Well, it's about 2 months late, but here we go: the Christmas post.
Shortly after the Lapland tour I switched host families for the first time. Luckily, my first two families are related and it was great to be able to celebrate Christmas with them both. Christmas in Finland is not a whole lot different from Christmas in Canada to be honest but there were a couple of things that surprised me.. First, the main celebration in Finland is on Christmas Eve, rather than Christmas Day. The Declaration of Christmas Peace, in both Finnish and Swedish, is read out from a balcony in the center of the city (lucky me, living in Turku, the Christmas capital of Finland!). It was -20 degrees Celsius outside, but still hundreds of people crowded into the square for it. That's dedication, considering the ceremony's also televised! The 24th is when Santa comes (during late afternoon or early evening) to hand out presents and the big Christmas meal is eaten then too. Christmas foods are different. The main meat dish is usually ham or smoked salmon, but I've heard that turkey is sometimes served too. Other foods are rosolli (a kind of salad with potatoes, carrots and beetroots), laatikot (different sorts of casseroles, including liver, potato and carrot) and a million different kinds of desserts. Christmas day is pretty quiet, relaxing and enjoying the presents from the day before.
Soon after Christmas was New Year's and then the break was over and school began again. The celebrations for Turku as Europe's Capital of Culture for the year 2011 began on the 15th of January, with a huge performance and lots of fireworks over the river.
The beginning of February marked 6 months for me in this beautiful and amazing country. I couldn't (and still can't) believe just how fast time is passing. We're already into the 4th semester out of 5 of the school year and July is coming way too quickly. It's hard to imagine living anywhere but here now. Canada's the country that seems like a dream at this point!
It's still crazy cold here, -25 some days and the snow isn't going anywhere anytime soon... But at least we've got sun now and the warmth will definitely be appreciated when it comes.
I spent a weekend in Helsinki with my host family and got to see some of the "touristy" things of the city, which was nice, considering I hadn't really had a chance to explore the capital before this.
A lot of the free time of these past couple of months has been spent preparing for the Wanhojen Tanssit, or "Old-Style Dances" held in mid- to late-February for the 2nd year students of Finnish high schools. These dances celebrate the 2nd years becoming the oldest students in the school, since the 3rd years have left to study for their final examinations. This year, since Turku is the cultural capital, all of the Finnish-speaking high schools of Turku held their Wanhojen Tanssit in the same place... meaning hundreds of dancers gathered together to perform about 11 dances (waltzes, a tango, a polka etc.) from all around the world. Hundreds of dancers = thousands of spectators = a pretty big deal. Everyone was dressed to the nines: gorgeous, elegant ball gowns for the girls and fancy tuxes for the guys, a live orchestra and stage lights. Months of dance practice, hours upon hours of preparation, the dance music that seems to be constantly playing on a loop in your head... all for 45 minutes of dancing and then it's all over, but the experience is absolutely indescribable. Canadian prom has nothing on this! One of the highlights of my year here, unforgettable.
Hiihtoloma begins now (the equivalent of March break, Canadians) which is the skiing holiday. One week off school and yep, skiing tomorrow! :)
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Update!
So, I suppose it's about time (or past time) that this blog is updated...
Rewind to the end of October:
I celebrated my birthday with my first two host families and helped to throw a Hallowe'en party for Safire's (inbound from the U.S.) host sister and her friends, all of whom had never celebrated Hallowe'en before. Yep, we did it all: decorations, pumpkins, bobbing for apples, flashlight tag and a haunted house (well, an attempt at a haunted house). Hallowe'en party with the rest of the district's inbounds and a visit from Kristen (inbound to Sweden from Canada)!
In early November, I got to attend a Finnish opera with one of the Rotarians from my host club. The songs were in Russian, German, Italian and Finnish and it was actually really amazing, though I don't generally like opera. Pretty cool experience.
There was an inbound conference held in Laitila, which wasn't too too exciting but it was pretty awesome having everyone together again. We did all have the chance to sauna and swim in the lake nearby, though! Steps to a successful sauna (according to us, of course):
1. Shower
2. Enter sauna, warm up to an almost unbearable temperature (this may require throwing buckets of water on the stones to increase the heat)
3. Run, as fast as possible, screaming down the path to the lake, praying that the warmth from the sauna stays with you (this is why the heat has to be almost unbearable... preventative measures)
4. Jump into the lake, without thinking about the frigid temperatures (about 2-5 degrees...)
5. Run, shivering, blood pumping, adrenaline rushing, back up to the sauna.
6. Repeat as often as necessary.
I think it's also funny to mention that none of the Finns at the conference with us followed up the sauna with the swim.. Just us exchange students, though I'm pretty sure they got a good laugh out of watching the foreign kids attempt this "Finnish custom".
Weekend in Helsinki with some other Canadian inbounds! Another round of exams at school, and the start of practices for the old-style ball at the end of February for all the 2nd year students. I'm SO excited for this, it's incredible. There are about 12 dances that everyone has to learn, all old European ballroom dances (except for the dance we do to the Dancing Queen!) and this year, there will be one huge show for all the students of all the schools in Turku!
LAPLAND TOUR!! Dec. 3 - 8, 2010, all of the 115 inbound exchange students were treated to a tour of Lapland!
Day 1: 7.10 p.m. The bus left from Turku station, carrying about 40-50 VERY excited exchangers.
