Bored in Budapest

On August 24, 2020 By riversandroads2102In Hungary, UncategorizedLeave a comment

It’s been 3 countries since I last posted on here. Ecuador, USA, and now Hungary. About a week and a half after my last blog post I was forced to leave Ecuador on a US government mandated flight due to the coronavirus. Shortly after my last post we started quarantine in Ecuador (actual quarantine not like what we had here). We all expected it to only last two weeks and then be able to live normal life again. But as things seemed to only be getting worse especially in Guayaquil my family in USA started discussing having me return to USA. On March 27 I returned to USA not getting to say goodbye to any of my friends or family expect the people who I was living with and two friends I got lucky enough to see in the airport. I was devastated. I felt like my Spanish was finally getting better and I was loving my time there. Ecuadorean doing something about the virus too, they had extreme measures in place whereas in USA no one was doing anything in comparison. After some time at home I realized being home was what needed to happen and what was going to be best for me before I went to college in Spain.

But again corona threw a wrench in my plans. My spanish wasn’t good enough to be taking business classes in spanish so I decided i was going to do a year round language program in Spain at the university I was wanting to go to. I took a month long language class in the summer (and man, I realized how terrible my spanish grammar was, but I learned a lot). But near the end of June I figured out that all the classes at the university I wanted to go to in Spain had been canceled or move online. I was so disappointed and had no idea what to do next. I began looking at jobs and apartments in my city and in other states. I applied everywhere I could.

At the end of July I got crazy news. One of my friends was attending college in Czech Republic because students were still allowed to enter the EU. Since it was too late to apply for Spain I began searching for other universities in Europe still accepting for the first or second semester. And then I found Budapest Metropolitan. It is a private english speaking university in Budapest, Hungary (a city I had visited before and LOVED). I applied and got in. A week and a half after receiving my acceptance I arrived in Budapest. I had to jump through a lot of hoops very quickly in order to be allowed into Europe. But somehow I made it. I have now been in Budapest five days. I am staying in a dorm shared with my university and another university in the Pest side of Budapest. The dorm is right outside of the city and only about a thirty minute metro ride to the main part of the city. In only five days I have fallen in love with the beauty of the city!! It honestly looks like something out of a fairy tale and pictures cannot begin to do it justice. Because I arrived a month before classes started I am the only student from my university who has arrived yet, so I haven’t made any friends. Most days I just wander around the city, get food at some point and then end up back at my dorm watching movies before dark. It is kind of boring and lonely right now, but I am bored in Budapest so it’s ok! Can’t complain even a little bit because it’s amazing here. And no one here wears masks except on public transportation and inside stores, it’s insane!! And being honest, I am kind of enjoying a little bit of alone time before life gets crazy with school and new friends and stuff to do! I am going to try to keep updating more often than I used to, and because of this please ignore grammar or spelling mistakes I make because if I proof read these I would be lucky to be able to post once a month. Thank you for keeping up!

Lángos- a typical Hungarian food that fried bread, sour cream, and cheese and depending what type you get there can be a variety of different toppings- this is Greek Style

View of Budapest from the plane

St. Stephen’s Basilica

Fisherman’s Bastion

Matthias Church

View from the Fisherman’s Bastion

Budapest Central Market Hall

Buda side of the city seen from Castle Hill

View of the Pest side from Castle Hill

Buda Castle

How I feel about COVID 19

On March 17, 2020August 24, 2020 By riversandroads2102In UncategorizedLeave a comment

The whole world is kind of shutting down due to some virus that started in China. There is no cure, it is highly contagious, it mostly kills older people or young children, and it is spreading rapidly. People are freaking out, but others are living life as if everything was normal. This is not ok. Many countries are closing their boarders and initiating a quarantine. I will be celebrating my second month in Ecuador in quarantine and will probably spend most of my third month in quarantine. It SUCKS. But what people need to do now is STAY HOME. Yes, it’s boring, house arrest is not fun, but it’s better than the virus. Younger people seem to being ignoring this due to the fact that the mortality rate is really low for them, but they are thinking selfishly. The virus is transmitted easily and could be given to loved ones or strangers that could die as a result. It has become a pandemic in such a short amount of time. Rumors that the virus is just like a “bad flu” are turning people away from the idea that it is no big deal. I hope quarantine and all the actions being taken start to scare people into submission. Maybe this is no big deal, maybe Corona Virus will just become nothing in a few months, but now we have to treat it like it is a real problem. Despite saying this I do believe some actions being taken are a little too extreme.

