Week 2: School and Host Family.

My host dad, Mikko, came to pick me up from language camp with one of his old college friends who was hosting one of the girls from Italy. We all ate lunch together before we went to attend the closing ceremony. I couldn’t stop counting down the minutes until I made it to my new home. The arrival was exhilarating and terrifying. I was in the house I had only seen in pictures. Ella (15) and Eedit (13) were the only ones home since Elina (8) and  Essi (5) were at their godparent’s house. They showed me to my new room, that previously belonged to Ella. I unpacked and called both my mom and dad for the first time in a week, I didn’t talk to either of them long, it was more of a “Hey I’m alive and having a great time. See you later” phone call.

Mikko, Ella, Eedit, and I went to the grocery store to buy supplies for dinner. I wasn’t expecting the excitement and surprise that came from a visit to the grocery store. There were flat escalators in the mall, where the store was located, that took up shopping carts and the customers. They had machines in the store that would print labels for you, tell the price of an object based on weight. In the store my host family would point at everything we were buying or other common food items and make me say them in Finnish, it was really good practice to hear the language and I actually retained some of the words. We got to pick out a bunch of candy from the massive candy aisle: toffee, gummies, mint chocolate, salmiakki (Finnish salted licorice, it’s disgusting), chocolate filled with salmiakki, and a variety of hard candies. While Ella and Eedit and I made dinner, Mikko picked up Elina and Essi. While we were making dinner I felt really weird, like I really needed to talk to somebody from home, I wasn’t homesick I just had the urge to talk to someone from home, but instead of calling anyone I spent as much time as I could with my host family. We watched TV, ate dinner together, hung out on the couch, and just talked.  Essi was drawing picture and writing my name on papers and kept giving them to me, it made me so happy that she already liked me, it helped me overcome the feeling of wanting to talk to people from home. Essi and I played foosball in the basement, I won, and pool, she won (and I wasn’t letting her win), we spent a lot of time playing games on the convertible table in the basement until I needed to unpack. Essi tried help me unpack, she moved clothes for me and handed me what I needed, but mostly she unfolded everything. She looked through all of my pictures from home.  She looked right at me and said something in Finnish, she had barely spoken English all night, I explained to her that I wasn’t going to understand anything she said and right after that she started speaking prefect English to me, I was crazy impressed. We kept unpacking and talking while we worked and she said “Im going to teach you Finnish. And you’re going to know Finnish when you leave. And then you can tell everyone at home that Essi taught you Finnish” the whole interaction with Essi my first night boosted my confidence and how comfortable I was in the family. The first day with my host family was absolutely amazing.

The first full day with my host family was rather uneventful. Eedit had cheerleading, Elina had an audition, and Ella had training also. Elina and Essi also had an open training which I was invited to attend but I turned down the opportunity to unpack some more. To make up from not going to open training I attended Ella’s training just to watch as she applied for a new team. Cheerleading was not at all like what I was expecting. What they were doing was somewhat a combination of dance and gymnastics. The strength in the team mates and the determination was evident, I was very impressed. By the time Ella’s two and a half hour training was over Reija had gotten home from her weekend work trip. The first day of school was quickly approaching.

Monday, I had a meeting with school at 10am to pick my classes and meet the other exchange students. Reija biked with me to school so I could learn the bike route, but honestly I didn’t remember any of it. The school was really big and slightly intimidating with all of the Finnish students sitting in the central area. The staff helped me chose classes: English, Spanish, art media, art, and theater (I have since dropped Spanish and added Radio instead). There were two other exchange students one from Germany and Laisha, from Mexico, who was a Rotary student. Two Finnish girls gave us a tour of the school. I attended my art class with my second host sister, Nea. The teacher was really good about handling exchange students, he would say everything in Finnish and the repeat in english. In theater class we played games with partners that didn’t make much since when played in English, but it was still a lot of fun. Since I only had two classes Reija never went home, she spent time filling out paperwork in the cafeteria with my Rotary counselor and finding me maps of the city in the mall near by.  At home we got to see Elina before she went to the set of the short film she was in. Essi, Eedit, Reija, and I headed to Helsinki after eating dinner (Elina joined us after her filming had finished). Being there was absolutely insane for me, I was actually here, in Finland! I took so many pictures and Essi wanted to be in every single one of them. We went to the raised dock by the sea where the infinity pool is (it is also where all the interviews took place after Trump visited Finland). There was music playing and everyone was dancing salsa. We hung out up there until Elina got hungry and we went to grab pulla (a bun pastry) at a cute cafe. We went on the Sky Wheel by the water. It was huge, the views from the top were so amazing. You could see over the city one direction and over and on the islands and sea on the other, and it was just as the sun was starting to go down, it was amazing. The young girls were getting tired so started walking back to the car, taking the long way and going by the Orthodox church. Being in Helsinki for the first time (not in a car) was absolutely amazing, it was a stunning city, and seeing it with my new family was even better. At home we had the traditional iltapala (evening snack) and went to bed.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I got a SIM card for my phone (so if you try to text me I will not get it) and tried to apply for my Finnish visitor social security number but we went to the wrong office .

