The Finnish worker ... half a year later, but better than never! :)

So I finally got to write a few words about my amazing work-camp experience in Lapland. Yes, finally, after 3 months, just when my university started – but that’s pretty typical I guess, it’s easy to find some time for doing the things which are not necessary to be done when there is thousand others you have to do, right?
 

--- Now, part of this really was written in the start of my first semester at university when I still actually thought that. Hahaha, God bless my naivety!! Soon I was to find out that in this school you really DON’T have time to do anything else, but school. Not even to go to toilet. Not kidding!! :D ---

So where did I end…? Oh, ok… So I left Tampere. I got on a train where were already other foreign work-campers – a girl from France, a guy from Denmark and a guy from Spain. And then of course our amazing Finnish guide! That train went over night and guess who choose the only 2 seats in the whole carriage which couldn’t be really laid down? Me, of course (and the Spanish). Plus we sat against a very very tall Polish man who was giving us killing looks every time we dared to move. Good night indeed… I slept a few hours and when I woke up we were already in Rovaniemi.  Lapland, sweet Lapland, still as beautiful as it was almost 2 years ago. Still so green and wild, still full of swamps, trees, reindeer…and as a bonus MOSQUITOES!! Somebody said there it was the end of mosquito season which was really weak that year… well, then I don’t wish to ever be there in the middle of the season on a normal year! 

Anyway… we came to the last stop – Kemijärvi. Really, the railway just ended there, after hundreds of kilometers. Then we took a bus to Salla and from there our another amazing Finnish guide (a girl who worked in the reindeer park and who, as I found out later on, was an exchange student with AFS and has been to the Czech Republic a few times) drove us to our one-week-home – Salla reindeer park!!

We came one day before the official start of the camp, so we had this little foreign day – we did nothing, just rested, played games, ate like crazy (just like always). You cannot imagine what a fun you can have when you try to make pancakes outside, on a fire! Btw. that seems to be somehow very traditional in Finland – to make pancakes and sausages outside. I mean…its normal to roast sausages in Czech as well, but PANCAKES??!!! However, I liked it!

In the evening we continued our fun time by witnessing reindeer’ feeding. It was just amazing – our Finnish guide started weird calling and howling and out of sudden 40 reindeer appeared! We were supposed to throw some granules on the ground into a few small piles so they could get the food easier, but somehow we didn’t manage to do so on time. And so I found myself facing huge group of running reindeer (running reindeer is the funniest thing you can ever see!!!) with a full of granules in my hands. Uuuups…  Anyway, reindeer that are eating, are even cuter than reindeer who are not eating. They do those silent clapping by their mouths and now imagine 40 little velvet muzzles doing such sound!  Ahh…yea, I love them!

Next day first Finnish work-campers came as well, but it was Sunday so of course we didn’t work. I was quite surprised that all the Finns were way older than us – 40 and more let’s say. I thought only young people do that! And to my even bigger surprise hardly any of them spoke English! So if somebody tells you that everybody in Finland speaks English, it’s not true! But to be fair, they often understood quite a lot. This inability of speaking English was very crucial for the whole camp and division of working groups – I, as a Finnish speaker (no, seriously, don’t laugh), was as the only foreigner put into a group full of Finns! And I was glad for that. Actually I was glad that they didn’t speak English coz at least I had chance to speak Finnish again and those people obviously liked talking to me. I felt like an exotic animal again – in the evening, when we sat at the fire and said our names and some info about us and I said it in Finnish, everybody went like WHAAAAAAAAT and started those usual “your Finnish is so good, almost perfect” (just after saying “hey, my name is…” :D) which, I must admit, felt really nice. Because I didn’t really have many options to speak Finnish during that one year back at home so finding out that I still can say something and people even understand was just amazing.  I really liked the Finns there, they were so fun and friendly and open-minded and hard-working and so so so nice. I enjoyed working with them, though I also joined the foreigner group for 2 days. 

The first day of work was Monday and we left quite early in the morning (if I remember right, at 9, which is super-early for me during summer holidays) to different places to do different jobs needed in the forests around. My group went to a place in the middle of forest where was a tourist trail and an old porch for the visitors to sleep under. The porch was not so good anymore and so we had to build a new one, or to be more exact, to build a new roof on the old basis. First we had to take the old one down though. Then we started preparing planks for the new roof but oyoyoy, we found out some of the planks didn’t really fit to the rest. So we had to get the right ones. We spent the free time nearby a fire (in my case standing in the smoke – just so the mosquitoes don’t bite me so much!) with our beloved sausages.  Building a roof was totally new for me and I’m so happy I got the chance to try doing such work! Like common, who of you can say that you actually built a roof?? 

