Author: Hillary Johnson

Over the past couple of weeks, the realization that my year in Finland is just about finished has really struck me hard. There was one week where, for about three days, I was really sad and not interacting much with the people around me. I had already started missing the people I hadn’t yet left. I realized that it was stupid to be all sad now so I stopped sulking around and have tried to spend a lot of time with my family and friends, just enjoying one another’s company. Thinking about leaving is bittersweet. I am, of course, excited to see my friends, family, and dog back in the states again, but seeing them again means I am leaving everyone here. So feeling excited about going back makes me feel a bit guilty because it is kind of like being excited about leaving. I have family and friends here too now and thinking about leaving and not knowing when I will see them again makes me sad. Anyhoo that’s enough discussion of emotions for right now. I can deal with those later. 

The past three weeks seem to have flown by. I can’t believe it has almost been a month since we went on cruise to Stockholm! The first week or two we were back were really relaxed. Unfortunately most of us were feeling a bit under the weather throughout that time, but it was a good time to relax. One evening my host mom and I went to see a movie at the movie theater. It was a newly released Finnish comedy. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could follow what was happening for the most part, though there were times everyone in the theatre abound me was laughing out loud and I was just sitting quietly in my seat, having missed the punch line. Recently it has been snowing quite much where I am from and so school has been cancelled several days. When talking to Finns about this, many of them have laughed as it seems ridiculous to them to cancel school for snow…especially how little snow that they have there!

The first weekend in March some of the other exchange students and myself met up in Helsinki for the day, this time with the two Australian students who came to Finland at the beginning of 2015. It was really fun for everyone to meet each other. While together, we happened to eat at many American restaurants including Starbucks, Ben & Jerry’s, and McDonald’s. At both Starbucks and Ben & Jerry’s I introduced one of the Australian students to the chains as a whole and advised them to order my favorites, particularly the Phish food ice cream at Ben & Jerry’s. We shopped and chatted about lots of things. Apparently both of the Australians had been asked the same questions about stereotypes believed about their country (such as: do they really have the world map upside down so that they are on top? are drop bears real? can all of the flora and fauna in your country kill you?). It was also really interesting to hear their opinions on the weather as they had come from the middle of Australian summer with temperatures like +40°C to Finnish winter with most days still starting around -5°C or colder.

Last Tuesday the older of my two little host brothers and I started a cooking class at our town’s church. The class has the theme of internationality so each week we will be cooking foods from a different culture. This week we made Mexican food. My little brother and I were in charge of making a chocolate cake and chili con carne. We ended up cooking the cake for a bit too long, so it was somewhat dry and slightly burnt, but that was okay. In the beginning of the class the people in charge asked me if I spoke Finnish and I told them that I understood a lot more than I can speak, though recently I have been making more of an effort to speak. They also asked my little brother if he spoke any English and he replied that he spoke a little. After finishing the dishes we were in charge of, we began assisting with the making of tortillas. I ended up cooking all of the tortillas which was fun, even though there was a bit of corn flour in the bottom of the pan that started burning a bit and we had to open the windows so that the smell would go away and the smoke alarm wouldn’t sound. For the last thirty minutes or so of the class we all sat down and ate the food we made. It was really good! I had fun and am looking forward to going back for next week’s class!

This past weekend we went to Turku, a city in western Finland. At one point, Turku was the capital of Finland and the main church of the church of Finland is located there. The first day I met my host family’s good friends who we were staying with and talked with them for a while. Surprisingly, their 16-year-old son was the most confident at first with speaking with me in English. The next day my host family took me to see Turku city. We walked along the river and went to the Turku Cathedral. It was really interesting architecturally inside and out. Since it was built in the fourteenth century, it has been through a lot and there have been lots of repairs made to it structurally. From the front facade one can see all of the different styles of architecture that were used when making repairs and I think it is really cool to be able to see that. Inside, the church is spacious and has seemingly great acoustics which made me really want to sign, though I resisted the urge until I’d gotten outside. After visiting historic sites in the city, we went shopping for a bit as we didn’t realize the 18th birthday party we were attending that evening had a dress code until that morning. They were requesting that everyone wear black or white, so I got a simple black dress to wear. At the party there were several youths around my age, but for a while I wasn’t talking with them because I and they were both very shy. Eventually we did talk and I had fun chatting with them. We came back home today and spent time with the family before trying to go to bed early to get enough sleep before my early school day tomorrow.

***I tried to post this nearly three weeks ago, but I took it down after about an hour because I wasn’t pleased with it. I have been meaning to edit it, but just haven’t had enough time. I apologize if it was difficult to read or anything like that.***

Over the past few weeks many things have happened, some things I had been anticipating for years, some for months, and one that I didn’t anticipate at all. At the beginning of February, I started my seventh month in Finland, we began new classes for our fourth grading period of the school year, and I celebrated my birthday! On my birthday, my host family and I went bowling and we had a great time. I really enjoy bowling, but I’m not all that good at it, thus all three of the “children” in our family used the bumpers so as to avoid our balls rolling into the gutter. I ended up tying with my host mom, both of us with final scores of 94 (though her’s may have been a bit more solid a win as she didn’t use the bumpers). That weekend we had a small party for family and friends for which we made like at least three cakes, all of which were super yummy! I’m glad that I got to spend time with my family and friends at my birthday. It was fun.

