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! :)
