Time to say goodbye

26 December 2018
Our suitcases are packed, our rooms are cleand and we are ready to leave. Tomorrow Aniek and I go back to the Netherlands, back to our home. Again packing was stressfull, just like 4 months ago when the days before we got here, we were struggling to fit everything in, but we did it and we are ready.
This time here in Finland was so amazing, I have learned a lot here and travelled a lot to the most wonderfull places. Places I would never go to, but now it was so easy to go. I enjoyed almost every minute that I've been here. I'm also really glad I did this journey together with my best travel buddy Aniek. Before we went to Finland she only was a friend from school, but now I can call her one of my best friends. We have been on so many adventures here and we always traveled together. She supported me in the days that were rough (when we had some mental breakdowns) and she has been there for me all this time. So Aniek if you read this, thank you so so so much for the wonderfull time here.
I'm so glad I took the chance to go abroad for my study and I would say to you if you have the chance to go abroad, do it! You can learn so much, meet amazing new people, make new friends, go on adventures etc.

Now I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, finally seeing my friends and family again and ofcourse to the delicious Dutch food we had to miss here in those 4 months.

Puhua myohemmin
Emma

We saved the best for last!

We saved the best trip for last, last week we went to Lapland. We already booked this trip in october and I since then I was looking forward to this trip.

We left on the 18th of december in the evening, so we had the whole night to sleep in the bus. well sleep... I think I slept for 3 hours. But it was worth it. After almost 14 hours in the bus we arrived at the Santa clause village, in Rovaniemi. It was so beautifull with all the lights and the christmas music. It was already a little bit dark (it was 2 o'clock) so that made it really nice. There were a lot of people who wanted to see santa, so we didn't see him, cause it would take us a lot of time and we wanted to see more of the little village. Maybe I will see him an other time. We had to spend two hours in Santa claus village and after that we had to drive about 4 hours to our destination. We stayed in Inari, a village in the northern part of Lapland. We made our bed, got our dinner en went to the sauna. I was really tired so after the sauna we went to bed. 

On Thursday the 20th we did the Arctic challenge, we learned how to make a fire, we did some Ice Fishing and we made a quinzee. A quinzee is a snow shelter that is made from a large pile of loose snow which is shaped and than hollowed. After the arctic challenge we did some Cross-Country skiing. We had some practice in the beginning I had never done it before and I felt really clumsy on those skis. But ofcourse after some practice we had to go in to the forest to try some real cross-country skiing. It was hard but also really fun to do. After skiing we had our dinner and we had
our last activity of the day, the snowmobile safari. Aniek drove the whole way on the snowmobile, cause I don't have my drivers license so I wasn't alowed to do it. But still it was nice to do. Because we were beginners we didn't go fast and we had to stop a lot of times to wait for the others. But we did it and it was fun, but if I will do it another time I hope we can go a bit faster. This was a long day and we had done a lot, so we were tired, but there was a chance we could see the northern lights, so we stayed up to try to see them. Unfortunately we didn't see it that night, so time to go to bed again and get some sleep for the next day full of activities.

On friday we had a trip to the arctic ocean. We went to Bugøynes in Norway, it took us around 4 hours to get there. On or way we had some very nice views, Norway is beautifull and I really want to go back there to see more of it. In Bugøynes we went to the Sauna and we had to swim in the Arctic sea, the temperature of the water was around 5 degrees so it was really cold, but we did it. And after a short swim in the sea we could warm up in the sauna, what was so nice. After the Sauna we went to the village and had some free time there, even though there was not much to do and it was already dark at 1 or 2 o'clock, so we also couldn't make nice pictures. We also had our lunch there, we ate a lovely fish soup from a local there, he told us a bit about the little village and how it is to live there.

When we got back in Inari we had our dinner and again we did northern lights hunting. We were with a lovely group with a lot of nice people. So we played some games and had a fun night waiting till the northern lights would be visable. And this night we were lucky. We saw some northern lights, it wasn't really good visable but we saw them. So we took a lot of pictures and went to the lake to see them a bit better and had an amazing night with the others. 

Saturday we went to the Reindeer farm, here we had the chance to feed the reindeers and to make a sleighride with them and to meet the sami people. You have different tribes of sami people and most of them live in Lapland. They explained about their habits and their believes. After the reindeer farm we went to Inari village and we had some time there to walk around and do some souvenir shopping. When we went back to our accommodation we had some free time and we had did some sports. In the evening we had the night snowshoe hike, what was a real adventure. We had to walk through the snow and had to find our way through the woods with the help of a GPS. It was also really cold that night, around -20 degrees. So we were freezing, but it was really fun to do. After the hike it was time for a BBQ, we had marshmallows and sausages and a lot of other food. That night there was again a chance to see the northern lights so we stayed there for a couple of hours. And again we were lucky, we saw them, again not really good visable, but I'm still glad that we saw them. And it was a fun night playing games around the fire. 

