AFS GEO on Ice

Last Friday, I went ice skating at the Christmas market with the AFS chapter in Ghent. I had a lot of fun, and I am quite proud that I didn't fall even though I'm not such a good skater... 

Sankta Lucia

Last Thursday, I went to a Saint Lucia celebration. It is celebrated on 13th december, it coincides with the Winter Solstice. It is mostly celebrated in Scandinavia where it has become a feast of light. Lucia  is represented by a woman dressed in a white dress and red sash with a crown or wreath of candles on her head. Girls dressed up as Lucia sing songs in procession. Click here to see an example.  

The celebration was at the department of Scandinavian studies at my university and organised by the professors. There was food made by some students, and a quiz about Saint Lucia and Sweden. 

AFS BHV abroad

Hello everyone! 

Cara asked me to write something for her blog and the 100^th day of my exchange year here in Finland seemed a good opportunity ☺100 days is already a lot, so I took my calendar with me to give you some update, with words this time. 

We go back all the way to 22 August, the day my big adventure started. Together with 6 others I took my first plane ever. Right when I landed my first family was waiting for me at the airport and when we drove to their house, I couldn´t help myself and I was already amazed by the beauty of this country. I didn´t have much time at home, because 10 minutes later my sister Erika arrived and we went to Savonlinna to visit a friend of my host mother (5 hours driving!). 

Monday school started for me, the Finnish students already had 2 weeks of school. Luckily there is also another exchange student in my school, from Germany. The way it always happens, the exchange students become friends. 

Wednesday we had our very first AFS meeting, it was exciting to meet all the other girls from my chapter. We are from all around the world. Belgium, Germany, Turkey, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Hungary, Japan, Thailand, Italy, Mexico and Chile.

In September I started playing Ringette for the first time. This is almost like ice hockey, but you have a different stick and you play with a ring, not a puck. They call it the girl´s version of ice hockey. I like it very much and I have it every Tuesday right before school. 

The first weekend of September we also had our first AFS camp. I had an amazing time there! We baked pulla, went to sauna in the middle of the night and then went swimming under the stars, talked with the returnees and the other students and made new friends. 

The next weekend I went for the first time to Helsinki with one of my friends, Emmi and after that it was Henriikka´s 17^th birthdayparty, where we also had a lot of fun.

21 September it was Belgia-ilta or Belgian evening. Every month there is one evening where the exchange students from that country will explain a little more about their country. Wouke and I had the honour to be the first to present our little country. Because you can´t plan a whole evening in one day, she already came Saturday and stayed the whole weekend. We made Belgian waffles with which everyone fell in love with.

After this weekend I had my first koeviiko or testweek, but more information about the schoolsystem will follow later ;)

On the 4th of October, I went with my counselor Reine and Isil, the exchange student from Turkey to the Askola potholes and Porvoo. Even though it rained most of the day, it was still a very nice day and I saw a little more of this big country. 

From 10-19 October it was holidays, syysloma. From 10-15 October I went with my hostfamily to Talinn, the capital of Estonia. We took the boat, it takes around 2 hours and then we arrived in Estonia. We did a lot of things and visited a lot of things. It was a nice holiday.

My friends also fell in love with the Belgian waffles and insisted that I teach them how to make them. No problem for me, so Saturday 25th off to Henriikka to teach and eat and just have fun together. 

That Sunday it was karibia-ilta, the countries Honduras and Dominican Republic were presented.

Last weekend of October I went to stay the night at Clara, the exchange student from Germany who lives close to me. As it real exchange students fit, there was a lot of food involved. Watching Harry Potter movies can´t be done without some snacks and we also made some awesome chocolate cookies. It was also Halloween so we carved a pumpkin with her little brother.

Saturday evening after I came home from Clara, I went with my family to the concert of Lordi, a Finnish hardrockband. I had never heard them before and I didn´t understand most of the lyrics even though they were in English, but the concert was a lot of fun and it was nice to discover some different part of the Finnish culture. Later I also found out that they only do 1 concert per year, so I was glad I went there.

The next weekend was again an exchange student weekend. Friday after school I went to go sleep at Jannika’s house, the other exchange student at my school, but eventually we ended up at Tiia’s house and we watched High School Musical, I finally found an equally big fan as me, who also knows all the songs and movies by heart. After staying at Jannika’s, I went immediately with the train to Wouke, who is also from Belgium and from the same chapter. She and her brother had a party and we made and ate a lot of fries. 

On 12th November it was finally my birthday, 18 years old, whoow! It was really nice and my friends even brought a piece of cake for my and sung Paljon Onnea (Finnish version of Happy Birthday) in the lunchroom. Friday the party continued. I did something with all 3 groups of friends. We went with AFS to visit the government and of course I couldn´t resist walking around in Helsinki with a crown on my head. After our visit to the government we went to eat something and still spent some time in Helsinki, because who doesn´t love that awesome city? 

After Hesinki I went bowling with Jannika, Tiia, Juulia, Jenni and Moona. I was in a team with Moona and of course we lost, but it was really nice and so much fun. After bowling it was time to go to Emmi´s place where Henriikka also was and we watched Frozen and made gingerbread cookies, they were good :D

Thursday 20 November, Jannika and I went to the English class in Ylääste, which is the middle school. There they had to first ask us questions about our countries and after that they had to explain us words about Finland that we had to guess. And yes, I had guessed the most, sorry Jannika ;)

Friday I went again to stay the night at Emmi because Saturday we had to get up early to go to Helsinki to go search for our dresses for Wanhojen Tanssi. After a long day of searching, we both found 2 amazing and beautiful dresses. 

