20th of January: Saturday/Lauantai
I arrived at Sydney airport with my dad, said my goodbyes and after a brief shower I proceeded through customs. The first flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur was long and tiring ( a few people were pulled up for scissors or sharp pens being in their baggage-only vaguely eventful). I only managed about 1 hour’s sleep
I made a few friends of the rotary students:
Daniel: A great personality- here is a particularly charming photo
Miriam and Debbie: Both from the region of Wagga Wagga, Miriam works in the trapeze at the circus and her brother is an expert juggler: the films I was shown of them were amazing!
Penelope: From Sydney, and who I watched some "Doctor Who" with on her laptop (message to sarah B-S - It was the newest one!)
After another customs procedure we continued on to Vienna. Unfortunately the in-flight movies were a little bit dodgy and there weren't many: we saw most of them in the first trip (though I do recommend watching "The Illusionist")
I started juggling on the plane at one point, with Mim (Miriam) able to tell me the name of every trick.
After arriving in Vienna I said a few goodbyes to the Non-Finland exchange students from my district, and after buying a deck of cards for the trip I proceeded onwards.
The flight to Helsinki unfortunately did not have movies, however we did get to send a free airmail postcard (I hope it arrives soon to you Family)!
21st of January: Sunday/ Sunnuntai (my apologies for the lack of picture: My camera's battery was flat)!
We arrived at the airport only to discover that the apparent lack of snow in finland had vanished.
Only a couple of days earlier the strange heatwave had left and Helsinki was beautiful and covered in snow. The cold shock was invigorating!
The excitement of seeing so much snow kept me wide-awake as we left the airport.
At the bus (to the orientation week in Tarkku) I was the first student to meet my host family! Marjatta (my host mother) came aboard and introduced me to her family: Jarmo (Father) and two sisters Riia and Noora.
They are such a nice family! Since they were unable to pick me up when the Karkku camp (due to a very high level ballroom dancing competition being at the same time) they had decided to meet me there.
I was finally presented with a mobile phone (paid for by my host club- it seems suomilainen (Finns- actually means “a Finn” on retrospect) do not use landlines!).
The trip to Tarkku was amazing! It all was so different! The signs were all written in Finnish and Swedish (though the Swedish was quite similar to English so I didn't realise this until later)!
There were sooo many trees all of which were coniferous. Everyone was commenting that the cars were driving on the wrong side of the road (until I pointed out it was the right side- this terrible pun silenced them for a moment with disbelief)!
After arriving in Karkku we were all tired and hungry. We had Päivällinen (dinner). The dinner was amazingly healthy: full of veggies. We skipped iltapala (evening snack) and all went to bed.
22nd of January: Monday/Maantanai
Mitchell and Angus
Me at the camp
After waking up early (about 0500) I felt ready for anything! Breakfast was kindly held half an hour later than usual (0830) to allow for our sleep on the first day.
Breakfast was delicious. I experimented with porridge and cornflakes with juice (together!) quite delicious.
ChristianOur lessons began today and we learnt the basics in pronunciation. I discovered that Finns have five meals a day:
aamianen (breakfast), Lounas (lunch), Kahvi (Coffee and some light snacks) Päivällinen (dinner- the fish was nice this evening) and iltapala (the evening snack- which I did eat this time). All of these meals were delicious!
Debbie and Taryn ( I hope that's your name! Sorry :( )We had some "outdoor fun" (I quote!) after Kahvi when we went sledding down the hills towards the lake. I captured some footage on film but I haven't figured out how to post that yet.
James
18:30: Sauna!! Absolutely awesome experience! After playing "Hallelujah" and "Moonlight shadow" on the keyboard in the sauna-house I entered the sauna for the first time. Normally this is a naked event, but the Finns were being nice! They were the only ones who went naked!
