Cookies, Crabs, and Coursework



The Chefs (Kalle and Me) & Cookies

On Friday during English class we played board game (I won in our group!)…however don’t judge me just yet because I started trying to answer some of the questions in Finnish. But they were very difficult because the game was meant for students who have been studying English for over ten years, and I haven’t studied Finnish for even 8 weeks. During Spanish class I understood almost the whole class again. I am glad I am taking it because it is the first Spanish class these students (and I) have taken, and because it is a new language they are learning basic things, so when the teacher says them in Finnish, I know exactly what he is saying because he says basic things. Spanish, for anyone unaware, is very much like French in the fact that even if there is only one guy in a group of girls, the group is masculine. The teacher and I are the only guys in the classroom, so he always references it like: “And what would it be if Peter and I left the room?” After lunch there was no art class because teacher was away, but because of that we had to get an idea for our project…I think I am going to take one of the pictures I took in Ecuador last summer and modify it to fit my personality. Later that afternoon I made some cheesecake at the request and with the translation of my host mother. (She was already going to make it, but she asked me if I would like to.) In the evening I went to the pappila which is where youth go on Friday nights to play pool, or videogames, or just hang out. After a couple of hours there we walked to Rolls (the fast food restaurant) and back.

On Saturday morning, I had to wake up early because I had Finnish for Foreigners class. I think the teacher is starting to understand that I am more advanced then the beginners, but I don’t understand as much speech as the advanced group. We talked about weather: it has rained almost every day in my town for the last 2 weeks! In the afternoon I made cookies! And not just any cookies: Grandma’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies! I had mentioned it the night before, and Kalle asked if he could come over to help, so he did. “Cups”, “teaspoons”, and “tablespoons” are not common measurements here, so I needed to convert everything into decilitres and millilitres, just to find out that butter is measured in grams! (I think we put way too much butter into the cookies). But the cookies were delicious as they always are. Even those in the house who don’t like peanut butter (or chocolate chips for that matter) liked them. And I was able to experience a long awaited scent from back home.



The crab party.



That evening some friends from Seinäjoki (the same one who came to the kesämöki) came to our house for a “Crab” Party. The starter was mushroom soup; with the mushrooms that I picked! The main course was, contrary to my presumptions, lobster. They were sort of mini-lobsters but definitely not crab. We played some cards, had a sauna, and spoke with Ilkka (my brother in Alaska) via Skype. At about 10:30 I was invited to a get together of friends at someone’s house so I accepted (with parental consent of course) and I stayed the night at the house of Kimmo (the red head).
 On Sunday I came home just before lunch. All of the guests were still there and were just about to start playing a game of Alias. It is similar to “Taboo”, however the only word that you can’t say is the word your partner is trying to guess. I was partnered with Ilari (my older host brother) and his girlfriend Tanja helped out. I had my laptop on my lap to be able to search definitions on the internet. We didn’t get last! Afterwards, I went back to the house where our get together was the night before for a brief stay to eat some apple pie. I went back home and had a two hour nap. I blogged. I did my homework. I went to bed.

Monday, I had Pitka Matematikka as my first class, during which I realized that we learn different topics in different orders. For example: . For anyone who knows what I am talking about….: students here always write out and solve the quadratic equation when factoring a polynomial. Even when it is really easy to see that x²-2x-3 = (x-3)(x+1) they aren’t taught to recognize that the “b” term is the sum and the “c” term is the product of the 2 roots. In Spanish I have my first word test next class! I have to study the Finnish words more than the Spanish words (thanks, sis!) During English class I marked my listening activity from last class: I got 1.5 wrong out of 30! (which is still the best in the class). I think it is because I get bored when I am listening so I zone out. Watch some TV and learned Finnish card games. I was victorious at one new game, but I very rusty at a “slaps” type game (which includes slapping doubles, tens, sandwiched doubles, the top 2 cards add up to 10, and the 1^st and 3^rd cards add up to ten)  

My books.



