January revisited

I realize I've left alot of things out in my last entry so here goes,  I'm revisiting January and I will try to make a complete account of everything that has hapenned (the list is long,  I'll try to remember it all).  So I told you already about school and the subjects I had in my third jakso "term".    But things at school have been very hectic lately because the time of passing on seniority is very close.  In Finland,  the third graders (twelfth),  end lessons at the beginning of February in order to have a few months to study for their entrance exams.  Instead of being based only on their school marks,  the decision of a University to allow someone to become a student there is also based on their entrance exams (actually entrance exams are much more important than school diploma exams). So the third graders had alot to get ready for - their diploma exams,  their applications to universities,  as well as their "abi" day which is the last school day of the third graders. Abi day is the day where the third graders officially leave highschool,  therefore it is also the day that seniority in the school is passed on to the second (eleventh) graders (my class).  In our school in Ristiina we have many ways of showing this graduation.  For example,  on Abi day the third graders go from class to class and all the students must say "hyvää huomentaa harvojen vanhat" which means "good morning o admirable elders (or superiors)"  or something like that.  The next day is traditionally "Vanhojen Tanssit" day where the second graders go from class to class asking for people to say the same thing (for you see,  there is no one superior to them in the school the next day). "Vanhojen Tanssit"  is the day where the second graders perform their old fashion dances. Therefore they are all very smartly dressed when they ask this of the younger students.  Anyhow,  going back to "Abi" day,  the third graders also organize a presentation showing their highschool years.  Furthermore they dress up in costumes and make a huge mess in the school as a goodbye present (the first graders traditionally must clean up after them).  It is basically a bug party day for the third graders whom,  at around two in the afternoon,  leave of big open trucks which parade them around town.  In the evening they have their "abi party" where you can be sure alot of drinking will occur.  I think its rather clever to do things in this way and officially pass on seniority.  Also I think its clever to have lower grades clean up after the higher grades.  I believe its important to have a sort of order like that - not that lower grades should be mistreated in any way - just that a certain hierarchy be present in the school.  Another thing is the lounge room - a very nice spacious room with a kitchen and a computer and a TV which only the seniors of the school can use.  Abi Day is the day where it is passed on to the second graders.

The second graders (my class) had their "Wanhojen Tanssit" to get ready for.  I spoke about these dances already and how our practice time has doubled because we haven't practiced enough.  Everyone is booking hair appointements,  buying dresses,  comparing prices,  etc.  It reminds me alot of my own grad last year.  Thankfully I didn't have to worry about a dress or anything because Isa (my host sister) lent me hers from last year.  Although it reminded me of grad it is so very different at the same time because its not celebrating the same thing and so the mood is very different.  Also this is something we actually practice alot for.  Furthermore,  being old fashioned,  many do not approach it very enthusiatically at first.  The dances are not very fast paces (although we would probably fail miserably if they were any faster),  the music sounds kind of corny,  kind of "gone with the wind"-ish.  But the closer the date comes,  the more the music becomes majestic,  the dances graceful and pleasant,  and the practices exciting.  People start talking about it more,  plans are made for the decoration etc.  The whole of the second grade seems to be focused on that day where they become the seniors of the school.

Appart from these exciting things,  school went on much as it had these passed few months.  My Finnish lessons have also resumed and are a little harder and there's a little more homework.  It always strikes me how much the class has improved.  At the beginning people had trouble pronouncing and saying their names.  Now we are reading small texts and the whole cours is in Finnish with almost no English or Russian translations.  When the teacher explains something its in Finnish.  You may also recall how impossibly long my Thursday's were last semester.  This semester I was over joyed to hear that we only have Finnish lessons on Monday.  So although I have Kantele lessons on Thursday,  I can be home at five instead of ten and I don't have to wait three hours for my Finnish lessons to start.  However I haven't been to my kantele lessons much because the teacher is uite sick and in the hospital.  When they got a substitute teacher,  the lessons always coincided with my dancing practices.  I figured I would only be dancing for two more lessons and also,  it wouldn't be great for Juuso,  my dancing partner,  to have no one to dance with.  Even if you practice dancing with someone else,  its not as useful to you because everyone dances very differently.  Therefore you might dance really well with Joe but not well at all with Bob (if you get my meaning).

Appart from school and lessons though,  I've also been in scouts still. I love scouts here - I learn so much in Finnish in the scouts and also the scouts themselves are a really really sweet bunch of kids.  They always seem happy to see me and are willing to make conversation although they know I don't understand everything.  Actually alot of them try to speak English to me.  ALso they talk about what ever they've heard about Canada.  One of them said that his uncle has a friend in Canada... that kind of thing.  One of them also spent about fifteen minutes trying to make me understand that she wanted to know how long I'd been in scouts before I came to Finland.  Its really nice to see that they show interest because a lot of people don't.

