The Prison and Stockholm!

Wow, I can't believe it's almost the end of October!
A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks.

On a walk through Turku with Safire.

I went for a 12 km hike with my host parents last Saturday afternoon. We walked about 5 km one way to a National Park (a different one than the one we went to before) and then walked about 1 km in the Park to a sightseeing area. There was a lookout built that faced swampland but it was so pretty with all of the different colours. Plus, it made the long walk worth it. We cooked makkara, which is always amazing, over a fire, then headed back.

The view from the lookout.

On Sunday I went to a place called the Flow Park, which is kind of like a Tarzan, swinging-from-a-vine type of place. There are about 10 different "trails" that are of different heights from the ground, and you basically climb and jump and crawl through the different parts (there were rope ladders and tires to go through and zip lines etc.). It was so much fun, though it was terrifying at first. My mantra: "trust the ropes, trust the ropes, trust the ropes." Of course, being me, my original mantra soon became: "trust that the people who built this insane place knew what they were doing, trust that the people who built this insane place knew what they were doing..." Figures... It was a lot of fun, until I had to go to dance a couple of hours later and realized that I had very little energy left to jump anymore. Oh, and gym class on Monday at the rock climbing center was lots of fun too, considering my very limited upper-body strength was significantly depleted at the beginning of the rock climbing from the Flow Park the day before. Needless to say, my whole body hurt on Tuesday.

Flow Park.

 On Monday night, some of the exchange students in Turku went to the Kakola Prison, the only prison in the world that is open for public visits in the exact condition as it was when the inmates left (i.e. a prison that has not been and is not planning to be converted into a museum) in 2006 or 2007. We were walking up to what we thought was the prison and taking pictures of some buildings when a lady came out and yelled at us. All I understood was "my house" and the swearing every second word but I think that's all we needed to know. And I don't think she was saying too much besides that; she was pretty drunk...At 6 on a Monday night... It was funny though, because the Finns that were with us were laughing about how it was such a great welcome to Finland and how we have to experience all aspects of the Finnish culture.

Outside, before the drunk lady came to yell at us.

We found the guide soon afterwards, who told us that the lady is the ex-wife of the old prison manager and we had been taking pictures of her house (which is technically still the property of the prison). The guide that we had for the tour was absolutely amazing. She took us around and explained the two different types of cells that were in use (Philadelphia style and another one that I can't remember the name of) and the lifestyle of the inmates. I was happy to hear that Finnish prisoners still have the right to the weekly sauna :) The guide told us a story about a man who had escaped from Kakola through a gate that later was named after him. She then told us of another time she'd been giving the tour and telling the same story and had one of the men raise his hand and say, "excuse me, that man is me". She said that it's pretty common for some of the old inmates to revisit the prison, but I couldn't imagine being in that position...

Our group in the prison's sauna room (or one of the rooms actually,
considering there was another for females even though there were
only ever male prisoners).

Tuesday was my last day of class because Wednesday was the start of 'syysloma', which is the fall break that happens in October. Some schools were out the whole week and lose a couple days of the Christmas break, but my school was out from Wednesday to Friday. It was really nice to sleep in and have a break from the after-school Finnish and Spanish classes.

On Thursday night, my host family and I left for Stockholm. We took the ferry that left Turku around 8 p.m., arriving in Stockholm, Sweden at about 7:30 a.m. on Friday morning. Our ferry was called Isabella, and she was absolutely huge. Apparently, she can hold about 3000 people in cabins of 4. There was a deck for cars, a restaurant deck, a duty-free shop, a kids area and a "disco". On the boat the first night, we listened to a couple of bands, one of which played Finnish songs from the last couple of decades. It was cool to hear, even though I didn't understand the lyrics.

Part of the Parliament Building (the one on the left).

