First impressions of Czechia and Rychnov!
Introduction by Romana Vančáková
On Wednesday 26th February 2025 a group of nine Finnish students together with their two teachers, Laura Kinnunen and Taru Kervila arrived in Rychnov within the Erasmus+ programme. The majority of the group came just for under a week as a student group mobility. However, two students will study at GFMP for six weeks and stay in Czech families – the Pichert and the Trejtnar families. What do the two girls, Aino Salonen and Elsa Perrakoski, think of the Czech Republic, Rychnov nad Kněžnou and our gymnázium so far?
Aino Salonen
Maybe the biggest surprise on the first school day was the animals which live in the school. I have never seen animals in school before. The school is so much bigger than our school in Finland. Also, the school lunch is quite different here than in Finland, but definitely in a good way.
The other big surprise was how people are so social here. Here everyone comes to talk to you even if they don’t know you at all. And when you speak to someone they don’t watch their phone, they just listen to you and talk back to you. It has been so fun to speak with new people and everyone is so nice to us.
I didn’t get a culture shock, because Czechia is quite similar compared to Finland even though you can find some differences. And one thing that was such a positive surprise was the Sun. Almost every day it has been sunny and so warm. It has been so nice after the long-lasting winter.
Elsa Perrakoski
After spending a week in Rychnov, here are my first impressions of Czechia. There are some differences between Finland and Czechia. For example, there are a lot more hills here than in Finland and even the architecture is somewhat different here.
Rychnov is a really nice town and in my opinion it’s better than my hometown in Finland. Even though they have the same population, Rychnov feels bigger. Also, everything is so well connected here and it’s really easy to walk everywhere. There are many trains that go even to the countryside. I think it’s good to have the trains so moving from place to place is easier.
People here are actually really social compared to Finnish people. I’ve been able to communicate with so many people already. And even learned some words and phrases in Czech.
I was also surprised that it was going to be so warm here already! And that spring really starts already in March. Meanwhile in Finland it’s still really cold, around under 5 degrees, when in here it is up to 17! Overall a positive experience!
„Financováno Evropskou unií. Vyjádřené názory a stanoviska představují názory a stanoviska autorů a nemusí nutně odrážet názory a stanoviska Evropské unie nebo Domu zahraniční spolupráce. Evropská unie ani poskytovatel grantu za ně nenesou odpovědnost.”