In the beginning of January we went skating near the school.  I went to the school in potkukelkä which I believe I've already talked about.  I went sleading with one in Lapland and fell many times over.  The truth is that its used for travelling.  You kick yourself forward sort of like a skooter.  So,  because its a very Finnish thing to do,  I went to the skating rink on a potkukelkä.  I is very hard on your back because you're constantly bent forward.  Its also very good for your legs and your behind.  Lets just say I'm glad I tried but I'm never doing it again.  I often see children going to school with them because they can put their bag on the chair in front or they can take turns sitting on it while the other pushes.  I'd much rather walk.  Anyhow,  the skating rink was full of people playing hockey and it reminded me very very very much of Canada.  Had the people been speaking English,  I would have thought myself in the Father Doucet hockey rink.  It was very fun to be there with scouts.  We played a game where someone in the middle tries to catch as many people people as possible as we cross the ice.  I played exactly the same game with the Canadian scouts on an ice rink in Canmore when we had a camp.  It was alot of fun and I held an entire hour and a half long conversation in Finnish (mostly) with one of the older scout members. DUring our last meeting we practiced raising the colours.  It is not done at every meeting as it is in Canada but it is done very formally.  We practiced because there is a sort of jamboree in Pieksämäki (the same place I had my first district meeting).  The first thing I noticed was that instead of showing up two fingers during their salute,  they held up three (two fingers is for cubs or more junior scouts which these certainly were - three is for older more experienced scouts).  Also they put their fingers to their brow - just like an army salute rather then ust holding up their hands like we do in Canada.  We had to salute and be very quiet as the flag was hoisted onto the mast - the boys had to take of their hats.  I made the mistake of taking off mine as I saw others do and was called a boy... poika.  Furthermore they fold their flag very differently.  I Canada we fold it into triangles.  Here they fold it into a square along the blue line that runs across their flag so that in the end,  the whole thing looks blue.

Rotary meetings have also been going well.  I gave my Canada presentation and they were delighted that I tried to do the whole thing in Finnish.  It fell appart a few times and I was searching for word ALOT.  But they were impressed that I tried. From what I've heard,  Ristiina hasn't had very enthusiastic long term exchange students in a long time.  The last few left early I think and were on their own alot.  I hope  I can give a better impression.

January has also been exciting because all the information for my future travels around Europe has been sent to me.  So I got all the information about my future trip to St-Petersburg,  Turkey,  and also Europe.  I went to a travel fair at the beginning of the month and that too made t very exciting to go to these places.  I got maps and information for St-Petersubrg (they had a very large kiosk ecause it is very close and so quite a popular destination).  Also I tok information about Turkey which I'm SO excited to see because it will be very different from anything I've ever seen.

A very interesting place to visit inside Ristiina is the caveman wall which is full of cave paintings dating back 5000 years.  I visited the area with a friend, Janne, and it was very fun because,  although the walk is only maybe 6 km long,  it took us something like five hours because there were nice boulders around dating back from the last ice age.  We tried climbing them although it was quite cold.  ALso there was some really nice ice but it wasn't high enough to have real ice climbing.  The cavepaintings themselves were very interesting especially because they portrayed women hunting - which is very uncommon.   Also there were paintings of moose with dots in their chests - experts are unable to say whether the dots and circles represent wounds or the beasts' hearts.  The rock on which the paintings are looks like an old man's face actually.  Archeaologists have found thousands of years old ember jewelery underneath the rock at the bottom of the lake (the cliff hangs above the lake which means the people who painted the pictures must have done so by boat).

The scenery there was very beautiful - depicting the perfect Finnish landscape "Finland at its best" is was I said I think when we looked over the cliff.  To get back to the car we walked on the ice which was fun and not nerve racking at all.  Especially since we could hear the ice making exploding sounds every once in a while (not directly under our feet - somewhere far off).  On our walk on the ice we say another kind of wall painting - graffiti.  However this asn't any kind of graffiti - it dated back to the fifties and continued on through the last fifty years.  1952 - 1963 - 1967 - 1975 - 1981 etc. and all different people.  It was pretty cool.

After the walk we watched a movie - "The Assasinatoin of Jesse James by the Coward Robert something or other"  It was a very veyr good film.  I really enjoyed it and I knew that it was filmed in and around Calgary.  It would have reminded me of Calgary even if I hadn't known.  They really got the atmosphere and the scenery so well.  It was great.

