Martta is from Pori, a city on the west coast of Finland, this year doing her exchange year that she dreamed about since elementary school. A journey that she hoped about brought her all the way to Roosevelt high school.
Her favourite memory so far is Halloween. Since it is not a big celebration in Finland, she experienced costumes, decorations, trick or treating for the first time in her life. For her, moments like this show exactly why she wanted to come on an exchange year.
School life also taught her a lot. She compared American and Finnish schools, mentioning that school in her home country can be harder academically and students are expected to be very responsible for their own learning. She pointed out that she has been really impressed by how teachers here check in with the students and genuinely care about how everything is going.
Roosevelt stands out for her as a friendly school where people welcomed her from the first day. People at school have made her feel comfortable and included in the community.
Cultural differences have shown up in small moments too, especially small talk. The first few days here were challenging for her. Small talk was confusing her. She wasn’t sure how to respond or keep the conversation going, because silence is a natural, normal thing in everyday life in Finland. Little by little, she got used to it and now sees it as a part of American life.
Living with her host family has been one of the best parts of her exchange year. The beginning was a little hard for her since she had to get used to life with people that she met for the first time at the airport when she arrived here. Even so, she now feels close to them and thinks of them as a second family.
Her main goal for this year is to enjoy every moment of this journey. Since it is only ten months of her life she knows that she has to experience as much as possible. She also believes that the exchange year will help her see the world from a different perspective and in the long term will help her achieve her future goals.
She doesn’t know what she wants to do in the future yet, but maybe her future will bring her back to America.
