For the few months that I have been in Finland I feel like I have had many friends so far. I mostly know 3rd and 1st graders in the school because my host brother is in the 3rd grade. I met his friends within my second week in Finland. I met many 1st grade friends cause I was in many 1st grade lessons in the first session. With my friends in the US, I don’t really keep much contact with them. I put some posts on Facebook so they know what is going on, but mostly I do my own thing and focus on making new friends because I know my old friends will always be my friends. It isn’t very hard to get to know new friends, but it is very hard to get past the Finnish in everybody. Like I remember a time when I sat next to someone at lunch that I didn’t know and so I said, “Hei! Mikä sun nimi on?” Within the next few seconds person left the table and went and sat across the lunchroom. So I created a new strategy to meeting people. I would go sit with either a classmate or one of my host siblings at lunch and meet all of their friends. So far that has worked very well.
Family life is very different here in Finland. There are a lot of things that are similar about the Finnish life style compared to the American way. In US we usually, after all of our day of school and practices, we eat and then go to our rooms and work on homework and sleep. We do all of that without saying goodnight to our family members. Or at least I did because I had such long days of school activities that lasted till 7:00 pm. The fact that family spends a lot of time with each other is something similar in US. I spent many hours on weekends with my family back home and here. What I miss the most about my home is only a few things. I miss green chiles and most of all the sun. I of course miss my family, but not too much. I am not homesick. It is very dark and I was very sad on one day, but lately the sun has been out and has turned my mood around. The best thing about my new family is that it is a very close group of people. They are very family oriented and I can see why, the winter. Everything has been awesome in my new family, and it is sad to know that I will change families in a month or so. But it is all a part of the experience.
