I’ve been here for months… no, wait, only 3 weeks!!

Tampere

Yea, that’s how it feels like – I have been in Finland 3 weeks (and 1 day) now, but I feel like if it was months. It’s easy to explain – so many new things happening every day, so many new people, new experience, new surprises and new words => so many things you would never think that it is possible to experience in such a short time! And in the same time I already know the surrounding, how to get to the city center, where to go for running or shopping. I sometimes even remember how is called the part of the city I live in (Linnainmaa :D)!

My school started 2 weeks ago and I’m really getting into it – no more being 30 minutes late for a lesson or getting lost. This school is so different from the small Czech grammar school I went to back at Czech Republic! Leaving out the fact that there is close to 1000 pupils, the biggest difference is definitely school system. My brain is still working on fully understanding to what’s that really about and I doubt it will ever reach any satisfactory result. I will write about it soon in more details.

I have managed to find a few friends there and I’m very happy for it. Yea, Finns are shy, but not everybody! And they usually are so friendly and sweet when you start talking to them. Looking at people in my school I can say they are also very fashionable and self-caring. Girls are always perfectly dressed and make-upped and you can hardly meet here a guy who would stink or wear some old ugly clothes. Everybody here do some sport and eat really healthy so you happen to be surrounded by good-looking people all the time. Kinda frustrating time by time :D.





Anyway, I’m doing really well here! I have experienced  many new things or old things in new ways! I was rowing, threw javelin (and hit my head when doing it :D), had a few saunas, eat dozens of new kinds of food and more to tell about. Still I’m very busy with arranging all things needed for my year here, but soon I will go on a biology trip to Lapland (and also to Norway) and start my new-old hobbies.

What more to say? In fact, much more, but it’s not so easy to tell something about my life here because I would always forget so many things! I’m enjoying my life in school and I’m getting on great with my small sister. We tease each other and try to understand what the other one is talking about. On weekends we all go to cottage, which is really lovely place.

Although sun already retreats and windy and rainy cold days are coming, I still feel the warmth and joy inside which is – of course - seldom covered with sad thoughts, but it never lasts for long time. I’m enjoying the time of my life… do you?

A lake by our cottage

Hey, Finland, here I am!

The day when the counting of the days left till my departure for Finland reached 0 finally came. The nervousness and excitement reached the top level (top in that time, few days later the “tops” were unbelievable higher) and step by step came the time to say bye for one year to the house I lived in, my dog and my relatives. Needless to say I was afraid the most of the check on the airport and how much better I felt after the scale showed only 4kgs over allowed weight of my suitcase and when I came through the X-ray with Steel boots on the security belt. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take on the board my The Dreaming keychain in a shape of bullet I normally wear on my neck. Life sometimes just sucks.

Then we (I and Teris) finally boarded and heard Finnish all around us – simply amazing! I was trying to talk Teris to death during the 2 hours flight but luckily I didn’t succeed. :) We were led to the others YFU exchange students and waited for some time for the rest. Then we headed straight to Anjalankoski (really lovely place), where was our orientation camp held. I’m not going to describe here what was happening there, because it was A LOT things, we were busy and awake all the time (well, in my case at least). There were people from the Czech Republic (haha), Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, Japan and Thai wan. We had amazing volunteers who made presentations and other activities for us plus American teacher who spoke almost all languages of the world and taught us over million of Finnish words :D. It was FUN and we tried some traditional Finnish foods and activities – yea, SAUNA. It was just amazing! And meeting all the people from different countries and cultures was very interesting.

After 3 days the Day came – day to meet our host families! This day (as well as the days before) was the weather very un-Finnish. We were sweating from hot and nervousness, thinking about fainting. We were separated from our host families till 15 o’clock and I was dying from being nervous. I took a long walk around the lake nearby which so helped me. :) Then the time came, excitement and nervousness reached the most possible tops and we were sent one by one to our “new” families.

Well, I knew my host family is amazing and I only proved myself right. Mervi and Martti (my host mum and dad) hugged me, my little host sister Meri looked a little bit scared but passed me poster with writing “Tervetuola Kata” (Welcome Kata) which she made. Lovely, isn’t it? Then I said hello to Teris’s hostfamily, goodbye to Teris (:´() and went with my family to their summer cottage (great place!) and home, to Tampere.

The next day we went to Näkötorni and then to city festival in Hämeenpuisto where I meet my friend Katsu. Great day! In the evening I gave my family small presents from Czech Republic and I was very happy that they liked them. Meri got the Mole (Myyrä) and I haven’t seen her without it since that moment. :) Today we went to all those booooooring places (police, bank etc. ), but at least I have everything done.

Now a few words about Finland: this country is totally gorgeous with a lot of woods and fields; everything is clear and the overall atmosphere is silent and peaceful. Of course, a lot of things here are different from things in the Czech Republic, starting with another type of meals and ending with numbers of tattooed people. :) But so far, it seems to me as an ideal choice and I can’t be happier for I decided to go there.