First Trip to Helsinki and Picture Day

Well, last weekend was very fun! On Friday I went to a hockey game with my host dad, Ari. It was a pre-season scrimmage. I think the actual season starts in a couple of weeks. Lahti's team name is the Pelicans, and I think they are supposed to be pretty good. It was fun watching the scrimmage, I hope I get to go to a lot of the games! Then on Saturday morning, Marjo, Veera, and I left for Helsinki. We had to go to the cello store first to buy Veera a new cello, and then we went to the Finnish Parliament building, where Marjo works. It was so beautiful. The whole building inside is symmetric, so every floor looks exactly the same. Good thing the different floors are color coded. And all the stairs and floors are made of Italian marble, I believe, which looked very nice. I took some beautiful pictures. 

Next, we went and briefly walked around. I saw a few fountains and statues that were really interesting. Oh! I saw the Helsinki Cathedral, and it was gorgeous! It is weird seeing things in person when you are used just seeing pictures on the internet.... But it was so cool. We stopped in a cafe and had lunch, and then headed towards the boat that would take us to Suomenlinna. Suomenlinna is an island off the coast of Helsinki. The boat ride only took about fifteen minutes. Once we arrived at the island, we walked around, looking at all of the old buildings that date back to before the renaissance (I believe). The island was used for some sort of Army base. At different points of time, Sweden used the island, Finland used the island, and Russia used the island all for military purposes. The island was so beautiful though. We went to the highest point on the island, where you can see the sea and an awesome view of Helsinki. There were also little houses on one part of the island, but they looked like tiny hills because they were covered with grass... But, other than walking around, we went to a war museum and a cafe on the Suomenlinna island. Then we took the boat back to Helsinki, and drove home.

Saturday night, I went with Veera to their church for a music night. The church band was playing, and it was pretty good. All the music was in Finnish of course, and I always get the songs stuck in my head even though I only know a few words! But it does help me learn Finnish. Then on Sunday, we just hung around and relaxed! Oh! Speaking of learning Finnish... I think I start my Finnish class next week. Tosi hyvä! Very Good!

Nothing exciting has been going on in school this week. We had picture day today! Not very different than picture day back home. The only difference is that we took a class picture. We have something similar to a homeroom class, that you go to only on Mondays, and that is who I took the class picture with. But, for some excitement..... This coming weekend, I am going to a youth group camp type of thing. Veera is also going. It will be fun I think, because I will be with people my own age... And hopefully that will help me to make friends! Also... Next month, I am going to Sweden! I am so excited. We will be going on a big boat, like a cruise ship, and it will be over a weekend. Yay :D

So... I don't know when I will be able to put up any pictures, if I can at all. Because I have SO many, that it would be a little difficult. And they are all on my computer... But I'll see. If I can't, I will make sure to show everyone when I get home!

Well, that is all for now. 

Nähdään!

P.S. I think my English might be getting a little worse since I hear a lot of Finnish. So sorry if things don't always look or sounds right! Haha...

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Finnish School

Finnish school is so different from school in the United States. I started school on Wednesday, August 12 and it was mainly an orientation day. On Thursday I had my first day of classes. I spent most of the day fairly confused, since everything was in Finnish. I got a little bit bored and frustrated, but on Friday it went much better. First off I only had two classes, Art and English, because of teacher meetings or something. Those classes were easier and I understood everything a lot better. Secondly, more students were talking to me and that is always good! It is a little more difficult to warm up to the Finns, so I suppose that it is pretty good if they come up and talk to you.

The school year is divided into five terms, or parts. Each term lasts five weeks. Then there are five periods a day with lunch being after the third period. Each class lasts for seventy five minutes. My schedule for this term looks like this:

Maanantai (Monday)
1. –
2. Geography
3. Math
4. –
5. Music

Tiistai (Tuesday)
1. Geography
2. English
3. Math
4. –
5. French

Keskiviikko (Wednesday)
1. –
2. English
3. –
4. –
5. –

Torstai (Thursday)
1. French
2. Geography
3. Math
4. –
5. –

Perjantai (Friday)
1. Art
2. English
3. –
4. French
5. –

The dashes represent periods where I do not have a class at all, so they are free periods. I can do whatever I want. I can go to the library, get some coffee, walk around, go home if I don’t have any more classes, etc. I know it looks like I have a lot of free periods now, but that is because my Finnish skills are not at their highest. The classes I am taking now are fairly hard for me since everything is in Finnish. It is the beginning of the year, and I did not want to feel overwhelmed. Later on in the year I will be able to take more classes because I will hopefully know a lot more Finnish.

Most of my days start at 8:00, but on Monday and Wednesday I start at 9:30, which I like a lot! I was taking Spanish, but I decided to drop it because I was getting all the languages confused, and it was too much to handle. I decided to keep French though because it is a beginner class and I really like it. My Geography and Math classes are the hardest because everything is in Finnish. The material is not too hard, but it is just difficult when you do not understand the instructions or anything else the teacher is saying!

My school is a lot larger here than my school back home. There is an old building (called Museo) where most of the Lukio (high school) classes are. Then there is a new building where all of the junior high classes are. The school is so beautiful. The Museo is over a hundred years old I believe, and it looks like a college building. I will have to take some pictures!

I have classes in both the Museo and the new building (they are all still high school classes though). It was funny because the other day I was in class in the new building and over the loudspeaker Billy Jean by Michael Jackson came on and I wanted to burst out laughing… It was hilarious. Then some lady talked about Michael Jackson for a while in Finnish.

Walking to school is also very nice. At first I did not think I would like walking to school, but I actually do. I get to see more of Lahti that way, and I feel more independent by walking to school. The exercise is very good as well! I feel like I have been getting so much more exercise here! I have been walking all around Lahti, swimming in lakes, and sometimes doing something with my host family at night. Some examples: I went rollerblading with my host mom, Marjo, the other night. I played badminton with Marjo and my host sister, Veera, last Sunday. And a couple of days ago I went to the gym with Veera and worked out and swam.

Another thing that I really like is that the lunch at school is free. It is a very nutritious hot lunch. It does not always taste the greatest, a little bland sometimes maybe, but at least it is free and healthy. There are also little machines in the cafeteria where you can get snacks or coffee.

I would compare the school here to college. You choose all of your classes, and they are always at different times. Then there is a lot more time between classes, usually ten or fifteen minutes, so that there is plenty of time to make it to the next class. School is not very strict here, because the students are really here for academics. The students take school very seriously, and I haven’t even seen any goofing around among them. My school is a private school, but it is non-profit, and the students have to have really good grades to go there.

Also, there are not any sport teams… No soccer, volleyball, baseball, etc. No clubs either. Sometimes there will be sport tournaments I have heard, but they just quickly form a team, play, and then they are done I suppose. Back to what I said…it is not very strict at school. There is not a dress code, which I like because it gives people more freedom to wear what they want. Students can have their cell phones on them at all times (only to use between classes of course) and they can bring drinks into class as well. So, there is definitely more freedom. Finland is supposed to have one of the best, if not the best, educational systems in the world, and I can see why. The days are shorter, which is very good, because when I am sitting for too long at school I get bored and exhausted and I cannot pay attention anymore.

So, to sum this up, I really like their school system!!

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Food and the Finnish Language

I should probably talk about Finnish food, since I seem to like it so much! It is much healthier than food in the US. I rarely ever see anything that has preservatives, artificial flavoring, or added sugar (the food back home is SO much sweeter than it is here!). A normal day might look like this:

Breakfast (I do not remember what it is called!): Every weekday morning for breakfast we have puuro, which is hot porridge. I add sugar to mine, because it is not sweetened of course. Then I add mustikkakeitto, which is blueberry soup, to give it more flavor. At every meal there is usually milk to drink, or juice sometimes at breakfast. But you can always have water if you want. Then there is cocoa powder to add to the milk, kind of like ovaltine! It is good!

