We woke up to a bright and sunny day and extremely pleasant weather. After eating breakfast at Greenstar, we headed out for a nature walk along the river in Joensuu, which actually translates to “the mouth of the river”. We walked by fish ports and boats, and then stopped at a cafe at which there were delicious Finnish pastries. We also saw some of the beautiful and intricate architecture during our tour such as the local churches and museums. We headed back to the hotel for their lunch buffet, which featured some traditional Finnish foods, such as meat stew.
We then walked over to the Karelia University in Joensuu, in which we presented our projects for the EPIC challenge. The presentations took a total of over 3 hours, as there were virtual presentations from another school from Massachusetts, as well as our school and the University. Jet lag hit many of us during the presentations, causing the whole process to be a bit tiring, but it was still extremely educational and inspiring. Following the presentations, we went to a conference center because some University students built prototypes for space rover missions, and we were able to see the construction of the different rovers and interact with the Finnish kids.
Our day ended with eating a buffet dinner with the Massachusetts kids at a local restaurant; the weather was extremely nice, and some of us took advantage of the wonderful scenery and spent some time on the deck of the restaurant, after which we returned back to our hotel and turned in for the night.
