I know I should update this blog more often in English. In the beginning I did write more often in English, because I felt that I should improve my English, but now the situation is turned around. I don't study Finnish here at all so and when I write emails or chat on Facebook, my Finnish is spoken Finnish. I'm starting to lose my standard language and using more and more my dialect, that is getting weaker. This kind of frightens me, since I am applying back to Finland after next year to study law after three years of studying in English mostly and mostly communicating in English.
Now that our second years have left Campus (1 ½ weeks already without them) there might be days when I don't communicate in any way in Finnish. Some days I say just Hi to my co-year or then send 2 emails to my mom. Since I am the only one here from Northern-Finland during this year my dialect has toned done, but I am sure I will have it back as soon as I have stayed home for a couple of weeks.
HOME? What is home for me? I feel I am extremely lucky since I can truly say that I have two homes. They are located both in the Nordic region, but the differences are huge. Home is Norway, Flekke, Finland House, FH103. This is my home, my room, my corner where I am sitting now and writing to you. But HOME is in Finland, Oulu, almost where the reindeer live (according to my roommate), Raivaajantie, where my parents are, where I have been raised 15 years out of almost 18 years. That is the real HOME.
In less then a week I will be home after travelling for 25 hours. Everyone is telling me how easy it is to travel to Finland and how I am so lucky. Well to be honest there are people here, who will on the other side of the world and still will be home earlier or at the same time as I will be. I leave at 6 p.m. local time from the school on Friday evening and reach Oulu Airport at 19.20 (norwegian Time) / 20.20 (Finnish Time). This is when I consider being almost home. HOME will be when I get to open that wooden door that has a grey mailbox next to it. When I open the door and see the tiles and white cupboards and the white door with a window on it. When I open that door and walk inside and see on my right stairs going down and stairs going down on my left I can see our living room with a blue sofa and 2 blue chair and ahead of me is the kitchen.
Before coming here I thought that I would miss most our basement. I spent most of my time there, it's where we have a projector and TV, DVD etc. systems. It's where my piano is. It's where the sauna and bathtub and one shower is. This was proven false during the year. The places that I miss the most are our kitchen and my own room. Kitchen, because I like the fact that at home I could go to the kitchen and if I wanted to cook I had all the utensils there and wouldn't need to run from house to house looking for pots and pans. My own room, because it's my space, it's my own bed. That's where I will be sleeping in 7 nights.
I will only sleep there for a couple of nights since then I am heading off to Helsinki and Järvenpää for UWC-things on Monday. On Monday afternoon I will attend a event at the Norwegian Embassy in Helsinki, with members of the administration of my school, the Board of the school (in what Jenny (USA roommate) is a part of), members of the Finnish National Committee and UWCRCN alumni. After this meeting I will be staying with my dad's aunt in the center of Helsinki and be spending time with my friends that I rarely get to see,due to the distance from Oulu to Helsinki. On Friday the Finnish UWC Summer gathering will start. I am very curious to see what actually happens there, since I have only heard stories about it. It is compulsory for all the new students to attend, but last year I left to Nepal on the same day so I was excused.
This was supposed to be very short, but I got carried away. Hopefully you found this interesting. I'll probably continue posting more often in English during the Summer.
- Anniina
P.S. As I was talking about homes, here is something some students wrote about their homes.
Now that our second years have left Campus (1 ½ weeks already without them) there might be days when I don't communicate in any way in Finnish. Some days I say just Hi to my co-year or then send 2 emails to my mom. Since I am the only one here from Northern-Finland during this year my dialect has toned done, but I am sure I will have it back as soon as I have stayed home for a couple of weeks.
HOME? What is home for me? I feel I am extremely lucky since I can truly say that I have two homes. They are located both in the Nordic region, but the differences are huge. Home is Norway, Flekke, Finland House, FH103. This is my home, my room, my corner where I am sitting now and writing to you. But HOME is in Finland, Oulu, almost where the reindeer live (according to my roommate), Raivaajantie, where my parents are, where I have been raised 15 years out of almost 18 years. That is the real HOME.
In less then a week I will be home after travelling for 25 hours. Everyone is telling me how easy it is to travel to Finland and how I am so lucky. Well to be honest there are people here, who will on the other side of the world and still will be home earlier or at the same time as I will be. I leave at 6 p.m. local time from the school on Friday evening and reach Oulu Airport at 19.20 (norwegian Time) / 20.20 (Finnish Time). This is when I consider being almost home. HOME will be when I get to open that wooden door that has a grey mailbox next to it. When I open the door and see the tiles and white cupboards and the white door with a window on it. When I open that door and walk inside and see on my right stairs going down and stairs going down on my left I can see our living room with a blue sofa and 2 blue chair and ahead of me is the kitchen.
Before coming here I thought that I would miss most our basement. I spent most of my time there, it's where we have a projector and TV, DVD etc. systems. It's where my piano is. It's where the sauna and bathtub and one shower is. This was proven false during the year. The places that I miss the most are our kitchen and my own room. Kitchen, because I like the fact that at home I could go to the kitchen and if I wanted to cook I had all the utensils there and wouldn't need to run from house to house looking for pots and pans. My own room, because it's my space, it's my own bed. That's where I will be sleeping in 7 nights.
I will only sleep there for a couple of nights since then I am heading off to Helsinki and Järvenpää for UWC-things on Monday. On Monday afternoon I will attend a event at the Norwegian Embassy in Helsinki, with members of the administration of my school, the Board of the school (in what Jenny (USA roommate) is a part of), members of the Finnish National Committee and UWCRCN alumni. After this meeting I will be staying with my dad's aunt in the center of Helsinki and be spending time with my friends that I rarely get to see,due to the distance from Oulu to Helsinki. On Friday the Finnish UWC Summer gathering will start. I am very curious to see what actually happens there, since I have only heard stories about it. It is compulsory for all the new students to attend, but last year I left to Nepal on the same day so I was excused.
This was supposed to be very short, but I got carried away. Hopefully you found this interesting. I'll probably continue posting more often in English during the Summer.
- Anniina
P.S. As I was talking about homes, here is something some students wrote about their homes.
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