Week #3 At School

I know that ive been posting a lot these past few days, but I thought I should write about how these past few weeks at school have been like.

I actually dont do much in school, so there isnt much to tell. (And I know what youre thinking, "That's a classic exchange student excuse!" but I literally dont understand anything in either of my history classes; so I really dont have much of a choice when it comes to not doing anything.)

I even found out the other day that some of my teachers assign homework to every student in the class, but me. (Which I guess the saddest part about this, is that I didnt even know homework was assigned, because I dont understand anything the teacher says.)

During this whole first month of my exchange, I cant help but feel like Frankenstein, walking around barely able to say anything in this language that I am learning...sometimes I feel as though people mistake my lack of fluency for complete stupidity. :P (Which can actually be hilarious sometimes.)

I am beginning to understand enough Finnish to get the general idea of what people are saying to me, when its a One-On-One conversation; and that makes me super happy. I find it kind of funny sometimes; because the reaction I get from people most of the time, when they realize that I actually understand what they are saying, ALWAYS reminds me of a movie scene from the second Harry Potter movie...

 "Why are you wearing glasses?" 

"Oh, uh... reading."

"Reading? ...I didn't know you could read."


I get really excited when I know what people are talking about, and for the most part I can understand a few words and sometimes whole phrases if the person talks slow. I STILL cant express myself though, and that is VERY frustrating sometimes because I want people to speak to me in Finnish, and it doesn't help if I have to switch into English. Its just really hard because I cant continue the conversation yet!

Unfortunately, I still cant understand groups of people speaking Finnish. I cant understand unless only ONE person is talking at once; because right now I have to have all of my attention on that one person, and the words that they are saying, in order to hear it and attempt to translate it correctly in my head. And because of this, my idea of socializing at school only involves listening to other people´s conversations. :P

To tell you the truth, I am actually starting to get really bad headaches at school...

I am constantly trying to study Finnish, and listen really carefully to other people's conversations and see what I can translate. Its really hard for me because while I am trying to translate words in my head, they then switch into English to say something else.

I cant think in two different languages!

Imagine a train on its tracks, quickly going forward...and then imagine it all of a sudden pulling backward and trying to go in reverse at the same speed. The train hits a quick stop as the gears change; and all of the passengers inside jolt forward, as the train almost immediately pulls backwards, sending everyone flying out of their seats...

This is how my brain feels.

I may not do a lot of academic work at school, but I am constantly having to switch gears in my mind to force myself to think in two VERY different languages... and by the time school gets out, my brain is literally fried to death!

I think I know what you're thinking, "But English is your first language; it shouldn't be hard for you to switch from Finnish to English!"

But since im around Finnish all the time, and my host family speaks to me in Finnish most of the time; it actually IS hard to bounce around two different languages.

I wish I could make a transition to only hearing 100% Finnish, just to give my brain a rest...but I know that this isn't really an option I can have, unfortunately.

Hopefully just getting enough sleep at night will give my brain enough of a rest in order to continue working the next day...


But, school is good for the most part.

At least I have an interesting story about last week:

In my music class, we just had a folk music lesson; which was interesting to say in the least. We watched these videos that showed various instruments and very...interesting performances? Im not sure really how to explain it. But after the videos were over, we were separated into groups by our teacher.

We then had to create our own folk song using drums and rocks as our instruments. My group came up with this chant; and each group had to preform our songs in front of the class.

My group preformed first, and since I didnt have any rocks to bang around, and I didnt have a drum to beat...I decided I would just wave my hands around and dance in order to participate. I was horrified when I realized halfway through that no one in my group was doing this...and I was the only one who was really getting into the chant.

Needless to say, I automatically stopped what I was doing...I think that might have been my most embarrassing moment at school so far. :P

Today at school we had something called, Iltakoulu. (Evening School.) After school was over, we met in our "homeroom" classroom with our tutors (who are students at the school who are in a higher year than us.). We basically just got to know each other by playing silly games and stuff. It was actually a lot of fun, because I got to talk to my classmates more One-On-One; and it was nice to finally talk to some of them. (Unfortunately I still cant remember too many names...)

We played this one game where we had to sit in groups on the floor, and the tutors played the beginning of a song; and the group who knew what the song was first got a point.

Sadly...the only song that I recognized and got a point for knowing it first was, "Sexy Back" by Justin Timberlake. Needless to say, people laughed and thought it was pretty funny that THIS was the song the American Exchange Student could recognize. :P

My school here in Finland is SUPER old; its amazing! And our tutors actually took us through these underground tunnels that are under my school. They are pitch black, and really narrow tunnels! It was so cool! A few random people got to have flashlights, because it was SO dark. There were pipes along the walls, and sometimes pipes in the middle of the tunnel, so you had to bend down to not hit your head. Every once in a while, there would be a student from an older year at school who would jump out at us, and try to scare us. At one point, I slowed down...and I couldn't see the person who was in front of me! So, needless to say it freaked me out pretty bad, since I couldn't see a SINGLE thing in front of me!

They were really cool tunnels though...Its pretty amazing to be able to say that I have really old tunnels located underneath my school. ;)

I think today might have been the best day at school that I have ever had. The first week or so was rough, because I didn't know what to expect and I didn't have very many people to talk to...but now that things are settling in, I am really starting to love it here. :)