Having been a part of the exchange community and now having many friends on exchange COVID-19 has become a major issue. Many companies are deciding to send students home without giving them a choice on what to do, one specifically is YFU. My question for these organizations is: Why would you put a student in an even more dangerous situation to go in an airport and go back to a country where the situation might be worse? Why would you send a student who is in United States back to Italy? Depending on the student’s location in the United States they could be A LOT safer than they would be in Italy. Also by forcing an exchange student to go home you are putting them on AN AIRPLANE???? Which is where they are likely going to be exposed to the virus even more than in their host country (where they might already be quarantined (voluntarily or not)). I believe giving students the CHOICE to return home or not is valid. If a student wants to go home and be with their family or the situation is worse in their host country than their home country and they want to risk the plane ride then they can decide that. But it should be the student and their family’s choice, not the organization. I found out today one of my friends is being sent home, without a choice, as soon as flights are leaving from Ecuador again. I am not happy about this and I was sitting there in disbelief expecting him to start laughing and telling me he was just messing with me (like normal), but he didn’t. My other friends are also scared of being sent home for the same reason. I could not imagine my exchange being ended early for not even breaking the rules and not being able to do anything about it. I know this blog post will not likely go very far and will be read by maybe 5 people, but I wish more people would see it, people that could read this and make a difference for the exchange students that are being sent home to worse situations and don’t want to go.

COVID-19 is everywhere, worse in certain places, please stay safe. Wash your hands, stay at home, watch a movie, read a book, learn something new, please don’t travel the world right now. People practicing self quarantine thank you, others please do this so everything can go back to normal soon, and maybe more exchange students don’t have to go home.

Thank you.

First Month in ECUADOR!!

On March 15, 2020August 24, 2020 By riversandroads2102In Ecuador, UncategorizedLeave a comment

So at this point I have been living in Ecuador for just over a month. And it has been absolutely INSANE! Full of changes and new experiences, it hasn’t all been easy but I am having so much fun.

For the people that don’t want to read all of this here are some of the cultural differences I have experienced and new things I have tried: cow udder, cow stomach (for breakfast), cow tongue, and many different types of food that I had no idea what I was eating. I got to visit Quito three times and celebrate my birthday. I learned a lot more Spanish and have started making friends here. I have struggled with how much plans change and the time “flexibility” (everyone is ALWAYS late). Overall the people here are SO nice, SO nice, everyone is so happy to help me and get me to try new things. It had been an amazing month full of surprises!

I first arrived in Quito on January 17 and was met by my host mom (Sophia), an exchange student from USA who is living near me in Ecuador (Emily), and a friend of Sophia (he let us stay in his house the night we were there). The next day we went all around Quito visiting some of the main sights within the city. It was so much fun and I became friends with Emily. I was so happy she was there because otherwise I would have had serious issues communicating. I barely spoke any Spanish and could understand a minimal amount.

I fell in love with Quito and the mountains in the city, it was so gorgeous, but we were only there one day before we traveled to Santo Domingo (the city where I am living). I was exhausted and ready to just sleep the next day, but of course it is Ecuador and there doesn’t seem to be much time to rest here…even though everyone is always late to everything. First we went to one of my host aunt’s house, Nereyda, to meet another aunt (Ana Lidia), her husband, and her twin girls. We visited a river right outside of the city before going to Andrea’s house (another aunt). There we cooked out and swam in the neighborhood pool. I met so many people in one day I felt like I could have been there a week already. I was not able to communicate much and it was really difficult being there because we were there for so long and I was so tired. At the same time, it made me really happy, the whole family was really cute and I got to meet some other exchange students that are living with the family and their friends.

