Aussies take over Oulainen!

The first weekend of this month I had the pleasure of returning the favour and hosting my exchange friend, Alison, from Kokkola.

The Friday night was the Highschool party that the student council had organised. Most people from the Lukio and also their friends from some of the vocational schools, etc. came along. It was a great chance for me to introduce Alison to many of my school friends!

On Saturday we went for a bike ride and I gave her a bit of a tour of Oulainen. We stopped at one of the churches and had a walk around. There was a tree full of all those beautiful Autumn colours. I am absolutely loving this time of the year; the colours are just gorgeous!

Local ice hockey game on Saturday afternoon

Saturday night spent with friends

On Sunday we visited shortly with some of my friends but then we took advantage of the beautiful sunny weather and rode our bikes out to the village of Matkaniva, where my first family lives, (around 7kms from my current home) and hung out with my sister, Juulia.

Bye bye Alison!- waiting for her train back to Kokkola on Sunday night

Then, again the weekend after, I had more Australian guests! Two Australian girls that are Rotary exchange students in Germany came to Finland to visit their oldies and then spent the weekend with me!

It was a pretty relaxed weekend. They arrived on Friday afternoon after the long 6 hour train ride from the south. We just hung out and did a little tour of the town.

Saturday we spent in Oulu. We had a look around the shops and the girls bought some Iittala and Marimekko things. They are two famous and very popular Finnish brands. There are all different things from bags and socks and clothes to homewares like candle holders and bowls and things like that. They are very typical in Finnish homes and I am a sucker for buying them. I love them!

We didn't swim but we did visit a beach in Oulu, we wandered around the market place and took photos with the policeman statue, saw some of the churches and just had a very peaceful day... well, minus the stop we made at Stockman where there were the crazy day sales and it was absolutely packed with people! We cleared out of there pretty quickly though!

Saturday night the girls tried my favourite Finnish food... Karjalanpiirakka which is like a bread with rice in the middle, cooked and then eaten with egg butter! Yum yum! The girls weren't big fans though :( We were also joined by one of my good Finnish friends and just sat and chatted.

That weekend marked three months until we are all heading back home to Australia so we started writing bucket lists for these last months so that we make sure that we make the most of the time we have and do everything we want to before we go- leave with no regrets! Let's see if we can tick everything off before we board our planes home!

On Sunday morning the girls headed back by train to Helsinki ready for their flight back to Germany on Monday. It was really a lovely weekend with them!

On Sunday afternoon my Host Dad and I headed over to Kalajoki and went bowling together.

 

Sunset at the beach in Kalajoki 

Then when we arrived home a whole trailer load of wood was sitting in our driveway... we donned warm jackets and gloves and got to work carting them to the place where we stacked them, ready for cold weather that is already here and the even colder winter weather that is still to come! Brrr!

It was really nice to be able to share my town, friends, family and everything that I have lived this year with others. Oulainen is quite a small and I suppose a slightly isolated town, there isn't so much to see and do but it is a really pretty little place with some really nice people. It has definitely become another home to me!