On Tuesday in art class I am working with a picture I took in Equator making it capture the essence of my personality and interests. In Pitka Matikka 7, as soon as I finish the questions assigned, I whip out my Finnish books because this class is (although more advanced than the one I took last jakso) still pretty easy. At lunch I re-established my firm belief that I really don’t like porridge. During my second math class of the day, there was an announcement that came on that I didn’t understand. I was informed immediately after by a classmate that the police had come to the school to check mo-ped and motorcycle drivers’ licences and registrations. I am pretty sure quite a few people got tickets and warnings. Still during math, I had a personal victory when I correctly assumed the meaning of the word jatkuva (continuous) and taught the teacher how to spell both continuous and differentiable in English. After school I went to a café and bought a “birthday cupcake” to celebrate my sister Roslyn’s 21^st birthday. At Finnish for Foreigners I thought we had a pretty good class. I am partnering with a girl from Estonia who moved to Ylihärmä (technically still in Kauhava) with her mom. She speaks English quite well and wants to learn Finnish so she can get a job here. When I got home I suffered a little bit of Glee withdrawal, so I found a site on the internet that allows me to watch the latest episodes the day after they air on TV in North America.

Thanks for reading. Remember to leave a comment, question or concern.



Pickin' Mushrooms and Courses

I've been told these are some
of the best mushrooms to eat.

Last Monday I slept in because it was still test week. Sometime between 10 and 11 I went to school to choose my courses for the next jakso (term, period, semester…whatever you want to call it). I met up with some friends who had finished their test for the day and we ate lunch and chatted. Then I went to see the counsellor who said come back tomorrow because he was invigilating a matriculation exam. So I chatted with more people before heading home to finish my paper on pesäpallo. In the evening, my host parents and I went mushroom picking. Siiri the dog came along with us, and she had a bright orange collar with a tracking device in it, so when we were picking, she could roam the woods freely and we would be able to track her down with some electronic device. We went to a side road on the outskirts of town that Jarmo knew had some moist, swampy areas…ideal mushroom growing conditions. We walked into the woods for only a few minutes before we stopped and started searching. 

Me with the 'shrooms.

Jarmo is the “mushroom man” in our family; he quickly found the first ones and there were more and more. I was sworn to secrecy about the patch: there were so many of what is apparently the best type of mushroom and “only family” is allowed to know where we went. After we picked fifteen litres, we had to leave the rest behind because we had no more container space. We went to mummi ja pappa’s house (grandma and grandpa) for coffee.

On Tuesday I went to school to get my schedule figured out. I had pretty much already choosen all of the classes that I wanted to take, I just needed the counsellor’s approval. He told me I was the first exchange student in ten years to plan my own schedule without his assistance. These are my classes for this jakso:

Sept. 21 – Nov. 8	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
8 – 9:45	Math 13	Art	Math 7	Art	English
10 – 11:45	Spanish	Math 7	English	Math 13	Spanish
12:20-1:50	English	Math 13	Spanish	Math 7	Art

Because I had my courses picked, the next place to go was the book store to order my books. The shopkeeper spoke little to no English so I succeed in ordering my books by speaking only Finnish! Huge success! I went back to school for lunch and chatting. When eating, I felt some pride when my friend said, “I don’t know whether to speak to you in Finnish or English,” because she thought I have learned enough to carry on the conversation in Finnish. I asked her to speak Finnish, but everyone seems to be starting to talk to me in Finglish: a combination of words/phrases/sentences switching both languages. I went home and did something I am very experienced at, procrastinating. To this point, I still have not finished my pesäpallo report, but no one from the school administration has mentioned anything about it…. That evening I had Finnish for Foreigners. Because I have had the textbook for about a month before the course, I have already done lots of the exercises, so I just study on my own.

Drilling a block of wood for the handle of my knife

Wednesday was the1^st day of the 2^nd jakso. My second grade math class was pretty easy. In English we have a “permanent substitute”; our last teacher moved away so we have a brand new teacher (who won’t have completed university until the spring). She is very young and timid, but she has a nice, subtle, British accent. In Spanish class I can understand Spanish to English translations, and English to Finnish translations, so I understood most of what the teacher said. After school I went to a friend’s house to watch a television show he has trying to get me to see for a couple of weeks. I went home and made the salad for dinner and I was asked by my little brother if I wanted to learn the Finnish way to cut vegetables… just because I am not a good slicer and dicer doesn’t mean everyone in Canada cuts peppers like me. That evening I had my puukkokurssi (knife making class) during which I started making the handle: I drilled wood and cut up pieces of bark. Afterwards I stayed up very late tweaking presentation for Rotary Club. Thursday morning my alarm went off at 6:20, I thought I put it on snooze for 10 minutes… I woke up at 7:53 (class starts at eight) so I basically threw on clothes, grabbed my bag, rode bicycle as fast as possible with a piece of bread in hand. My first class was art. I have not taken art class since elementary school…this course is a free course where I decide what to do… should be interesting…Grandma (watercolour painter for those of you who don’t know), don’t be surprised if you get a phone call asking for art advice! I had 3^rd grade math next; they are about where I am in math. Their last test was on integrals and they are starting with lots of stuff to do with infinity. I also got back my test from the last math class I had: I got a 10 (I wanted a 10+ because I did the 2 extra questions correctly and I did all of the homeword which he counts as bonus marks). In 2^nd grade math I was a bit embarrassed; I didn’t do the homework because I slept in… At partio that afternoon we talked about schedule until joulukuu (December) and played games. Afterwards at Rotary, I gave a big presentation on Canada, Kelowna, my life, my family, and me. 

This is the picture of "äiti" that the man
thought was my "sisko". I miss you mom & dad!

When I introduced äiti ja isa (mom & dad) I had 3 pictures: 1 of them together, and a picture of me with each of them. I said “these are my äiti ja isa” and one of the Rotarians said “ja sisko!” (and sister)… “no, that is my mom”, “well she looks so young!”. Some more comments I received were “I like you because you had a white German short-haired pointer” (Abby, the dog we used to have) as well as “I like you because of your leadership in scouts and that you want to become an engineer”.

I really am enjoying my time here. Finnish, however, is a very frustrating language because of: the many different cases of nouns and adjectives (there are no prepositions, you add different endings for “to”, or “of”, etc.), the many types of verbs (although they all end in either –a or –ä, there are seven different conjugation patterns), and just generally not having a very large vocabulary.

FYI – I have been in Finland for 49 days!

Viikonloppu Kesämökillä (Weekend at the Summer Cottage)

Because it was still test week, I didn’t have to go to school on Friday. Among much “lollygagging” and procrastination, I researched for my paper on pesäpallo (Finnish baseball) that I am writing (in English) instead of writing the tests. Then I starting packing to go to the kesämökki, summer cottage; I brought way too much stuff, but had to prepare for the worst.

This is the kesämökki we stayed in.

It was a pretty short drive to the cabin and I was greeted by a nice log cabin which was on the tip of a peninsula on island near the city of Vaasa. There were five buildings: the main cabin, the storage shed and outhouse, the sauna, the eating room, and a bunkhouse. The main cabin had a kitchen (complete) the smallest stove/oven combo I have ever seen), a living room with a couch and cable TV, a dinning room, a bedroom, and a loft upstairs with some mattresses. For anyone who has visited my cabin (“The Shack”) in Sicamous, it was slightly smaller in footprint, had a lower ceiling, and was much more modern. The storage shed and outhouse building was naturally divided in two: a bathroom with plumbing, and a storage room. The sauna building was the original cabin on the property but it is now two rooms: the sauna with a wood burning kisua (the hot place with rocks), and a “powder room”. Behind the main cabin, a large terrace was built on top of some very large rocks which were almost the height of the cabin itself. On another larger rock right beside, there was a building with a single room which we utilized as the dinning room.

 

Me fishing with Siiri.