The first week I was trying to get adjusted to my new life in Ecuador. I started working at a jewelry store in Santo Domingo, just as a way to pay off me staying here. Since I don’t speak much Spanish I spend most of my time putting price tags on jewelry, but I enjoy it. Ana Lidia speaks English so she helps me whenever I need, but I am trying to use more Spanish. In my first week I spent so much time with the family because it was Sophia’s birthday. We were always going to lunch or dinner at other people’s house. It was a lot of fun but it was also quite an adjustment for me. The seven-ish months I was in USA I spent a lot of time alone but in one week I was constantly with other people. It was hard to communicate and a lot of times kind of boring. One of the birthday celebrations was supposed to be a “dinner” but we didn’t leave my aunt’s house until four in the morning. And by the end of it the kids were all covered in flour and foam/soap suds.

One of the weirdest things was being here without my friend (Andrés) from exchange because I never really thought I would be in Ecuador except to visit him. I had been texting him all week about how weird it was being with his whole family without him. But I knew I wouldn’t see him anytime soon because he was studying Medicine in Russia and would not visit until the summer. I had just gotten adjusted to the idea of him not being there when I got a knock on my door the next morning and he was standing there. I was totally shocked by his two week long surprise visit. No one expect his mom had known he was coming.

After Andrés’ surprise arrival everything went kind of crazy. We spent a lot of time with family and Andres’ friends. I was still going to work, but I got to skip a few days to hang out with friends.

The next weekend was my birthday and the Friday before they had a surprise party for me at work. They put me in charge of watching my 2 year old cousin for the last hour of work while they got a cake and party decorations. I had so much fun with him as I tried to communicate with him in Spanish and teach him English. I had slowly started to build a relationship with the people at work and the surprise party made me so happy. Afterwards I went to my friend Salwa’s house (she is from Ecuador but left one week later for exchange in Brazil) with Emily to watch movies. Around midnight we were going to go to a party down the street but when I got downstairs Andrés was there and we had cake with Salwa’s family.

On my actual birthday I went with Sophia and Andres to breakfast before going to my aunt’s house and eventually having lunch. After lunch Andrés, Emily, Marcelle (an exchange student from Brazil), and I took a taxi to Quito to stay with some of Andrés’ friends who are in University. We spent four days in Quito shopping, ice skating, and hanging out.

Back in Santo Domingo we spent a lot of time with the family and I didn’t go to work much. I spent time with Andrés and my friends. I got to go swimming and “cliff diving” in a river and made friends with two of the German exchange students (one is living with my host aunt). Friday, Emily and I went with Sophia to take Andrés to the airport to go back to Russia. He had been debating whether or not he wanted to move back to Ecuador and leave University in Russia, but he wanted to try real classes and would return to Russia for a week before he decided to move back to Ecuador or not.

After Andrés left not much happened. I was with my friends and family a lot, and went to work the whole next week. My Spanish has gotten a lot better I understand a lot and can speak more than I could in the beginning. The week at work was super busy because of Valentine’s Day coming up. I was working mostly in the front putting on price tags, welcoming customers, rearranging jewelry, and wrapping presents. I really started to make friends with the ladies I work with and enjoy my time there.

For the weekend a bunch of us went to the beach: Sophia, Emily, Marcelle, Marcelle’s host family, Nereyda and her son and their German exchange student, and one other family. It was SO much fun and beautiful. I was happy to finally go to the beach since everyone was always asking me if I had visited the beach yet. It was also a trip that made me realize that I was understanding a lot more Spanish than I realized (which made me super happy). We all stayed in one really nice house on the beach with a pool, and visited other beaches in the area. We were only gone for four days before returning to Santo Domingo.

I returned to work as normal but ended up skipping most of the week because of Rotary events (my host mom is in Rotary so I just go with her) and hanging out with my friends. This weekend starts Carnival which means a lot of family time, parties, water fights, and two more days off work.

More on Carnival and my second month in Ecuador next time!

Sorry for my poor grammar and writing in my posts now, but I know I will never post anything if I feel pressured to make it all really good and perfect.