Then back to the camp for food we really deserved (I ate like if I haven’t seen food for a few months), which was btw. brilliant! And then the usual sauna-chat and food again-bed ritual - for some of my coworkers was sauna experience totally new and it was quite interesting to watch their reactions to this Finnish thing that I really do love. I think guys even tried the lake on the first day; I didn’t dare to do so almost until the last day.

And then the 2^nd working day came. And it was really hard. I joined my Finnish group again and we headed up the hills (oh yes, there are some in Lapland) to reach one of those nice cottages where you can stop by while cross-country skiing. Only problem was that unlike in winter, in summer it wasn’t any easy to get there – I didn’t mind that kinda longer-than-we-were-told walk uphill, but when I had to dip my legs into those very wet lands/swamps, while being eaten by millions of mosquitoes, that’s when my mood went dangerously below 0. But once we got there, sun was shining again – I sat by fire and let my shoes dry, while grilling my vegetarian sausage. Oh yes, again. 

To my huge surprise, not much later after we arrived, the group of the other foreign workers joined us! They came from the other side where they were cleaning forest and helped us to cut woods which was left there and put it under a shed. It was quite a fun – we made a chain and passed the pieces from one person to another, which happened to be one of my most favorite type of work in the end. Why?? Because I loved to do “the brain” = the person who put all the pieces of wood in order under the shed, which also included a lot of lifting of sometimes crazily big and heavy logs over your head. And that’s when you get that feeling of actually working manually. (And that’s why you won’t be able to lift your hand to wave your friend for another month :D). Then it was already high time to get back – which meant back to the swamps, back to our old good friends who loved to suck our blood. And after we found out that its dinner time and we are kinda lost quite far away from our camp, we started to lose the sunny mood again. 

Fortunately the life of our guides, who were about to get killed by a group of hungry tired workers, was saved by another members of the camp who came to pick us up by a car. Then our stomachs finally got what they wanted. To be more accurate – mine got for sure at last 10 times more than it needed! And then what? Sauna, oh yeeeeaaah! Nothing feels as good as sauna to your sore back. 

Wednesday morning was as charming (and quite cold) as all the other days. Although I found it hard to find any beauty in being awake so early during my summer holiday, but after a few hours of waking up while trying to do something, I finally managed to do so. And the task for that day? Something I was really looking forward to – marking a new hiking trail. It wasn’t a long one (only about 7kms I think), but if you have to stop every 20m to drive a nail into a blue plate and nail it to a tree, then it can really take you whole day. Especially if the plates are sometimes impossible to go through. Many times I was just standing there and hitting the nail by hammer for at least 100 times….just to find out that the nail cannot even get through the plate! Blaaaah… horrible! 

We had a stop in the middle to make an interview with some reporters who wrote about our camp and the whole organization. I used that time to call my mum who was turning 50 on that day – what a coincidence – when I wished happy 50^th birthday to my dad, I was in Finland as well – on my exchange...

After the short stop (full of sausages again), we continued until we reached a point where other groups were working on new stairs and a bridge. Then I signed a book in one of those touristic cottages (so if you ever walk around those places, search for a Czechie signed in books : )) and it was time to get back to camp again. 

In the evening we tried a little bit of rowing, which was really nice and fun (mainly for the other people who were watching us) – group of young funny people, who don’t know how to row were trying to survive and not to get too wet after getting themselves into the middle of the lake. And I don’t even dare to talk about the “parking” in the end…. I’m still laughing when I remember those few tries to get ourselves out of the boat! 

After that we spent rest of the evening with our other favorite activity – mölkky. It’s a throwing game which looks a little bit like bowling. Only difference is that you throw a piece of wood on…well other pieces of wood which are marked by numbers. The main goal is to reach a specific number of points – if you get over that number, your points are cut to half and you have to try to get there again. I think I don’t need to say girls were the winners. We just rock! And reindeer seemed to like it as well – they came a few times to have a look at us, to step in between us and the other logs or what better, to run over the logs. They are just way too cute!

Thursday was indeed a resting day – we cleaned one camping place (and also got the logs under another shed again, yep!) and then came to the camping place we passed the other day to clean it up as well. That’s all – our last working day.

Because on Friday, we had a trip! A boat trip. A rowing boat trip, to be exact. We saw a lake called Pyhäjärvi, which is divided in the middle to Finnish and Russian part. A reminder of the sad part of Finnish history and the land which used to be Finland as well and which now lies behind the border line… Well, to make the trip somehow complete, we of course stopped by on one of the islands and had sausages. And also coffee, cacao and something sweet. 

