During hiihtoloma (translation: skiing holiday) my host family and I went to Poland! Most families go up to Lapland for this time to go skiing or snowboarding, or some stay at home, and others use this break as a time to travel.
We arrived in Poland on the 21st of Februrary
After we got to our hotel in Krakow, we decided to walk around Krakow and see the life of the city. It was a bit of a sprinkle and it was refreshing to be somewhere new.
Day 2: Monday
Our day began with a 2 hour car ride with two ladies from Ireland to Auchwitz. This was a very impactful day for me. I can't put into words the immensity of emotions you feel when visiting. I've read many books in class and out of class about this place but being there and re hearing the things that happened there was a lot. I can't put much into words about the feeling I got but here are pictures that I took, so you can also bear witness in a way.
Day 3: Tuesday
Tuesday we were scheduled to go to Schlinders Factory at 10 am. For those of you who don't know who Schlinder is he was a Nazi offcial who helped saved hundreds of Jews from death at Auchwitz. It was another place I had been wanting to go and see for sometime. After Auchwitz we took a taxi to the old synagouge and went in and walked around in there for about 20 minutes. After this we walked back to the center and I meet up with a Rotary Exchange Student from Krakow, Maggie from Colorado. We hung out at a nice little cafe and talked about our exchanges and our lives in our new countries. After meeting up with her we went to go find my host parents and ended up running into them on our way to the mall.
Day 4: Wednesday
On Wednesday we walked to the Cathedral and Castle and had little audio tours around these places. I'm such a history nerd, since I had never learned of Polish history besides the fact that they had king and that was pretty much my knowledge of Poland until WW2. It was a bit creepy going into the cathedral and being able to walk to where the bodies of many kings/queens/ and saints lie.
Day 5: Thursday
On Thursday we left to come back to Finland. So there was nothing very speical, we ate breakfast, got our luggage, did a little last walk around Krakow and left soon after.
PICTURES!!
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Things about Poland:
I would also like to note the wonderful tasting breakfast at this hotel, I would not have expected it from there.
Things there are pretty cheap, I was honestly thinking how much I could buy if I went there on exchange (1USD= 3.6 zlottys)
Their food is pretty heavy.
They have many of the same customs as Russia
My next trip is to Rome on Friday!! I was hoping to have my American flag to take with me but it seems Posti (Finland's postal system) has lost track of it. Crying on the inside.
Sorry this post is so late, but better late then never?!
First off, before anything, I am writing this post for those who are going/ wanting to go on exchange, for my family and friends, and for anyone who wonders the true life of an exchange student. I'm not in anyway saying I want to go home or that I am unappreicative of being here, this is just the true feelings I have right now.
The other day I was waiting for the bus to take me to a friend's house and as I was waiting something hit me. I reliesed how comfortable I have became with living this life, living in Finland. I don't know how I will be able to adjust when I go home. Now the days I have left here are less then the days I've been here which means at that I;m no longer counting down the days since I've been here but watching the number of days I have left dwindle.
Your days on exchange arn't filled with endless adventures or constantly fun times. I haven't been the happiest here for the past few months, I've though about going home plenty of times. I've cried lots of tears but I've also smiled lots of smiles. I've had some really bad down times but also some times that made me so fucking happy that I'd forget that I'm a foriegner.
There is a part of me who wanted to go on exchange to get away from home, so I would no longer have to deal with the stress and hard times that that life brought me. But the saying is true you can't runaway from home. I still feel the stress and constant worry that I did back home that only difference is is that I'm not there. Hearing the other day that my grandmother, who really means the most to me, has to have heart surgery scared the living daylights out of me. If something bad happens and I'm not there I don't think I could ever forgive myself for leaving. We all go on exchange knowing something bad could happen to someone we love but the fact that it could be reailty for me, is hard.
Anyway I only have 3 in a half months left so I will take advantage of the time I do have left. I'm not the best writer or blogger but I do try to do my best in writing. Here are some pictures/videos of the past few weeks!
I'm finally putting up a blog post about school here in Finland. I can say that chances are no matter where you go, school is school and you will most of the time be waiting for your last class to end so you can go home. The difference of school in the US and Finland is quite different,
In high school (lukio) the schedule is more closer to college schedule, you are treated as a responsible adult, and there are 5 Jakso's (marking period).
So my current schedule looks like this:
Maanantai
Tiistai
Keskiviiko
Torstai
Perjantai
8:20 - 9:30
X
X
X
Finnish
X
9:50 - 11:00
French
Math
Music
Math
French
Lunch 11:00 -11:40
11:45 - 12:55
Math
Music
English
French
English
1:20 - 2:35
English
Finnish
X
Music
Finnish
2:50 - 4:10
x
Gym
x
x
x
I'm taking 6 classes where before I've taken 4 or 5 classes a Jakso.
