Autumn holiday

Well, this has been a long time coming! Autumn has now been and well and truly gone! We are deep in snow slippery ice here in the north but let me take you back to October/November and fill you in on what has happened in the last couple of months!

It was an exciting morning when the autumn leaves had frozen so beautifully.

It was even more exciting that between dinner time and when I was heading out to play floorball in the evening in that same day it had snowed!

It was then even MORE exciting when I woke up the next morning there was snow covering the whole town! Absolutely beautiful! And still only mid-October!

My school had an interesting way of bringing in the autumn holiday week. Thursday of the week before, we finished classes at 2pm and went to the middle school gym for a floorball tournament. I played on one team with some of my friends. We won one out of the three games that we played so we didn’t make the finals but we had fun which is, of course, the main thing! The tournament finished at around 5pm and then I went out to get dinner with a friend, went home and packed some things and then…. headed back to school at 9pm! Why you ask ? Night school of course!!

We spent the night at Lukio doing all sorts of things! An hour of different not at all serious 10 minute lessons (I led the one on Australian slang), and a night of games and just basically hanging out. We had a boys against girls dodgeball type game throughout the two story building in the dark which was good fun! We had a bit of a pj party too with one guy DJing. Then I spent most of the night just playing card and board games with different people. It was good fun! Exhausting though! Some people were smart and actually slept… I was not one of those people!

I walked home from school at 8am and went to bed for a couple of hours. I had to get up by 12pm though and pack my bag and head off to Ylivieska for my district camp weekend! My district (1400) and one other district (1380) joined together for the camp which was held from the Friday afternoon til the Sunday afternoon of that weekend.

It was a pretty relaxed weekend. By then a lot of snow had fallen and a few spontaneous snowball fights were obviously bound to break out!

The weekend was just hanging out with other exchange students and with a couple Rotex and a Rotarian from each district. 

 

We played some games, went for a light hike in the woods, and went to sauna together (which of course involved running outside and rolling in the snow many many times!)

 

When it all wrapped up on Sunday afternoon, despite living only 30kms from the town we stayed in, I had to wait for a couple hours for a train that would stop there as many don’t because my town is so small. It was no worries though as Alison took a later train too and we hung out together and grabbed lunch!

It was a really lovely weekend!

It didn’t stop there though! Once I got into my town I walked home, unpacked and then repacked and headed back to the train station and off to Oulu! I spent the night there with two friends of mine, Leena and Pauli, before we headed off on Monday for Lapand!

Autumn holiday had started and I spent it up north in the Arctic Circle! Woohoo!

On the drive up we stopped in Tornio and walked over the bridge into the town of Haaparanta (Sweden!) We visited the big Ikea there and did a bit of shopping around the place but mainly it was the novelty of crossing into Sweden that got me! There was no border control or anything like that, you could cross freely. It was just a small bridge over a river that divided the two countries! Awesome!

We eventually made it all the way up to Kolari where we spent the first two nights with Leena’s grandparents. We crossed the Finnish-Swedish boarder multiple times up there too as, once again only a river separated the two countries!

We visited up in Ylläs and went to the ski slopes and we randomly found an exhibition on Lapland and its people at a place off of one of the roads we drove along.

We spent a couple days in another part of Kolari with Leena’s other grandmother. There wasn’t anything there but we took some nice walks and just relaxed, it was a holiday after all!

Whilst reindeer are wild animals they are actually owned by people. At this time of the year all of the reindeer are rounded up and they work out which babies belong to who and they divide up which are going to be taken to the slaughter house. We didn’t see many but there were a couple that were still loose! Real live reindeer!

 

A week of eating reindeer and moose… yum!

On Friday we headed to Rovaniemi where we spent the last night with Pauli’s oldest brother and his family. 

We walked around the city a little on Friday night and then on Saturday Leena and I did a little shopping. Saturday afternoon we headed back home to Oulainen.

It was a lovely holiday and despite it being the 'Autumn' break, we were knee deep in snow the whole time!

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!

Syyskuu!

Once again a fair chunk of time has passed without a post... oops! Well here we go then! 

The week after the arts night I spent at Oulaisten Alakoulu (Oulainen Primary school) instead of my usual schedule at Lukio (highschool). Each day I visited in different classes from the 1st to the 6th grade. I gave presentations on Australia, showing lots of photos, teaching Australian songs such as the classic 'Waltzing Matilda', and showed a few short videos- a huge hit was the youtube clip that showed a kookaburra laughing! The days also involved answering the endless questions the kids had about Australia and about me.. some that surprised me and gave me a bit of a giggle such as the question from a year 3 student asking if we ride dolphins in Australia... I was also asked on a few different occassions if I have kids of my own! Uh no... definitely not!
As well as talking about Australia, I joined in on handicraft and other classes and watched how the different school works and how the kids are taught.
It was good fun to visit the little ones. It was a bit of a blast from the past, like revisiting my childhood as I spent the breaks running around with my new little friends! We played chasey and other games I didn't quite understand the rules of but it was good fun! And I now have a few pictures and little notes from my little friends there :D

Primary school

One afternoon I was also invited out with some of the primary school teachers. We went out to the forest and went picking berries and forraging for mushrooms. We also stopped and grilled makkara (sausages) and had juice and coffee. I really got into the berry picking, and I'd picked about half a bucket full when all of a sudden I slipped on the damp wooden path and tipped every last one of them onto the forest floor! It was a sad moment but I couldn't help but laugh at myself! I'd done so well to keep them the couple hours we'd been out there and it was on the last 20 or so metres that I lost them all! I left there with the handful I could save and a rather unfortunate but funny story! Oh well! It was a nice afternoon overall and the weather held out pretty well, only a light sprinkle of rain at one point!

