I was at an AFS camp last weekend.
I took a train into Helsinki and found the AFS group fairly easy (I knew I found it when I saw John, one of the other US AFSers). He was talking with a Swiss named Valerio and a couple other people. Valerio was from the Italian part of Switzerland so he knew Italian, German, and English. He also struck me as a person who would get along with Chris Doughty very well; they seem so similar!
Soon after I got there we went back into the train station to the metro, the Helsinki-only train. After that we got off the train and onto a bus. The AFS counsellors accidently told us to get off the bus at the wrong spot so we had to wait fifteen minutes for the next one. I volunteered to walk, a few times, but they said no.
Once we got to the campsite we played some social games to get everyone acquaintanced. Lunch came after. For food it was a prime example of Finnish Simple Fare. Good warm bread, good warm cheese, good cold sausage, and good cold ham. We had the same thing for breakfast on Saturday and sunday.
The Sauna and general sociality was next. I lost my watch and glasses, but they were found so it didnt end up being a problem. I stayed up all night with a few people (Helin and Dennis- Turks, Timo- half German and half Finnish, John- from Massachusettes, Marco- from Oregon, Lucka- Austrian, Valerio- Swiss, and Antonio- Italian) and we ended up playing cardgames a lot, and Helin earned herself a reputation for talking a lot. I was pretty tired the next morning.
Saturday morning had equal measures of coffee, which I learned to just drink down fast thanks to John, and breakfast. The AFSers split up into small groups to discuss AFS things and experiences we had over the last three weeks.
In the late afternoon, though, I crashed and took a couple hour nap. When I woke up I missed lunch and was in a pretty bad mood that lasted until midnight (when I got to sleep again). I woke up at 9am on Sunday for breakfast. The rest of the day until we left at 1pm wasn't much different from the day before.
When I got home I slept from 3pm to the next morning at 7am, although I did wake up for a little while at 7pm and 3am.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Ive been here almost two weeks. So far it has felt somewhere between a blur and hideously slow.
The main thing I have problems with is learning the language, but things are slowly pulling together. In a month or two I think I might be speaking decently, but it's still a long road in front of me in that area.
School is different, and I like how the classes are set up. There are 6 time slots but not all of them are filled. On Tuesdays classes and on Thursdays I have 2, and on Wednesday and Thursday my first class is at 10 am. The rest of the days start at 8:30. Yay for being able to sleep more.
I got a 30 day bus pass that lets me use the bus as much as I want for almost 50 euros. Thats about 75$. Even then that is still cheaper than paying for each ticket individually which is about 3.50$ per trip and I take 2 trips every school day. Thats 7$ a day, and for almost 25 days a month that is well over 150$ a month. I still need to pay the 8$ for any trip I want to take into Helsinki, but that isn't too bad since I wont likely go in there often.
I havent taken many pictures either. I just havent had picture-taking on my mind. Sorry about that.
The main thing I have problems with is learning the language, but things are slowly pulling together. In a month or two I think I might be speaking decently, but it's still a long road in front of me in that area.
School is different, and I like how the classes are set up. There are 6 time slots but not all of them are filled. On Tuesdays classes and on Thursdays I have 2, and on Wednesday and Thursday my first class is at 10 am. The rest of the days start at 8:30. Yay for being able to sleep more.
I got a 30 day bus pass that lets me use the bus as much as I want for almost 50 euros. Thats about 75$. Even then that is still cheaper than paying for each ticket individually which is about 3.50$ per trip and I take 2 trips every school day. Thats 7$ a day, and for almost 25 days a month that is well over 150$ a month. I still need to pay the 8$ for any trip I want to take into Helsinki, but that isn't too bad since I wont likely go in there often.
I havent taken many pictures either. I just havent had picture-taking on my mind. Sorry about that.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Dawn Breaking
The trip to Finland was a journey in itself. first I had to wake up at four AM to get to Minneapolis for a flight to New York. I happened to miss that flight but managed to get a flight an hour later. After that, I was in New York. It was overwhelming to a degree because of the sheer number of cars and how different everything was. I found my AFS group and we took a van to a hotel for an orientation. Here I met the other people going to Finland; two were even from Minnesota, too! Anyway, the orientation felt long because I was so tired, but the bed in the room I had was very comfortable so I slept well. The next day we started our journey.
Our group, the students going to Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, took a bus through New York to the Newark airport. The flight took off at around 1800 eastcoast time and landed about 7 or 8 hours later in Copenhagen at about 0820 Denmark time. This flight wasn't too bad, but was long. I was in a seat next to the isle and was next to a Dane who happened to go to Mexico through AFS when she was younger, and her boyfriend went to the US through AFS. I thought it was pretty cool. We talked some until the plane took off.
The flight to Helsinki from Copenhagen was very easy. There were a lot of free seats, I had a row to myself, and only took about an hour.