Quito

Quito with Sophia (my host mom) and Emily

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River in Santo Domingo

Family for Sophia’s Birthday

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My new friends Marcelle (Brazil), Salwa (Ecuador), and Emily

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My surprise party at work

Birthday Lunch with my family. Sophia and Andres pictured

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My host grandparents

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Ice skating in Quito with Marcelle and Emily

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Post ice skating with our friends in Quito

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Friends in Quito

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Drive back from Quito

Another river in my city

Emily, Andres, and I in Quito when we took Andres to the airport

On the way to the beach

Outside where we stayed at the beach

Salinas, Ecuador

Beach with Lukas (Germany), Emily (USA), and Marcelle (Brazil)

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Montañita with exchange students and their host families

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Final night at the beach

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My Life Now

On February 24, 2020August 24, 2020 By riversandroads2102In Reflections, Thoughts, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Hello! It has been a while!
And a lot has changed.

Honestly I haven’t wanted to post because I felt too stressed to finish the posts about the end of my exchange. But it has literally almost been 8 months and I haven’t found the motivation to do so, so unfortunately I don’t think it will happen.
The end of my exchange was insane. Crazy busy. I traveled with friends and family all over Europe and Morocco. Eurotour with Rotary was AMAZING. And the month following traveling with my American family was great (it was hard to see them again but it was great). But all good things must come to an end. Leaving Finland, despite the ups and downs all year, was the the hardest thing I have ever had to do. At the airport I was surrounded by my Finnish family and my local friends, all of us were crying and promising to see each other soon. But it didn’t end there.
REVERSE CULTURE SHOCK IS A THING!!!!

Going home was SO HARD. It was great to see my friends and family. But no one really understood what I had been through. Many of my friends grew annoyed by my stories from Finland and my experiences and began to distance themselves. My family was not accustomed to the new me, and I had forgotten cultural norms and manners of the Southern United States. Walking into stores and having workers greet me with “Hello, Welcome…” and as I left the “have a blessed day” threw me into a nervous mess. I lived in a country for a year where no one talked to you unless they had to, this was not normal for me at all. It was apparent to me once I returned, how normal Finnish cultural values had become to me. Going back to school was probably the most difficult. Living in Finland with one of the best education systems in the world really turned me off to United States school systems. It only took two weeks for me to lose it. I was sitting in school for eight hours a day and feeling like I was doing nothing and having to just go home and reteach myself everything. I was annoyed by the amount of time I was spending in class that felt unnecessary. Most of my friends were no longer friends with each other or had no interest in being friends with me. I knew I needed to find something different despite the fact I only had one more year of high school. I began to talk to my mom to figure out what I could do. My first plan was to take college classes at the community college in my city to get the rest of my high school credits. As I was doing more research on where I wanted to go to college I found the University of Granada in Spain. It sounded AMAZING to me, but I had to learn Spanish to take the entrance exam for the course. I hit a road bump. It took a lot of courage and research for me to approach my mom and ask if I could do online school and graduate six months early in order to go abroad again and learn Spanish. I was shocked when she agreed. I began doing research and calling my friends from exchange to see if any of them had a place for me to stay for six months to study Spanish. My third phone call was a success! One of my best friends from exchange, Andrés (from Ecuador) was about to leave for Russia to go to Med school. After explaining my situation and what I wanted to do he said I could live with his mom in Ecuador for six months while he was studying in Russia. I would also help out at his aunt’s jewelry store for my keep.

I was beyond ecstatic to know I had a plan and a way to learn Spanish. Five days later I “dropped out” of high school and began classes online. For the next four months I was doing almost 9-10 hours of school a day to try to finish nine months of school in four. It was insanely stressful and online school is not the most fun. It was hard to establish trusting relationships with teachers and communicate when help was needed, but I figured it out. I was able to establish trust and relationships with my teachers which helped me reach my goal of graduating high school early.

After finishing high school all I had left was to pack and prepare for my big trip to Ecuador. More on that NEXT TIME!!!!

I have attached pictures from the end of my exchange

Estonia with friends

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All the girls who went on Eurotour

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Budapest

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Beach in Latvia

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John Lennon Wall in Prague

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Budapest

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Salt Mine in Poland

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Final Night of Eurotour in Germany

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First round of goodbyes to my friends

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Midsummer with my host sisters

My little sisters

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USA Parents in Finland

Host Family and their Tennessee shirts

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Summer Cottage visit with my real family and host family

St. Petersburg with my dad

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Visiting our past exchange student in Spain

Fez, Morocco

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Both previous are from Morocco

My friends and family seeing me off at the airport when I went back to United States

The Rest of April

On June 25, 2019August 24, 2020 By riversandroads2102In April 2019, Uncategorized1 Comment

April

I am so behind, the rest of my blog posts will just be one month at a time, sorry.

