Ok, I wanted to write about one thing that gets so far under my skin and happens on the daily that I just had to share it. I know it is definitely other peoples pet peeve as well and it happens more than often while on exchange, especially if the country doesn't know English that well.
Everyday I will be part of some sort of conversation and more times than not it will be in Finnish since... That is the majority of peoples comfortable and mother tongue language in Finland.
In common situations I am seen standing, usually staring off into space imagining what it would be like if I knew what everyone was saying around me.
My biggest... BIGGEST pet peeve is this:
When people are having conversation around me in another language and there is a reaction or they are saying something that I want to know I will ask for someone to tell me... a lot of the time I get this response:
"Oh it's nothing.." or literally just the word nothing.
I Hate It So Much.
Like obviously it's not nothing if everyone is laughing like damn hyenas or gasping like someone died. All I get it... Nothing... I just want to throw the word nothing out of everyone's vocabulary. Never to be said. Again.
I only realized how much this annoyed me until I came on exchange because of how frequently it happens..
Just a heads up to everyone thinking about exchange. This will happen, a lot. You will hate it. You will most likely get mad at the people around you. In the end you just learn to live with it. Doesn't make it any less annoying but.... Oh well...
- Angsty Cici
tiistai 22. maaliskuuta 2016
tiistai 1. maaliskuuta 2016
The Wanhat Experience
Well it's been a hot minutes since I last wrote. Even after I said I would write more frequently but here I am again after way too long. Sorry for the infrequent posts.
Winter is starting to come to an end. I can go outside and not feel like my body is going to freeze in a second. I no longer really need to go out with layers of clothing packed on. The snow is dwindling down and the sun comes out to say hi once in awhile. With the ending of Winter also comes my dwindling days of me being in Finland. Currently I am about seven months in with three and a half more to go. It's a really weird feeling realizing that I won't be here for much longer, just like the winter.
Quite a bit has been going on. A lot of new experiences have been packed in these past months. I got to go cross country skiing one day with my host family and it was so nice. We went right at sunset so the snow covered golf course that was turned into a cross country path was now covered in bright oranges, reds, and pinks from the sunset. One of the prettiest views I have seen.
You would think that the snow slows us down and keeps us inside, and sometimes it does. However, we adventure just as much as we did at the beginning of our exchange. Places look different and have different things to do during the winter and it's like seeing a new perspective. My exchange student "squad" went to Suomenlinna (a small island a ferry ride from Helsinki) and climbed the snowy hills of the island at sunset. We also visited little towns in close to Helsinki like Porvoo. It is one of the cutest little old towns. I would recommend it if anyone wants to come to Finland, as well as going to Turku.
About a week ago I got to experience one of Finland's biggest high school traditions, Wanhat. Wanhat is kind of like the equivalent to Prom back in the states but like way bigger and has a lot of big differences. First of all, about 200+ students learned an rehearsed around fourteen dances for two months in a gym for an hour three times a week. These dances were a mix of traditional Finnish dances, Latin dances, and some others that I had no idea. We also learned one dance that was student made by some people in the class.
About 95% of the time I walked around super confused by what we were going to learn, are learning, or where or what to do next. Since the guy only spoke in Finnish. I got help along the way though... Thank God or I would be way more lost
What happens is that we perform twice, once on Thursday evening for friends and family and then again on Friday morning for people at the school. Not only do we perform these fourteen dances but we girls bought huge poofy princess gowns that we all had the joy of occasionally tripping over and risking our lives dancing in. We all looked so good in them so it didn't even matter if you fell on your face, you looked good doing it...
For the Friday morning dance I bused to school and had many confused looks as I climbed on with my arms full of my huge dress and petticoat. My dress needed its own seat
It was so much fun to get all dressed up and perform all the dances that we spent hours working on. My partner was a gem and he was a fabulous dancer and saved my ass a couple times... So many thanks to him for putting up with me and my two left feet for two months.
After the dance on Thursday people went to a fancy dinner afterwards but I did not attend that part. However, there was an after party on Friday and I did go to that.
