July 29, 2010

It´s time to say goodbye


Friday was our last day at camp and it was full of emotions. The first activity was still planned by the youth, it was "massage"-game, where we had to do different kind of tasks to get relaxing massage. All the time massage was little bit better and in the end they surprised us by throwing water on us instead of giving massage. This game got different interpretations, but the idea was to give warning example of drug-using. We also spent long time (3 hours!!) writing messages for each others notebooks, thoughts about the camp…There was so much to say! We also got to know our mysterious Monitos who had been sending letters to us.

Late in the night we were going through all the nice memories and happenings by sitting in a circle and giving everyone possibility to tell his best memory of the camp. It was dark and peaceful and everyone light a candle when it was his turn to speak. From these candles we made a big Peace sign. It was beautiful ending for amazing camp. The leaving next morning was full of tears and hugs and crying. But even the time goes, the happy memories of this unique summer in Taipalsaari will always be part of us. Thank you all for making this camp so special and unforgettable!


-Sanna and the staff

Camp photo

July 23, 2010

Thursday 22.7.

Today Mexico was the delegation of the day so we got to wake the whole camp up. We had flag time. Then we ate breakfast. After that it was Greece’s cultural activity. In that activity they talked about the problems they are having in Greece. It was very interesting because in Mexico we never hear about Greece. At the second activity it was Mexico’s cultural activity. What we did was every delegation had to make their traditional dress on a doll. All those turned out great! And we think everyone enjoyed it. Later for the third activity we will have matches of soccer that should be fun. Then we go back for snack and flagtime. Tonight we have unlimited sleeping time. We will go swimming at night and well we don’t think anyone will sleep. Have a great afternoon!
Adios Hasta la vista!

Wednesday 21.7.

Delegation of the day: Italy


Today’s activities were very interesting and funny. We had to be creative and use our fantasy to play campaigns against different topics: drugs, alcohol, smoking, violence, eating disorders and depression. For a short time we could transform ourselves into actors and directors. It was exciting, at the end of the day, to catch the results of our work. All the videos we made were awesome! The second activity, called “Fantasy TV” was also based on acting. Every delegation had to perform one TV-program of their country. But the most interesting part of the day was Hong Kong’s cultural activity! We learned a lot about this beautiful country and had a possibility to write some words in Chinese!

July 21, 2010

Tuesday 20.7.

At radio studio
At TV-studio


Delegation of the day: Hong Kong

There are only three days left in the CISV Summer camp. Today is the shopping day. We got up fifteen minutes earlier than usual. Most of us couldn't get up so it's a really difficult job to wake up all.

Before the first activity, we sang birthday song of each country to our staff, Sanna. The mission of the first activity was taking some special photos in the camp site. Then we needed to write down our memories of each photo. This reacalled all our memories in these days.

We first went to the radio and TV studio in Lappeenranta. We had learnt many things from this visit. We also went to Vartti office to see how to make a newspaper. We are excited to see our articles written in the last week is going to be published tomorrow! After the visit, we went shopping in Lappeeranta. All of us bought many things for ourselves and family. We felt so tired after the shopping...

We came back to camp site for dinner. Then there was Italy's cultural activity. They performed a drama to show us the news about Italian teenagers. Everyone enjoyed their drama very much.

It's time to say goodbye...

Monday 19.7.


Today Greece was the delegation of the day. As for the first activity we had our third camp meeting. Then we had a little bazaar were we trade things from our countries.
For the second activity Finland presented her cultural activity, we had a long discussion about various topics such as drugs, alcohol, suicide, series on t.v. and songs.

The third activity was call "peace and war". We were divided in groups and we had to build a city by different materials.
Then each group had to decide if and how was going to destroy a city of another group. It was a stimulation game.
After that we had a discussion about our experience. And we all agreed that we had to make green cities. We also talk about the reasons of war and how we can stop them.

Before going to bed we were waiting for the leaders to finish their meeting and we made a joke to them. We all had fun!!!