Iiro had been telling me for weeks how excited he was to be going fishing, so naturally that was one of the first things we did, as soon as Jarmo checked out the boat and put it in the water. It has been a long time since I have been fishing so it took a little time to get back into the swing of it. I actually caught a fish! A small pike! But as soon as I could see my prey, it jiggled loose of the hook. When we got back to shore, Jarmo’s brother Petteri and his family arrived. As soon as they were unpacked what did we do? We went fishing again. Later, when we were getting cozy, I walked up to the terrace and noticed Jaana having trouble lighting a fire, which would be used to cook our dinner. So being the scout that I am, I quickly got the fire lit (and it was probably a little bit bigger then what it should have been). We ate dinner, which was kebab (donair-ish meat) heated over my fire, very late, even for Canadian standards, at 9 o’clock. We cleared the table around 11 and then went to the sauna just before midnight. During and after saunas, Petteri and I cooled off by swimming in the sea. Because the Baltic Sea was once a huge fresh water lake, the salinity of the water was very low so I didn’t feel icky from the salt. After sauna, the adults and I played cards. I taught them how to play president (scum, a**hole) right after they taught me the Finnish version. 

This was the view from the dock at the cabin on Friday night.
(the little white dots are the moon and it's reflection)



The terrace and the "dining room".

I slept in on Saturday, as much as I could with 4 year old cousin Saila that is. After I had something to eat for breakfast, I read my book (Catch Me if you Can) in the sun on the terrace. Later in the day we went berry and mushroom picking in the woods near the cabin. For our late lunch, I made a salad after pestering for something to do. My salad had tommatti (tomato), paprika (bell pepper), kurkku (cucumber), ja omena (apple). After lunch we said goodbye to Petteri, his wife Sanna, and their daughter Saila, because their other son Sampo would soon arrive home from a hockey event. Konsta, their other son, stayed the next night with us. I had a long nap. When I awoke, the next guests, who were my host family’s friends from Seinäjoki, had arrived. We had our sauna before dinner. No swimming this time, it was really cold. After sauna we ate makkara for a late dinner and I went straight to bed.

Konsta and his catch.

Sunday morning, after sleeping in again, I resumed my position on the sunny terrace and finished my book. After the Seinäjokians (I don’t think that’s actually a word) left, we went fishing again. Jarmo caught one fish, which he released, and Konsta the cousin [ten years old, third grade, got his first cell phone when he was 7 which is normal by Finnish standards] caught three fish! But two of them released themselves before reaching the boat and he released the third after posing for pictures. When we docked, we did our final clean up and packing then left for home. I slept the whole drive home and had yet another sauna before going to bed.

It was a wonderful and relaxing weekend and I am very gracious I had the opportunity to experience yet another experience on this year long experience of a life time!

More blogs to come soon! I am still not getting any questions.... or mail for that matter, if you want to mail me something, let me know and I will forward you my address. (PS- make sure you make it clear who you are so I don't send my address to a random stranger)

Week Five and Staying Alive

Sorry I have been falling behind on blog entries!



Ilari cutting his cake, with his aunt and
little cousin across the table

On September 7, Ilari had a birthday party, even though his birthday was on the 4^th. Family came over to the house and we had a cake which was covered in candy. The littlest cousin had a hissy fit when she wasn’t served the right piece of cake. This party was a little personal celebration because it marked one month of being in Finland

The next day at scouts we took measurements of everyone: height, mass, and pulse before and after vigorous exercise. I am starting to learn their closing song. I had Julien, one of the scouts, wrote it out for me before I left. After scouts I went to Rotary. I presented my club with the Kelowna Sunrise Rotary banner.

On Friday I went to Rolls, the only fast food restaurant in town, with some friends. Then we went to the fall market at the marketplace. I bought some fruity flavoured liquorice. Later I played squash again. My partner, Kalle, says that I am improving but I know that we can’t play a real game with each other because I am still so bad. Kalle also says that I am better than any girl he has played with.