The after party had to be one of the biggest parties I've been to. It was at a club in Helsinki and there were around 10-12 school and about 1'000-1,500 kids in this club. If that didn't seem intense it also went till 4 in the morning. I arrived home at 4:30 with the sorest feet known to man. The after party was way too much fun and the whole Wanhat experience is one that I'll cherish forever. I had no idea what to expect from the event since we don't have anything quite like it in the states but it exceeded any expectations. I met so many new people from this and it really opened them up since I had to dance with random people. I made a few good friends from the experience and it was overall just really great.
If anyone is thinking of coming to Finland on exchange like honestly look forward to Wanhat. Even with the $375 dress and all the "stress" that comes with it... It is so worth it.
I will soon be posting another post I PROMISE, about my trip to France!
Till next time,
Cici
Winter is starting to come to an end. I can go outside and not feel like my body is going to freeze in a second. I no longer really need to go out with layers of clothing packed on. The snow is dwindling down and the sun comes out to say hi once in awhile. With the ending of Winter also comes my dwindling days of me being in Finland. Currently I am about seven months in with three and a half more to go. It's a really weird feeling realizing that I won't be here for much longer, just like the winter.
Quite a bit has been going on. A lot of new experiences have been packed in these past months. I got to go cross country skiing one day with my host family and it was so nice. We went right at sunset so the snow covered golf course that was turned into a cross country path was now covered in bright oranges, reds, and pinks from the sunset. One of the prettiest views I have seen.
You would think that the snow slows us down and keeps us inside, and sometimes it does. However, we adventure just as much as we did at the beginning of our exchange. Places look different and have different things to do during the winter and it's like seeing a new perspective. My exchange student "squad" went to Suomenlinna (a small island a ferry ride from Helsinki) and climbed the snowy hills of the island at sunset. We also visited little towns in close to Helsinki like Porvoo. It is one of the cutest little old towns. I would recommend it if anyone wants to come to Finland, as well as going to Turku.
About a week ago I got to experience one of Finland's biggest high school traditions, Wanhat. Wanhat is kind of like the equivalent to Prom back in the states but like way bigger and has a lot of big differences. First of all, about 200+ students learned an rehearsed around fourteen dances for two months in a gym for an hour three times a week. These dances were a mix of traditional Finnish dances, Latin dances, and some others that I had no idea. We also learned one dance that was student made by some people in the class.
About 95% of the time I walked around super confused by what we were going to learn, are learning, or where or what to do next. Since the guy only spoke in Finnish. I got help along the way though... Thank God or I would be way more lost
What happens is that we perform twice, once on Thursday evening for friends and family and then again on Friday morning for people at the school. Not only do we perform these fourteen dances but we girls bought huge poofy princess gowns that we all had the joy of occasionally tripping over and risking our lives dancing in. We all looked so good in them so it didn't even matter if you fell on your face, you looked good doing it...
For the Friday morning dance I bused to school and had many confused looks as I climbed on with my arms full of my huge dress and petticoat. My dress needed its own seat
It was so much fun to get all dressed up and perform all the dances that we spent hours working on. My partner was a gem and he was a fabulous dancer and saved my ass a couple times... So many thanks to him for putting up with me and my two left feet for two months.
After the dance on Thursday people went to a fancy dinner afterwards but I did not attend that part. However, there was an after party on Friday and I did go to that.
The after party had to be one of the biggest parties I've been to. It was at a club in Helsinki and there were around 10-12 school and about 1'000-1,500 kids in this club. If that didn't seem intense it also went till 4 in the morning. I arrived home at 4:30 with the sorest feet known to man. The after party was way too much fun and the whole Wanhat experience is one that I'll cherish forever. I had no idea what to expect from the event since we don't have anything quite like it in the states but it exceeded any expectations. I met so many new people from this and it really opened them up since I had to dance with random people. I made a few good friends from the experience and it was overall just really great.
If anyone is thinking of coming to Finland on exchange like honestly look forward to Wanhat. Even with the $375 dress and all the "stress" that comes with it... It is so worth it.
I will soon be posting another post I PROMISE, about my trip to France!
Till next time,
Cici
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