Day 2 and 3 of Karkku

I am in Kiuruvesi now! I had a wonderful first night and also first day and there will be a longer post about that later. Here are just some quick summaries I wrote up a few days ago. 

Day 2 of Karrku

In the morning we had our first Finnish lesson, it was very good and the Finnish language is very logical so once you understand it, you just need to practise a lot to remember it all! We played a small ice breaker game where we had a finnish word with the same letter as our name and I was Joulupukki! SANTA!!

Sometime between the end of our first lesson and lunch it started snowing again so we all went outside and danced in the snow and took some pictures. The next lesson was on the alphabet and the different sounds that all the letters make, I was pretty stoked with myself because I can roll my r’s! Its one of those things some people just can’t do, like folding your tongue. Our teacher said that the Finnish president can’t roll her r’s! Kahvi and pulla time as usual and then out onto the soccer field for some snow soccer!! It was great fun but a bit slippery! There was a bit of dispute about one of the goals but our team definitely won ;) I got into a snow fight with Jooel but he is much stronger than me so he just threw me into the snow, which was good fun!

We had a quick presentation about Sauna after that and it was very interesting! One thing all the Finns told us was that we had to jump in the lake, It is a finnish thing and everyone does it! The lady giving the talk said only about 20 percent of Finns actually jump in the lake so we’d all been tricked! I don’t really see why they are so scared of it. I was talking to my host sister and she was surprised that I had actually gone in the lake because she had never done it hersef, I thought that was pretty funny.

I had my first clueless encounter with a finnish person today, I was going to the office to get my laptop and a little girl who looked about 7 looked at me and jabbered something at me and I just smiled and nodded at her and she giggled at me! There are two little girls that are sometimes running around the rooms, they sometimes come up to us with their wrists stuck together with tape, giggling their heads off , they are the cutest! I skipped sauna today because I was feeling a bit sick and it was also especially cold. When we went down to the sauna lounge we played this strange clappy game that I was really bad at and we all watched multiple people try to beat beth at speed, it got pretty intense while Lewis was playing because he almost beat her at one point!

Fast Finnish Fact # 1: There are more saunas’ in Finland then there are cars.

Joulupukki: Santa

My first snow!

Playing soccer

Go light coloured jacket team!

A cool shot I got of the trees

The weird clappy game

Karkku day 3

Today was amazing! Plain and simple! In the morning we had lessons which included the months, the seasons and also numbers. At the start of lessons we did this hilarious song and dance which basically documents the life of a banana including being digested and then being popped! We play the strangest games here! When lessons were over at about 3, we had a slideshow presentation about life in Finland which included all the holidays and what sort of things the Finns do during the year. It was very interesting and we learnt a few funny things about the Finns but I can’t remember any specifics right now. We also learnt all about Christmas and joulupukki and who should turn up as were talking about him but Joulupukki himself! We all sat on joulupukki's lap and he gave us finnish lollies. We had a delicious dinner then we all went and got rugged up for our wilderness training! There was this beautiful husky dog that went with one of the groups and while we were waiting we all fussed over him.

Then we split into groups and I was in the bear (karhu) group, our first activity was finnish crepe pancake things which were called lätty, We cooked them on a fry pan with a really long handle over the fire. We ate them with jam and sugar and they were delicious! After that we had a shot at cooking some finnish sausages or makkara, ou cook then on a long stick like a marshmallow, so not straight onto the fire but more over the coals. We went for a short walk down to the ice cave which was like an igloo but its just snow compacted together, it was so awesome! It had two chambers and you had to slide under and then slide up into the main chamber which had a hole in the bottom for our feet. It was really warm inside; we were all sweating by the time we got out. We learnt about how to make them so that they’re safe and you have enough oxygen! We had a quick shot at this weird spear thing that you sort of throw with this weird pole thing but we didn’t stay long because to do it you had to have your gloves off and the temperature was down to about -18 so it was freezing! We had try at the snow shoes and they were really fun! I stopped to take a picture of Sophie and then she said she’d take one of me and I stepped backwards not knowing the snow sloped and I fell straight in and this was almost waist deep snow so I had to get pulled out :P After we had all had a shot we trekked about halfway across the river to where they had a fire set up and some ice fishing! Lewis got to pull the line in and it actually had a fish on it! We got to try digging the hole which includes drilling the holes and then cutting the rest out with a funny scissor/ spear thing. We also tried the salmon that had been cooked on the fire and there were some ice sculptures there that a famous ice sculptor had made! He let us ruin them though by having a shot at the carving. We all joined up as a big group now and by this time most of us were freezing! We went for a short walk back to the campsite but halfway through our leader told us to stop and be really quiet and not use our camera flashes. I looked over and there was this big brown shadow curled up beside a tree and a lot of people were OMG its an actual bear!! The nature guy threw a snowball at it and it didn’t move and then he threw another and it got up and started running towards us! It was obvious as soon as it stood up it wasn’t an actual bear, I think if I had actually thought about it, awakening a real bear in front of 30 exchange students should have seemed a bit suspicious! That concluded our wilderness night and we all went inside and got a diploma saying we survived the finnish wilderness! Yay!

