Weeks 18, 19, and 20: Coffee, Falling, and Hyvää Joulua!!

The first weekend in December I went to Helsinki and met up with some of the other exchange students. It was a really fun day filled with shopping, discussions of Christmas, and firsts. One of the other students had never been to Starbucks before, so we met there and had Christmas flavored coffee to start off our day. We spent the day shopping and enjoying each others' company. We went to lunch and one of my friends ordered a burger and commented on how very "American" that was. When we got our food, the burger turned out to be extremely huge and she was questioning how she could possibly eat it. It seems that, often, when the exchange students get together, we discuss the stereotypes that exist about our countries and discuss if there is any truth to them and we then make light hearted jokes about them. We decided that if she managed to eat it, she would have truly learned what it was to be American, and, now, she has, in fact, learned how to be "American". 

The Thursday before last I had a really unique experience. We had something called Night School wherein all of the lukio students came so school at 8:00 in the evening and stayed until the wee hours of the morning. It was a really fun evening. There were a few activities that were planned for participation between all of the students including a team trivia thing where I don't know if I really helped my team much at all and then we had "night buddies" where we were all assigned a student at random and ask them questions to get to know them better. There were also games organized including a game of hide and seek that I'm pretty sure I lost almost immediately after it started. I also had a lot of coffee and therefore didn't even feel tired when I was walking home in the snow at 6:30 in the morning. 

In Finland, there is a store called S Market. To me, due to the Finnish pronunciation of the letter "S" it sounds like people are saying "ass market". A little while ago I discussed this with my host family. In the car on the way to visit extended family last weekend, my little brother said something about the store and my host mom asked me if it still sounded like "ass market" and I said yeah. She then explained what it meant to the little brothers who then proceeded to chant "ass ass ass ass ass" for a significant part of the car trip. It began snowing while we were driving and snowed for the better part of the weekend and I believe it was the most snow I'd seen since I was about five years old and moved out of the North. I am really horrible at estimating things so I am not sure really how much snow there was, but I'm pretty sure it was between four inches and a foot. Maybe. It was a really fun weekend, spending time with extended family and I got to meet several new people. 

Along with the snow came ice. Ice that covers the roads and is difficult to walk on and causes me to slip and fall more often than I would like to admit. On Sunday I had my dance performance and did not fall on the ice at all when walking to the train from my home or from the train to the place we were performing. I did, however, fall multiple times once I got inside. The first time I fell was while we were rehearsing before the show. There was one corner of the stage that was particularly slippery and I was not the only one to figure that out the hard way. The last time I fell was about ten minutes before the performance started. I was walking down some stairs (mind you: these stairs were inside and therefore not covered in ice like the ones I fell down at my school a few days prior) and about two steps from the bottom, I fell. I'm not really sure how, but it happened and hurt myself somewhat before having to go on in a few moments to perform. Other than mildly injuring myself right before performing, the performance went well. 

For the past few weeks, it has become obvious that Christmas is coming. Preparations are being made and the excitement for the season is heightening. At school, we have been singing Christmas songs in music class to get ready for the Christmas concert we had this past week. In my class we were singing songs in both Finnish and English—there was even a song we sang partially in each language! Also at school one day this week we had traditional Christmas foods for lunch, which I, for the most part, liked. At home, we have been making gingerbread cookies and have prepared the casseroles for the Christmas dinner. This past weekend my host father and I were attempting to build a gingerbread tractor which I got a cookie cutter for in the advent calendar. Throughout the month of December, we have had an advent calendar for me and my two little host brothers. It is great to have younger siblings at Christmas time and to see their excitement for everything. Every time it is my turn for the advent calendar, they remind me numerous times to make sure that I’ve opened it and every time it is one of their turns, it is the first thing they do in the morning. 

I plan to spend Christmas at home with my host family. We have some extended family coming in to celebrate with us as well. On Christmas Eve, Joulupukki will be visiting our house and bringing presents. One big difference between Christmas celebrations here and what I’ve grown up doing in the United States is that the presents are opened in the evening on Christmas Eve here rather than in the morning on Christmas day. Here, Christmas Eve is celebrated more than Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve we will be eating the Christmas rice porridge for breakfast and then going to sauna before getting dressed nicely for the day and getting the food ready for the Christmas dinner. Yesterday we went to the forest and got our Christmas tree, which was also a new experience for me as I have always gone to a tree farm to get a Christmas tree. Our tree is not inside yet as it is still defrosting in the garage. We will be decorating it on Jouluaatonaatto, the 23rd of December, with baubles, candles, and gingerbread. I am very excited to experience these new traditions and to celebrate Christmas with my host family. 

