Finland in winter is essentially a giant snow Wonderland. It never failed to amaze me at seeing snow everyday as I woke up and the sky the same colour as the ground, pure white. On our visit to Finland we stayed with host families. The girl I stayed with was called Niina Huru and she lived with her mom, her dad, her 3 brothers and their dog. They also ran their own business a small shop and fast food counter. Via the family I learnt about traditional foods such as moose, reindeer and many different types of bread as well as learning parts of their language and the way they go about daily life. The snow, however, was by far the most interesting since in England we can’t seem to survive two days of Snow never mind several months.
During our weekend in Finland we did many interesting things such as check out the local shopping mall but Sunday was by far the most exciting day. We saw live reindeer in Lapland amongst other exciting sites but the best was yet to come. ‘The experience of a lifetime.’ Finland’s very own snow castle visit was a hit. An entire castle made out of snow. Inside were hotel rooms, restaurants and even a cathedral room. As the skies grew dim we played on the ice slides and wandered around the ice hotel rooms taking pictures of everything we saw.
During this day we also met other students visiting from countries such as Belgium, Bulgaria, Poland and Spain. We swapped information on our different countries and had a lot of laughs mostly from playing in the snow.
Finally on Monday and Tuesday off to school we went. While we were there we tried Finnish school lunches, saw an assembly based on Finnish culture such as Finnish dancing and drinking. We also tried Finnish sweets and sat in lessons, generally the English ones were best because they asked us questions about English culture so it was easier for us to understand.
All in all it was a very enriching experience and it definitely made the six grueling flights worth while. I hope to keep in contact with the new friends I met there and I also hope to return to Finland one day and try out many other new and exciting things such as skiing, snowboarding maybe even trying out a snow mobile.
During our weekend in Finland we did many interesting things such as check out the local shopping mall but Sunday was by far the most exciting day. We saw live reindeer in Lapland amongst other exciting sites but the best was yet to come. ‘The experience of a lifetime.’ Finland’s very own snow castle visit was a hit. An entire castle made out of snow. Inside were hotel rooms, restaurants and even a cathedral room. As the skies grew dim we played on the ice slides and wandered around the ice hotel rooms taking pictures of everything we saw.
During this day we also met other students visiting from countries such as Belgium, Bulgaria, Poland and Spain. We swapped information on our different countries and had a lot of laughs mostly from playing in the snow.
Finally on Monday and Tuesday off to school we went. While we were there we tried Finnish school lunches, saw an assembly based on Finnish culture such as Finnish dancing and drinking. We also tried Finnish sweets and sat in lessons, generally the English ones were best because they asked us questions about English culture so it was easier for us to understand.
All in all it was a very enriching experience and it definitely made the six grueling flights worth while. I hope to keep in contact with the new friends I met there and I also hope to return to Finland one day and try out many other new and exciting things such as skiing, snowboarding maybe even trying out a snow mobile.
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