Suomi // Month 7

7 kuukautta suomessa! Mun vaihto on menossa niin nopeasti…

7 months in Finland! My exchange is going so fast…

At the start of the month/end of July I was enjoying the summer holidays as much as I could as it would draw to an end soon. I enjoyed my days with my friends including seeing my Finnish friend for the last time because he is now going on his own year long adventure to Switzerland which I hope he enjoys so much and makes the most out of his time because it goes so quickly. During the week after every time I went to Sauna we would go swimming in the lake right next to our house. The water is so cold considering the air alone is usually 18 degrees but it is such a nice feeling afterwards. For a weekend I got the chance to stay with my 3rd host family and it was lovely to spend it with them. We had grill food, laid in the sun, went swimming, went for bike rides, went to sauna, baked food and so many more fun moments with them that I can’t wait to continue when I move to that family.

At the end of July brought a Brazilian exchange student to Kuopio so he could see what type of place it’s like. I find it funny how I now feel like Kuopio is such a home to me it just feels normal. It feels like my own suburb in Australia but the Finnish version. It’s the best feeling to fit in but what was hard was thinking what to do with the Brazilian because the touristy things become less fun when you aren’t a tourist anymore. Even though we were lost on what to do it was still an extremely fun weekend.

On the very last days of July there was a music festival in Kuopio called the Kuopio RockCock which is basically a rock music festival that lasts two days at the “beach” near the city centre in Kuopio. On the Saturday of the festival my gorgeous 3rd host family took me into the music festival and bought me a ticket. I was so so so happy and grateful. Inside was just Finnish bands however I still knew some of the music and managed to have just as much fun as I would at an Australian music festival. The main highlights were bands called JVG, Roope Salminen & Koirat and Haloo Helsinki. Even though i didn’t know the lyrics I still tried singing anyway.

1 week later I went to ANOTHER music festival but this one was absolutely huge. It was called WKND/Weekend music festival and it was held in Helsinki. I don’t think I had seen so many Finns in one place besides this 2 day festival. It was honestly one of the best moments of my life because I was surrounded by the best people (exchange student family), the best music (from all over the world) and just the best atmosphere. Everyone was dancing and even though in front of the main stage there was basically a river of mud it didn’t stop us from dancing in there and splashing around. Not having a care in the world. It sounds silly, but at the festival it made me realise how much love I have for the people I call my exchange student family. I will never forget them and my exchange wouldn’t be the same without them.

The day after the festival all of us oldies went to the airport in Helsinki to meet our newbies that just arrived in Finland from different countries all over the world. It was so cool and weird to meet them, some of which i had talked to for months before they came to Finland and then finally getting to meet them in person but I felt like I already knew them. It was also scary the fact that I was becoming an oldie and my time left in Finland is more quickly drawing to an end.

The end of the month brought on the return of school which I wasn’t unhappy about because it meant I could socialise with my Finnish friends every day and learn more Finnish.

I can’t believe how fast my time is going. In my head I feel like “what have i done in these months” but then I read my posts and watch my videos and see how actually far I have come. It’s so crazy to believe but it’s also one of the best feelings in the world. To see how far you have come, how much you have matured, how much you have seen, explored, emotions you’ve felt, how much more you appreciate. I think it’s a feeling everyone gets in their lives but it takes a long time. For exchange students, all of this happens in the space of a year or less and it makes a huge imprint on our personality and lives.
Rhi xx

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Moi,                                                                                                                                     This is my first post for my blog while I am in Finland. It will contain the first two days of my viiko because I don’t want to put too much in one post.                           It started off with my 10pm flight from Sydney to Doha in Qatar. There were 4 of us in Sydney that would go to the gate together and the rest met us at security. Getting to the flight went smoothly and we were ready to embark on our year long adventure to Finland.  The first flight was about 15 hours long and I remember only having on and off sleep for about 3 hours. Although I was super tired we all happily bounded off the plane at Doha where we had a stopover for 3 hours.   We didn’t do much until we boarded our 6 hour flight from Doha to Helsinki.  Personally, the second flight was my favourite because it was so beautiful outside and of course it was shorter than the first. I didn’t sleep at all on this flight in an attempt to get on the right time zone and even though it helped, I definitely regretted having little sleep to function with. The view outside of the plane was gorgeous especially flying over Russia where we could see the very top of the gorgeous snowy mountains and as we got to Helsinki we could see Finland and it didn’t look like a city at all! It was a gorgeous place filled with rows of tall green trees covered in white snow.

When we landed in Helsinki the temperature was noticeably different (in the negatives or something) and as soon as i stepped off the plane I slipped on the ice (really cringe). Inside the airport our oldies were waiting (not old people, the exchange students that started their exchange year last year) and we were extremely welcomed. It was so nice to meet so many people from different countries and we got some pins from them for our Blazers and some Fazer chocolate to share (ahhh it’s so amazing).

From there we went on the 3 hour bus trip to Karkun Evankelinen opisto where our week long language camp was held. When we arrived we proceeded to meet everyone, have dinner and go to bed! Hyvää yötä everyone!