So… this is the rest of April.

The next weekend we had a Rotary District Conference. It was mostly the exchange students sitting in the back of the room for a few hours waiting to introduce ourselves or understand what was going on. It was still really fun though. I bonded with people I hadn’t before, we went to a museum and hung out afterwards in Helsinki. That Sunday was a holiday called Virpo. It is the equivalent of trick or treating in Finland but on Palm Sunday. All of the kids dress as witches and then run around the neighborhood exchanging decorated sticks for candy. I actually got to participate with my five year old host sister and her friends. That evening was the Women’s World Hockey Championships which was intense. It was USA and Finland against each other, and Finland won…until they didn’t. For some unknown reason the goal that Finland got that allowed them to win was not approved and USA won afterwards. So many Finns were totally enraged, my host dad even joked about that idea that I shouldn’t go to school on Monday for my own safety. It was such a big deal here, even I thought it was wrong taking away Finland’s win.

I traveled to the city of Turku, on the western coast, with one of my friends from France to experience the city in Spring spring. We met up with a lot of the exchange students that area that are on exchange there and the day was amazing. I made a lot of new friends and had such a great time. We visited the main sights in the city and then sat by the river just hanging out. The next day I went to Järvenpää to visit one of my Finnish friends and spent the evening with her. It was, my now six year old host sister’s birthday the next day. We woke up early to prepare the breakfast and cake for her. We spent the day chilling at home until we travelled to Tampere in the afternoon to visit my host mom in a hotel where she was working. My thirteen year old host sister and I set up an Easter egg hunt for the kids in our hotel room (it was Good Friday) and prepared the second small birthday celebration for my sister. The next day we went to a Spy museum about the Second World War (it was so cool) before returning to Helsinki. Easter nothing much was done as celebration since Virpo (on Palm Sunday) is more of their celebration, so I hung out with my friend. We had Monday off from school too so I went to visit my host aunt and her kids for the day.

I went to Turku with school to see Hamlet. It was completely in Finnish and really strange. They had a modern twist that made it really interesting. It was really hard to understand though because there wasn’t the rhythm of typical Shakespeare because Finnish has only the first syllable is stressed so I don’t think the story line was exactly the same and it was a confusing three hours.

I traveled to the coastal city of Kotka for a day with exchange students from Helsinki and met with some people there. It was a really great day and the city was absolutely beautiful. All the traveling I have done in Finland this month has really helped me discover more of the culture.

Over the weekend many exchange students ended up in Helsinki all at the same time for some reason. One exchange student from Spain came to stay with me and a girl from Brazil. We visited the new exhibits at two museums in Helsinki multiple times in the weekend. Friday night we met up with one guy from Mexico who was visiting Finland (he did his exchange at my school last year). Saturday there was a huge group of exchange students in Helsinki. The weather was so nice so we hung out outside on top of these “bump” statues everyone hangs out on in the city. We were listening to music, dancing, and talking. It was so much fun, and was repeated with new people the next day in front of the Cathedral. We were out very late without even realizing it because the sun doesn’t set here until almost 9:30pm now.

The last night of April there was a large event in Helsinki to celebrate the beginning of spring. May first we have off of school to picnic, but the last day of April there is a large event. All of the college kids are in the city to celebrate “Vappu” which is Labor Day. There was a big celebration where one of the “college hats” was put on a statue in the main park in Helsinki. I went with a bunch of Finns and exchange students. It was so much fun, maybe one of the best nights of my exchange.

This month a lot of things changed for me, especially my attitude. The darkness had affected my mood so much and now the sun is shinning, it’s warm, and I’ve made some really amazing friends I am so happy. This last week completely changed a lot of things for me and I learned a lot about myself.

April was really amazing.

