Gary Halliday posted on March 25, 2010 20:02
On Friday the 22nd of January I flew out of Sydney at around 5pm with a large group of exchange students. We went from Sydney to Singapore and then to Heathrow where we split up. This long journey was in Qantas’s brand new Airbus A380. The seats were comfortable, although there was not much legroom and there was plenty of in-flight entertainment. From Heathrow we boarded a Finnair flight to Finland and soon arrived at Helsinki airport at around 3pm on Saturday where it was a very cold -20˚C or so. Compared to the 40˚C heat we left from, this was incredibly cold!
Thankfully for me my host sister Petriina was there to greet me at the airport with a large warm jacket, 2 pairs of gloves and a Huomenta Suomi (Morning Finland) beanie. It was not yet time to go to my new home however and all the students quickly boarded a bus to our language/orientation camp in a very small place called Karkku. We had Iltapala (evening snack), sent messages home saying that we were safe and then went to bed.
The next day we were woken at 8:30. It was still dark outside. We had breakfast and then, as it was Sunday and there were still some more exchange students coming, we took a small tour of the grounds which, like the rest of Finland right now, were completely covered in snow. Apparently it is the best winter they’ve had in 20 years! Lucky me! We went sledding and played snow soccer while we all got acquainted. In the evening it was time for Sauna, all exchange students there did it. It was hot and humid and wonderfully relaxing and then we left the sauna, climbed into a frozen over lake and then ran back to the sauna! It was quite shocking. After Sauna it was time for bed and sleep we did, for the next day it was time for lessons.
The whole week went by pretty quickly. It was filled with lessons, songs, outdoor activities, other exchange students and even some Finns!
Of note was one night where we were taken on an adventure by some Finnish Nature Guides. We were shown things like ice fishing, snow walking, skiing, how to make fire, some different buildings in the snow, some cooking and some quite beautiful loggers candles (made out of the first tree they cut down, a ‘+’ shaped cut is made in the middle, some oil is put in there and then it is lit and takes a while to burn out).
One evening we travelled to Tampere for some sightseeing and shopping. After the sightseeing we were swamped by the European and American exchange students who had arrived halfway through last year. As a result not much shopping was done.
One night was spent with the actual Finnish students of Karkku there was lots of singing and games. Another night we walked to the church at Karkku, about 2km, and spent the evening there. It was warm and there was again lots of singing.
The final night at Karkku we had the night together and put on a show for ourselves. It went past midnight, not a good thing considering that the next morning we were woken up at about 6:30.
The final day in Karkku was spent being instructed by Rotarians about the rules and other things, something similar was told to our host families and after lunch all the exchange students finally split up and went home with their host families. A 3 hour car trip later and I was in Helsinki. I spent a few minutes at the family apartment, top floor! Then we were off to watch my host sister Petriina’s ice skating competition. It was really good, especially as she won and I was told that now I will be getting a short trip to Sweden where the finals are held, permissions from everyone permitting.
The next day was spent sightseeing with the family and it was interesting to know that they haven’t really had snow here in about 4 years. As a result the fund for keeping the roads clear in the winter was shrunk and now there is snow everywhere, in some places cars are under a good foot of snow. It’s a wonderful winter wonderland.