Makkara : Sausage

Lätty: Pancake/Crepe

Karhu: Bear

Joulopukki! He looks an awful lot like Jooel... hmmm

Husky!

Cooking our lätty

Group shot! 

In the ice cave!

Christina, Eamon, Me and Sophie's glove

The fishing hole

FISH!

Drill that hole!

Carve that ice!

ARGGGGHHHH!! BEAR!!! 

Day 1 of Karkku

So I am going to try very hard to make myself update my blog, I really love it when I have a completed post but it is a bit of effort to sit down and write them and get the best pictures and then upload all the others but I will try for you all!

So for those that don’t know all the southern hemisphere inbounds for Finland all go to an orientation camp for the first week and we learn Finnish language and culture and do Finnish things! The camp runs till Saturday and then our host families pick us up!

Day 1 of Karkku

We were awoken to one of our tutors banging on the tour telling us to wake up or we will miss breakfast! Breakfast was rice bubbles, rolls with ham, cheese and tomato and two types of porridge. I accidently put buttermilk on my rice bubbles and all the tutors laughed at me! After breakfast we had a bit of time to our selves so Ana, Miki, Sophie and I went for a bit of a walk around the grounds and to take some photos. Everything is so magical here, it is just so hard to explain and my pictures really don’t do it any justice. The snow is the brightest white and the trees are amazing, as most of you have probably heard me say already! We had a quick intro session and we met all the Tutors, most of them are past exchange students so they know exactly how we are feeling! They are all really nice and my groups tutor is Reeta and she went to Germany for her exchange. Then straight on to kahvi time which is coffee for those non-Finns out there. kahvi time is actually in our schedule everyday, kahvi and Pulla is a very important time of the day for Finns. Pulla is a bit like a cinnamon scroll except not quite as soft and much yummier! I love kahvi and pulla time!

TREES!

Camp

My First Photo in Suomi!

Kahvi and Pulla (also chocolate cake)

I got to talk to dad for a bit and sent some emails and photos home, to me it felt like I’d only been gone a day but it was more like 3 especially with the time difference! After computer time we all had a shot at trying the pulkka which is Finnish for sled. This was insanely fun! At first we were just going down the small driveway into the forest but then we moved on to the main driveway into the camp and you actually get quite a bit of speed and it is great fun! Unfortunately I didn’t really get a picture of me on the Pulkka but someone else has one and when I find out who it is, I will post the picture here! So I thought that nothing could get anymore awesome than sliding down the snow on the pulkka but after tea we had to get ready for Sauna! Pronounced Sah-oo-nah by the way, it seems the western world stole the word and then decided they didn’t like how it was said! Anyway Sauna= AWESOME! You get in the sauna and at first it is a bit unpleasant because it is really hot and I mean really hot! We averaged at about 65 degrees, the whole time, after a while it actually feels really nice and you slowly work out how to breathe properly and the feeling that you are being cooked sort of goes away. After you’re all warmed up, you pull your socks on and make a mad dash down the steps and wait your turn to go in the lake. This is outside in the -5 degree cold with only our underwear on! Anyway then you go down the ladder into the lake and just sort of wade around for a bit until it is just way to cold and you scramble out and run as fast as you can back into the sauna to warm back up! The first time I only got up to my knees in the water because it is freezing! Your whole body goes numb! The second time I went all the way up to my shoulders which is as far as you should go because the cold water is very bad for your head. That time felt much nicer because your body is cooling and heating up at the same rate. Hmm I’m not explaining it very well! After a bit somehow we all managed to start a snow fight inside the sauna because there is a bucket of snow that you can rub on yourself if you get a bit hot. It was so fun but very un-Finnish! Saunas are for deep thinking and reflection on the meaning of life, not snow fights and giggles! We all had a good time so we can be proper Finns later!

