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Hyvinkää is a little town in southern Finland about an hour away from Helsinki. But when I went there with my host family and about 30 other people from Raahe it wasn’t for the town, actually I don’t even think I saw the town at all!
We went there for Europe’s biggest orienteering competition called Jukola. There were more than 15 000 runners, from all around the world and with more than 20 000 people watching, and helping out! We camped in the middle of these paddocks which were cool, and with an orienteering ‘town’ with restaurants, clothes shops, orienteering shops, and media area all made just for the race made it quite an experience. Jukola is a very special event, because it is done in a relay style. First the women begin, and in each woman’s team there are four runners. Their race began at 2pm and with the women orienteering between 4km-7km. The last team made it through the finish line after 8pm! Oh and did I mention it was pouring rain! Yes imagine being in the middle of the forest and paddocks while it is raining! Actually I think it added to the atmosphere a bit. After the women’s race, the men began at 11pm! This men’s race has the most history behind it because in each men’s team there are seven runners. This is because the first ever novel written in Finnish was by a man called Aleksis Kivi and he wrote about these seven Jukola brothers. This story is again one of the most popular books here in Finland. Anyway when the men start at 11pm they wore these torches on their head, even though it wasn’t fully dark (twilight), it was very cool. The men orienteer between 7km-14km! I saw the start of the race, then went to bed, and woke up for the finish which was after 9am in the morning! So as you can imagine it is quite a big thing. If I wanted to (and many people did) watch the race on big screens throughout orienteering ‘town’! That weekend was a lot of fun with both Rita and Sauli orienteering in it. The women’s winner came from Finland and the men’s winners came from Norway.
On the next Thursday, the two Rotary clubs in my town had a golf off! And because my last host dad (Leo) had taken me once earlier in the year, he put my name down to play. It was played in Siikajoki, about 20mins out of Raahe. The golf course was really nice and green. The clubs then drew for turns around the course, and we played nine holes. The way in which they scored, depending on your handicap (or in my case no handicap), if you got a par than you got two points, and if you got a bogie (one over par? I hope that’s right) then you get one point and at the end the club with the most points wins! But in my case because I had no handicap I was given another two shots on top of the par. And surprisingly I didn’t play terrible, I think it was all the practice I had in Barham with Oma earlier this year. But anyway I ended up with 13 points. It was a lot of fun playing with the Rotarians from the clubs in Raahe, and although my Rotary club of Pietari Brahe losing by two points it was still a great night.
That weekend was Juhannus aka midsummer. This is very big in Finland being the longest day and people celebrating it together with Family and friends. Most Finns head to summer cottages for this weekend but unfortunately due to an unfortunate accident involving my host family we have had to postpone our trip to the summer cottages for August. But anyway for midsummer we went to Oulu to have a barbeque with Rita’s family. It was such a lovely day with the weather around 25C and the sun shining brightly all day long! But this barbeque was quite unique, in Australia when I think of barbeques I think of sausages, hamburgers steak, onion kebabs etc. But this barbeque we had salmon, mushroom, capsicum, corn, and eggplant. Although it was very different to my traditional barbeque it was still a lot of fun and very, very tasty! I really enjoyed midsummer and spending it with my host family.
The first week in July is very special to my town. It is called Pekaan Päivät. Pekaa is the nickname of the man who founded our town, Pietari Brahe, and Päivät means days in Finnish. On these days my town comes to life, with markets, people and Tiivoli (the show). For most of the day I was out with friends, hanging out at the beach and at Tiivoli. On the Friday Rita, Sauli, Veikka, Verneri and I went to Tiivoli together. It was a lot of fun and to see everyone having a lot of fun was really nice! There were clowns and stunts men, and we even went on the Ferris wheel together. There is also a dancing happening in the town square to a jazz type of band. A great few days, with a lot of energy and a lot of sun!
On the weekend of the 3rd of July we went to Oulu again, for an orienteering competition. That weekend it was such nice weather that I got sun burnt! But it was all good, only very mild. Rita and Sauli again raced with Rita coming second in her category. That night we went out for dinner with Rita’s family to an Indian restaurant. This was for my birthday with them as I was away for my birthday. It was really nice because I had never been to an Indian restaurant. The food was really tasty! We went back for a little dessert party where we had a chocolate mud cake with one candle on it. The candle was for my first birthday in Finland! I thought that was very nice of them. They gave me a card and a really, really big Finnish flag, which was so kind of them!
I have also been keeping myself quite active with going to Zumba and Afro dance classes. I have been with my friends Tiina and Sussu, and it is very hard! A lot of fun, but rather hard!
And on the following weekend was Ruisrock! This is the biggest music festival in Finland. There were ten exchange students who went to Turku for the festival. It was a three day festival with five stages inside and acts including Billy Talent, Slash, Ozzy Osborne, Florence and the Machine, NOFX, the Baseballs, Rise Against, The Specials, Regina Spektor, Belle & Sebastian and many more! But my favourite that I hadn’t heard of was Ginger Ninja, a Danish electric music group. They were a lot of fun! The atmosphere at there was amazing, more than 70 000 people went and it was just fabulous! So much energy and such awesome music! On the Sunday it was my 18th Birthday and it was so nice to celebrate it there at Ruisrock (thank you so very much Toni and Stacey). During my birthday we went into the town of Turku, which once was the capital of Finland, and had a picnic next to the river in the centre of town. It was great and my friends even bought me an awesome and very tasty birthday cake! And did I mention the weather was positive 37C! First time ever I think the weather for my birthday was over 15C and it was sunny, not raining! This day was actually the hottest day ever in Finland, so I feel very lucky that my birthday is now in the record books! That night at Ruisrock I met the Dudesons, which was just amazing! They sang to me happy birthday, which totally made my day (oh and the phone call from home : ) ) But the Dudesons! They were so nice, and awesome! It was such a great day and the day just didn’t seem to end! Ruisrock was an amazing three days with fantastic music and spending it with wonderful Exchange students made it perfect!
For the past two weeks I have stayed in Turku to teach English at a Christian School. Every year, they ask Rotary exchange students to help with conversational English to their students. This has been happening for nearly twenty years! At the school, there were four of us Exchange students from Australia. We took one class a day, which we could teach them anything, a lot of it revolved around Australia and just normal teenage things. There were about 50 students at the school with us splitting up into two groups. We taught them about Australian animals, the sort of things young people in Australia do during the day/holidays. We played a lot of games, and had a lot of fun in the evenings watching movies, playing soccer, doing quizzes and playing card games. Also there because it was just out of Turku, there was a lot of Blueberries, and they are now able to be eaten, so most evenings a few of the students and us would go out and just pick and eat them until our tongues and lips went blue! It was such a great experience to be involved in, and I made so many more wonderful friends.
And just yesterday I went to Oulu again for Sauli’s niece’s confirmation. Confirmations are very big in Finland, with almost all Finn’s doing it at the age of 15. After the ceremony there is a big party at their home, with family and friends giving gifts and money. There is also a lot of food and cakes. It was great to experience this type of ceremony as it is such a big part of a Finn’s life.
Anyway, I have had a very busy but amazing month. I have experienced so much of the Finnish summer, and the weather here has been incredible, it hasn’t rained all month except for yesterday, but other than that it has been so nice! I am now two months through my summer school holidays with three weeks left to go. I am very much looking forward to the next few weeks, and I thank everyone for their birthday wishes, which made my day!
I hope all is wonderful, and I will write again soon!
Love always
Nicole xoxo
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