The Third Week’s a Charm (Well, really they have all been “charms”...)



My street "Lincolnberry Alley", and
that is my house behind.

Last Wednesday for lunch I saw a strange Jell-o looking food on the counter so I asked my friend what it was and she said, “Kisali!” So I responded with “Is it anything like Jell-o?” So she grabbed my dictionary up and looked it up: Fruit soup!?! It was really like jell-o but made with local berries and it doesn’t hold its own shape.

Bottle return: put your bottle
in, and the change comes out.

That night we went over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house. Well… Grandmother and Grandfather’s house and we passed some fields on the way too. We arrived and I was presented with, get this, another nice pair of knit socks. These ones are purple and green striped. My host grandma is so artsy, not unlike my grandma at home. She has painted almost ever piece of china in the house; she made stained glass windows and trinkets all around the house, and her newest hobby is making tableaus of nate scenes using very intricately cut pieces of fabric.

On Thursday I forgot about Rotary meeting until hours after it had finished… and to top that off, I got a call telling me the scout meeting was happening when I thought it started next week…



I had a very good Saturday. A schoolmate asked me if I wanted to play squash, which I have never tried before. I jumped on the opportunity and went to learn. Our school is the recreation centre also and has a squash court. There was no wait so we got right into it. I am okay at keeping a rally going, but I need to practice my serves. I enjoyed the game and learned about my new friends, this new game, and some info about Finland. After squash he invited me to his house for a cleansing sauna. In the afternoon, someone had invited me to go Go-Karting at PowerPark, which is a short drive from my town. We drove to the park and

The Author's House (see below)

 arrived ten minutes too late for the last ride. So we went to another friend’s house for movie night. We  watched “Signs” which is an alien movie staring Mel Gibson (English with subtitles of course). As I left the house after the movie, the mother said “Say hi to Jaana [my host mom] from me!”…I had no idea what her name was, but apparently everyone knows who I am and where I’m staying.

The cool bridge.

On Sunday my host parents decided to take me site seeing around Ostrobothnia, which is the region I live in. Along the very flat drive we passed fields and forests, and fields and forests and a barn…you get the point; it is like the Finnish version of Saskatchewan except there are a few more trees here. Somewhere along the way we crossed the Swedish-speaking-Finnish-line. We stopped at the childhood home of a famous Swedish speaking Finnish Author, Zachris Topelius. After that stop we went to a very interest bridge just outside Vaasa, the largest city in the area, to meet with some friends of my host family. On the drive home I am sure that I dozed off, all of the ‘sites’ were too much for me.

Two Weeks have Come and Gone



Siiri, my dog, with Post-It vocabulary in the background.

On Friday, I had geography first period. During geography I just sit with my Suomea Suomeksi (Finnish in Finnish) book, but today during the second half of the class we went to the computer lab. The teacher told us to all go to this neat website that would let you choose what features a map would show (like contour lines, roads, etc.). The student sitting beside me said, “Type in your address!” so I subconsciously typed my Kelowna address and the website told me that that particular address was unable to be located. The student then informed me, “It has to be in Finland.” But I couldn’t remember my address here in Kauhava. So the teacher gave me the address of the school. English was last period. I think the teacher likes having someone else who knows a lot about English in the room. She always looks to me if she is trying to find a synonym. This class, we got a new list of vocabulary terms and she asked me to read it off because I have perfect pronunciation. During the mid-class break, someone told me that I sound like the CD that they listen to. When English was over I rode my bicycle to the kirjakaupa to pick up my math book. After school and after work, Ilari drove Jarmo and me to Lapua where we met up with Jaana. Ilari then drove to see his girlfriend while Jaana drove us to Seinäjoki where we picked up Iiro from the hospital. He was in the children’s ward and had been watching DVDs all day. The nurse said (via Jaana) that they didn’t find anything wrong with him so he was free to go. Because they had given him so much relaxant medication, Iiro had a very difficult time walked and needed a human crutch. For dinner we went to a Mexican restaurant of Iiro’s choosing. After dinner, we went to the house of one of Jaana’s friends and then proceeded to drive back to Kauhava.

Saturday was a day of sleep. I woke up at 11. I ate brunch. I went on a run for just more than an hour down the cross-country ski trail. I watched televisio [yes I did purposefully leave out the ‘n’, now you know a new Finnish word]. I had a nap for two hours (because I didn’t have enough sleep…). For the rest of the day I just lazed around the house. I ended it off with a hot sauna. Meanwhile, whenever Iiro tried to move, or do something, he had to use furniture, walls, brooms, and people as support.

