Exchanged

My year in a few minutes :)

2011-06-30T01:11:00.000+03:00

I decided to do this little video for all of you and also for myself. The song is Hollywood Hills by Sunrise Avenue, I just had to change the lyrics a little bit.
Enjoy!

No, this is not the time or the place for broken hearted
Cause this is the end of the rainbow
Where no one can be too said
No, I don't wanna leave but I must keep moving ahead
~~Cause my life belongs to the other side~~ Although my life doesn’t belong to the other side
Behind the great ~~ocean's~~ see‘s waves.

Bye, bye ~~Hollywood Hills~~ Finnish plateaus I'm gonna
miss you wherever I go I'm gonna
come back to walk these streets again
Bye, bye ~~Hollywood Hills~~ Finnish plateaus forever .

Thank you for the morning walks on the sweet sunset
And for the hot night moments
For the fantasy in my bed
I take a part of you with me now and you won't get it back
And a part of me will stay here, you can keep it forever, dear
Wooaoo...

Bye, bye ~~Hollywood Hills~~ Finnish plateaus I'm gonna
miss you wherever I go I'm gonna
come back to walk this streets again
Remember that we had fun together.

Bye, bye lonely ~~girils~~ boys I'm gonna
Love you wherever I go I'm gonna
Come back so we can play together
Bye, bye ~~Hollywood Hills~~ Finnish plateaus forever.

Long distance love doesn't work
All the miles in between getting lonely
No, I don't wanna go
I don't wanna go.
Bye, bye ~~Hollywood Hills~~ Finnish plateaus I'm gonna
miss you wherever I go I'm gonna
come back to walk these streets again
Bye, bye

Bye, bye ~~Hollywood Hills~~ Finnish plateaus I'm gonna
miss you wherever I go I'm gonna
come back to walk these streets again
Remember that we had fun together.

Bye, bye lonely ~~girls~~ boys I'm gonna
Love you wherever I go I'm gonna
Come back so we can play together Bye, bye ~~Hollywood Hills~~ Finnish plateaus forever.

~~Hollywood Hills~~ Finnish plateaus forever, yeah, ~~Hollywood Hills~~ Finnish plateaus forever

MÄ AINA RAKASTAN SUOMEA!!KIITOS!!!

Oh, these goodbyes are killing me... :(

2011-06-27T01:55:00.001+03:00

Finally - summer is here, yay! Holidays! Sun! Nice weather!

Well, thats what I would usually say and think. Usually I would count down the days to get out of school. Usually I would be happy to have 3 months of holidays instead of 2. Usually I would see all my classmates after 2 months. Usually...
The problem is, that an exchange year is totally unusual thing! Therefore I prayed for the school to never end. Therefore I'm unhappy that summer holidays is already here. Therefore I'm sad - because i won't see my last-year classmates after 2 months. Most of them I may never see again...
Yea, that's just it. My echange student story is about to end. So soon. Too soon.

There is one thing I really hate about echange year - it gives you the opportunity to meet amazing people, best friends and maybe even love... just to steal it all in such a short time, with almost no chance to meet some of those people ever again. Well, steal... I would use another word which would fit more, but I don't know if there is some - it's like being robbed in a very rough way; like if they took you something, which has just made you the happiest person ever. It tears your heart to small pieces, some of which can never be found again. Maybe it sounds a little bit exaggerated, but I can tell you I have never been suffering emotionally as much as now.
Exchange year unroots you, then put into a new surrounding and, just when you manage to take a root and start to grow again, it unroots you again to put you back to the place you came from, to that same hole where your old roots used to be although now you have the new so nicely shaped ones. Isn't that cruel???!!!!!
So, dear exchange year: I HATE YOU - for making me taste the feeling of total happiness and uniqueness, strongest relationships and sweetest love... But, on the other hand, I will always LOVE you for showing me this.

It's sometimes hard, painful. It's bittersweet experience. But be sure that the taste that reminds is simply the best one you have ever tasted.

Thanks to everybody who was with me this year, to my family and host family for giving me the opportunity to be an exchange student. Because that's the best and the most chastening experience you can have.

Thank you! =)

Finnish thawing

2011-04-10T23:07:00.000+03:00

WATER,YEAAAAAA

Yeaaa, impossible – I can see grass! Well, it’s still the old one and only on very few places (where isn’t over a meter of snow still), but it IS grass. Organic thing, not this whitish form of H2O! And yes, when I wake up, it’s already light; when I go from school it’s STILL light. I have never thought this could happen in Finland, after almost half a year of permanent snow cover and weeks when I saw the sun just at weekends… Anyway, so many exciting events have been happening lately.

Another family – AGAIN???!!

With Veronika in Moomin museo

Yes :D But not permanently – my host-family left to Mexico for 2 weeks to visit my other host-sister who studies there. And I was put into another family (in Tampere, yipeeeee!!). I totally enjoyed it there, because these people were just so great, friendly and I liked them so much. One of these 2 weeks was so called skiing holidays when everybody leaves to Lapland or some European country to ski. And I was in Tampere -> F.U.N.. None of my friends was there! I really thought I would die from boredom and annoyance of not-skiing, but in the end it was just great relaxing week! My temporary host-family took me to museum, theater; Veronika came for visit (omg, I will never forget this eating orgy in Rax pizzabuffet! :D), then I spent day by snowboarding on a 300m long slope, met my support person and finally… fell ill! Huuray – just a week before the long-awaited trip to Lapland!

