Kolme Kuukautta Suomessa! (Three Months in Finland)

Three Months! As one of my exchange student friends put it “Why does time pass so slowly in [Canada] but so quickly in Finland?” He was from the USA, hence the square brackets around Canada.

When daylight savings time ended here in Finland, a week before it did in Canada, it was really noticeable how early it gets dark. The sun now rises at approximately 8 in the morning and sets at dinner time around 4. I am getting really tired, and I think the darkness is at least partially to blame.

The Orchestra, the double basses are just out of view.

A two Fridays ago, I went to an orchestra concert at the church. It was the Central Ostrobotnia Orchestra; I live in Southern Ostrobothnia. There was a fantastic cello soloist! 

The weekend before Halloween, I went to the grocery store to buy some sort of squash to carve. I was very shocked when I came across the pumpkins in the store. I knew that I had to weight it and put a barcode sticker on it so I put it on the scale and typed in the code, 1-4-1, on the keypad. I didn’t do anything though. So I offered to the next person to go in front of me and I planned on watching her. Instead, she took the pumpkin, asked the number, and simply pushed a button that said 141. Anyways, the pumpkin cost €8.50! ($12 Canadian) The same pumpkin would have cost maybe $3 at home. Next I went to the automated teller to add more minutes onto my cell phone. I expected the machine to have an English option in addition to the two official languages, Finnish and Swedish. This machine didn’t even have a Swedish option, leave alone English. But I did it! I used my knowledge of the Finnish language and successfully accomplished the task.

Me carving my pumpkin!

I carved the pumpkin with input from my host brother. My host mother liked it so much that she went to buy another pumpkin and I instructed my little host brother how to carve it.

Halloween isn’t really celebrated in Finland. When it is celebrated, it is basically an imitation of North American Halloween. On “All Hallow’s Eve” (celebrated 3 days after October 31) children of the town of Kauhava dressed up and went trick-or-treating among the businesses of downtown. I dressed up as Captain Canada, but I let the kids have the candy. That night I went to see Paranormal Activity 3 at the movie theatre using my “Rotary Exchange Student Discount” (free movies, because Rotary runs the theatre). Now I don’t really like horror movies, so I sat either with a death grip on the armrest or with my face buried in my hands. At the end, though, I determined that it really wasn’t as scary as I was expecting.

In memory of Brianna Emily Silliker.

Last weekend was pyhäinpäivä, which Google translate tells me is “All Saint’s Day”, but I am told the church here doesn’t recognize saints. Anyways, it was a day where all loved ones were remembered. People recognize this day by lighting candles. I went to the graveyard with my host mother. She lit a candle at her grandfather’s grave. As we walked through the graveyard, almost every grave stone was lit up by at least one candle if not more. It was really stunning. I went to the church service that night with my friend Kalle and afterwards we lit candles at the memorial stone for people buried elsewhere. My candle was in memory of my friend Brianna whom I met at summer camp in Halifax last year. One year ago, almost to the date, she was in an unfortunate car accident and passed away, only 16 years old. I spent the night with some friends. I rode my bike home at 2:30 am, probably the latest that I have ever ridden a bicycle before.

Some friends from school. L to R: Kimmo, Piia,
Hanna, Liisa, Mari, and Henri

On Sunday I went to my next host family’s house. Petri, my next host father, is the younger brother of Jarmo, my current host father. It was a birthday celebration of Konsta, the middle child; I think he turned 11. I got a preview of the room in which I will live: think of pink princess parlour.

This past week has been koeviikko (test week). I wrote three tests: 3^rd grade math, 2^nd grade math, and beginners Spanish. My 3^rd grade math test was quite difficult. This course is the highest offered at my school other than review courses. It extended even my math abilities. We learned topics like tiheys- and kertymäfunkiot which I don’t even know what they are in English. My 2^nd grade math test was pretty easy. There was a question which I didn’t need to do that was about Harry Potter. I tried translating it but didn’t understand what it was asking.

This is my schedule for the next jakso which starts tomorrow:

Nov. 9 – Dec. 21	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8 – 9:45	Civics	Math 16	Math 8	Math 16	Geography
10 – 11:45	Math 8	Math 8	Geography	Civics
12:20-1:50	Geography	Civics	Chemistry	Chemistry	Math 16
2 – 3:30	Chemistry	English	English (until 2:45)

Kolme kuukautta Suomessa! Voi Jumalani, aika mene liian nopeasti. Viime lauantai oli pyhäinpäivä ja minulla oli kyntyllä ystävälleni, Brianna. Koeviikko oli pitkä: kolmosen matiikka oli vaikea, mutta kakosen matiikka ja espanjankieli oli ihan helppo. Vain viisikymmentäneljä päivää jouluun! Ja kuusikymmentäyksi päivää ennen syntymäpäiväni!

Three months in Finland! Oh my God, time goes too quickly. Last Saturday was “All Saints’ Day” and I had a candle for my friend Brianna. Test week was long: third grade math was hard, but second grade math and Spanish were pretty easy. Only fifty four days until Christmas! And sixty one before my birthday!

That’s it for this time. Hello and goodbye from Finland!