On Sunday when we arrived late at night, Jenna’s, Saga’s Karen’s and my baggage was missing. We spent at least two hours at the airport waiting for them and making a report to get them later. Then we were taken to our host families from Lisbon to Benedita. Fortunately, we got our baggage in the morning, but we realized some things had been stolen from our bags and they had probably been gone through by airport staff.

 

On Monday we had a meeting hour with the other students and host students. There was a welcome ceremony organized for us at the school’s auditorium and we listened to the school’s hymn and their choir sang to us. Before lunch, we went around the school with teachers and other countries’ students. After lunch we left to another city; Torres Vedras, where we visited a robotics club and walked around the small town.

 

On Tuesday, we visited the Polytechnic institute of Leiria where they had industrial robots. After that, we went to the Fátima sanctuary which was absolutely beautiful and magnificent. When we came back to Benedita, we went to our host families and did our own activities.

 

On Wednesday, we had our country fair, where we introduced our own country to others and served some traditional snacks from Finland. The fair was quite long, but after lunch, we had a workshop at school. We were divided into groups of students from different countries and we built robots from Lego-blocks.

 

On Thursday we went sightseeing to the west zone. To Alcobaça and Sao Martinho. Nazaré and North Beach were great and we have nothing like that in Finland. After the visits, we had dinner with our host families and teachers at the school. We danced our countries’ dances and sang together. Then we went to a local bar to listen to music and have a good time.

 

On Friday we went to Lisbon for the day and got to know the city and did some souvenir shopping and had lunch. After lunch, we were taken to see the monument of the Discoveries Padrão dos Descobrimentos.

On Saturday, we left early in the morning to the airport and said goodbye to our host families and Portugal, but we will come back!

Miisa Eerola and Jenna Kanniainen (Finland)