To celebrate my two-week-aversary here in Finland, I spent all of Sunday lazing around the house. My legs ached from my run on Saturday so I just watched TV. There is hardly anything to watch here in Finnish, except the news. Almost everything is English with subtitles but there is the occasional Swedish or German program, again with subtitles. I feel like the only show ever on in my house is The Simpsons because my host brothers really like watching it. There are countless hours of The Simpsons on the pvr.

One of the players, who was on my team
tonight, up to bat. But for a second week, I forgot
 to get someone to take a picture of me.

On Monday after school I watched Herkules, in Finnish of course, but I stopped my movie experience when I found out that Jack Layton, the official leader of the opposition and the leader of the New Democrats party of Canada passed away early in the morning. I remember when Layton was running in the 2004 election I thought to myself, “He looks like a swell guy to vote for.” Okay I might not have used the word swell but you get my point. I went to pesapällo practice again. I was better at catching and throwing this week, but the beginner’s luck (not that I had any) must have worn off for batting and running.

Today, Tuesday, I met the other exchange student at my school. He is from Germany and is here with another program called AFS, but I don’t know what that is. He sat near me in my physics class, but I cannot remember his name. This evening I went to a Scout meeting. For anybody who has known me for a long time, you probably know that I have been in Scouts for an even longer time. I know my sister made good friends by connecting with Scouts in Argentina on her exchange so I though I would try it out here. I think tonight was a sort of “welcome back” get together. I don’t know if there was any schedule of plans. There is a scouter who speaks English who tried to explain the Finnish Scouts organization to me, but I still only vaguely know what will happen in scouts here. When I got home after the meeting I went through the local Opisto course guide; an opisto similar to a community college and/or recreation centre. I found a “Finnish for Foreigners” course that I am going to enrol in.

Sorry there aren’t many good pictures. I am getting lazy and not taking photos at opportune moments. If there is something you would like to know about my time in Finland, send me a message or leave a comment and I might answer it in my next post (no guarentees).

Oh, and thanks for reading this. I was so excited when my views surpassed 1000.

Berries and Bicycles and Bed Rest, Oh My!



This isn't even all the bicycles, there are more racks.



Tuesday, I rode my bicycle to school with Iiro. So many people ride either bicycles or motorcycles to school. My first class was English. Thank goodness I finally had a class that I understood! The entire class was in English. It is a specialized course on nature and sustainability. In English, we read and discussed about the Theory of Mind: that is how animals demonstrate higher intelligence. When the class was practicing their grammar, the teacher and I discussed that in couple of weeks I would give a presentation on sustainability in Canada and/or Kelowna to the class. In physics, we talked about famous physicists especially focusing on Albert Einstein. Although class is in Finnish, I need to stay on my toes for when he asks the odd question in English. At lunch I sat with a girl from my physics class and her group of friends which included another boy from my physics class, as well as one from my history class the day before. After lunch I had math with the same teacher as physics, so I went to the same classroom as physics. Big Mistake! I realized in the first few minutes that I had made a mistake and I arrived at my actual math class a few minutes late. Math was so easy! There are 13 math courses offered at my school, each six weeks long. I took the first one which is basically the equivalent as what I did at the beginning of grade nine and the last one being Calculus AP. Even though I don’t understand what the teacher is saying, the numbers still solve themselves the same way.

In the afternoon, after dinner, I went to order my math textbook from the book store. It is sort of like university here: you must purchase your textbook, the school does not lend it to you. I also went to the Kauhavan Kaupungininkirjasto (Kauhava City Library) with my host mother to set up an account and receive a card. I took out “Finnish in 60 Minutes” to help me learn my new language. When we got back home, we picked the black currents from the bushes around the house. Jaana makes current juice with the berries which makes a supply that lasts the winter.



My house.