This meant almost the end of the whole work camp. Because the next day we already packed our things, cleaned the camping place and headed home. Fortunately we got a driver among us and therefore we were driven to Rovaniemi in the end and geuss what? I met Joulupukki (Santa Claus) again!! In the middle of summer! He was surprised that a Czech girl speaks Finnish, hehe. Seriously, people and other creatures – get used to it! Who ever said that this privilege of speaking Finnish is only for Finns??! : ) 

And then from Santa’s lap straight onto the train and back to Tampere. Here I cannot leave out one of my epic fails during the trip to Finland – I got tickets for a wrong train! To explain it more in details… When I was ordering my train tickets, there was already some alcohol swimming in my blood  (I was celebrating graduation) and because of some good prices I could get for half of the way (the half happening on Saturday), I split each of my tickets into 2 tickets so I would get the price off at least for one of them.

Well…now what happened… The train was leaving from Oulu already a few minutes before midnight, but I thought probably something like “yes, I need ticket for the other day, because its midnight, so there should be the date of the following day written”…well..it should NOT! Because the train still leaves a few minutes BEFORE midnight so there should be the same date. So I actually got a ticket for some 25 euros for the night train which was leaving from the city 24h after this one… Which I found out just in the moment when 2 angry Russians started to kick me out of my seat. What a night ride…

And then I spent one more day in Tampere and my another trip to Finland reached its end. How beautiful and charming, full of joy and new exciting experiences was that one again! I love this country and always will…and a few last words: 

TURUN SINAPPIA!! Hahahahaha 

Being "home" again - alias Finland, HERE I COME!!!

Oh yes, I was there. I mean I was in Finland AGAIN! After one year (and a few days) I finally came back. You know, I needed to check if Finland is still at the same place and still as beautiful as it used to be. And guess what - it IS!! And I still enjoy it as much as I did before, even though my trip was accomplished with quite a few problems and unpleasant moments. But after all, that’s life, right?

Anyway, I decided to visit Finland during this summer already a year ago, though many of the other ex-exchange students have already been there in autumn or winter, but I was a little bit too busy with managing my life and studies here in Prague to leave. Even though I wanted to go back so badly! But Finland was on my mind for whole the time and soon I was quite sure that I would go there in July for 3 weeks (one of them was a work-camp in Lapland). By June I was already done with my school - I graduated (yippee!!) and passed entrance exams to universities (in the end I chose the veterinary one) and started finishing my preparations for trip to Finland. Here came the first complications - flight tickets and place-to-stay problems.

I would never believe it can be sooooo damn difficult to get the flight tickets! I saw cheap suitable flights disappearing right in front of my eyes just because the credit card refused to communicate with the server. The prices got so unbelievably high that I thought I would have to walk to Finland! But in the end I solved the problem - business class flights over Amsterdam to Helsinki. Ridiculous, but why not?

My second problem was accommodation. I thought I would stay at my host family, but some misunderstandings appeared and in the end I couldn’t stay there. So just a few weeks before my plane took off, I got this “amazing” news and I started searching like a crazy for places to stay -  I’m not a millionaire to stay in hotel (or even hostel) in Finland and therefore it was clear I had to find accommodation somewhere else otherwise I would have to cancel the whole trip. I would never believe how such a situation can make a pretty thick line between your friends and "friends" - some of my good "friends" ( before I thought they were in the friends group) didn’t even bother to help which quite disappointed me, but at least I know with who I shouldn’t waste my time anymore. Luckily there are still some very very nice people in Finland who immediately offered to help me and hosted me which, in the end, was surely much much better and more interesting than staying at one place for almost 2 weeks. In the end I stayed at 5 different places and I really enjoyed it! I saw new places and met new people, I got to talk to my old-time friend face-to-face again, so what more to wish for??

I can fly!

No, I can’t, not even with the airplane. This was the first time I actually flew ALONE, first time I had to change the planes and first time I went with the business class. And unfortunately also first time when my plane was late - yes, the first plane couldn’t take off due to dense fog and I almost didn’t make it to the other one from Amsterdam. In the end I literally ran into the second plane, but my luggage was left behind. Hmm, what a luck, right? So I ended up in Helsinki, horribly tired, stressed out and without luggage and with that "this is gonna be a catastrophe" feeling.  Luckily there was already my friend waiting for me and I cannot even describe how happy I was to see her! I also got to meet her amazing boyfriend and I spent a few days with those lovely people. We talked the last year of our lives all over, we shared the happy and not very happy moments, we gossiped, we swore, we made fun of the ones who deserve it… Just like anybody else who would be with their friend after very long, busy and indeed ennobling year. I also saw Kerava, a small town close to Helsinki and I visited the capital as well. One thing I need to say about my trip to Helsinki – the city is still the same! I would swear I was even meeting the same people! But that’s what makes you feel like being at home…

After a few pleasant days I had to leave and continue my trip, this time to Tampere, the city I love, the city of my heart. I spent a day with my ex-support person and I really enjoyed it. I spoke Finnish again (I mean I made some strange noises which could be considered Finnish language in some moments :) ) and I did the typical Finnish activities again – rowing on a lake, running away from rain, sauna, eating fresh strawberries and very typical activity for my year  – talking to that amazing person who used to “support me” during my exchange year. I enjoyed it so much and I really felt like being welcomed. 

