Elokuu/ August

August was a more laid back month for me in most ways. It began with a trip to my counsellor’s mökki (Finnish summer cottage, typically located by a lake). This was a very interesting experience, as Kristiina’s sister owns the cottage, and although it had electricity and running water, we used an outhouse and water from the lake in the sauna. Her family was also there, consisting of her partner and son, Otso. Though both of us are fairly shy, Otso took me on a tour of the area around the lake, including going out onto the lake in his boat. After talking for a while, we discovered we share lots of common interests, and we have now become quite good friends! The forest surrounding the mökki was very beautiful, and green because the summer had been very rainy. Said rain did return, but it somehow only enhanced the forest’s magic and made everything fresh and rejuvenated.

Adventures in the forest with Otso.

When we came back, it was the weekend, and time to welcome the newbies from all over the world to Finland. I had an interesting program because I had promised one of the people I’d made friends with I would come to the airport early because he came the day before and would have nothing to do except sit by himself in the hotel. So I got up and left the house at 7:00 in order to make it for Perry’s 8:30 arrival time. I’m quite glad I did go, because I got to meet and chat with a lovely old Rotarian for a while, and when it turned out that Perry’s luggage had been lost we took him shopping to buy a few necessities. We had a lot of fun finally meeting in person, though I did have to make sure he didn’t fall asleep so that by the evening he would still be tired. The next day everybody else arrived. I was at the airport for about nine or ten hours, but I did get to see Matti, the nice Rotarian from the day before, again, and talk to him a lot, which was great.

The next week I travelled to Tampere with Kirsten to see the city in the summer and visit our friend Dylan who was living nearby. We had fun at Dylan’s house, because he lived on a lake and had a Jacuzzi as well as a sauna! Coming home to Helsinki, I stayed with my first host family for a couple of days and enjoyed some summer time. The weather was perfect, about 20°C, the sun shone brightly, everyone was spending as much time outside as possible and it was wonderful- probably the first time in a long time I’ve enjoyed a summer holiday. We also visited Muumimaailma- also known as the Moomin Land. Moomins are a series of books and animations, originally by Tove Jansson, which are quite iconic in Finland. It was a great day and we had a lot of fun, and watching a play with the moomin characters made me feel really proud of how much Finnish I have learned, because I understood practically all of it!

Eetu was in need of a swimming break.

The whole family at Muumimaailma! :)

However, soon enough it was back to school, and for the first time I can ever remember I was excited to be back. Ressu is such a great school filled with so many wonderful people that I was overjoyed to finally be returning after so long. I was also seeing a lot of my friends who I hadn’t met with since January. I also had four baby exchange students, though I am of the opinion that leaving them to their own devices will have them integrating better than if I interfere. Either way, it was very exciting to have a whole selection of new courses and activities, and being able to see my amazing friends every day again. This term my courses are civics, photography, history, Finnish English and IB English. Although IB English isn’t from the national side courses, I decided to take it because it’s high level and similar to the kind of work I will do in university if I end up going to a literature degree. I’m glad I did as well, because the teacher is very nice and the IBs are lots of fun, if a little bit crazy.

At the end of the month there were a few special events. Helsinki had another pop-up restaurant day, and this time I went with my counsellor to the Indonesian embassy and had delicious traditional Indonesian food. There were also performances from members of the community in dance, music and trivia, which were all quite interesting to see. My meal was some kind of chicken, egg and rice, with sweet coconut rice cases for desert. The second event was the taiteidenyö or night of arts, where a lot of galleries opened for the whole night and the city had lots of performances and events relating to art, music and drama. I wasn’t feeling very well that night so I went home early, but I did have a great afternoon at the FinnBrit society listening to Shakespeare monologues and had cucumber sandwiches and ginger tea. The last one wasn’t a city-wide extravaganza, but was very special for me: I changed to my second and final host family. Though we had met a few times before, I was still very nervous to be moving into a new home. We had a small welcome party for which I made a huge pavlova, which was also greatly appreciated by my new host brother because he had just returned from his own exchange in Narrabri, Australia.

My Indonesian Meal.

Afternoon at the FinnBrit society with Emma, my Canadian newbie.

