Week 1
Joensuu, Finland
Winter is here as you can see:
Weather on 8.1.16
To cheer me up, today I declared a delicatessen day of Mexican food.
I started with tamales Oaxaqueños for breakfast and for lunch and dinner Chilaquiles.
Chilaquiles in Joensuu
Lucky me with my kitchen treasures to survive this winter !!!!
Week 53
München, Germany
Oh my!
2015 is finalizing and still there is much to do!
2015 is an AMAZING and UNEXPECTED year for me. During this year, I had been blessed to be in a process to crystallize dreams. For example:
– Bridge knowledge between México and Finland, with the activities we did in LEIVA at the CENART / CONACULTA
– Having the rare and unique opportunity to travel overseas each month (this is a personal record and a personal dream I confess!) visiting 3 continents! WOW!
– Be with people I admire and love
– and much more.
Each moment and activity connected to this year is VERY special in its own right. Also, the current challenges are BIG and plenty, but I can state: I am walking the walk.
If I would record this year in one sentence, it would be: “learning to take the bull by the horns”
There is MUCH to do, starting by FOCUSING !!!! Nevertheless, this is the moment to THANK to 2015 for all the life and moments it gave me!
Now getting curious for the 2016 in ALL senses!!!!
January: Check Republic ( Prague)
February: (Copenhagen)
March: Germany (Frankfurt – Mexican Embassy)
April: Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City)
May: Korea (Seoul)
June: Germany (München)
July: Germany (Weinheim and more)
August: Mexico (D.F.)
September: France (Paris)
October: UK (London)
October / November: Mexico (Puebla y Aguascalientes)
November: Greece (Athens)
December: Germany (Berlin and more)
Week 45
Joensuu, Finland
2015 has been a year blessed with traveling. I am VERY LUCKY!
Also, I accept that flying, conquering new worlds is part of my nature 🙂
Thus, I am looking forward share my 2015, because I want to re-live it 🙂
Meanwhile today, I decide to act in my blog instead to save a wonderful video in delicious. I want to share it the video here because: TIME is LIFE
More info about this video in this link
Week 34
Joensuu, Finland
On July 30th I have the honor to witness of an union of two lives, i.e. be a guest of a notable wedding here in Finland.
The ceremony was at the Helsinki Cathedral, and the party was at the Villa Svalvik which is, surprisingly, a beautiful place with a country side spirit near Helsinki.
The wedding has such a good energy and spirit. It was really charming. I, honestly, have a wonderful time and I was very happy for the couple.
In this wedding I also discover a couple of games, which I want to share in this post, which I personally found fun.
a) Bingo
In this bingo one should pay attention to the newly-wed couple and its guests. All guests have copy of the bingo-board on their place. In each of the board’s squares reads a sentence related to the wedding, e.g. “the bride disappear”, “someone looks for the bathroom”, ….
So, when the game organizers indicate that the game starts, all guest could play and they should play attention to the wedding. Once one detects an action described on the board, we could cross it. All board were slightly different, as in any bingo. The person who filled a board, for example, scream bingo. Honestly, in my table, we had fund with this game.
In the photo at the end of this post, you can see a little piece of the board. Simple to do and honestly fun.
b) Guessing your guests
In this game, the newly-wed couple are the main players. The guests are part of the game. Let me explain.
The newly-wed couple should not see its guest for some minutes. To achieve this, they standup and give their backs to the audience. Then the organizers of the game, publish on a screen – that all the guest could see and that newly-wed couple could not see – a word. Examples of this word are: “bride’s guests”, “who born in Helsinki”, …. Once we read the word, all the persons who belong to it stand up, and the rest of the audience remained sited. After all these is done, then the newly-wed couple turned around and aim to decipher what was the word published based on the people they saw standing. There were points for the bride or the groom according to whom guessed the words first. Honestly, it was MUCH FUN this game!!!! 🙂
c) Dancing
As always, the best!!!!
The wedding was AMAZING, the dancing specular and I wish all the happiness for the newly marry couple!!!
My place at I&O wedding
Week 31
Joensuu, Finland
At the moment I have one student visiting us from the Netherlands. Additionally, we have another student visiting the department from Korea. If one lives in Joensuu, I consider important to visit Koli at least once. Then, I propose to our guests to go to Koli last Saturday.
Our party was of five, each one from a different country (Netherlands, Korea, Iran, Finland and Mexico). We were 3 ladies, 2 gentlemen and one of us is visual impair. We had really a blast and we were blessed with the weather. Here a glimpse of the places we visited:
1. First mandatory stop is Ukko-Koli
If one drives directly from Joensuu to Koli to stop firstly here at Ukko-koli has different advantages:
So if someone has the need to eat, buy a souvenir or go to the restroom all it is possible to do it here, before continue the adventure 🙂
View from Ukko-Koli
2. Hiking downhil towards Saama harbor
Next we hiked downhill until reach Saama harbor. During our hike it rained but only a little bit, it did not affect us. After a nice walk, we reached Saama harbor, where we ate salad and meat soup. As always when one eats in the country side, the meals are just tasty.
Saama harbor, place where we ate
The nice landscape helped us also to recharge.
Saama harbor’s view
3. Koli Village.
After recharged ourselves at the Saama harbor, we went to the Koli village. Often one drives through the village to reach Ukko-koli, but now we purposely stopped and walked through it. Unfortunately, we were late to visit the local museum, but we were able to ask in the tourist information about places to visit in the region. We were told of two new locations I wasn’t aware previously: Pirunkirkko and Rasävaara.
Sculputure in the entrance of one building in Koli Village
4. Pirunkirkko
We drove to Pirunkirkko. It took us a little bit of time to find it, as we were not 100% sure were it was, but we found the place relatively soon. Once we were in the parking area, everything was well signed. It is a nice walk.
Walking towards the cave, Pirunkirkko
Walking towards the cave, Pirunkirkko
The cave is not long and it has a dead end. It is an interesting cave to explore. Personally, I found it so authentic. We really have A LOT of fun on this spot. Some people of our group even found a “rabbit hole” where they tried to escape 🙂
Getting inside the cave
Inside the cave
We were really having a lot of fun.
5. Hattusaari
The next stop, based on an advice of Erkki – leader of the EdTech Research group – we went to Hattusaari. We actually aimed to drive to the end of the island, but it is a long one so we stop to enjoy the view at the bridge.
View at Hattusaari
6. Rasävaara
The following stop was Rasävaara, time to go up to the new tower. The view is again magnificent, and now one can see also Ukko-koli from here. It is worth the hike to see the landscape!!!!
Rasävaara’s tower
Views from the top of the tower:
The lake
Ukko-Koli
Before heading back to Joensuu, we stopped to meet the construction of the future cottage of Prof. Erkki Sutinen, which will be also the future writing-research retreat of EdTech.
Glimpse of future research retreat spot
After this stop, we drove back to Joensuu.
It was a full intensive day at Koli! and I must admit, we had A LOT OF FUN!!!!! Thank you to all the participants! 🙂
Below the location of the areas that we visited. The screenshots are taken from http://issuu.com/koli.fi/docs/retkeily_ja_palvelukartta
Location of the visited spots (1/2) – Screenshot from issuu.com
Location of the visited spots (2/2) – screenshot from issuu.com