Rock, strawberries and a lemon pie

The next day I spent in Tampere walking around known but also unknown (yes, I found some places I hadn’t seen before!) places, I also stopped by in the city library (yay, my card is still valid) and in shops I used to go to very often. It was no surprise Tampere didn’t really change. Of course there was a few new shops and restaurants on the main street, but nothing super new or surprising. Sometimes I felt like walking home from school, like I should go to the bus stop and take the bus to Nokia, like I should take out my biology book and read… It was all the same, but sometimes I saw some things in a different way. Maybe because now I could compare with Czech with still fresh memories (for example now I agree that Finns have salty butter which I never noticed before), maybe because I wasn’t exchange student with all the rules and limits anymore, maybe because I was one year older – who knows; just the feeling was sometimes different.

Before leaving to my host-family I saw a few concerts in Tammerfest festival and it was kinda cool – seeing those young Finnish musicians I would otherwise never ever heard about, while sitting outside, enjoying the few minutes of sun before the rain started again (the weather was indeed Finnish unlike during my exchange year). And then my ex-host-dad picked me up and I went to the place I called home for almost 10 months. And again, it felt just like if I only came back from school, just like normal day. Even the dog and cat welcomed me (I was quite surprised by cat’s super friendly reaction) and I enjoyed really nice evening with my host family. The next day I happened to do another typical Finnish summer activity – my host-sister took me to picking of strawberries. That means eating tons of strawberries (until you also feel like a big red strawberry) while running away every time it starts to rain. 

It was fun, but soon I had to continue my way – back to Tampere to my 2-weeks-host-family which hosted me while my real one was away. I really love this family and luckily I stayed in touch with the host-mum and could visit them. There, finally, I felt like really at home, like in family. Beside their little boy, there was also summer exchange student from the USA and so I fitted in so naturally, I just felt like one of the family’s kids, yay! And my “strawberries day” was wittily finished with pancakes with strawberries and strawberry juice. Honestly, I thought I would never eat this fruit again!!

The next days I spent mostly hanging out with that exchange student, playing cards with him and the host-brother and also translating – “tell him that …” (in Finnish) or “tell him that…”(in English). Translating from one non-native language to another is really not my cup of tea, but what wouldn’t I do for those sweethearts?? I felt like an exchange student again – we even went to Rax pizza-buffet and we tried to make a truly American food – lemon pie. And of course it took ages and wasn’t too successful, but that’s how it should be when you are an exchange student, right?? :) I was also introduced to another exchange student and I must say we did have blast!

The Lapland calling

But even the nice time in this wonderful family came to its end, after talking a lot (also talking quite a lot in Finnish - it surprised me how nicely and naturaly it sometimes went!) and enjoying the nice warm feeling, I continued to my ex-boyfriend’s place. Again, another place where I used to spend a lot of time and where I met many new people, again nothing really changed there. Of course, what changed was the kind of relationship between me and my ex, although I must say not in the “normal” way (= from dating to me trying to kill the idiot I used to date) and therefore the time I spent there felt quite natural and nice. :)
During that time I also did a little bit of shopping - I bought 8 Finnish books, one of them I was searching for for ages! It's one of my most favorite books called The Maid Silja (Nuorena nukkunut)  by Frans Eemil Sillanpää and I can tell you that when I finally found the book in second-hand book store, when I saw the  title and when I placed my hands on this very old looking book and when I checked the year of publication and it was 1933… I was the happiest person in Finland.

Bun soon I had to leave from Tampere because my way up north was about to begin. But let’s talk about that week some other time….

Life goes on after exchange…oh, really??

Well, here I go again! Maybe I shouldn’t write here anymore when my exchange year is already over (half a year), but isn’t that the best reason for a new article?

Actually the main impulse for writing this article about life of an ex-exchange student was an article I read the other day - www.multilingualliving.com/2010/05/28/returning-home-after-living-abroad/. I can tell you that I almost screamed „THATS EXACTLY HOW I FEEL“after every paragraph of it! :) Although I was of course happy not to be the only one who feels like that, it also scared me a little bit – it seems the author is still missing something wherever she goes. And I so hoped this feeling would eventually disappear…

But starting from the beginning (or should I say the end?) - the first days of my ex-exchanging  were pure HELL. It all started off with leaving of my dear host family, hiding my tearful eyes and trying to understand what was happening around. Which, by the way, was totally pointless because there wasn’t any nice or logic explanation of what was happening, just the facts: I was done. Leaving. It was the end of being cool (and foreigner) and the beginning of the inner fights between the old and new me. Even if I came back, it would never be the same again. That’s just it. Cope with it.