Just as a side note,  we talked about the exchange and he asked me if I'd chosen to come to Finland and if there were alot of other exchange students who'd chosen the country s their first choice.  I said I'd picked northern Europe or Scandinavia.  I was a little hesitant on the other question because I didn't want to seem rude - alot of students hadn't picked Finland as their first choice - which isn't to say that they're not having a great time.  Most of them are having the time of their lives even i Finland wasn't their first choice.  However,  I did say that because there are so many exchange students in the Americas (almost a third of us is American and Canadian),  theyb don't always get theire number one choice.  Especially since those number one choices are often the same - France,  Mexico,  Japan, Germany.  So some people in USA especially end up with their sixth or seventh choice.  I spoke to some for whom Finland had not even been on their list. I suppose its a shame in a way because if they leave home not really wanting to come,  the early months - the ones where some are most homesick - are very hard to bare.  Anyway,  I told him that as a result alot of people are sent to places a little more off the map like Finland and he responded with "well,  shit happens"... I've rarely heard anyone insult their country like this and I burst out laughing.  I guess I had just learned something else about Finns then - they are not very patriotic (but deep down they really are - alot)

Finally,  there was my birthday.  My birthday was on a Tuesday - January 20th - a rotary meeting day!  Yeah...  it somehow didn't feel like all my other birthdays and not because I'm here in Finland but because it was my eighteenth.  You don't turn eghteen everyday.  On Tuesday my host family gave me a present - a CD of Sibelius'  most wellknown pieces.  I love Sibelius and I think it'll also be a great souvenir to remember Finland by and,  of course,  to remember my host family by.  ALso at school,  my friends sang happy birthday to me in Finnish and in English and I think some those who study French also sang it to me in French.  Oh yes,  and in Swedish but in Swedish the tune was different.  The tune is always the same with birthday songs but in Swedish it isn't.  They gave me candy and also a CD with all of their favourite music.  There was a really great variety in the CD.  It ranged fromBeyonce to Paramore to Cat Stephens to Finnish music that I don't remember the name of.  I am so greatful that they even remembered my birthday seeing as they've known each other so long and I've only been here for several months.  I was really touched.

It was at my birthday that I realized something about the Finns that I hadn't thought of before.  I noticed when I first got here that people don't accept copliments very easily.  If you say to your host mother - the dinner you prepared was amazing tonight - I loved it.  She will look at you with disbelieving eyes.  People in the America's are so used to emphasizing things and complimenting eachother profusely that,  at some point,  when you really think something  has surpassed your expectations - there are no more words for it.  You've already used the "Wow that is such an amazing dress!"  countless times on dresses that you thought were pretty but not amazing - because you wanted to compliment the wearer and appear polite by saying something.  Finns dont compliment very easily and neither do they accept compliments.  Also,  they don't accept thanks very easily either.  In Canada (and the StAtes I suppose),  people say thank you for EVERYTHING - thank you for openning the door,  thank you for turning on the light,  thank you for letting me pass,  thank you for stepping on my foot...  in Finland thanks is only said once in a while - (actually there's no word for "you're welcome" either.  People say "Ole Hyvää" which means "here you are" or "there you go" but the thanks usually follows this.  "Ole hyvää" is also used to say "please" because there isn't a word for that either.  Thats why if ever you're in Finland and you say thank you people may respond in "please" instead of "you're welcome".  I was in a shop once and I was wearing a hat with the Canada flag on it.  The cashier looked at me with very wide eyes and when I said "kiitos" (thank you)  she said "s'il vous plait" in French and in the tone one would use to say "you're welcome".  She was very enthusiastic in saying "s'il vous plait" like she wanted to impress and show what she knew about Canada.  I thought it was a little funny but I felt very grateful to her nonetheless because she had tried whereas most people would had simply shrugged it off.)  I've realized that I've been saying thank you and please way to often because people eventually started to sort of ignore my thanks - not because they were being impolite - because my thank yous had simply lost credibility.  I said it when someone opened the door for me so why would this thank you for the all the effort put into my birthday be any different?  My Finnish tutor at language camp told me that you always have to be honest with Finns.  If you don't like something - say it (you don't have to be rude about it but make sure the person is aware of it).  A compliment must always be followed by a critique and vice versa.  Therefore,  I couldn't find the right words to express my thanks for the gifts - I'd used them all up already.  The same thing happened when my host family gave me their present and also when my friends excitedly asked me "so what are you planning to do for your birthday?" (although I wouldn't burst into thanks for that but I would be grateful nonetheless).

