Ups and Downs of being an Exchange student

Before I came to Finland, the Rotarians over the Youth Exchange Program were always telling the Outbound students (students who were about to leave on their exchanges.) that if our emotions weren't always a rollercoaster, than we weren't living our exchange properly.

They told us that we would have days where we are super happy, and everything is AMAZING; and that we would also have days where we would be down and just having a bad time and have REALLY bad days...

Well....today was one of those days.

I actually haven't had a really bad day since being in Finland until today; which is surprising because I had to go through a lot of new changes in the past 4 weeks.

Living with a family I had never met, being surrounded by a language I had never heard spoken before, going to school in a different country that has a completely different school system, and living in a city MUCH bigger than my town in the States.

I did pretty well adapting to everything, and I never REALLY had any bad days; instead I just rolled with the punches. I knew that how I was feeling was totally normal, and that the first few weeks were just going to take a little bit of getting used to.

I had some days where instead of telling myself I was going to have a bad day, or instead of getting in a bad mood about anything, I just turned the uncomfortable and confused situations and feelings into funny stories. I am usually really good at adapting to new changes and being able to just keep on moving forward from tough situations. I decided to look at it in positive ways and just laugh about it....But I thought it was kind of weird though how well I was doing with all of these changes; and I thought it was odd how I hadn't had any REALLY bad days a MONTH into my exchange.

Eventually things caught up with me though, and I finally had my first really bad day.


I woke up with a really bad cold this morning, which wasn't really "bad"...just annoying. I got ready for school and took the bus; and I was super excited because I actually got to school early! I decided to just wait by my History classroom, and I waited outside the door. (The doors are locked until the class starts, and the teacher comes.)

I waited 5 minutes....10 minutes....20 minutes....a half hour...45 minutes...an hour.

No.One.Was.There.

I was just standing in the hallway, outside the classroom all by myself.

I eventually just decided to check my email on my cell phone, and I saw that I had three emails from my History teacher. Unfortunately, they were all in Finnish...So I didn't understand any of them. But im guessing that they said that we didn't have class today, because I was the only one waiting outside of the classroom.

Since my second class of the day was also another history class in the same classroom, and I had nothing else to do...I just decided to sit and wait. But unfortunately, that meant that I had to wait another hour.

Two hours later, I finally was able to go to my second class.

I wasn't really able to participate, since I cant understand the History text book; and all that the students really did today was read out of the book and write in their notebooks. So, I just kind of sat there, and hoped that there would be something that I could participate in...unfortunately, there really wasn't anything. I just did what I normally did and quietly waited until class was over.

After lunch, I guess that were was an assembly for the first years in the great hall upstairs. I sat with my friends in the back; and while they were studying for the test in English class, I was just sitting listening to people rapidly speaking Finnish.

It was scary because I literally had NO idea what was going on, why I was there, or what we were all sitting there for. I couldn't make out ANY of the words because they were talking SO fast; and I tried my best to pick out words...but all that resulted in was a headache, because I couldn't listen fast enough to keep up.

After an hour and a half, my brain was completely DEAD. I was sick with a horrible cold, AND my head hurt from trying to translate words that were spoken WAY too fast for me to even understand a single word. To tell you the truth, I honestly just wanted to go home and sleep...

(Not my "Home-home" but, my "Here-Home." in Finland.) :)

The assembly took up all of the time we had for our English class, and so we did not have to go to English today. All I had left was my Art class, and in order to be on time I had to rush over to the classroom.

No.One.Was.There.

The classroom door was open, and there wasn't anyone in the room. All that I saw was a drawn map posted on the classroom door. I saw students from my class; but all that they did was look at the map, look at me...and then leave!

I decided to look at the map, but the map was in Finnish; and it showed that class was at a different location somewhere in the city.

Where was I supposed to go?!

I couldn't read it, class was starting soon; and I had NO idea where I needed to be.

I was desperate to ask someone, so I ran downstairs and tried to find SOMEONE who could tell me where I needed to be.

I found the other exchange student that is in my art class with me, and we eventually just decided to go home because we had no idea where we needed to be...

I have NEVER skipped class before, but I just had NO clue WHERE I needed to be; and I didn't want to wander around the city, only hoping that ill find my class SOMEWHERE in the city.

I didn't really have any other choice, so I just decided to go home.

I walked over to my bus stop, but I wasn't sure which bus to get on. The name of the suburb where I needed to be on the list, but the number of bus route was one that ive never seen before. I just decided to get on it, in hopes that it would take me home.

I realized too late that the bus didn't go on the main road...and that I indeed had NO idea where I was, or if this bus even stopped at my bus stop!!!

Fortunately, a girl from my class saw me and remembered where I told her I lived; and she told me to get off at her stop. She walked me in the general direction of where my host family lives until I recognized where I was...and it literally made my ENTIRE day. I couldn't thank her enough for helping me get back home. It was SUPER embarrassing that I literally had NO idea where I was or HOW I was going to get home...but I was SO glad that she offered to help me, and she walked me almost all the way home. I seriously could not thank her enough! :)


I actually think that today was scarier than the first day of school. At LEAST on the first day of school, I knew where I needed to be, and I knew the general idea of what I needed to do. I generally am pretty okay at school, even though I don't know whats going on; because I know where I need to be, and which classrooms to go to.

But...its REALLY scary when I have NO idea WHERE I need to be; and its scary when NO one shows up to class.

I guess the real reason why today was a bad day was because absolutely NOTHING was familiar. I usually at least know which class to go to and when...but when I don't even know that; im COMPLETLY lost. (Even though I cant understand anything in class, at least I know whether or not im in the right place.) :P

In the United States, class is always in the same classroom, and it always starts at the same time. You would never have canceled class unless there was no school for the whole day, and classes never change locations to a different area in the city. Today was just all confusion and running around; and it never stopped...things just kept on going wrong and unexpected!

At least now I know what to do if it happens again. Im actually glad that I didn't have such a good day today, because now I understand what I need to do in these situations at school. :)

Over all I guess it was a pretty "okay" day. It wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but it wasn't something to be totally upset about. But I wanted to make a post about it, because exchange students always have up's and down's; days where everything goes perfectly, and days where nothing goes well...and today was just one of those days I guess.

I DO really love it here though, and even though today wasn't really all that great; at least know I can laugh about it. :)

Sometimes you have to go through a day of COMPLETE frustration and confusing in order to understand what to do next time in that situation...and at least now I can say I know what to do if no one shows up to class! Unfortunately, I am still not sure what to do if class is at a different location outside of the school...hopefully that situation just wont happen again for awhile. :P

But at least I figured things out in the end...and hopefully tomorrow goes a bit more smoothly at school. :)