On Wednesday, I had physics first. My teacher definitely got into my good books when he played a youtube video of the theme song to the Big Bang Theory to teach the class about the theory. Then we started talking about units of measure; it is good that I am in an ‘easy’ physics class because they are learning the basics, which allows me to learn the basics in a new language. In geography, which was my next class, I asked the teacher if it was okay if I just sat at the back and studied my Finnish in Finnish text book. She granted me permission and said that that is what most exchange students do. At lunch I sat with some third graders who were in my geography class. History was after lunch. The class, myself included, took notes about imperialism in Africa, none of which I understood. After the break, the teacher started a new activity: a few students at a time go into the hall with me to explain the notes in English. It helps me understand the notes and it helps my classmates learn English. That evening, Jaana and I went to pick raspberries at her friend’s house. Initially she was going to make juice with them, but she decided that because they were such nice berries, she would freeze them for baking in the winter.



Mmm! Cinnamon buns.



 Thursday was a rainy day. Jaana had the day off of work so she drove Iiro and me to school. I had English first and we were assigned a practice final exam to complete. The teacher told me I do not have to do the Finnish parts. I am very worried about the 150-250 word composition. I was surprised, though, at the difficulty of the exam; I think some people at KSS in English 12 would not have passed it. In math we started graphing equations and reviewed y = mx + b. The teacher put a trick question on the board: x^2 + y^2 = 1. No one, except for me, knew what the correct answer was. The teacher asked me if I knew what shape it would be and I said, “Ympyrä,” because I had just looked it up in the dictionary. In physics we started scientific notation. We had a group competition to see who could fill in a table with a) the full number, b) the scientic notation, and c) the number with a unit prefix (kilo, mega, etc.). I didn’t realize it was under a time restriction but when I found out I started making lots of mistakes. After school Jaana picked us up, because Iiro and I both had class that ended at the same time, and we went to set up a bank account for me. When we arrived home I was delighted to smell freshly baked cinnamon buns. Mmm! I went to my first Rotary meeting and met my councillor. I introduced myself to the club in Finnish for the first few sentences, and then I spoke English. My rotary club is much smaller than at home: there were about 20 members there. In the evening I went to meet Jarmo’s brother’s family: Petteri and his wife with their three children and cat. Meanwhile Iiro was at some martial arts defense training course. We got a phone call that Iiro was in the hospital so we rushed there to find him lying in a bed hyperventilating and we were informed he would be relocated to Seinjoki, a larger hospital about 50 km away which is open 24h. He is still in the hospital and they are not sure what the problem was. Please send your best wishes to Finland for him.

First Day of School!

This is the desk in my room, covered in sticky notes.

Last night I started learning household nouns. I, with the help of my host brothers and host mother, labelled the kitchen with Post-It notes for the names of appliances and whatnot in Finnish. It was interesting for both me and my family because they would speak English and try to spell in English, but revert to spelling with Finnish pronunciation. For example when they say “ee,” the letter they are referring to is “I”.

Today was my first day of school in Kauhava. My host mother brought me to the principal’s office and I had a discussion with him. My school, Kauhavan Lukio, is in the same building as and shares many of the same amenities of the junior high. Toni, the principal, also gave me a tour of the school and introduced me (and sometimes I introduced myself) to some teachers. Minun nimeni on Peter. Minä olen kanadalainen. Minä en puhu suomen hyvin. (My name is Peter. I am a Canadian. I do not speak Finnish well.) I then met with the school counsellor, Olli, and selected my classes for the first “semester”. There are “five semesters” throughout the school year which each last six weeks. I have class from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm. I am taking some classes from each of the three grade levels: History 2, Geography 3, English 3, Math 1, and Physics 1. There are many different classes of each subject but I just gave the associated grade level. Today, although it was supposed to be math, my first class is History. I think it will be about international political and economic relationships through the last five centuries. My teacher asked if perhaps I would give a presentation on the history of Canada in two or three weeks. (She said it can be in English because it is an ‘international’ class). During the break one of the girls introduced herself to me and I sat with her and her friends at lunch. After lunch I had geography. I think the lesson was about a transition from manually produced maps to digitally produced maps like aerial photos and satellite maps. During my class, a student introduced herself because she was an exchange student to Japan last year. I didn’t understand anything that either teacher said in Finnish. I take the notes of what the teachers put on the board and I look up some words to get a general idea, but it is difficult I came home to have a nap because I was so exhausted from trying to understand.

Good luck cards from home!