My friend from Mexico and I in Kotka

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Trip to Kotka with other exchange students

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Exchange students hanging out in Helsinki

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Turku trip to see my friend from Argentina

Virpo

Vappu

A boy from Mexico who was on exchange in Finland last year came to visit

Week 14: Kruununvuori, Finnish test, Rotary event

On May 13, 2019May 13, 2019 By riversandroads2102In April 2019Leave a comment

Monday I was rushed to come back from Cata’s to go to a Rotary meeting I had completely forgotten about. I wasn’t feeling well, I had a large Spanish exam to study for, and I had to study for the Finnish exam I was to take on Saturday, so Rotary excused me from attending the meeting thankfully. My Spanish teacher also said I didn’t have to take the exam for her class, which was a major relief. Wednesday I had an English exam in the morning and then went to have lunch with Hilla, Andrés’s host sister, it was really nice to see her. We went for Indian food and after we went around Helsinki to hang out.

I had to go to Finnish class in the evening for the last time before the exam on Saturday, honestly I was so nervous for the test after that last class. Finnish is so difficult, but my teacher promised we would all do well and it wasn’t too hard.

Thursday I didn’t have school so I went with Andrés to this part of Helsinki that had abandoned buildings in the area. My friends and I had been talking about going and it had just finally gotten warm enough to go. No one else was available to go so Andrés and I just went. The weather was perfect and the place was right by the sea, it was so beautiful. We just explored the area, occasionally finding a broken building but mostly just wandering around. In the evening we went back into the city ate and hung out in the library. Friday I was supposed to go to Jävenpää, but plans feel through so I studied for the Finnish test and went to get my wallet from the train lost and found (I got it back with everything still there, even cash, I love Finland).

Saturday was the Finnish test. I had been studying everything my teacher had been telling us to, but I was still scared. My host dad dropped me off at the test location early Saturday morning. After waiting for about ten minutes with one Russian girl to take the test we started to get worried that no one else had showed up and the doors were still locked. It turned out we had been in the wrong location and needed to get to a different building fifteen minutes away in about two minutes. We ran as fast as we could to get to the testing location before the testing was closed. I was so scared we were not going to make it, we were very late but they still allowed us into the testing room since they hadn’t given out the papers yet. The test was in multiple sections the first being reading comprehension, listening comprehension, writing, and an interview. It was one of the hardest things I ever did. My friends and I understood little to nothing. Some of us almost started crying during test. Everything we had learned was not on the test at all, everything was incredibly difficult. I couldn’t understand any of the passages or the questions in the reading, the vocabulary was too hard. The listening comprehension was too fast and the instructions were not clear. The writing prompts were not understandable. The interview was maybe not so bad, I understood the questions, but it was hard because I couldn’t come up with the right words to respond. It was all around really bad. I spent Saturday night with my friend Julia. We explored her city and visited the lake where we had been ice swimming earlier in the year. We met up with Valentin (France) at Hesburger (a Finnish fast food chain) and hung out for most of the evening. Sunday Julia (she is going to Australia next year) and I got up early to go to a Rotary event in Suomenlinna. The inbound exchange students were meeting all of those who were going on exchange next year. We spent the day hanging out and eating food everyone had brought. I had a really great time, but once we returned to Helsinki I left early because I wasn’t feeling well. At home I went running with my host dad, as a nice way to finish the crazy week.

The abandoned buildings

Exchange students in front of the Cathedral

Coast of Helsinki

Cathedral with my friend from Italy

Week 13: Bands, Exam week, Loimaa

On May 13, 2019 By riversandroads2102In March 2019Leave a comment

In Finland it has started to get warmer, the sun is out longer, the snow is melting, and the nature is showing promises of Spring.

