Sziasztok!
Megváltozott az életem: már alig fogok jégkorongozni Magyarországon és nem is fogok az ottani dolgokkal kapcsolatban írni. Ugyanis voltam olyan szerencsés, hogy felvételt nyertem a finnországi Sport Főiskolára (Suomen Urheiluopisto), ami kb. 130 km-re található Helsinkitől - igen, északra. Itt fogom eltölteni a következő két évet az életemből, jégkorong edzősködést és sport-menedszmentet tanulva. A tanulmányaim alatt egy blogot fogok vezetni, az itteni tevékenykedésemről - ezt nem hanyagolhatom el, mivel annak az ösztöndíjnak a része, amit kapok. A beszámolók angol nyelven fognak íródni. Az elsőre nem is kell sokat várni, ugyanis már itt is van. Akit érdekel, olvassa :)
Week One
Monday
The DP 10 (Development Program - 10th class) Sports and Leisure Management course in Vierumaki Finland began at 10:00 08.22.2011. The School accepted 20 students from the about 270 volunteers. Of these, 19 of us showed up and begun our studies. The first morning was mostly everyone briefly introducing ourselves and getting to know the course we will be attending the following years. During the afternoon we had group activity and team building exercise which lasted till 06:00 pm. That was mostly it.
The group is highly mixed with one of the highest average age of 27.5. The oldest student is 35 and the youngest 20. We only have one woman in the group, but she is is though as one can get: just finishes her Ph.D in geology and has done thai-boxing for ages now - also a coach / trainer in it. The majority are Finnish, but we have a Slovenian, Icelandic, German, English and Israeli students as well. The most common goal of the guys is to become an Ice-Hockey Coach in Europe or North America, but eg. the Englishman is more in to football management (soccer), and the German lady is to thai-boxing coaching.
The ice-hockey knowledge is from all spectrums: we have and ex-NHL player in our DP, but the eg. guy from England has just once been on ice... ever.
Tuesday
On our second day we were mostly getting ready for our three day camp, that was just to follow up. For each day the teachers named randomly two leaders (all together six) who would lead that day. They also named groups responsible for First-Aid, Equipment and Evening Activity. I was in the group that made the first evening "group dynamics" and will do a presentational booklet of the tour, which may be used for program planning in a wider scale - eg. schools, trainers, coaches and team managers.
The afternoon was mostly getting ready: getting food and equipment that were needed for the trip, trying out bikes etc.
Wednesday
We departed at 09:00 from the School to our destination about 74 km away (Orilampi). We biked all the way with light up and down hills. We made only two longer stops and another two shorter ones. The bikes had only one gear and we had to carry all of our own stuff with us. Needless to say, the saddle wasn't the latest model and everyone had an aching bottom by the end of the day. At camp we built our two large army tents, went to sauna, had the evening program, discussed the day in group and went to sleep. The teachers mentioned that we were the fastest group ever to the goal, so it seems that our group has some potential.
Thursday
In the morning we had a 1 km biking to a place where we rented some canoes and kayaks, made pairs and stared paddling about 35 km - this is a bit hard to tell, and I will look up the more exact distance once I meet the daily leaders again. At site we had lunch and a short - about 4 km - hike. After that we headed back to the camp in our small boats. In the evening we had sauna, group activity, dinner and daily summery-session again.
Firday
On Friday we had an early wakening (06:00) to have breakfast, gather our stuff and put the tents together. After that a 15 km biking on gravel hilly road and a 14-ish km hiking, and the biking back to camp. From the camp-site we were picked up by a bus, that took us back to the School where we unpacked everything, returned the bikes and headed for home.
General
The sites here are just wonderful, really nice and peaceful. The fellow students are all nice guys and most of theme have interesting backgrounds and goals with this course. I will get some photos early next week to illustrate the trip and life here. The course and studies here are mostly individual-based, and the teachers are more to guide, help and assist you, than to give lectures and instructions.
