Each One Teach One

This blog is for my school’s course Each One Teach One, or for short, EOTO. I'm a first year student in business administration in Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences. In this EOTO-course, there are five of us and we plan to meet every once in a while, and do all fun things: cook Finnish and Japanese foods, go shopping, go around the city and visit different places etc. We want to learn about each other’s cultures and languages, and I’m kind of looking forward to practice my English and Japanese skills. We have already met two times and next I’m going to tell a little bit about our first two meetings. Sadly I don’t have many photos since at the time I didn't know I was going to write a blog for this course, but from now on I’m going to take many photos, since they make writing blog much more fun. My English isn't always the best, but I hope I don’t make too many mistakes!

How I met Mayu and Rika?

I’m interested in going to Japan as an exchange student, so in the beginning of fall semester when I heard someone talking in Japanese on the bus stop when I was on my way to home, I was pretty excited! So yes, I first met Mayu and Rika on a bus stop at the centre of Jyväskylä. At first I didn't have the courage to say anything to them, and to be honest, I was quite nervous. On the bus I realized that this might be my only change to talk to them, so I gathered up courage and asked if they were from Japan. Turned out that they were, and they were indeed studying in Jamk, so we decided to add each others as friends in Facebook. A few days afterwards I met Mayu and Rika with Tiia, my classmate, in Jamko café, and we discussed various things, and later decided that we should take the EOTO-course. Mayu and Rika also told us that Jonas is interested taking EOTO-course with us, so we decided to form a small group, and take the course together. We made a group in Facebook, so that communication would be easier, and then decided when the first EOTO meeting would be held.

30th September 2012

We decided that we would bake cinnamon rolls on the first meeting, since they are quite traditional Finnish buns. We held the first meeting in Mayu's apartment, in Roninmäki. I brought all necessary equipment with me to Roninmäki, and then we all went to Keljo's Prisma by Jonas’ car and bought necessary ingredients. As we shopped Mayu and Rika asked a few questions about Finnish products, such as which is milk and which is sour milk, what kind of cookies are good and so on. After we finished shopping we went back to Roninmäki and started baking. I made the paste quite quickly, and then we all sat down and chatted for about 30mins, while the paste rose. When we started making the cinnamon rolls, I first showed Mayu and Rika how to make them, and then both of them took turns and tried making them too. All of the cinnamon rolls turned out really good and tasty! 

Mayu and Rika liked them a lot, so I was happy. We sat down, drank some tea and ate many, many buns. We talked about various things, and made a little word list of the ingredients in Finnish. Mayu and Rika also wanted the recipe for cinnamon rolls, so we promised to translate it for them.

4th November 2012

We had talked in Facebook about when we should meet next time. We decided to meet on Saturday 4th, at Rika's apartment in Roninmäki. For this meeting we had planned to cook Japanese dish, okonomiyaki. I had heard about okonomiyaki before, but never eaten it, so I was really looking forward tasting it. We arrived to Roninmäki around 13:00 and Mayu was already making some preparations for the food. While the two girls were cooking, we chatted a little bit, drank some tea and looked how okonomiyaki was made. It seemed quite simple to do! As Mayu and Rika finished cooking, we could finally taste the long waited dish, and it was really good! 

I really want the recipe, so I can cook it for myself sometime. The girls made both different versions of okonomiyaki, and they said that everybody has their own style to cook it. Mayu used cabbage and Rika used cabbage and potatoes. After eating we made a little word list about the used ingredients in Japanese. We also talked about the schedule  and what all we should do in these meetings, and decided 3 more meetings for the end of the year. Since neither of us knew our school schedules for spring, we didn't plan the dates further than that, but we discussed what all we should do. Our next meeting was planned to be on 30th November.