I learned to count!

The last few days have pretty much been doing school work. On Thursday night was another Stammtisch party, this time it was planned by the students from the Germans speaking countries and it was themed Karnival. My friends as I dressed at cats and Collette (the 50 year old exchange student) got our costumes for us.

I am learning a lot of Finnish in my language class and I can have a basic conversation with someone now. My roommate and I took a taxi to our friends apartment a few days ago and we had the taxi driver teach us how to count to ten. Although their number here are very long. For example, eighty is kahdeksankymmenta and forty-nine would be neljakymmentayhdeksan. However, one hundred is sata.

The other day, we went to the city center for dinner. Unfortunatly, we went a little late and the only thing open was McDonalds; so, we went. In Europe, most McDonalds deliver your food to our. Also, in Finland, they do not put ketchup and mustard on burgers; they put mayo and a red sauce that tastes like taco sauce...it was not too good.

I will start playing lacrosse tomorrow and in March I will be going to Turku to play a game.

I met a Spanish guy this weekend, who is completly infatuated with the fact that I am from the US. It is almost kind of awkward, but everytime I run into him he has a new list of question about the US; for example, he really wanted to know what color our passports were.

I didn't think that my first name was a hard on to pronounce, but a lot of people have trouble with it. Some students just can't say it at all and because of this I have gotten the nickname 'America' by those who can't say my name.

There is a lot of architecture on campus, this is a big thing for the Finns.

Liikunta- the Health Science building where most of my classes are.

Student Union building on campus

C Building- the main building on campus

Wipers for the headlights haha

Update

On Monday, I met with my Finnish Friendship Family again. Ritva, my hostess, told me that she would teach me how to make some Finnish foods :) they are also taking me to a Finnish symphony. In 2 weeks the 2 other American girls and I will be doing a presentation for the Finnish-American Society about where we are from. Also, next weekend I will be going to my families house for dinner and a sauna.
I will also be doing an "Each One Teach One" while I am here. A lot of my friends here are from Austria and Switzerland and when they are speaking in German, I can understand them but not fast enough to respond in a conversation. One of my friends is not confident with his English grammar. So, while we are here I will help him with his English and he will help me with German.
I have had yet another experience with someone assuming that I grew up in Finland. My friend and I went to the store yesterday and she asked a cashier where she could find an adaptor. He starts to tell her in English then turns to me and starts talking to me in Finnish. I told him that I don't speak Finnish and his response was, "what? you are not a Finn?!" It is good to know that I don't look like a foreigner, though :)

i'm a real finn now!

Last night was the Ultimate Sauna Experience for the exchange students. We walked to the sauna on one of the lakes where they broke a huge hole in the ice for us to jump into. We sat in the sauna for about 15 mins then jumped into the lake and ran back to the sauna. The sauna was not at all close to the lake so by the time you got out of the lake, our feet were frozen. The second time we put our boots on and played in the snow. My friend and I staying outside longer than the other students. One of the Finnish students told me that I really am a crazy finn. haha After a few mins my whole body was numb and I wasn't that cold anymore.
Stepping into the lake

Snowball fight!

I was making a snow angel

We stayed outside the longest!

Update

So, this last name issue has been turning into a nice little adventure. I had an experience pretty much just like Grandpa's when he tried to check into a hotel in Finland. I made a doctors appointment and when I got there for it, I told them my last name and they insisted they didn't have me down for an appointment. So, I wrote my last name and they found my name right away. The first 'e' sounds like a long 'i', the 'r' is rolled, the 'a' is a long 'a' and the nen is like nin. I find it really difficult to say, and I haven't yet managed to say is right.
I met my Finnish friendship family on Thursday! They are retired and both of thier kids are grown and married. They wanted to be placed with an exchange student very bad but they didn't think they would get one because they aren't as exciting as a young family with kids. So they were so excited to meet me and had their family come to meet me too. We went to the planetarium with the Finnish-American Society they belong to. They were both very upset when the entire presentation was in Finnish and they knew I didn't understand anything. However, they tried to translate for me, but the announcer talked too fast. They also made me A LOT of finnish food: a pie, 2 different kinds of sandwiches, and 2 other things that I'm not sure what they were, but they tasted good!
Tonight we are going to the sauna on one of the lakes where there is a big hole in the lake right off of the dock, that we will be jumping into!
Other than that, classes are picking up and I am starting to feel like everything is familiar now :)

More Pictures!

The building I live in, taken from one of the outdoor ice rinks in our complex.

Karaoke!

Right outside my apartment.

In my apartment complex.

