On May 2012 we (Eiri Sohlman & Mikael Kojo) visited our Russian colleagues in Murmansk State Humanities University (MSHU) and also the pilot schools in Murmansk, Kandalaksha and Lovozero. Our trip started on Sunday morning May 13th. After 12 hours of driving we finally arrived at our hotel (Park Inn Poliarnie Zori) at around 9 p.m.

The following Monday we met with Inna Ryzhkova (MSHU), Yulia Shestova (MSHU), Tatjana Tegaleva (MSHU), Svetlana Petoshina (MSHU) and Artem Podoplekin (NArFU) at Murmansk Gymnasia #5 where we were warmly welcomed by the school principal and other school staff. We discussed the project schedule and the schools participation in the project. The fruitful discussion gave us a whole lot of new ideas.

On Tuesday morning we drove some 250 km south from Murmansk to visit Kandalaksha secondary School #19 which is one of our pilot schools. The school’s principal and other staff members introduced us their school and gave a brief presentation of the school’s history. Eiri gave a presentation about the project and after a nice cup of coffee and delicious snacks we had a workshop with one of the upper classes. We got some excellent material from the students and they seemed very much interested about the project.

On Wednesday we headed northeast towards Lovozero boarding-school. Eiri gave a presentation about the project and we were told about the school’s history by the principal. We had a workshop with 7th grade class and once again the students showed much interest towards the project and we got more good material to start working with.

On Thursday we had a meeting at MSHU about the common questionnaire with Svetlana Petoshina, Yulia Shestova and Tatjana Tegaleva. We also discussed the future activities of the project. On Friday we started our journey back home. We arrived in Rovaniemi in the evening tired but much wiser.