Too Happy to be Homesick: "I've Been Busy" Is An Understatement

As you can see from the title, these past two weeks have been action packed, and here is my condensed summary.

During syysloma (autumn break), the week started off on an airplane. As mentioned in my last post, I was on my way to Helsinki. We spent three days in the city; shopping, visiting museums, Starbucks, site seeing, breakfast at the Fazer café, and Mamma Mia + desserts at the Svenska Teatern, filled all of our waking hours. I was able to buy all the boots one girl could need for an Oulu winter. I also purchased some Christmas gifts, this snowy weather has got me in the holiday spirit :). At Starbucks I had my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the year, and even though the weather would have been more suited for a Peppermint Mocha, I was still comforted by the cinnamon and nutmeg reminders of last year’s autumn days in Kamloops. For those of you who know me well enough, you know about how much I love Mamma Mia, you can imagine the excitement I felt when I first saw these tickets, and suddenly I was sitting in the theatre. The musical was in Swedish, but the incredible actors and the catchy tune of all of the ABBA songs, made it one of my favorite performances. When we were exploring the cobblestone streets of Helsinki, I couldn’t help but admire the history and appreciate the modern accents. I am so grateful that I was able to see more of Finland, especially with such great company. Those few days flew by so fast, and then I was travelling back to the great white north.

I spent one night in my home in Oulu, and then I was on a bus to Raahe for a weekend with the District 1400 and 1380 exchange students, for our Inbound Orientation. We spent the weekend sharing our experiences, hosting the Finnish Exchange student Olympics, and of course simply enjoying being surrounded by our best friends. We went to a museum in Raahe where the oldest diving suit in the world is, and we also had a tour of some of the most important landmarks in Raahe.

We are such a unique group of people, I am always surprised by how helpful and creative we are when we are together. We wanted to have a movie night but unfortunately our only resources were an electric piano, an antique cd player and an unreliable projector. I realized that if this had happened at home, I probably would have given up and the movie would not have happened, but because of teamwork and percistancy we were able to fix our problems and the movie was a success.

Now we are at Monday, back to school. As much fun as my week off was, I was happy to get back to my routine with school, Finnish class, dance, gym, and fencing.

I just started fencing this year, and I really enjoy it. Although it took me a while to get the hang of getting dressed in all of the equipment, I reached a milestone last Friday, when I won my first fencing match :).

Yesterday I spent the day with a fellow Rotarian and his family. We took a tour of the Oulu Nokia factory where he is working. I discovered that this factory in Oulu is internationally known for it’s innovative technology in the “Base Station” sector of technology. This factory in Oulu is unique because it develops and tests most of the prototypes, for Nokia, which are then shipped and mass-produced in other parts of the world. This Oulu factory is also one of the oldest, in the world. So essentially, Oulu is where the Nokia-magic first starts. Thank you again Ville and your family for including me, I learned a lot, and had an amazing time.

Today I went to my second host-family’s home for an “official visit”. We discussed what day I will be changing families, I can’t believe how fast the day is approaching. Also my current host family and I celebrated thanksgiving today, I was in charge of the turkey, but I’m sorry Grandma Fran, my stuffing did not compare to how yours turns out. Nonetheless everyone enjoyed the meal and I promised I would perfect the stuffing recipe for next time.

And the adventure continues,

Mackie