School in Finland/ School as an Exchange Student

Since I have almost completed my second week of school, I thought it was time to finally post about what school is like.

My schedule at school looks like this:

Maanantai:

8:15-9:30 History 7

9:45-11:00 History 1

11:45-12:30 English 1

13:15-14:30 Photography

Tiistai:

8:15-9:30 Art

9:45-11:00 Music

13:15-14:30 History 7

14:45-16:00 History 1

Keskiviikko:

8:15-9:30 English

9:45-11:00 Photography

11:45-12:30 Music

13:15-14:30 Art

Torstai:

9:45-11:00 History 7

11:15-12:30 History 1

13:15-14:30 English

14:45-16:00 Photography

Perjantai:

9:45-11:00 Photography

11:45-13:00 Music


I take the city bus to school every day, and it was about a 10 minute walk through the neighborhood and through a trail in a forest...its kinda a cool walk. :)

It takes anywhere from 30-45 minutes on the bus to go to school, and once I get off of at my stop, I walk the rest of the way to my school. Most kids either take the bus, ride their bike, or have a motorized bike that they ride to school. I still cant get over how many kids ride their bikes to school; and I have learned that public transportation is actually REALLY nice. In the USA, things are so spread out that generally we don't have much public transportation unless you are in the bigger cities. So its really nice that here I can have a monthly bus pass, where I can take the bus as many times as I want. Its actually a great way to get around.

In Finland, school is much more like college. School starts and ends depending on the classes you are taking. For me, some days school starts at 8:15, and others it doesn't start until 9:45; and then school either gets out at 2:30 or 4pm. It all depends on the day. :)

Since school starts and ends depending on your classes, you also sometimes have time in between classes (which I guess are called, "Jump periods"?). I only have Jump Periods on Tiistai, when I have 2 hours in between classes. During your free periods, you are actually allowed to leave school and go walk around town, or do whatever you like. I usually just study my Finnish, but maybe ill go out into the city sometime soon and take a look around.

There actually aren't school bells, and you don't have teachers yelling at you to get to class on time. It is your own responsibility to get to your class on time; and people go to their classes because they WANT to, not because they HAVE to. I have seen that the learning environment is very different here.

You actually have to apply to the High School you want to attend, and it is not mandatory to have to go. (Which is why you apply to the different high schools.) They also have Vocational High Schools where you can learn to be a hairdresser or even a baker. Its very interesting; and because you have the choice for your own path, all of the kids in my class WANT to learn and wish to be there. I really like it a lot. Its so different than being mixed in a big classroom with kids who all have different opinions of school.

At school you also have free school lunch. Its actually on REAL plates, and you get to serve it yourself and its free for everyone. Its normally something like soup, rice, chicken...that kind of stuff; and theres also salad and of course bread that you can have with it as well. Its free, its hot, its healthy- and everyone eats it. The food isn't always the greatest, but its a LOT better than school lunch in the USA, and Im actually really thankful that I get to have a free lunch at school everyday. Its really really nice.


As for my own personal experiences at school:

I REALLY need to learn how to start conversations with people at my school. Small talk doesn't really exist in Finland, and people are rather shy. Im actually AMAZED when kids at school come up to me; it doesn't happen very often. But its hard going up to people as an exchange student and starting the conversation with people you don't know; especially if they are shy.

Finland is actually not as easy of an exchange as one would think. I knew that it would be a little hard to make friends and talk to people at first, and I really didnt know how long it would take to make friends. It was a little hard for me in the first week of school, because everyone was so shy and no one came up to me. But I have learned that it is hard in ANY situation to be the person to walk up to others and talk to them. (Especially if you are a foreign exchange student, who doesn't speak the language very well.)

But Finland is one of those exchange countries where YOU have to be the one to take the wheel and create friends for yourself. And I think that this is something rather special about an exchange year in Finland, and a very good thing to learn. I didn't think going to Finland was as brave as people from home told me it was, but I am now learning that it actually isn't as easy as I thought it would be.

An exchange year is hard anywhere you go: You are living in a different country with different customs, different language, and a different family; and trying to learn to adopt the culture into your life, and learn to speak a new language and adapt to new changes.

I am so glad that I chose Finland as my host country, because I am not only having to learn all of these new things; but I am learning how to be even MORE independent by having the chance to create opportunities myself to create friendships with those from my host country. During my first week of school, I found myself slightly expecting people to walk up to me, however that isn't Finnish culture. I actually now see it as something special, because it is teaching me to give myself different opportunities to be the one to walk up to people and start the conversation. (Which would be a little scary for me, even in English.)

I am actually really loving my exchange in Finland, and I feel as though there couldn't have been a more perfect country for me to come to on this exchange. I have learned far more in these past three weeks than I would have learned if I decided to stay within my comfort zone and not take this amazing opportunity. :)