Mega pavlova for my new host family ^_^

There wasn’t much else other than one evening, three of us exchange students went up to the top of Torni tower in Helsinki to watch another spectacular sunset. We stood there together on the balcony; not even needing to talk for a few minutes as we admired the beauty the sky was capable of.

Heinäkuu/ July

At the beginning of July I was still in England, where I had a few adventures left. I spent a week in Shropshire with Mum’s side of the family. Although we didn’t go to many places, it was very nice to just relax, go for lovely walks in the forest and around the countryside, and catch up with people I hadn’t seen in a long time. Also included were several dogs and cats, all of which quickly became friends. Strangely enough, I started to get a bit homesick for Finland during this week. I don’t know why because I don’t usually get homesickness, and I hadn’t at all this year before then, but I suppose that shows how much I love Finland because England has always felt like home to me in a way. While at my aunt’s house, we combined forces in the kitchen to make cupcakes for my cousin’s school event.

A walk in the dingle :)

Cupcakes achieved.

After this week, I returned to Salisbury for a little while before going back to Finland. My final adventures in England were going to another old-style manor house, this time more of a palace with hundreds of beautiful original artworks, and visiting the engineering and architectural wonder that is Stonehenge, as well as the historic dockyards at Portsmouth. Although everything that happened in England was special and gave me many memories to cherish for a long time, Portsmouth was very special for me because my birthday is Trafalgar day, one of the most famous naval battles. The HMS Victory is still in Portsmouth, and although I went once when I was very little, it was wonderful to be able to go again and stand on the ship that made history on my birthday.

In front of HMS Victory.

Stonehenge- English weather decided to be nice to me.

The gates of Wiltshire House.

Though I did have a bit of homesickness, I am very grateful to all of my relatives and their efforts for me during my time in Finland. I know I will treasure the memories for a long time yet. My return to Finland was sad, because I had to say goodbye to my wonderful family, but also because our beloved oldies were leaving.

The day I got back was one of my best friends’ farewells. We spent the night in Helsinki, going around everywhere and reliving a lot of memories from her year here. Kirsten and I joined her and a group of Finns on the island of Suomenlinna to watch a beautiful sunset. We all sat fairly quietly on the rocks, looking out over the bay and admiring the view, and although few words were spoken, it was very emotional for all of us. The air was tinged with goodbye, and the promise of change and new beginnings. That night made the reality of my exchange being more than half over hit quite hard.

Kesäkuu/ June

Kesäkuu: literally the summer month. (Kesä is "summer" in Finnish). And it might seem reasonable to hope that summer has finally arrived. Although temperatures at times can still be on the cool side, there have been many days of the sun shining brightly and a cool breeze ruffling the leaves of the trees. The sky has been such a bright, vibrant blue that now I know why that particular colour was chosen for Finland’s flag.

A picnic in the park with some amazing friends! ^_^

The first major thing that happened in June for me was Juhannus (Finnish midsummer) in Värtsila. Värtsila is a small town very near the Russian border in eastern Finland. My Finnish rotary counsellor Kristiina organised for me to spend a week there over the Finnish midsummer holiday. Six hours away by train, Värtsila proved that even though Vantaa and Helsinki still feel like countryside, they are actually cities compared to such tiny villages. The days leading up to my departure to Värtsila were wrought with anxiety and gloom, as I was also saying farewell to my first wonderful host family. The Mesiäs have been my family since I arrived in Finland, and there is really no way for me to properly put into words how grateful I am to them and how much impact they have had upon not just my exchange, but my person and life in general. My host mum Susanna, host dad Heikki, brother Olli and sister-in-absentia Emma have all been so amazing and supportive for me, and I really feel like part of their family.

However, all good things eventually come to an end, and with my heart in my mouth I stepped onto the train to Värtsila. Five hours is a very long time to be on the train, but with WiFi in the carriage and the Finnish scenery flying by outside, the journey was actually quite enjoyable. When I got to Värtsila, I was met by my next host family, the Kivivuoris. Konsta was working so he couldn’t come and meet me, but Päivi and Hannu gave me a warm welcome with open arms.

With my second family, the Kivivuoris.

