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Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Skiing holiday
Monday the 1st
to Sunday the 7th
of March
→ Summer Cottage
I went to my last host families’ summer cottage on Monday and stayed until Wednesday. This is
what I did -
− Had my first real Finnish sauna
− