Day 1

After a long day of flying we are finally here in Helsinki. We flew from Philadelphia to Brussels, then had a short layover before getting on Finnair for the flight to Finland. Security in these airports was nothing compared to what we are used to in the U.S. - what a breeze! We were met at the Helsinki  airport by two of the EF tour guides, who arranged for a cab to take us to the hotel. Weird seeing signs everywhere in a language that you can't make out a single word - what's with all the double vowels and umlauts or whatever they are? After a quick freshening up, we met the other conference goers for a cocktail reception in a room that overlooks the city. Beautiful view, but of a rather modern city - no real signs of any old architecture. We are split into groups, and our guide Daniel, who works out of the Paris office, walked us to a restaurant for dinner. Good food - salad, pork, and a dessert of some sort of light cake or crepe with berries. One of the people at our table was the superintendent in the Kissimmee area of Florida - enrollment around 53,000 students. It was interesting to hear her struggles as the first Latino female in that role in the entire state of Florida!
A quick walk back to the hotel, where, after touching base via FaceTime with my husband, I fell into bed, but not before I tightly closed the drapes, so the light (even at 11:00 at night it's still light here) didn't come in.