Exchange is (insert word here)

About five months ago I came to Finland. I didn’t know anything about the culture, the language nor the country where I would live for eleven months. When I arrived, I met some really nice people who were going to be my host family for the next months. They are warmhearted and most welcoming, I feel comfortable and at home. They introduced me to ruisleipä (rye bread), sauna and living with a dog, the Finnish culture. All the problems and insecurities I had in my home country just disappeared. The first week I tried to recognize some things I knew in Belgium, but I quickly gave up, everything was different.

Together with the other exchange students, I discovered Tampere, the nearest city. I live in Ylöjärvi – a small town of about 20.000 inhabitants – but I often go to Tampere because there is more to do. While discovering our new life, we became close friends and we started meeting about every week to catch up and have fun. Another positive thing about being an exchange student is you have friends from all over the world, a good excuse for you to travel.

Living in a new country brings a couple of difficulties along, one of them is learning a new language: Finnish is a complicated language, you have to be very careful with pronunciation, and some words have different meanings according to how they are used in a sentence, for example the word “koska” can mean “when” and “because”. I took a Finnish class during the first three months, we spoke about random basic subjects such as going to the supermarket and describing your house and family. Now, I can have a conversation in Finnish but I still speak slowly to make sure the other person understands me, although I do say a word in English here and there.

Most people think being an exchange student is only for a year. I think they are wrong because it takes one year to prepare, one year being abroad, and one year adjusting to being back at home. And in a way, being an exchange student lasts a lifetime because it gives you certain habits and reflexes that never leave, plus it also changes the way you think. I was lucky to find an association that really prepares you by organizing camps every few weeks. At each camp, we – the exchange candidates – were put in a situation which could happen to us and we had to figure out how to deal with it in a peaceful and reasonable way. After each situation, we would talk about it with the volunteers, and they told us the best way to go. Here in Finland, my organization also organizes camps and events, such as country evenings, to know how we are adjusting to our new life, and also to learn about our home countries.

For the past few months, I’ve also had to learn to live without my family and friends. I talk to them via Skype and email but it just isn’t the same. The first thing I missed was the physical contact and joking around with my parents. I started also to communicate by letter with them and every time I get a letter, I become as excited as a five year old kid who just met Santa Claus. When I’ve had a weird day or when I feel tired, I like to read the letters I received again, and then I go to sleep with a smile on my face and wake up the next morning with the same smile and ready to conquer the world.

Exchange students think a lot. They think about why: why do people do that this way? Why is this here? They think about what: what am I eating? What does this habit mean? What is this person saying? They think about how: how should I do this? How should I act? How should I say this? They think about who: who am I really? Who is this person talking to me? Is he a friend of my host family? They think about where: where is my family right now? Where should I go this weekend? Being an exchange student can be frustrating, when you feel like a fifth wheel because you don’t understand what people around you are saying in that strange language. You can be frustrated because sometimes you want to do something you can do at home but not in your exchange country and trying to make people understand you correctly is also often frustrating. And missing something typical from your exchange country is extremely frustrating.  All in all, being an exchange student is great because you feel the connection with your host family grow, because you know where everything is in the kitchen, and you have friends from all over the world who can give you a place to stay. Being an exchange student is being surprised every single day.