Finnish History

Alajärvi Cemetery

My week started out learning about the Winter War and how it affected the Finns. I got to see an airfield that was used in the war as well as replicas of the defenses that the Finns used against the Russians during the war. Our car might have gotten stuck in the dirt along the way... but we pushed it out.

Then we headed to the cemetery in Alajärvi where I got to see the gravestones of those who died in the war as well as memorials for those who fought the war in their own way, such as the women who stayed back while their husbands, brothers and sons were fighting on the front lines.

Memorial in Alajärvi

We even drove by a memorial (so I couldn't take any pictures of it) that was for men from Alajärvi that had to walk 14 km to get to the train station to be sent off to war.

On Monday, I took my math test before I headed home for the day because I wasn't taking a test for my mother tongue class. I had my usual Finnish lessons and hockey practice.

On Tuesday, I didn't have a test so I stayed home and worked on my Finnish and cleaned my room.

On Wednesday, I started my new classes. I had math first thing, but I didn't know which class I was in (there were two long math classes and I wasn't sure which one I was in) so I went to the one that had my classmates in it. I was wrong so we talked to the teacher and he switched me into that class. Then I had my history class which was a culture class where we will be learning about different cultures around the world. Then I had chemistry where we went over what we will be learning for the year. After that I had psychology where we went over what we were going to do for the year before I missed my art class and had Finnish lessons. I also had my usual hockey practice.

On Thursday, I went to the school's library and got the textbooks I needed for school as well as a library card since I didn't have one. I had the classes that I had the day before (except I had physics this time instead of art). The only difference was that instead of having psychology for the whole 55 minutes, we left about half way through to take pictures. First we took a class picture before we took the individual pictures. I have no idea what the photographer was telling me to do, but I figured it out. Then instead of having hockey practice, I went to Härmä. Two Rotarians from Alajärvi drove me there. It took about an hour. When we got there, we met up with other Rotarians, exchange students, rebounds and Rotex while we have coffee time. We headed to a lecture room where we introduced ourselves before we split off into groups. I went into a room with the other exchange students and a few Rotex where we had candy and hung out. Then we headed upstairs and watched people sing karaoke and dance before we headed home for the night.

On Friday, I went to school and had math, art, psychology and physics. My friends taught me how to say psychology in Finnish: psykologia. It may not seem that hard, but they say the p. So if you want to know how to say it then say pss (like you are trying to get someone's attention), then su-ko-lo-ge-ah. The pss sound was honestly the hardest part for me, but I got it down now. :)

Today, I hung out with Raisa's friends. We made pizza and sang Finnish karaoke. We ate chips and candy while we looked up songs on YouTube and Spotify. It was very fun.

Exam Week and Mölkky

On Monday I had normal classes. My exam week started on Tuesday. I had my first test: history. We had to put our bags in the front of the classroom and our phones on a desk in the front. We had four hours to complete the test. It took me about two hours to write two essays (in English).

The next day I had my philosophy test where I did the same thing. This time, I defined a few vocabulary terms and wrote an essay (again in my mother tongue).

Then I had my music test which was fun. It was basically a game of battleship where you had to answer questions about music.

Then I had my English test. I didn't do so well on the translating from Finnish part, but the reading comprehension and the essay went well.

On Friday evening, I met my "aunt" Niina. She is currently studying in Helsinki, but she came up for the weekend. She gave me a bunch of gifts, from candy to a marimenko fabric. We played games from card games to board games to Mölkky. Mölkky is basically a game where you throw a wooden block to knock down other blocks. There is a picture of me and Raisa in the upper left. 

Then today, we went shopping! We went to a small little town with a population of about 1,000 people. What do you find in a town of that many people? A large shopping mall of course! I got to see that horseshoe sculpture (the second picture) as well as the largest shoe store in Finland. We did some shopping before we returned home.

Next week I will finish my exam week and start new classes! :)

There's a Chill in the Air...

On Sunday, we baked a bunch of awesome Finnish desserts. They were awesome. The temperature has started to get cooler here, so it's time for the jackets to come out.

