Helsinki - November 22

Helsinki and Metropolia College of Applied Science
Helsinki is an amazing, compact city. I start tomorrow with a meeting of the key faculty leaders in the area of Health and Social Services at Metropolia College of Applied Sciences. The college was created by the merging of two institutions in 2008 and is now the largest technology college - or what I would call polytechnic college - in Finland, with a specific focus on serving international student clientele as well as the greatest Helsinki metropolitan area. I will be working with the group in Health on a project called, collaborative intensity, a partnership with the Helsinki hospitals and Metropolia through funding from the European Union. They are creating a partnership in both the instruction and action research across these two arenas.
This weekend I have a number of special experiences as a explore Helsinki. During Saturday, I joined the massess and saw a major exhibit of Picasso from the key museum in Paris with Picasso's collective works. Although I have seen various pictures by Picasso over the year... this was by far the most impressive exhibit, with the best representation of all of his works = from the earliest to a few months before his death. Further, it included his patins, his drawings, his sculpture (yes he was a great sculpture) and mix media too. There were also photos and a variety of drawing. I again was in awe of his amazing creativity, and discovered his close relationship with Braque. Secondly, I did shopping for food --- at a major grocery store - Kompaii-- in the basement of the bus terminal and major shopping area. It was an amazing experience seeing the packing, pricing, and of course -- the names in Finnish of many products. I was not clear about buying chicken, but last night I did discover that I can guessed correctly. I also went to the Rock chuch on Sunday and experiences an English worship service filled with individuals from throughout the world. I discovered that there was a committed group to Bible translation through a presentation from someone in Togo and also a brief discussion of a mission representative from Singapore. So, even Finland - which is someone homogenous in culture - has an active outreach to other lands. The church itself was amagin --built within a rocky mount-- in a rounded auditorium structure. It was most impressive on the inside - given that you felt literally you were walking into a rock. Yes, Helsinki is filled with huge rock structures throughout the city.
I will share more later...with the weather and the college. These three weeks shoudl be an amazing difference from my experiences in Korea and Malaysia. Now to resolve technology difficulties - as well as experience my first Helsinki bus ride back to my private hotel.