100 days

Today marks exactly 100 days since I went on a plane and flew to Finland. 100 days of experiencing exchange student life. 100 days of not seeing my family and friends in Germany. 100 days of having a different life in a foreign country with a foreign language… A third of my exchange is already over. And I can’t believe how fast that happened. Only three more weeks until I’ll pack my stuff again and move into a different family. Only two weeks until my first trip with all the exchange students. It’s unbelievable how time goes by so fast and still feels like slow-motion. In honor of that 100 days I’ll give you a little update.

From missing hugs and Salmiakki

Strength lies in differences, not in similarities.”

Coming here was a good decision. And arriving here was, unexpectedly, very easy. I didn’t have a big culture shock, in fact; I didn’t have one at all. But even tho it really is similar to Germany, there are still some smaller and bigger differences, I just wanted to mention.

Time flies

Time flies.”

This is a term many people use. It’s a thing that you get told a lot in your live. And I’m absolutely sure everybody knows what it means. Yet I’m writing this and can’t believe how two months gone by in a blink of an eye.

A mökki experience

24 hours of nature.

Last weekend my family decided to show me the Finnish mökki life. With no flowing water, no normal toilet, no make-up, no good clothes, no heater, no wifi. I was pretty excited. On Saturday we were supposed to leave. In the morning it was raining really bad. But my host family decided to go anyways. We first drove an hour with the car until we reached a very small bay. We put our rain clothes on and waited for their grandpa to arrive. He came with a little motor boat. It was still raining and the sea was kinda rough. We put all the food and clothes into the boat and started. I didn’t watch the clock but I would guess it took 40 minutes to get to the Island. The waves were not really big, but still rough.

The first three weeks

Only a few blinks and three weeks gone by.

The first weekend

My host family picked me up from karkku. On Sunday my first hostfamily had a little welcome party and invited my second and my third hostfamily, so we could get to know each other a little bit and simply see each other before I’ll move to their home. It was awesome, I was so nervous but it quickly turned out that I had nothing to worry about at all. They were so nice and hugged me right away. Especially to see the little boys from my second family was so excited. We couldn’t talk to each other because of language barriers, but oddly I felt like we would have a great time when I know the finnish basics. This day was a success and I realized once again, that I’m incredibly lucky with my families.

Camp Karkku

After a long bus drive from Helsinki airport to the camp, we were well welcomed by exchange students who arrived earlier and our future tutors; the Rotex people.
We got our keys, had to fill in some forms and then were guided into a big seminar room. Rules, plans and all kind of stuff were explained. After that we got to see our rooms and bring our luggage there. It turned out that I shared a room with a girl from Zimbabwe; Ruva. She is an oldie, that means that she already lives in Finland for a few months. She arrived in January and will also go back in January because the school year is different then in other countries. She could already tell me about her feelings and experiences she had in her first months. It was especially interesting how much of the language she learned. We talked a little bit and I decided right away that we will be friends.

06.08.17

Sun, 06.08.2017

12:28

My flight just took off from Düsseldorf to Helsinki. I said goodbye to my family; it was easier then i expected it to be. Don’t get me wrong: I cried a lot. But i don’t get that this was a goodbye for over a year yet. I don’t get it, that i won’t see my family an entire year. And it happened faster then I expected; just a second and they were not here anymore. I am through the door and they are behind it. It is indeed a weird feeling, but for some reason i don’t really take it seriously right now. I have a window seat and im currently waiting the plane to get over the clouds.

Preparation

14 days to go…

Second Outboundseminar

After the first meeting in Dortmund, I got an invitation for the second outbound seminar. A weekend with several presentations and workshops in the castle Wewelsburg, which is also a youth hostel. I had to cancel an one week exchange to Denmark for it, so I wasn’t really excited to go there and rather was sad about the fact that I couldn’t be with my friends in Denmark.

Registration to Rotary

28 days to go…

The decision exchange year

It was always in my head. I heard of siblings of friends and of students from my school who were spending a year in the US. I was always interested in the stories they had to tell. I would talk with my friends about it and we were speculating about our lives in a different country and that we would create a YouTube channel on which we would post vlogs and all kind of videos to keep everyone updated. It was fun imagining us as an exchange student. It kept being in my head and I would tell everyone: “I will do an exchange year! I will not be graduating with my friends anyways.”, when we talked about our prom and stuff. I didn’t know if I would really do it, but the more I thought about it, the more I talked about it, the more I wanted it. Talking about it all the time also stuck this idea into my head. And as the time came to do it, I decided: Yes. I will do it and I will pull through it.