July 19, 2010

Sunday 18.7. Open Day

Delegation of the day: Finland

Today it was the Open Day. We cleaned the whole camp site and got ready for the guests. Lots of people came here and we showed them our camp site. We all had our own tables with stuff from our own countries. In the evening we said goodbye to staffmember Hanna who left the camp. Then we had some freetime outside in the playground.





Saturday 17.7.

Hello,
it's Norway that's is speaking here. We were the delegation of the day yesterday. Sorry for that we didn't write anything on the blog yesterday, but we got a big surprise so we didn't have time to write. So we will do it today. (This was written on Sunday evening.)
We woke up the people with Lars opera, and some were annoyed and some were laughing... First activity was Germany's cultural activity. We learned much about Germany. The second activity was our cultural activity. We think and hope that others learned about media in Norway.
We had tacos for dinner, FINALLY! In the third activity we were spending outside, because staff was poisoning the ants. That was what leaders had told us... But when we came inside from the flagtime, had the leaders planned us a surprise Casino-party. We danced, playedin Casino and got married. It was a fun day!

-Norway-

July 18, 2010

Friday 16.7.



Delegation of the day: Germany

Thursday 15.7.

Campdiary continues..


Today the United States was delegation of the day, and we played beach boys to wake everyone up. Then we separated into our groups to finish the newspaper articles we are writing for the local newspaper Vartti and although it´s a little late in the camp, we made place mats to set out at mealtimes. France put on quite a show for their cultural activity including a wonderful TV skit based on media, and even baked the whole camp Flammcuchen!

July 17, 2010

Jungle of Society



We are the new generation, the ones that are expected to change what the old era has destroyed. We are not given a choice, only responsibility. Society is a big source of responsibility and expectations. One society is school but there is a world outside of school and we live in that one too. As a teenager your school is a jungle. Some people have to fight to survive but belonging in a group makes you feel accepted. The pressures of clothing and looks or money and differences, can affect a person in many ways such as self-esteem. You are places into categories by what you wear, what interests you have, what music you like, or even your hair style. But everyone is different and if you choose or feel unique you are considered a loner or an outcast yet diversity is what makes this world go round.


Made by: Lexis Williams (14 years, USA), Lyne Brenac (14 years, France), Magdalini Lappa (14 years, Greece), Franca Altmann (14 years, Germany), Skyler Bailey (14 years, USA), Persefoni Zugomala, 14 years, Greece), Daisy Lee (24 years, USA)

July 16, 2010

Football connecting global friendship

Football manages to gather people for example during the world cup everybody is supporting their national team and a special atmosphere of friendship is created all around the world. And for the people who don’t have the chance to have their national team in the contest, they are implied in this event because they support their favourite team.
Johnny a 14 years old finish boy told : “Even if Finland was not playing in the contest I felt united with the other nations since I watched the games and supported the Spanish team”. As participants of this CISV summer camp, we can also experienced this special connection that football creates between people. Maria, a Mexican teenager said: “I like to play football during our free time in the camp because I can enjoy the sport but also hang out with people that I want to get to know!” Whatever your race, whatever your belonging and whatever your social position in front of a football game all these differences are erased.


made by: Arne Hadler-Olsen up (Norway), Johnny Graeffe right side (Finland), Axel Söderberg down (Finland), Lovis Engel left side (Germany), Soraya Daiber (France)

Is it a right way for Alex Rodriguez to win prize by taking steroids?



Alex Rodriguez, one of the most valuable all round baseball player, has admitted to using steroid on February 2009. SHOCK!!! He has broken all heart of his fan!!! For this he can’t play baseball for 3 seasons (3 years).

League players use steroid
Picture taken by Lorenzo Gaiba and Giorgio Gottardi

Early in 2003, Sport illustrated reported that former Mariner Alex Rodriguez was tested positive for two anabolic steroids. This disappointed his fans and Alex Rodriguez himself a lot. Alex Rodriguez has been one of the 104 league players out of 1200 whose tested positive for the 2003 drug test. Due to the fact that over 5% of the sample results taken from the league players in 2003 were positive, in 2004 there were tests for the major league players, penalties were issued for the steroid users. But still, is this a good way to solve problems that league players taking steroids, affecting the fairness of a baseball game?