In the evening of my birthday I had a rotary meeting at which new members were invited to see what being a rotarian was like and what it meant.  Therefore the club asked me to redo a part of my presentation for their sake since the exchange program is one of Rotary's biggest programs.  SO I talked a little about where I was from and how I was getting along in Ristiina (in Finnish of course).  The other rotarians had also prepared a presentation about Rotary.  At the end of the meeting,  the club president gave me a present (suprise - more SIbelius! and also some Abba music performed by a Finnish band which sings mostly without instruments and make all the sounds with their mouths) for my birthday.  The greatest thing ever though was when my councellor asked the club about my trip to Turkey.  The trip is part of the comenius project which takes place within several schools mostly in Europe (mostly).  Several students from each school meet together in a selected country and discuss matters of morality and ethics.  As soon as I'd heard of the project in September I'd wanted to be involved in it.  So I helped out as much as I could with presentation making,  interviews,  and several other things.  I also asked if I could be permitted to go on one of these trips and they said yes!  The European Union gives some money to the schools involved to go on these trips.  However the Ristiinan Lukio (my high school) had already used up alot of their money when they went to Spain and Poland this year for the comenius project.  Therefore,  though there was enough money to pay for accomodations and all that,  I still had to pay for the plane tickets.  I already have several trips to prepare for - and pay for.  Altogether these trips amount to perhaps 2500 Euros.   Therefore although the price of the plane ticket is 300 Euros,  it was yet another fee to pay and since I want to go to University next year - well - I'm sure you can understand.  So,  at that meeting the rotary decided to pay for my trip!  Again,  words were simply not enough to describe how I felt and express my thanks.  I love travelling and that was one of the best presents I could ever receive (Istanbul! Ankara! WOW!).  The rest of the evening was spent with my host family eating cake and relaxing.  All in all,  a fantastic birthday!

I planned a party with my friends.  We decided to go eat at a restaurant in Mikkeli and then go to my friend Johanna's house to continue the party.  We'd also wanted to have a "sleep over" for a long time since every time we got together we felt it was too short.  So we stayed overnight at Johanna's house.  The restaurant we went to was called Chinaman and it is (obviously) a Chinese food restaurant.  Its actually considered fast food restaurant because you order it at a counter but i didn't taste like fast food and I was very happy with the place.  I didn't really know what to order because everything was Chinese ingresients translated into Finnish - o.O  SO I took something completely random and turned out fine.  We were seven people altogether - all friends from school.  After eating we went to the grocery store to buy the food for the rest of the night (yeah,  lots of eating went on that night) - karialanpirakka (karelian pie - thin bread like dough with rice porridge in the center),  chips of course and such hthing as well as a KILOGRAM of candy.

Back at Johanna's we listened to music and talked alot andjoked around - we also watched Juno - a really good movie in my opinion.  At one point,  all my friends went to the kitchen and sat me down and entered the room with a huge chocolate cake which Johanna had prepared some time before (thank you so much Johanna if you're reading this - it was delicious as I've told you before).  I of course had to take the recipe.  It was chocolate cake with a little coffee and some apricots inside (or peaches).  I'd never heard of that kind of mix before and it was just - wow.  ALso,  they gave me a birthday card which Riina made (thank you Riina - its a beautiful card full of memeories) it had alot of pictures of us together at school or in Estonia and all my friends had signed it.  Finally they also gave me an absolutely magnificent golden necklace.  It is a completely Finnish product from the "Kalevala" collection.  It basically represent the "Lily of the Valley" and was made by goldsmith Tony Granholm. It has two lily leaves corssing eachother n forming a sort of "V" and from the bottom tip of the "V" a little bellflower hangs there.  Apparently they had all put their money together to buy this necklace.  Well since I can't possibly express my thanks in words I'm simply going to imortalize it in writing (and of course in every day life when I see them at school ). I can't begin to say how lost I would be in this exchange if it wasn't for my friends.  The rest of the party was basically talking,  eating,  listening to music,  and basically having a great time - we also went outside to jump in the snow and hope that the cold would help us stay awake much longer.  We eventually went to bed at four in the morning.  The next day everyone was too full and too sleepy to do much so we watched Mama Mia and sang along.  It was really fun.  Johanna and I went for a walk though because eating that much requires a little energy burning afterwards.  Yeah,  that was it basically.

SO now that I've written an imensly long entry which I hope didn't drag on and bore you,  I will leave you in peace until the next time I write (the opera in Helsinki and the wanhojen tanssit!).  Stay tuned!