YFU trip to Lapland

Some random Lappish people

Unforgettable thing, really! It started with Beatrix coming to Nokia to stay overnight and continued with 8 hours ride which ended with horrible headache. Probably everybody knows that I suffer from German-language aversion and even 45min lesson is enough to ruin my day, so just imagine how I felt like after so long bus ride with Germans behind me who constantly talked. Thanks god, exchange has taught me to tolerate other cultures and languages so I didn’t jump out of the bus’ window. We came to Lumi Nenä holiday resort late in the evening and headed to our cottages. Ours was the most international one I guess – Beatrix and Julia from Germany, Yukiko from Japan, Veronika from Slovakia and Teris and me from Czech (oho, Czech mafia is back again!). We did so many great things during the week – I went snowboarding for 3 days and on Searching for Aurora trip (no, we didn’t find nor see any during our stay in Lapland :/) and we all rode Husky- and Reindeer-sledge, saw some kind of shaman show and just had fun together. It was also amazing to meet 3 newcomers who stay in Finland just for half a year. And of course meeting again so many people, some of whom I haven’t seen for 7 months; also talking in my own language (usually during night :D) with those jokes that only we can understand! I got new friends there or just strengthened my friendship with some people. I simply loved the time there even though it was too short and I didn’t see the Norther lights. Which sucks. A lot!

dreadlocking

Ah, those exchangers…

Do you know what happens when Memo visits Tampere? A lot of things. Like our Tampere area’s YFU exchange students meeting. Memo, Koutarou, Lars, Linda and I spent some time in café and then just spontaneously decided to go to Lars’ place and make Mexican food. It was an amazing afternoon full of fun which I will never forget.

yamiiie

Another event was organized by my YFU sister (yeah, I’m so proud that MY YFU sister is the only one ex-exchange student in Tampere who arranges these fun-meetings!) – laser shooting. Unfortunately only Linda, Felix and I came, then of course Sonja and Anna, but it was amazing anyway – we just had to play with a big group of small aggressive kids who enjoyed standing in front of you and shooting you even though you were “dead”. How sweet. It was the first time for me playing this and I, surprisingly, totally loved it!

yes, WE :)

Turning 18 –> great clubs' opening

I’m so old now! I’m adult, huh – horrible thing, isn’t it? I celebrated my birthday at home by few hours call with my family, then continued in restaurant with my host family and ended in club(s). My Russian friend agreed to take care of me, but then she had to go to work so she called her friends to do a little baby-sitting. It was just an amazing evening with them, they really made my birthday! Only one a little bit disappointing thing was that nobody asked for my ID although it’s done thing in bars/clubs in Finland.

Week later I went to other place with Fernanda and her friends. It was so great to meet that many new friendly people, dance, talk and so on whole evening. I will miss that sooooo much when I have to go back to Czech, aj.

Me and Alexander II.

From the city to the countryside

I love traveling and I love my friends – therefore I decided to make a trip to Helsinki to visit Nele and to Alavus to visit Beatrix. My plans were almost ruined when YFU told me “NO” three times, but luckily I have my guardian angel aka support person who called them and suddenly I could go. Nice to see how much worth is exchange students’ voice comparing to adult person, hm? But anyway, I’m happy that I was allowed to go in the end. It was my first time in Helsinki (shame – I live just 2 hours from it) and weather chose to be spiteful – there hadn’t been such a bad day for so long! Anyway, I enjoyed my Helsinki walk with Nele and stay with her wonderful family. Next day we went to zoo where was hardly any animal, but common – better than nothing. Then was time to say bye-bye to Nele and meet my Czech friend who came to Helsinki to compete on Synchronized skating world championship. And I finally saw Helsinki in sunshine!

After that I spent a few hours on a train to Seinäjoki from where I went to Alavus. I was picked up by a tractor (hahaa) and spent a few days in a riding school with Beatrix. It was such a cool place, really! We spent days and nights by being with horses, talking, eating and watching movies. I also visited Beatrix’s school, which is way more amazing than mine because it’s so small and more school-like.

So that’s my life now – so much fun!! Tomorrow starts the last period of my Finnish school – sad. But I keep on smiling!

...smiling just like them:)

It’s not the end of the world… but I can see it from here?

2011-03-01T02:09:00.001+02:00

PANIC! The end is coming! Aaaaaaa!!

almost the end of the world, isn't it?

No, really – it sounds unbelievable, but my time of being an exchange student (=the time of being amazing and extraordinary chump who never knows what to do and where to go) is getting shorter and shorter. Well, let’s admit that I’m just that type of person who always sees glass half empty rather than half full (in fact, even when it’s full I see it 10/10 empty), so I still have some 4 months left, but anyway. And of course there are still people who remind me of the running time, like my parents, grandparents and friends from Czech Republic. You know - it’s nice to know that you can’t wait till I annoy you all day long again, but who has ever said I actually WANT to be back? In this moment I feel more like franticly hugging my exchange year, screaming “DON’T TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME YET!!”.

one of the new experiences - "ice swimming"

Because that’s just it – doesn’t matter what my exchange has been like, I just don’t want this special experience to end. Of course, it hasn’t always been a walk in rose garden (or maybe was, but sometimes it felt like walking through the rose bushes), there were bad days or even weeks (no, dear YFU, it WASN’T culture shock for god shake!), unkind people and unpleasant experiences. I have learnt A LOT about myself (for example that I don’t know a thing about my own country) and found out what I want and mainly don’t want to be like. I don’t want to be moody anymore and anyone hit me if I’m ever uncaring, self-centered and ruthless to somebody who loves me…because I went through kinda “relationship” (which wasn’t relationship at all, but let’s just call it this way for now as I don’t want to be more detailed) with such a guy and I can say only this: NEVER AGAIN!!(of course you have the right to mention this the next time I'm crying for some other idiot) So just to make a summary – even from every bad experience I’ve learnt so much for my future life that in the end I’m not even sure if I feel so sorry for it (well, I still feel like hitting somebody and spitting into somebody’s face, but isn’t that just the ‘southern’ temperament after all?).

the one i love <3

And what’s the most important – there was way too many good days, weeks and months, super-kind people and maximally pleasant experiences to even remember the not so great ones. Sometimes I can’t believe how dear, friendly, helpful and tolerant some people can be! I’ve found how great are people around me, not only here in Finland, but also in Czech. Now I see the things I haven’t noticed before, now I finally see how golden-hearted some people are and now I finally value the friendship more than anything. And all the brilliant moments that I’ve had here? How could I forget! It would last for hours or maybe days if I should talk about all of them. Being an exchange student surely isn’t the easiest year of your life (for me personally it has been probably the most difficult year of my past and future life as I’ve had to face so many changes inside and outside of me, which is something I totally hate), but its surely the most exciting one!

