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.