in the morning and drove to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park. The castle is  a large 15th-century tower house in County Clare and it's surrounded by a folk park with where you can get a feeling of how life was back in that time. We went inside the castle and up to the towers, as well as saw lots of interesting things and animals in the folk park. We would have needed some more time to spend in the folk park in order to see every corner, but this is definitely a place worth visiting if you ever happen to find yourself in Ireland! After Bunratty castle we continued our way to the Cliffs of Moher. They are about 14 km long sea cliffs that rise 120-214 metres above the Atlantic ocean. The cliffs were really amazing and we took lots of pictures, of course. About 1,5 million people visit the cliffs every year and there were lots of people there with us too. Many of us had never seen the Atlantic before so we were amazed by it. This trip was really worth the long drive!  Wh
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Wednesday, the 24th of April by Vicky and Iida Today we woke up at 7AM. We ate breakfast at around 8:30. Breakfast was good. The taxi picked us up and drove us to the train station. Then we went into the train and went to Galway. The Greek students and teachers were with us. When we arrived in Galway, two teachers from the Kilglass school were there. One of the teachers gave us a short tour around the city. After that we went to eat fish and chips. When we were done, we had the option to go to the museum or go shopping. The Greeks went to the museum. While we went to a shopping center. Galway was truly a beautiful place to visit. After buying some souvenirs as well as other things. We headed back to the train station. And went back to the hotel. We walked from the train station to the hotel. And on our way we bought a couple of pizzas. After being in the hotel a little. We went to the Lidl across the street. There we bought something to eat for Thursday, when we will visit the Cliffs o
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  April 23.2024 by Risto Mäkelä 6B Today I woke up early. After the morning routine I had some free time to kill that I spent on my phone. After that, we went for breakfast. The breakfast was nice, even though they didn't include hot chocolate. After breakfast we went to Kilglass national school by bus. It was nice there. In the first class we listened to presentations of each school in this year's Erasmus-project. We also gave the students salt liquorice to try it out. After that we had a recess, and we got to try Irish sports like Irish handball. I got to try Hurling, Ireland's national sport. Then we had lunch and after that we got to try some robotics whilst the others had a dance class. We exchanged presents with them and then it was time to leave. Everybody there was really nice. We went to our hotel and we rested there for some time. Later we took a walk to a nearby Tesco supermarket to buy snacks and other things. Then we went back to our hotel and went to eat at o

The first mobility: Ireland

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The Finnish team consisting of three teachers and four pupils left Alavus early Sunday morning, the 21st of April. When we arrived at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport, we soon found out that our first flight to Amsterdam was delayed and that we would not make it in time to our connecting flight to Dublin. After panicking for a few seconds, we collected our thoughts and decided to take everything as an adventure. And surely it would turn out to be one! During our flight to Amsterdam we got the news that the airline had booked us on a new flight to Dublin. This time the layover was an hour so we thought that it would be a walk in the park. Well, we got some mixed information as to what to do since we didn't have boarding passes to the new flight. Long story short; after some running we found ourselves on board with Aer Lingus to Dublin. The adventure continued in Dublin as we found out that our luggage was left in Amsterdam. We tried to see this from a positive point of view: we didn'

The first task of the project: Finland

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The aim of our project is to discover positivity in ourselves, our schools and living environments. On the first level, we wanted the students to think about their own positive features and strengths, as well as to find them in others. We talked a lot about this with our students and it was especially heart-warming to see how they put a lot of time and thought to say positive things about their classmates. Every class produced a poster where their strenghts were collected together. Here are the Finnish posters and some close-up photos. Projektimme ensimmäinen tehtävä käsitteli omien positiivisten puolien ja vahvuuksien löytämistä. Tärkeää oli myös havaita luokkakavereiden vahvuuksia ja niitä oppilaat tuumivatkin pitkään ja hartaasti. Tuloksena oli jokaisen luokan oma vahvuusjuliste!

Erasmus Club: Finland

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Every other Thursday at Kirkkomännikkö school we have Erasmus club that is open to all pupils from grades 4-6 who are interested in this project and in internationality in general. So far we have created our Erasmus wall next to the gym with flags and small presentations of the three countries. We have also made Kahoot! - quizzes of the three countries, as well as prepared small gifts to take to Irish students and teachers in April. Joka toinen torstai Kirkkomännikön koululla kokoontuu Erasmus-kerho, joka on avoinna kaikille 4-6 luokkalaisille Erasmus-toiminnasta ja kansainvälisyydestä kiinnostuneille. Tähän mennessä kerholaiset ovat perustaneet Erasmus-seinän liikuntasalin viereen. Seinällä on projektimaiden liput sekä pienet esitelmät niistä. Lisäksi kerholaiset ovat tehneet Kahoot!-visoja maista sekä valmistelleet pieniä viemisiä Irlantiin huhtikuussa.