Dinner is served very early here compared to North America. We ate even before Jaana returned home from work at 4:30 pm. There is, however, an evening snack about an hour before bed. After my host mom returned home and had something to eat, she invited me to her pesäpallo practice. Pesäpallo is Finnish baseball and it is very similar to American baseball but there are some major differences: the pitcher stands beside the batter and pitches the ball straight up, the bases are in different positions, and you can hit the ball up to three times before you run (you don’t have to run as soon as you hit the ball). For more information, wikipedia it. I thought I would just be going to watch the practice but my host mom insisted that I play with her and the team. I am very bad. I cannot hit the ball, I cannot catch the ball, I cannot throw the ball, but somehow I managed to get a run in. After pesäpallo, we went home and had our evening snack. I introduced my family to peanut butter and it was very well received.

I MET MY HOST FAMILY!

The last few days have been so busy it has been hard to find the time to record everything I have done.

This was my class for the week

Friday was last day of classes at Karkku. We learned the types of weather, animals, and food. At the end of our afternoon lesson, our teacher Heljä presented each of us with a certificate and the photo of all of the exchange students. Our afternoon lecture was a very dry, stern presentation by the 1390 District Chair for Exchange on behalf of the multidistrict exchange program that was meant to reinforce the rules and why Rotary had brought us to Finland. In the evening there was a talent show, or “Cozy Night”. Sarah from Burlington, Ontario, and I had prepared to read a condensed version of “Oh the Places you’ll Go” by Dr. Seuss however the MCs forgot to schedule us in…so we didn’t present. After the show all of the students just hung out with each other, knowing that this was our last night together for a few months.

Saturday was a very exciting day! First we had presentations by Rotary for both everyone from their home region (North America for me) and for their district (1380 for me). I think my home region meeting was the largest but my district meeting was the smallest. Then we all packed our bags as the host families came to check in. I didn’t see mine arrive but they were checked in on the list. The host families had an orientation meeting and then….. I MET MY HOST FAMILY!!!! My host parents Jarmo and Jaana along with my younger host brother Iiro had come to Karkku. There was a closing ceremony (mostly in Finnish, so I could only understand a few words here and there). After that, we ate lunch in the cafeteria, brought my bags to the car and headed out on the road. It was a three hour drive to Kauhava. Iiro didn’t stop talking for the entire duration of the drive. He and Jaana are both basically fluent in English however they would both deny that. Along the way we stopped at a pet store to pick up crickets for Iiro’s lizard. We arrived at the house, which is on ___berry alley (I can’t remember what type of berry). I met my older host brother Ilari and his girlfriend Tania as well as the family dog Siiri. After a bit of settling in, for instance I unpacked both of my bags, Jaana drove me around the town. Kauhava has approximately 17,000 people which is about the same size as Salmon Arm. It is forested with some agriculture fields, but very very flat: as flat as the prairies. For dinner we

This is my brand new, very comfortable pair of homemade socks

had pork patties and makkara. After dinner I went on a walk with Jaana and Siiri around the neighbour hood. My school is only a five minute walk from the house. We then sat as a family on the back deck wearing our “cozy socks”. Jaana knit me, and apparently everyone in the family, a bright coloured pair of wool socks. We watched TV, which was all English with Finnish subtitles except for the commercials and newscast.

Today, Sunday, I slept in until 9:30: the latest since I have been here. I watched some TV with Iiro. But then… I watched Leijonakuningas! (a.k.a. The Lion King). It was a VHS which was all in Finnish with absolutely no subtitles. I did what I have been doing the past couple days and watched it with my dictionary in hand to look up a word that I though I could spell to see what it meant.

My family here has been very welcoming. I don’t understand almost all of the conversation, except when Iiro and Jaana make an effort to translate it all for me. Tomorrow I am going to school. I have meetings with the principal and counsellor first thing in the morning. And Iiro says he has gotten permission to be my personal tour guide around the school. I am definitely looking forward to going to my lukio (high school).

Lots and Lots of Lessons

This is my class.

Today was filled with more language classes. We had eight hours of classes scheduled! That is more than a day at school! Our class started learning adjectives – the only “agreements” for adjectives are singular and plural (more than English, less than French). However then we started with the interesting concept of Finnish propositions. There are no words for in, on, around, from, to, etc. Instead the ending of the noun is changed. For example house is talo (TAH-low): in the house is talossa, from the house is talosta, into the house is taloon, and it goes on and on… but you probably don’t care about the structure of the Finnish prepositions.

This afternoon, in between lessons, we had a group picture of everyone who is here at Karkku. The Canadians, all nine of us (at least I think there are nine…) decked out in all of our Canada gear: scarves, mittens, jerseys, and flags. I think if there was a prize for best dressed country, we would have won!