Czech Mafia forever! <3

Quite depressive, isn’t it? Luckily we got the chance to take one more deep breath before going to our home countries – YES camp. YES alias Young European Seminar is a camp organized by European YFUs in Germany for all exchangers from European countries who spent their year in another European country. That means a lot of (around 400) young people who try to enjoy their last days of that unusual experience as much as they can. So yes, we did partied a lot. Beside this there was the official program which was always somehow relative to the theme of whole YES 2011 – A world without borders – a European dream? For people like me, who don’t like simulations of parliaments and being moved from one place to another according to a schedule, could this official part be quite annoying, but most of the activities turned out to be much more fun than I thought. The one activity that always comes to my mind when thinking about YES, is a simulation of emigration with all the things like bribes, blackmailing, peddling, forging and annoyed officers. It was a lot of fun, but sometimes quite horrible to find out how desperate the situation can be (my role was a bullied gay who is trying to escape from his home country which is not safe for him anymore) and how impossible it is to get a new, better life.

After that came (at least for me) the most stressing part– coming home. We (6 ex-exchangers) went to Prague by train and it gave us chance to see again a part of the country where we were born. My thoughts after crossing the borders were something like: “OMG, did we always have suuuuuch high mountains? Blah, those buildings are so old and disgusting! Back at home – that guy has socks in his sandals, how typical! Hm, can I really smell the sweat?” And that’s when my culture shock started – the biggest and the only one from whole exchange year - the shock from my own culture.

Then all things happened really quickly. Suddenly the train stopped, I could recognize the Prague’s main railway station (not a thing you would like to see as first from Prague for sure), I saw my parents and did the last hopeless try to delay the end of me as an exchange student – with tears in my eyes I refused to get out of the train. Silly, but what can a man do? Then I saw my friend and family, I didn’t recognize my younger sister because she changed so much since I left. Everything felt strange, but normal in the same time. I had problems speaking Czech and I was told to have a funny accent. My dog barked at me and seemed to be angry – I don’t really know if it was because I left him at home for whole year or because I came back so he wouldn’t have my bed just for himself anymore. Then first food at home – fruit dumplings. First night in my bed. First morning and waking up without having a clue where and why I was. :) First time going to shop – my head hurt really badly just after 5 minutes. It wasn’t because of the prices which I kept getting terrified of (1 czech crown = cca 30 euros -> for a person who is used to euros are numbers like 120 (Kc) for razors a big shock), but because of those people who spoke Czech. After one year when I heard Czech just from people who talked to me was this tsunami of Czech language all around killing me. My ears tried to catch every word of every chat happening around me and my head just didn’t take it anymore. So my advice is: DON’T GO SHOPPING AFTER COMING BACK HOME!

Then I left for a camp where I go regularly every year. I see those people usually just once a year so it was surprisingly normal and natural to be there with them. But soon I found out that my culture shock is not over at all – I kept sleeping whole nights and days (before that I usually slept 5 hours per night), I felt totally exhausted and every morning when I woke up I felt like after a week of intense partying and just fell asleep again. My head was ringing all the time, I lost my appetite and I was very annoyed by behavior of my family members (after all, I changed a lot and I lived in totally different family for one year!). The rest of my summer holidays I spent with my family at different places and by studying for my passing exams.

In the end of the summer I went to YFU seminar and met other YFU’s ex-exchangers and those few amazing people who decided to spend their exchange year in the Czech Republic. I had great time there, finally I felt like being among people who really understand what I was going through. It’s really funny how close and well-known those people feel even though you haven’t met them many times. On the other hand, it was quite strange to be “on the other side” – to be a volunteer (or in that time almost – volunteer).

After the start of school most of the things fell back to the same old stereotype. But still, it felt so different! Still I felt that I was missing at least a half of me, a half of my life, a half of my heart.  I was thinking about Finland all the time and I really couldn’t get used to living in my family again. All I wished for was to go somewhere far away, to be there alone or with my friends from Finland, to be  with tolerant and open-minded people who don’t mind foreigners and foreigner cultures or even love them, just like me. That has been the main problem after coming back for me as my parents are not like that at all and still I cannot cope with that. Finally the main point – I changed. And I changed a lot. Some of my more tolerant friends tried really hard to get on with the new me (and were mostly successful) and forget the old one, but most of the people around me didn’t really feel the need to realize who I am now. But who cares about such people, right. ;)

A lot of things happened during that half a year and, after a few fouls, faults and disappointments, I finally found out what can replace at least some of the things I was missing - FOREIGNERS. Many of them! Girls or boys, my age or older, students or workers, party people or serious ones, people from over the ocean or people from Europe… Anybody brought me back those amazing feelings I had when I was foreigner.  I love that time I spend with them and I can never get enough of it!