During the week there were two band concerts at my school. I went on Monday with my friend Kia to one of them after I saw her theater performance. We spent most of the evening joking about the “cute” band boys. I had been feeling sick that day, but the evening with Kia made me feel a lot better. There was another band event the nest day, it was a competition to raise awareness about climate change. I went with Kia to support our friend Julia, who’s band was performing. The vibe in this concert was very different than the first and Kia and I were not expecting it. The concert was in the theater classroom, it was more of a coffee shop setting but no one was talking and everyone was sitting on the floor. It was still a lot of fun though, and Julia’s band actually won, which was so exciting. When the concert was over Kia and I ran around the school taking pictures and laughing together. The exam week started on Thursday and I only had a photography exam on Thursday. Wednesday night my neighbor came to help me work on the photography self portraits before my class. Honestly the project was kind of a mess, but I think my teacher actually liked it. Thursday afternoon I hung out with Andrés, we went to see a movie and he stayed at my house. The next day he was going on a trip with his host sister and I was going to Loimaa to visit my friend Cata. We were late leaving my house and got lost trying to get to the various places where our trains were leaving from. I missed my first bus and train to get to Loimaa but thankful mad it to the second one without having to pay twice. In Loimaa I spent the weekend with Cata, we played cards, saw a basketball game at her school, met up with some of her friends, and spent time catching up. The weekend was relatively uneventful, but I had a great time regardless and didn’t leave until Monday afternoon.

Taking pictures in my school with Kia

There is still some snow but the sun is out

Band night

Week 12: Career Day, Rotary Meeting, and Swimming

On May 13, 2019May 13, 2019 By riversandroads2102In March 2019Leave a comment

Tuesday we had a Career Day at my school. The first years and other students were dismissed from their first classes to see a program in the lobby. Some semi famous musicians from Finland were performing and speaking to the school, they had once attended my school and wrote a song about Vantaa, the city where my school is. The song is kinda a joke and it was really funny to see it live. In the afternoon I met a friend at Kiasma with friends from his art class, we went around the museum before they went to get sushi. I had to leave early to go to a Rotary meeting. The meeting with Rotary was to discuss how my exchange had been progressing and talk about any problems I had been having. I was very nervous for the meeting, but it was less critical of my exchange but my Rotary club wondering what they could do better to help exchange students in the future.

School was uneventful during the week. I had television class and we started making an action film, which was actually really fun. we had to make a dumb that looked like one of the students to throw off the balcony of the school.

On Friday I was supposed to stay the night at my Finnish friend Tytti’s house, I had been looking forward to it all week. As I was going to meet up with her I got a text from a friend, Andrés, inviting me to go swimming with him and his host family. Tytti and I talked and decided we would go with them, but we had to go back to my house and get another bathing suit for Tytti because she didn’t have one with her. Andrés’s host brother picked us up at my home and we went swimming at this really nice place in Vantaa and met up with one of the exchange students from France, Valentin. I hung out with Tytti and Andrés’ host sister most of the time (I actually became pretty good friends with his host sister). I had so much fun swimming with them. Tytti and I went back to her house for a girls night, we talked a lot, and picked her dad up from some event he had been at. When we picked up her dad we got dragged into the venue where there was some man “singing” the noises he was making were close to croaks and moans. At first it was hard not to laugh because what was happening was really unexpected, but after time it was actually interesting how he could make so many different sounds with his voice. It was one of those crazy cultural experiences that left me feeling “what did I just see?” When I left Tytti’s house on Saturday I was supposed to meet up with friends in Helsinki but they wouldn’t get back to me so I was left at home and spent the rest of the weekend with my host family.

Week 11: Meeting friends, Climate Strike, and Americans

On April 16, 2019April 16, 2019 By riversandroads2102In March 2019Leave a comment

Monday morning college students from Illinois, USA were visiting in my Photography class. I jumped immediately to talk to the girls in the class. We bonded quickly and I talked to them about the differences between Finnish and American culture, I was invited to sit in on another class and meet another group of the Americans. Before my next class, I was on my phone between classes and saw on the Snapchat map that a boy who I had met over the summer who was doing his exchange in Spain was in Finland. I immediately messaged him, despite the fact we didn’t know each other well, and found out he would only be staying six hours in Helsinki before he went to Estonia with his school group. I jumped at the fact to meet up with him when he invited me to join their group. I waited to meet up with them at the Helsinki Cathedral. Since I wasn’t technically with the group I couldn’t join them on the tour bus, but I met them at the various locations they visited. I had so much fun hanging out with him for the day, and we actually became good friends in the few hours I was with their group. Later in the evening, my friend Linnea (Finland) came to my home, and we hung out at my home for the evening. Tuesday I went to a fancy cake buffet with Paola because her host mom had a coupon for us, followed up by an evening of watching Netflix at her home.

