Finnish life as of now

The Baltic (Canadian geese....)

Now on to the nitty gritty of my stay in Finland. After being sauteed in Finnish information, it was time to put our knowledge to the test, separate from all of our foreign "family" and become real exchange students. Our families picked us up from camp and took us home. A friend of mine, actually living close by, went straight from camp to a family member´s wedding, no pressure! My family was talkative in the car and on the drive home, we stopped at Hesburger (the slightly healthier version of McDonald´s in Europe) for a late night dinner. I arrived at my house to find a 10 month old long-haired daschund Urho, jumping at my feet to greet me. The house is quite basic, very Scandonavian, but beautiful at the same time. I took  a walk to a friend of mines´house down the street with my host mom. Gaby, a Mexican exchange student, lives right down the street from me

. Anyways, in my house there is 1.5 bathrooms (Finnish families usually only share 1), 4 bedrooms, a sauna, deck, porch, and beautiful forest of a backyard where we will hopefully pick berries soon! When I walked into my room, it felt like a dream. A queen bed with a lighted closet, couch, flatscreen, and my own computer with desk. The room is beautiful and I could not believe it was my own personal haven (and trust me, it is!) I had a 2 day grace period before I started school and I got quite homesick along with the culture shock because I had nothing to do, really, but sit and read or go on the computer. However, my host parents took me to an island which is the coast of the Baltic Sea. Quite beautiful! But the second or third night I was here, a friend of mine, Maiju had come over. I had been talking to her and a few other girls over Facebook before I came and they all sounded so excited to meet me! Maiju and I get along great, we really do. Finnish people truly are very quiet, and thankfully, Maiju does not fit in with that stereotype (nor do I). 

My backyard and deck

The living room

My room! Bed is to the right of the white shelves :)

Now on to school. I was quite nervous because Maiju had told me that I was the "buzz" around school; "The new American girl!" I didn´t want to crush anyone´s hopes of America, now.

The first day of school I followed two friends of mine, Roosa and Anniina around and most teachers didn´t know who I was so they handed me all of the schoolwork...I didn´t touch it...Anyways, basically this is how my day went- walked to class, got pointed at, whispered about, smiled at, but nobody talked to me except for my friends, of course. I had anticipated this. And even in my second week of school now, many people are still scared to talk to me. The lunch was delicious. And free! All schooling, hospital and health care, dentistry, and school lunches are free in Finland! People are scared to talk to me (including adults) because they are afraid that I will correct their English or tell them they are wrong. Especially guys, no guys have talked to me since I´ve been here, except a select few...quite the opposite side of the spectrum compared to American boys.

After the first day, I set up a schedule with my English teacher, Sari. I now have 3 English classes, 2 music classes, a sports class, and an art class. Very nice, yes? The English is British, though so some things are different and odd to me, but Maiju told me most people want to learn American English. Things such as "w´s" are pronounced as "v"s. A major difference in our languages, which is why I think people consider it so hard to learn is because the Finns do not use pronouns. Everything is an "it". There is no he or she. It. So instead of saying "he left" it would be "left it" with an ending attached to the verb (which I do not know right now) My Finnish lessons start soon, though, I believe, so hopefully I will be getting better! The kids at school are surprised even now when I say "Moi!" (hi) because they know that their language is difficult. I ride my bike to school every day and it takes me about 10 minutes and I go through the center of Lieto (which is quite small) in sun, rain, or snow...which is why I am not so open to welcoming winter this year! There is even a big hill before I get to school which is the icing on the cake- and hopefully not the ice that my bike tires will slip on!

One thing I have noticed is that the Finns, as quiet as they may be, are very genuine. They will talk to me even though they are scared of me (sad to say) but their sincerity really shows through and how they will take time out to help me, which is different in America. I have been telling my classmates that in America, everyone swarms around the foreign exchange kid the first week, then they literally become old news and get put on the backburner until it is convenient to be their friend again. This however, proves untrue in Finland. Some of my friends took me to Turku, the big and oldest city in Finland to have lunch (Subway!) and go shopping! Everyone I have talked to still notices me and talks to me, even if they are with their other friends. I have a rotary meeting today at 5 (quuite nervous) and I present a project I made to my English classes about myself, which will be nice considering their town has 15,000 people and I come from a city near 9 million people! Wish me luck! :)

My friends and I ate lunch by the river L t. R (Emilia-next host sister, Petra, Roosa, Maiju, myself)


Oh! And I am now addicted to Finnish chocolate (Karl Fazer milk chocolate to be exact), German mineral water, and rye bread. That is all.