Towards the end a few of us decided to jump in the snow right after the sauna and that was even colder than the ice because the snow sticks to you and it is a lot more sudden too because with the lake you have to lower your self down whereas the snow is just boom! I think I enjoyed that a bit more than the ice but maybe that’s because the sauna was a lot closer to get back inside afterwards!

The Sauna

After everyone had enough Sauna we all piled into the lounge room and played a few games; Mafia, Charades and wink murder. Then it was off to bed! That night I woke up at 5am because I was still a tiny bit jetlagged which was very annoying but I decided I would use that opportunity to write in my journal so I came out into the lounge and it was snowing outside!!! Only a tiny little bit but it was the first time I’d ever seen it snow, I was a bit devastated though because by the time I’d walked the 10 steps to my room to get my camera, it had stopped! :(

Anyway thus ends my first full day in Finland and was it one of the best days of my life? Yes, yes it very much was!

Day 2 to follow soon!

Some Finnish words you should have learnt

Kahvi – Coffee

Pulla – Finnish Cinnamon Scroll

Pulkka – Sled

Going for a walk

More Trees!

The lake we jumped into

Snow Angels!

So beautiful

Delicious Lunch

Pulkka!

Happy Australia Day everyone! We are going to Tampere tomorrow for shopping and a bit of sights seeing! It should be awesome but I doubt it will beat the awesomeness that was tonight. I will post about it soon, I am exhausted! I will probably not get any of my photos uploaded until I get to my host family because the internet here is very slow!

xx Julia

The Journey!

This will be mostly pictures of the 34+ hours that it took to get to Finland!

All the Family! 

IRENE!

Pam and David

Goodbye Adelaide!

Leaving Melbourne

The Melbourne to Singapore flight was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I just watched a movie, HIMYM, read for a bit and just chilled out. It was over in a jiffy!

Singapore! So many Boats! 

I didn't really take many photos in London but it was really fun! We were there for about 4 hours and it was all the Finalnders and a few Austrian exchangers all just hanging out in the London terminal! We all laughed at how they had the Queen on almost 12 different postcards and we fussed over how we had no idea how to pay for stuff! The flight to London was good, I slept for about 4 hours, but in that time it was Adelaide dinner time and I missed a meal while I was sleeping so when I woke up I was starving! 

Sweden from the air!

At the airport! 

After we hopped off the plane (whoo! Finnish soil!) we all got on a little bus that drove us to the termainal and we all got our luggage, went through immigration and we were greeted by Rotarians at that gate! At the time it was a bit surreal and frankly I was exhausted so I don't remember much of it. We then all piled onto the bus and waited forever for the next flight with the Perth kids and turns out it took them so long because they had lost Eamon's luggage! The trip to Karkku was pretty quick, I tried to stay awake and managed to succeed! When we arrived we had afternoon snack and then straight into bed!

Will post about some more awesome stuff later!

The oh so important "I AM IN FINLAND" post

So as you may already know: I AM IN FINLAND!
It is amazing and beautiful and I am truly in love with it. The flight was pretty good, not as horrid as I thought it would be. I will post more when I have my journal with me, right now I am sitting in the lounge room of Karkku and we're just chilling and just generally having a great time! We all went in the snow this morning and THE TREES! seriously they are amazing, like out of a dream.
Anyway, super busy having a great time so I will do a big update later!

Me and my friend Ana out in the snow! 

The last month

So the 1 month mark for my exchange passed a few days ago! SCARY!
I have done quite a lot of preparation stuff, I did a test pack a few days a go, my suitcase came to 17 kgs which was with pretty much everything in it except a pair of shoes and my christmas pressies! My pins also arrived in the mail about a week ago! All 2800 of them! Dad is going to sell the ones I dont need, i'll probably keep about 400 of them. The main ones are a kangaroo, a kookaburra and a kangaroo with a boomerang.


I had a talk at my rotary club the other day, it was basically the talk that I would give to my finnish club talking about australia. I felt I went pretty well, I might have spoken a bit fast but the speech was pretty impressive if I do say so myself! I also got to wear my rotary blazer, I had a photo with Irene in it, I will post it when she gives it to me! I got an email from my travel agent 2 days ago saying that my tickets, passport and visa are in the mail and will be arriving within 7 days! Yay! Can't wait for them to get here, that will make it seem very real!