During the same year, Alex won the most valuable all round baseball player. Is this related to the intake of steroid? Since the case was opened to the public, he finally admitted he took steroids.

Alex Rodriguez was born in the Washington Heights section of New York City (July 27, 1975). He started his baseball life as he was studying in high school. Until 1996 Alex Rodriguez got his first full season. At the same year, he became as a star player. He has been playing third base for the NEW YORK YANKEES since 2004.

‘I did take a banned substance and for that. I’m very sorry’ Rodriguez said.

‘I was stupid, I was naive. I wanted to prove to everyone I was worth being one of the greatest players of all time’ Rodriguez said ‘I’m guilty of being negligent and naive and not asking the right questions.’

Lorenzo (14 years old) from Italy think that he has lost the confidence from his team, the NEW YORK YANKEES. Using steroid to win prize is never acceptable!

Michael (14 years old) from Greece said ‘Steroids are bad because they destroy your life and even make you fatal.’



Article by Ricky Lau and Sharon Mok form Hong Kong, Michael Pexlibanidis from Greece, Lorenzo Gaiba and Giorgio Gottardi from Italy.

Source (information from): Wikipedia & ABCNews

MUSIC PLANET

Nowadays, many teenagers love music. But do you think you really know a lot about bands all over the world? Here we are going to introduce some bands of different styles from different countries.


France: We will introduce you David Guetta, a French house producer and DJ. His Music style are House and Electro-house . He was born in 7 November 1967. He began his music career in 1984 in nightclubs, now he is the 3rd best DJ of the world. Here are some songs from the world known DJ : ‘Memories’ (feat Kid CuDi ), ‘I gotta Feeling’ (feat Black Eyed Peas ), ‘Getting Over’ ( feat Fergie ).
When I listen to his music, I want to dance, jump and have a party!


Greece: Space Odyssey is a greek Uplifting Trance group that is made of 3 Djs. They play music since 1995. 10 years ago they were really famous, everyone from 15-20 years old knew them and listened to their music. Nowdays they are not that much famous but teens still listen to them. Their music is pretty good for dancing clubs or partys even though people have matched this music with drugs, but that’s not true!
One good track from this group is : Space Odyssey-Memories.(1996)
This music makes me feel free, the beat and the melody of this kind of music makes my fantasy works and my body moves without thinking.


Norway: Kurt Nilsen was born in Bergen year 29th September 1978. He is a Norwegian singer that won the Norwegian version of Idol in 2003. He also won the world-Idol with a song called ‘she`s so high’ in 2004.

some of the song he has sung: she`s so high
rise to the occasion
push push
hallelujah (cover with Espen lind, Askil holm and alejandro Fuentes)
and he has several more songs but i can`t name them all.

When i first heard him sing I thought he was a good singer and i liked his music style.

Ignite the Hope is a local underground band which plays post-hardcore music in Hong Kong. It formed in 2007. It has four members, Henry (vocals and bass), Lun (guitar), KinHo (guitar) and Nicky (drums and screams). Henry, Lun and KinHo had been friends for a long time. Once they were in the concert, they met Nicky and form Ignite the Hope.
Nicky(The drummer of the band) said, “ Each of us shares the same vision and goal, as well as similar taste in music. It is also our friendship that binds us to close each other.”
Although it plays alternate music, they are popular in Hong Kong. Ignite the Hope represents the hope of people. It hopes people all over the world can have a hope in their heart even you are in difficulty.
Nicky also said, “If I have to choose a song to represent my band, I will choose the “Can You Hear the Words of Innocence” because when we wrote the song, we often heard news about abandoned children and babies. In this song, we are questioning why those irresponsible parents could be so ruthless as to giving up their innocent children.”

When I first heard its songs, I did not feel good. The songs are really annoying. But after I listen to those songs again and again, I feel excited and full of power!



Writers: Nils 14 years old, France ; Dicky 14 years old, Hong Kong; Lars 14 years old, Norway ; Iasonas 15 years old, Greece; Paul 14 years old,France

Travelling alone… at 14?!?



