Day one: planning, poetry and chicken

The course began on Saturday, June 26th, with an introductory meeting at University of Oulu. There a short overview of the course was presented, and we introduced ourselves to each other.

There were only seven of us in the initial meeting; due to flight schedules, the rest of the course participants would arrive later.

The plan for the day was to visit the zoological museum, also at the university, where we would do some exercises. After this, there would be a dinner to welcome everyone to the course.

We proceeded to the zoological museum, where we familiarized ourselves with the different animal species in the Northern Ostrobothnian area and Lapland.

As an exercise, we took different roles through which to look at the Ostrobothnian nature in the exhibition. This was followed up by writing a poem on the topic, using these viewpoints.

We formed two groups, and walked through the exhibition presenting typical species in the area throughout the year. Each display was a scene from a different part of Northern Finland, at a different time of the year.

In addition to this, there were also animals from different parts of the world on display. We examined these briefly, and then spent the rest of the available time on writing the poems, one per group.

Below are the results of the poetry exercise.

I can see
a bird flying so free
up in the blue sky

Proud not a bit shy
So beautiful
So joyful

Feeling the wind
between the feathers
Give me the message
from your fine letters

Teach me how to fly
up in the blue sky
Make me feel
absolutely free

Beth Andersen,
Samar El-Hassan,
Louise Rasmussen

Wolves singing at night
a serenade to the stars
The smell of pine trees

Yvonne Hjelmroth,
Juha Jeronen,
Birgitte Stougaard