One of the bridges we paddled under.

Saturday was a long day of canoeing. A church youth group was canoeing down the Kauhavanjoki and Lapuanjoki and my friends and host mother encouraged me to go. I was canoe partners with Kalle. Another friend, Kimmo (who is the only red head in Kauhava… well probably not the only one) was partners with the other exchange student Martin. These rivers for the most part are flat and slow moving. We did have to portage (take the boat out of the water) on two occasions. The first one was planned, however the second one came as a surprise to the group leader and we had to carry the boat quite a distance before we could re-launch. The trip took about eight hours including breaks and we paddled about 22 km. We paddled from right beside the church in Kauhava to the Lukio (high school) in Alahärmä which is one of the smaller communities within the municipality of Kauhava. After the trip we were all soaking wet, with shoes covered in mud, and aching muscles. Later that evening, Kalle drove me to Kimmo’s house on the back of his motorcycle so that we could try to relax in his sauna. Kimmo’s sauna is basically a wood burning stove with rocks on top; every other one I have seen here is electric.

On Sunday I woke up after a horrible sleep. My body ached all over. I got frustrated with the Finnish language. It was not good. My day was brightened, however, after I talked to my sister Roslyn back in Canada for almost an hour. She told me about some of her adventures in Argentina this past summer and her first week of third year university.

Tuesday night, I had my first “Finnish for Foreigners” class. I don’t feel I have a firm grip of the Finnish language, but I knew more than most of my class. We, the beginners, went over how to pronounce the alphabet and introduce ourselves while the advanced group conjugated verbs (in exactly the same manner I had early that day during English class). Most of the students are Ukrainian, but there were some Polish and Russian people in addition to the two exchanges students (me & Martin).

Me using the metal grinding machine.

On Wednesday nights I am taking a knife making course with my host mom. Kauhava is infamous for their knives and my host mom’s friend is teaching the course so we signed up together. That night, we bought the blade and shaped the metal shaft to prepare it for the handle we will make. I also cut some pieces of wood down to the right size. However when I was using the electric sander, my piece of wood flew out from under my fingers and I ended up sanding off the tip of my index finger, but it is by no means serious.

Yesterday, Thursday, I had my first test! After every semester there is test week; it started on Wednesday. You are only required to go to school if you have a test that day. I have the option of attempting to write three tests or a 3-5 page report on something. This time I have opted to write the report (it will be about pesäpallo) but I still wanted to try the math test because the course was so easy for me. It was a 3 hour test but you could leave after 90 minutes if you had finished. The test had only 7 questions, no multiple choice questions. I realized after that you only needed to do 5 of the questions, but I did them all and I left after 105 minutes (I finished in less than an hour but I checked over my answers no less than three times). I hope I get at least a 10 on the test (out of ten), but I am sort of expecting a 10+.

All the inbound students who came to Vöyri.

Also yesterday, I had an orientation for inbound students, rebound students, and Youth Exchange Officers of district 1380 in Vöyri (40 minute drive from Kauhava). There are 14 students in my district, 9 “newbies” arrived in August and the other 5 are “oldies” from Australia and arrived in January. At the meeting there were 6 inbounds (5 “newbies” and 1 “oldie”), and 3 rebounds… not very good attendance. But for us inbounds we just talked about our experiences of the exchange so far. I think I have it easier than some of the others; many of them are having a problem getting shy Finnish people to talk to them but I don’t feel like I have that problem.

This is my latest Q&A: What is the dollar in Finland?

Finland is a member of the European Union (EU) and is currently the only Nordic country to use the EURO (€). In case you have never held euros, each bill’s size is dependant on its denomination. For example, the five euro bill is the smallest bill (in height and width) and as the value increases so does the size. Coins come in the values of 2, 1, 0.50, 0.20, 0.10, 0.02, and although they aren’t producing them any more 0.01.

If you have a question about Finland or my time here, please comment or send me a message or email and I will do my best to answer it.

Four Weeks and Ready for More!