But let’s stop this senseless talking about nothing at all and come back to what has been happening here lately (I mean in last 3 months – that’s the last time I wrote about such things).

So shortly with the very past – there were Christmas, another trip to Oulu and to my host-grandparent’s place which is in eastern Finland. And all these things were just … I don’t have words (therefore I didn’t write anything about them :D)! Amazing? New? Unforgettable?

Then started school again (booooooh). And with that more rehearsing for Wanhojen tanssit! That’s something like prom ball or whatever and in the end it really was one of the highlights of this year! Yes, it cost long hours of practicing, money, shattered nerves and feelings in the style of “now I’m ending, I’ve had enough!”, but hell! It was worth it! When the WT day came with all the excitement, expectations and that very festive atmosphere all around…aww, what could be better?

you just must love exchangers! :)

Just before this came another very pleasant and one of the best moments of this year – mid-year orientation with YFU. I can tell you that I wasn’t looking forward to it at all – spending a weekend by listening about culture shock and bad behaving of exchange students? Not exactly my cup of tea. But I couldn’t have been further from truth! It was weekend full of fun with amazing people (13 exchangers and volunteers), talking and sharing experiences (yeah, hooray, I’m not the only stupid one who did this and that and then felt this way!), eating tons of chocolate and candies (which led to TOTAL sugar shock), laughing, hugging and, of course, taking photos. ;)

Other that-made-my-day events were for example day that I spent by skiing (in my case snowboarding) with my host-dad, weekend in biological laboratories (YES, again!!) with really nice people from my school, pop-singing course and also small concert in my school and so much more things which just don’t pop up on my mind right now. And one more very current thing – I’m again in a new host family, but only for 2 weeks when my host-family is on holidays. It’s great and brings another huge number of moments and people that I will remember.

Now it’s really time to stop and congratulate you if you’ve read all way down here – god, aren’t you a persistent person?! Or maybe really bored one, poor you!

Peace and love to all of you (I mean not all of you, because I’m very bad and vindictive person -even exchange can’t change that – so just to the good ones of you)!!

there is always a reason to smile.
for example camera :)

My twisted observations about Finns

2011-01-15T01:48:00.002+02:00

I don’t have much time (as always), but I just want to express my very (very very very) subjective opinion about Finnish people. It’s so subjective that it even doesn’t try to pretend to be objective, and so I guess you will disagree with me most of the time. And because I’m Czech (nooooo), I have no one else to compare Finns with than just the Czechs. Here we go!

GIRLS

Big group of Finns, including mainly: princesses, young ladies, sportswomen, boyish ones, the originality itself, drama queens, dontseeme-dontseeme and the rest.
When I came to Finland, I’ve noticed that all Finnish girls are top beautiful. But guess what? I was wrong – it’s only around 97% of them.
99,999% has always perfect makeup and hairstyle, stylish outfit and adequate self-confidence.
So many of them are very small and tiny. Ohoho, and then there is me – the big Slavic girl. Bööh.
Part of them hates to speak English and the other one speaks English even among each other. Do you really think it’s THAT cool, eh? At least from my point of view it’s kinda silly behavior, esp. when I try to learn Finnish.
They are communicative and talkative, it’s very easy to get to know them, but quite difficult to become any closer friend of theirs.
They don’t gossip – or at least not as much as Czech girls.
It’s even bigger fun to talk to them when they are a little bit drunk – then they are super-talkative!

BOYS

Another big group of Finns, including mainly: sportsmen, young gentlemen, rough-type guys, rockers, gay-looking ones, dontseeme-dontseeme and the rest.
Ah, yes, YES – I finally got to a country where guys have the need to take care of themselves! Finns are clean, good smelling stylish guys*who tend to behave more than self-confidently. Oh, makes me remember about those Czech guys for who is the top of self-care short shower once a week.
Btw. did you know I hate blond guys with blue eyes (and yes, I still like Finns :D)? Fortunately so many Finns have greenish or grayish eyes and sometimes dyed hair.
I wonder how can be average height of Finnish men around 178cms because most of them seemed to be shorter than me – nooo! :/
I can’t even count how many times I’ve heard this: “Finnish guys suck! Really, trust me, don’t start anything with them, they will just play with you and then kick you away.” Yes, that’s true and I feel sorry for Finnish girls. But there just must be some price for otherwise very “fine material”.
They say that they don’t speak English. True, they don’t do. Unless they drink – then it’s impossible to stop them.
They keep in distance (aj, how I miss hugging of my male-friends). Unless they drink – then it’s impossible to escape.

*this all can’t be applied to all Finnish guys, of course, there is still the group of totally strange ones that I almost fear.

… and all together?

Finns don’t solve their partnerships problems publicly… unless they drink. Then you finally find out who dates/wants to date/ doesn’t want to date/dated/had any type of physical activity with who. Veeeery interesting.
For some reason, the most handsome Finnish guys date – in my opinion – not so super beautiful girls and the model-like girls date those nothing-extra guys. Common people, this doesn’t make any sense!
Finnish people are unbelievably helpful and nice.