CANADA! Eh?

In one of our last lessons, we played a board game that tested our knowledge of the Finnish language so far. I actually practiced my French, though, during the game because the French people in my group had a hard time translating from Finnish to English, so they translated Finnish to French, and I translated French to English for them.

This evening we ate some makkara, which is Finnish sausage, and went swimming and sauna-ing.

A Trip to Tampere, a Simple Victory

Our lesson this morning was about how to tell time.

Milloin kello on? (What time is it?)

– Kello on kahdeksantoista (It’s eight o’clock)



Me overlooking one of the two lakes of Tapere



Then we started asking each other questions about time: When do you wake up? What time do you eat lunch? When do you go out?

Next in our lesson, we learned about different stores you might find in a town, because this afternoon we were to head to Tampere (pop. 200 000). Some of the stores were flower shop, bakery, bank, market, and bookstore.

After lunch we went into Tampere. We had a bus tour of some of the sites of the city: several churches, some parks, and old converted factories. There are two lakes around Tampere with an 18 meter difference in altitude, so there is a large river that flows through the middle of the town. In case you were unaware, Finland has more lakes than any other country in the world: 187 888 lakes.



My bus for the tour of Tapere in front of a large church



In the city, I went to the bookstore, kirjakauppa, to buy a Finnish-English dictionary because Chapter’s didn’t have any in stock when I left. While we were there, I found a book for someone who is learning Finnish. Of course because I am learning Finnish I was interested in this book. I whipped out my notes from my bag and asked the shopkeeper, “How

 

much is this?” in Finnish. She replied, in Finnish because she could see I was trying hard to learn, and I understood the price! It has only been half a week but I could understand!



The Church where our talent show took place.

Anyways, we returned to camp to eat dinner and then headed off to a talent show type thing. It was held in a church and only more serious acts could perform (poems were read and gentle songs were sung). Right before the show, though, a few of us explored the very rural area around the church and took some photos. There will be a ‘crazy’ talent show held on perjantai (Friday). Just before curfew, the tutors serenaded all of us, the exchange students, with some Finnish lullabies.



Just Another Ordinary Day

This morning I went in to the main lodge early so that I could use the internet. There are always so many people trying to use the wifi at once that the system can’t handle it. It works really slowly for some people, or not at all for people like me. I called home via skype so that my parents could actually hear my voice. Even though it was first thing in the morning for me, it was just before my parents went to bed at home.

When I say “camp” it is really a boarding school. It is definitely a church oriented school. Many lukios (Finnish upper secondary schools) don’t commence until next week, like this one. There is a main building with a lecture hall, several classrooms, a cafeteria, some dorms, and a large lobby for hanging out. The picture above is the entrance to the main building. Scattered around the school yard are many other dorm buildings, the sauna building (with two saunas), the boat house, two docks, and an outdoor chapel that looks over the lake.

In language classes today we started learning pronouns and how to conjugate verbs. Their conjugation patters have some similarities to French, which helps me a lot. We practiced spelling using the Finnish alphabet. It is often difficult to distinguish between all the different vowels. I am writing down lots of vocabulary, but it will take some studying for the words to actually sink in.

Our lecture this afternoon was about our year in Finland. It highlighted some of the holidays and hobbies of each season.

We had another sauna session today. It is very refreshing to switch from steaming hot to freezing cold in such quick succession. One of the dips into the lake had a wonderful surprise: there was a perfect double rainbow lighting up the sky across the lake from the camp. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera to capture the moment.

Language Camp in Karkku

This morning I was one of the, if no the, first person to wake up and take a shower. Then I recorded the events for yesterday in my blog. At breakfast I ate rice crispies with a little sandwich. They didn’t have any hot chocolate which is my staple breakfast back home. We were informed of all the rules for the week and were introduced to the tutors and teachers. Most people here are learning Finnish, like me, but there are a few learning each Swedish and Estonian. Something I meant to say was that the camp here is basically tailored for Anglophones. There are so many people from North America and English is spoken widely amongst anybody who already speaks a second language. All the lectures and instruction are about Finland and the Finnish language but are in English.

Our first lecture was on schooling in Finland. Compulsory school is from 7 years old until 16. Then upper secondary (or vocational) school is from 16-20, followed by university or polytechnic education. You will probably hear me talk more about Finnish education throughout the year.

