Hei, I'm YFU Czech to Finland exchange student and this is a blog about my exchange year. Feel free to ask about anything :)


November 3, 2010

2nd way up north alias Oho, seksisti and the Czech mafia

It was misty Wednesday morning of my autumn holidays when I got on the train to Oulu with a ticket and blue Fazer from my host-dad in my hands… Well, it was in fact normal October morning and the train went to Vihanti from where I took a bus to Oulu (why do I always travel when there are some problems on railway??!). Anyway, my 2nd trip up north was just about to begin.
The church in Oulu

I spent nice 4 hours on Pendolino chatting with my friends or just looking out of a window how the nature changes. Then in Vihanti I got on the right bus (to my big surprise) which really went to Oulu and at 13.00 my friend’s host dad picked me up and drove me to their house. As all of you know, I’m so well-mannered young lady... that I fell asleep as soon as I entered the room instead of being sociable “be active be active be active” exchange student and woke up just when my friend’s host dad was leaving! Shame on me, I know. Soon my friend Teris and her host brother Iiro came from school (haha, they DIDN’T have holidays! :D) and after two and half months I got the chance to speak Czech again. And right in this point probably begins the history of Czech mafia – what a nice thing to terrorize people around you by speaking Czech! ;) But still we didn’t know that we actually WERE Czech mafia…

Teris is tormenting her host bro, yay!
When we got too tired by bullying Iiro, Teris showed me around the center of Oulu, only pity was that the weather wasn’t much sunny (what a surprise), but one thing I can say for sure anyway - Oulu is a very nice city. We stopped by for a cup of tea and headed back “home”. Teris made a dinner and then we watched Lord of the Rings – ou maaj, I hadn’t seen this movie for AGES! After that we were supposed to go to sauna, but somebody forgot to turn it on in advance so at least we had a nice music eve (with Teris being DJ) and late sauna without Teris – that meant no bullying! :/ Unfortunately it was soon time for bed, in which I stayed for looooong time.

When I woke up the next morning, it was almost afternoon. Being very lazy person, I decided to send SMS to Teris straight from the bed asking what were we up that day (expecting that she was in school). To my big surprise (and very loud laugh later on) I got immediate answer saying “come to my room”. Ajajaj, mornings are just soooo killing me! :D Then happened the most weird thing ever – I went to school even though I had holidays!!! OHO! I got to see Kastellin lukio, Teris’s and Iiro’s school, which was so different from SAMKE (my school) and visited English lesson which was almost the same as my English lesson. Nevertheless, what a cute small school!
She IS a musician!

In the afternoon we went to one of 10000000 Finnish lessons which Teris attends and it was really fun! I have even learnt a new word - SEKSISTI - I’m so proud about it! And because we are Czech mafia, we made Iiro to cook for us, but in the end we decided to soften the punishment, so we spent nice evening with pizza and Lord of the rings. Before going to our beds, there was pyjamas-party in Teris’s bed ;) Then another loooong night and waking up in the middle of a day – common, I had holidays!

"iso toblerone"
On Friday we were supposed to visit Iito’s swimming training, but he decided to rather train sleeping, so we just had amazing walk around the city and I finally saw Oulu in sunlight. Because I’m so forgetful that I left my swimming suit in Nokia, we were running around Oulu (city far in the north of Finland) in the middle of October searching for two-pieces swimming suit. Yes, I always have to have original problems! But believe it or not, we found them. Then we rushed home to make a Czech dessert (Střechu z Bébé sušenek bez bébé sušenek) in Finnish realization and to meet Teris’s friend Karla who was actually very funny and renamed our dessert to “iso toblerone”. Hmmmm, ok. :D And that evening also came up the name “Czech mafia” (I don’t exactly remember how). Then I and Teris had a small music evening – she was playing guitar and I was watching or doing something-like-singing.

Later came very lovely sauna and very cold Jacuzzi (well, at least I can say I was getting ready for winter saunas) after which we just chilled out in front of the fire place listening to great music and eating tons of fruit. I really don’t remember when was the last time I felt so relaxed! Aaaaaahhhhhh….

horseeeeessss <3
On Saturday we implement the crazy idea to go horse riding! Why crazy? Because I hadn’t been riding for 4 months and if I’m right, Teris even longer. But it was really great; I so enjoyed to be “up in saddle” again and feel the smell and warmth of that beautiful creature under you. Just a few hours later we found out that we almost met Beatrix there, an YFU exchange student from Germany, who came for visit in the afternoon. We had some good talk and also Guitar hero – let’s just say I found another thing which I will never be good at. Or better to say, in which I will never be anything else than terribly bad at. Then Beatrix had to leave back to her host family and we had the last sauna-jacuzzi-music+fire place+fruits-evening. Needed to say that both Teris and I were in a weird mood, I personally felt like under influence a bit. But everything has its end and so the last night and last day came.

Oho, ladies are having some rest :)
On Sunday we woke up (we= I, Teris and her host dad; not Iiro ;) ). We still had some time to have fun so we went to a gym and swimming pool. On our way there we passed a man who made this “cutting-neck – I will kill you” gesture at Teris. Just out of a blue. Scary, but it was only another proof of the existence of Czech mafia – Finnish mafia is already trying to fight us back, oho!

After 2 hours of ‘sport’ we rushed back because my train was almost leaving, my suitcase wasn’t packed and I didn’t have ticket for the train! This appeared to be a huge problem since it was Sunday evening and end of holidays/start of another one. Fortunately, there are still the parents, in this case Teris’s host dad, who was able to get me a seat in already full train and so I could leave. There is nothing more to say, than big Thank you! And there the story ends – with me sitting in a train, eating blue Fazer.
Czech mafia... chybíš mi!! <3

All over all, these days were simply amazing! I really needed some rest and nice time after all the things that were going on before… and I got it. I cannot even say how much I loved the time I spent with Teris and her family, how great it felt – to be with somebody who understands almost without words because she is in the same situation and who you really like and in the same moment to look forward to be at home again, because even though by that time I spent only a few days with my new host family, I already loved them and I wanted to be with them again. Everything was just perfect and I’m not able to express in words how much I’m grateful to Teris, Iiro and their dad for that splendid time and to my host mum, dad and sister for this brilliant time that I’m having right now.
But there is one more thing that I just must mention – Czech mafia sees you, hahaha!! OHO!!!


*names of the characters of this story from my life might have been changed to protect the members of Czech mafia (and their friends and relatives)… or might have not. =)