PANIC! The end is coming! Aaaaaaa!!
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| 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!!”.
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| 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?).
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| 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?
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| 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)!!
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| there is always a reason to smile. for example camera :) |