Lunch is the big meal here in Finland. Everyone eats a free hot lunch at school and it is the biggest meal of the day. Today we had meatballs, potatoes, and assorted veggies followed by a delicious chocolate mousse for desert.

In our first Finnish lesson, we were broken down into smaller groups: about 120 people broken into 4 groups with a teacher and 3 tutors for each group. Our lesson today was basic phrases, the alphabet, and a couple of poems about a house, some owls, and a mole. My tutor laughs at me when I speak; she says I sound like a young Swedish child learning Finnish.

Our afternoon lecture was about the Finnish way of life (basically we were informed about what a stereotypical Finn is like). Finnish people in general are polite, respect everyone’s personal bubble, and only speak when spoken to. I had flashbacks to my orientation session when they said “if it is to be, it is up to me” because the Finns don’t initiate conversation with strangers. Our lecturer suggested that we carry around a misspelled sentence in Finnish so that to start a conversation we can ask for some help.

Next we had a sauna information session about the sauna. For your information, “sauna” is the only Finnish word in the English language and there is approximately one sauna for every three Finns. We were informed of general etiquette including what to wear, or should I say what not to wear…luckily the sauna here at the Karkku Evangelical Folk High School, where the camp is taking place, welcomes people wearing bathing suits, unlike many others in the country.

Dinner was vegetable and hot dog soup with bread and butter (which is served with every meal).

After dinner I took a row boat out to a little island in the lake near the camp with some other Canadians and one American. We then went swimming followed by our first real Finnish sauna. It is customary to sit in the hot sauna for a few minutes then jump in the cold lake for a few minutes. I alternated between the two three times before I decided I had done enough cleansing for the night. Then I wrote this blog and went to bed.

Flights number Kaksi (KAWK-see) and Kolme (KOLE-may) & arrival in Finland

I have finally arrived here in Finland!

In Seattle, I kept waiting in the Lufthansa line while doing sudokus, word searches, and just plain old waiting. Then I heard someone behind me say, “Are you going to Finland?” I turned around to see someone else wearing a crazy blue blazer covered in pins (but I wasn’t wearing mine, I hung it over my suitcase. It was Cindy from Northern California who is going to Vaasa, which is near my town of Kauhava. We swaped stories of how we had both gone to the United counter for our ticket but were redirected. Cindy didn’t have any bags; she said they had been checked through but she still needed her ticket. We were the first to get our Lufthansa tickets because the long line grew behind us. We proceeded to go through the security checkpoint. Cindy checked her ticket and said that we departed from A15. We got to A14 and realized A15 didn’t exist. She had checked the ticket for our flight from Frankfurt to Helsinki. We made it to the right gate and met up with the students who had flown in from Portland, Oregon. I bought my lunch at a burger restaurant.

On the plane, I had an aisle seat. Cindy was across the aisle from me and I had a stranger beside me at the window. We had the personal television screens in front of us so we could choose what we watched or listened to for the entire flight. The headphone jack was two pronged. Luckily, I had packed the converter from two prongs to one prong for headphones which allowed me to use my personal headphones, not the ones provided. The Seattle-Frankfurt flight was ten hours long. I had time to watch three full length movies: Mary Poppins which was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious as always, Rio which had me laughing so hard, and Water for Elephants which was really well done. For dinner, we were served our choice of chicken or pasta (I had pasta) with a dinner roll, a rice salad, a chocolate brownie, a slice of cheese, and real metal cutlery! Breakfast was an omelet with some hash browns, a bun, and some cooked spinach.

In Frankfurt, we had a 5 hour layover. We went to the gate on our ticket (A15) and found a little corner where we could congregate. We North Americans were so much louder than all the traveling Europeans around us. During part of our wait, some scouts gathered in the corner beside us and I realized they were returning home from the World Jamboree in Sweden, a camp attended four years ago in England. The scouts were from Italy. Meanwhile, more exchange students kept gathering. At one point someone looked at the TV screens and informed us we all needed to move to gate A42, the very last gate in the terminal. On the way there, I along with some other students checked the screen. Indeed there was a gate change but it was to A17, not A42. So we dropped our bags at A17 (with some responsible people to watch them) and went to tell all the others that they had moved far away for nothing.

