200 DAYS

Time goes way too fast, I don’t even have time to realise what is going on. Weeks just fly in front of my eyes and I try to hang on at the edge of time and hope I won’t wake up tomorrow realising that I haven’t done anything useful with my life.

                      I have been busy and lazy past couple of weeks, new semester and ton of schoolwork. I am not complaining, I actually really like this semester and all the courses I have. English is hard, it is really hard to analyze a poem with a language that you don’t speak as your first language. Challenge and change is interesting, lot of social psychology and studies about human behaviour and changes in out society. Fitness is fitness, gym everyday and studying about healthy living. My last course is fitness leadership, easily the funniest course I have this semester. We work as a group, we organize and plan events and learn how to be a good leader. All these courses are fun, but they all have lot of assignments, projects and research to be done so they take a lot of time. After school, I play waterpolo and do yoga, so when I come home after a long day there not much energy left in me.

                      Pictures are from a school dance yesterday. So much fun! We danced for the whole evening and it felt so good be surrounded people and seeing everyone having so much fun. Today is P.A. day, which means there is no school for the students. Long weekend feels good, I have no plans I kind a like it like that. Sometimes it is good to have time for just you, not to do anything or plan anything.

                      So, as you can see, after 200 days my life has become really normal. Nothing super exciting but nothing bad either. My life is good, I hope yours is too. I’ll be back soon with a video so stay tuned!

HYVÄÄ YSTÄVÄNPÄIVÄÄ

Suomessa Valentine’s day on käännetty muotoon ystävänpäivä eikä sen takia ole minulle koskaan ollut mikään romanttinen päivä. Koska vaihdossa ollessa oppii arvostamaan ystävyyttä ja ihmissuhteita ihan eri tavalla mitä ennen, ajattelin omistaa yhden postauksen kokonaan kavereille. Ystävänpäivän kunniaksi.

                      Koen olevani erittäin onnekas, kun minulla on ympäri maailmaa ihmisiä joiden puoleen voin kääntyä ihan milloin tahansa. Jokaiselta mantereelta löytyy joku, jonka luona voi halutessa vierailla. Vaihdossa luo ihan eritavalla ihmissuhteita, kun esimerkiksi kotona Suomessa eikä sen vuoksi niitä voi edes verrata toisiinsa.

                      Kavereiden saaminen ei ole ikinä ollut minulle hankalaa, olen melko sosiaalinen ihminen ja uudet persoonat kiinnostaa minua aina. Siksi en osannut odottaa, että kavereiden hankkiminen vaatiikin hieman ponnistelua ja paljon oma-aloitteisuutta täällä. Nyt kuuden kuukauden jälkeen voin sanoa, että minulla on vakiokaverit ja kaveriporukka. Joidenkin kavereiden kanssa olen läheisempi kuin toisten, välillä tuntuu että olisin tuntenut osan näistä koko elämäni. Tulen varmasti kaipaamaan kavereita täältä, osa on luvannut tulla moikkaamaan minua Suomeen ja monen kanssa tullaan pitämään vielä pitkään yhteyttä. Ymmärrän kyllä, jos jotkut kaverisuhteet ei kestäkään enää sen jälkeen kun palaan takaisin Suomeen sillä ei kaikki Suomessa luodut suhteetkaan kestänyt kun tänne tulin. Näin elämä toimii ja sitten kun sen ymmärtää ja hyväksyy, on yhden askeleen vahvempi ja viisaampi.

                      Vaikein asia viimeisen kuuden kuukauden aikana on ehdottomasti ollut kavereiden ikävöiminen. On pitänyt ymmärtää, etten ole siellä heidän kanssa enkä näin ollen voi vaikuttaa mihinkään mitä he tekevät. Hankalinta on ollut se, jos joku kavereista on tarvinnut minun apua, mutten ole sitä muuten voinut antaa kuin tekstiviestin välityksellä. On ollut rankkaa seurata sivusta, miten kaverit suunnittelee juhlia ja menoja yhdessä, kun minä olen täällä toisella puolella maailmaa ilman heitä. Pari kuukautta sitten lähdin kaikista viestiryhmistä pois, ihan vaan sen takia etten rupeisi katkeraksi enkä ikävöisi liikaa kotia. Piti oppia elämään ilman tuttua ja turvallista kaveriverkkoa.

                      Nykypäivän teknologian ansiosta on ollut helpompi tietysti pitää yhteyttä, mutten ole ottanut siitä mitään stressiä. Vaihtovuoden alkuvaiheessa minulla oli aina omatunnon tuskat, jos en ollut jutellut kavereille Suomeen pariin päivään. Nyt kuitenkin ymmärrän, että tosiystävät pysyy minun kavereina vaikkei niille koko ajan juttelisikaan eikä kenenkään elämässä tapahdu joka päivä jotain mainitsemisen arvoista.

