Viva Finland

Lightly snow-covered, pavement in front of the 'Interglobus'company office
- there began our adventure with Finland. I didn't expect that I would be one of those people, who they chose, and who would be able to feel on the skin that Finnish cold. Life can bring a surprise.

My first feeling, and the first thing that surprised me was the question : where is the snow? There was so little of it, that for a moment I thought that we had made a mistake and chose the wrong plane. Fortunately, we arrived in Finland. Nina and Minna robbed us from the hotel. We went with them to Nina's apartment in Oulu. At the beginning it was a bit awkward, but after the first ice-breaking we spent 3 hours on a conversation about everything. Then each went to her room and fell asleep.

The next day we toured a charming town Oulu. It dazzled us with its simplicity, serenity and also plenty of designer shops, which were very expensive. Not only the clothes were expensive. One meal in a fairly popular restaurant cost more than 70 złotych. But they had a never-ending chocolate-flavored lollipops! Yummy!

In the evening, Minna's mother's boyfriend came and took us back to their family homes in Kiminki. Iga went to Minna’s, I was to live with Nina. Into my eyes appeared a huge, lovely house on the lake surrounded by snow and the remnants of Christmas decorations. Nina's Mom hugged me in greeting and invited to the house proposing a pizza at once . In Finland I had a strange feeling of perpetual hunger, which I was being satisfied all the time, because there was a feeling, that I was eating something all the time. And I was drinking some milk. Milk was served to everything - even the flakes with milk. It was probably a product which would never run out in a Finnish home. Basic equipment and a room, which was necessary for life was a sauna. Finns spend several hours a day there. They were shocked when they realized that in Poland we don’t have a sauna in our homes, only in the SPA.

Our knowledge of English assisted by the Polish-English dictionary was helpful in
a 7- hour-long night conversation. No matter that we had to get up at 5:30, when in Poland
it was 4:30. We were given some quality advice to get up from a soft, warm bed to go to the conquest of Lapland, or the home of Santa Claus. More of it was waiting for meeting him than the pleasure of a conversation with Santa - unfortunately we had no occasion, as one of the coordinators of the project wasn`t aware that we are the participants in it and didn’t allow us to enter. A Santa's Village is one, big commerce – it tries to make profit from everything, even the toilet paper with the image of Santa Claus. But…it`s fun for kids, I guess. The coolest thing there were reindeer! Fluffy but dangerous - only Mr. Ułasiuk (our teacher) thought in this way, because in fact they were friendly, like household pets. Then we went to the Snow Castle, in which Michal Wisniewski and Mandaryna (Polish pop stars) had got married. I can't imagine spending the night in the refrigerator! Brr.

Nina's mother spoke English perfectly , so we could talk, talk and talk. She liked talking, but that was nothing in comparison to Nina's stepfather, who talked all the time, although he didn't speak English, but he used words that resembled some English words, some German, mostly Finnish, but I understood everything. There were people open to new acquaintanceship, talked with me about everything, it was a huge surprise, because our teachers told us that Finns are a very closed social group, which isn't true.

Wherever we looked everywhere there were blond and blonde. Sometimes it was difficult to distinguish them from each other. The lessons were there in complete silence, they listen to the teacher, the teacher listens to students. Something extraordinary. Classes are for students, who want to get in on lessons, and if they don’t want - just leave without giving
a reason, go to sleep on a school sofa or listen to music without disturbing others. One lesson lasts 75 minutes and it was hard not to fall asleep, after we had slept for less than 2 hours. At some point, a teacher of biology and geography saw us that we slept in the sitting position and suggested us to go to take a nap on the couch. It was funny.
Those people I met in Finland were amazing. Sometimes there are no proper words to describe this incredible atmosphere that prevailed there. I regret that the trip lasted so short. I'm going to go back there, soon.


Martyna (Szczecin, Poland)