Before we came to this MINE exchange program, we all assumed that we would generally feel most comfortable with the Italian students and the English students. I thought it would be more difficult to relate to Finnish students and that we would have less common interests. However now that we have been here for a week, I realize that even though we have different cultures we get along with each other so well!!!

Today we had a very intensive day, and being a big group it is difficult to agree on everything but we finally came to an agreement and our student tool kit is now under construction. I found myself working well in my group and even though we had differences between groups, we managed to merge the work we have done into one project for the conference.

Now that I look back and reflect on the situation, I remember the first day of our program, when Bernard and Rodianne conducted the ice-breaking session. During the "egg game", Bernard outlined three important points that we should keep in mind: (1) Communication is vital for a group to succeed, (2) Team work is important, (3) Leaders of the group are not those who force their ideas onto other people but those who identify the strengths of the others in the group and uses them effectively.