Most of the youth in CISV likes travelling. While going to the CISV camps (like the one where we are now, in Lappeenranta) you have to travel alone. We think it´s very positive that youth does it. The parents often think that is too dangerous for the kids to travel without them. We, on the other hand, think that travelling alone makes you become more responsible and self confident. You have to solve the problems by yourself and take responsibility for your decisions. You can also practice your English because you are alone in a foreign country and the only way to communicate is by speaking English. During your period alone you don’t just learn new experiences but you also learn to get to know yourself better. Most of the youth in CISV have travelled alone since the age of 11, and sometimes you can see the differences with the other kids that don`t participate in CISV programs because CISV people are more open-minded.

Halston Abbott (13) from Mexico says: “It is a great thing for the youth to travel all around the world when being young because when you get older you get married and have kids, and it is not that easy to travel around the world as when you were younger.”


Marte Haugsdal (14) from Norway thinks “That there is some bad things by travelling alone because you can get money problems and you can get lost very easily without an older person guiding you; and you can also have problems that you can´t solve by yourself. But it´s also always a positive experience.”

Stefania Orsi (14) from Italy, thinks that´s a great thing to travel without your parents, but when you come back home it is a bit strange to get used to the normal life with your family.

We all from CISV camp consider each other very lucky to have the confidence from our parents. They let us come to the camp and of course to be chosen to come because there are so many teenagers who wish they could have come.


Stefania Orsi (14) Italy, Heidi Huitula (14) Finland, Marte Haugsdal (14) Norway, Vilde Brattabö (14) Norway, Halston Abbott (13) Mexico, Wilma Lindström (14) Finland

July 15, 2010

Education costs money, but then so does ignorance.


picture 1: Heidi Uuttana

picture 2: Kiran Bräunig

Equal opportunity to get an education is not always a matter of course.


Whether it be Germany, Finland, Mexico or the USA, all of our school systems seem to pose some problems. Equal opportunity is not always in the picture, and we speak for all children left behind.

Here in Finland everyone has the same opportunity to get an education at any level, but in Mexico, things are a lot of different.

If you want your child to receive an education fell of extra-curricular features, paying for a private school is your best option.

Sarai (35) said: “Every time I travel to a different place, I realized about their educational systems, and feel upset with our schooling program. I don’t understand why parents had to pay a lot of money to give me education I deserve if they paid their taxes for this reason.”

In addition to Finland, Germany has also free education for all, yet young children are pressured by the fact they must chose a school right for them, at such a young age.

Kiran and Elena also said: “Your chances of getting into Gymnasium are higher if your parents are more educated, even if you aren’t so smart yourself.”

In the United States everyone should be able to have the same opportunity in education, but in some places, school systems are lacking financial aid, which leads to crucial cuts in children’s curriculum.

Dante and Christine (CC) say: “Where we live, teachers are becoming scarcer every year and so is the amount of kids graduating high school. Important programs like arts, music, and drama are also being cut. Unfortunately, these are vital in childhood growth.

In the end, things will take a while before change is fully enacted, but thankfully the youth is now raising their voice.

Group members: Kiran Bräunig (14, Germany), Elena Stulz (14,Germany), Heidi Uuttana (Finland), Dante Cardenas (14, USA), Christine Brennan (14, USA), Sarai Mota Acosta (Mexico)

The facebook phenomenon

Youth on Facebook/Chloé Terrace

Facebook is a social networking website launched in February 2004 and it was founded by Mark Zuckerberg when he is attending Harvard as a sophomore. In Facebook, users can create profiles with photos, lists of personal interests, contact information and other personal information. Also, communicating with friends and other users can be done through private or public messages or a chat feature.