Though, life hasn’t been fair lately and I lost my very dear friend who was enjoying his great life abroad. It touched my heart and made me realize how simply somebody can just disappear from our lives. I still think of him and keep my fingers crossed for him so he gets back to his beautiful life again. One thing I learnt from that – friends are something that cannot be replaced. Whole my life I had a feeling that it’s so easy to find friends everywhere so why to care about them so much. But it wasn’t till this moment that I realized, how special each of them is and how a big hole can be left after them when they cannot be around anymore. 

My year in a few minutes :)

I decided to do this little video for all of you and also for myself. The song is Hollywood Hills by Sunrise Avenue, I just had to change the lyrics a little bit.
Enjoy!



No, this is not the time or the place for broken hearted
Cause this is the end of the rainbow
Where no one can be too said
No, I don't wanna leave but I must keep moving ahead
Cause my life belongs to the other side Although my life doesn’t belong to the other side
Behind the great ocean's see‘s waves.

Bye, bye Hollywood Hills Finnish plateaus I'm gonna
miss you wherever I go I'm gonna
come back to walk these streets again
Bye, bye Hollywood Hills Finnish plateaus forever .

Thank you for the morning walks on the sweet sunset
And for the hot night moments
For the fantasy in my bed
I take a part of you with me now and you won't get it back
And a part of me will stay here, you can keep it forever, dear
Wooaoo...

Bye, bye Hollywood Hills Finnish plateaus I'm gonna
miss you wherever I go I'm gonna
come back to walk this streets again
Remember that we had fun together.

Bye, bye lonely girils boys I'm gonna
Love you wherever I go I'm gonna
Come back so we can play together
Bye, bye Hollywood Hills Finnish plateaus forever.

Long distance love doesn't work
All the miles in between getting lonely
No, I don't wanna go
I don't wanna go.
Bye, bye Hollywood Hills Finnish plateaus I'm gonna
miss you wherever I go I'm gonna
come back to walk these streets again
Bye, bye

Bye, bye Hollywood Hills Finnish plateaus I'm gonna
miss you wherever I go I'm gonna
come back to walk these streets again
Remember that we had fun together.

Bye, bye lonely girls boys I'm gonna
Love you wherever I go I'm gonna
Come back so we can play together Bye, bye Hollywood Hills Finnish plateaus forever.


Hollywood Hills Finnish plateaus forever, yeah, Hollywood Hills Finnish plateaus forever

MÄ AINA RAKASTAN SUOMEA!!KIITOS!!!

Oh, these goodbyes are killing me... :(

Finally - summer is here, yay! Holidays! Sun! Nice weather!

Well, thats what I would usually say and think. Usually I would count down the days to get out of school. Usually I would be happy to have 3 months of holidays instead of 2. Usually I would see all my classmates after 2 months. Usually...
The problem is, that an exchange year is totally unusual thing! Therefore I prayed for the school to never end. Therefore I'm unhappy that summer holidays is already here. Therefore I'm sad - because i won't see my last-year classmates after 2 months. Most of them I may never see again...
Yea, that's just it. My echange student story is about to end. So soon. Too soon.

There is one thing I really hate about echange year - it gives you the opportunity to meet amazing people, best friends and maybe even love... just to steal it all in such a short time, with almost no chance to meet some of those people ever again. Well, steal... I would use another word which would fit more, but I don't know if there is some - it's like being robbed in a very rough way; like if they took you something, which has just made you the happiest person ever. It tears your heart to small pieces, some of which can never be found again. Maybe it sounds a little bit exaggerated, but I can tell you I have never been suffering emotionally as much as now.
Exchange year unroots you, then put into a new surrounding and, just when you manage to take a root and start to grow again, it unroots you again to put you back to the place you came from, to that same hole where your old roots used to be although now you have the new so nicely shaped ones. Isn't that cruel???!!!!!
So, dear exchange year: I HATE YOU - for making me taste the feeling of total happiness and uniqueness, strongest relationships and sweetest love... But, on the other hand, I will always LOVE you for showing me this.

It's sometimes hard, painful. It's bittersweet experience. But be sure that the taste that reminds is simply the best one you have ever tasted.

Thanks to everybody who was with me this year, to my family and host family for giving me the opportunity to  be an exchange student. Because that's the best and the most chastening experience you can have.

Thank you! =)

Finnish thawing

WATER,YEAAAAAA

Yeaaa, impossible – I can see grass! Well, it’s still the old one and only on very few places (where isn’t over a meter of snow still), but it IS grass. Organic thing, not this whitish form of H2O! And yes, when I wake up, it’s already light; when I go from school it’s STILL light. I have never thought this could happen in Finland, after almost half a year of permanent snow cover and weeks when I saw the sun just at weekends… Anyway, so many exciting events have been happening lately.

Another family – AGAIN???!!