                      Olen menettänyt kavereita, mutta olen myös tullut läheisemmiksi ihmisten kanssa. Joskus pitää ottaa kokonainen valtameri väliin, että ymmärtää kuinka tärkeä kaverisuhde sinulla on jonkun kanssa. Minulle kaikki ystävät on rakkaita, ikävöin kaikkia yhtä paljon. Ikävöin myöhäisiä kesäiltoja mökillä, naurun remakkaa ja kaikkia päättömiä suunnitelmia yhdessä. Ystävyys on asia jota tulee vaalia, se on kaunis ja harvinainen asia eikä sitä missään tapauksessa saa aliarvioida. Nähdään kaverit puolen vuoden päästä! 

In Finland Valentine’s day is translated to Friends day, which is the reason why it haven’t been romantic day for me ever. Being an exchange student teaches you many new things about friendship and relationships, you learn to appreciate and value them more. I thought I would dedicate post just for friends.

                      I feel very lucky when I am able to say that I have friends all over the world. I have people in every continental that I can visit if I want to. While being on exchange you make friendships whole different way, which is why you can’t compare them to friendship back home.

                      Making friends never hasn’t been hard for me, I am quite social person and new persons always interest me. That is why I didn’t expect that making friends would need some serious effort and spontaneity. Now, after six months I can say that I have friends and a friend group. With some friends I am closer than with others, some times I feel like I had known these people more than six months. I will miss my friends here, some of them are planning to visit me in Finland and I will keep in touch with them for a long time after this year. Also, I understand that not all the relationships are going to last after this year. It happens, like it happened with some of my friendships when I came here. This is how life works and when you realize that, you are one step stronger and wiser.

                      Missing friends back at home has been the hardest thing during these six months. I have to understand that I can’t be there with them or say anything about what they are doing. Hardest thing is when my friends need me, but I can’t be there to help them. The only help I can give to them is a text message. It has been hard to see when they make plans, how they talk about parties or things they would do together when I am here, other side of the world without them. Couple months ago I decided to leave all my group chats, just because I didn’t want to become too bitter or miss them too much. I need to learn how to live without my safety net. Technology these days makes keeping in touch with friends lot more easier, but I won’t take any stress about it. Beginning of my year I felt really bad if I didn’t talk to my friends in two days. Now I understand that the real friends stay my friends even though I don’t talk to them all the time.

I have lost some friends, but also I have become lot closer with some of my friends. Sometimes you have to cross the ocean to realize how important your friendship with someone is. All my friends mean the world to me, I miss them all very much. I miss all the late summer nights at my summerhouse, loud laugher and stupid ideas together. Friendship is something that you should cherish, it is a beautiful and unique thing. See you all in six months!

IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU, BUT IT'S UP TO YOU

Sometimes I just have to stop and think how lucky I am. Last weekend made me really realise that, I got to experience something so special and fantastic that there is no words to describe it.

Algonguin is a big park in Ontario and Rotary Youth Exchange students from district 7090 gets to go there and experience northern wilderness in a whole new level. Before I start to tell more about the trip, you need to remember that some of the kids on this trip have never experienced winter before. This trip that we did, lasted for four days and three nights. I will try my best to explain Algonguin to you people, but there is this one rule I have to follow carefully. What happens in Algonguin, stays in Algonguin.  This rule is not made because we do something stupid and no one should ever hear about it, it’s made to protect the trip. You should only know that it will be cold and fun. That is all I knew when I went up there and honestly, that was everything I needed to know.

This year we were blessed by the weather, it wasn’t nearly as cold as it was last year or year before that and I think that is one of the reasons why our trip was such a success. Two days out of four the sun shined the whole day and temperature was down only in minus 15.  Spending every day outside doing activities really took energy out of people. I promise you that in the evening when we finally went to bed, we were done.

Our group was divided into different parts and my job was to lead the group. Being a leader is something that I actually know how to do and I really enjoy it. Being a leader in Algonguin, was a whole different job than being a leader back home. There it means that you have to make quick decisions, keep the group calm and remember that everyone wants to have some fun too. Two full days being a leader of group of 21 people made me learn more than I imagined. I had to deal with stress more quickly than normally, I had to make some hard choices and I had to learn to trust people that I had met just one day ago.

"Chillin' chillin' chillin in alwonquin park, just chillin' here in this great park"

- Jose

One of the exercises that we did there, made us think ourselves and who we want to be. Exchange is a perfect place to figure that out, no one knows you and you can decide who you want to be. This exercise was harder than I thought, I was really emotional and I went through lot of thing in my mind that I haven’t thought in a really long time. I realised that some of my choices in the past are actually made me better person and some of them I shouldn’t have done. I don’t regret anything, but now I know how to proceed in the future.

Best four days of my life. Winter wonderland. I never thought that you can become friends with people so fast and you can build a trust in someone you just met so quickly, but things like this prove me that it is possible. I will remember this trip for a very long time and every time I face something hard in my life I can come back to this trip and remember that I survived. It’s not about you, but it’s up to you. This sentence changes my way of thinking completely.

Now, six months of exchange behind me and six months still to go I can proudly say that I am who I want to be. I know what I want and I know how to get there. I am in peace with myself, I know I have problems but today is not the day to stress about them. I am happy and I am ready to face all the challenges that life gives me. I am ready.