The Dutch-Finnish Exchange

Typical Friesland

The Flag of the province of Friesland or Frisian flag (Dutch: Friese vlag or vlag van Friesland; Frisian: Fryske Flagge) consists of four blue and three white stripes; in the white stripes there are seven red pompeblêden, leaves of yellow water-lily which look like hearts.

Food

Sugar bread, fryske dumkes, berenburg and oranje koek are examples of typical food in Friesland.

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252
{\fonttbl}
{\colortbl;\red255\green255\blue255;}
}

Sports

Fierljeppen is a popular sport in Friesland. It involves a long pole and a body of water. You have to jump over the water with the pole, and then you finish by landing on a sand bed opposite to the starting point. Other traditional sport is frisian handball (kaatsen).

Famous people from Friesland

Sven Kramer (Ice rider)
Doutzen Kroes (Model)
Epke Zonderland (Gymnast)
Syb van der Ploeg (Singer)
Ferry Doedens (Singer / Performer)
Johannes Rypma (Singer)
Gerrie Dantuma (Singer)
Tim Douwsma (Singer / Presenter)
Griet Wiersma (Singer)
Grote Pier (Freedom fighter)

May 5, 2014 0

A Nice Day In Schiermonnikoog

Schiermonnikoog is a national park which is a part of province of Friesland. It’s a national park and municipality of northern Netherlands. The total area is 199.07 km², land is 43.99 km² and the rest of it is water.

The first people who owned the island were Cistercian monastery’s monks. Nowadays because of the wind and sea the island is moving slowly to south and east. The island was located two kilometers upper in 1250 compared to the current location. The village was abandoned in 1717 and 1720 because of storms, which caused floods to the island. In 1756 the new village called Oosterburen was builded from the old village to east. Nowadays this second village is called Schiermonnikoog by the island.

Activities you can do in Schiermonnikoog: mudflat hiking, tennis, surfing, kite surfing, kite flying, golf, go-karting, swimming beach blow, ride a bike or a covered wagon with horses around the island.

My Dutch host told me that Schiermonnikoog is crowded during the summer and I think we were lucky to be there this week because it was kind of quiet and not crowded by people. Also we thought it would be a much colder place because it was going to be windy, but it wasnt.

We went to Schiermonnikoog by bus and boat. I think Schiermonnikoog is a lovely island. First when you arrived at the island it smelled like a dead fish but once you got used to the smell it was all right. There was a lot of old people and we didn’t see much local young people. We rented bikes from the island and we were riding bikes all day. I really enjoyed it and I felt like my muscles were a bit sore after that day but it was worth it. I was surprised about the amount of people who live in there.

My own experience of that island is that it’s great. It was really pretty and that day the weather was really nice which makes the day even better. Also I didn’t hear anyone complaining about that day which is a good thing.

By Johanna

May 4, 2014 0

Week in Netherlands

Monday was the first day of our exchange. I finally got to see Ankelien again, and of course I met her family too. Also I got to meet her grandfather and her uncle. Ankelien and his sister Annemiek showed me the farm with all the animals.

The next morning we went to the bigger school where we drew each other, learnt about Netherlands via presentations and then we played three different sports. I thought kaatsen was pretty fun. After those activities we had free time for the rest of the day. I met Ankelien’s two friends named Tim and Wilco. We also went to see around by bikes and I almost got hit by a truck because of the brakes, oops…

Wednesday was nice and chill. We went to a beautiful island and spent the day there. The weather was finally perfect! I really miss that day.

On thursday we went to chroningen (I hope I spelled it right). At first we took a ride on a boat around the city, then we saw a synagogue (which was nothing new to me but I found the old bathing things fascinating) and then finally shopping which I had been waiting.

On friday we spent the evening at Ankelien’s house with the whole group. We ate well and had fun, I laughed a lot! The next day we saw a bit of Amsterdam and then it was sadly time to go home. I loved the week and it went too fast!

Ida

May 3, 2014 1

Busy people in Amsterdam

Before: In Amsterdam we would like to shop alot, because there is a lot of shops that we dont have in Finland and the dutch dont have anywhere near them. We would like to visit for example Victorias Secret, Hollister and Zara. We would also like to see some nice dutch buildings, like the house of Anne Frank in Prinsengracht and The China Town near the Centrum.

The most popular shops in Amsterdam are

HEMA
Xenos
The Body Shop
H&M
Sacha
Hunkemöller
Jack & Jones
Zara

After: When our bus arrived to Amstedam, we were so exited. The sun was shining and the weather was really good. It was my first time there and Nienke, my host, also had been there only once or twice. First we went with a ferry over a canal or a river for about 5 minutes. The ferry arrived in the Central railway station of amsterdam, which was huge. I have never seen that big railwaystation. 😀 The teachers showed us the meetingpoint at a Subway near the ferry and the they took us all to the City Center of Amsterdam, where we were then free to go in little groups around the city. I was really suprised about the amount of people in the city. The streets were full of people and tens of bikes rushing forward.

