Week 3: Settling in and Night in the Arts

On September 6, 2018September 13, 2018 By riversandroads2102In August 2018Leave a comment

Not much happened this week. I went to school and Reija’s sister and her children were at the house a lot. I really love having all of the children around all of the time, they make life so much more interesting even though they may bother me every now and then. During the week I met up with my friend Jasmine, from St. Louis, we went for dinner in Helsinki, visited her school, and watched a movie at her house. She’s one of my best friends here and getting to hang out with her was really great, we are already planning a sleepover in September.

Thursday there was a Rotary event in Helsinki, called the Night in the Arts. During the event we all walked around different areas of Helsinki, visiting booths where art exhibits were set up with music and food. The event itself was not super exciting, but getting to see all of my friends was great. Since we were just walking around the city, I moved around friend groups a lot to talk to people I hadn’t gotten to know at camp. Spending time with new friends was really fun. Victor, from Chile, came from central Finland four hours a way for this event because his host sister, who lives in Helsinki, told him about it. I was really glad Victor came, I didn’t get many opportunities to talk to him at camp, but we really hung out and had a lot of fun together on Thursday.

Friday there was a school wide party, called Nasut. It was not through school, but it is kind of a tradition where the second and third years in high school throw food and nasty stuff on the first years (they are the equivalent of freshmen). I spent my time at Nasut with the girls from my homeroom and my second host sister, Nea. We all watched the first years slowly get covered in food and then run around and play games while covered in filth. I met a lot of people that night and really secured myself in the friend group of the girls from my homeroom. That night I stayed at Nea’s house and got to meet my second host family. Their house was very different than my first family’s house and the one I live in at home, it was a lot cleaner and more modern than most houses I have been in in USA. The whole family was very nice and welcoming. They wanted me to come live with them right now, but I won’t switch families until November. The next morning we all went on a walk together around the neighborhood before they took me back to Sello, the big shopping mall right by my first host family’s house. My friend Matias, from Salo, Finland (it’s one hour by train), was coming to visit me. He had stayed in my town this summer with one of my friends for short term exchange; since his parents were gone, he decided to come to Espoo. We spent most of the day walking around Helsinki and talking. At one point we ended up watching swans on a beach for forty-five minutes. It was actually really entertaining, we watched this one Russian lady almost get bitten on the butt by a swan and then she came and sat beside me and kept speaking Russian to me. When it started to get really cold in Helsinki we took a train back to Sello. Reija picked us up and took us to a confirmation party of one of their family friends. Matias and I had never met these people, but they were very nice to us. Most of the party we just ate food and sat on the stairs and talked. It was really funny because they got both of us in the family picture and we didn’t even know anyone there. Now I have been in a picture with these people I had met once and I haven’t even taken a picture with my whole host family yet. Hanging out with Matias that weekend was really fun, it was great to see him and it really made me happy to become better friends with him.

Sunday I had my first cheerleading practice. I joined a beginners team for my age group, but I was by far the oldest one there. Even though I was terrible at it, I really had a great time. The teachers helped me as much as they could and I improved a lot as the practice progressed (I still can’t do a cartwheel…yet). After cheerleading I got home and was organizing my room when suddenly everyone is yelling, looking for Essi and the neighbor boy. We were not super worried because the children’s shoes were in the yard, so we assumed they were hiding somewhere in the house. Elina had been promised for her birthday to go to the Barbie museum, so Reija took Elina and I to the Barbie museum before she went back home to look for Essi. Essi and the neighbor had been found at these stairs that look over all of Helsinki, it is about 2km away from my house, they had walked there all alone without shoes. That’s pretty normal in Finland because everything is so safe here that children are allowed to get to school by themselves (not normally at five though)at an early age. When Essi got home Reija brought her to join us at the Barbie museum. The museum was actually really cool and I had a lot of fun with Essi, Elina, and their cousins. On our way home we visited the stairs that Essi had walked to that day, the view from the top as the sun was setting over the city was fantastic. Looking out over the city as the cold wind was blowing I knew that was where I was supposed to be, and I was genuinely happy. Happy to be here in Finland, happy to be with my amazing host family, just happy.