While we explored the countryside, including the ironworks at Ilomansti and old Russian buildings, my favourite parts of the week were Finnish and Australian baking, and Juhannus. I think Kristiina let slip that I was desperate to bake pulla (Finnish buns) and Karelian pastries. Päivi’s friend Mirja visited and taught me how to bake the latter, which were utterly scrumptious, and the next day Päivi and I baked the pulla. They were delectable, and I really couldn’t be happier at being able to take part in such a Finnish affair! In return for this, I baked damper and lamingtons for them. I think the sheer amount of baked goods available made Konsta and Hannu very happy!

Baking adventures: lamingtons, Karelian pastries, pulla and damper. 

Juhannus is the Finnish midsummer celebration. It’s a long weekend, similar to something like the Queen’s birthday, but with more traditional ideas. It’s customary to have a large bonfire on the night of Juhannus and is the only night of the year the Finnish flag can stay up. We had a great meal of fish and salad followed by delicious pancakes with jam and cream. We also went to a smoke sauna, which was an experience. I think I prefer the normal wood saunas over the smoke one, as the smoke sauna was a bit too hot for me.

Konsta tending our Juhannus bonfire.

Once I was back from Värtsila, I had a few days of relaxing in Espoo before leaving for England. I had quite a strange experience at the airport when somebody started talking to me while we were waiting by the baggage carousel. There was a moment of confusion where I was thinking “Um… why are you talking to me? We don’t know each other?” because, in Finland, it’s normal to just keep to yourself. I’m a bit more used to everyone being open and talking a lot to each other now, though.

My first weekend was a journey to London to see the Book of Mormon musical with a friend’s host family. I also got to enjoy lots of cups of tea and a plate of good traditional English fish and chips! (Oh, how I've missed them.) The musical was excellent, such a great performance and absolutely hilarious.

The Book of Mormon wins best musical performance I've watched.

I also had the honour of listening to and meeting the last living member of the Dambusters raid, Jonny Johnson. He was such a gentleman and very well spoken, and also amazingly mobile and independent considering he is 93 this year! He talked a lot about how things were in the air force and also what happened in preparation for the dambuster raid. He was part of the only crew to land a direct hit on the Sorpe dam, which is truly amazing.

I had the honour of meeting Jonny Johnson, the last Dambuster!

Hopefully my visit continues to be as interesting as the beginning, and I manage to have fun with the rest of my family.

Toukokuu/ May

May began with Vappu Part 2, which consisted of a nationwide picnic. There are a few technical traditions, like the Swedish-speaking Finns and Finnish-speaking Finns have their picnics in different places, but the general consensus is that everybody goes out with their family and drinks and eats a lot. It was a great occasion to spend with my host family.

A week later, Rotary took everyone in our district to Tallinn, the capital city of Estonia. It makes me very grateful that I am in 1420, as it is only this district that got to visit Estonia. Although Finland is a wonderful country, and rapidly becoming my favourite place, conflicts in history are responsible for a lot of the traditional medieval buildings having been burned down (on several occasions), so Estonia was a great opportunity to see the traditional architecture and characteristics of a medieval town.

Tallinn did not disappoint. From the cobbled stone roads to the grand Russian Orthodox Church in Old Town, Tallinn was really a beautiful city. Even the little side alleys had a sort of Romantic charm to them. After exploring most of the city with Gabi, our Estonian oldie, as our tour guide, we did some shopping and went to a medieval style pub in Old Town Square. The pub’s meal of the day was a vegetable soup, which all of us purchased a bowl of, and ox meat sausages with lingun berry juice to drink. The soup was served in an old style bowl that you had to drink out of, to add to the medieval atmosphere. The sausages also came on sticks, and there was no cutlery to be seen. Candles lighted everything.

The Russian Orthodox Church in Tallinn.

Dinner marked the end of our time in Tallinn. The ferry ride back was very emotional, and I managed to take possibly my favourite photo of this year so far. There was a live band playing in the lounge we were sitting in, but nobody dancing, and suddenly almost all of the exchange students and rotex got up and began to dance together in the light of the setting sun. It was truly a magical moment.

1420 has a dance party in the sunbeams.