You see? Finns are just weird. So are Czechs. Let’s face it – people are weird. But therefore we like them, don’t we?

Well, at least I do LOVE Finns!

Just to have there also opinion on Finns from someone else

And so time goes by...

2010-12-06T12:10:00.000+02:00

I really can’t believe it's already December! Christmas mood is all around as well as tons of snow and freezing atmosphere reaching sometimes even -20°C. Well, only there, in the south of Finland – in the north are the temperatures much crazier. But as I was assured - it will be down here very soon as well. Days last only slightly over 5 hours and so when I have school from the first to the last lesson (8:15 - 15:55), I don't even realize there actually IS any day. But again, the "worst" is yet to come. I can't say that this all isn't down-putting sometimes, but then I just come back home, to the warm place with a lot of light, people with hearts full of love and two hairy balls always ready to cuddle, and world is great again. And when I get package from my Czech family, messages and greetings from my Czech friends, I just know there is still a place to go back to, people who still remember me and take some time to let me know that. And yes, maybe I have to wake up at 6:30 the next day, but soon I'm in school with my Finnish friends who are just so adorable and unbelievably nice people! So here I go - with 2 caring families and 2 groups of the best friends one can ever have. I already can’t and don’t want to imagine leaving this place, because I will leave here a big part of me and lots of good memories for the brilliant time of my life.

Of course, I'm missing something or someone time by time, in these days especially the traditions that are kept in the Czech republic and in my family; of course, sometimes I have just totally bad day and wish for nothing more than just to hide under the blanket in my bed and never come out of there; of course, my heart sometimes hurts badly and I just want to have somebody to hug me for long hours… but common!! I'm teenage girl and I'm just me, with all those things like crazy hormones, uncontrolled emotions and swingy moods - I just have the biggest right to have such days and moments, don’t I? I know it would be the same wherever I were (including also the Czech home) and that the sun will eventually shine again. And so these not so nice moments disappear in the sea of amazing lifetime I’m having here.

Just in case you read this and feel similarly time by time, I have one more thing to advise you – Fazer sininen, sweating (in form of sauna or exercising – take your choice) and good company is all you need! :)

And why I wrote this totally trashy and senseless piece of… ergh… something?

Answer is totally clear – so that you read also some shoddy “literature” and to let you know that I do f*cking care about all of you, appreciate you and that I’m endlessly thankful to have you all.

Nice Advent to you! =)

2nd way up north alias Oho, seksisti and the Czech mafia

2010-11-03T21:02:00.004+02:00

It was misty Wednesday morning of my autumn holidays when I got on the train to Oulu with a ticket and blue Fazer from my host-dad in my hands… Well, it was in fact normal October morning and the train went to Vihanti from where I took a bus to Oulu (why do I always travel when there are some problems on railway??!). Anyway, my 2nd trip up north was just about to begin.

The church in Oulu

I spent nice 4 hours on Pendolino chatting with my friends or just looking out of a window how the nature changes. Then in Vihanti I got on the right bus (to my big surprise) which really went to Oulu and at 13.00 my friend’s host dad picked me up and drove me to their house. As all of you know, I’m so well-mannered young lady... that I fell asleep as soon as I entered the room instead of being sociable “be active be active be active” exchange student and woke up just when my friend’s host dad was leaving! Shame on me, I know. Soon my friend Teris and her host brother Iiro came from school (haha, they DIDN’T have holidays! :D) and after two and half months I got the chance to speak Czech again. And right in this point probably begins the history of Czech mafia – what a nice thing to terrorize people around you by speaking Czech! ;) But still we didn’t know that we actually WERE Czech mafia…

Teris is tormenting her host bro, yay!

When we got too tired by bullying Iiro, Teris showed me around the center of Oulu, only pity was that the weather wasn’t much sunny (what a surprise), but one thing I can say for sure anyway - Oulu is a very nice city. We stopped by for a cup of tea and headed back “home”. Teris made a dinner and then we watched Lord of the Rings – ou maaj, I hadn’t seen this movie for AGES! After that we were supposed to go to sauna, but somebody forgot to turn it on in advance so at least we had a nice music eve (with Teris being DJ) and late sauna without Teris – that meant no bullying! :/ Unfortunately it was soon time for bed, in which I stayed for looooong time.

When I woke up the next morning, it was almost afternoon. Being very lazy person, I decided to send SMS to Teris straight from the bed asking what were we up that day (expecting that she was in school). To my big surprise (and very loud laugh later on) I got immediate answer saying “come to my room”. Ajajaj, mornings are just soooo killing me! :D Then happened the most weird thing ever – I went to school even though I had holidays!!! OHO! I got to see Kastellin lukio, Teris’s and Iiro’s school, which was so different from SAMKE (my school) and visited English lesson which was almost the same as my English lesson. Nevertheless, what a cute small school!

She IS a musician!

In the afternoon we went to one of 10000000 Finnish lessons which Teris attends and it was really fun! I have even learnt a new word - SEKSISTI - I’m so proud about it! And because we are Czech mafia, we made Iiro to cook for us, but in the end we decided to soften the punishment, so we spent nice evening with pizza and Lord of the rings. Before going to our beds, there was pyjamas-party in Teris’s bed ;) Then another loooong night and waking up in the middle of a day – common, I had holidays!

"iso toblerone"

On Friday we were supposed to visit Iito’s swimming training, but he decided to rather train sleeping, so we just had amazing walk around the city and I finally saw Oulu in sunlight. Because I’m so forgetful that I left my swimming suit in Nokia, we were running around Oulu (city far in the north of Finland) in the middle of October searching for two-pieces swimming suit. Yes, I always have to have original problems! But believe it or not, we found them. Then we rushed home to make a Czech dessert (Střechu z Bébé sušenek bez bébé sušenek) in Finnish realization and to meet Teris’s friend Karla who was actually very funny and renamed our dessert to “iso toblerone”. Hmmmm, ok. :D And that evening also came up the name “Czech mafia” (I don’t exactly remember how). Then I and Teris had a small music evening – she was playing guitar and I was watching or doing something-like-singing.