Sunday was already the last day in Lapland. We went to the Husky's. Again it was really cold, -20, and we didn't have our overalls anymore, so first we had to get an overall. But it took us about an hour to get it and get back to the husky's, so unfortunately we only had one our left with there. We did a sleighride with the husky's what was really fun, but also a bit difficult. we had to drive by ourselves, so you have to take good control. It was so fun to do it and an other great experience. After that we went to the city Saariselka, the place with the most northern skiresort. We could go skiing or sleighing, but we were so cold that we decided to stay in town eating reindeer burgers, drinking hot chocolate and searching for nice souvenirs. At 16.00 it was time to get in the bus, to leave Lapland and to go back to Turku. 

This week was so amazing, I got to know lovely people, we did amazing things. It was a great experience and I'm so glad we saved this trip for last. No better way to end these amazing for months with. 

Puhua myöhemmin

Emma

Only 1 weeks left!

Time flies when you're having fun! School is done and now we only have 1 week(!) left here in Finland. This weekend we went to Kaunas in Lithuania and today we are finally going to Lapland!!!
From the beginning I'm looking forward to go to Lapland. It has always been my number 1 bucketlist thing and now we are really going there. We already have a lot of things planned we are going to do there, I'm so excited to go! We come back from Lapland on the 24th and on the 27th we are finally going back home.
Looking back, time was going by so fast and we have done so much here and we had so much fun. All the trips we did, the parties here, meeting new people etc. I would say an experience of a lifetime. But I'm also really looking forward to go home again, and to see all my friends and family again.

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Cultural differences

Here in Finland I met a lot of new people from all over the world, but also got to know some Finnish people. I also learned about their culture and I have noticed some cultural differences with the Netherlands. Finland and the Netherlands are not so different, but ofcourse there are some differences. I will tell you more about the differences between the Netherlands and Finland that I experienced. I will explain this with the 6-D model by Geert Hofstede. This model describes 6 dimensions of cultural values. These 6 dimensions are:

1. Power distance
2. Individualism vs. collectivism
3. Mascullinity vs. Femininity
4. Uncertainty avoidance 
5. Long term orientation vs. short term orientation
6. Indulgence vs. restraint.

As i said they are the same at some points, so I'm going to explain the things what I noticed what was different with the Netherlands. I found an website where they compared the dimensions. There are two dimensions more different or I noticed more cultural differences in those dimensions. 

The first one is power distance this is defined as 'the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally'. In Finland the power distance has a score of 33. This means that the rights of people are equal. It doesn't differ a lot with the Netherlands, they score 38. But in some things I can notice the difference. Here in school it is really common to call the teacher by the first name. In my school we always have to call them miss or mister. So it felt a bit weird to me to just call the teacher by their first name. 

The second one is longterm orientation this describes how every society has to maintain some links with its own past while dealing with the challenges of the present and future. Finland scores 38 while the Netherlands score 67. That is a big difference. It means that in Finland they are normative in their thinking. They exhibit great respect for traditions, a relatively small propensity to save for the future, and a focus on achieving quick results.
The Netherlands have a high score in this dimension which means that it has a pragmatic nature. In societies with a pragmatic orientation, people believe that truth depends very much on the situation, context and time. They show an ability to easily adapt traditions to changed conditions, a strong propensity to save and invest, thriftiness and perseverance in achieving results.
In Finland they have some real old traditions what they are still doing, like the sauna. This tradition is already going on for 2000 years and I don't think that will change here. And I have to say it is not a bad tradition. In the Netherlands we still have some old traditions but you can also see a change.

In the other dimensions The Netherlands and Finland are kind of same. ofcourse there are more differences, like the language and the food etc. I wrote more about most of those differences in other post.

Puhua myöhemmin

Emma

Used links

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofstede%27s_cultural_dimensions_theory

https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/finland,the-netherlands/

Ice hockey game

Yesterday, 7-12 Aniek and I went to an Ice hockey game. Ice hockey is a big sport here in Finland. Finland is considered a member of the so-called "Big Six", the unofficial group of the six strongest men's ice hockey nations, along with Canada, United States, the Czech Republic, Russia and Sweden. 
We went to the game TPS Turku - KalPa. I knew ice hockey, but I had never seen a game in real life. We had a nice place in the stadium, we sat on the third, so we had a pretty good view. The atmosphere in the stadium was great, so that also made it to a fun night. 
The TPS team made quite a big entrance with light effects and lots of music etc.  they made it like a show, so that was a great start of the game
The game started and in the beginning it was hard to know where to look and see what was going on. But after a while you start to get it. Unfortunately TPS Turku lost the game, but it was a nice experience. 

