After a visit to the science museum – Experimentarium today we headed to the UN City -one of the 6 UN headquarters in the world. 10 agencies are housed at this facility including UNICEF and WHO. There are two campuses, the one here and the other is the UNICEF distribution center that deploys education, medical,…

Today we learned about the Danish education system from Mads Albertson. Today was actually a national holiday but were able to still visit the school and learn about the system. Similar to Finland, no standardized tests until 9th grade when they test to determine high school options. While they are taxed heavily, education is free…

We experienced rush hour in Copenhagen this morning on the way to the University. We avoided a bike crash as most get to work via bike including our host – Ulrik Wagner. The University of Copenhagen is one of the top three exercise and sport science in the world. We listened to a lecture prepared…

Guest writer – Landon Seward This morning we woke up from our final sleep in Finland. We had a great breakfast before heading to a reindeer farm. Just about all of us had never seen reindeer before. They seem as though a cow, pig, and deer had mixed. We got to feed them as they…

We arrived in Rovaniemi last night with enough time to head to the Arktikum. New exhibits on the polar opposites was a great new addition. By June 6th the sun will not set for a month here, so we are experiencing very little darkness. Today we headed to one of my favorite schools in Finland…

On our way today to the Arctic Circle in Rovaniemi. A short 2 1/2 hour journey by train after a nice rest day in Oulu. We are getting our wish lists ready for Santa and ready to see ther reindeer. This will be our last visit in Finland before we hit Denmark.

Oulu is on of the tech hubs of Europe. Most know for Nokia but has branched off to many other companies including Oura (the ring). Transfer this into the schools means that technology – STEAM and Fab Labs are important in this area. We visited one of the largest primary schools in Oulu and then…

Today we had an early wake up to head to the train station. We made the 6 hours journey north and west to Oulu. It is a bit chilly but will be warming up tomorrow. Tomorrow we have a full day. We learned real quick how small the spaces are for luggage on the train.

Guest writer Ava Adair. Today we all woke up and took the public transit train system to the Oodi Library in the town center. This library was unlike anything we’ve ever seen, and very diffrent from standard American public facilites. It seemed to have every practical thing in there offered to Finns for free. We…

Guest writer Ayva Burshem Today was our first full day in Helsinki! Our first stop was Marsky a high school for student-athletes. Many students there train for the Olympics or are at very competitive levels in their sport. We saw their training facilities and learned that students take school and sport very seriously due to…