Classes are 75 minutes and you have each one 3 times a week. When a teacher will be gone, there is sometimes a substitute but I have had times where my classes are canceled which is so nice, haha. Each Jakso last 6 weeks, 5 of those weeks are teaching and the last week is exam week (koeviikko). They also call their teachers by their first names here, so instead of Mrs. Doe they would say Jane. It deeply confuses me, but I go with flow and adding to this I don't know many of the teacher's I've had names. They have a different grading scale, they don't have letter's bur rather numbers from 4 to 10 and 10 is really really hard to get and 7 is average and 4 and 5 are failing. Here in Finland after the 9th grade they must apply to lukio with their grades from the middle school. So if your grades are not good enough you can go to 10th grade which is optional and raise your numbers there.
Now about my school specifically. I go to the 2nd biggest school in my city out of the 3 there are. There's between 700-800 student's at my school which are mostly middle school students (7th to 9th) and lukio has between 250 and 300 students. My school is pretty nice and I think that's because a lot of the student's here appreciate their school more in then in the states. My school is also in the center of town in my county (?? I'm not sure about this but my city has three parts and this county stuff confuses me because in Hampton, we are an independent city so there is no counties or anything like that.)
Some things I like here compared to my school in the US
Free school lunch
Open campus policy; With everyone's schedule different they can't exactly enforce a close campus policy. So if you don't want lunch you can go across the street to the stores and get something to eat or if you don't have a class and want to go buy something you can.
No dress code; THIS IS LIFE! There is no dress code here and you know what no matter what someone wears everyone get's there school work done. In August when it was still warm I wore shorts and a tank top to school and didn't get in trouble because they're freaking great here.
20 minute breaks between classes; 20 minutes break?! Yes! If there were hall sweeps here, you would honestly have no excuse to tell Brion (one of the dean's at my school in the US) why you didn't make it to class
The scheduling; the short days are bliss when I get out at 12:55 or go to school at 9:45
Coffee machine; There's a coffee machine in my school and for .60 cents you can get your self a mini coffee, expresso, or hot chocolate and it's great.
Something I like in the US compared to school here
The lunch; okay so food here is healthy and free but it often doesn't have much taste and I'm often left yearning for chicken wings, pizza or chicken patty for lunch. There are days when there is no meat for lunch and usually by the end of the day I need beef jerky or something.
School Buses; They don't have school buses here. If you live farther out you can take the public transportation but most kids in lukio ride their bikes, walk, or ride their mopeds to school. In winter when everything is icy, walking to school is just hell. I didn't fall much but it takes a lot of concentration not too and also during this icy/snowy time if you don't have winter tire's on your bike you can ride your bike to school (I learned this the hard way).
The bigness of Bethel; Anyone who goes to Bethel knows how big the student body is and how small the school is. The smallness of Bethel I don't miss but what I do miss is how many student's there were.
School Sports; In most European countries there are no sports connected with the school as school is for academics and then sport is with club. It's nice to go to school and have practice after and have your small little family at school.
I've been wanting to have written this for over 4 months now but I just never felt energetic enough to write this. Happy Valentine's Day! Hyvää Ystäväpäivä! (Direct translation: Happy Friendday)
For January 30th and 31st I was in Stockholm with my host mom! We walked around the city, rode the metro, and visited some great museum's and historical places.
THE CASTLE
One of the places in Stockholm I visited was the Castle, where the royal family (of Sweden) lived/lives. One part of the castle is open to visitor and the rest is closed off because they live in the other part. Here is a slideshow of pictures I took. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a history nerd and it was so amazing to have seen the castle and read all the facts that they had in the castle.
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OLD TOWN
This part of Stockholm has been here for many centuries back to the 1000's I believe. I loved how cute and vibrant everything was here in this part of town. It reminded me a lot of what Italy looks like in the movies.
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GLOBEN
On our last day in Stockholm, my host mom took me to Globen! Globen is like a very mini London Eye, so you get in to this glass bubble type of thing and you ride up and you can see the top of Stockholm from it. It takes 20 minutes in total to get up and come down and it is a little over 400 feet up.
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THE CHURCH
When we first arrived in Old Town the first place we went to was the Cathedral of Stockholm.
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Along with those places I went to the Nobel Prize Museum, which was such a fascinating place. I also took photo's in an old Swedish phone booth and in front of the Nobel Museum. I found out that 7/11's exist outside of the US (in many countries but Finland of course), it also brought back memories of home as Stockholm is on the waterfront just like Hampton, so the chilliness of the windy air made me think of home.
Next Sunday I leave for Poland for Sport Holiday, thanks to my host parents I will be able to bear witness to Auschwitz
