September Overseas School Trip Experience 🇫🇮

Embarking on this overseas trip during my recent school vacation break (though not for vacation but as part of a global engagement program) was truly a memorable and unique experience — easily making it the best experience I’ve had in my poly life so far! 🌟 This is my second time going on an overseas school trip, but this time to Finland marks my first time in Europe 🇪🇺 and longest trip l’ve been on so far (16 days — 2 days were spent on travelling though as the flight was 13 hours long)

We mainly visited the southern part of Finland, including the capital city Helsinki and the city of Espoo — where our hotel was located at and where our morning lectures by Aalto University Summer School was at. 🏫 In the afternoons, we made visits to various companies and attractions which included the UNESCO siteSuomenlinna Sea Fortress, along with other highlights like the Helsinki Olympic Stadium 🏟️ and Fazer Experience Visitor Centre (it was like Willy Wonka 🎩 factory irl — with chocolate buffet too) The most memorable part of the trip was definitely visiting the Espoo Metro Areena where we caught the Helsinki vs Espoo ice hockey ⛸️🏒 match which was really very intense (it my first time watching a live match 🙌 — Team Helsinki Won!! 3:2) During the weekends, we went for our group planned tours, which included visiting the Nuuksio Reindeer Park (We fed the reindeers 🦌, went amethyst mining ⛏️ and roasted our bread by a campfire 🥐)

Here are some other places that we went that I think are worth visiting:

Old Market Hall (many good food like the salmon soup — near Senate Square and Helsinki Cathedral)

Espoo City Theatre (we caught the opening play for Mina Craucher there 🎭)

But ultimately, some perks about travelling with schools are getting the opportunity to make visits places which we normally do not get access to as regular travellers, and making new friends outside your class or course of study (especially if you do not know most people from your trip at first) If you’re reading this, take it as a sign to go for school trips if you have the opportunity too!! ✈️

- alicia, sep’24

#finland #europe #travel #temasekpoly #Lemon8SG