Moikka, to everyone wondering where I went for about the past month. I would like to apologize for the lack of posts, I guess you could say I had some form of writers block. You see, I don’t want my blog to be boring to read, therefore I can’t just write about anything and everything, including things I did in a day; although I’m working on a video about a week in my life and I’ll post it when I finish putting the clips together. I chose the most boring week in my life to film, so I might delete the clips and start over- we’ll see. 😉
Alrighty to start out I would like to say, fall is here, and very present. It rains everyday, (ring a bell?), and when it rains, it pours. I’ve officially given up on trying to save my shoes; less to take home then right?
Anyways, four days ago was two months in Finland, crazy right? I can’t decide if it’s gone super slow, or super fast.
There’s some things I would like to address about my first few months here:
1.) No matter now much people tell you, you’ll “pick up” the language from hearing it so much, don’t believe them.
The language won’t be easy, and I won’t just fall into your lap. To be quite honest I barely worked on the language at all, before I left. (To any outbounds reading this; you’re gonna hear this a million times, and you probably won’t do it anyway but, STUDY YOUR HOST LANGUAGE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE BEFORE DEPARTURE, you’ll thank yourself later.) Before I left I knew basically these words: 1-10, hei, hei hei, huomenta, hyvää yötä, and olen amerikkalainen. I only use about two of these words on a daily basis, and my trip has been 10x harder without the language.
I can give you couple fun facts about Finnish in case you’re wondering what the language is like and/or what it sounds like to an english speaker.
“ldfjoijfnndwomdmonr erwernwfvmvkmv geidsfnropyopyhn”
They have these letters which are hard for me to make the sounds of, even though they are very distinct sounds. Y, O, U, and ö. They all sound similar, but have their differences. I also cannot roll my R’s, which is used a lot in Finnish.
In Finnish, they add endings and other words together to make one word. For example you could add book and room/building to make the word library. Or for example an ending, -ssa. This means ‘in’. So for instance if I said, ‘Suomessa’, it means ‘in Finland’.
In reality, I know almost no finnish so don’t take my word for it.
Anyways, my point is, your host language can be drastically different from your mother tongue, and you have to work very very hard to learn it in the short time you have during your year on exchange.
2.) Not every exchange student is going to be busy all the time
When I thought about exchange, I thought I would have plans, and things to do all the time. That didn’t happen. I think for some people it might be that way, but for me, I have extra time on my hands, and a lot of time to just hang out. You have to go out and make an effort to find things to do.
3.) You are not a tourist
I thought every day would be like the movies, walking through the middle of a beautiful famous town, and living the coolest life in Europe. I’ve discovered this to be false as well. Yes, it’s different here, but it’s also not. I live in a small town, there’s not architecture everywhere, and it’s not famous. I go to school, eat, sleep, get coffee, hang out with friends… it’s not so different. I’m living a life here in a normal, average town.
4.) Being alone is harder than I thought it would be
I thought being alone was going to be hard, and it is, but on a whole other level. There’s no feeling like it. Now I know what you all are gonna say, I have rotary, I have friends, I have my host family, etc. etc. There’s only a few hundred holes in that statement. Rotary is here to support me, yes. But they can’t help me day to day, I have to do this, they don’t have to learn the language, I do. They don’t have to make friends, I do. Also, I don’t have friends. I have people I talk to at school, but once that bell rings, they’re gone. Making friends is not a fast easy thing, especially with finns. And lastly, yes I have an amazing host family, but just like rotary, they can’t do this for me, and I eventually have to move to another family. So yes, I have support, but I also still have the lonely feeling as well.
5.) Growing up is hard
I have absolutely no choice but to grow up here. I have to do everything for myself. I have to find places myself, and I have to ask for help myself. I’ve definitely learned that part of this growing up is making mistakes and embarrassing yourself. I embarrass myself here, all the time. And when I say all the time, I mean all the time. But you have to do that to learn what to do, and what not to do.
Mostly what I’ve been thinking during this process is, “Why can’t I go back to grade school?”
I’ve done some cool things since the last time I wrote, one of my favorites being superpark. It’s a lot like get air, and I didn’t know how much fun it actually is, until I did it! It was so much fun. Then my host sisters and I stayed in Turku with Milla and Jenny, and they were amazing as well. They showed me around Turku and we saw the cathedral and the castle there.
I went berry and mushroom picking with my host family in the Finnish forest; we roasted makkara afterwards. That was a lot of fun, and also my last memories of good weather in finland. (My host sister made me try ant’s pee too just in case you were wondering.)
I’ve been swimming in the freezing cold lakes, plenty of times, and ran back to the sauna after. I finally got pizza, and tasted the famous little salty fish they eat here. I think I’ve drank more coffee than I ever have and I’m getting used to the more black taste.
Last weekend I went to IB camp in Pori and this weekend I finally get to see Mckyla. Soon I’m going to Sweden with my family, then to Helsinki to see Alex and Maurice!! Next month we go to Lapland and then the dreaded dark winter comes.
Wish me luck!!!
Until next time, Xoxo,
-Linds
Lindsey's overseas adventures 