Finland gets A LITTLE snow...finally

For the last week or so, it has been fairly warm for winter time in Finland (one day was 40 degrees) and there has been no snow on the ground. Today, was the first time it has snowed since I have been here! It is supposed to snow for the rest of the week and we will be getting a lot.
It has been a busy past few days, although I do think that everything seems busier because the days seem shorter when it is dark at 4:00pm. However, the days are starting to get noticably longer :)
Last Thursday night, we attended our first Stammtisch, which is a party for the exchange students that are held every other Thursday. Each Stammtisch is themed around the different countries the exchange students are from so the group of kids from each country get to plan their own Stammtisch during the semester.
On Friday, we went out to do karaoke (if I can post the video, I will) and played scrabble again but this time with our friends from Austria. The rest of the weekend was relaxing, we went to the coffee shop and worked on homework.
Today, my professor informed me that I spell my last name wrong and there are supposed to be two dots over the 'a', then told me that she would be writting my name correctly with the dots. She also told me the correct pronunciation, which is totally different than how we say it. However, she is the first person to ever correctly spell my last name without any difficulty, she also told me that I have the easiest last name in the class..this is also a first.
I have been assigned a Finnish friendship family that I will be spending time with while I am here. The wife is a member of a Finnish-American society in Jyvaskyla; on Thursday, I will be going to an activity at a planetarium for the society with her.
Finally, next month, I will be spending a week in Ivalo in Lapland. The trip is planned through my school and we will be going to Santa's Village, the Kemi snow castle, to a reindeer farm and for a ride on a reindeer sleigh, cross-country skiing, ice fishing, igloo building, snow shoeing, to a Saami museum, to Norway to go swimming in the Arctic Ocean and on either a husky safari or a snow mobile safari. We also have to catch and cook our own fish and we will be staying in cabins.

First week of classes...done

I have had my first week of classes, which are not too bad, especially since I only have 2 classes for this month. I am learning more and more Finnish, and I am taking a Finnish language course this month, too.On Tuesday, there was a party for all of the exchange students at a night club called Kharma. It is much nicer than the night clubs I have been to in the US. Although, there were cup holders all along the wall of the dance floor and everyone thought it was really strange that my roommate and I refused to leave our drinks in there and that we insisted on carrying them around with us. We had to explain why we weren't going to set them down over and over, but all of the European students insisted that no one touches anyone elses drink in Europe, even if it is left alone. Needless to say, we never used those cup holders. I have also had to get used to leaving my coat on a coat rack in buildings on campus. There is a large coat rack at the door of every building where we must hang our coats. At home, I would never do that because it probably wouldn't be there when I got back; however, my tutor has insisted that no one would ever take it. And most students will also hang their purses on them, as well.One thing I have gotten used to very easily and will hate to leave when I go home is the potatoes and bread. At every restaurant and cafeteria, free (and as much as you want) salad, bread, potatoes and sometimes coffee comes with every meal. Most often the bread is still warm when you get it and it is so much better than the bread at home. But, we all know that Finns love their bread. Finally, Finns will eat everything on their plate, no matter what. Sometimes, it doesn't even look like there was any food on it in the first place. They also eat very fast.

First Foreign Class

I had my first class today, it was Strategic Management. Most people in my class are Finnish and there are only a few exchange students. My profressor speaks very good english, so he is easy to understand. Tomorrow I will start my survivaly finnish language course. Those will be the only 2 classes I have for January and February. I will be taking 8 classes this semester but only about 2 or 3 a month, since their classes run anywhere from 4 to 12 weeks and new ones start each month.

The top 4 pictures are of the city center. The top two are at about 2:00pm, that is how dark it is. In the bottom pictures, one is the view from my apartment window and my bedroom.

One Week In...

I have been busy this week and are normally gone all day from 8am-10pm. On Thursday we had orientation, went to dinner then to the bar. Over here, the bars close at 10pm and it is so expensive, we normally just drink water or pop. Friday was our last day of orientation and we went shopping in the city center after. That night, my roommate and I played scrabble with 2 of the British students (one who is 50 years old), it was difficult though because they use so many different words than us and spell a lot of words differently. Even my roommate cannot understand me when I talk sometimes because it is so different, and she is from Canada. Saturday, we went back to the city center for a few hours then the British students made us soup and scones for dinner. Today we went to the center for lunch and coffee with some exchange students from Austria. After, we had to to go the bar to watch a very important soccer game (which was only important to the european kids).