Part of the trail on my bike ride to school.

Last Friday was a very interesting day at school. I was supposed to give a presentation to the 2^nd grade English class during the second half of my history class. At the beginning of my history class we started watching a movie and I asked the person who sits in front of me “Why?” He said that after the short break we had school elections (so no presentation to the English class). The elections consisted of the whole school sitting in on the student council meeting in the auditorium. Last year the school’s council made a profit! I was very surprised at the lack of speeches. There were four new members elected to the council: a boy and girl from each the first and second grade. When it was time for the 2^nd grade girls, who were up first, the three candidates each held up a number and we wrote down the number we wanted. No speeches. No videos. The candidates didn’t say anything, we just voted. And it was the same for all of the other categories. I thought it was very different from my school in Kelowna because if the entire school was to sit in one room, it would be the gym, and it would be squishy. Here, everyone sat in the auditorium in comfortable plush chairs with lots of extra room to spare. At lunch I sat with some guys from the third grade and after we finished eating they invited me to come to the store. I said “Sure” and the next thing I knew I was looking at an aisle of salmiaki (Finnish black liquorice) and energy drinks. Did you know that you must be over 15 to buy an energy drink in Finland? At the end of the school day, a friend invited me to a get together for that evening. So I went home and after his last class he picked me up on his motorcycle (my 1^st motorcycle ride!) and we went to the supermarket for supplies (hot dogs and hamburgers with buns). He dropped me back at home just to pick me up a couple of hours later. It was a good night with new friends. We played Wii, talked, listened to music, and played a game called Alias. In this game

Saturday was a super lazy day for me. What did I do? Absolutely nothing!

A player from Vimpeli Veto up to bat.

Sunday was lots of fun. A Rotarian invited me to go see a pesäpallo game in Vimpeli which is a nearby town. It is in the “playoffs” of Major League Finnish Baseball. He picked me up with his daughter and we drove about an hour. He assured me that it would be very crowded. The team in the finals was from this small town of 3000-4000 people and I later found out that almost 5000 people were at the game. Some friends left Kauhava even earlier to be there at opening; they ran into the stadium to get front row seats for all of us! I already had a basic understanding of how the game worked because I had been to a couple of practices. It was very impressive to see how quickly everything happened. My favourite part of the experience was all of the noises the audience made. When the opposing team was up to bat this obnoxious wall of sound echoed through the stadium, but when the home team was up it was unison applause. The Rotarian was very kind and bought me an ice cream cone (while he enjoyed liquorice ice cream!?!) and makkara. Although the home team narrowly lost the game, I am very glad I went and very thankful for the invitation.



This is Martin the German and me by the cottage.

Monday was back at school. Math was super easy; I even understood a word question without using my dictionary! History I read my English book and took Finnish notes simultaneously (they were both on the same subject); I’m not sure if this method of learning works but it is what I’m using for now. After lunch I studied verbs in geography.

That evening I was invited to go on a bike ride into the woods with the other exchange student and his host family. We went a long and convoluted way but ended up on the trail I went jogging on a couple of weeks ago. However, our destination was off the beaten path to a little day cottage where we had a fire and roasted makkara.

On Tuesday we had a substitute teacher in English class. She spoke English very well, but conducted half of the class in Finnish, unlike our regular teacher who speaks only English during the class. Physics we started voima and Newtonin lait (force and Newton’s laws). I had a bit of a surprise after lunch. In math we had a test. Apparently the teacher had told us a few times, but I guess that word is not yet in my vocabulary. But no need to fret! I got the teacher asked me to correct him if I saw a mistake, and I got 25/25. In the evening we went on a quick trip to Seinäjoki for some shopping.

Please don’t be a Finn and ask me some questions! (Finnish people tend not to ask questions)

Happy (belated) September Long Weekend! I hope everyone back home enjoyed the fair in Armstrong. Best of luck for going back to school: whether it is starting at university, graduating year, or whatever you are doing!

