Day Trip to Lahti Harbor

Yesterday my host mom and I rode our bikes down to the city center and she showed me where the library was. We checked out some children's and adult books to help me learn Finnish, and then we rode bikes to the square and walked around a bit before getting back on our bikes and heading to Lahti harbor.

 On the way to the harbor we rode through a park and had perfect timing, because just a few minutes after arriving, music started to play and the fountain pictured above began to move to the beats of the classical music. We watched for two songs before getting back on our bikes and riding a bit further.

 This is just across from the fountain, the body of water is known as the little Vesijärvi, because it is coming in from the big lake.

 Jean Sibelius Hall is home to the world famous Lahti Orchestra and houses many performances including many rock concerts. The building is made entirely from wood and glass, with the red brick building in the back being a very old shoe factory that has been preserved and now hosts the entrance for the music hall. Jean Sibelius is Finlands most famous composer, know all over the world. If you ever go to Lahti harbor, you can't miss seeing the music hall because it sits right beside the lake.

 If you translate Vesijärvi into English it would be water (vesi) lake (järvi). A bit of a strange name. It is one of the biggest lakes in all of Finland and houses many boats that you can eat lunch on in addition to river cruises as well. And in the winter when the lake is frozen over, it's a good place for cross country skiing and sometimes skating as well.

 Lahti (Bay in English) is a beautiful city by Vesijärvi. The wheel on the sign above is the symbol for the city too.

These are some things I bought at the harbor. The I (water drop) Vesijärvi represents a heart to symbolize loving the lake, but also it is to help save the lake from pollution. When industrialization first came to the area, the lake became very bad. It's clean now, but these special things help raise funds to keep the lake clean. I also got a matching pin for my blazer too.
The harbor is so nice and peaceful and very much near to my school as well. I will definately be spending more time there over the course of the year.

First Finnish Hockey Game

My host dad took me and my two host sisters to a Lahti Pelican's hockey game. It was a practice game against the Swiss team; Kloden, but it was a real game none the less.
My first Finnish hockey game!

 By the end of the first period (there are three each game) the pelicans were down 0 - 3. Not the best way to start off, but I believed they could get the job done. Their goalie is only a seventeen year old which is pretty amazing, and this is still the practice season, so win or lose it would be good to see how they did.

 In the second period they started to come alive a bit and scored a point. But in the final period they really turned on the heat. There became a lot of action and it was a really good game. We were leading 4 - 3 and the crowd was estatic, then with 12 seconds left they scored on us and tied the game. I didn't know that they would go to a shoot out, but they did.

Our goalie made some good saves and in the end it was a victory for the Pelicans and I was very happy and excited too. Now I just need to wait for the real season to watch an actual game, but the practice game was a very good one. It reminds me a bit of the US woman's soccer team and their amazing comebacks.
Good game! Go Pelicans!

Trip to The Summer Cottage

This weekend we took a trip to the summer cottage in Savonlinna, Finland. After school on Friday, Helmi, Lotta, my host mom, and I began the three hour drive from Lahti to the east.
We arrived in the small town of Savonlinna and picked up my host grandma before driving the rest of the way to the summer cottage.

 The summer cottage has been part of the Höglund family (Marjatta's Family) since she was one year old and doesn't have a neighbors nearby. The main house is very old, and the land was once used as a farm.

 Each of the Höglund kids (there are four of them) have their own room in which their families get to sleep in while they are at the summer cottage. Each room has beds and shelves, and electricity, but for plumbing you had to go to the main house.

 We met a lot of family there at the summer cottage; five cousins and several uncles too. One of my host cousin's was an exchange student in Australia, and she even did my hair (as it is above). It was a lot of fun and everyone was so friendly, there reminded me a lot of my own family.

Each day we hiked around in the surrounding forests, picked berries, and even mushrooms sometimes so that we could make fresh, delicious meals. Then at night we went in the sauna, but it was so dark that I never managed to get into the pond. By the time the week ended everyone and their dogs (three others besides Laku) departed.
The weather was so great while we were there, and we left just on time, because it began to rain just after everything had been packed into the car. I really liked being at the summer cottage, so hopefully we will be able to go again before the end of my stay here in Finland.

First Day of School

My school began just after I got to Lahti, so I had Sunday off to get settled in a bit more before starting at Lahden Yhteiskoulu the next morning.