We asked Lyne (14) France, Magdalini (14) Greece, Franca (13) Germany, Skyler(14) & Lexis (14) USA and Axu (22) Finland, some questions about Facebook:

1.How often do you go on Facebook?
Almost everyday.
2.How many time do you spend on Facebook
Maybe 30 minutes every time.
3.What are you doing on Facebook?
Watch our friend’s wall send messages, watch photos, check out groups and notifications, answer comment’s, play games and chat with our friends.
4.What are you going when you are not on Facebook?
Everything else: we go to School or go out with friends, ride horse or bicycle, draw, write, cook, eat and sleep.
5.Do you think Facebook is good or bad? Why?
Facebook is good because we can communicate with people we don’t see everyday and it helps to create global Friendship…But it’s also bad because there is no privacy and people can easily have informations about us, and many people get addicted by Facebook.
6.What is your opinion on Facebook? Advantages and Disadvantages?
The Advantages are that we can keep contact with friends, who are living in other countries, but it’s too open and everybody can see our wall and our photos.

We have also the opinion from Sarrai and Franzi concerning Facebook:
Sarai(35) from Mexico:

I think Facebook is a very useful and fun tool but you need to know how to use it. You need to be very careful what kind of information you are sharing with the community. Franzi(25) from Germany:

I think Facebook is a really important medium for globalization and international understatement. It is a good medium to stay in contact with people from all over the World. For using Facebook it’s really important to know who are the real and the Facebook friends.
Finally we can say that Facebook is a really useful tool because it helps people to communicate with friends and family and to know about them. With Facebook you can keep in touch with people who are far away from you and spend some time, albeit virtual, with them. Also, this website it’s fun and entertaining because of the games, photos, etc that it has. On the other side, Facebook can be really dangerous. There are more than 400 million users who are the main target of hackers, and other people with bad intentions. In Facebook you share your personal data with everybody and it can be really dangerous.

Text by Christi Ho Ting Kwan(HK-14), Chloé Terrace(France-14), Maria de la Lama(Mexico-13), Irene Velluti(Italy-14)

Wednesday 14.7.


French delegation:

Today it was our national day and that is why we wanted to be the delegation of the day. In the morning, journalists from the local newspaper “Vartti” came to the campsite. They shared with us their experience as journalists and taught us some important things to know to be a good journalist. Indeed, a journalist has to be critical for himself but also for the people who read his article. In groups we were ment to write and take a picture to create our article. Every group worked on different topics as football, music, freedom of education…

Cheers from Lyne, Chloe, Nils, Paul and Soraya.



July 14, 2010

Tuesday 13.7.2010

Delegation of the day: Mexico

This morning the Mexican delegation got to wake the whole camp up with a happy song in Spanish. The weather is so hot that we had to play Drip Drip Drop (water game). It finished in a water fight! So the result was we were soaking wet. We had a really yummi lunch and sang Kiitos. For activity two we played life boat and we had a great debriefing! Tonight is USA cultural activity! We are looking forward to see what they would do!

Monday 12.7.2010

Delegation of the day: Italy

Today for the first time from the beginning of the camp we could sleep longer than usually, until 10:30! During the night we made an awesome activity called House of Feelings. We were waken up in the middle of the night, blinded and guided by other people through the school. There were five "stations" where we had to experience different things using all our senses.
In the morning we woke up the guys with the song "Meno Male" of Simone Cristicchi. After lunch we had an activity related to the theme Youth in Media. The third activity of the day was based on stereotypes and then we started the Monito game!!!


Vi vogliano bene!




July 12, 2010

Sunday 11.7.

Delegation of the Day: Hong Kong

Today was a little bit different. We were divided into two groups: Rich and Poor.
The rich people had to dress nicely and they were served by the poor people.
And the special arrangement lasted for the whole day...

The first activity was held in the lake. We discussed the meaning of our camp theme: 'Youth in Media'. Then we had to act what we had talked about. We now understand more about the theme. Then, we can do what we had waited for a long time: swimming! yay!

We had our second camp meeting after swimming. It was no longer held by the leaders, but the youth! The youth can learn how to comprimise everyone's request.

The last activity was the debriefing of our Rich and Poor Day. Each delegation shared the uneven distribution of property and welfare policy in their own country. We were glad to share our feelings.

Oh, one more thing, today was the final game of World Cup!
All of us gathered in the cosy room to watch the game!

July 10, 2010

Saturday 10.7.