Lunch (Lounas): I eat lunch at school of course on most weekdays. There is always salad and brown bread. The salad is not like back home though. Most of the time it just one vegetable like cucumbers, shredded carrots, or shredded cabbage. Or maybe there is a mix, like lettuce and melon for example. Any raw vegetable, it seems to me, they call a salad. Anyway, there is bread and salad, and then there is the main part of the meal. This always varies of course. On Thursday we had fish soup, which was surprisingly good. It had potatoes, carrots, and fish (obviously) in it. Sometimes there is a small dessert at lunch, but not very often.

Snack after School: When I get home from school there is usually a snack. This is maybe a sandwich and some fruit or vegetables. The bread here is so good! I love ruisleipä, which is dark rye bread. It is so healthy too. I think I said this before, but the bread is denser here. There is just more to it I suppose.

Dinner (Päivällinen...I think): Generally, dinner is eaten around four or five. For dinner I have had pasta with ham chunks, minced meat soup (so good!), potatoes and chicken in a sauce, and much more of course, but that is all I can remember right now! Then there is bread of at dinner as well.

Evening Snack (Iltapala): At night, around eight, there is iltapala, or evening snack. This is maybe one or two of the following: sandwich, bread, fruit, yogurt and granola, or this really good blueberry/whipped cream thing my host mom makes.

Dessert: There really is not dessert, but rather the desserts are eaten more sporadically. Like pulla… Yum! I love pulla. It is any kind of a bun basically. Like a cinnamon bun would be considered pulla. But there is a specific bun that is the main pulla. If that makes sense? It is a small sweet bun, but it is like nothing I have ever had before and it is so good! It has a very specific taste. Oh! Did I mention that Finns love coffee? I think I forgot! Finns drink coffee basically at any time of the day. Finnish coffee is good, but it is SO strong. Starbucks seems weak next to Finnish coffee.

I love going to the grocery store because all the food is so fresh and good. I can get mostly the same things (and more of course!) here than I can back home, but it just tastes better here. This is probably because I am a health freak. So I definitely love Finnish food!

Now… On to the Finnish language. It is actually not sounding so much like gibberish anymore! I can listen to my teachers and actually pick out a good amount of words. Not all of the words of course, but some! Sometimes it is hard though not to get bored in class. There is so much Finnish and the way it is spoken almost puts me to sleep in my morning classes! This is because Finnish is spoken in monotone. The tone of voice does not change, or fluctuate, or however that would be called. In English, for example, the tone always goes up at the end of a question…but not in Finnish. It is monotone, and the tone actually drops down at the end of a sentence.

But I do love the language. I might have just made it sound boring, but it is not! It is so interesting, and fun to speak. It sounds really beautiful if you speak it correctly. It is just so different from any language I have ever heard or learned about, especially because of the prepositions. The prepositions are not the same as they are in English because they are added to the end of words instead. For example: In Finland would translate to Suomessa. Suomi (Finland) and –ssa (which means in or at). So that makes things harder, because there are countless variations of one single word. It is crazy, but I love it!

People get so excited when I speak Finnish, especially at school. They are shocked that I actually know some Finnish and that I can speak it fairly well (for a beginner I suppose). Some people think it is impossible for foreigners to learn it, but I don’t think so. My host family helps me out a lot though too, since they speak a lot of Finnish with me. They say I am really good at Finnish, and they are surprised at how much I know. That makes me feel good! I really want to learn as much Finnish as I can. I mean, being fluent would be awesome. I will try my hardest. I am a language freak, so maybe it is possible! I start my Finnish classes in September, so that will help as well. I will have those classes twice a week. I think I will also start a hobby in September. I was thinking of starting dance… I want to do something different…

Well… Nähdään!

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First Days in Lahti

Well... Things have been very crazy! I arrived at my first host family's house on Saturday after one week at the Karkku language camp. I would say that I am learning more Finnish, even though it is coming along a little bit slowly. The camp helped a lot though with Finnish. It is very different when you hear Finnish all the time, than just learning it at home from a book or program. My host family speaks Finnish all the time, except for when they want to tell me something or explain what they said. But I will be taking a Finnish language course for beginners. I will start that in September, and go to it twice a week.