On Monday, I had to go to school at the normal time since my half math class and the half Swedish class switched places this week (but that meant I got to come to school later on Friday, so I was okay with it). The third year students were doing testing this week, so we had to be quiet during break. I had the usual classes before I headed to my Finnish lessons after school. (One note: we learned about indefinite pronouns in English. To any non-English speakers that want to learn English: indefinite pronouns are hard.)

At my Finnish lesson, the Tunisian student showed up again and two Thai women also showed up and we went over some more Finnish. Then I went to hockey practice. The next day I had school again and I had Finnish lessons. I had been studying my book and I asked a lot of grammar questions. I think my teacher learned more Finnish from me. After school, my host mom, Raisa (one of my host sisters) and I went to a spinning lesson. It was fun.

Wednesday was the very fun day. In music class, we went over how to read rhythms. In America, we read them like this:
A whole note: 1-2-3-4
Two half notes: 1-2 3-4
Four quarter notes: 1 2 3 4
Four eighth notes: 1& 2& 3& 4&
Four sixteenth notes; 1E&A 2E&A 3E&A 4E&A

In Finland, they read rhythms like this:
A whole note: ta-a-a-a
Two half notes: ta-a ta-a
Four quarter notes: ta ta ta ta
Four eighth notes: ti-ti ti-ti ti-ti ti-ti
Four sixteenth notes; ta-ka-ta-ka ta-ka-ta-ka ta-ka-ta-ka ta-ka-ta-ka

(A note: also, in Finland, they use the letter H instead of the letter B when it come to note reading, For example: A H C D E F G. However, B is used as H♭)

After school I had hockey practice. We practiced on the ice for a while before we took off only our skates, put some shoes on and went out to the soccer field. Wearing full gear, we played American football-with a soccer ball. I got to teach them how to play and it was very fun (and very funny). We ended up with a tie game.

The rest of my week consisted of school, hockey and tongue twisters. On Friday, during a free period I sat with my friends and we talked about different tongue twisters. One of them was able to say "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" by the end of the day.

Today my host dad is working on the dog house (as pictured to the left) while I study for next week because next week is exam week. In other words, starting on Tuesday and going until next Tuesday, we have one exam everyday. Each day is for one class. After the exam, we study for the next test in the afternoon. After exam week is over, our classes change.

Exam week here I come! :)

September Has Arrived

September came before I even knew it. But before it did, I still had a few days in August left. Here is what went down in my last moments in August:

Sunday, August 30th: My host dad asked if I was good at math, I said yes and he asked if I could calculate the volume of a cylinder. I did and then converted it to milliliters for him. He wanted for the dog house he is building.

Monday, August 31st: School was school. I had philosophy where I learned about philosophy, in English I learned some grammar, in history we learned about Ancient Rome and in music class we played instruments. After school, I had a Finnish for foreigners lesson. I was a little early and waited a few minutes before the teacher came in with another student from Tunisia. We went over basic Finnish (which I had already know) but it was fun since I got to help the other student. I then went to hockey practice.

Then September came. I started Finnish lessons during school with one of the English teachers. I also had my normal classes where I played music, did math, learned philosophy, read English texts, learned about the Middle Ages and worked on my Finnish. In my mother tongue class (Finnish class) everyone is working on writing an essay, so the teacher asked me to write something about myself in Finnish. It ended up being two paragraphs and I only needed to look up how to say and write a few things.

Outside of school, I went to hockey practice, did homework and worked on my Finnish from my Finnish books (one of them pictured on the left).

September, watch out, because here I come!

First Finnish Hockey Srimmage

On Sunday I had my first hockey scrimmage! It was really fun even though we lost really badly (0-20). My host family came and watched me. To the left is a picture they took and that little face is my youngest host sister Malla. She will be turning five in November.

Then I had school. I played instruments in music class, did math in math class, learned philosophical theories in philosophy class, learned English in English class (we had a grammar day on Monday and it was fun to learn grammar about my own language), I learned about Ancient Greece in history class (we had to make a PowerPoint Presentation and then present it. I wrote my notes in English and had my host family help me translate them, I read the translated sentences aloud and everyone was very impressed and complemented me for days), and in mother tongue, I worked on learning Finnish.