Reija helped me practice for my Rotary presentation that was on Monday. This week went by really fast and I’m starting to miss home a lot less. I am really starting to adapt to the culture. When anyone sits next to me on their train I get really confused and automatically assume “foreigner”, even though I am one of them. Friends are really hard to make since people are embarrassed by their English, but my friends are starting to speak to me a lot more. I feel like I may be starting to fit in and be a little more comfortable here. When I learn the language everything will be even better.

(I’m really trying to catch up and write more I’m just busy all of the time, sorry)

Friends from USA, Canada, and Italy at Night in the Arts

Essi, Elina, and I at on the hill where you can look over Helsinki

Essi at the Barbie Museum

Week 2: Host Family and First Week of School

On August 31, 2018September 13, 2018 By riversandroads2102In August 20181 Comment

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

Week 1- Language Camp

On August 18, 2018September 13, 2018 By riversandroads2102In August 20182 Comments

After twenty hours of traveling, lugging around two heavy bags, and no sleep, I finally arrived in Helsinki. I was anxious and excited, my host family was waiting for me in the airport, I wanted to run, get my bags and leave, but all of the exchange students had to wait for all of the others to get off of the plane. After about an hour and a half of trying to find lost luggage and getting off the plane and managing to find our way through the airport. I got to meet my host family, I walked through the doors from baggage claim and there they were holding posters with my name, Finnish flags, and huge smiles on their faces. It was so amazing to see all of the girls I had been waiting so long to meet. Since I had taken so long to get through the airport we had a hour and a half together before I had to be back at the airport to get on a bus that would take all of the exchange students to language camp. We grabbed a quick lunch and then drove around Helsinki with the time we had. I loved meeting my family so much and the little bit of Helsinki I got to see was beautiful.

The kids coming to Finland were separated on three busses all leaving at different times from to airport to language camp. On the bus I met the kids I would be spending a year with in a foreign country. The bus ride was loud and full of adrenaline filled, exhausted teenagers. This was the time to meet people and make friends. We arrived at camp in time for iltäpala (an evening snack commonly eaten in Finland) and then had the rest of the evening to ourselves.

Each day we would have breakfast, a three hour lesson, lunch, a two hour lesson, kahvi (coffee break with a pastry to go along, Finnish pastries are SO GOOD), a lecture on Finnish culture, then sauna or outdoor activities and free time, evening snack, bed time, and then we would do it all over again the next day. Although the days were pretty full I had so much fun. When there was free time we would play card games, hang out with all of the friends we made, or go swimming.

During lectures we worked on pronunciation and vocabulary building. The teacher for students from the USA made the lessons fun, turning learning into a game. We listened to music in Finnish with English translations and all did our best to sing along when we could. We did worksheets and had help from tutors, Finnish people who had gone abroad previous years. We were taught that the language isn’t difficult or impossible, just different.

Everyone quickly formed groups, mostly with the people from their country but we all mixed together during other activities.

On Thursday we took a trip to Tampere, about an hour away from the camp where we were spending our week. I went with a group of three girls from the USA and one boy from Spain. During the time we had we took a bus tour, went to one of the older churches in Tampere, and then had free time to roam around the city. During free time we got coffee, the boy from Spain went to Subway, and we went to stores in the central area of the city. It was so much fun, we took a ton of pictures, and laughed a lot. We stubbled on music in a park and everyone around us definitely knew we were tourists. Even though everyone was super tired I really wish we could have stayed in Tampere longer. It was truly the highlight of camp for me.

Friday and Saturday, the Rotary members were at camp so we had lectures on the rules and other practical Rotary information we would need throughout the next eleven months. Most of Saturday was spent in lectures with out districts and country specific contacts, it was mostly the same information we had received in the past but it was very exciting because we were actually in Finland this time. After the lectures it was time to meet our families. Although I was ready to go to my host family I was sad to leave camp because those who wouldn’t be in my district or come on the trips in the future, I would never see again. The week all around was so much fun, I learned a lot, and made many new, amazing friends.

Tampere