Day 2: 11.00 a.m. After 16 hours of driving, arrival in Muonio, Finland, above the arctic circle at the top of the world! The very excited exchangers had become very tired, very excited exchangers due to the sleepless night on the bus. Skiing/snowboarding for the afternoon. It was really cool to see the difference in climate, being so north. That far north, the sun didn't really rise, it just approached close enough to the horizon to give a blue-grey light quality during the daytime (which lasted from about 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.). Any time outside that interval and you can expect pitch black darkness.
Day 3: Saw an enormous igloo, which apparently can have an interior temperature of only -5 to -8 degrees, even when the exterior temperature gets down to -40! Tried our hands at ice sculpturing too, which ... uh.. failed. Lunch outside by the fire, and then free time until dinner. After dinner we attended a show put on by the students of a local school and demonstrated something from our own countries.
Day 4: Happy Independence Day Finland (Dec. 6th)! Visit to a nature center to view a presentation on Lapland and then a visit to a reindeer farm. We learned about reindeer farming and then were able to feed them. (In Finland, by the way, reindeer do NOT fly!) Husky rides and reindeer rides in the afternoon and snowshoeing back to the hotel for the Independence day dinner. For anyone who's curious, reindeer isn't that much different-tasting from beef...
Day 5: Last day in Lapland. Traveled to Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland and visited Santa's Village. We took a picture with the REAL Santa Claus because, yes, he does live in Finland, not the North Pole. Lunch and the long bus ride back to Turku.
Exhausted afterwards but definitely an incredible week!
Rewind to the end of October:
I celebrated my birthday with my first two host families and helped to throw a Hallowe'en party for Safire's (inbound from the U.S.) host sister and her friends, all of whom had never celebrated Hallowe'en before. Yep, we did it all: decorations, pumpkins, bobbing for apples, flashlight tag and a haunted house (well, an attempt at a haunted house). Hallowe'en party with the rest of the district's inbounds and a visit from Kristen (inbound to Sweden from Canada)!
In early November, I got to attend a Finnish opera with one of the Rotarians from my host club. The songs were in Russian, German, Italian and Finnish and it was actually really amazing, though I don't generally like opera. Pretty cool experience.
There was an inbound conference held in Laitila, which wasn't too too exciting but it was pretty awesome having everyone together again. We did all have the chance to sauna and swim in the lake nearby, though! Steps to a successful sauna (according to us, of course):
1. Shower
2. Enter sauna, warm up to an almost unbearable temperature (this may require throwing buckets of water on the stones to increase the heat)
3. Run, as fast as possible, screaming down the path to the lake, praying that the warmth from the sauna stays with you (this is why the heat has to be almost unbearable... preventative measures)
4. Jump into the lake, without thinking about the frigid temperatures (about 2-5 degrees...)
5. Run, shivering, blood pumping, adrenaline rushing, back up to the sauna.
6. Repeat as often as necessary.
I think it's also funny to mention that none of the Finns at the conference with us followed up the sauna with the swim.. Just us exchange students, though I'm pretty sure they got a good laugh out of watching the foreign kids attempt this "Finnish custom".
Weekend in Helsinki with some other Canadian inbounds! Another round of exams at school, and the start of practices for the old-style ball at the end of February for all the 2nd year students. I'm SO excited for this, it's incredible. There are about 12 dances that everyone has to learn, all old European ballroom dances (except for the dance we do to the Dancing Queen!) and this year, there will be one huge show for all the students of all the schools in Turku!
LAPLAND TOUR!! Dec. 3 - 8, 2010, all of the 115 inbound exchange students were treated to a tour of Lapland!
Day 1: 7.10 p.m. The bus left from Turku station, carrying about 40-50 VERY excited exchangers.
Day 2: 11.00 a.m. After 16 hours of driving, arrival in Muonio, Finland, above the arctic circle at the top of the world! The very excited exchangers had become very tired, very excited exchangers due to the sleepless night on the bus. Skiing/snowboarding for the afternoon. It was really cool to see the difference in climate, being so north. That far north, the sun didn't really rise, it just approached close enough to the horizon to give a blue-grey light quality during the daytime (which lasted from about 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.). Any time outside that interval and you can expect pitch black darkness.
Day 3: Saw an enormous igloo, which apparently can have an interior temperature of only -5 to -8 degrees, even when the exterior temperature gets down to -40! Tried our hands at ice sculpturing too, which ... uh.. failed. Lunch outside by the fire, and then free time until dinner. After dinner we attended a show put on by the students of a local school and demonstrated something from our own countries.
Day 4: Happy Independence Day Finland (Dec. 6th)! Visit to a nature center to view a presentation on Lapland and then a visit to a reindeer farm. We learned about reindeer farming and then were able to feed them. (In Finland, by the way, reindeer do NOT fly!) Husky rides and reindeer rides in the afternoon and snowshoeing back to the hotel for the Independence day dinner. For anyone who's curious, reindeer isn't that much different-tasting from beef...
Day 5: Last day in Lapland. Traveled to Rovaniemi, the capital of Lapland and visited Santa's Village. We took a picture with the REAL Santa Claus because, yes, he does live in Finland, not the North Pole. Lunch and the long bus ride back to Turku.
Exhausted afterwards but definitely an incredible week!
 |
| Skiing in Muonio at 3pm |
 |
| Nature Center |
 |
| Reindeer! |
 |
| Santa's Village in Rovaniemi |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)