We are pleased in the group picture,
in which a group of IS2 kids (Sanna and me as well) looking at the 107 Pulla and 201 Karelian pie they
just baked. They are so proud. Like many others, I am proud of them as well.
But this piece of writing wants to address
more about how we achieved the happy moment in the picture. It’s not depreciating
all the great work IS2 kids have been done so far. This writing aims to remind them
how much other people have helped them. Put in another way, I want to thank for
all the great ideas and supports from my colleagues.
It was exciting news when Lena
assigned IS2 the work to bake for the International Food Exhibition during the High
School Culture Week. As return, school will contribution a small amount of
money for our Dublin trip. Culture week is a great new idea. Life in countryside
can be so still and stale in November, when Christmas is yet to come. It’s always nice to
have some happenings from time to time.
After collected recipes from Finnish
language teacher and Swedish language teacher, I started to plan the baking schedule
and prepare the shopping list. After booked Home Economics Classroom C1 with
the help from school secretary, C1 classroom teacher came to introduce herself
to me. I was rather surprised to meet her for the first time. I always use C2 with
my English Club students, and I have never thought who is in charge of C1. She
offered help to prepare dough for pulla and porridge for Karelian pie since I
am not familiar with Nordic baking and fancy Finnish kitchen machines, especially
inside school kitchen, which has its “strict” rules. Furthermore, she reminded
me not to mess up with her kitchen several times, in a very humorous way.
During the preparation, she started
to ask me: how many students will come to bake? How are you going to divide the
roles among them? How to plan the kitchen for Pulla and Karelian pie baking? How are
you going to divide the porridge so that it can be made into 200 Karelian pie?
How to divide the dough into 200 pieces? Have you thought how to carry the bakery
back to high school? And so on…
I felt so unprepared in front of her
questions, but remarkably, she didn’t make me feel very stupid
at all. In terms of cooking, I am a typical Chinese cook, who always rely on “feeling”.
In terms of planning, I heavily rely on improvisation. I always think students
will figure out how to do it and the process of solving the real problem is the
process of “learning”. But today’s cooking is not only a learning process, but
a task. I am not ready at all. She generously started to teach me how to plan the whole process before students getting into the classroom.
10 portions of porridge for Karelian Pie. |
Get ready to make the Pulla dough with machines. |
Even oven trays are ready... |
So, when IS2 kids came, even some of
them were much ahead of scheduled time, everything had been ready. She stayed
much longer than planned because many of our students didn’t know how to make
Karelian pie. She offered to help more. It was another treasure that two Finnish
language teachers came to help. Of course, William also came with lots of “energy
fuels”, physically and mentally.
Undoubtedly, IS2 kids did such an
amazing job. They cover each other’s stupidity. They find ways to cheer up their
spirits even when doing pure labor work. Great work. And I hope, they keep up
with today’s fantastic group spirit during tomorrow’s Food Exhibition. Another big thanks to Lena, who had this idea.