Hi, I am Tyla

Hi, I am Tyla, and I am on a one-year exc­han­ge in Kuo­pio. This year, I have had a blast! I got here in ear­ly Au­gust and will le­a­ve this July. I have made many friends and have tried many new foods (most­ly can­dies). It has been re­al­ly nice co­ming to school and see­ing how dif­fe­rent pe­op­le here in­te­ract with each ot­her and the world.

I was born and rai­sed in Ore­gon, in the US, and the way that pe­op­le think about things the­re is very dif­fe­rent. Our cul­tu­res are dif­fe­rent. We va­lue dif­fe­rent things, and we see dif­fe­rent things in our dai­ly li­ves. This is shown through what the news shows us, but also what we choo­se to look at in our free time. Be­cau­se of this, the year has been a bit chal­len­ging but has been so much fun all the same.

Our schools are kin­da dif­fe­rent, but also pret­ty si­mi­lar. I don’t know if I have ever used a com­pu­ter this much in my en­ti­re life, for one. Also, your school food is much bet­ter. I also like how I was able to pick my clas­ses. But ot­her­wi­se, eve­ryt­hing was pret­ty si­mi­lar. My fa­vo­ri­te clas­ses were pro­bab­ly art and psyc­ho­lo­gy.

I think one of my fa­vo­ri­te things this year was the se­a­sons. It was re­al­ly nice to see so many dis­tinct se­a­sons, from a warm sum­mer to a be­au­ti­ful­ly oran­ge fall, to an ext­re­me­ly cold win­ter that the sun de­ci­ded was too cold to even try to vi­sit. It was nice to en­joy win­ter sports such as sled­ding and skiing and see­ing the fro­zen la­kes. That being said, I am also very hap­py that it is war­ming up so that I don’t have to put on so many lay­ers to go out­si­de. My year here was so much fun, and I hope that I can come back so­me­ti­me. 🙂

Tyla Gar­fas-Know­les