Once we got deeper into the forest we came to the lake 'Isojärvi' meaning exactly 'big lake'.. original! haha

Saturday I went up to Oulu for the day. Rotex had organised a day with the exchange students and it was the first time I was to meet the new exchange students in my district! We went bowling and then to a restarurant for dinner together. Even though our district (D1400) is the biggest in Finland, I think it has the least amount of exchange students most years. Now there are just 7 of us altogether here in the north!

Saturday evening I was back in Oulainen and just had a nice night hanging with some friends.

We were outnumbered by Rotex!

Walking back to the train station I went through a lovely little park

On Sunday one friend and I headed to one of the local supermarkets to attempt to round up the ingredients for the Aussie classic, Anzac biscuits. It proved a challenge and in the end we still ended up with huge chunks of coconut which we had to cut ourselves and the wrong syrup!
Once the biscuits were baked a few more friends arrived for the tasting...
It was all a bit of a flop attempt and we made a decent mess in the process! But the good part about it being an Australian thing is that no one knew the difference! They weren't the best ones but everyone enjoyed them (or at least were polite enough to pretend...)

Now, I've never been a tea or coffee drinker and, despite multiple people's attempts here, I still can't drink the stuff! Because of this I didn't know my way around making the coffee but luckily the girls managed to make it themselves (I'm a great host, I know! haha). All was well, the coffee was made and the slightly odd Finnish ingredient version of Anzac biscuits were on the table and ready! All was running smoothly until one friend took a sip of her coffee, leant over and whispered.. 'that wasn't sugar..'. Howling with laughter, the coffee was whisked away and the sugar was found and replaced the salt that had sneekily made its way to the table in its place!
An eventful afternoon tea it was!

Then it was back to Lukio. Just another normal week at school and with friends.

On the next weekend though I ventured to Kokkola, a town a bit over 100kms south of Oulainen. I spent Friday evening through til Sunday with another Australian exchange student who is living there.
On Friday night Kokkola had a special evening with entertainment in the streets around the malls and shops were open until 11pm. We even saw Antti Railio (the winner of The Voice of Finland 2013) performing.

Saturday we spent in Seinäjoki, another 140kms from Kokkola. There we looked around the city in the morning and then, at midday, headed out to a Rotex event to meet the new exchange students of that district (not my district but I tagged along).
It was a good day. I got to catch up with two other exchange students I knew and then meet the new ones. It was a chilly day but there was a beautiful lake with a raised wooden platform about 2 metres or so in the air right where we were.. Of course we weren't going to pass that up! The four of us Aussies, a Mexican newbie and a Thai newbie headed out to the water.. we got down to our undies and climbed to the top of the platform and took the leap! It was cold but so much fun! We got a couple jumps in before we were rounded up and taken back inside by the Rotex... Totally worth it though!

Alison and I spent Sunday biking around Kokkola. The city is quite beautiful! And the river and beach were really nice! Although, we refrained from swimming that day..

We found a pirate ship! Arrr!

Monday brought with it what I assumed was the average cold/flu but after a few trips to the doctor we found out it was a virus... and that was the start of now my more than 2 week stint of sickness! :( Safe to say these past two weeks have been pretty quiet.
I spent some time back with my first family while my current parents were away for a weekend. It was funny being back there, with my sisters and brother. It was a really nice weekend with them though, nothing too special, on thursday night I went out with Juulia (my 14 year old sister) and helped her class bundle some wheat type crop so they could sell them for fundraising for a trip to Lapland next year. On friday night I was at the services hall with Juulia for one of their family nights where they had some games and raffles and food. On Saturday Juulia and I made Anzac biscuits (third time IS a charm!); the ingredients still weren't quite the same but they were the best ones yet this year! YAY! By request of Juulia, we added a little twist to some of the biscuits; we added a bit of melted chocky and made them into Kingstons! Yum yum! Success!

My first family's driveway.. Love all of the pretty Autumn colours!

Other than that I have not been up to too much. I had to have a couple of sick days at home but I have gone to school as much as I could so I wouldn't die of boredom being home, and away from my friends all the time!
I only have 3 and a half months left here so I'm hoping it clears up soon so I can make the most of the rest of the time I have!

Watching the local soccer game... GO Oulainen!

It was a sunny afternoon watching the soccer, but it was freezing cold!

My brother Hassan and I before the Rotary meeting where he gave his presentation on his exchange year in Australia!

The Autumn has now set in although the rain hasn't been very bad so far but the temperatures have seriously dropped! We're already having lows below zero and the days are getting just over 5 degrees or so. Sooo cold already! And in parts of Finland they already had their first bit of snow more than a week ago! It's madness!
I've been hanging out for winter to come for ages. I've been just waiting for the snow to come so I can go skiing and skating again before I leave.. But it is seriously cold! I need to get used to it again...

The view from the lounge room window. Right by the river!

My third family's home

Down the street