Mokupäivä ja Vaihto-Opiskelijoiden Vikkonloppu (Freshman Day and Exchange Students’ Weekend)

On Thursday morning I didn’t ride my bicycle to school. Instead I rode to the cinema. All of the first and second graders were going to see a Finnish drama called “Prinsessa” (I’m guessing you don’t need that translation. The third graders went the day before. The film is about a mentally handicapped woman who thinks that she is a princess. It follows her for quite a few years of her life after being admitted to a mental institution. I didn’t need to know Finnish to understand most of the movie, but I was very happy when I understood a little. (I found out later that there was actually some Swedish dialogues too, but apparently they were so easy the Finns didn’t need subtitles). 

The Smurfs with their Second Graders




Friday was a very exciting day at school! It was “Freshman Day”. This is a day when the kakkoset (2^nd grade) humiliates the ykköset (1^st graders). It is a long standing tradition at my school and is done with good intentions, and not to great extremes. While you read this, keep in mind I was just a spectator; I was neither being made fun of nor making fun of anyone (well, I did laugh a lot). The second graders plan the day in advance but keep it very “hush hush”. What happens is the second graders break into groups and each group is assigned a group of first graders which they plan for in advance. On the day of, the older students dress up in very authoritative outfits (suits, stilettos, and police hats) and abduct the first graders from class (all of the teachers are aware of the day in advance). Then the younger students are dressed up in funny outfits (and often some type of make-up). Some of my favourite groups included cowboys, chimneysweeps, and athletes (basketball and hockey) but my absolute favourite group was the Smurfs. After all dressed-up, the first graders congregate in the main room of the school (lobby/atrium/multi-purpose-ish room) and do some sort of demonstration like dancing or singing, which was really just chanting. Then they as a class draw from their childhood songbook and sing Finnish songs such as “If your Happy and You Know It”, “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”, etcetera. I joined in singing their version of Head & Shoulders because it was the first Finnish song I learned at language camp back in August. Next, the first graders were marched

All of the Freshmen.

 throughout the school and in military fashion required to answer questions like “Who’s the best?” with “The Second Graders are the best!” At lunch time, the freshmen were “slaves” to their respective second graders. After lunch, there were team competitions amongst the groups of younger students. These competitions included music trivia, “three-legged” dancing contest (the entire group (3-6 people) had their legs tied together), and several amusing relays. At the end of the day, the first graders were required to get down on one knee and repeat the pledge of loyalty to the second graders. I was excited because I understood some funny parts of this pledge like “the first graders will always be second and the second graders will always be first”. It was a very amusing day of school. 




Sydney from Utah & Me at the Zoo (We are lynx)

This weekend all of the exchange students from Rotary Districts 1380 (my region, central west) and 1400 (Lapland, the north) were invited to Ähtäri. This was the first time that most of us, the August arrivals, would meet some January arrivals, most of whom came from Australia. Everyone gathered at the Train/Bus station in Seinäjoki. I only had a short 35 minute drive, some people traveled for hours by train to meet us. Anyway, we caught a bus to a forestry school in the town of Ähtäri. This is a post-secondary school were you can obtain either a university degree or vocational certification in the field of forestry. We, the exchange students, stayed in the “dorms” which were little 4 bed/1.5 bath apartments with kitchenette. There were only six guys in attendance, so we got an apartment to ourselves. There were approximately 22 girls. We were chaperoned by the District Chairperson for Youth Exchange, Antti, and his wife. Friday night we just chilled with the other exchange students and enjoyed the sauna (however we weren’t allowed to go swimming because the lake was a little far and wasn’t lit up at all). On Saturday morning, we had a photo scavenger hunt of the campus. We were provided with 24 photos and some clues which lead us to places around the school, each place had a letter and in the end we needed to translate the phrase from Finnish to English. I was in a group with Cindy from California and Sydney from Utah. We were the first group to finish to hunt and I knew 3 of 4 words so I texted my friend just to realize I knew the last word, I just forgot it. In the afternoon, we went to the Ähtäri Zoo where we

Fun Fact: Rudolph the red nosed reindeer
is named Petteri (Peter) in Finnish

 saw animals native to Finland. I saw my first Finnish Reindeer! . I felt a bit patriotic when I saw the beaver, a.k.a. the national animal of Canada. My favourite animals at the zoo were the big cats: the snow leopard, and the lynx. At the zoo, one of the Rotex (Rebound) students and I found out that not only did we both go to the World Scout Jamboree in England in 2007, but we were both part of a group who played hand drums for His Royal Highness Prince William, the heir to the British Throne. When we got back to the school, a big group of us played a card game from France called “Jungle Speed” which was very exciting. In the evening, there was more hanging out and sauna-ing. This morning (Sunday) we were lucky* enough to watch a movie about the forests of Europe (*extreme sarcasm). The bus ride back to Seinäjoki was a great end to the weekend of exchange student bonding. There were lots of hugs for everyone from everyone at the train/bus station.

So, I had a request to write some information about myself in Finnish by one of my readers. All of you Finns who are reading this, please don’t rip my spelling and grammar apart! (It was almost completely without a translator, only to check the spellings of some words)

Terve! Minun nimeni on Peter ja olen kanadalainen. Minä tulin Suomelle seitsemäs elokuu. Minä pidan minun kaupingista: nimensa on Kauhava. Minun lukiolle on satakahdeksankymmentä opiskeljaa ja jokainen on mukava. Suomenkieli on tosi vaikea mutta minä opiskelan. Kun minä yritän kuunella, minä voin ymmärtää vain vähän.

Englanniksi (In English): Hey! My name is Peter and I am Canadian. I came to Finland on the 7^th of August. I like my town; its name is Kauhava. My school has one hundred eighty students and everyone is nice. The Finnish language is really difficult, but I learn. When I try to listen, I understand only a little bit.

So I have some pretty exciting news! Tomorrow I depart for – wait for it – Sweden! This coming week is syysloma (autumn break) and my host family decided that they would take a round-trip cruise to Stockholm, Sweden. We will leave Monday from Helsinki and arrive back Wednesday morning, so we get all of Tuesday in Stockholm. My decision to not learn any Swedish may turn around to bite me in the “peppu” (derriere).

So, just like always, please feel free to leave some comments, questions, or anything!