Later came very lovely sauna and very cold Jacuzzi (well, at least I can say I was getting ready for winter saunas) after which we just chilled out in front of the fire place listening to great music and eating tons of fruit. I really don’t remember when was the last time I felt so relaxed! Aaaaaahhhhhh….

horseeeeessss <3

On Saturday we implement the crazy idea to go horse riding! Why crazy? Because I hadn’t been riding for 4 months and if I’m right, Teris even longer. But it was really great; I so enjoyed to be “up in saddle” again and feel the smell and warmth of that beautiful creature under you. Just a few hours later we found out that we almost met Beatrix there, an YFU exchange student from Germany, who came for visit in the afternoon. We had some good talk and also Guitar hero – let’s just say I found another thing which I will never be good at. Or better to say, in which I will never be anything else than terribly bad at. Then Beatrix had to leave back to her host family and we had the last sauna-jacuzzi-music+fire place+fruits-evening. Needed to say that both Teris and I were in a weird mood, I personally felt like under influence a bit. But everything has its end and so the last night and last day came.

Oho, ladies are having some rest :)

On Sunday we woke up (we= I, Teris and her host dad; not Iiro ;) ). We still had some time to have fun so we went to a gym and swimming pool. On our way there we passed a man who made this “cutting-neck – I will kill you” gesture at Teris. Just out of a blue. Scary, but it was only another proof of the existence of Czech mafia – Finnish mafia is already trying to fight us back, oho!

After 2 hours of ‘sport’ we rushed back because my train was almost leaving, my suitcase wasn’t packed and I didn’t have ticket for the train! This appeared to be a huge problem since it was Sunday evening and end of holidays/start of another one. Fortunately, there are still the parents, in this case Teris’s host dad, who was able to get me a seat in already full train and so I could leave. There is nothing more to say, than big Thank you! And there the story ends – with me sitting in a train, eating blue Fazer.

Czech mafia... chybíš mi!! <3

All over all, these days were simply amazing! I really needed some rest and nice time after all the things that were going on before… and I got it. I cannot even say how much I loved the time I spent with Teris and her family, how great it felt – to be with somebody who understands almost without words because she is in the same situation and who you really like and in the same moment to look forward to be at home again, because even though by that time I spent only a few days with my new host family, I already loved them and I wanted to be with them again. Everything was just perfect and I’m not able to express in words how much I’m grateful to Teris, Iiro and their dad for that splendid time and to my host mum, dad and sister for this brilliant time that I’m having right now.

But there is one more thing that I just must mention – Czech mafia sees you, hahaha!! OHO!!!

*names of the characters of this story from my life might have been changed to protect the members of Czech mafia (and their friends and relatives)… or might have not. =)

Change on exchange

2010-10-24T20:14:00.001+03:00

It’s needed to say that I have joined a little bit infamous group of exchange students who change their host families. I will not write the exact reasons there, as I was forbidden to speak about it and it’s only my and my ex-host family’s business. Let’s just say that not everything worked out and the differences in life-style were way too big for me. You may say I just wasn't open-minded and flexible enough; that I could make a lot of things in some other way and everything might be better; that if you were me, you wouldn't be like this and just get over everything... and you may be right, but please, don't judge - think and say whatever you want, but you can never really know what it is like until you are in the exactly same situation. Just to make you understand a bit – it’s like with a relationship – you just can’t date anyone and even if you both try very hard the overall result doesn’t need to be happiness and good life. I went through some bad times because of this issue; learnt a lot about myself and people around me – a few of them disappointed me in an unpleasant way, but mainly I again realized that my friends and those lovely Finns are the best people in the world. It’s hard to describe how I felt - let’s just say these days of changing surely don’t belong to the ones I would like to remember from my exchange stay. But as my dear support person says – everything will work out somehow. And so it did.

YFU found a new host family for me quite soon (although in that moment I had feeling like if it lasted for months) and I even didn’t have to change my school! I moved from Tampere to Nokia, very nice small town nearby Tampere, to host family with sister of my age, lovely parents, dog and cat. I have spent there so far only a few days, but I feel so at home and so happy with them! Fortunately, my host parents don’t speak English at all, but talks with me in Finnish a lot. Well, “talk”- they tell me a lot of really interesting things and I love to listen to them and communicate with them, but I’m still not able to speak Finnish much. But I try and now I get the strongest motivation ever to learn the language – to really talk with these great people, to tell them how much I appreciate how nice they are to me, to tell them also something interesting and just to 100% enjoy the time with them. The few days I spent with them were so great and so full of new things that I felt like if I came to a new country! These people are so unbelievably amazing that I would hate myself forever, if I messed it up (again). But no, this won’t happen, I swear. :)

Lapland, sweet Lapland…

2010-10-10T12:53:00.000+03:00

the way up north

I have been pretty busy lately so now I finally get to say a few words about my trip to Lapland and Norway. It was a biology-class trip of my school and 2 other ones plus a Norwegian school “joined” us for the hiking trip.