Thursday was a great day! I went to International school with Ella until 11. Everyone there spoke perfect english, I understood everything that was going on in class, what people were laughing about, and what the teachers were saying. Speaking english was so refreshing, people understood me and no one was afraid to talk to me. I kind of wished I had gone to school there, but I would have never been allot to learn Finnish. Reija picked Elina and I up and took us home before someone from her film crew came to pick us up. They director had given me permission to come to set that day to watch and help Elina. As we waited Elina and I blasted music and watched funny videos on our phones. The man from set picked us up in a camper and let us ride in the back. At set elina was taken immediately into costuming and on to filming. I sat in the grass and talked to the people who were working on set. There was a lot of waiting around and watching Netflix on my phone that night but it was a really awesome experience, and it gave Elina and I a chance to really bond. Not only that but I got to see really beautiful parts of Helsinki that I would not normally have gotten a chance to see.

Friday morning my school didn’t start until 11:15 so Reija and I went to Helsinki to apply for my Finnish social security number. We walked around Helsinki. I got to see a really pretty church in the middle of the city and drive by the American embassy. After wandering around for a little while, Reija dropped me at the Helsinki Central Station to take a train to school. At school some Finnish girls (from homeroom) actually came to sit and talk with me, I was shocked, most Finnish people do not approach other people first. They were so nice to me and I truly think they could be really great friends this year. Once I got home from school my host family took all of us to a lake nearby in to swim, the water was so cold. The brief trip to the lake was so much fun, all of us tried to see who could stay in the water the longest or how long we had to stay in the water until we became adjusted. The evening was full of laughter and smiles after our quick trip to the lake.

Saturday Reija and Mikko decided the family was going to go to their lake house which is about two and a half hours away. The drive there was uneventful. We stopped to get food and look around the small little towns in the area. The lake house was the most beautiful place I had ever seen. The house, the lake, the forest, and the entire surroundings, it was all so beautiful. Before we had even been there thirty minutes, Essi and Elina were already swimming, and Eedit and I were getting in bathing suits as sauna was warming up. The water was freezing cold. It was a run in and get out as fast as possible situation. When sauna was warm Eedit and I just sat in our bathing suits warming up in the sauna. I can’t tell you how many times we jumped in the lake after warming up, but we spent hours going to and from sauna. In the evening elina made us Finnish French toast on the griddle, which was FANTASTIC. Reija’s sister came to the lake house too, we had met briefly before. She is an amazing woman, and I loved getting to know her more. The time at the lake was incredible, I never wanted to go back. It’s like the rest of the world didn’t exist. Everything was quite, calm, and isolated from the outside world . After walking to watch the sun set over the other side of the lake, we all quickly fell asleep.

Sunday, I went into the tiny town with Reija to see the second largest wooden church in Finland, where Mikko and Reija got married. The church was built on accident when the architect made a mistake in conversions from inches to centimeters. The church can hold over 1000 people and only 800 people live in the town and there are three different churches in the town.The church was by far prettier than any of the ones I had visited since I got here. Reija actually got a chance to play the church organs, like she did there when she was younger. We visited the graveyard across the street from the church and looked for the members of Reija’s family and the graves of the soldiers that were from the town that died in the Civil War. After exploring the small town (and taking lots of pictures), we started to head home after an amazing weekend trip.

My first week in Finland with my host family was filled with crazy culture shock and new experiences. There are huge rabbits (I actually thought the one in our yard was a kangaroo when I first saw it), soap dispensers that you pull forward instead of pushing, massive shopping centers everywhere, shower heads by the toilets, and AMAZING food. School is really difficult since I don’t understand anything yet, but my teachers are all great and do what they can to help me. The students are all shy and scared to speak English, but if I needed help they are always willing to do what they can. I love my host family. They were very welcoming and really want me to feel like I am a part of the family. I have a lot of freedom here since I can take a bus almost anywhere I want to go, and with short school days and very little home work I have a lot of free time to explore the area. My first week with my host family and at school was a really great week with insane differences and fun experiences.

My School Schedule:

Monday:

9:45-11:05- Art Media

11:15-13:05- Art

13:15-14:30- Theater

14:45-16:00- Radio

Tuesday:

11:15- 13:05- Art Media

13:45- 15:00- English

Wednesday:

8:20-9:35- Theater

9:45-11:05- Art

11:15- 13:05- English

Thursday:

8:20- 9:35- Theater

9:45-11:05- Art

14:45-16:00- Radio

Friday:

11:15- 13:05- English

13:15-14:30- Art Media

(Most of my blog posts will not be this long or step by step)

Helsinki Cathedral

Central Square in Helsinki

The lake where we went swimming in Espoo

The beach at the summer cottage.

The Second Largest Wooden Church in Finland

Berry picking at the lake

Essi and the lake