Summer Cottage

This past weekend I went with my host family to their summer cottage. Riitta's (my host mother) parents own the place and were there to greet us after the 2 hour drive up to the largest lake in Finland: Saimaa.

We arrived in the evening, and found some amazing scenery!



The next morning Riitta's father brought us out on his boat for a 2 hour cruise around the lake. Lakes in Finland are not round or island-free by any means: they are more like a series of narrow and wide rivers, including some very narrow and shallow canals, separated by open areas that are deeper.



Finland has over 180,000 lakes. Wikipedia states that Finland contains precisely 187,888 lakes over 500 square metres and 179,584 islands. This lake, Saimaa, is the largest in Finland and the fifth largest in Europe.

Here I am with my host sister Outi (18)



And here I am with my host brother Simo (12)



This is the boat we took on our cruise around lake Saimaa.



For lunch, we prepared some salmon that Riitta's father had caught in the lake earlier. Delicious! :)



And of course, wherever I go, footbag follows! Here my host dad Hannu is doing his best to keep it up.



Stay tuned for more pictures - I'm planning to get some shots from around the Penttilä residence soon as well as my room and a blazer update :)

Sibelius Hall and Lahti Harbour

Today I met with my future host sister Henni Ala and we walked around Lahti for a while after school. In particular, we visited the harbour area in Lahti which is very close to the downtown area and is location of the famous orchestral theatre Sibelius Hall (known in Finnish as Sibeliustalo because talo means house!)

You might recall this picture I posted in my 2nd post on this blog showing Sibelius Hall. I retrieved this photo from Wikipedia.org but it has since been removed from the article on Lahti.



Well...... here's proof that I've been there! :) The chimney in the distance on the left is almost in the exact same spot in both photos!



Here is Sibeliustalo and I'm standing on a dock. The harbour is on the lake "Vesijärvi". This lake suffered from eutrophication in the 1960's and a restoration project was started in the 1970's.



Here is another picture I posted in that 2nd post about Finland, showing the backside of the building.



And now this is the picture I took! The window on the far right is the same, to give some perspective :) I am unsure if these are the main steps leading to the Hall since they are located on the opposite side of the road, facing the water.




Below is a shot of the Hall's interior taken from the reception area. The stairs lead to the auditorium, which was off limits of course :) Everything inside is very polished and it reminded me of the Stratford Festival, complete with it's box office and somewhat overpriced giftshop :)



Here is a landscape shot including a smaller section of the harbour.



This is me on a curious outcrop in Lahti harbour! (currently my Facebook profile picture)



Credit to Henni Ala for taking most of the photos (the ones with myself in them anyway) and keep checking in for more pictures and information - videos? Host family? :D I am going shopping on Saturday with my host sister Anni so except some new attire. I'm also going on to my family's summer cottage 2 hours north of Lahti so some pictures will be posted early next week for sure!

Lahden Yhteiskoulu... and more :)

Here are some pictures from today. I met up with Elli (German exchange student) and Sun (Taiwanese exchange student) after school and now I have some pictures of my school, Lahden Yhteiskoulu. Sun goes to my school and Elli goes to Lahden Lyseo, the school across the street.

My school consists of two buildings. The one in this picture is over 100 years old (1896!) and I have math class and English class here. Check out the school website: www.lyk.fi as well!



Inside the older building (I have another great pic but it won't upload correctly...)



Here is the second, newer building where I have the rest of my classes this period: biology, music and gym. This photo was taken from the steps of the old building.



The school name on the side of the new building.



And now, a few more photos from the talent show at Karkku that were uploaded on Facebook recently by my French friend Sibylle Morel:

Here I am introducing my piece.



And here I am performing it.



AND...


I do have a host family picture... it is below...







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OK!


My first day at my host family (family name is Penttilä) was also the day of my younger host sister's confirmation celebration (Anni is her name). So, there was all sorts of relatives at the house and we enjoyed an excellent meal prepared by my host mother, Riitta. This picture is a picture taken regularly at Pentillä family gatherings and is known as the 'cousin' picture. It includes all the siblings and cousins in the family on both Hannu's side and Riitta's side.