Hey. It has been quite a while since we’ve spoken. How are y’all doing? How have you been? I hope you’ve had a nice holiday season. I’ve been rather busy since I last posted, what with all of the excitement surrounding the holidays and then getting back on schedule with school after a relatively long holiday break. Christmas was fun. I really enjoyed spending time with my host family and experiencing all of their traditions (which I described in my last blog post). On the morning of December 24, we woke and ate the Christmas ride porridge–and I got the almond! We then went to sauna and readied ourselves for the day. We ate Christmas dinner and everything was delicious! The table was filled with various sorts of fish and casseroles and the Christmas ham, which I didn’t partake of, but everyone else seemed to enjoy. The smoked salmon we had was delicious. Throughout the day it was snowing and for the first time in a long time I had a truly white Christmas. We went out to play in the snow and to do the snow work and my host mom told me I was acting like the four- and nine-year olds with how I was playing in the snow. In my defense, snow is still a thing of wonder to me and I’m pretty sure that was the most snow I had ever seen. I went in for a minute to get my camera and take pictures of everyone and of the snow. Just a few minutes after I got back outside, we heard sleigh bells jingling and moments later, Joulupukki came on a horse-pulled sleigh. In Finland, something that is very different from the traditions in the United States is that Santa brings the present and the children see him. And the presents come on December 24 and are opened that evening, rather than on the morning of the 25th.

One week later we celebrated New Years Eve. We were with some family friends and had a nice evening. We had Finnish potato salad and sausage, mine being soy and everyone eating the more traditional pork sausage. On New Years Eve in Finland, it is legal from a certain time in the evening to some point in the morning on New Years Day to set off fireworks. Where I am from the only fireworks are ones that are done by cities. Here, there were fireworks being set off all the time by people all around.

I would like to take a moment here to write about something I don’t like talking about: homesickness. I don’t like the concept of homesickness. I think it a bit silly to spend my time thinking about and missing a place (and people) I know I am definitely going to see again, especially when the time I have here is relatively short. I don’t want to not fully experience everything here because I am thinking about where I am from, so usually I completely push thoughts of homesickness from my mind. Holidays can be a bit difficult and I think I may have been homesick over them, but my problem is that I didn’t want to label it as “homesickness”. I was being more quiet and reserved than usual and spending too much time by myself in my room, which is exactly the opposite of what one is supposed to do when homesick, I’ve been told. One evening I sat down with my host parents and we had a talk that made me realize that maybe, just maybe I was homesick. Maybe. And since then Its been better, for the most part.

Having a “real” winter has many advantages and many opportunities for me to try various winter sports. Over Christmas, we went sledding, which I didn’t particularly enjoy, but everyone else seemed to enjoy thoroughly. I don’t think I’ve ever much enjoyed sledding. When I was really little, I would fall asleep in the sled as my parents were pulling me around in it. Growing up, my favorite part about going sledding was that my mom would usually make yummy hot chocolate to drink and I think the excitement of snow, as it was a rare occurrence, outweighed my not really liking sledding. Also, it was -25 out when we went sledding, so it was a bit chilly for me. We also went kicksledding, which is something I had never done before. It was fun, but a bit taxing as I was not used to any level of activity out in such cold weather. Recently we went iceskating. As long as I can remember, I have only been iceskating indoors, mostly because it is much too warm where I come from for there to be ice outside usually. Here we went outside. It was different in that the ice wasn’t entirely even in all places and that it was snowing, so there was snow on the ice as well. It was super fun and I hope we go again!

Since Christmas break, I have been busy with a lot of school-related things. I had a few projects for various classes, including a group presentation for religion class and a portfolio for English class. I also went to the two of the eighth grade English classes at my school to talk to them about the US and where I am from. They were a bit shy, but eventually asked me questions. One of the things they seemed very interested in was my thoughts on Finnish food, particularly the rye bread and salmiakki. I also had final deadlines for college applications in mid January. I was very stressed about them, but it was very satisfying to submit the final one.

Last weekend we had a dinner for all of the international students at my school and our host families, as there are now three of us. Each of the students made a dish from their country to bring for dinner. I made fried chicken, once again embracing the Southerner I am, and one of my favorite appetizers–spinach dip! The boy from Australia, who has been here for about two weeks now, made a beer and beef casserole with rice. The boy from France made crêpes for dessert and brought a few jams, both from Finland and from France. Everything was very good and we had great conversation throughout the evening about many different things.

On Sunday last, I went to visit my host granny and their family. I enjoyed my visit with them very much! In the afternoon on Sunday, we went shopping as I needed to get shoes for dancing. In December, my host mom and I went and found the perfect dress for me, which I got earlier this month as it had needed some tailoring to fit me right. Two weeks ago I went shopping with a friend of mine and one of her friends, trying to find shoes that would go with our dresses. She found a pair, but I did not. I found a pair that I really liked, but at two different stores, I could not find my size. Last Sunday when shopping with my host granny I found the shoes I adored once again and this time I (finally) found them in my size! On Monday, I visited my host mom’s little sister’s class and talked to them about my country, similar to how I talked with the eighth graders at my school. Unlike the eighth graders, though they were much younger, they were not too shy to ask me questions. They asked about my hobbies, pets, favorite foods, and about where I had travelled before. I had to get back to my school on Monday for dance practice, where I learned I could, in fact, dance in the shoes I had gotten, which is fantastic.

