At the beginning I would like to point out the fact that the trip to Finland was a fantastic adventure.
After a long and tiring journey, we arrived at Oulu in the middle of the night. The temperature totally surprised me: I was prepared for
-30 degrees, but there was only -15.
The girls we lived with were surprised too. I thought that they would be introverts, without sense of humor and very little talkative. However, I saw them smiling, and at first a little
self-conscious, the girls turned out to be the ones who weren’t shy. Talking with Minna about everything wasn’t a problem. They were happy to show us the city and enthusiastically went shopping and sightseeing with us.
The sizes and appearance of their homes were also surprising; maybe not houses, but villas. These huge residences were nothing out of ordinary for them.
In the evenings we surfed on the Internet, showed our houses and our friends, watched movies, played monopoly and sing star, simply had a great time.
I thought it would be hard at school and that there could be a lot of activities. Fact. There was to be hard work on the 75-minute-long lessons, and actually we did withstand them, but before the activities Finnish teachers approached us and apologized that the lessons would be conducted in their native language.
So we didn’t understand anything and we were a little bored.
Students weren’t talkative and during the entire stay there no one approached us. One lesson on which someone was interested in our presence was an English lesson. The questions that were asked were really very interesting. The Finnish school is not about strict discipline, but about the freedom and responsibility for ourselves.
I was disappointed only about Santa Claus and his village in Rovanniemi. Santa Claus was fake and commercial.
What, however, completely made up for it was the ice castle where Wisniewski(a pop star) got married to Mandaryna. That was the greatest attraction for us.
The trip was an unforgettable experience for me, because I had never expected that I would go to the Arctic Circle.
I hope to visit Kiiminki again, because I am invited again.
But now I am waiting for Minna, because she is coming to Poland this holiday.
Ixon(Szczecin, Poland)
