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.