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

School in Turku

For me school here in Finland is almost done, I only have 2 exams left and than I'm done. I think I had school for about 1,5 month. Well school...? After my practice I was really excited to start school here, cause I thought I would learn a lot here. But it turned out to be a bit of a disappointment. We don't have to go to school that much, maybe once a week and other teachers told us that the class would be in Finnish so we could do other tasks and we didn't have to come to class. The lessons we could attend most of the time were nice and we could do a lot of things and get to know Finnish students. I also asked them if it is normal if they have one day of school in the week. And most of them said they most of the time have just one or two days of school and the other days they have a lot of self-study. That was a big difference for me. But because we didn't have to go to school that much, we could do a lot of fun stuff, so it has its adventages and disadventages.

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Puhun Suomi? part 2

In one of my first blogs I wrote about talking Finnish or Suomi. I had a course in Finnish language so I learned a bit of Finnish words and we had a test last week that I past, so yes I can say a few words in Finnish.
The most important ones are
Moi, Hei, Moikka, Terve: all mean hello
Kiitos : thank you
mitä kuuluu : how are you?
minä olen Emma : I'm Emma
minä puhun Englantia, Hollantia ja vähän Suomea : I speak English, Dutch and a little bit Finnish
yksi kalja kiitos : one beer please, this one is very important for going out :)

So I can say a few little phrases, but understanding people is still hard and most of the time I can't. But it is fun that if you say to someone you don't speek Finnish in Finnish they will continue talking Finnish to you. Because of that I just always say it in English.

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Indepence day

Today on the 6th of December it is Independence day in Finland, or as they call it "Suomen itsenäisyyspäivä". The movement for Finland's independence started after the revolutions in Russia, caused by disturbances inside Russia from hardships connected to the First World War. This gave Finland an opportunity to withdraw from Russian rule. After several disagreements between the non-socialists and the social-democrats over who should have power in Finland, on 4 December 1917, the Senate of Finland, led by Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, finally made a Declaration of Independence which was adopted by the Finnish parliament two days later.
In 2017 they celebrated 100 years of indepence. As I heard they celebrated it really big. But I also heard that because now it is 101 years it isn't a 'special' number, so everyone will be home and celebrate it with family and light a candle. So I don't think we will see a lot of the indepence day. 


Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Sauna experience

Tuesday we finally had our first sauna experience here in Finland. As I said in a previous post Finland has a lot of sauna's, so it is a bit of a shame we didn't go earlier. But now we have done it. The ESN, a student organisation for exchange students, had organised a pre-christmas sauna 'party'. So at first they had some food and drinks and then we went in to the sauna. And as they do in Finland we went into the sea. It is kind of going back and forth between the sauna and the sea.
The first step in the sea was terrible, I felt like I was freezing. But if you go an other time and you just breath normally it isn't that bad. And if you go back in the sauna after a swim in the sea it feels so good!
In two weeks we will go to Lapland and there we will also go to the sauna an swim in the arctic ocean so this was a little preview for that.

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma

Gdansk, Poland

Last weekend Aniek and I went to Gdansk in Poland. From Turku it is really easy to get to Gdansk. On thursday we got on the plane and after 1,5 hour we arrived in Gdansk. Then we had to figure out how we could get to our appartment. Luckily the public transport was quite good and it was not so hard to find out which bus we had to take. We arrived in the centre but it was already dark, so we couldn't see much of the city. We only could see that it was a really nice city. We were both tired so we went to our hotel. We ordered a pizza and watched a movie on Netflix.
On Friday we were in the city quite early and we were just walking around when we bumped in to a free walking tour. So we decided to do it. The guide took us to all the nice places in the city and told us a lot about the history of the city. And as we were walking through the city we saw that a lot of the houses looked familiar to us. The houses looked like the houses in Amsterdam. Later on the guide told us that a lot of Dutchman lived there and that there was a lot of trading between The Netherlands and Gdansk.
The guide also told us a lot about the beginning of the Second World War and he showed us the most important places where you still can see what happened in those years. So the tour wasn't only fun we also learned a lot.
It was freezing cold that day, it felt like -15 degrees, so after an hour I was cold all over my body. After the tour we had time to warm ourselves up again with a hot chocolate.
After our hot chocolate we decided to go to the museum of the second world war. It was way to cold to stay outside so we thought a nice day to go to a museum. The museum was divided in a lot of rooms and it took you from the beginning of the war till the end. Really worth a visit if you go to Gdansk.
It was already a bit late so we went out for our dinner. We came across a lovely little restaurant where they played live music. We had some cocktails and a lovely dinner and went back to our hotelroom.

On Saturday we started our day with making some pictures from the city and buying some souvenirs. It was the first of december so they opened up the christmas market. It wasn't a big christmas market but it was really nice and there were a lot of things and ofcourse also a lot of Polish delicacies we had to try.
We also went to the St. Mary's church and climbed to the top where you have a beautiful view all over the city. It were 400 steps but it was really worth it.
Because it was so really cold we decided to go the shopping mall. In Gdansk we have a lot of big shoppingmalls so it is also a perfect city for shopping.
Again we had some cocktails that evening and a delicious dinner and than went back to our hotelroom. That was already the end of our weekend. On sunday we flew back to Turku.

Puhua myöhemmin
Emma