Jennifer's Report

August 24, 2006

Terve!

As you already know I am in Finland and have been for a little over 2 weeks now. The whole trip started when i woke up at around 7 on the morning of Aug. 5 after saying goodbye to my friends the night before until around 2. The ride to the airport was not so good as I was getting nervous about my big adventure. At the airport, after I checked my luggage and my dad helped me get my papers in order I sat with my parents, trying to say goodbyes to them. We kept talking until it seemed like I had to go to the line and goodbye wasnt getting any eaiser to I proceded to the gate and was on my own. At the time it didnt even seem real that I was leaving for a year. My main concern was getting on the plane sucsessfully since I had never flown by myself before. Once at the gate I saw that my flight had been delayed and in a fit of panic I got in line with the rest of the dissatisfied passengers to change my connecting flights. So many thoughts were going through my head about not being able to meet up withe everyone else to fly over with that I may not have been thinking clearly; in all actuallity I still hat plently of time to make the connections and the guy at the counter just looked at me annoyed that I was wasting his time with such things. After safely on the plane I began to relax and look out the window as we flew over the city that I knew I would miss so much.

The ride was short and fiarly boring until I remembered the package that I had with me from Sonja, the exchange student to my town last year. I was instructed to open it on the plane and when I did my spirits were lifted immensley to know that someone cared about me and had already done what I was now doing. In Michigan I went to my gate and saw many people already there wearing rotary blazers. I met up with Alex, who I already knew, and many new faces, most of whom were also destined to Finland. I had my last chance to eat food in America at this time, so I went and bought some chips and salsa to share.

On the ride to Amsterdam I sat next to Alex, who busied himself telling me everything he knows. Just kidding, I'm sure that would take longer than 8 and a half hours. I tried to relax, but every few minutes I had this feeling like I was sure that I had lost my passport or something and had to check on it. When flying over the atlantic ocean we could see the sun rising in one part of the world and darkness in another, which was beautiful. I made my best attempts to photograph it. Once that extremely long ride was over we were in for an extremely long layover, or at least what seemed long because at this point I was ready to be there. We met up with a girl from Alaska who had just spent an exhange year in Germany and she shared her words of wisdom with us. THen it was off to exhange money and go through customs and a list of other mundane tasks that had to be attended to. Once at the gate we were free to chat about our lack of Finnish language knoledge and the different fashions in Europe. I didnt want to get on another plane to go to Helsinki but the steward in the plane made it better with his entertaining announcements in at least 3 languages with many overdone rolling rrrr's.

When we finally were at the bagage claim in Helsinki we were met by some rotarians and many Austrailians who had been there since January, coming to meet and greet the 'newbies'. We got settled on this bus to language camp and had the oppourtinuity to first meet the exchange students from other countries. The finnish country side was beautiful and after awhile a little monotonus so I began to fall asleep, on what would have been my first nap of the journey, when I hear 'hey jen, jen look'. I wake up to Alex telling me something else and give up on the sleeping idea. I resume looking at all the wheat fields with the little houses and the huge billboards in the fields in the middle of nowhere. There was also alot of graffiti around, which was also strange because I was sure that no one ever saw either kind of sign that was here. So we got to camp in karkuu, put our stuff away, tried to call to let everyone know we'd arrived, blah blah blah. I really dont know what happened because I was getting delirious with tiredness. So finally at 11 we were realeased to go to bed and I go to my room, only to find my roomate telling me that I should take a shower now because I wouldnt have time in the morning. Ok, I get the hint. So I took my delirous shower and went to bed and woke up again at 7.

The sun was up when I went to sleep and agian when I woke up. Most of the week at camp was spent just noticing all the little differences between Europe and America, and getting used to Finnish life, such as eating 5 times a day. We also learned how to play Finnish baseball, moleball, and various other games, and taking our first saunas. I don't really see whats so nice about sauna, but perhaps I'll come to appreciate it more in the winter. One of the things that stands out about that week was our trip to Tampere. It was the city that I had hoped to be placed in, so I was glad to get the chance to visit at least. We saw all the old factories that the industry of the city had been built upon, including the old Finlayson building which is a fairly well known brand here in Finland, but like so many other things, the work has been outsourced to China, so the factory is no longer effective. Also amazing was our trip to a 'candle church' which had been built out of stone during the Renissance. It wasn't the steryotypical stained glass type of rennisance church, it was a huge stone building in a field with no stained glass, more of a working-class church.

One of the Finns who was my tutor at camp said that a few years ago the roof had been destroyed by a fire set by vandals but all the shingles in place now are handmade just like the originals were. People from the surrounding areas got to participate in the roofing\shinglemaking, and one of the shingles that was now on the roof was made by her. Another memorable thing about camp was our last night together. Everyone was showing off some kind of skill or dance or tradition from their own country. It was interesting to watch. Because we were joking that Americans have no skills, a group of us got up and sang 'take me out to the ballgame'.