After the Tallinn trip, there were several special occasions. The first of which was Hanami, the Japanese festival celebrating the cherry blossom or sakura trees and springtime. Me and some of the exchange students had planned to have a picnic, but things went awry when half of us couldn’t get on the packed bus, and then had trouble finding the group once we got to the cherry blossom park. It then began to rain quite heavily, causing us to pack up shop and head for home.

Lilian and I got caught in the rain at Hanami...

The next took place on the 19^th of May, with my good friend and fellow 1420 newbie Kirsten. I didn’t have school because of the exam week, so I decided to surprise Kirsten with some cake. Finding the cake was an adventure and a half, as Finland doesn’t actually have cake shops and bakeries in the same way many other countries to. I had to venture into the nightmarish Stockmanns department store and track down a somewhat pricey chocolate cake from the patisserie section.  Once the sweet was acquired, I had to get directions from Juan, who goes to the same school as Kirsten, because I had no idea where the place was. It was worth the struggle though, as Kirsten was very happy to receive her cake!

Kirsten and her cake! :)

The third event was Finland’s pop up restaurant day. Essentially this is a holiday where anyone who wants to can open a restaurant and serve homemade foods to friends or passers by. It’s a great idea, and Susanna and I visited one of her friends who made extremely healthy, gluten free food. I had muesli cracker bread with nettle pesto and sun-dried tomatoes to begin with, as well as mint tea, raspberry cheesecake, fruit and nut yogurt and the richest hedgehog slice I’ve ever tasted.

Very healthy food at our chosen Pop Up Restaurant.

Almost at the end of the month was a competition day between Ressun and Norssin lukios. My school, Ressu, battled their rival school Norssi in a variety of sports and activities, with those of us not competing passionately cheering them on from the side-lines. The day’s events began with the opening ceremony, and continued on to tug-o-war, floorball, football, volleyball, ultimate (frisbee game), basketball and the rowing championships. Each sport had a middle and high school team for both girls and boys.

Though the competition was fierce to begin with, Ressu ended up winning with a score of 12-7! It was a great day for all of us, and I was very happy to be part of the Ressu family. Norssi were good sports, but it was wonderful to win because Ressu had lost the last two years. Our principal Ari was very proud to carry the trophy home.

Ressu Victorious! (photo credit to Mickey, I think)

RESSU vs NORSSI

Date: Thursday the 28th of May, 2015
Location: Väinämöisen kenttä
Resunn and Norssin Lukios clash heads. Or something.

There is a continuing trend of nobody telling me anything about special events and happenings at school. The most recent addition to this collection of ''leave the exchange student out of it'' was Ressu and Norssi's annual sports competition day. From what I understand, Ressu and Norssi are two of the three top schools in the Helsinki area, and have developed something of a rivalry. A rivalry which, of course, can only be settled by traditional sporting competition.

The day's agenda was as follows:

-Opening ceremony

-Tug-o-war

-Floorball

-Football

-Volleyball

-Ultimate (frisbee game)

-Basketball

-Rowing Championships

Most of the events had a team of girls and boys separately. My friends and I arrived slightly late so we missed the opening and the first round of tug-o-war, but we got to watch everything else in full. Floorball was particularly interesting to me, as it was something like a cross between indoor hockey, field hockey, lacrosse and handball.

It was really cool to see people I know participating in all of the events, even though quite a few of the teams were mostly made up of the same people. But, sport isn't everyone's thing, so it makes sense for the more athletically talented people to compete.

Floorball. We lost this one :(

Very talented footballers. The Ressu goalie was wearing fluorescent pink as well, but I didn't get a picture.

Teachers' volleyball, because not even the staff are allowed to sit out!

Girls' basketball- we won both Lukio basketball matches :D

Ressu on to victory!

VICTORY CONFIRMED! ^_^

Watching the rowing with my wonderful friends. :)

Huhtikuu/ April

April has been a busy month here in Finland, probably a side effect of all of spring making everyone exhausted and everybody being sick from hay fever. The first week was Easter. The Mesiäs took me to their summer cabin for the holiday weekend, which looked substantially different now things weren’t completely covered in snow. Even at the beginning of the month things were starting to get greener, although the season’s progress was hindered somewhat by a few days of snow.

Olli's Easter egg got slightly squished.

