This week Monday and Tuesday the weather reached -27C. During my walk to the bus stop my nose and hair froze. The cold was insane and I definitely would not have survived without my snow pants. We are all trying to find creative ways to stay warm. The snow one the sides of the rides has stared to pile up and all the trees are white. Walking in the snow, roads, and sidewalks is very difficult, I often slip two or three times a day.

I attended Finnish lessons again on Wednesday with the amazing new teacher. Thursday I went back to my host sister’s school and gave the presentation about my life in USA again to different classes. I am really liking going there every week and working with all of the students.

Friday I went to a hockey game with my host mom, since my host sister is one of the girls who cleans the ice throughout the game. We were very close to the ice and the game was very intense. During points of the game they had “Scandinavian Hunks” (basically attractive Finnish men) hand out roses or dancers performing in various parts of the stadium. I thought it was really funny and kinda reminded me of Medieval Times. There were dancers and girls cleaning the ice during breaks. Although I didn’t really understand the game it was still entertaining.

I was sick all weekend so I didn’t do anything.

Hockey Game

It was so cold

My hair and nose frozen walking to the bus

Hockey Game Pt 2

The week was relatively uneventful. I attended regular lessons at school: pottery, photography, art, and Wanhat dance. Wanhat dance is the Finnish prom, but with traditional dance. Girls and boys partner up (platonically most of the time) and take the class to prepare for the performance of the dance for the school and parents. It is a really big deal for the second year students in lukio (high school). The girls spend a lot of money on their dresses, hair styles, nails, shoes, after party clothes, and anything else to make their night better. The class is devoted to learning the fifteen dances your school has chosen. I take three classes of the dance a week with my partner and the rest of the class.

I started a new Finnish class which I like so much better than the other one. The teacher at this class actually gave us the time and practice we needed to understand the topics being covered. It is a two and a half hour class which is hard to sit through, but it is worth it since I finally feel like I’m learning something. It also made me realize that Finnish is still really hard.

Thursday I continued teaching at my host sister’s school. I went to the classroom of three different teachers and gave a presentation on my life in USA. I talked about my school, hobbies, friends, family, and everyday life. The students were really interested and asked questions. The teachers helped translate for the students that didn’t understand and everything went really well. I actually really enjoyed my time at the school and was excited about going the next week. I also made dinner for my host family that night.

Friday after school I went to Tampere, a city two hours north of Helsinki, with my host mom, aunt, and younger sister for my sister’s soccer tournament. I stayed in an apartment with my host mom and her sister while my host sister was in a hotel with her team. We went to dinner and had a relaxed evening in the apartment that night before we had to wake up for the soccer games the next morning. We woke up early and it was SO cold outside. We bundled up as best as we could, ate a quick breakfast, and headed to the soccer game. The first two games were in an indoor kinda heated building. The first game was a tie and the second was a win for my host sister’s team. We had a break before the next game so we went for lunch and to a tower in Tampere that allowed you to see over the entire city. The view was amazing and I had a really great time with my host family. The third game was in an unheated dome, it was hard to sit through because of the cold but they all played really well and my sister’s team won. The rest of the evening we explored Tampere and met with my older host sister when she came by train. I had a really great weekend with my host family in Tampere, but took a train home Sunday morning in order to meet up with my friends in Helsinki that afternoon.

Host sister’s soccer game

Looking over Tampere

My host sister’s school where I teach

I spent a lot of time with my host family this last week. I had a Rotary meeting where I talked about what I have been doing most of my exchange and got help from my host family in my preparation. The presentation went really well and I was very pleased by the reaction from all of the Rotarians in my club. Every meeting I feel more and more comfortable with the people that are giving me this amazing experience. After the meeting I had bonding time with my younger host sister (Iisa). She doesn’t speak much English so sometime communicating is really difficult, but we manage. We sat together in a McDonalds while my host mom (Saana) was walking her dad’s dog. When we got home Iisa and I made videos in her room together, and honestly I had a lot of fun, she’s a really great kid.

There was an event going on in Helsinki from the last Saturday until Wednesday. It is an annual event called Lux Helsinki. There are huge light installations all over the city, people come from all over Finland to see it. I tried to put together a group of exchange students to go but no one was able to make it except my friend, Andres. Despite it just being the two of us we still went and had a really good time. We didn’t see all of the lights since the weather was really bad and the walking loop was really long. Regardless, I had a really great time that night and was ready to go again with my host family Wednesday.

