Espoo Art Museum & an African Circus

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to go on a trip with my school to Espoo, Finland, near Helsinki. At my school there is an African group of students studying African culture and next year they will take a trip to Africa, and there is also an art class which I am in, and we have been making African themed artwork. This was the reason behind the trip.

We left school after lunch and started driving through the snow towards Espoo about an hour away. Our first stop was to the Espoo Museum of Modern Art to see an African exhibit.

Here is everyone who came on the trip. There were only about four or five of us art students and then everyone else is in the African club. It was nice because a lot of my friends were there and it was a great bunch of students. I am in the front row in the blue.

A poster from one of the other exhibits that was going on at the same time while we were there. After getting a presentation and looking at different African costumes, we were able to wander around in the rest of the exhibit, and then look in the other exhibits for a short time before we had to leave.

The outside of the museum. It wasn't too cold, but as you can see it was still snowing and continued to do so the whole night. Southern Finland has actually gotten much more snow then the North.

Yes, I hate to admit it but now I have eaten at McDonalds. I was hoping to avoid it this year, but there wasn't much time to eat and so this was the best place to go. They have their own Finnish special of a Ruisleipä burger, but I didn't get it. Ruisleipä is a type if Finnish bread, that everyone here eats. It's like a hard rye bread.

After a hurried dinner, we got back on the bus and then went to Kaapeli. We were a bit early for what we were there for so first we looked in a small art exhibit.

Then it was time for the show! We went to see the Winter Circus; Africa! I haven't been to a circus in so long, so I was really excited. There was acrobatics, dancing, juggling, etc.

It really ended up being a lot of fun and was an excellent opportunity. I had a great time and it's interesting to see how much of a presence Africa has here in Finland. Hyvää Joulua kaikille! (Merry Christmas everyone!)