Hello! My name is Jakob and I’m from Austria. About one year ago I decided to become an exchange student. I couldn’t decide which country I should go to. Then I had an idea to go to the Northern Europe so I wrote my application for Finland. Two months later I got confirmation that I could go to Finland. The time to my “big day” went fast over and then I flew to Finland.
Now I’ve been here for forty days and already experienced a lot. On the first day I went with my family on a boat to a little island and had barbeque. Monday was my first school day and I was very excited. At first at school the most people were a little bit shy. But now I’ve found friends. On my second day at school I started learning Finnish in the German lesson. For an Austrian boy like me it is very difficult to learn this language, but I will try my best. After two weeks in Finland I went to an AFS-camp. AFS is the organization who brought me to Finland. On this camp they showed us the rules and what typical life in Finland means. Like how you go to sauna, the school system and other things. Last weekend I visited Helsinki and the Suomenlinna island. It was a nice trip and I saw a lot of new things. During my free time I play volleyball and football and since I’m in Finland I have also tried ice hockey couple of times.
The differences to Austria are big. In my home country there are not so many lakes and we don’t have the sea, but there are a lot of mountains where it’s nice to ski in the winter and hike in the summer. I like the landscape of Finland and already have seen some very beautiful things. Also the school system is completely different and the people act differently. All in all I have had a very nice time in Finland and hope I can experience a lot more until I leave Finland in January