A Couple More Days in the Life of Peter the Canadian Finn

One of many pictures of Kelowna in my presentation.

On Monday, my host brother brought my attention to what was on TV that night, the season premiere for “Glee”. (He knows that I like watching glee). I sat down to watch the episode and said to myself, I watched this a year ago. Most programs here in Finland are made in the United States, but a couple seasons behind North America. And, it was in English with Finnish subtitles…

Tuesday was a day of presentations. My English course is specifically aimed towards eco-friendly topics. So, as may have already mentioned, I did a presentation on Kelowna with a focus of environmental stuff; I talked about our garbage system, public transit, and parks among other things. It went really well, except Finnish people are very quiet: no laughs or even chuckles, and no questions even though I asked repeatedly.

The one and only traffic
light in Kauhava.

My teacher liked it so much that after our break she asked me if I would do the presentation for her other class in the afternoon. She also said she raved about in the staff room and some teachers from the middle school would like to have me present too! The afternoon group was better: a couple of laughs, and one question.

School photos were Wednesday. I decided that since I had so many pictures taken last year I didn’t need personal headshots (though buying them on stamps did look pretty interesting). There were also pictures of each homeroom. I don’t know what homeroom I am in so when everyone who was in my class left for the picture, I went with them. Just before lunch there was a photo of the entire lukeo (high school). Someone asked me if I brought a flag to school for the photo, but I didn’t know we had a casual school photo. So casual that the senior year students brought out couches and comfy chairs, from the student lounge, to pose in. Advice for other exchange students: always keep a flag with you, no matter what.

Pekko, the newspaper reporter

Thursday was a day of learning Finnish. In every class today, I got out my notebook, textbooks, and dictionary to start using repition to drill words into my brain. During English I studied verbs in their infinitive (I haven’t quite got the conjugation patterns yet) and during Math and Physics I studied different types of food. During lunch time, the counsellor found me in the cafeteria to inform me there was a news reporter who wanted an interview after my meal. So, I and the other exchange student talked with Pekko from the Komiat newspaper here in Kauhava. The interview was all in English; Pekko the reporter and Martin from Germany both speak English practically fluently, so that was the language the interview was in. In the afternoon I went to a scout meeting. There were six boys (10 & 11 years old) and we made white chocolate cake, because they requested it last week. After Partio (scouts) I went to my Rotary Club’s meeting where they discussed their schedule for next year. Good thing I studied months during geography on Tuesday; that meant I understood a least the general time frame they were discussing. I got home and had a very late supper (7:00 pm) and had a nice long Skype with my friend Hannah, back home in Kelowna.

Salmiakki, Finnish black
licorice, much stronger taste
and saltier than at home

Last week I asked if anybody had any requests about stuff they’d like to know. So…Food in Finland. I haven’t been shocked with any outrageous meals or types of food. The food is quite simple with very few spices or seasonings. Milk and water are the beverages of choice at every meal. Here is a general breakdown of meals.

Breakfast is a ham or sausage and cheese sandwich, either cold or grilled. There is often fruit or yogurt and always coffee. I normally stick with my ways of the past and have only a mug of hot chocolate.

Lunch is served at school. Every school in Finland has free, hot lunch every day for students and staff. Well, really it is not free, it is paid for by tax payers. For lunch there is often a salad (lettuce with any combination of cucumbers, carrots, and peppers), some form of potatoes (boiled, steamed, scalloped, mashed), a main course (fish sticks, chicken nuggets, meat balls, lasagne, spaghetti), and crackers with butter.

Really good chocolate cake,
baked by Jaana on her day off.

Dinner is very early in the afternoon (at least with my current host family). It consists of bread and butter, a salad, normally cooked vegetables (especially potatoes), and some sort of main course (pasta, meat sauce, sausage, soup).

Evening snack is served half an hour to an hour before bed. It is regularly the same as the breakfast sandwich but there can be sausages or baked goods.

If you have anything you want to learn about Finland, message me, email me, leave a comment… send a messenger pigeon.