Hyvää Joulua!!

Weeks 14, 15, 16, and 17: or “November”

Hey. I’ve not posted on my blog in a super long time. I’ve done many things since last I posted. And at least a few things have happened since then. 

Just a few days after I last posted, in my geography class, myself and the other foreign exchange student in my school gave presentations to our class about where we come from. I talked about interesting things about my state, town, and school. After my presentation my class asked questions. One of the questions I was asked was about the driving age where I am from and I informed them that one could could get a learner’s permit at 15 and a license at 16…which then prompted a question about whether I had my license and then their probable slight envy as one cannot get a license here until age 18. I also learned much about the other student’s home country that day. 

Before coming to Finland, I don’t think I had ever watched more than maybe five minutes of ice hockey, let alone an entire game. I have now definitely seen more than five minutes of ice hockey as it is the sport that is most often showing on our TV. Also one weekend I got together with some of my friends and, after they learned I’d never watched an ice hockey game, we watched a whole game. And I got to fully experience how enthusiastic Finns are about ice hockey. 

Another exciting thing (at least exciting to me) that has happened since last I posted is that it has snowed…like real snow…on multiple occasions. Something that was a totally new experience to me was the snow staying on the ground for many days without melting. Where I’m from snow doesn’t really stay on the ground for even two days. I get excited about the snow. It isn’t something I’m used to. Recently, I’ve heard a few people complaining about how little snow there is and it would be nicer in the dark, cold winter time with the snow because it makes it seem lighter outside. That’s another thing that I’ve been getting used to: how dark it is. Today, for example, sunrise was around 9:00 this morning and sunset around 15:15. 

Our second exam week of the year occurred during November. This exam week happened to coincide with the exam week at my school in the states and with the best intentions at heart, I wrote each of my classmates a short letter wishing them the best on their exams, though they didn’t get the letters until yesterday, nearly a week after exams had finished. One thing I have noticed that is very different from the school I’ve gone to for the first three years of high school is that here, people don't seem to visibly stress as much about exams as I’ve experienced the past few years. I still held onto the attitude that exams are a very stressful time and was studying very much throughout. At one point my host mom recommended I go out and walk for a bit as I hadn’t done much but stare at my notebooks, text books, and computer screen and stressed for several days. I went out and saw what might have been the last little bit of autumn in the forrest. 

After having the exam week, we have begun the third grading period of the year. I have now been taking my new set of courses for a week and they seem to be going well thus far. In our “sports” class this period we are leaning the dances for the Vanhojen Tanssit which includes leaning choreography for a variety of ballroom and partnering dances. Yesterday we learned the Virginia Reel. My school in the states has a tradition every year where we square dance and so I was excited by the prospect of doing something I am already quite familiar with. I am also, again, taking an English class. So far we have been doing quite a bit of partner work. It is quite interesting because there are exercises in the text book translating from Finnish to English and vice versa and so when we are working in pairs it is kind of a way for me and my friend to teach each other our languages. 

Along with trying to learn the language, another piece of Finnish culture I am becoming familiar with is cooking/baking Finnish dishes. Most recently my host mom taught me how to make karjalanpiirakka which have been one of my favorite things to eat since I’ve gotten here. We have also been making Finnish gingerbread cookies as it is getting to be the holiday season and so it is becoming an appropriate time of year to be having Christmas cookies. Another thing I had never really done before coming here was eat gingerbread. My family doesn’t make gingerbread as part of our traditional Christmas cookies and so the only gingerbread I’ve really been around on a regular basis is the gingerbread we use to make our gingerbread house each year which is not intended to be eaten—it is very hard and doesn’t break when dropped. Here, I have discovered that gingerbread can actually be edible and is pretty good. 

Other preparations for the Christmas season have been happening as well both in my school and the town. For many weeks in our music class we have been singing Christmas songs, in Finnish as well as a few in English. I think that singing in Finnish is helping me with my pronunciation, though I don’t really know what I am singing apart from that it has something to do with Christmas. Last Thursday in our town there was Christmas Opening where there were vocal performances and the Santa Claus! Also in my ballet class we have been rehearsing for our show that is to be around Christmastime. 

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving. On Saturday, I celebrated Thanksgiving with my host family and friends. I was really worried about preparing everything properly for the meal and nervous about if everyone would eat the food I made. In my opinion, the food turned out really good (it tasted almost exactly like how I’ve always had it in the past so that’s an indicator that I probably did it right). I really enjoyed sharing a piece of my culture with my new family and friends here. The comments that I got about the food were similar to those I got about the few things I made at Halloween—everything was good but sweet! 

I fully intend to update my blog again in December. Maybe even before Christmas.