On Tuesday 7.9.2010 in the afternoon we started our 14-hours ride to Kilpisjärvi. It was nice to find out that our trip is super-international: Finns, teacher from England, Fernanda from Brazil, Jon from New Zealand/Denmark, Ting Ting from China and me (Czeeeeech :D); later also Norwegians, girl from Italy, Germany and Latvia. No, bus isn’t good place to sleep on, but with imagine of the upcoming hiking trip on my mind even I was able to fall asleep. And it was wonderful to wake up in colorful Lapland where autumn had already started and the mist all around straight roads leading to nowhere made the impression of perfection even more awesome. But all the nice things have their end… :D

After we arrived to Kilpisjärvi, had breakfast and changed our clothes, we were finally ready for the scary hiking trip to the “three-country border point” (Kolmen valtakunnan rajapyykki/Treriksröset/Treriksrøysa). With our backpacks fully packed and all the warm clothes on (yea, it was cold morning) we were just ready to blast off! But oho, we are missing something… Norwegians!! They were LATE, but immediately after their mini-bus stopped and they got off, most of us could only watch their backs disappearing in the distance. Well, to our defense, they didn’t spent previous 14 hours on bus lying in weird positions, trying to get at least some sleep!

The way was around 11kms and nobody can say the path would be straight and easy to walk on. Small and steep up-/downhills in combination with wobbly stones under your feet… not fun! But the nature around!!! Impossible to describe because there isn’t a word for such a beauty! All covered by heath in all shades of autumn colors, sometimes interrupted by calm small lakes or forests of birches… Wild nature untouched and unchanged by humans, no groups of crazy tourists (well, aside from us, of course :D) nor fast-food stalls – just NOTHING, but nature!

And reindeers. That’s the “thing” I was so looking forward to seeing and hey, they really were there! Firstly we saw 2 or 3 of them far away in hills and suddenly they were so close to us, almost fearless (esp. the small ones). It was so amazing to see their kinda silly faces from just a few meters! They stayed together in something like families – 2 or more at the first glance older ones and then usually 1 or 2 smaller and lighter reindeers.

After this reindeer-adventure we reached the peak and were soon at waterfalls that are just in the middle of the way. There we rested some time and I decided to join the first group (hohooo :D). And then another walking, walking and walking. Now it was mostly downhill, but the way seemed to be endless and the backpack too heavy and the temperature was so high…and I so needed to wee! :D So in the end I went again with Nelli and Fernanda, like in the first half of the hiking. Soon we came to a fence that was border between Finland and Norway and then we finally reached the place where we stayed overnight. By some accident we managed to put up our tent and then just ate and relaxed and complained about how bad we felt and what hurt us.

colllllddddd morning

In the evening we were divided into a few groups and discussed the cultural differences in various areas like school, food, sport etc.. It was getting really cold really quickly and so I went into the tent before 10 o’clock. And was freezing whole the night long. The problem was that because of totally cloudless sky the differences between night/day temperatures were incredibly high and so it happened, that the next day in the morning we were feeling like cubes of ice and put all our clothes on (again) just to put it off (again) in a few minutes when the sun went up.

all of us in front of the 3 borders statue

But firstly we went to this magic point where all 3 borders meet! And I’m proud to say that only during this morning I visited all countries of Scandinavia. Yea, I’m super-tourist! ;) Then the hiking again, but this time it was much faster. Fernanda didn’t feel well so she went back by boat, but Nelli and I went valiantly the same way we came there the day before. I was trying to talk Nelli to death, but hell, this girl can stand something! We came to waterfalls, had a short break and continued without single stop (for 6kms!!) in the direction bus – cottage - ardently desired shower. My shoulders and knees were dying from pain (or better I was dying from pain), but just the image of hot water made me want to run. But I wasn’t THAT crazy. To my mean satisfaction, the Norwegian guys who sooooo were hiking the day before stayed far behind us. Hahahahaha, yea!

And finally the moment came – we got back to Kilpisjärvi, after small help from Jemina also to our cottage (have I said I totally hate Finnish doors? :D) and to the SHOWER! Then we even went to civilization - shopping in local city market and then again, program with Norwegians.

Norway

Tromso

The next day we went to Norway to visit “our” Norwegians’ school (lovely place, really!). Before that we stopped by in a small town and just had a look around and Matt, the English teacher, swam in the cold water full of medusas. Then other hours of ride to Tromso. I feel very ashamed to say that, but yes, I was in Norway for a few hours and yes, most of them I was sleeping. Anyway, I woke up in Tromso just in time to get off the bus and up to a mountain by lift. From there we could see the whole city and the mountains behind and the water around. Lovely! Unfortunately we got only hour to see the city center and then it was time to go back to our beautiful Finland. Necessary to say that nature or better landscape changes just a few kms behind borders – from totally flat Finland to Norway full of steep and high mountains and deep fjords. You are trapped inside this landmass which, at least for me, was a little bit claustrophobic, but I saw snow on the tops of the mountains! Yay!

After that little trip we had free evening - talking and playing card games. But I was too tired to be sociable and again – the imagine of upcoming trip scared my “muscles” to sleep. Because the next day we packed all our things and just with nothing (or few kgs of camera equipment in my case) went to Saana tunturi. That’s a big hill close to Kilpisärvi and the way up is really interesting – firstly some 300 stairs and then a few kms to the top. Although I could only guess that from what teachers told us because the mist that day was so dense and persistent that if I hadn’t meet Nelli on the top, I would have probably just walked by and continued somewhere god-knows-where. I was totally we

going down from Saana

t from the mist, but I liked that trip a lot. Then, surprisingly, way down and meeting with another reindeers and then SHOWER. And after that? 14 hours on bus and my great Tampere <3 <3 <3 again.

So what more to say?

I really enjoyed it and I’m so grateful for I got the chance to go there! Not only the hiking and amazing nature made this trip the absolutely best time of my stay in Finland, but mainly the people that I met there and friends that I got. Even if I had to walk 11km every day, I would do it just for the feeling of pure happiness and friendship that I felt and that appear to be so rare for me lately. This is the thing I’m going to have on my mind every time I think back about my exchange – my little trip to north.

