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.