We were woken up by the crew members at 6:00 or 6:30 on Friday morning and had to leave the boat by 7:30 so that they could have the ferry cleaned and ready to go again by 8:30. We went to a hotel for a buffet breakfast then explored Stockholm. We went to the old city first, which is full of really colourful buildings and long, narrow alleyways with cobblestone streets. We saw the Parliament buildings and the King's Palace. It was snowing, I think for the first time in Stockholm this year and the really big, wet flakes, so it wasn't so much fun to walk in but it was definitely pretty. The snow stopped around lunchtime and the sun came out just in time for our visit to the Ericsson Globe, which is the largest spherical building in the world. There is an elevator that goes up the side of the globe with a view of the city from a height of 130m above sea level. We went shopping for a couple of hours after going up to the top of the Globe, then headed back to the ferry (this time we were on Amorella) at about 6:30. The ferry left soon afterwards and we went to the duty-free shop and listened to the band that was playing.

Some of the Old City.

The view of Stockholm from the top of the Globe.

At 7:30 this morning we arrived back in Turku. I had so much fun in Stockholm and it's a fabulous city but I have to say I'm grateful to be in Turku for my exchange. Stockholm's a little big for me (plus, I'm getting to be quite a fan of Finland).

Time for sleep :)

Time for Month 3

This is the beginning of my third month in the wonderful country of Finland :)

I finished up September with a week of exams and the start of the 2nd period of classes. My first exam was French, which went pretty well, followed by history the next day. I could do the French grammar sections and the translations supposed to be from French to Finnish I did from French to English. On the history exam, I wrote two essays about the Second World War. My math exam was next, which went pretty well too, surprisingly. I answered the questions I could understand first and then sat at my desk puzzling out the others. I guess the teacher noticed the confusion on my face because she came back with a sheet of English translations :) English exam came next, and health exam last. English was fine, except for the vocabulary haha... and health was absolutely dreadful. Since the exams start at 9, I was waiting outside the door to my health room at 8:45. At about 8:55, two other girls from my class showed up and knocked on the door. Apparently the exam had started early, to give everyone more time to finish...I definitely failed it. Oh well...

I also like how we get the exams back after they have been marked in Finland. So far, my French and history exams have been returned... 9+ for French and 9 for history (the marks are given from 4-10 in Finland, with 10 being the highest).

The second period started the day after the exams finished. This period I'm taking two English classes, one that is course 1 (first year) and one that is course 5 (second year). I'm also taking a first-year history, which is from pre-historic to present times (and I'm SO excited for); German, which I'm absolutely terrified for; and a second-year math (which is awesome believe it or not; call me a nerd). Gym continues for this period and my Finnish and Spanish courses are continuing too.

It's been pretty much all about school lately so I haven't done all that much new and exciting. I tried a kind of voileipäkakku (literally sandwich cake) which was pretty good and went to see a couple of movies at the theater.

It's now dark in the mornings when I go to school... It's crazy how quickly the seasons change here. The leaves are all yellow, red and brown and most have already fallen off of the trees (and usually onto the driveway, where they all have to be raked up). It's usually pretty windy and cloudy too but we haven't had much rain yet. We're supposed to get the first snow of the year sometime next week though.. And apparently this winter is going to be the coldest in a 1000 years in Finland.

I went shopping for my Hallowe'en costume today. I'm pretty sure there's only one costume store in the whole city, which made me think of how the entire group of exchange students will look on the bus headed to the Hallowe'en party together...Hallowe'en's not that big here...ahh crazy foreigners.

Also, just recently was the first time that I was able to order something and not have the cashier/salesperson realize that I don't speak Finnish yet. I was asking for a box of popcorn, which was pretty simple, but I was pretty proud of myself nevertheless. It must be really exhausting for everyone to have to deal with foreigners.

I've had a couple of aha! moments where I've realized that I've understood the conversation, but they are pretty few and far between. They're slowly starting to balance out the majority of the times that I'm completely clueless though. It's giving me some hope that I'm still learning.

The Lapland email came yesterday from Rotary! We get to choose between going skiing, snowboarding or cross-country skiing and we're also visiting a reindeer farm and learning how to make ice sculptures. It's going to be about a 16 hour bus ride (picked up at 7 at night and arrive at 11 the next morning) but I can't wait!

I guess that's all. Happy Thanksgiving Canada! Eat lots of turkey and pie. Love from Finland :)