Daniel's Report

September 16, 2007

Hi Everyone!!

This is Daniel finally reporting from Finland.

Let me start from the beginning. I arrived here to Helsinki and then went with some other exchange students to a language camp held in a very small town called Karkku, where i stayed a whole week and meet 101 exchange students from all over the world that were going to stay in finland. There were students from mexico, chile, canada, USA, ecuador, china, taiwan, japan, france, germany, thailand, italy, and phillipines. The week at the language camp was incredible, we got the chance to experience the finnish sauna, eat finnish makkara which is a traditional finnish sausage, and many more things. Also in that week we learnt a lot of the basics from the finnish language, but obviously that wasn't going to get us through the whole year. Finally the week ended and the families came to pick up the students, even though mine didn't. It was very hard to say goodbye to the friends we had made because we really got very close in just a week. So, since my family didn't come, i got driven up to Rovaniemi by another person who was hosting another exchange student that also lives in my city. The drive up was only 10 hours, so no problem (YEAH RIGHT).

I finally arrived to my family, and let me tell you, what an amazing family!! i think i couldn't be happier anywhere else. The house is small but very very nice, and they have a really cool backyard. Inside the house there is a finnish sauna which at first i didn't plan to use much, but I USE IT EVERYDAY NOW!! so i asked for the blueprints to send to my family back home... its worth trying even though it will never happen... anyway, i have two brothers, Matias which is 15 and much bigger and stronger than me, and Perttu which is 17 and a lot taller than me, but weeker than Matias, hahaha. I have lots of fun with my brothers all of the time, they have showed me all around the city, and we have done many cool things. My sister, is 10 now and her name is Aino. She doesn't speak much english, so i could say that she is my real finnish teacher, and i'm her english teacher. My parents here are incredibly nice and funny, they make me laugh all the time and my mom makes really good food.

School started right after i got home, so my brother Perttu and I, grabbed our bikes and started pedaling 6 kilometers to school... It was kind of like torture at the beginning but i got used to it quickly. The school is very nice, kind of old, but nice. My classes are all in finnish so i really don't understand them... YET.

The last days of August, my family took me to a rock concert from THE POLICE in stockholm sweden, and that has been the most incredible thing that has happened to me yet. I loved sweden almost as much as finland! but really, i had an incredible time walking around the city in stockholm and getting to know another part of europe.

Finally all i want to say, is that this has only been a month of my exchange year, and if i like it so much right now, then wow... because i can already tell you that what i have done up to now is already unforgetable, and i know the rest is going to be even better... so really, i have you guys at rotary to thank for this. Thank you rotary for this amazing opportunity that you have given me, you make all of this possible for all of us. THANK YOU!

Daniel Corredor