The end is near ...

The end is near and we didn’t write for a while, so here we are with a major update about our last weeks.

First: DevLAB

Both our teams set our cycle-goals (per two weeks) in a way that we could end our project peacefully. This meant that we had everything done on time and we could enjoy our last days as a team, having fun and finalizing the last things. Laurences team searched for a buyer of their project, but this isn’t as easy as it seems. Eventually her team gave their idea for free to a company in Oulu who makes learning apps for schools. In that way they hope to see their idea or at least parts of it on the market in the (near) furure. Lore’s team also tried to pitch their idea to a company but was a bit too late with contacting which resulted in a funeral of their project instead of a sale.

We had our final presentation on Monday the 7^th of May. There we explained what happened the last months and some more about our learnings. The day after that we handed in our portfolio and had our final personal evaluation and grades. We all passed DevLAB, YEAAAAAAAAAH! Almost graduated!

Second: Winter is coming, just kidding, IT’S SUMMER!

Finally we can feel warmth on our skin and see the sun shining. To celebrate that we swam in the sea although the Finnish people thought we were crazy. Maybe we are, but we don’t care.

In the mean time we also had to say goodbye to a lot of people and friends that stayed in our dorm. Saying goodbye definitely is the hardest part of Erasmus . We had some last parties and had a last dinner in the pancakehouse with our Belgian crew for Laurences birthday.

Third: Enjoy our time

Because we love the north so much, we wanted to see more. Sooooo, we went to the Lofoten islands in Norway. What a trip! (not talking about the views but about our way too long bustrip! 15 hours is way too much) But once we were there, we were amazed by the views and a bit later by our cabins. How happy can a human be to see that there’s a couch and a warm and fluffy blanket. A day later we went on a roadtrip through the different cities of the Lofoten Islands, WAW! What a view and what a smell! We almost fainted of the smell of the cod fish that was drying outside on giant racks. The body and head were separated, the head goes to Africa to make ‘a lovely and rich’ soup of it, the body is sold in Europe. Our Belgian Friend bought some of it, but we’re happy that she wants to share it with her mom. (No smelly fish near us please!) We ended our stay with a kayak trip. Unfortunately there was a lot of wind so we couldn’t go out of the harbour . That’s why we had a small tour, but enjoyed it either way! (Did you know that our kayaks had pedals which we had to use for navigating, it’s pretty useful ) Because of our lovely trip we missed the event of the year: Wappu. It’s the announcement of the beginning of spring/summer for them, people actually come outside! They celebrate it with a party and some fun (drinking) games.

Next trip: Helsinki/Tallinn

We reunited with our Belgian classmates Inne and Xenia whoare real locals after 3 months of Erasmus. They guided us through the city and showed us the coolest and prettiest places. We were very lucky to have good weather! It was 20 degrees, we didn’t see that coming . We ran to catch our boat to Tallinn (Estonia) and the rest is history…

We arrived in a still warm city and walked to our Airbnb. Just walking in Tallinn gave already a nice atmosphere of the city. Although there is a nice old part it is also very young and innovative in their architectural and fun ways of ‘decorating’ the city. We had a fun time, relaxing in the sun, having a picknick in a park and enjoying a (cheap) drink. What do you want more? In the evening we enjoyed the last sun of the day and some two year old kids caught our attention. They were jumping and discovering the square and at that moment we realized we didn’t lose our ‘ECE(PJK)’ eye during the last semester. Our days in Tallinn passed by fast and after our travel back on a (fancy) boat, we visited the national library in Helsinki (major beauty and beast feelings).

Fourth: Cleaning/making our suitcases and say our final goodbye.

That’s what we’ll do on Wednesday and Thursday. Wish us luck with our journey back to rainy rainy Belgium! Thanks for tuning in with us during this adventure .

See you soon!

Laurence and Lore

Spring is in the air

Hi all

Guess who is back again...     

It's been a while when you heard about us, but we are still alive and kicking. We are very busy developing our product. Check it out on our website: Board In & Learntribe

The snow is melting, slowly... Spring is in the air! It's weird to see a street without snow; it's hard to recognize.

Belgium also came to us, more specifically Artevelde. We know you missed us guys, but 15 people, come on...    Although it might also be because it was international week.   We had one booth for all our teams!

Lore her sister came and together they had a lot of fun in Iso Syöte.   

Dag en bedankt é , as we say it in Belgium or....

Thanks and goodbye 

L&L

Time for a movie!!

Hi

Each team in DevLAB had to present a video about their project, team values and roles. Let's check it out!   

Team Lore ( Board in)

Team Laurence ( Learntribe)

L&L

Winter is coming ... although it's spring in Belgium

Here we are again!

The last weeks we worked very hard to get through gate 2. We both presented something and needed to get out of our comfortzone, (but that’s where the magic happens isn’t it?). In the end we were happy with our presentations and pitches. Unfortunatly Lore’s project didn’t go through because of the lack of people who wanted to join their project. She is now in a new team that works around the onboarding process. Laurence’s team on the other hand got some new team members and is happy to continue with her project. With the end of this gate we also came to the end of our first course ‘Concept Creation’. Now we have to grade ourselves which is pretty hard.

We celebrated gate 2 with an international food festival, everyone brought some food from their homecountry and I can say we had mooooore than enough.

