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.