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.