 My host sisters didn't have their school until Tuesday, so they were able to show me how to get to school in the morning by bike. My school is 6km away in the center of town and it also happens to be one of the oldest buildings in all of Lahti.

When I arrived my host sisters led me to the auditorium where I found a seat among all of the first year students. We were given a speech in Finnish from all of the staff for about an hour, and then I went off with the other exchange student for Rotary, Mao, and our special exchange student teacher. We went downstairs to the "hell" which was the basement in the Museo (older building). Our teacher was very nice and she helped us out a lot. Then I was shown my homeroom class since I am a second year student. After homeroom, our teacher gave me a short tour of the school and then took me down to the cafeteria for some lunch. In Finland, every student gets lunch for free, and the food is actually quite decent. Once we finished eating, I went back to the old building to see the counselor so that I could pick my classes.

I am a bit of a blended student, because I am in three first year classes and two second year classes. This period (which is like a quater, although there are five periods in which you will get different classes) I am taking two art classes (one of which is photography), english, math, philosophy, and PE.
The school system is also different here in the sense that you don't go to the same classes everyday. Some days I just have PE, math, and art, other days it's just english, philosophy, and art, and then there is a day that is a bit longer in which I have five classes instead of usually just having three.
The school system is a bit different, but I really like my school and everyone seems so nice there, so I am really looking forward to seeing how things go this year. 

"Hello" Host Family & Arriving in Lahti

By the time Saturday arrived at Karkku I was so excited to meet my first host family, but as the time ticked down to when they would arrive I began getting very nervous. Once everything was packed, I made one final treck down to the main building for breakfast and then when we came upstairs after eating, all of the host families were arriving. I started shaking a bit. What if I wasn't what they expected? Would they recognize me? Would I recognize them? I was terribly anxious to see how it would be.

 I was waiting on the steps with some of my friends when one of my roomates said to me "Dana, there is your family," and sure enough there they were; Marjatta, Mika, Helmi, and Lotta.
We stayed at Karkku for lunch and then it was time to head home to Lahti.

My room is a beautiful blue color with a nice Monet picture and wooden floors. I really like it and after everything was somewhat unpacked, at least as far as clothes go, we went for a walk.

Helmi, Lotta, and I took their dog Laku (Liquorice in English) out for a walk. He is such a nice, funny dog. Perfect for me since I have never had any sort of dog or cat before.

So this is welcome to a new home, a new city, a new country, and several months with a new family. I think that everything is going to turn out very well.

The Final Days of Karkku Language Camp

The week in Karkku for our language/orientation was so much fun. There were 120 exchange students from 16 different countries, coming together with a common desire; to have the year of their life here in Finland. And I think by the end of camp, we are all easily on our way to acomplishing this goal.

 This was my group of exchange students for the week while we were in class. My roomate Antonia (across from me in the green), Chrystal, and Joseph. And our student counselor Marianne (pictured below in the center).

 These were the other counselors in my classroom and our wonderful teacher, Mimmu on the top left. She was definately the best teacher and made class a lot of fun!

 The last full day at camp had more freetime after lessons. Some of my friends (who were also in my house) and I went exploring even more. We even came across this little cabin-like shelter near the lake in the woods.
The final night, can easily be called one of the highlights of the week. At 7:00pm we all came together once more this time for our final night together. So called; cosy time, would mark the end of a fantastic week of getting to know one another. With the lights off and people in chairs or on blankets on the floor, everything went down so magically. Some of the counselors did skits on life in Finland, including one on camping and encountering a bear. Then people sang more songs. There were even some Japonese exercises that got everyone moving, another amazing ukulele song, some solos on the piano, and many national anthems including Canada's in both English and French, Mexico's, Brazil's, France's, Germany's, etc. I didn't sign up to do any sort of act, but I did join the rest of the Americans to sing our national anthem. It was so great to be a part of that and to be proud to where you are from. Everyone was all smiles that night, and it was a bit sad to have to go back up to our cabins when the night was over. Now the excitement begins for tomorrow; meeting our host families and then dispersing all across Finland.

During the summertime the sun is up almost all night, so you really lose track of time.  Hyvää yötä!

Nighttime Wonders in A Medieval Church

After our trip to Tampere, we ended the day with a special candle church event in Sastamala. By 8:00pm I was on the bus and headed from Karkku to the nearby Sastamala Church. Built many hundreds of years ago, the stone and wood church was built high up on a hill overlooking the surrounding lake and fields so that it could be seen by the villagers living far off.

