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.
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