With Veronika in Moomin museo

Yes :D But not permanently – my host-family left to Mexico for 2 weeks to visit my other host-sister who studies there. And I was put into another family (in Tampere, yipeeeee!!). I totally enjoyed it there, because these people were just so great, friendly and I liked them so much. One of these 2 weeks was so called skiing holidays when everybody leaves to Lapland or some European country to ski. And I was in Tampere -> F.U.N.. None of my friends was there! I really thought I would die from boredom and annoyance of not-skiing, but in the end it was just great relaxing week! My temporary host-family took me to museum, theater; Veronika came for visit (omg, I will never forget this eating orgy in Rax pizzabuffet! :D), then I spent day by snowboarding on a 300m long slope, met my support person and finally… fell ill! Huuray – just a week before the long-awaited trip to Lapland!

YFU trip to Lapland

Some random Lappish people

Unforgettable thing, really! It started with Beatrix coming to Nokia to stay overnight and continued with 8 hours ride which ended with horrible headache. Probably everybody knows that I suffer from German-language aversion and even 45min lesson is enough to ruin my day, so just imagine how I felt like after so long bus ride with Germans behind me who constantly talked. Thanks god, exchange has taught me to tolerate other cultures and languages so I didn’t jump out of the bus’ window. We came to Lumi Nenä holiday resort late in the evening and headed to our cottages. Ours was the most international one I guess – Beatrix and Julia from Germany, Yukiko from Japan, Veronika from Slovakia and Teris and me from Czech (oho, Czech mafia is back again!). We did so many great things during the week – I went snowboarding for 3 days and on Searching for Aurora trip (no, we didn’t find nor see any during our stay in Lapland :/) and we all rode Husky- and Reindeer-sledge, saw some kind of shaman show and just had fun together. It was also amazing to meet 3 newcomers who stay in Finland just for half a year. And of course meeting again so many people, some of whom I haven’t seen for 7 months; also talking in my own language (usually during night :D) with those jokes that only we can understand! I got new friends there or  just strengthened my friendship with some people. I simply loved the time there even though it was too short and I didn’t see the Norther lights. Which sucks. A lot!

dreadlocking

Ah, those exchangers…

Do you know what happens when Memo visits Tampere? A lot of things. Like our Tampere area’s YFU exchange students meeting. Memo, Koutarou, Lars, Linda and I spent some time in café and then just spontaneously decided to go to Lars’ place and make Mexican food. It was an amazing afternoon full of fun which I will never forget.

yamiiie

Another event was organized by my YFU sister (yeah, I’m so proud that MY YFU sister is the only one ex-exchange student in Tampere who arranges these fun-meetings!) – laser shooting. Unfortunately only Linda, Felix and I came, then of course Sonja and Anna, but it was amazing anyway – we just had to play with a big group of small aggressive kids who enjoyed standing in front of you and shooting you even though you were “dead”. How sweet. It was the first time for me playing this and I, surprisingly, totally loved it!

yes, WE :)

Turning 18 –> great clubs' opening

I’m so old now! I’m adult, huh – horrible thing, isn’t it? I celebrated my birthday at home by few hours call with my family, then continued in restaurant with my host family and ended in club(s). My Russian friend agreed to take care of me, but then she had to go to work so she called her friends to do a little baby-sitting. It was just an amazing evening with them, they really made my birthday! Only one a little bit disappointing thing was that nobody asked for my ID although it’s done thing in bars/clubs in Finland.

Week later I went to other place with Fernanda and her friends. It was so great to meet that many new friendly people, dance, talk and so on whole evening. I will miss that sooooo much when I have to go back to Czech, aj.

Me and Alexander II.

From the city to the countryside

I love traveling and I love my friends – therefore I decided to make a trip to Helsinki to visit Nele and to Alavus to visit Beatrix. My plans were almost ruined when YFU told me “NO” three times, but luckily I have my guardian angel aka support person who called them and suddenly I could go. Nice to see how much worth is exchange students’ voice comparing to adult person, hm? But anyway, I’m happy that I was allowed to go in the end. It was my first time in Helsinki (shame – I live just 2 hours from it) and weather chose to be spiteful – there hadn’t been such a bad day for so long! Anyway, I enjoyed my Helsinki walk with Nele and stay with her wonderful family. Next day we went to zoo where was hardly any animal, but common – better than nothing. Then was time to say bye-bye to Nele and meet my Czech friend who came to Helsinki to compete on Synchronized skating world championship. And I finally saw Helsinki in sunshine!

After that I spent a few hours on a train to Seinäjoki from where I went to Alavus. I was picked up by a tractor (hahaa) and spent a few days in a riding school with Beatrix. It was such a cool place, really! We spent days and nights by being with horses, talking, eating and watching movies. I also visited Beatrix’s school, which is way more amazing than mine because it’s so small and more school-like.