 When we first arrived we were greeted by the very tall stone walls which have been weathering for the past several hundred years, but still standing tall. It was my first time going to a medeival church, so I was quite excited to explore the grounds then see the inside.

As with many churches, there was also a fairly good size cementary which surrounded two sides of the church. I didn't really go through and look at a lot of the tombstones, but some of the ones I did see were over two hundred years old. I was quite interested in seeing what some of the Finnish names looked like, and the dates of life which were written differently from ours.

 While we had time to explore, I walked around a bit with my roomate and we found the old bell tower (or so that's what we thought it was) a little ways off from where the church is. You could walk up to where it was, but the door was locked, so no one could enter.

After that, we followed a little pathway down to the lake and saw some old boats. In the medieval ages, the church was very important to the people living nearby. Everyday there would be a ceremony, the bell tower would come in to use and the bell would let everyone know to come. Then most of the villagers would come across the lake by boats.

 The inside of the church was quite nice, but very old of course. The floors were dirt, but there were nice seats and a new stage. We were there for what we'll call a candle church ceremony. What exactly does that mean? It means that is was just all of us exchange students and counslers from Karkku camp there at night 'under the candlelight' singing songs and playing instruments. The acoustics in the church were literally amazing, and everything sounded so good. We all sang one slightly religious song at the beginning and then we sat and watched the performances by other exchange students.  There was a  ukulele song, some guitar songs, and many people singing. It was so nice and we spent a few hours there. Then before long it was time to say goodbye, and return back to Karkku.

Day Trip to Tampere

During our wonderful week at camp in Karkku, we also got to take a very fun day trip to Tampere.
Wednesday (Keskiviikko) August 8th, was the day of our trip to Tampere and I for one had been looking forward to it the entire week, and was so excited; I would get to see my first Finnish city. After lunch we all piled on to three buses and began the hour or so journey to Tampere.
When we first arrived, we pulled up to a park near the city-center, and then waited a bit for a tour guide to come so that we would first get a bus tour of the city. The tour lasted a little under two hours and took us all over the city and even a little bit out of it.

One of our first stops on our bus tour was a church. We mostly saw different buildings from inside the bus, but for this we were able to get out to take some pictures and then go inside for awhile. 

 The church was decorated in an Art Nouveau style with stain glass windows, and interesting portraits to depict the different stages of life. In Finland, the majority of people are of the Lutheran faith. While we were inside the church there was a small prayer group going on upstairs, so we were able to hear the organ playing as part of the ceremony. I can't recall ever hearing an organ as was the one in the church, because it got so loud, just when you thought it wouldn't get any louder, there it was nearly going to blow my ears off, but nice at the same time.

A little ways out of Tampere we stopped for a second time. The bus let us out on a hill overlooking the main lake that borders the city, very much near the home of a famous Finnish writer. The view from up there was amazing, but the narrow roads we went through to get there wouldn't be too much fun to have to go through during the wintertime.

 At the end of the bus tour, we were taken back to the park near the center and released to go exploring for the next two hours. My group started off wandering through the square.

There sure were all sorts of fruits, bread, jellys, and different candies.

And don't forget about the pastry's. Suklaa Leipa (Chocolate Bread), was one thing I ended up buying before we left. Yum

 This picture is right from the end of the square. But it is just across from the square that we encountered our first real language barrier and ended up in a bit of a strange situation.

After an hour and half of walking through the streets, first covering the left side of town then back to see the right, we ended up near where we first began, and there faced our first problem. In Finland, there aren't really many free bathrooms, and only a few metal kind of box things that you pay for. We ended up finding one that was free, but couldn't figure out how to use it. "Push button when it turns green, pull on door," whatever we were doing wasn't working. Then this old man came over to us and started lecturing us on the bathrooms, mind that he was speaking in Finnish. He showed us how to open a different stall and then my friend went in, leaving two of us standing outside with the old man. He kept talking and talking and my friend and I kept looking at each other, not sure what to do. All we could understand was that he said that one of the stalls was for little kids in case they couldn't wait for the other ones. Luckily it was my time to use the bathroom so I escaped the situation even though he was still talking when I came back out. We stood for a bit longer, then made a bit of a gesture of us going to leave soon so he ended the coversation, and then we escaped with a simple "kittos" (the only thing we really knew).