One of the traditional Finnish Easter foods is a thing called mämmi, which I can say isn’t the best thing I’ve ever tasted, but then it is substantially better than vegemite. We also decorated hard-boiled eggs and went on a hike through the forest around the cabin. There were signs that moose had been in the area but unfortunately I didn’t get to see one.

After Easter it was back to school. Not too much happened, except that we cleared the garden up for spring. It was interesting seeing how the snow had bent a lot of the plants, and Eetu had a fun afternoon lounging around in the sun while we worked on making the plants happier.

The other big thing to happen this month was the district conference and Governor’s Ball. Although I was a little bit ill, it was a great weekend, and we had a lot of fun. The Saturday of the weekend was the actual conference. It started off well by most of us getting lost and being unable to find the venue. However, I utilised the wonderful Google maps and found us the way in the end- it seems with technological help I might actually be able to navigate fairly well. After the conference we travelled to a youth hostel on the island of Suomenlina, where we spent a few hours before returning to Helsinki for the Governor’s Ball.

The Governor’s Ball was a very formal affair, and a lot of us felt underdressed even though we were wearing our best clothes.  We also sang a song in Swedish and another in Finnish, both well-known folk songs from what I understand.

We also had a Russian culture week at school, which featured a lot of jokes about Putin and some very delicious Russian waffles. We had a traditional dancing class and on Thursday a lot of the school dressed in Russian clothes. As I didn’t really have any, I wore normal clothes and borrowed my friend’s shawl in an effort to take part. It was really nice to see the school come together and put on something like this. Several of my friends are in the Student Council, so I know how hard they worked for the event. At my school in Australia, a lot of the charity and other special events would have been free dress days, as we wore uniforms and it was a treat not to for a day, so it was quite interesting to see the difference here where they wear free clothes normally.

The other big event of April was Vappu (Finnish May Day/ Labour Day) Eve. Falling on the 30^th of April and 1^st of May, Vappu has several traditions, but the biggest one revolves around the graduation caps Finnish Lukio students receive. There is a big event in Helsinki where a group of university students crown the Esplanade Fountain statue with a graduation hat, and everyone else puts their hats on at the same time. Then everybody drinks a lot, but Susanna told me that only the rookies get fully drunk on Vappu eve, while the experienced people wait until the next day to party.

Students crown the Esplanadi statue.

Maaliskuu/ March

March/ Maaliskuu

The main event of March for me was a trip to Lapland with my host family. This was very exciting for me, as northern Finland experiences more of the winter weather than the area I am in around Helsinki. To give an idea, when I left home, all of the snow around the house was melting, but when I arrived in Luosto, Lapland, the snow banks were almost as tall as I am. It was a great experience- I got to do so many Finnish things. Unfortunately my shoe broke, but I did get to try cross-country skiing, which I had never done before. It was interesting to learn about the technique, as I learned quickly you have to keep your knees bent in order to maintain balance as easily as possible.

My first cross-country skiing experience.

Unfortunately the next day I was sick, but I did go and watch the others doing downhill skiing at Luosto peak for a while. The sun was out for a second day running, possibly a record, and the snow under sunlight was especially beautiful.

Luosto's downhill run

We also made a visit to a reindeer or poro farm, just after we had eaten a traditional poro dish for lunch- lucky for the reindeer! They were very eager to eat food out of my hand, but I was very glad to be wearing gloves as they got covered in saliva.

A real reindeer in the snow.

We also explored Santa’s village, actually getting to meet the man himself, and visited the Arcticum museum, where I found a moose and faced off with a polar bear.

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After returning from Lapland, it was back to school and normal routine. There was quite a big change of scenery from metres of snow to green grass, as spring had come to Vantaa while we were away. Test week approached at school, which meant everyone was very busy studying and preparing for assessment. It was nice that school still served lunch during the week, though, as I went in every day even though I didn’t have exams and had lunch with my friends. Halfway through the week they were a bit burned out, so we had a board game afternoon to relieve some stress, and finished the term by cleaning out the student council room, which was an experience in itself.

I am still loving Finland and very grateful to everyone who has helped me either to get here or during my time so far. It’s an amazing experience, and I hope April will hold just as many wonderful memories for me!