Anyways I had a window seat and basically slept the entire flight. I was over the wing and the sunlight reflected onto me for the duration. Because I was so hot when I awoke, I thought that I had gotten sunburnt…but I didn’t.

When we got off the flight we got our bags and “went through customs” which was just a door. No one looked at my passport or my visa. After we were met by the Rotarians and had a two hour bus to language camp. I am in a room with another Canadian; he is from New Brunswick.

Flight Number Yksi (EWK-see)

It is not even eight o'clock am and I already have lots to say. (ok by the time I post this it might be just after eight...mmm after eight chocolates)
Grandma drove up to Kelowna last night so that she could say farewell at the airport early the next morning. She and my mom tried to help me pack.
Last night I stayed up packing until 1 am. I woke up to the wonderful sound of my alarm clock at 4 am. I proceeded to make my breakfast, pack those last minute items and have a shower, all of which I intended to do before 4:30 so that we could be at the Kelowna airport by 5.... it didn't quite happen that way
I don't know what happened really; I guess I just fell behind schedule. When we arrived at the airport it was about 5:15. Now I have caught the 6:00 flight to Vancouver from Kelowna and arrived at the airport later than that but... I went to the Horizon Air counter where I was glad to see a very short line; it was short because I was running "late". After my bags got checked, the person told me that I needed to run to make the flight. At security screening I took out my computer, like I was supposed to. I passed through the scanner 100% metal free. But then my computer would not fit into my backpack!
It was an average flight. I had orange juice, looked at the clouds and mountains, read the YLW magazine, and did a word search.
I went through customs like everyone else. The baggage carousel had a mechanical problem but only took a few moments to be fixed. But then I got confused! Some people were dropping off bags and some people were going through another security screening but I knew I wasn't supposed to do either of these. I asked for help and got directed to the train which took me to the main terminal so I could proceed to check in to my next airline.
I have two suitcases, which can be tricky on escalators. The first two escalators I managed fine, but the third time is a charm and my bag got on the wrong step in a weird position so I tried to fix it but manged to fall down the stairs with my water bottle popping out of my backpack while I was at it. (The kind man behind me tossed me my bottle once I was stabilized)
Next, I headed to the United check-in counter, which was at the far side of the terminal, because my itinerary said my direct flight to Frankfurt was United. However the flight attendant told me United direct to Frankfurt, and it was probably a code share flight with Lufthansa. So then I had to go all the way back to the other side of the terminal to go to the Lufthansa counter, just to find that it doesn't open until 10:30 am.
I am writing this while I sit and wait for the check-in counter to open.

PS- happy birthday Grandad

Leaving Canada = Confirmed

Very late last night (11:53 pm) I received confirmation that my flights have finally been booked. On Saturday, I fly from Kelowna to Seattle at 6:00 am; then at 2:00 pm I fly to Frankfurt and arrive the next day at 9:05 am. The final leg is Frankfurt to Helsinki on Sunday at 2:25 pm.

YAY I FINALLY KNOW HOW & WHEN I LEAVE!!!!

Let this be an open invitation to anyone who wants to see me off at the Kelowna Airport on Saturday morning, 5:00ish... I doubt that many people (or anyone) will take advantage of this offer. But if you plan on it, let me know so I don't go through security without seeing you.

I am flying from Seattle to Frankfurt with 9 other exchange students and Frankfurt to Helsinki with 14 others (at least).

I have recently been in contact with the president of my host rotary club, who is also the principal of my high school. If you are interested in my school in Kauhava, check out this link(http://web.kauhava.fi/lukio/) and click on "Kauhava in a Nutshell". It looked like there are many opportunities to travel with my school. Also, interesting fact that I will be there when the school celebrates its 90th Anniversary.

In an email from my councillor it said "If you play ice hockey it is possible to play in Kauhava"...I thought well I definitely break at least one stereotype of a Canadian.

On Monday night the Snowbirds performed an airshow over the lake (top picture). Interesting fact: the Finnish flying team like the Snowbirds are based out of Kauhava. After the show, my mom organized a great get together at the Twisted Tomato downtown with my friends and family as a final farewell dinner. (bottom picture)

Yesterday I drove to Armstrong to spend some last time with my Grandma and her little dog Tucker. We ate at a restaurant called Tucker's Restaurant (it is coincidence that the restaurant and dog have the same name). She sent me home with a carton of Orange Juice as a parting gift.

Although my room is now (almost) spotless, I have yet to start packing my belongings.