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.