I managed to slip in the back for one of the shots :)




I can't remember the names of any of the younger cousins in the front row. So, starting on the left in the back row we have: my host brother Simo (12), my host sister Outi (17, soon 18), unsure :), my host sister Anni (15, soon 16 - it is her confirmation that is being celebrated), my host sister Sari (20, goes to medical school in the city of Tampere), cousin Emmi (going to university in Kuopio soon), and my host sister Marjo (24, attending university in Lapeenranta for engineering).

Then I'm in the back :) I was really tired, since this picture was taken right when I arrived at the house after Karkku... and Karkku was a very tiring week!

Anyway, pictures of me with my host parents as well as my home are on the way!

One More Picture...

One more picture that was put up on Facebook today by Anna Perkkola: Here is myself and David Jakob from Germany and we are practicing our jazz duet performance for the talent show.



I promise, more pictures are on the way, host family, school etc. so keep checking in!

Karkku Camp

Alright! I finally have some time to sit down and make a serious post.

I've had an amazing week at the Karkku Language Camp where I met all the other students on Exchange here in Finland (there's about 80 total from all over the world) and I now have 80 new and awesome friends! We spent the week learning Finnish in small groups from Finnish tutors, taking saunas, getting an idea of the Finnish lifestyle and also took a day trip and tour in the city of Tampere, the second largest city in Finland with 340,000 in the greater Tampere area.

Here are some key photos from my week at Karkku: (if you have me on Facebook, I'm uploading an entire album right now!)

Sunset over the Atlantic



Here is the room where the Canadians and French were taught Finnish. My group is on the far left and my tutor is the girl in the white shirt: Suvi. She went on Rotary Exchange to Southwestern Ontario a few years ago! (don't remember the town for sure... Burlington? Hamilton?)



Here I am in the city of Tampere with my German friend Vince.



My friend Jimmy, from Taiwan, captured this amazing photograph of the lake at our camp in Karkuu in early morning.



We took a big picture of all the Exchange students and their flags, although I only have a hard copy. This is a smaller group I jumped into that posed for some pictures after the main picture.



Here I am performing "Romance" by Jean Sibelius in the talent show that was held Friday night. It was a fun night with a variety of acts from so many cultures. (*note the drums in the background! I did not play them in the show but I also performed a jazz duet on piano with my German friend David on drums, which was awesome!)



Here is the Canadian contribution to the show. These are all the Canadian exchange students staying in Finland this year (like me). I'm actually in this picture, holding the flag up behind everyone else. We recited the "I am Canadian" speech that is apparently from a commercial I have never seen...



From left: Christopher Poitras (Oshawa, ON), Alex Prinzen (Ingersoll, ON), Chet Kuchyt (Niagara Falls, ON), Victoria Symons (Windsor, ON), David Burchett (Coldstream, BC), and Anne-Marie Guerin (Calgary, AB).

So, I don't have any pictures with my host family YET! I will be posting those soon along with more information about my life here in Lahti. I started school today but it just selecting my courses... it works a lot like university - I can pick any course from any level or any year and I make my own timetable. I used this to my advantage and avoided all the early classes :) For me, school starts at 9:30am on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays and at 11:30am on Mondays and Fridays!

However, this is only for the first period (2 months) and there are 5 periods in the school year, each with different courses. I am taking 6 courses in the first period and the maximum is 8.

I know it sounds confusing and it took me all day to figure it out with a lot of help and it's very different from the Canadian system. Anyway, tomorrow I start my classes and will post again soon!

Ok, Hi Everyone

Sorry I have not posted lately but I have had very limited internet time!

Now I am at my host family's house, language camp was amazing but it's done. School starts tomorrow and I'm having a touch of culture shock here with my family.

Pictures later today hopefully, more information as well, but now I must unpack and go have lunch!

Well, I Made It.

I am sitting here at the Karkuu Finnish language camp. I have not slept in 2 days, showered in the last 36 hours and have eaten nothing but airline food, a banana and bread. I've met more people than I can count from more countries than I knew existed.

A few pictures coming soon...

Just wanted to let everyone know... I made it.