I am learning more of the culture here, but it is the small things that are harder to learn. For example, Finland is VERY environmentally friendly and everything is recylced but we never know what to throw away where. Cars never stop for pedestrians and bikers will run you over if you do not move out of the way. This is getting easier to learn because we walk everywhere, usually 2-4 miles a day. Walking isn't too bad in the cold especially because there is no wind here, ever, and I have yet to see it snow (but there is a lot of snow on the ground already). On Thursday night, I went to dinner with some Dutch students and went to use the bathroom. Although, the doors say "men" and "women" in finnish, which I couldn't read, there are no pictures like in the US. Since no one was around to ask, I peeked into both and they looked exactally the same so I just picked one, and of course I picked the wrong one. So the three Finnish people waiting outside when I was done were not hesitant to tell me...oopes. My roommate and I went into a sub shop for lunch on saturday, we actually had to leave because almost everyone in the place kept starring at us and wouldn't stop. However, the starring has gotten a lot better. I have actually had a number of Finns come up to me and start speaking in finnish because apparently I look really finnish and aside from the way I dress, I look like I have lived here my whole life.

I have been spending a lot of time with exchange students from Canada, the Netherlands, Austria, England and Hungary. The Finnish students are just getting back to school after their break, however, it is hard to talk to the ones who are here now because Finns are very shy. We were told that most Finns won't smile at you and the prefer silence to talking.

The top picture is of a bridge that connects 2 of the 3 campuses at the university. Notice the position of the sun, this picture was taken at 12:30pm. The second is a street heading into the city center. Hopefully, I will have time to post more pictures tomorrow! I also start my classes tomorrow!!

Culture Shock

Yesterday was a holiday where the Finns burn their Christmas trees to end the Christmas season, so everything was closed and we were kinda of stuck in our apartments all day. However, we went to my roommates tutors apartment (we are all assigned tutors to help us get around) in the evening and she made us a finnish pie and taught us certain things to do/say or not to do/say. Since stores were closed and my roommate and I couldn't figure out how to use our stove, we hadn't aten anything all day except for an apple. That night we all slept for about 3 hours because of jet lag.
Today was interesting and it started with me getting locked in my bedroom (the doors here are tricky and they lock you in and out when you close them) and our smoke detector went off three times because of making toast. Finally, it was about zero degrees and we had a 30 minute walk to campus at 9:00am. Today was our first day of orientation and we got to meet the other 100 or so exchange students. There are only 2 other American girls here. For lunch we had fish fingers, salad, bread, rice and a potato with homemade beer and sour milk (sweet milk). After orientation we went to the city center to buy some things we needed. There are lots of shops but everything is in finnish, which I've determined will be almost impossible to learn. Before going back to the apartment, we went back to the grocery store. I almost feel dysfunctional in the grocery stores because we have no idea what we are buying and have to ask our tutor about everything! In Finland, the bags for groceries must be paid for. Well, as soon as we started putting our groceries into plastic bags a cashier started yelling at us in finnish. When we told her we didn't understand her she started yelling louder. My roommate's tutor came to help and once we got everything figured out, the cashier started mocking us to the other customers waiting in line...embarassing. Needless to say, I'm afraid to go back to the grocery store. We took our first bus ride back to our apartments, which also turned into a difficult task when the driver got angry because we handed our money to him instead of putting it onto the little tray in front of him.
There are a lot of small things in the Finnish culture that are different from the American culture that we don't notice until we have already done it wrong. For example, pointing is something never to do, there is no tax on anything and you do not tip anyone. A few other different things, the elevators look like doors to a refridgerator that you have to open and once you get to the floor you have to push the doors open. We learned this after standing in the elevator at our floor for 5 mins trying to figure out how to open it. Simularly, the toilets are flushed by pulling a nob up on the top of the toilet. It took me about 3 mins to figure out how to flush the toilet the first time I went. haha. And all of the building smell the same on the inside, but its a funky kind of smell. Finally, the US is one of the only countries not on the metric system, which makes my life a whole lot more difficult. This morning, everyone was saying that it was -20 degrees outside, in which case I thought that I needed to put about 5 layers on before even thinking about stepping outside. Well, everyone was talking -20 C not -20 F. And, everyone looks at me like I'm crazy when I ask how many miles 1 kilometer is or what the temperature would be in Farhenheit. So, I made myself a little cheat sheet with all the converstions to carry with me.

This is all for now. I hope it makes sense, I typed it very fast! Pictures will come soon!
:)

i'm here!

I have been in Jyvaskyla for about 5 hours now. I am completly unpacked and running on 2 hours of sleep since Sunday morning, thanks to crying kids on the plane. However, I am surprised that I managed to get myself here without any problems ;-) Although, I do find it a bit annoying that everyone stares at me everywhere I go and when I talk I get even more looks. I feel like I would get less stares if I were walking around in a clown costume...
My roommates name is Jackie and she is from Nova Scotia, Canada. Right when we got here our tutors told us that tomorrow is a holiday so all the stores will be closed. Immediatly after dropping our luggage off in our apartment, we walked to a small grocery store behind our building. After walking around aimlessly for about 15 mins and only picking out a loaf of bread and orange juice, our tutors decided to help us.
-Erin