Anyway this was just supposed to be a short post, I will do a bit of a Christmas in Australia post soon when I have sorted through all my photos, I took hundreds! I will leave you know with an amazing photo that my Finnish counsellor sent me that was taken from his backyard and also a photo I took of the sunset at Brighton Beach on Thursday.

Also a list of awesome links to check out!

• Really beautiful Finnish winter photos
• The REAL Santa wears pretty awesome socks!
• All Things Europe - Lots of amazing pictures of everywhere in Europe
• Cool shirt that I want to buy!

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas! 

xx

25 days! 

Final Briefing and an array of other topics!

Hyvää iltaa!

Our districts final briefing was on Saturday and to be completely honest it was rather boring, we went over all the technicalities, like quarantine, insurance and the rotary support network. As much as it is very important information, i'd heard most of it before and I just so happened to be really, really sick so spent most of it trying not to die in front of all the rotarians! We did however get out blazers which was rather exciting! Mine is a bit big, but you wont be able to tell when I have pins all over it! We also got a a rugby top thats green and yellow which was cool and also a set of business cards; my picture is very nice ;)

I've spent most of this week sick which kind of made this week suck but I did do a bit of Christmas shopping with my Nanna, who is visiting from Melbourne, and Renee and also with Lisa! I picked up a really nice jumper for 20 bucks! Today I went and saw "Devil" with Kate and Lisa, it was an alright movie but wasn't really that scary, I had a free ticket so I didn't mind! 

I did a fair bit of vocab cramming yesterday, learnt a lot of new greetings and how to respond to greetings, I also learnt the seasons and things you might find in a bedroom (pillow, sheets, bed, etc) I feel kind of silly sitting there repeating the word to my computer, not because it cant hear me but because I just can't make the same sounds as the Finns and it is rather discouraging. I know that I will pick it up through repetition but I dont want to look silly by miss-pronouncing a word when I first get there and i'm afraid that will stop me from putting myself out there and trying and I really really want to just try my Finnish! I guess I must just hope that everyone will be supportive and understand that sometime I can't say the words right! To all the outbounds reading this, even before I have left, I really feel like investing in the language has helped me because I am familiar with the sounds and the sort of sounds that different letters make together which i'm pretty sure will make it easier to pick it up when I arrive. Some say you should focus on grammar but I am happy learning new Finnish words that I can add to my vocab and improving my pronunciation.

There isn't really anything new on the packing front, it is stressful and I worry about how im going to get everything I need in to one small suitcase and make it weigh under 20 kgs :/ I will get there, slowly and steadily. Another thing that anyone who is my facebook friend may have noticed is those constant links I post about voting for a competition! It is a comp to win a trip in Finland and it is for my dad, if you want to vote for him, click here! It would really make his year seem a whole lot better if he won! On a unrelated note,  I sent my first mail to Finland yesterday!

Now for some cool things I found over the last week: 

Really beautiful pictures of the Northern lights

This hilarious video of some Finnish Heavy Metal rockers who won the 2006 Eurovision 

Top Gear in Finland! 

Also if you have never seen Scandinavia and the world comics, you should definitely check them out! 

50 Days

Just a quick update on things that have been happening! 
Last Sunday was the 2 month mark for my departure and it was also the day of the Geocaching SA Quiz event! It was a really great day and I picked up some really awesome path tags and a badge for my blazer. 

My Table: the winners table! Winners of 7th place no less! 

Everyone!

Probably the biggest event lately however would be Dad coming home! He has been home for almost 2 weeks now and it is so great having him home again!

Clay was so cute, he kept trying to lick dad's face! 

I have officially finished school now, I spent 3 days at a child care doing work experience but today was my last day so now I can focus on my Finnish and other important things like watching BONES and Gossip Girl! Holidays <3 I have started to pack though, its so exciting, I have my final briefing on Saturday which means I get my blazer! 

I won't start really packing till after Christmas though because besides all the mess Christmas normally makes, I just want to focus on having an awesome Christmas then worry about packing for A WHOLE YEAR!! I have started to get a few pre-exchange jitters, I'll get really scared for just a few minutes and then it will be like 10 minutes later that i'll actually realise that it was my exchange that made me scared! With all the Christmas stuff going on it also made me sad to think of the birthdays and holidays that i'll miss, but to quote my sister: "but you'll be in FINLAND!" I have been trying to think more like this but its expected that I will be a bit sad. Christmas is by far my favourite holiday and the realisation that is my last with my family for a long time has had me a bit down in the last few days. 

