FRUTTI DI VITA! – LIFE WITH ALL FLAVORS, PLEASE!

FRUTTI DI VITA! – LIFE WITH ALL FLAVORS, PLEASE! 

Wow, we just had a blast last week in Italy! We enjoyed the trip full hearted and fell in love with the beautiful people from all around Europe. We made some good friends and had so much fun exploring the streets of Cagliari Sardinia with them. The city is gorgeous with its old architecture. And the food was excellent – everywhere! StepEurope sent us to Cagliari, Sardinia to participate seminar called Migration 2020: Towards Sustainable Inclusion. This seminar was part of Erasmus+ project and it was arranged by NGO called ”Studenti per la Cittá”. Their staff members and leaders made everything possible to take good care of the participants of the seminar and we had a five star experience because of their hard work. We couldn’t be more happy! Our hearts are full of gratitude towards each one of them and also towards StepEurope that made our trip possible. Thank you so much!

LEAP TO UNCERTAIN DESTINATION 

“I find I’m so excited that I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it’s the excitement only a free man can feel. A free man at a start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.” – Quote from the movie Shawshank Redemption – It took us 20 hours to get to Cagliari from Finland. We took a bus to Helsinki, then a plane to Amsterdam, then another plane to Milan Malpensa where we needed a bus and a taxi to move to the next airport Milan Linate. From there we took our last flight to Cagliari and needed just one more ride by train and a little walk to arrive at our hostel. I can tell you it was all worth it! However the night before our trip we felt quite anxious. We weren’t
sure what it was going to be like. How would we – two Finnish girls – find our way in Milan in the middle of the night? Perhaps all the best adventures always start from that moment of ”not knowing how’s it gonna be”. To experience something new we needed to say farewells to our comfort zone. It felt a bit scary but wonderful at the same time. Everything worked out well. We found our way and once we opened our hostel window and saw the view to the old city we knew the bigger and more beautiful adventure was just about to take place.

LEARNING BY DOING 

So what did we actually learn? We were more than happy to participate to Learning by doing -method paced teaching. It was relaxing and nostalgic to use real paper and pencils. The effects of mobilization are easily seen in teaching today. At least for me personally it is easier to focus when I can do something with my hands and talk about the subject. I was surprised how well we dealt with this huge phenomenon of Migration so deeply and diversely in only one week. I think the main reason behind it was the joyful atmosphere and the practical methods we used.

INSPIRATIONAL ITALY 

To end this blog we would like to encourage you to meet Italian people and pay attention to their lively hand signals. We were amazed by the way the Italians express themselves through their body language. We learnt a lot of new ways to talk using only our hands and facial expressions. We made a teaching video about some of them.

HERE IS THE VIDEO

<3- Asta and Elisa