I in Norway

-> photo gallery

Ehm, in which code is this lesson? alias briefly about the school system

2010-09-05T21:50:00.000+03:00

Offer of courses for the 2nd grade...jakso = period;
small numbers in the beginnings = codes

Said in a very simplified way – you have 3 (4) grades which are divided into groups/classes (09F = class which goes to the school since year 2009, group F) which aren’t together at all. You make yourself a study plan and have the chance to end up school in 3 or 4 years. Every study year is divided into 5 periods and your schedule is different in each of them and you are also in different groups with different people. You have to take certain number of certain subject usually in certain sequence, but what period you will take it in and what day time depends almost only on you (but still you are limited by the offer of courses for the period).

Placement of the codes in every day

And now come the puzzles – you have 8 codes in which is divided the offer of courses and every code belongs to 3 lessons in week (so if you chose for example English 4.4 which is in code 4, you will have it on Tuesday as 3rd lesson, on Thursday as a 2nd lesson and on Friday as 3rd lesson). This way you can fill all the codes (if you are self-murderer) or make your school start for example at 12 o’clock. Apart from compulsory lessons you can also chose from a lot of interesting courses which allows you to learn more about things you are interested in. Easy, isn’t that?

The numbers following after the name of the subject allow you to look up in your “school book” what is the course about (the first number) and what group you are in (the second number). For example my English again – its 4.4 and so I know it is about “society and the world around”.

Information about courses in my school book

Lessons in my school last 75 minutes and the first lesson starts at 8:15. We have lunch at 11.20, 12.00 or 12.35, depending on the grade you are going to. Lunch is free and also with vegetarian-choice (in my school is over 100 vegetarians!) which makes me very happy, of course.

And now the most unpleasant thing – what about the grades? Firstly, grades here aren’t 1-5 or A-F, but 10-4 with 10 being the best. Although you might be graded also for activity during lessons or small word tests (in languages), the main grade comes from an exam in an exam week which is after every period. Every code has its own exam day so it can’t happen you would take 2 tests in one day (yipeee). I can’t say much more about exams now since I haven’t had any exams yet (my first exam week is from 22nd of September).

My almost full schedule for the 3rd period

As for me, I’m in class 09F and now I have mostly courses for 1st graders although I will have mostly for 2nd graders in the next period. Now I have English, German, sport, music and long math (other option is short which is easier). I can tell you I have probably never had such a blast and amazing teachers as I have now! Especially music is great – we learn how to play guitar and drums, the class is also equipped with microphones, piano, electric guitars and bass guitars and many more instruments. There is guitar almost for everyone and after short practicing we always make a small ‘band’ and try to play the song we learnt before (for example Dreamer from Ozzy Osbourne or Truly Madly Deeply from Savage Garden).

I know I probably made it totally unintelligible, but at least something. :)

I’ve been here for months… no, wait, only 3 weeks!!

2010-08-26T22:27:00.003+03:00

Tampere

Yea, that’s how it feels like – I have been in Finland 3 weeks (and 1 day) now, but I feel like if it was months. It’s easy to explain – so many new things happening every day, so many new people, new experience, new surprises and new words => so many things you would never think that it is possible to experience in such a short time! And in the same time I already know the surrounding, how to get to the city center, where to go for running or shopping. I sometimes even remember how is called the part of the city I live in (Linnainmaa :D)!

My school started 2 weeks ago and I’m really getting into it – no more being 30 minutes late for a lesson or getting lost. This school is so different from the small Czech grammar school I went to back at Czech Republic! Leaving out the fact that there is close to 1000 pupils, the biggest difference is definitely school system. My brain is still working on fully understanding to what’s that really about and I doubt it will ever reach any satisfactory result. I will write about it soon in more details.

I have managed to find a few friends there and I’m very happy for it. Yea, Finns are shy, but not everybody! And they usually are so friendly and sweet when you start talking to them. Looking at people in my school I can say they are also very fashionable and self-caring. Girls are always perfectly dressed and make-upped and you can hardly meet here a guy who would stink or wear some old ugly clothes. Everybody here do some sport and eat really healthy so you happen to be surrounded by good-looking people all the time. Kinda frustrating time by time :D.

Anyway, I’m doing really well here! I have experienced many new things or old things in new ways! I was rowing, threw javelin (and hit my head when doing it :D), had a few saunas, eat dozens of new kinds of food and more to tell about. Still I’m very busy with arranging all things needed for my year here, but soon I will go on a biology trip to Lapland (and also to Norway) and start my new-old hobbies.

What more to say? In fact, much more, but it’s not so easy to tell something about my life here because I would always forget so many things! I’m enjoying my life in school and I’m getting on great with my small sister. We tease each other and try to understand what the other one is talking about. On weekends we all go to cottage, which is really lovely place.

Although sun already retreats and windy and rainy cold days are coming, I still feel the warmth and joy inside which is – of course - seldom covered with sad thoughts, but it never lasts for long time. I’m enjoying the time of my life… do you?

A lake by our cottage

Hey, Finland, here I am!

2010-08-09T17:33:00.001+03:00

The day when the counting of the days left till my departure for Finland reached 0 finally came. The nervousness and excitement reached the top level (top in that time, few days later the “tops” were unbelievable higher) and step by step came the time to say bye for one year to the house I lived in, my dog and my relatives. Needless to say I was afraid the most of the check on the airport and how much better I felt after the scale showed only 4kgs over allowed weight of my suitcase and when I came through the X-ray with Steel boots on the security belt. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to take on the board my The Dreaming keychain in a shape of bullet I normally wear on my neck. Life sometimes just sucks.

