Hello Applecross Rotary,
I have been in Finland now for almost 2 months and have already experienced so many new things.
Things I have tried include;
- Downhill skiing
- Snowboarding
- Cross country skiing
- Ice skating (on an outside rink)
- Sauna
- Walking on the Baltic Sea
- Walking on ice
- ice fishing
- A bunch of traditional Finnish food including Pulla
- Gone to a Finnish theatre performance
I have been to Tampere, Turku, Helsinki. I have also travelled through Espoo a lot and a smaller place called Lahti.
I have settled in nicely with my first host family and we enjoyed watching the Winter Olympics together. The language is very different but I am learning quickly (somewhat) and attend a lesson every Tuesday with the other exchange students in the Helsinki region. I have got a good group of friends at school and we are planning to go to a concert at the end of this month together.
Finnish winter is already ending and slowly moving into Spring. During my first week of school, I was leaving in the morning for the bus in the dark and walking through the snow. It slowly transitioned to light and now the paths which were once covered in snow have mostly melted. There was a good two days where it was so slippery I chose to walk through some snow piles rather than the path so I wouldn't slip.
It has already been such an amazing experience and I will definitely be travelling back to Finland when I am older.
This is an email I sent at the beginning of March but it must not have gone through.
I will get working on an update over the weekend with photos of a few more things I have been doing as the climate has properly changed now that we are in spring. I will include some stuff I did over Easter when I went to Athens with my host family.
Regards,
Briohny
click here for more photos from Briohny.