So that’s my life now – so much fun!! Tomorrow starts the last period of my Finnish school – sad. But I keep on smiling!

...smiling just like them:)

It’s not the end of the world… but I can see it from here?

PANIC! The end is coming! Aaaaaaa!!

almost the end of the world, isn't it?

No, really – it sounds unbelievable, but my time of being an exchange student (=the time of being amazing and extraordinary chump who never knows what to do and where to go) is getting shorter and shorter. Well, let’s admit that I’m just that type of person who always sees glass half empty rather than half full (in fact, even when it’s full I see it 10/10 empty), so I still have some 4 months left, but anyway. And of course there are still people who remind me of the running time, like my parents, grandparents and friends from Czech Republic. You know - it’s nice to know that you can’t wait till I annoy you all day long again, but who has ever said I actually WANT to be back? In this moment I feel more like franticly hugging my exchange year, screaming “DON’T TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME YET!!”.

one of the new experiences - "ice swimming"

Because that’s just it – doesn’t matter what my exchange has been like, I just don’t want this special experience to end. Of course, it hasn’t always been a walk in rose garden (or maybe was, but sometimes it felt like walking through the rose bushes), there were bad days or even weeks (no, dear YFU, it WASN’T culture shock for god shake!), unkind people and unpleasant experiences. I have learnt A LOT about myself (for example that I don’t know a thing about my own country) and found out what I want and mainly don’t want to be like. I don’t want to be moody anymore and anyone hit me if I’m ever uncaring, self-centered and ruthless to somebody who loves me…because I went through kinda “relationship” (which wasn’t relationship at all, but let’s just call it this way for now as I don’t want to be more detailed) with such a guy and I can say only this: NEVER AGAIN!!(of course you have the right to mention this the next time I'm crying for some other idiot) So just to make a summary – even from every bad experience I’ve learnt so much for my future life that in the end I’m not even sure if I feel so sorry for it (well, I still feel like hitting somebody and spitting into somebody’s face, but isn’t that just the ‘southern’ temperament after all?).

the one i love <3

And what’s the most important – there was way too many good days, weeks and months, super-kind people and maximally pleasant experiences to even remember the not so great ones. Sometimes I can’t believe how dear, friendly, helpful and tolerant some people can be! I’ve found how great are people around me, not only here in Finland, but also in Czech. Now I see the things I haven’t noticed before, now I finally see how golden-hearted some people are and now I finally value the friendship more than anything. And all the brilliant moments that I’ve had here? How could I forget! It would last for hours or maybe days if I should talk about all of them. Being an exchange student surely isn’t the easiest year of your life (for me personally it has been probably the most difficult year of my past and future life as I’ve had to face so many changes inside and outside of me, which is something I totally hate), but its surely the most exciting one!

But let’s stop this senseless talking about nothing at all and come back to what has been happening here lately (I mean in last 3 months – that’s the last time I wrote about such things).

So shortly with the very past – there were Christmas, another trip to Oulu and to my host-grandparent’s place which is in eastern Finland. And all these things were just … I don’t have words (therefore I didn’t write anything about them :D)! Amazing? New? Unforgettable?

Then started school again (booooooh). And with that more rehearsing for Wanhojen tanssit! That’s something like prom ball or whatever and in the end it really was one of the highlights of this year! Yes, it cost long hours of practicing, money, shattered nerves and feelings in the style of “now I’m ending, I’ve had enough!”, but hell! It was worth it! When the WT day came with all the excitement, expectations and that very festive atmosphere all around…aww, what could be better?

you just must love exchangers! :)

Just before this came another very pleasant and one of the best moments of this year – mid-year orientation with YFU. I can tell you that I wasn’t looking forward to it at all – spending a weekend by listening about culture shock and bad behaving of exchange students? Not exactly my cup of tea. But I couldn’t have been further from truth! It was weekend full of fun with amazing people (13 exchangers and volunteers), talking and sharing experiences (yeah, hooray, I’m not the only stupid one who did this and that and then felt this way!), eating tons of chocolate and candies (which led to TOTAL sugar shock), laughing, hugging and, of course, taking photos. ;)

Other that-made-my-day events were for example day that I spent by skiing (in my case snowboarding) with my host-dad, weekend in biological laboratories (YES, again!!) with really nice people from my school, pop-singing course and also small concert in my school and so much more things which just don’t pop up on my mind right now. And one more very current thing – I’m again in a new host family, but only for 2 weeks when my host-family is on holidays. It’s great and brings another huge number of moments and people that I will remember.

Now it’s really time to stop and congratulate you if you’ve read all way down here – god, aren’t you a persistent person?! Or maybe really bored one, poor you!

Peace and love to all of you (I mean not all of you, because I’m very bad and vindictive person -even exchange can’t change that – so just to the good ones of you)!!

there is always a reason to smile.
 for example camera :)