On Arrival

Arrival Day

I arrived at the 6th of February 2017 at a cold place covered in snow called Finland.

And when I say cold, I mean cold, the temperature at this point was -17 degrees Celsius.

But life doesn't stop, as some would expect. Nobody, except me, seemed to be impressed by the temperatures, for the people here it's just normal. I am impressed.

I arrived in Helsinki at around 4 o clock PM this day and met my Roommate Vicki from Spain for the first time.

Our supervisor picked us up at the airport and drove the 50km long trip to Hyvinkää our "hometown" for the next 10 Months.

We arrived in our flat, discovered our Rooms and made the place comfortable for us.

Later this evening we met up with the director of the youth department of Hyvinkää, our hosting organisation, our supervisor and our mentors.

 

First Week

In our first week we were introduced to all the employees of the youth department.

We got our schedules for the first week and explored our working places.

We saw Spotti and Silta and experienced how it feels to participate in Street Work.

 

Street Work, is the work outside of the youth center, in the shopping mall, infront of supermarkets and everywhere were youngsters are.

It is done to ensure that no one is left alone and has someone to talk with, even the youngsters that are not come to our youth centers.

Street Work is a part of the Youth Department and usually happens on Fridays and Saturdays.

It is as well a symbol that youth work does not only happen in specific areas but everywhere.

 

Spotti is our youth centre located in “Villa”, the shopping mall of Hyvinkää. In there are lots of opportunitys to play games, board games as well as video games, pooltables, table tennis and sofas for the youngsters to rest.

 

Silta is our Youth House, which is located in the centre of Hyvinkää. In here we have pooltables, table tennis as well as computers, a beamer to watch movies, the opportunity to listen to music and gaming consoles. And lots of other opportunitys for the youngsters.

 

The early open evenings used to be held in the shopping mall youth centre, "Spotti" and the later ones used to be held in "Silta".

This changed while we were here, but I will explain that later on.

 

 

Second Week

The second week we travelled to Kokkola, near Vaasa, in order to participate in our first European training with is part of the EVS program, the on-arrival training.

A friend of mine recorded a short video about this training, I will link this at the end of the On-arrival training article.

The weekend of the following week, we had a LAN party with another part of youth work, the GameHouse, witch happens to be on Tuesdays and Thursdays in Silta.

In the next few Weeks, we started to get to know thw workers and youngsters and organised a small event, an international evening.