School so far is amazing. I, as an exchange student, need only to take 4 or five classes. I'm taking 4 2/3. Every class meets three times per week, but the time of day is never constant. So most days I have 3 classes, but Thursdays I have just two. Thursdays, of course, are my favorite. This period (the school year is divided into 5 periods rather than 2 semesters), I am taking a sports class (tennis, pesäpallo, ultimate frisbee, soccer, etc.), 2/3 (I attend 2 of the triweekly meetings) of a gym basics class (how to stretch, intro to weightlifting, etc.), a music theory and applications class, an english class (very difficult), and an art basics class.
Lunch is free, healthy, and tasty, and you can eat it off of real plates and silverware, not those silly paper trays and plates.
When I have free time (between classes or after school) I just step outside the school and I'm in the dead center of Porvoo; there's plenty to do and see.
Biking is the way to travel. My school is just half a mile from home, so I can bike there in about five minutes. After school I often bike around the city. Today I learned not to bike in Old Porvoo, as all of the roads in Old Porvoo are cobblestone. While speeding down a hill on a bike, it is hard to brake over cobblestone. There may be some bloody streaks on a certain fence.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Begin the Begin
This happens to be the first post of my new blog, which was created to keep y'all Alaskans (and otherwise) informed of my doings in Finland. I'll get right into it.
I began my journey to Finland at aprox. 1:40 AM on August 7th with my flight from Anchorage to Phoenix. It was a horrible flight. Then I went to Philadelphia. An even worse flight. However, in the Philadelphia airport I met 17 other exchange students from all over the US. We all took the same flight to Frankfurt, where we met 10 more exchange students from Canada, France, and Germany. We flew into the Helsinki/Vantaa airport and loaded up onto a bus. I traveled for 36 hours total. (Sidenote: somehow, none of us ever went through customs. Our visas were never even looked at.)
We took this bus to Karkku, the site of a Finnish/Estonian/Swedish culture/language camp. We stayed there for a week and learned (you guessed it) language and culture. We spent one afternoon in Tampere, a neighboring city, and we also visited old churches and historical sites in the area. All of us exchange students got to know each other quite well.
Last Saturday (the 13th), I finally got to my host family (the Kettunens) and city (Porvoo/Borgå). It's a beautiful city of 50,000 on the banks of the Porvoo River (Porvoonjoki/Borgå å). My host family is absolutely wonderful. They're very kind, hostpitable, and humorous. They've already planned many trips for us to do while I'm here.
I began my journey to Finland at aprox. 1:40 AM on August 7th with my flight from Anchorage to Phoenix. It was a horrible flight. Then I went to Philadelphia. An even worse flight. However, in the Philadelphia airport I met 17 other exchange students from all over the US. We all took the same flight to Frankfurt, where we met 10 more exchange students from Canada, France, and Germany. We flew into the Helsinki/Vantaa airport and loaded up onto a bus. I traveled for 36 hours total. (Sidenote: somehow, none of us ever went through customs. Our visas were never even looked at.)
We took this bus to Karkku, the site of a Finnish/Estonian/Swedish culture/language camp. We stayed there for a week and learned (you guessed it) language and culture. We spent one afternoon in Tampere, a neighboring city, and we also visited old churches and historical sites in the area. All of us exchange students got to know each other quite well.
Last Saturday (the 13th), I finally got to my host family (the Kettunens) and city (Porvoo/Borgå). It's a beautiful city of 50,000 on the banks of the Porvoo River (Porvoonjoki/Borgå å). My host family is absolutely wonderful. They're very kind, hostpitable, and humorous. They've already planned many trips for us to do while I'm here.
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