I went around Amsterdam with Polina, Pirita and Melina. First we went to visit the Red lights area and it was quite shocking. We had only about three hours time to see the city, so we didnt had so much time to do things there. So we did the most important, shopping. We mostly rushed around the shops, trying to find some nice clothes and stuff to take to Finland. Three hours went so quickly and after the walking in the city made us really hungry so before we went with the ferry back to the bus we took some food from the Subway. 😛

Although we had only few hours time and the city was super busy, me myself had a really nice time and i am totally going there some time again. We didnt have time to see everything that we wanted, but maybe next time.

April 24, 2014 0

A week in the Netherlands

On Monday when we arrived I met my host family. First thing that we did at their house was eating of course we introduced to each other. After the dinner we went for a walk and Nienke told me that in Netherlands they have this tradition that when baby is born they put balloons outside of their house to show that they have had a baby, if the baby is a boy the balloons will be light blue and if it is a girl the balloons will be light pink.

On Tuesday we went to Drachten, there we had this drawing thing that we had to draw our host friend and after that we played these sports with other group. We played volleyball, football and katseen, it was fun :D.

Wednesday we went to Groningen where we visited in this Jewish synagogue and after that we went to shopping. When we got back to Drachten from Groningen we went to McDonald’s and from there we walked to this swimming hall and that swimming hall was cool. 😀

Thursday we went to this island that name I don’t remember 😀 but we rented bikes from there and kind of had a free time to look around and stuff 🙂 it was really nice!

On Friday we went to school and did some cool stuff there and it didn’t took long so after that we had free afternoon when me and my host friend Nienke went to shopping in Drachten with Ida and her host Ankelien. After shopping for a couple of hours we went to my “host” home and Ida and Ankelien visited us. Then we went to Ankeliens house because we had the last night barbecue at her house, we had good food and nice time there and about 9pm i went back home with my host parents and Nienke. 🙂

Saturday morning I had my last breakfast and when I went downstairs they gave me this little present what was really nice. I said goodbye to my host dad and host brothers before we left to Drachten. In Drachten I said goodbye to my host mom and we went to Amsterdam by bus. On our way to Amsterdam we stopped in this typical dutch village. In Amsterdam we spent about 3 hours shopping and after that we went to the airport where we said goodbye to everyone.

Typical Dutch Village was really cute, the houses were really close to each other and they were all kind of small. Here are a couple of the picture that I got that day (:

Jenny

April 24, 2014 0

A Diary Entry

I asked Nienke what did she liked the most and she told that she liked the most the ice hockey match, sauna and the last night when we were watching movie at my place. We were thinking together what kind of cultural difference we have and she said that only thing that she noticed was that we play different sports than them and that the time that we eat is different then in Netherlands but that kind of it. 😀 When we go to the Netherlands I’m expecting that we are going to have as much fun as we had here.

April 23, 2014 0

A Film Review

The film that we watched was FC Venus. It was okay, it wasn’t the best but it wasn’t boring either. It was about couples and all the boys were really interested about football and all the girl couldn’t stand it, so they made a bet, girls had one summer time to practice football and then if they win then boys won’t watch football anymore and if boys would have won then they could go to some really big football thing and then girls won’t say anything about their football obsession. Usually in Finnish movies Finnish people drink really much beer, but I think that in this they didn’t even drink that much beer. I don’t know if there were any kind of stereotypes, it’s hard to say. 😀

April 23, 2014 0

Hei (:

My name is Jenny and I’m 16 years old, I live in Luoma with my family, my family has mom (Kata), dad (Roope), big sister (Sofia), little sister (Ella) and little brother (Niclas), and also I have two cats Pastori and Luna. My hobbies are right now gym and snowboarding and I also like skating. I like to spend time with my friends, sometimes we go to movies or eating and sometimes we just hang out. 🙂 I don’t have any favorite food because I like almost every kind of food and I listen almost every kind of music. I really like to watch movies and tv series, and again I like almost every kind of movies, when I watch some tv series I don’t have any kind of type that i would like to watch I just watch and if I like it I will continue watching it. 😀 Three things that you should know about me: first is that I like to just take it easy and watch tv and just relax and second is that I also like to do something like go out and watch movies or go to eat somewhere and I really like to do those things with my friends. Third thing that you should know about me is that I really like to meet new people, especially people who are from another country. 🙂

April 23, 2014 0