Wednesday I went to Helsinki again, with Jannika this time to buy Christmas presents. I finally got to eat in the Hard Rock Café and we also went to Starbucks. The christmas decorations were already up and since it gets dark so early it was so nice to walk around in that wonderful city with all those lights.

Last weekend on Sunday we went with AFS to Heureka, a little like Technopolis in Belgium, but smaller and after that I went with some other girls to Jumbo, a big shopping centre that is in the same city as Heureka. 

And now, we are Monday 1 December, day number 100 and after dinner I will make cake to celebrate.

Tuesday 25 November I also changed family. There were some problems with my former family and sometimes there just isn´t a connection. I live now with Henriikka and her family and the 4 cats and they are all really nice and our characters match very well. They also love to bake and are creative, my host mum is teaching me now to knit gloves. They can also enjoy their time alone but also like to be with family or friends.

Now about the schoolsystem. The schoolsystem is very different from the one we have in Belgium, but I like it. Every schoolyear is divided in 6 jaksot and after every jakso there is koeviiko where you have test about the subjects you took that jakso. Every week has 8 numbers and for every number you can choose a subject. I have to take only 5 subjects each jakso and the other students also don´t have to take every number, so sometimes I have free hours. It´s a little difficult to explain, but it works good. Today a new jakso just started and now I will have Finnish, English, Health education, Social studies and the dance courses for Wanhojen Tannsi. This Wanhat (Wanhojen Tannsi) is something I´m really looking forward to. It´s something really traditional where all the second-graders dance in pairs, all dressed-up.

These past days I didn´t only get to know Finland and their culture better, but definitely also myself. I already had some bad moments, I won´t deny that, but I got through it, got stronger and moved my limits. I did things I couldn´t even dream of before while making dreams come true. Everyday I fall a little more in love with Finland and the Finnish culture and I already can´t think about leaving all these wonderful people behind, luckily it´s not yet time for that ☺

Last I would really like to thank my parents and everyone who supports me and donated to my AFS fund and helped me make my dream come true. I can´t express how much it means to know I have all these wonderful people behind me.

Well, I guess this is enough for this blogpost, if you want you can always follow me on Instagram, where I post everyday a picture about my life here in Finland, it´s kinda my blog. My Instagram is “zoeinsuomi”.

Lots of hugs and kisses!

Zoe Lintermans 

BeeHaaVee Cafe

This year, AFS BHV - the AFS chapter in Brussels is called BHV (which stands for Brussels Halle Vilvoorde) - introduced the BeeHaaVee cafe. This is pretty much a fancy way of saying "let's have a drink together"... We all meet regularly in a cafe in Brussels, as we did the past two Saturdays.

The first Saturday, we, the volunteers, met with the exchange students who are now in Brussels and with the candidates who will go on exchange next year. It was the perfect opportunity to catch up and for the candidates to meet more exchange students and volunteers, ask questions and get to know the AFS community/family better.

Last Saturday, it was just volunteers and exchange students. Also volunteers from other chapters came, so it was nice to swap ideas for activities and workshops!

I look forward to the next edition of BeeHaaVee cafe!

Volunteering for AFS

Over the past few months, my life has once again changed drastically. Five months ago, I came back from Finland and had to adjust to living again with my parents, and also to speaking Dutch and French. Then, nine weeks ago, I started university. I study English and Swedish at the University of Ghent. I have a separate room in Ghent in a house with 12 other students. This brings being independent to a whole new level, even though I still go back to Brussels to have my laundry done and reassure my parents so they know I’m healthy and alive. 

Even though, my work for university keeps me very busy, I still make some time for AFS. I am now a volunteer. This means I get to help organise events and lead workshops at camps. 

AFS is the organisation with whom I went to Finland as an exchange student. For 11 months I lived with a family, of which I became a real part of, and go to a Finnish school. Basically, I lived like a Finn. 

People often compare an exchange program with AFS with an Erasmus program in university. But I  think an AFS program is more than that - I realise my opinion isn’t objective as I have never been on an Erasmus, but if everything goes well, I will in two years. With AFS, you live in a family - instead of living alone while on Erasmus -, you learn the language, and truly live the Finnish culture and way of life. AFS has another added value: after your exchange, you immediately get to be a volunteer, pass on your knowledge and meet “the next generation”. The adventure doesn’t stop when you leave your host country, it goes on for the rest of your life. 

Last weekend, the AFS committee in Brussels organised the first camp of the year for the candidates who will go on exchange next year. Together with the other volunteers, I attempted to help the candidates make the right choice of countries for next year - they were asked to give three to six countries where they would like to go - and also make sure they understand correctly the mission of AFS. My fellow volunteers and I had organised a “countrymarket”, meaning we put on display pictures and objects we brought back from our exchange. The candidates could look at everything, and ask questions about a specific country. Of course, each volunteer made publicity for their host country. This was a good activity for me because I love to talk about Finland and my experience as an exchange student, and I am quite passionate about it. 

The camp also helped me understand how AFS works administratively, and appreciate all the work volunteers did to help me while I was a candidate and on exchange.

I had a wonderful time passing on my knowledge about AFS, about being an exchange student, and about Finland, where I spent my exchange. So I would like to thank AFS, my fellow volunteers and the candidates for this wonderful and instructive weekend! 

My best memories

So I have been back in Belgium for almost two weeks now. In the beginning, it was weird and uncomfortable to be back here. It felt strange also to have my parents so close to me, able to comment on everything I do. Now, I have rediscovered my house, my city, my old habits. 

Although I am happy to be able to see my family and friends, I still miss Finland and my family and friends there. Here are some of my best memories: 

 

Thank you for following my wonderful adventures these past few months! Nothing will be forgotten!