My host family is so nice! They are very welcoming and they help me with anything I need. Their house is only about a 15-20 minute walk from the center of the city, where there are many shops and restaurants. It is also very different for me to have siblings, but I am really liking it so far. There is always somebody to do something with. All of my host siblings started school today, and I start tomorrow. I am a little bit nervous! The first day at a new school is always the hardest!

On Sunday we went to the summer cottage. It was about 45 minutes away from the city of Lahti (where I am living) and it was kind of in the woods. The cottage was situated right on the lake, it was very nice. We got there and I went swimming with my host siblings in the lake. It was so cold, but very nice! There are so many lakes here, and in most of them the water is quite clean and clear. Then we went on a motor boat ride to a little town with restaurants and what not. And we went through a channel where the water changes levels... I am not sure what it is called. Later on we went to sauna, and then came back to Lahti. 

Today I saw my school for the first time, and it is much bigger than my school back home. I will probably end up getting lost. It is a very nice school though...very well known. I picked my classes today. This part of the year I will have English, Math, Geometry, Spanish, and French. Then there are four other parts of the school year where I will take different courses. Tomorrow is my first day of school and it is basically an orientation day...I will not go for the whole day. But everyday at my school is different. Most days I will start at 8, but some days I will start at 9. Then usually I will end somewhere between 2 and 4. Hopefully I will go more into detail when I actually go to school!!

Okay, Finnish food. It is quite good and very healthy. Especially now, there are many different kinds of berries and a lot of fresh food. We got fresh blueberries from the summer cottage on Sunday, and they were so good! But last night we had mustikka something or other, and it was blueberries (mustikka) in whipped cream basically, and it was good! Then I put lakka in mine, which is a little orange berry...kind of like a raspberry.

Well, I think I will go now, and maybe look around Lahti. I need to walk to my school again to make sure I can find it on my own. I will post pictures later when I am on my own computer and I am able to get to them!!

Moi moi!

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Arriving in Finland and Karkku Camp

Well, I arrived safely in Finland on Sunday August first, and now it is Tuesday the fourth. I know I have only been in Finland for a couple of days, but I already have so much to say. SO… I will probably update this blog a lot, just because I want to share things with everyone!

So, we started our Finnish lessons yesterday… They were not too bad. They were pretty helpful, but maybe it would be better if I was not so tired from flying so much! The camp I am staying at, Karkku, is actually really nice. I was quite surprised. Everything is super clean….I am glad I am in a very clean country. We have dorms rooms that we share with one other person. Here’s some pictures of the camp (the first one being the dorm houses):

On the camp there is a lake, and it is so beautiful. I got a few very typical Finnish lake pictures:

Also, which is pretty major, I had my first sauna! It was definitely an experience. The sauna is a small little room, probably a little bigger than a normal American bathroom I would say, with a bench and an oven with rocks on top. As soon as you walk in you can feel the heat. I believe it was 75 degrees Celcius in our sauna, so in Fahrenheit that would be very hot! I was dripping with sweat. Twice during sauna we got out and took a dip in the lake. It was extremely cold, especially for summer. It was probably the coldest water I have ever gotten into. It felt good though. After we were completely done with our sauna we swam in the lake for about 15/20 minutes. Pretty unbelievable, but once you are in there for a while you get used to it…or you body just goes numb, who knows. But after the sauna, you feel so relaxed…and ahh I just wanted to sleep then!

The food is actually very good too. Yesterday I for dinner I had minced meat soup that had veggies and potatoes in it and some bread. Their bread is very different from the US. It is actually real bread, and much more dense. Then for dessert we had waffles with I think raspberry jam and a little bit of whipped cream on it. It was so yummy! I really liked the soup though too. Here is a visual:

Other than Finnish lessons we exchange students just hang out. There are many different nationalities here and it is very cool. We play cards a lot together. We played spoons for about an hour today and I totally won!! Well I am glad that there are a good amount of people I know that will be in my same district.