My host parents and my new sister Rosa, who is 6 years old, were waiting for me. The other AFSers seemed to have more businesslike families or siblings their age, but in the end I don't think that would have been the best for me. My Finnish family is very lovely and caring. I wasn't even homesick until I was told by my hostmother that I could call my father with their cellphone at any time. I couldn't because that connection would hurt because I wouldn't want to talk to him without being with him. it would hurt too much.
When my hostmother and I went to my new school to sign up for classes, I was nervous because this is more public than the nice famil I live with. I was afraid of the what impression I was giving, and everything was new. It was like jumping into a cold lake. Thankfully I'm picking up Finnish pretty easily. My hostmother says I sound like a Finn, but that just makes me nervous because what if people think I know more Finnish than I do?
Anyways, that concludes my first blog entry after arriving in Finland.
Our group, the students going to Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, took a bus through New York to the Newark airport. The flight took off at around 1800 eastcoast time and landed about 7 or 8 hours later in Copenhagen at about 0820 Denmark time. This flight wasn't too bad, but was long. I was in a seat next to the isle and was next to a Dane who happened to go to Mexico through AFS when she was younger, and her boyfriend went to the US through AFS. I thought it was pretty cool. We talked some until the plane took off.
The flight to Helsinki from Copenhagen was very easy. There were a lot of free seats, I had a row to myself, and only took about an hour.
My host parents and my new sister Rosa, who is 6 years old, were waiting for me. The other AFSers seemed to have more businesslike families or siblings their age, but in the end I don't think that would have been the best for me. My Finnish family is very lovely and caring. I wasn't even homesick until I was told by my hostmother that I could call my father with their cellphone at any time. I couldn't because that connection would hurt because I wouldn't want to talk to him without being with him. it would hurt too much.
When my hostmother and I went to my new school to sign up for classes, I was nervous because this is more public than the nice famil I live with. I was afraid of the what impression I was giving, and everything was new. It was like jumping into a cold lake. Thankfully I'm picking up Finnish pretty easily. My hostmother says I sound like a Finn, but that just makes me nervous because what if people think I know more Finnish than I do?
Anyways, that concludes my first blog entry after arriving in Finland.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
First Post: AFS Intro
I'm Edward Lundborg. I chose to go abroad to Finland because since a couple years ago I decided I wanted to go abroad. Falling in love with the idea of Finland was a bit more recent. I think that started last year when I broadened my musical knowledge a lot more and found more Finnish bands, one of which primarily used the Finnish language.
At some point I acquired a Finnish/English dictionary. I was fascinated by the language since it was so different from the surrounding areas. It felt like an Asian language that grew up in a place where an Anglo language should be, thus taking aspects of it. The challenge of wrapping my mouth over the new vowels was fun, too.
My family decided to go forward on the idea of foreign exchange about midsummer 2008. Over the time of the planning process I was in our school musical from December to March. This was when I received the AFS handbook, which gave me a lot of insight into the foreign experience.
About a month after I was called and I learned that I was guaranteed a spot to go to Finland. I was excited, but the call just moved us one obstacle closer to the goal. We learned the cost soon after. It was a doozy.
It was about a month later after that that I learned who my host family was. After trading emails with the mother of the family I got a little bit of the feel for what I might expect from them, personality-wise. My host mother to-be is a very nice lady and I'm sure to have a warm welcome to their family.
Later, thanks to Google Maps, I looked up the place where they lived and the school I was likely to go to. The school, named Lumon Lukio, or Lumon Highschool, is very similar to the charter school I go to now, only a lot more funded and a lot bigger. There is even a restaurant and internet cafe in the campus area. All it needs is to be free and it's heaven on Earth! It's even a quarter mile from a metro station that I can take to another station near my host family's home.
Now here I am posting on this shiny new blog. Probably not often until I actually get to Finland.
At some point I acquired a Finnish/English dictionary. I was fascinated by the language since it was so different from the surrounding areas. It felt like an Asian language that grew up in a place where an Anglo language should be, thus taking aspects of it. The challenge of wrapping my mouth over the new vowels was fun, too.
My family decided to go forward on the idea of foreign exchange about midsummer 2008. Over the time of the planning process I was in our school musical from December to March. This was when I received the AFS handbook, which gave me a lot of insight into the foreign experience.
About a month after I was called and I learned that I was guaranteed a spot to go to Finland. I was excited, but the call just moved us one obstacle closer to the goal. We learned the cost soon after. It was a doozy.
It was about a month later after that that I learned who my host family was. After trading emails with the mother of the family I got a little bit of the feel for what I might expect from them, personality-wise. My host mother to-be is a very nice lady and I'm sure to have a warm welcome to their family.
Later, thanks to Google Maps, I looked up the place where they lived and the school I was likely to go to. The school, named Lumon Lukio, or Lumon Highschool, is very similar to the charter school I go to now, only a lot more funded and a lot bigger. There is even a restaurant and internet cafe in the campus area. All it needs is to be free and it's heaven on Earth! It's even a quarter mile from a metro station that I can take to another station near my host family's home.
Now here I am posting on this shiny new blog. Probably not often until I actually get to Finland.
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