Thursday night I was invited to go to dinner and ice skating with the American girls. I had so much fun with them. It was nice to talk to other Americans again, they understood the pop culture references and the slang I used. They were all so nice and I wanted to see them again soon, but I wasn’t sure I would have time before they left Sunday.

Friday was the Student Climate Strike. Leeloo stayed at my home Thursday night and we met a bunch of friends in Helsinki for the strike at 10:00am on Friday. It was crazy to see so many Finnish people protesting, loudly, and close to each other but really empowering. I actually met a Finnish politician that almost won President in the last election, I had no idea who he was but one of my Finnish friends told to go take a picture with him, so I did. We met with different exchange and Finnish friends throughout the day. Together we went to eat and hung out in the library until everyone was really tired and decided to leave around 5:00pm. I stayed in Helsinki with Andrés though and we met up with three of the American girls who were in the city again. I was really happy to see them again and they actually showed us a place where you can buy cheap souvenirs in Helsinki.

Saturday I went to Linnea’s house, we baked and spent the day just hanging out.

Sunday the exchange students were going to meet and go skating in Helsinki for the last day the skating rink by the train station was open, but the weather was terrible when we all arrived. Instead we all went for coffee and hung out for a short time before heading home.

With the Finnish politician Pekka Haavisto

Climate Strike in Front of Finnish Parliament

Exchange friends

Cake Buffet

Week 10: Swimming, Friends, School Concert

On April 16, 2019April 16, 2019 By riversandroads2102In March 2019Leave a comment

Monday I went swimming with my host family. It was the first time I had been to a public, indoor pool since I’ve been here, and it was quite the culture shock. In the locker room everyone got completely naked and stayed that way, they wouldn’t put on their bathing suits until they were about to get in the pool. They showered in showers without curtains and some where even dual showers where you would shower right next to a stranger, then they went off to sauna before going to swim. There were multiple pool rooms, one for laps, one of hot tubs, a kitty pool, and cold pool, a pool just for fun, and another room for the diving pool and exercise pool. We spent most of our time in the pool for diving. My host sisters loved jumping off the diving board over and over again. I swam around with my host aunt, just talking about all sorts of different things while watching the kids.

Tuesday and Wednesday I spent my time going to Finnish class or getting ready for the arrival of my exchange student from Spain. Thursday the exchange student, Afri, who had lived in my family in USA last year, was coming to Finland. I was so excited to see her again after nine months, my parents had bought her plane tickets to visit for our birthdays. I had made many plans of fun things to do with her over the weekend to show her the place I was doing my exchange. But, Thursday morning I got a text from my mom saying that Afri had gotten sick and wouldn’t be coming. Of course I was really disappointed but I understood that she was unable to make it. I spent the evening with my friend Kia instead after a really bad day (due to Afri not coming and other factors). Friday I went to Helsinki with my friends after school, we went to the National Museum and Kiasma (the strange modern art museum I visit frequently) with an bunch of the exchange students. I had a great time with the exchange students that I don’t normally hang out with. I stayed at Paola’s home that night and had so much fun.

Saturday we met up with Andrés (Ecuador), Sebastian (Mexico), and Valentin (France) in Helsinki, we got food before they went to see a movie (Paola and I didn’t go because I was going to see the movie with Finnish friends next weekend). While they were at the movie Paola and I got coffee and watched Netflix in the library. When the movie was over around 8:00pm and everything in Helsinki was closing, but we still wanted to hang out so everyone came to my home. We hung out there for a few hours before Paola’s host family picked her up, Valentin took a bus home, and Sebastian and Andrés decided to stay the night. Sunday we went back to Helsinki to meet up with Leeloo for a few hours in the afternoon before I had to go to a concert in Vantaa with friends from school. Surprisingly Andrés and Leeloo joined me at the concert. The environment there was really cool and I had a great time despite the fact that I was exhausted. I got to see some of my good friends from school perform and I met a bunch of really cool people that go to my school.

Leeloo and I

School concert

Rock Church with Leeloo, Andrés, and Sebastian