So, today we are having Finnish lessons and on Wednesday we are going to Tampere, which is the second largest city in Finland I believe. I am very excited to go there. I think we are going to a amusement park? I am not really sure.

Alright, I have to go back to Finnish lessons soon. If you have not guessed by now I like to write a lot because I want to tell people everything, so hopefully you enjoy! Haha…

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My Last Day in the USA...

Well, I leave for Finland tomorrow! I think it is actually beginning to sink in now. I am extremely excited, but fairly nervous at the same time!

My official flight itinerary:

Leave Pitt at 12:35 pm and arrive in Detroit at 1:49 pm
Leave Detroit at 7:10 pm (five hour layover!) and arrive in Amsterdam at 9:00 am (the flight is 7 hr and 50 min)
Leave Amsterdam at 10:30 am and finally arrive in Helsinki at 2:00 pm Sunday

Of course there are time changes in there.
It is crazy that I have waited for this for over a year, and it is finally here! It will be hard to leave my family, because I am so close to them, but I know it is worth it. They will be here when I return. And they will always be there for me, including during my exchange, even if they can't be there in person.

Since it is my last day, I will be going out to dinner tonight with all of my family and some family friends. I am glad that I will be able to see everyone collectively before I leave!

Well, next time I post I will be in Finland.
Ahh... Just mildly freaking out! But in a good way, I am SO excited!!
I will miss everyone very much!

Hyvästit Yhdysvallat
(Goodbye USA)

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Viisitoista Päivää (Fifteen Days)!

Crazy as it may sound I am leaving for Finland in fifteen days! Still, I don't think it has sunk in... It'll hit me a week or so after I am actually in Finland ;). I am fully in preparation mode though. I have all of my luggage (and actually started to pack a little). I wanted to pack everything, but I had to stop myself! Haha. I have all of my host family gifts and a bunch of pins (for trading) to take with me. I can't believe how much stuff I have accumulated to bring with me. For my host families I am bringing mini photo albums of my photography, USA flags, Florida brochures, my rotary club's flags, and peanut butter (which I heard they do not have in Finland). I think I am also getting Pennsylvania book marks, key chains, and pins from Scott Hutcheson... so that will be really nice to take too!

Here's a picture of my first host parents, Marjo and Ari, that I got a while ago (I'm not sure where they are...it's not in my host city I don't think). Also, in my first host family I have two younger host sisters, Veera (13) and Saara (7), and a younger host brother, Aake (11). I hope I got their ages correct! I am really excited to have "siblings" :)

Oh, and sorry to change the topic, but I haven't got my visa yet! I mean everything is in order so that I have my visa technically...but not physically...if that makes sense. My visa is still in Finland I believe, and it's all ready to go...they just haven't sent it back yet. I think they may have my passport too. :/ My mom talked to the travel agency and they said that Finland likes to wait until the last minute to send these things back. Do they know I'm inpatient? I haven't got my exact flight information either. Buttt I did hear what the flight route will be. From what I hear I will be flying out of Pitt to Detroit...then from Detroit to Amsterdam...and then to Helsinki. Sounds exciting!!!

Also... Tomorrow I am having one of my final fundraisers: a yard sale. Woo! I think that it's a good idea...other than the fact that I have to get up at 6 o'clock in the morning to set things up. I am also selling hoagies as one of my last fundraisers. I have to say, it will be nice to be fundraiser free here pretty soon.

Lastlyyy, I have applied to two out of my four college choices! I applied to the University of Pittsburgh and Ohio State...anndddd I'm also going to apply to Virgina Tech and the University of Delaware once their applications become available (which hopefully is before I leave!!). I'm happy with my college choices though. All of them have a really good International Relations/Studies program or Political Science program... But, ah! I cannot wait to be done with all of this college stress. I am glad I am getting it out of the way though, because then I won't have to deal with it much when I'm in Finland. Thankfully, my mom will be doing a lot of financial aid and scholarship business for me while I'm gone. :)

Alright, well that's enough for now!

Hyvästi nyt!

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