Then we (I and Teris) finally boarded and heard Finnish all around us – simply amazing! I was trying to talk Teris to death during the 2 hours flight but luckily I didn’t succeed. :) We were led to the others YFU exchange students and waited for some time for the rest. Then we headed straight to Anjalankoski (really lovely place), where was our orientation camp held. I’m not going to describe here what was happening there, because it was A LOT things, we were busy and awake all the time (well, in my case at least). There were people from the Czech Republic (haha), Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Turkey, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, Japan and Thai wan. We had amazing volunteers who made presentations and other activities for us plus American teacher who spoke almost all languages of the world and taught us over million of Finnish words :D. It was FUN and we tried some traditional Finnish foods and activities – yea, SAUNA. It was just amazing! And meeting all the people from different countries and cultures was very interesting.

After 3 days the Day came – day to meet our host families! This day (as well as the days before) was the weather very un-Finnish. We were sweating from hot and nervousness, thinking about fainting. We were separated from our host families till 15 o’clock and I was dying from being nervous. I took a long walk around the lake nearby which so helped me. :) Then the time came, excitement and nervousness reached the most possible tops and we were sent one by one to our “new” families.

Well, I knew my host family is amazing and I only proved myself right. Mervi and Martti (my host mum and dad) hugged me, my little host sister Meri looked a little bit scared but passed me poster with writing “Tervetuola Kata” (Welcome Kata) which she made. Lovely, isn’t it? Then I said hello to Teris’s hostfamily, goodbye to Teris (:´() and went with my family to their summer cottage (great place!) and home, to Tampere.

The next day we went to Näkötorni and then to city festival in Hämeenpuisto where I meet my friend Katsu. Great day! In the evening I gave my family small presents from Czech Republic and I was very happy that they liked them. Meri got the Mole (Myyrä) and I haven’t seen her without it since that moment. :) Today we went to all those booooooring places (police, bank etc. ), but at least I have everything done.

Now a few words about Finland: this country is totally gorgeous with a lot of woods and fields; everything is clear and the overall atmosphere is silent and peaceful. Of course, a lot of things here are different from things in the Czech Republic, starting with another type of meals and ending with numbers of tattooed people. :) But so far, it seems to me as an ideal choice and I can’t be happier for I decided to go there.

Finland + me = ??? (Alias how it all started and continued)

2010-07-24T14:38:00.003+03:00

Early beginnings

I was born and then grew up without any Finnish influence around me - until the day I listened to my sister's walkman and heard The Rasmus for the first time. It isn't needed to write that I somehow managed to "steal" the cassette and got hooked on this one piece of music called Dead Letters. Since that I have been listening to The Rasmus and their music helped me to get over some trouble times of my teenagehood. But still, I wasn't interested in Finland much more than any other average Czech.

The outbreak of disease
After a few years of listening to this one CD I discovered the magic of downloading songs from the internet. That way i got all The Rasmus songs (legally, ofc :D) and discovered such bands like Negative, The 69 Eyes, Private Line or Uniklubi. That was before 8th class of elementary school and all I can say is, that by the start of the 9th class I already liked Finland a LOT. How did it happen and why? I really don't know. Maybe it was because I met some Finns and found out they were so amazing or I just overheard the Finnish language and fell in love with it. Or maybe I just woke up one day with Finland in my head, reluctant to get out of it.

The disease is getting worse...
My love to Finland was a bit pasive until i got a Finnish textbook so I could start learning. Although it took some time, first I had to pass the exams to high school, but then when summer holidays came, I was reading this textbook all the time and at any place (for example on sunny beach in Greece ;) ). After holiday I joined a course which I took for another 1.5 year and the last half year I was taught by my friend.
I was decided to move to Finland one day and wanted to study university there or go there at least for an exchange year. But it even didn't come on my mind that my exchange year could come so soon...

Bright future...??

In my first year of grammar school I happened to see YFU presentation about exchange stayes in countries around the world. The idea of going on an exchange during high school was getting more and more reasonable and exciting and soon I decided to go whatever it takes. In September I chose to go with YFU (and that's something I'm never going to regret because I already met so many great people) and got all the papers done as fast as I could. I had never imagined what kinds of problems could bubble up - not having any normal photo of myself nor photo with my family which wouldn't be older than 10 years.

I was so looking forward to it and I already counted down the days to leave. But 'thanks' to people around me I was getting still more and more confused - let's just say that when so many people tell you 5 times a day, that going to such a land like Finland is totally stupid idea and that I'm a selfish and problematic person when I refuse giving up vegetarianism and that I wouldn't get a family... It's not anything to cheer you up, trust me. I almost decided to give up whole my exchange but I was lucky to meet an exchanger-vegetarian and could see what's the exchange year about in real. And I knew that this was what I so wanted.

I'm really happy I didn't give up because some month or two later I got my host family - I came back from a show of a Finnish band, had shower, laid down and I was ready to fall asleep (It was 2 a.m.), but I had a strange feeling so I turned on the PC and went straight to my mail box. What a surprise when I saw an e-mail from Czech YFU telling me I had a host family!! I opened up the folder and couldn't help myself to scream, cry and laugh loud - not only, that I got the host family, but by chance I got to Tampere (which was a city I secretly dreamed of)!!

Now I'm eagerly waiting to enter the departure lounge and head strainght to Finland, yay!

About me

2010-07-23T19:17:00.001+03:00

Hei, I'm Katerina from the Czech Republic. I started this blog to share my experience of exchange in Finland with my friends (and everybody else who is interested). I decided to write it in English so even my foreign friends could understand, but I may write something in Czech time by time.

As I wrote above, I'm a Czech to Finland exchange student for school year 2010/11 with an organization called YFU. I will stay in Tampere with my host family and go to a Finnish high school (Sammon keskuslukio).
In the Czech Republic I go to grammar school and have lots of hobbies (singing, Finnish, English, taking photos, reading, going to rock concerts, running, horse-riding, etc.). I love animals and I am vegetarian <3.
And, of course, I love all my friends. :)

So that's all about me :).
Just in case you would like to contact me: www.facebook.com/kholenova