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.

My First Week in Finland

I arrived in Finland on the afternoon of the second. I met with the other exchange students that had arrived before taking a bus to our orientation camp, which was in Karkku. The next day, the action began. Throughout the week, we learned about the basics of the Finnish language, had lectures about our life in Finland as well as having many fun activities too. We got chances to try out a real Finnish sauna, go to the Karkku church and perform for the group, go to Tampere, dance the macarena while having tea, and we got a chance to perform for the group at Cozy Night, our last night together before we met our host families. Then, on Saturday, we met our host families. All of my host parents (all six of them) came as well as one of my first host sisters, Raisa. We drove for three hours back to Alajärvi before I got to settle down in my new home.

The Day I Depart

Today I leave the home I have had for the last fifteen years to make a new home with a new family. Am excited? Of course! Am I nervous? Of course! I can't wait to meet the other exchange students at camp and hear about where they were going. I can't wait to meet my host families and go to school in Finland. Honestly, I can't wait to get started on this exciting adventure!