Towards the end of the two hours, we wandered back to the square so that we would be close by the buses for when we had to re-board. There was a Frenchman who was miming to a medium sized group of, shall I daresay; smiling Finns. My friends and I joined in this group and started following the mimed actions. It was so much fun, and I especially loved seeing the expressions on the faces of the Finns, not at all like what we had been told about them not showing emotion. Several times we mimed several things, from pumping up bicycle tires, to juggling balls to the point when we had about fifteen and were moving our arms back and forth so quickly. It was so much fun, and I was really glad that I just went for it and joined in too.

In Finland, there are many Eastern Orthodox Churches from when the Russians controlled parts of the country. We didn't get to go inside the one above, but saw it from a nearby park instead.

This picture is from our way back to Sastamala from Tampere, in the back is the Näsinneula Observation Tower. Goodbye Tampere, Finland's 3rd largest city, it was great fun to visit.

Making Memories in Karkku (The First Week)

The First Week of my journey in Finland was to be spent at language/orientation camp in Karkku, Finland, near Sastamala.

Being on the last bus from the Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, we arrived at the Karkun Evankelinen Opisto at around three in the morning and went straight to the office to get our room keys. There were many houses close to the school, but I was in one of the ones up a hill and on the otherside of the railroad, so quite far away in comparison. (Over the course of the week I would come to love having to go up the hill there, but you always had to plan ahead because it took awhile to get there and back). On that night a van took our luggage up to the houses and we walked after it into the darkness.
There were five rooms in my house; one for two of the Finnish counselors and four for us exchange students. I was in the lone room with three people and two of us were arriving on the late bus. I felt a bit bad because everyone in the house was fast asleep and we probably woke some people up when we carried in the luggage.
After a few hours rest, it was time to begin Day 1 of language camp.

Our house (aka Körri).

A typical breakfast from Karkku (open sandwhiches and cereal with a berry jelly; yum), this picture was actually from my last breakfast there.  After breakfast it was back upstairs for a short informational meeting and then off to three hours of lessons before lunchtime. Each day consisted of different foods at lunch ranging from meatballs to salmon to pasta, with salads and soup always avaliable and some sort of tasty desert. After lunch would be two more hours of lessons and then a coffee break before a lecture on Finnish Culture. Over the course of the week, we were given lectures on "The Finnish Way of Life", "A Year in Finland", and "School in Finland".
Throughout the course of the day there would also be time for outdoor activities including sports and berry picking.

 There are so many different types of berries all over the place; blue berries, raspberries, lingon berries. On several occasions over the course of the week, we went berry picking, but the most berries were right next to the path on the way up to our cabin. Nothing like picking a snack of fresh raspberries on your way home.

 My housemates and I had a great time waundering around the grounds and spending time down near the lake where you could go swimming.

 We even went rowing, although I will admit that I am not too good at it. I nearly ran over some other exchange students who were swimming because I was having difficulty trying to steer at first. Either way, it proved to be very fun and by the end of our time out on the water, I was actually able to row.

 Each night after lectures or outdoor activites, it was time for dinner and then sauna time. In the morning you would have to sign up early if you wanted to go to the sauna, because otherwise the spots would fill up and you wouldn't be able to go that day.

I went to the sauna twice that week, but always wore a swimsuit on instead of doing it the "Finnish Way". The first time I was in the sauna for only five minutes or so before I had to get out because it was too hot, but with time you get used to it. The best part about the sauna in Karkku was always having the lake so close by. After a few minutes in the sauna you could get out and go down to the dock to go swimming. The water was always so cold when you tried to get in, but after awhile of people saying "Dana, just come in! It isn't too bad!" I was able get in. The water was cold at first, but so refreshing. We spent much time just swimming around and having fun in the lake. I laught to think of how trying to get into a lake was difficult, because now I can only imagine how it will be with an ice hole come wintertime.

I always said to my mom that I wouldn't gain weight coming to Finland as so many exchange students do, but I'm beginning to think that I may get fattened up on Finnish suklaa (chocolate) which is so delicious. Then there is also the Finnish pancakes (like crepes) which you eat with sugar and jelly; now those are amazing, yum. Food is so good, and I've been trying everything.

In the evenings we would get some sort of fresh treat, ranging from freshly made Finnish pancakes (as in the picture above) and juice, to sausages. Then after snacktime, you could hang out by the lakeside, in the main buildings, or go back to your own homes.

Hyvää yötä! (Good Night)