On Friday afternoon, it was time to meet up with all of the other exchange students in district 1390 at the Pajulahti sports complex in Nastola, Finland for our first district weekend together.
I was really looking forward to getting to see farmiliar faces from Karkku and meet all of our oldies (the Australian exchange students who have already been here for six months). Georgia and I were the first to arrive and didn't really know what we were going to be doing or where we would be spending the night.
The bus of all of the other students arrived and then it was time to get our room keys. There was two rooms per every bathroom in a room (if that makes sense), so it was Georgia and I in one room, and our friends Charlotte and Ailey in the other room.
The sää (weather) was pretty good for us to be outdoors, and not too chilly either. That night after dinner, we walked out around the lake a bit to a campfire spot. There was a full moon and the lake was covered with fog so everything looked very eerie and mystical. We got to cook our own crepes over the campfire in little pans and then put strawberry jelly and sugar on them. I love the crepes so much and they are so easy to make.
A few hours passed by, and then it was time to either stay at the campfire or go to sauna. About ten of us girls including the three Finnish Rotex students who were there to lookout for us came too. It was so much fun! I really love sauna, especially how clean you feel afterwards, how everyone talks so freely, and how it feels swimming in the lake afterwards. We went swimming in the lake about five times that night. It was so hard to get in from the cold, not to mention you couldn't see anything. When you got out of the water you would have goose bumps everywhere, but then you would want to got back into the water again and then to the sauna. I really can't wait to see how ice hole swimming will go.
The next morning all thirty of the district 1390 students ate breakfast and put our luggage down in a room in the sauna and then went to the auditorium to do some bonding activities. We threw balls at each other to learn names, sat on each other to tell expirences, and worked in groups to complete certain tasks. After that, we went outside and played frisbee golf. Then it was time for lunch and going down to the sauna room and just talking and playing around. We talked for a long time and played truth or dare and all sorts of different things. It was so much fun!
I can't wait till we all meet again, this time in early December for the Lapland tour with all of the other exchange students.
After camp, my host family took me to Vantaa which is just outside of Helsinki, and we went to my host cousin's 8th birthday party. It was so nice to meet some more of my extended host family, everyone is so friendly and reminds me so much of how my own extended family is.
We ate all sorts of delicious dishes and then there were three types of cake too; molten chocolate cake, cloudberry cake, and cheese cake. We also got a little puppet show presentation from the birthday girl, Ada. It was a really good night and I got to practice my Finnish a lot too.
I also got a Finnish name; Taina Terävä! In suomea, terävä means sharp, and Taina is a Finnish girl's name, somewhat close to Dana. It is also kind of funny because it makes me think of Dina, who would be my third sister's name if I had one. haha
Things are going great here in Finland! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment