Day 3? The group gets the giggles

 So the next day started out similar to all the others. We woke up, got dressed, headed down to breakfast and had our Vitamin D shot!  I think many of us loved this bit of tradition. I know I am planning to go get shot glasses before I leave tomorrow so I can remember to have my little shot of vitamins in the day.

We went off early in the morning to visit the vocational school that was incredible. I saw some portable saunas in the back of people's houses and these giant hot tubs! I got so excited... until I saw the same hot tub elsewhere and learned it was for biowaste collection ! HAH! Don't want to jump into THAT pool!

So our morning activities were at the OSAS vocational school which was honestly really cool. We met with three very open people who really shed some light on the programming at the school. Admittedly, many of us were still trying to get our heads around the full structural differences of Finnish Education and American Education. These three really helped. The craziest things to find out were-  its all FREE! You apply to get into your upper secondary schools after passing your matriculation exams in 9th grade. This is when you specialize. There are different schools for different things. This school had housing on the campus for those people that could not commute. Yes that was free too.   If people were mid-career and decide they need to update their skills or learn an entirely different trade, they can apply and attend at any time. This school is teaching state of the art technologies and is working with major companies to be ahead of innovations.

Auto detailing and body work

They had mega trucks that ran on biofuel. This is a training place for drivers to come to as well to learn how to safely fill the tanks.

Steven and Anderson got to really chatting. Anderson had great info about this stuff. These trucks can haul double trailers and still get 240 miles on one tank! Amazing.

Electrical engineering is a hard school to get into.

There were mini rooms where people could learn to paint, apply drywall or even wallpaper.

Instead of just focusing on "building trades" they call it "restoration" and they train people to restore buildings of all kinds.

IT was amazing to see how the FabLab projects could bleed right into this. 

Costume and design was upstairs. We didn't get to go. Boohooo. 

After a nice long visit, we ate at the school and finished it up with another Q&A period. The people here are so nice. I don't think we met anyone that we didn't invite to come back to the states and see our BOCES programs, etc.  And funny enough, part of our group saw Kai at the mall later that day and he remembered us!

Air hockey tables seem to be everywhere.

Next stop, University of Oulu!

Tons of bike racks!

First stop was in the Fablab where there were already people working.

 work pods. Saw a guy working in one with his toddler. Genius. great way to keep a toddler captive!

Lots of spaces for quiet. You would have thought we would get the hint... instead we got louder and got the giggles. Even saw someone napping in the giant bean bags in the nest. Oops! our bad! Sorry!

 did I tell you they are zero waste?

booth for fun! oops- learning and working.

shhhh... he's sleeping

After a big day of learning, we took to the streets and had some retail therapy. Everyone was so excited to have 2 hours almost to ourselves before dinner. It was really great to walk around. 

We found IKEA!

Dinner on the Baltic Sea!

I was over a ledge and it was scary but so cool!

There's the ledge!

gorgeous sea!

We were supposed to be having a group picture but a few of us HAD to touch the water and sand... so we RAN for it! And then by the time we got to the pictures, a couple of random dudes jumped in with us! Too funny!!! We went with it.

This area that we were at had tiny little cottages and a campground for people to rent and vacation at the sea. There was even a little amusement park.

It was only 20 minutes from Oulu.

It was a fun day.

But they were starting to blend together at this point.