Lappi! (Lapland)

Sarah (Canada), me, and Angela (South Africa)

Last week I went to Lapland (the northern part of Finland) with all of the Rotary exchange students currently in Finland and Estonia; there were about 140 of us. First, we all had to get to Muonio by bus. My bus picked me up in Lapua, a 20 minute drive from where I live, just after midnight on Saturday (Sunday morning). Most people were already on the bus. I spent lots of time talking with some Aussies. Steph, an Aussie, and I learned the Pledge of Allegence (the American one, I don’t think there is a Finnish one). We stopped for breakfast at four o’clock and another of the buses filled with exchange students stopped by. Unfortunately our bus had to get back on the road. We picked up six more students at two different stops. We arrived at Muonio at around 11 in the morning, so that was about eleven hours on the bus for me, and I was one of the last people on…

Eva (Germany), and me

On Sunday, we got our rooms and then multitasked as we ate lunch and caught up with other exchange students: some were familiar from our orientation camp, some I should have remember but I didn’t, and some were brand new as they were the kids from the southern hemisphere (mostly Australia but some from New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina too). After everyone had arrived and eaten, we had a quick orientation meeting about our schedule and about the rules. Our Rotarians brought a breathalyser which they have named “Petteri” (I think I have told you about this a couple of times but Petteri is like Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer). Shortly after the meeting, we all got on the buses and headed to the ski hill. We had all booked in advance whether we wanted to rent skis (downhill or cross-country) or a snowboard. I got downhill skis. The “hill” was not very big at all. There wasn’t much snow, only about 25 cm, so most of the skiing terrain wasn’t open. The “big lift” was a T-bar that we were had to get off of only half way up. Also it was snowing and the rental didn’t include ski goggles, so I bought a pair of them. I spent most of the afternoon (well, it was already dark, so most of the early evening) skiing with a German named Eva who was in my language class at orientation camp. For dinner, we went to an interesting wood cabin with dirt floors where we ate soup by the fire. Berries and whipped cream were for dessert. That evening we had an early curfew because almost no one got any good sleep on the buses. I couldn’t fall asleep right away so I started reading a book: “The Runaway Jury” by John Grisham.

The Canadians at our rehearsal.

Monday was a ski day. We went back to the hill and skied the day away. There were some people who decided that they no longer wanted to take on the slopes so they stayed behind at the hotel for ice sculpting. I however really enjoyed my skiing the day before, even though it was a small hill, so I decided to spend to whole day there. For part of the day, another Canadian (Sarah from Ontario) and I helped a 6 week short term exchange student from South Africa named Angela learn how to ski. For lunch we had makkara grilled over the fire at the bottom of the lift. After we returned from skiing, we had sauna. I waited until near the end of the time allotted for sauna-ing so that there would be fewer people. Although I probably should have, I didn’t roll around in the snow…I am sure I will have plenty more times to do that this year (provided of course that we get snow). That evening we were all invited to the local Lukio (high school) for a presentation by the students. There were fire jugglers and a couple of bands. Then the exchange students treated the Finnish students to performances; we Canadians did a cover of “Baby” by everyone’s *favourite* artist, Justin Bieber. Later that evening I played a game of cribbage with some exchange students (I bring my crib board almost everywhere with me…it stays in my bag until I get an opportunity to play). Our curfew was a little bit later, but I still had to read my book for a bit before I could actually fall asleep.

Me and the the reindeer farmer

Tuesday, December 6th was Suomen Itsenäisyyspäivä (Finnish Independence Day) and it celebrated ninety-four years of Finnish Independence. We exchange students had a jam packed day. There were four activities, and four buses, so we rotated throughout the day. The first stop was at a reindeer farm. Reindeer are livestock; they are not wild. However, they are free to roam the forests of Lapland so we didn’t actually see any reindeer at the farm. We had a presentation given to us in Finnish by a farmer. She showed us a slideshow (with old-fashioned slides) and explained reindeer farming to me. I was very proud of myself for understanding most of what she told us before the Rotex (former exchange students acting as chaperones) translated it. I asked what her favourite part of reindeer farming was and she said when they calves are born. After her presentation, we got to test our reindeer lassoing skills. I roped it on my first try (but it wasn’t real, basically a sawhorse with antlers). Our next stop was at the oldest national park of Finland: Pallas-Yllästunturi. We watched a video presentation on the unique flora and fauna of the area. Afterwards we went back to the hotel to eat lunch. 

My "dog sled team" (I am sitting at the back)

Then we went to a “dogsled safari”. Our hotel offers wilderness adventures so they have a couple of hundred huskies who pull sleds. We walked through the “farm” (I don’t want to call it a farm because the dogs were all well treated and aren’t for sale) and got to see all of the dogs housed there. We each had a short, maybe three minute long, ride on a dog pulled sled around a track. Then a dog caretaker told us about the two different types of huskies they had, Siberian and Alaskan. Our last station of the day was the one I have awaited most, our chance to ride reindeer. Similar to the dogs, we didn’t actually ride them; we sat in a sled pulled by them. The reindeer, however, didn’t have a driver…there were three reindeer in a straight line, each pulling their own sleigh. The reindeer pulling my sleigh was in the lead, and decided about half way through that she (or he) didn’t want to run anymore. After the reindeer ride we had some warm juice and walked back to the hotel in snowshoes, which were quite unnecessary as the route was a road with snow already packed down. 

Me and a reindeer. This one was completely white.

Since it was Independence Day, many exchange students dressed up a little bit for dinner. We had the official meal of Lapland: sautéed reindeer with potatoes and lingonberries. That evening we had a guest performer: a Sami (the official aboriginal population of Finland) man did a special type of singing for us which was like a cross between singing, storytelling, and yodelling. I later found out that he had appeared of Talent Suomi (Finland’s Got Talent). The Rotex performed for us a depiction of what many Finns do on December 6; watch the red carpet of the President’s ball in Helsinki. They also shared some skits of things that other exchange students had done on past Lapland trips. The next item on the agenda was a presentation by the “oldies” (the students who arrived in January) to the “newbies” (the students who arrived in August). They bestowed unto us a song to remember the year by. The remainder of the night was passed by with flag and book signing, general conversation, and a dance party.

Me standing on the arctic circle.

The next day we all packed everything up and got on the buses to come home. First, though, we had a stop at Santa Claus Land in Rovaniemi. It was basically like a Christmas mall with every shop selling the same stuff, but I managed to find some Christmas tree ornaments that I liked. I sent Christmas cards to my parents and sister for there. Normally, one would see Joulupukki (Santa) at Joulupukkimaa (Santa Claus Land) but because there were so many of us exchange students, they said we could go see him. We ate our last meal together at a culinary school in Rovaniemi before we had to say final goodbyes. Then back onto the bus for another eight hours. We had a little talent show on our bus (songs and jokes) to help pass the time. We also watch Pirates of the Caribbean 4 in Portuguese with no subtitles (I’m pretty sure it was a “pirated” film). We got to my town an hour ahead of schedule and I convinced the driver (through one of the chaperones) to stop in my town instead of the next one over so that my host family wouldn’t have to drive as far to pick me up in the middle of the night.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip. I think it’s cool that almost a year apart I go south of the equator (in Ecuador last Christmas) to north of the Arctic Circle.