I had hockey practice of course, but I skipped one of them because my host family was driving to Jyväskylä to pick up their new puppy. I came along and we drove for two hours before we arrived. Once we arrived, we went and picked up the new puppy before driving back for another two hours.

The puppy's name is Lennu. A picture of him and Malla are on the left. For the first night at home, he whimpered when he was left alone, so my host mom had to stay with him all night and she didn't get much sleep, He has gotten better ever since, but the first few days were rough for him.

Now they are trying to train him. He likes to chew things and can be very energetic. My host dad is building a dog house for him right now (if you look behind Mall in the second picture, there are wooden posts for the dog house). It is going to be very big. I am very excited to see how it turns out.

First Full Week in School

School has kicked into full gear. I busy with my full schedule (as seen to the left). Luckily my math class is only a half class so I get to come to school later on Mondays and Wednesdays. :)

What am I doing in school? Well...
In music class here in Finland we don't play like in a band or an orchestra like in America. Instead, it is like a basic music class where we learn the basics of music and play instruments like guitar, piano, bass, percussion or we sing. In math class, we do math, It is a review course and I have done a lot of the stuff before. It isn't too hard. Understand the Finnish part of the question, now that is a bit trickier. Philosophy is hard to understand in Finnish, but my teacher gave me some materials in English that she found online so I could understand what was going on. English is very fun. I am "a walking dictionary" so it's fun when we talk about different words because I get to offer insight. In history class, we have been learning about ancient history, most of which I have learned before so I was able to kind of follow along. In mother tongue, we have been taking notes on about language and learning about language and how it influences people.

What am I doing outside of school?
This week I went to my first Rotary meeting where I gave them the St. Paul Rotary flag and I received theirs. We had a nice meal before I talked some about myself before we headed out.

I am also going to practice with my hockey team. We have practice three times a week and on two out of the three practices, we play soccer for a while and then we go practice on the ice.

However, this week practice was cancelled on Thursday because of a pesäpallo game. I biked there and met up with some of my friends to cheer on the Alajärven Ankkurit. Sadly, they lost, but it was still pretty fun. It was especially very fun to watch the kids go out at "half time" and throw around balls with each other using their caps as gloves.

The first picture to the left is a picture of a member from the Ankkurit preparing to hit the ball.

The second picture on the left is picture from before the game even started. It is how they determine who does what first. Instead of flipping a coin, one player places their hand somewhere on the bat. The other player places their hand right on top of theirs. Whoever ends up at the top gets "wins" (it would be equivalent to your chosen side of a coin being flipped).

First Week in School

 
Previously on Emma's Finnish Adventures...
Emma had a great week at camp with the other exchange students and had a great time meeting her host families but now, a new challenge arises... school. Dun dun duuuuunnnnn. What school bring for Emma? Will she be able to withstand it? Find out on this week's latest addition of Emma's Finnish Adventures!

But first.. let's catch up to what Emma was doing those few days leading up before school.

First, I got to my host family's house and unpacked. Then, we went to their summer
cottage and did some sightseeing. I went to a picnic with Raisa's friends and I made taco salad for dinner one night. Raisa loved it. We bought me school supplies and I headed to school.

Unlike in America, school doesn't start after Labor Day, but rather, it starts in August. My school started on Wednesday. The first day wasn't much but figuring out our schedules and lunch. I also made some Finnish friends on my first day of school. Then on Thursday and Friday, we went to our scheduled classes. English class was easy (because it was taught in English). Math, and music weren't so either bad because I could figure out what was going on. Philosophy, history and mother tongue were another story, but the first week wasn't too bad since we didn't do much.

On Friday night, we then went to my host family's summer cottage for the weekend. On Saturday, we went to Power Park(third picture). It is a very big amusement park about an hour drive away from Alajärvi. We went on many great and fun roller coasters like Junker (first picture) and we went on a roller coaster that went backwards and forwards (second picture). It was awesome. We had some ice cream while we were there too. It was also awesome.