Finland? It's somewhere up North close to Norway and Russia. But what exactaly do they have there? How are the peoplelike? Mauri is from Finland,  and he is a nice guy, but he is an open minded exchange student, what about  the rest of the people? I think Helsinki is the capital, but beside that,  what else? What language do they speak? Finnish? Maybe... Well, It might be  freezing cold. The truth is I know nothing about finland....... Wow, how  cool does that sound?

This was how I decided to accept the challenge. New culture, new people, new  language... How exciting!!!To get away a little from this Latin American  culture in which I have lived my whole life! (Nothing against Latin  americans, I'm one myself! But If I wanted to go in an exchange it was  because I wanted something different).

First week: A whole week with all the exchange students in a language camp  to study(?) Finnish! We also had tutors our age who were finnish but spoke  fluent english, and extremely nice. I'm in heaven I thought. You guys have  no idea how many cool people I met! In one week I made friends for a life  time! And even better, they were all around the country! Promisses to go  visit each other (In Finland it's really easy to do it because we have  trains all around)were several, we exchanged cards, and pins."Promiss you  will write, and come visit me?" "Of course". 

The week is over. Time to go home. All the parents go picking their exchange  students up, but mine and 5 other people. We lived too far north, and we  would take a bus to go home. We were leaving our 150 people family to go to  our little family, who we had no idea who they were. That was sad, but I had  done that once, I could do it again.

I got really frustrated when I arrived. My family was ok, but my host  sister, who was my age and I was expecting to be the nicest one, is super  jealous about me and doesn't want to be my friend. At school, which was an  international school with classes in English, only the international  student's would talk to me, and the finnish people... I don't know if they  were afraid, shy or what but they did not seem very talkative. Me, who was  not used of being alone felt terrible in the beggining, I just wanted the  whole year to be just like the language camp. Until...

I went to this class in English, but only two people were foreigners. I sat  in this table, and right beside me this one guy, kind of looking Finnish and  he started to talk to me. That felt really really weird, but it was nice. He  introduced me to his friends, and then I felt much better!

During fell was kind of hard and depressing. The sun light would show only  two hours a day, and I was at school at that time. The winter took a bit  long to arrive, and the days were dark and rainy. It was a sad time, but I  got along with it very well, by not stoping at all. From school to  basketball practice(could you ever imagine that me, short as I am, would be  playing basketball? Neither could I, well, new experiences), to the gym, to  somewhere else... never stoping, at all!

Nowadays, things over here are awesome. In this new family my sister and I  get along great, and I'm very into the culture! I love going to sauna, and  going in the snow right after that, even when it is -20 degrees Celsius  (Sorry, but I have no idea how much that is in F. It has never been that  colde where I lived) and snowboarding is my new Hobbie (A girl who lived in  Brazil and Florida snowboarding? Is this possible?).

I thought about giving up, but today I am just glad I did not. Everyday  there is something new to do, and I would miss all that if I had gone home.  I just have to be open minded about everything. If they can do it, why can't  I? Let's at least give it a try! But I cannot eat Sälmiäki at all. I'm  sorry...

Love, and good luck for all of you!

Mariana

Ps: Remember, doesn't matter where you go. Every place has its special  things. They might be different, but that's what makes it special