On the last morning of camp we said our goodbyes to all our newfound comerades and most people met up with their hostfamilies. Because I was destined for Oulu, which was 6 hours by car, I had to take the train, reducing the trip to only 5 hours. At first I was so dissapointed about this because I wanted to meet my family at camp, but in the long run it was better because I wasn't by myself in the train, I was with Alex, Max, and some other new friends and we had a fun time. Also it was my first train ride, so that was also good. And when I think about it, I wouldn't have wanted to ride in the car for 6 hours with people I don't know anyway. So first thing on the rain, Alex and I went for an adventure walking through all the cars to find the other passengers we were with that were in a different seciton. It was kind of scary going between cars, but I got over it. Because I had never been in a train before, I was taking notice of all the amminites and wonderinge why people prefer flying. Train riding is much better and much more comfortable if you ask me. You get more room, a bigger seat, you can get up and walk around whenever you want, you dont have to listen to the safety lecture, theres a resturant, a phone area, smoking area, animal area where the animals are only on leashes, and when you flush the toilet, you can see the train tracks below. What can be better? Max went to take a picture of this point of intrest later. After awhile our train fun threatened to come to an end because Alex and some others were getting off at an earlier stop. Max and I went to help them with their luggage and see them off and then the train continued. And then there were 2. Now our tensions were mounting, thinking of how soon we would have to get off the train and meet our own families and finally be in a town with no one we knew and no other exchange students for help. He still had a three hour car ride ahead of him after that because he was going to Kuusamo, a town near the Russian border. We tried not to think of this and he tried to teach me a card game, only the cards were also german versions with different suites and I had more of a problem remembering the suit names than with the game itself.

Before we knew it we were in Oulu, my new place to call home. I was scared at first because I didnt see anyone looking for me and I was in a big, unfamiliar city. Oulu looks pretty scary from the train tracks. All you can see are these huge tenemant type buildings and graffiti of swastikas and such. About that time I knew I had packed too much, and I didnt want Max helping me anymore because he needed to go find his family as well. Finally my host mom found me and he found his parents, and we went our seperate ways. When I first met Riitta my hostmom I was suprised at her fluent english and and also quite worried about it because that could mean I wouldn't learn Finnish as well. She and her two year old daughter Saara showed me to the house which was like 3 streets from the station. Riitta and Saara turned out to be really nice, anwsering all my quesitons and setting up for me a place to sleep. After a few akward discussions about vegetarianism were out of the way, she introduced me to their neighbors.

My family lives only about 1 km from the city center of Oulu, but they still have a great sense of community within their neighborhood. Most of the neihbors have children who play with Saara and they are expecially close with Anu and Tomas, the neighbors right next door who pretty much have the same household with them in the summer months I've been told. So like I said, I got introduced, got shown the house and got a place to sleep. All seemed well. The next day I met Antti my hostdad and Sampaa and Sachary my hostbrothers. They're ok, but they dont really talk to me still. I always have to initiate conversation. I think they dont want me in thier house, though I try to be unobstructive. That may have something to do with now I am sleeping in Sampaa's room because Antti's mother thinks that I need to because where I was sleeping wansnt good enough or something, though the basement was much more comfortable. She's sweet to me though, she just speaks finnish to me as though I am fluent and in actuality I am very far from understanding most things she is talking about. And just when I thought that I couldn't get more new things thrown at me at once theres school. I had no idea what the counciler was talking about so I let her put me in any classes she wanted. I ended up with an art class, 2 music classes, an IB study class, and Äidenkiele which is Finnish as a mother tounge. At least in this school system you get to pick new classes every 6 weeks. Also in this school system every day your classes are in a different order, or you may have some and not others. It works out in my favor though because I go later on monday mornings, leave earlier on fridays, and on wednesdays and thursdays have 2 hour break. Other than school I've pretty much just been exploring Oulu by bike. We live so close that it only takes me about 6 min to get to school by bike, which is in the middle of the city. Im starting Finnish classes today which will meet on Mondays Thursdays and Fridays. Ive been trying to make out the meanings of people's conversations though they always speak to me in English. (everyone knows it here, not good) Ive met two Finnish girls who I guess are my new 'friends', but other than that I have only been successful in befriending forigeners, but no other exhange students as of yet, so I'll try to keep away from them, as if I dont already speak enough english to these people. No other major events, besides attending an end of summer party and seeing the northern lights there. When I wrote this I was sitting outside comfortably, so despite what you may think, Finland isn't always frozen tundra. Thanks to everyone at home and at Rotary, and good luck from Finland.

-Jennifer