Hei! I have now been in Finland for eight days! After very long flights, I arrived in Helsinki to find out that there were 9 other exchange students on my flight from Frankfurt, which was nice because we could all be together while waiting for our luggage, and it was really fun to start to meet the others. We were all loaded onto a bus and drove for 2 hours to Karkku, which is the camp that we were staying at. We were in cabins mostly based on country, so the Canadians and Italians were in a cabin together. Everyone at the camp was so friendly and energetic (once we got some sleep), it was a lot of fun and I'm really glad we had it.
Our days started at 7:45 with breakfast, then we had an information session before our lessons started. We had 5 hours of lessons altogether, 2 hours in the morning, lounas (lunch), 3 hours in the afternoon, kahvi (coffee), then a lecture, then päivälinen (dinner), sauna/freetime/outdoor activities, iltapala (evening snack), and we were in our rooms by 22.30. The lectures were very good, we had three altogether. The first was on the Finnish way of life which was about how they are not very talkative, and don't have small talk, they like their space so buses are considered full even if nobody is sitting next to each other, and they really like saunas. The second was on a year in Finland, so the weather and holidays, and how they celebrate them such as for Easter the younger kids dress up as Easter witches and go around asking for candy in exchange for protecting your house from evil spirits. The last was on the school system. They start in päiväkoti (literally day home) as young as age 1. Then is esikoulu (preschool) when they are 5 or 6, it is only one year, and is right before school then properly starts in grade 1 when they are 7. They then have alakoulu which is grade 1 to 6. Uläkoulu is grades 7-9 and then they have the choice to apply to Lukio which is academic or ammattikoulu where you focus on the trades. After Lukio there is a set of final exams that one has to pass. The exams are Finnish (or your mother tongue), and 3 of either your second language, a foreign language, maths, and some sort of science or social science (chemistry, history, etc.). On Thursday we went into Tampere, as our first experience in Finland other than the airport and the camp with the other exchange students. My Finnish teacher challenged us to try to speak Finnish once, which I managed to do. A group of us went into a Hesburger (similar to McDonald's) and I ordered fries in Finnish! One girl and I went into a bookstore and it was very neat to see all sorts of books we recognized because of the author translated into Finnish. The whole week was incredible, it was super fun, but I also learned a lot in the Finnish culture, the language, and just things that I hadn't noticed before, like how different people who speak English as their mother tongue can sound, as there was one girl from Tennessee who had a pretty strong accent that I was friends with, and a few other from other places. On Saturday, we got to finally meet our host families. My mom, dad, and sister came to pick me up and we had lunch together, and then after we left we went for a walk around some nearby lakes. At first glance the forest is similar depending where you are because it is a mix of conifers and deciduous, but it is also quite different. There are lots of pine trees, which are very straight and can be slightly reddish. And there are spruce and birch. It is odd to be able to see so far through the forest, because I am so used to having a lot of undergrowth. I was so happy to finally be able to meet my family! And then today we went to pick up my brother who has been away sailing and camping for two weeks. It started raining though, so the first time I saw my brother he was running towards the building we were waiting in, and came in completely soaked, dripping wet. They are all so nice and Naantali is beautiful. They live in the old part of Naantali, on the top of a hill that overlooks the harbour, so from my room I can see the islands and harbour and the old stone church. I am having an amazing time so far! Comments are closed.
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AuthorHi! My name is Katerina, and I am on exchange in Finland for a year! Archives
April 2019
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