I may try something new in the coming weeks in an attempt to update my blog more regularly…we will see how that works. Until next time!

The first weekend in December I went to Helsinki and met up with some of the other exchange students. It was a really fun day filled with shopping, discussions of Christmas, and firsts. One of the other students had never been to Starbucks before, so we met there and had Christmas flavored coffee to start off our day. We spent the day shopping and enjoying each others’ company. We went to lunch and one of my friends ordered a burger and commented on how very “American” that was. When we got our food, the burger turned out to be extremely huge and she was questioning how she could possibly eat it. It seems that, often, when the exchange students get together, we discuss the stereotypes that exist about our countries and discuss if there is any truth to them and we then make light hearted jokes about them. We decided that if she managed to eat it, she would have truly learned what it was to be American, and, now, she has, in fact, learned how to be “American”. 

The Thursday before last I had a really unique experience. We had something called Night School wherein all of the lukio students came so school at 8:00 in the evening and stayed until the wee hours of the morning. It was a really fun evening. There were a few activities that were planned for participation between all of the students including a team trivia thing where I don’t know if I really helped my team much at all and then we had “night buddies” where we were all assigned a student at random and ask them questions to get to know them better. There were also games organized including a game of hide and seek that I’m pretty sure I lost almost immediately after it started. I also had a lot of coffee and therefore didn’t even feel tired when I was walking home in the snow at 6:30 in the morning. 

In Finland, there is a store called S Market. To me, due to the Finnish pronunciation of the letter “S” it sounds like people are saying “ass market”. A little while ago I discussed this with my host family. In the car on the way to visit extended family last weekend, my little brother said something about the store and my host mom asked me if it still sounded like “ass market” and I said yeah. She then explained what it meant to the little brothers who then proceeded to chant “ass ass ass ass ass” for a significant part of the car trip. It began snowing while we were driving and snowed for the better part of the weekend and I believe it was the most snow I’d seen since I was about five years old and moved out of the North. I am really horrible at estimating things so I am not sure really how much snow there was, but I’m pretty sure it was between four inches and a foot. Maybe. It was a really fun weekend, spending time with extended family and I got to meet several new people. 

Along with the snow came ice. Ice that covers the roads and is difficult to walk on and causes me to slip and fall more often than I would like to admit. On Sunday I had my dance performance and did not fall on the ice at all when walking to the train from my home or from the train to the place we were performing. I did, however, fall multiple times once I got inside. The first time I fell was while we were rehearsing before the show. There was one corner of the stage that was particularly slippery and I was not the only one to figure that out the hard way. The last time I fell was about ten minutes before the performance started. I was walking down some stairs (mind you: these stairs were inside and therefore not covered in ice like the ones I fell down at my school a few days prior) and about two steps from the bottom, I fell. I’m not really sure how, but it happened and hurt myself somewhat before having to go on in a few moments to perform. Other than mildly injuring myself right before performing, the performance went well. 

For the past few weeks, it has become obvious that Christmas is coming. Preparations are being made and the excitement for the season is heightening. At school, we have been singing Christmas songs in music class to get ready for the Christmas concert we had this past week. In my class we were singing songs in both Finnish and English—there was even a song we sang partially in each language! Also at school one day this week we had traditional Christmas foods for lunch, which I, for the most part, liked. At home, we have been making gingerbread cookies and have prepared the casseroles for the Christmas dinner. This past weekend my host father and I were attempting to build a gingerbread tractor which I got a cookie cutter for in the advent calendar. Throughout the month of December, we have had an advent calendar for me and my two little host brothers. It is great to have younger siblings at Christmas time and to see their excitement for everything. Every time it is my turn for the advent calendar, they remind me numerous times to make sure that I’ve opened it and every time it is one of their turns, it is the first thing they do in the morning. 

I plan to spend Christmas at home with my host family. We have some extended family coming in to celebrate with us as well. On Christmas Eve, Joulupukki will be visiting our house and bringing presents. One big difference between Christmas celebrations here and what I’ve grown up doing in the United States is that the presents are opened in the evening on Christmas Eve here rather than in the morning on Christmas day. Here, Christmas Eve is celebrated more than Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve we will be eating the Christmas rice porridge for breakfast and then going to sauna before getting dressed nicely for the day and getting the food ready for the Christmas dinner. Yesterday we went to the forest and got our Christmas tree, which was also a new experience for me as I have always gone to a tree farm to get a Christmas tree. Our tree is not inside yet as it is still defrosting in the garage. We will be decorating it on Jouluaatonaatto, the 23rd of December, with baubles, candles, and gingerbread. I am very excited to experience these new traditions and to celebrate Christmas with my host family. 

Hyvää Joulua!!