After raising the temperature to 80 degrees (apparently a feeble temperature for a Finn) we left the sauna and entered the lake. Absolutely brilliant! Afterwards I enjoyed rolling in the snow and returning to the sauna. The two Finns with us sang a sauna-song, and it was terrific! The girls in the next sauna apparently sang "Give me a home among the gum trees". Their attempt to drown out our song was in vain when we left the sauna for the snow and lake.
23rd of January: Tuesday/ Tiistai
After a nice sleep I woke up at 0600 in time to do some typing. Breakfast this morning consisted of egg and various fruits and vegetables with a bit of cereal.
We had some more Finnish lessons and now can spell and count in Finnish.
At 1500 the day became eventful and we listened to some cultural details about Finland, as well as meeting Santa Claus (see attached picture).
The first Finnish snowfall was experienced by me, but for many it was the first time they had ever experienced snow.
After a nice dinner we went to a forest camp and learnt important skills in building a fire, cross-country skiing, panning for gold (the sample I was given to pan for had none!) as well as some safety features while on ice (one lucky Finn acted out a drama of falling through the ice and was carried off to the sauna)! We also cooked our own pancakes tasted some delicious salmon and acted as reindeer to pull people around on sleds. All in all a very enjoyable evening.
The darkness here in Finland is quite extreme. This entire event was held with candles lighting the way (absolutely amazing effect!)
Mim Jessica and Me24th of January: Wednesday/ Keskivikko
A terrific Day! Again I had an interesting breakfast of a jam paste with porridge and berries as well as some juice. The lessons were great and now I can communicate basically (they taught us good grammar)!
In the afternoon we went on a trip to Tampere. We took a tour through a large beautiful church (see pictures).
Various church picturesAfter the church we went shopping around Tampere and I converted some Australian money to euros. I found some bargains (a pair of headphones, a Suomi-Englanti dictionary and an extremely cheap USB drive)
Finally after a long day we went to a night performance and karaoke. I sang "Poison" by Alice Cooper, and "The Final Countdown" by Europe. I made friends with a Finnish girl who plays the piano quite well.
25th of January: Thursday/ Torstoi
Feeling a little väsynyt (tired). Karaoke was draining. The cold woke me up quickly though and I went back to enjoying my breakfast. Lessons today involved food: we discussed toppings of pizzas in finnish. To the class' endless amusement we viewed an article on the "most erotic foods" for Finns!
This bit of humour helped our learning tenfold!
We attended a half hour service at the local Lutheran church where I did my first reading ever. Some songs were sung including "Amazing grace" and "Kumbaya".
After that we visited the sauna and I did the avanto (hole in the ice swim) seitseman (seven) times!
After this amazing day we retired to our beds exhausted.
26th of January: Friday/Perjanti
Had a nice breakfast. Got a bit overwhelmed in lessons and had to take an early break. Was extremely hungry afterwards. Probably due to extreme sauna the night before.
We then had a lecture on the rules of rotary. I was feeling quite ill but felt better after a large quantity of apple pie.
We the had our "cosy night" where the students performed for each other. I played the violin and piano and forgot the lyrics to "Hallelujah" halfway through singing it. A good lesson in humility.
After the evening meal we socialised until 12.00am when we were forced to bed by the tutors (this partying was allowed and was on our schedule)!
27th of January: Saturday/Lauantani
The last day in Karkku. We had a nice breakfast and spoke to our district exchange organisers (For those of you who do not know I'm in district 1420). I had a final meeting with Tapani Kahkonen (who organises the exchange with Australia and New Zealand). I then had to leave early because my host family couldn't pick me up. After saying my goodbyes I was driven to Hyvinkää by my Finnish counsellor. I was given the option of going to his house and staying the night or watching my host parents in an international dance competition in Tampere...
The Dance competition was amazing ( I have footage)! My host parents performed extremely well finishing third in Finland and 10th overall in their division (they've agreed to teach me to dance)! I also had the opportunity to watch the world youth dancing championships. Amazing!
the night finished at midnight and I retired, after iltapala (night snack) to a well earned sleep!
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