Wednesday, I didn’t go to school because classes were canceled for the school musical (my host sister and I got tickets to see it next Tuesday for Christmas so we didn’t want to go with the school). In the evening my host mom had an event with her work tied to the Lux Helsinki. We went to this international book store that had been decorated to the light theme. We stayed there for about an hour and a half socializing and letting Iisa play the games offered around the store. I also tried eating crickets for the first time at this event. They were not as bad as I expected them to be, they tasted kinda like sunflower seeds with a  weird texture. In the evening we went to the other half of the Lux installations that I had not seen the night before. It was freezing and crowded but I had a really really great time with my host family.

Thursday I started teaching at Iisa’s school. My host mom had told the school about me coming to stay with their family and volunteered me to help teach English classes every Thursday (I only have one class on Thursdays and the teacher doesn’t notice if I am there or not). I started the day in Swedish class, I don’t speak Swedish, but I helped the teacher grade her papers for her English class. I went to three different classrooms through the day and really loved getting to work with the students. Their English wasn’t great, but neither is my Finnish, we are all learning with each other’s help. So many the students were so interested in having me there and did what they could to help me and make me feel welcome.

Friday night I spent with my Finnish friend Julia, she is doing exchange with Rotary next year. We spent the afternoon hanging out with her friends at school before we headed to her home. That night we walked her dog in the woods by her house and climbed a small hill so we could look over the city. It was really nice, we ended up laying in the snow and watching the stars. It was a really really amazing night and I was so happy to be there with her. I had been harassing Julia all week saying “I want to do something crazy”, and her first suggestion was ice swimming. Neither of us had ever been, but her mom goes every weekend, this is what prompted us to have a sleepover. So, Saturday morning we woke up at 9 and got ready to go swimming,,,in a hole…in the ice. Her mom did everything she could to prepare us. The weather outside was -3C, we all had a robe, jacket, hat, and sweatpants ready for us when we got out of the water. Julia and I both thought we were gonna die. But I actually did it twice and survived. I only did it twice because the first time I did it I felt like I was cheating because I didn’t go all of the way in, so of course, I did it again, but this time I actually swam around a little bit. It was really cold and scary, but afterwards it was refreshing. I totally want to do it again before my exchange year ends.

When I left Julia’s I went to meet up with a bunch of exchange students in Helsinki, the “Oldies” (Australians that had been in Finland since January 2018) were going back home and people had come from all over Finland to say goodbye. I was too late to say goodbye to everyone unfortunately but I was happy to see all of the other exchange students. There were groups of us all over the city doing different things. I stuck mostly with the group with most of my friends. We all just hung out while others went swimming, ice skating, and site seeing. I met a lot of really great people that night and had a lot of fun with those a ready knew.

To finish up a busy week I went cross country skiing with my host mom. I actually got pretty ok at it and really enjoyed it. My host mom said that she really liked the speed I was going because it let her enjoy the scenery. Cross country skiing was definitely a work out but I really want to go it again. Of course since it was my first time I was really slow, but I’m sure I’ll get better and my host mom was really proud of me for the 3km I was able to do my first try.

Cross Country Skiing

The ice hole where we went swimming

Post ice swimming

Lux Helsinki

I spent New Years Day just relaxing after being exhausted from staying up really late, I went to sauna at three in the morning and didn’t go to bed until around five. It was a nice way to chill and spend the first day of the year. Later in the week I hung out with some of my friends because we hadn’t seen each other since before Christmas break started. Other than that my week was pretty uneventful until Friday.

Friday morning my host mom and older host sister, Nea, and I left for Copenhagen. Our flight was really early and we arrived in Copenhagen around nine in the morning. We spent the first day in the city going to the touristy places. We tried to visit the Tivoli (it was closed), the Copenhagen Town Hall, the shopping street of Copenhagen, Nyhavn, did a boat tour, and saw the Little Mermaid statue. It was a crazy day and I fell in love with Copenhagen. It was warmer than Finland, there was no snow, there was sunshine, and the everything was just amazing. Our first day there was crazy busy and we saw so much of the city in such a short time. The next day we visited the Amalienborg Palace and watched the guards do their regular switch at noon. After that we visited this military fort/park in the city while Nea went to a cafe. The weather was perfect, the park was so nice, and I got time to talk to my host mom. We got lunch before taking a train to a museum about thirty minutes away called the Louisiana while Nea stayed in Copenhagen to shop. The museum was amazing, without even going inside the view from the outside was amazing! Inside was crazy art from things about the moon, pop culture, dictatorships, old movies, and other art pieces that somehow all seemly worked together. The museums was huge and took us almost three hours to get through all of it. It was an amazing experience that added to the weekend trip to Copenhagen.

We met back up with my host sister to get dinner in the city that night. We left Copenhagen around 9am the next morning, I was sad to say goodbye to such an amazing city and experience. I really hope to return to Denmark again, what I saw of the country was amazingly beautiful.

At the Louisiana Art Museum