Here in Finland there is a big discussion around the wages of the people who work in childcare. They are more qualified but their wages are the same as in other countries. They don’t feel appreciated by that.

http://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/15379-helsinki-denies-reports-of-cartel-like-wage-deal-for-nursery-school-teachers.html

After gate 2 it was finally time for a break ‘ski-holiday’. We went with some other Belgians and Laurence’s sisters and Lore’s boyfriend to Lapland. BEST TRIP EVER! We visited the snowcastle in Kemi, went to the (very touristic) Santa Claus Village and had lots of other activities like a husky safari, snowmobile ride, a trip to Norway (where we swam in the Arctic Ocean) and to finish it in style we went skiing for one day (still need a loooooot of practice).

We had a wonderful time!

L&L

Two weeks later …

Here we are again, what happened?

Well we got to meet our new team members. Laurence joined the ‘learn tribe’ team, they are improving the way students exchange their learning experiences from vocational school (a bit like TSO in Belgium). At first she had a bit difficulties to define her role in the team because everything was new. Lore had the same feeling, although she was still working on the same subject she had to define her role again. Now she wasn’t the only people’s people in her group anymore, because they were with three. But now she’s alright and she likes her team very much.

During this two weeks we worked very hard to come up with three different solutions, some of us had many ideas others had the perfect amount: 3. Last Friday we had to choose one solution and now we’re focusing on that. We have to make a business plan, look for resources, prototyping, …

What is challenging in DevLAB is that you have to schedule and find out your own tasks, at least for Lore this is a whole new way of learning. Besides that our graduation is coming closer and we’re both a bit stressing out about our future, it’s quite vague at the moment. Everything is possible which is very cool and very scary at the same time.

The days went quite fast because we got a visitor for a week and a half named Saartje (one of the best friends of Lore) which was very cool, we did a lot of cool things (like iceholeswimming in -7°).

Gate 1: survival of the fittest

Hyvää iltaa, good evening...

Good news and bad news… Lore’s project “How to support refugees who do not have good language skills and the local people to develop relationships” went through the gate Laurence’s project died We had a funeral for it, as you see in the picture.

Wednesday evening there was a birthday party for Lore & Lenne The evening was quite surprising; there were a lot of people and even some presents.

The day after Gate 1 we got feedback about our presentations. We experienced it quite well because it was to the point but still in a friendly way. We learned a lot of it. We prefer it that way because in Belgium we gloss over our feedback.

We both went out on Saturday. Laurence went to Hailuoto and Lore went to Nallikari beach. One word: WOW!

Maybe the next post will be full of pictures of the northern lights because tonight there is chance to see it, above Oulu…

L&L

Over & out!

A story about 2 little ice cubes

Dear readers...

In the meantime our 3 day project is finished. The main goal of this project let us experience the different fases we should go through, in this following 4-month project.

Thursday we got our ’real’ topics and teammates. Laurence’s topic is“How to support adolescents who are moving out of the house of the parents/home for the first time for studying.” This belgian-Vietnamese team is doing some research now, by having some interviews. Thang, her Vietnamese partner, is an IT-men. That’s quite handy, given that Laurence has no technological skills. The different cultures, study fields and personalitys makes it all interesting, challenging and educational/instructive.

Lore’s project is “How to support refugees who do not have good language skills and the local people to develop relationships”. Her partner is a German girl named Carolin, who studies information management. The teamwork is quite smooth, Lore and Carolin both have some people they can interview relating to their project. They're complementing each other. (Although Carolin's English is way better than Lore's.)

Moreover, we both had our personal goal session with Ulla-Maija (our DevLAB-coach). For both of us it was refreshing. After our chat it was more clear what we can expect from the personal goal setting and how we can benefit it. ( based on the following scheme)

This week, we also heard at school that on sunday 28th of January, there will be presidential elections. So the first thing that we did was searching who is the president now (Sauli Niinistö) . Then, we searched the candidates and... taught about (hypothetically) for whom we would vote. Check out this site;#presidential elections; it's fun! You're already feel that you're a finnish citizen

On friday night, Lore put out her social skills. She had a lot of fun at corridor party 2.0! Laurence, on the other hand, met some friends in a National parc 'Iso-Syötteeltä' were they enjoyed spending time in nature.

Today we started a bit frozen, but you know, some people or worth melting for^^. We took part in a business workshop. There we had an awkward 4 min staring contest. for some people it was like meditation for others it was just trying not to laugh out loud.

Furthermore, we both had ‘international meals’, what was delicious!

Greetings of two little ice cubes

L & L

First days of DevLAB

Dear readers...

Thursday was our first ‘real’ schoolday. We started with some games that weren’t very new to us (stand in alphabetical order without speaking, etc…). Totally PJK^^ (Pedagogie van het Jonge Kind/Early Childhood Education)

The first thing that they said when we arrived was: ”You’re not in university, forget all about it. You’re working and you’re your own boss. DevLAB will be your new home”. We even get our own keys. So, if we want to throw a party, we totally can; it’s allowed. They even brought the idea to us. But we do need to buy our own booze though, and keep our hands of theirs!   

Today we started working on a 3-day project. Our challenge is to improve the navigation to and from the university. Our official project starts on Thursday. Then we will know who will be our partner and we’ll get our sentence.

So, to be clear, at the start of the project you only get one sentence. For example: ‘Childeren nowadays are quite fat.’ You start from there and do research, define the problem and try to find a solution for it. You can find more info about the working process of DevLAB in the scheme below.

We’re also proud to say that now we’re official citizens of Oulu (at least for 4,5 months). We went to the Local Register Office in Oulu and met, guess what, a girl from Belgium (that can’t be a coincidence). Later that night there was a party in the basement of our dormitory where we got to meet other Erasmus students; it was really fun. The weekend was just chill, we both hanged out with some friends and enjoyed nature a little bit.

Kind regards

Lore & Laurence