Arts Night

Last night (Friday) Oulainen had their annual Arts night. One road in the town was blocked and they had the local art house open with it's exhibitions, there was dancing, music, the library was open til midnight, etc.
I spent the evening with friends, two of which were dressed as ghosts and giving out lollies to people in the streets!
Other than the Old Machines Festival, I don't think I have ever seen so many people in Oulainen! :D

Local Art house

Kids chalk drawing and writing on the paths

Oooo ghosts!

Only a small portion of the art on show

Bad photo quality, by the time we went down to see the dancing and music it was quite late.. and yes, we are getting darkness again! Winter is coming...

Ammattiopisto

Instead of going to Lukio (highschool), I started this week off with one day spent at one of the vocational schools here in Oulainen. My first host mum works there and invited me along to join in one of her classes, teaching those students studying to become carers and nurses. In this lesson they learnt to give different types of injections and I was allowed to join in! We practiced first on some fake skin sponge type things (pictured) and then we moved onto trying on eachother! Stomach, butt and thigh.. one of the more interesting practicals I've participated in! :D

In the afternoon I joined a class of older students who are studying to become nurses. Here I was also able to join in as they learnt how to mix antibiotics and medicines and also, how to organise and assemble a drip.

It was a fun and interesting day! It was really different to the school I usually attend and was a great experience. Vocational schools like this are very common and many students go to these schools after middle school, instead of Lukio, so that they can start their studies in the trade or practical profession they want to go into. So, it was really a good opportunity for me to see how some of the other people my age study and what those schools are like.

Back to school

So the Summer holidays are now over, and now we're back to school!
The rest of my summer was spent around either Oulainen or Oulu. My second family has an apartment in Oulu so I had the chance to go with them and stay there and explore the city.

One afternoon spent at the Botanical Gardens
of Oulu with my host mum

The weekend before school started I moved to my third and last family; I will stay here until the end of my exchange. 

6 months of stuff... oops! :/

I cannot believe that I am over the 7 month mark! The 'oldies' have all left and now I, along with my fellow exchange students that came in January, have become the 'oldies' as our own newbies have arrived! This year is flying by and I cannot believe how this has crept up on me!

It's weird to be back at school, it feels quite different to the last school year. I had the chance to get to know people better over the summer and now that I am living in the township it is quite different being able to just take my bike and go instead of running on a bus schedule. It's nice! School is still very much over my head, my understanding of the Finnish language is still only when people speak one-on-one with me and slow down (some miming also tends to help!) The Finnish language is quite complicated and especially difficult when it is a group of Finns speaking together; they speak so fast and with a lot of slang that I can't keep track of the sentences yet. But I still have a bit of time left! I'm studying hard so hopefully I'll get there by the end! And I sure will be trying to keep learning once I leave because I really want to be fluent in a second language and, despite many people's opinions on the language, I actually really like Finnish! 

Learning to play golf with my new host dad in Kalajoki,
a seaside town around 50kms from Oulainen.

The second weekend of August I spent in Helsinki, in the south of Finland, and went to Weekend Festival (a music festival) with some friends from school. It was a really good weekend and a lot of fun!

Cheek- popular Finnish rapper

Far East Movement

David Guetta

Calvin Harris

My friend Mapu and I

Mapu, Niina and I

The weather has been consistently really good the last couple of weeks especially. It's not normal to still be warm and sunny in Finland at this time of the year, I've been told that usually it is actually quite rainy and rather miserable weather. I've been spending my evenings walking, running, or bike riding and taking advantage of the nice weather before the Autumn and then ultimately, the winter sets in.