February 14th and 15th (sorry this post is really late!) were both filled with celebrations at my school. In Finnish high school there are three years, but in the third year they have a really big set of exams, the Matriculation exams. Because of that, the students have only 3 periods at school instead of 5 like the other two years. February 14th was the day that they celebrated leaving school and starting their "reading break" which lasts until March 11th. Then they have just over two weeks of tests, the last being the 26th. On February 14th we had what was called the "Abi show" (the grads are called Abi), so we all went into an auditorium and then watched the video that they had filmed. It is supposed to be making fun of the students and teachers at the school. Not picking out one person in particular though, just the full year of students in general, for example how the first year students can be unsure of things and scared of the third year students. They also interviewed a bunch of the students and then edited their answers. So then instead of them answering the question they had been asked, they would actually be answering a totally different and probably opposite question. During the show they also got a few students up on the stage and then they had to do a little challenge or quiz designed to be really hard. All of the third year students dressed up in costumes. For example one of my really good friends here was Charlie Chaplin, and there was a lot of variety in the others. After the show they all got on big trucks that they had decorated with signs. They drove out of the school and then around to all the schools in Naantali. As they drove through each school they would shout "ABI ABI ABI!" and throw candy to everyone.
The next day was the Wanhat. It is kind of like prom. It is the "oldies dance" and it is to celebrate the 2nd year students now being the oldest ones in the school. All of the second year students (and Greta and I) had had ballroom dancing classes for the last period. On the 15th we preformed them. It is also sometimes called "princess day," because it is a day that all the 2nd year students get to dress up a lot. So a floor length dress, and hair and makeup done. Sometimes the hair and makeup is done professionally but Greta and I had our host mom (her 1st family, my 3rd) do ours, and she did a really good job. We got to school and had a bit of time for some photos, and then preformed the dances we had learned to our school, and a few other schools or classes from other schools came as well. Normally you have a partner that you do all the dances with, but my school doesn't have a lot of people and we had way too many girls, so there were always 2 girls dancing with one boy. For some dances we could have three people, but some we switched partway through. After the daytime show for the school we went and had a really fancy lunch at the Naantali spa which is right next to the school. Then in the evening again we preformed for our families. That show was much longer as we all were introduced and there was a speech from the principal. After we danced there were refreshments for everybody and then a group dance, so we all had a partner and it was a really simple dance that just involved walking around the gym in a circle and then slowly joining with other partners until there was one big line. I danced it with Essi, the oldest of my younger sisters. The whole two days were really fun and a very good experience. It is different from any sort of grad celebrations we have back in Victoria, and I am very glad I got the opportunity to participate in the Wanhat and see all the celebrations. |
AuthorHi! My name is Katerina, and I am on exchange in Finland for a year! Archives
April 2019
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