Our dear exchange students' year

In a few days this school year will end. Es­pe­ci­al­ly our third-year stu­dents will ce­leb­ra­te fi­nis­hing their stu­dies on the first of June. Ot­her stu­dents will con­ti­nue at Klas­sik­ka in the au­tumn – ex­cept our exc­han­ge stu­dents.

I in­ter­vie­wed our school’s exc­han­ge stu­dents Pa­o­la Men­dez Cont­re­nas, Iro­ja Na­ga­mi­ne, Wadi Abi­meri, Ca­me­ron But­ler and Kota Ii­ji­ma. Now they’re sha­ring their fee­lings, thoughts and ex­pe­rien­ce

Kota:“For me this exc­han­ge year was very spe­ci­al, qu­a­li­ty time. I think I ex­pe­rien­ced all things Fin­nish. Among them, skiing in Lap­land was es­pe­ci­al­ly very imp­res­si­ve. When I was skiing the­re, I didn’t want to go back to Ja­pan be­cau­se the pla­ce whe­re I skied was so be­au­ti­ful. Be­si­des this, I ex­pe­rien­ced ice swim­ming, ice fis­hing and ea­ting some tra­di­ti­o­nal foods. All the ex­pe­rien­ces were very in­te­res­ting and imp­res­si­ve.”

Pa­o­la: “My exc­han­ge year has been ama­zing! I saw snow for the first time and it was ma­gi­cal! I also play­ed Fin­nish ba­se­ball. I wasn’t good but it was fun. And I watc­hed my first ice hoc­key game and I need to say that I re­al­ly li­ked it.”

Be­fo­re ar­ri­ving in Fin­land, Pa­o­la was wor­ried about whet­her pe­op­le would be ra­cist to­wards her. She soon no­ti­ced that she didn’t have to be af­raid of that.

”This pic­tu­re is im­por­tant to me be­cau­se it was my first fa­mi­ly com­pe­ti­ti­on with my cou­sins. One day be­fo­re I le­ar­ned how to ski. It was very dif­fi­cult and fun at the same time!” -Pa­o­laCa­me­ron also had some first thoughts be­fo­re he came here but ha­ving ar­ri­ved in Fin­land, he no­ti­ced that Fin­land has so­met­hing in com­mon with Ca­na­da.

Ca­me­ron: One of the big­gest dif­fe­ren­ces from what I was ex­pec­ting was the we­at­her: I was ex­pec­ting it to be -40°c in the win­ter. I was also ex­pec­ting to eat fish for eve­ry meal. But now I see that Fin­land is si­mi­lar to Ca­na­da in a lot of ways. Fin­land is an ama­zing count­ry with a very in­te­res­ting cul­tu­re. The Fin­nish pe­op­le are very kind and friend­ly once they open up. It can take a litt­le time for Finns to open up but once they do, they are gre­at pe­op­le.

Wadi: “I could come Fin­land again, of cour­se! I’m in love with this pla­ce for real. The win­ter is ama­zing!”

Also Wadi got some first-time ex­pe­rien­ces du­ring his exc­han­ge year in Fin­land. For ins­tan­ce, he saw snow and snow­bo­ar­ded for the first time in Lap­land.

Anot­her re­a­son why Wadi li­kes Fin­land is the pe­op­le. He’s ama­zed by the fact that even pe­op­le who don’t know you are sym­pat­he­tic and tre­at you in a friend­ly way.

Even though our exc­han­ge stu­dents en­joy­ed their time here, it’s pos­sib­le that the first months here have been a time of adap­ti­on be­cau­se of to­tal­ly dif­fe­rent cul­tu­re and cli­ma­te.

Iro­ja: It was a bit hard to be here at the be­gin­ning be­cau­se I couldn’t un­ders­tand Eng­lish and dif­fe­rent cul­tu­re made me shoc­ked. Es­pe­ci­al­ly the we­at­her was very dif­fe­rent. Win­ter was dark and cold, so I of­ten had fe­ver. But my host fa­mi­lies and te­ac­hers hel­ped me. I’m full of gra­ti­tu­de to­wards them!

My life stu­dying ab­ro­ad star­ted from an­xie­ty, but I think that I was able to have so much fun eve­ry day be­cau­se I was with shy but cheer­ful, bright and ener­ge­tic guys. I can’t be­lie­ve that I’ll le­a­ve Fin­land soon. I feel very sad to do it. I re­al­ly love Kuo­pio!

It’s true that Fin­nish cul­tu­re is dif­fe­rent when com­pa­red to Ca­na­di­an, Me­xi­can and Ja­pa­ne­se cul­tu­res. Our cli­ma­te is cold, our days can be grey and dark, and our school sys­tem is dis­si­mi­lar. Des­pi­te of all this, our exc­han­ge stu­dents adap­ted well and ex­pe­rien­ced new things like sau­na and ice swim­ming. They stu­died a year in our school even though they didn’t un­ders­tand Fin­nish in the be­gin­ning. Now they’ve be­co­me a sig­ni­fi­cant part of our school and it’ll be weird not to see them wal­king in the cor­ri­dors of our school in the au­tumn.

Even though we won’t see you next year in the school, we’ll re­mem­ber and miss you! We hope the very best for you all! <3

”This pho­to was ta­ken the 27th of May when Fin­land was ce­leb­ra­ting the fact that Fin­land won the world ice hoc­key cham­pi­ons­hip” -Kota

”This pic­tu­re was ta­ken in Lap­land in No­vem­ber. It was my first time see­ing a rein­deer” -Ca­me­ron

Wadi told that he vi­si­ted Lap­land with ot­her exc­han­ge stu­dents that come from all over the world

”This pic­tu­re was ta­ken when we went to Dist­rict Con­fe­ren­ce in Joen­suu” -Iro­ja

”We took this pic­tu­re like a Finnsh fa­mi­ly: as you know, they take a pho­to whit a se­ri­ous look” -Iro­ja