Today we had a bit different day than usually because right in the morning
we left from the camp and made an excursion to Lappeenranta city.

First we visited the fortress-area and heard some facts about the history of this fortress and why this city has been an important place already before Finland became an independent country.
After this some of our staff had planned an activity to get to know the
town and learn problemsolving and cooperation skills.
All the youth and leaders were devided in to groups in which they did some orientiering with photos of different places. There were also some tricky questions, such as what are things called vety and atomi?
To sort out these questions, teams had to take contact to the local people.
Wheather was really sunny and hot, luckily they were selling some ice cream at the harbour.
In the end we also got possibility to see little part of finnish weddings in the city centre!

-Staff


Relaxing after the race in Lappeenranta

Having picnic by the fortress area

Friday 9.7.

Greek delegation

Today it was our delegation day and the handicapped day,
so we dedicated this day to handicapped people.
For the first activity we separated the participants in groups of different disabilities,like blind people, people with one foot etc. This was a role playing activity and it helped us to understand how these people feel and the difficulties they had to face.
We also had an intense discussion about how the media and society in different countries respond to this theme. For better understanding we participated in a scavenger hunt, where we used small exercises to embrase our role plays and cooperate. This was very usefull for us because we realised how importand it is for the handicapped to be helped and overcome their problems.
At last, we had an activity where we concluded this topic about handicapped
with a game of teamwork and fun.

Finally as a greek team we came to the conclusion
that C.I.S.V may also mean Cooperation.Invision.Socialising.Variety. :)

Kalinihta from Greek Delegation(GOODNIGHT)

July 9, 2010

Thursday 8.7.

Activity 2


Delegation of the day: Finland

The day was very hot. We had to wake up at 8 am, and we used some music to do it. The first activity was held outside and we ran a lot. Everyone got very sweaty because of the heat. Activity two was inside. We discussed a lot for example about violence and alcohol. We also had to get over rope by help of each other. After the dinner the leaders and staff members went on their night out. We had to manage with our babysitters. The people here are very nice and the food has been okay. See you in a while!


Greetings, Wilma, Heidi, Johnny and Axel.




Leader's night out, picnic in Lappeenranta Fortress (old town) and harbour.

July 8, 2010

Wednesday 7.7.

Today Norway was the delegation of the day.
It was the first day the youth planned the activities.
In the beginning there was a lot of running.. The second activity was about conflicts and resolutions.
In the third activity cooperation was the key to success.
We were building a tower and to win, you had to build the highest tower.
We could only use a little paper, tape, straw and rope.
Now we will watch the German footballmatch in World Cup. See you later, alligator!

Tuesday 6.7.2010

Delegation of the day: Germany

The weather is perfect -really hot and perfect for a swimming activity.
So, after the definition of seven planning groups and their first meeting,
we went to the beach and enjoyed the outside activity.
After that activity we started with the first group meeting and discussed about different topics,
which were defined by the youth before the meeting.
The bed time is now 01.30 am -let's have a look how long it works :)

Monday 5.7.2010

Camp diary

Monday, 5.7.2010

Today as delegation of the day, USA blasted Party In the USA by Miley Cyrus to wake everyone up.
Finally having the entire camp together is really nice, especially for our
very first flag time as a camp.
The staff and leaders had planned our activites for the day and
our main activity for the day was a mind-map where we charted our feelings about
different areas we were interested in,
things we know about and things we want to know about.
When we debriefed this activity, people were very open and excited about their ideas.
A great start for a Summer Camp.
We also played games to get to know eachothers names which was very helpful.
Trying to remember 50 names is a little difficult in one day!
Our first lullabies were quite interesting...but it now gives us room to improve.
All in all, we had a great first full day!

July 5, 2010

First day's at the camp!!


Hello everyone

The camp has started and we're having a lot of fun. We have done a lot of different activities, but mostly just hanging around the campsite learning the boundaries and rules of the camp.

Nobody has complained that they haven't had fun yet so keep your thumbs up that everything goes alright.

We have taken a lot of pictures but we had so much so we had to choose some.

The staff