Other exciting things that have been happening include my friend Aiesha who left for her Europe/Asia tour last tuesday! The group are going to Shanghai, Zurich, Vienna, Rome and Tokyo! We had a bit of a farewell thing for her on Monday but all my photos came out blurry! If you are from these cities wave at the big group of teenagers with blue jackets on! :)

We also made gingerbread houses in Home Ec class on the last Thursday, they were so much fun! I love to make stuff and I hope to make more crafty food things in the holiday, I actually made a new blog for all that sort of stuff which you should all check out because its pretty cool ;) http://peculiarprojects.blogspot.com I know its a kind of lame name, I'll change it when I think of something more creative! 

You also may have noticed that I have given my blog a major facelift, I made it simpler looking because my old theme was giving me a headache! Too many colours, I like it simpler! What do you guys think?  

First day of summer was a bit of a fail, top of 22 degrees :P hahaha I hope it gets hotter fast!! Its weird to think that next year I'll be having a white christmas! All my CS friends have been commenting on the snow they've been getting and to think that won't be weird soon! 

As you may know I am a Geocacher (if you dont; read this earlier post) Anyway an anonymous Geocacher put little presents out for heaps and heaps of the SA Geocachers under the name SecretSantaGeocacher and we got a really adorable little Bike geocoin. It was such lovely thing to do for the community and really meant a lot to many teams. 

Sunset as we went our retrieve our gift 

Isn't it cute! 

So my little virtual sticky notes inform me I have covered all my points of interest, I never blog this thoroughly! Ahhh well its good practice for when im in Finland!! I have just realised I have posted once in between my 100 days to go and my 50 days to go! LAME, I promise I will try and do better. 

2 days till Final Briefing

23 days till Christmas

50 days till Finland

223 days till Harry potter (yah I know its sad im already counting)

Harry Potter, Flights and Globe Genie

So you may notice that Harry Potter is listed first before the exciting news of my flights, what a bad exchange student I am! :D

I saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 last night with two friends i've known since I was about 5 and I LOVED IT! By far the best movie mainly because it was very true to the books, there were a few scenes that could have easily been tweaked to make them more canonical (have I ever mentioned I love that word, its such a cool word to say) but apart from that, there were no glaring differences. There was also a little added scene that wasn't in the book, I dont want to give it away for those who havent seen it, but I thought it was really sweet. Absolutely cannot wait for the next part which I believe comes out around July 13th in Finland.

My favourite scene was dobby's speech!

I also got my flight details a few weeks ago, it makes it seem so real when you actually know what time your leaving! I leave around midday on January 21st on a domestic flight to Melbourne. Im glad its domestic because that way I can meet my Nanna and maybe my cousins at the airport and say goodbye to them. I have about 2 hours in Melbourne which will be taken up by customs and finding all the other Finlanders. Then we all fly off to Singapore airpot and we've only got about 2 hours there and then its straight back onto a 6 hour flight to London. By the time we get to London its 5am the next day and we've got a 5 hour layover and then onto a plane for a 5 hour flight to Helsinki! I arrive in Helsinki 26 hours after I departed Adelaide but it is 6 am Finland time when I land so I'll still have to stay awake for the rest of the day! I believe that when we arrive in Helsinki all the Aussies catch a bus to Tampere which is only a 2 hour drive and then we settle into our orientation campsite (and hopefully they let us sleep!)

Yesterday was the 9 weeks left mark and tomorrow is the 21st which means 2 months left! I've got a caching event tomorrow and then 1 more week of school, then 3 days of work experience and then Im free! Free to prepare and to get right into some finnish learning! I have also been doing some lose planning for when my cousin comes to visit me in Finland. Were both not sure when or how or what yet because I have to speak to my family about when the best tim for her to come is but i'm quite excited because we hope we can both go down to Savonlinna which is where ou Great- Grandfather was born.

Also if you are into travel, you should check out this site: Globe Genie. It is really awesome, it randomly transports you to a spot in the world. You sometimes get boring streets but sometimes you get beautiful scenery or a street with really strange houses. I really love it but be warned its really addictive! I actually ended up in Kiuruvesi after about 2 hours, it was really exciting! I just clicked teleport then and I've ended up in France. 

14 days till Final Briefing (BLAZERS!!!!)

34 days till Christmas

61 days till Finland! (wow, so close!)