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

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.

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

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