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!

Helmikuu/ February

February/ Helmikuu 

And so we come to February, or Helmikuu as it is in Finnish. The month has kicked off with me attending my first Finnish Rotary meeting and starting school.

Monday the 2nd of February was dedicated to administration and introductory things with Kristiina, a member of my Rotary club. We went to school, met my Principal and the student counsellor, and organised my timetable. Then it was off to Palace Ravintola for my first Finnish Rotary meeting! Although I couldn't understand a lot of what was going on, the food was amazing- I had the best mashed potato I have ever tasted and some very good beef casserole.

The next day I had off from school, as Ressu was still on exam week, but I did have to venture into Helsinki for the first lesson of my first Finnish course. I had a very terrifying moment when I thought I had caught the wrong bus, and then a very terrifying half hour as I wandered around the streets of Helsinki in a state of hopeless lost-ness, but I made it in the end with help from my host mum and Google maps.

School here is amazing. It's so much fun and very interesting. My lessons currently consist of English, Painting, Architecture, Music and Economics, although, I have also been to a Finnish lesson and one class of philosophy. The system is very different from Australia- timetables are flexible, there are no uniforms, there is only one main school building, and lunch is served for free. However, as Finland possesses one of the leading education systems in the world, the differences are certainly not negative.

My school, Ressun Lukio.

I have also done some baking for my host family- some traditional Australian delicacies, of course, including lamingtons and pavlova. I am yet to participate any Finnish baking, but I have hopes for baking cinnamon pulla at some point.

The lamingtons were better than expected

My Pavlova

This month there was a big event at school: wanhojen tanssit or wanhat. A rough translation would be the ‘elder dances’, as they coincide with the third years leaving the school to study for their matriculation exams. On the Thursday of the week, the third years from all over the city get on big trucks and drive around, throwing sweets to everybody watching. They usually also put on a show at school for the other students and dress up in bizarre costumes.

The Third-Years dressing up for the leaving ceremony.

The next day, either during the day or in the evening, the second years get dressed up in their formal gear and perform a lot of traditional dances to the first years and their parents. I wasn’t able to participate because I didn’t know the dances, but I did waltz with a boy from my art class when one dance called for partners from the audience. 

The Wanhat dances.

My host family also spent time at their lakeside cabin, which was quite an adventure. On the second day we were there, my host mum took me snowmobiling, but we got stuck in a patch of melting snow. After trying and failing to make the machine budge for about 20 minutes, Susanna called her father at the cabin and asked him to come and help. We ended up having to walk back through the slush to the cabin, and I spent the subsequent hour with my feet in hot water to try and avoid getting a cold. Everyone was apologising for what happened but I wasn’t too fussed, at least I got a story out of it!

Sami and Jussi pulling Lauri on the snowmobile.

I also built a rather pathetic snowman and had a Finnish style barbecue in the snow.

Do you want to build a snowman?

Finnish snow-barbecue.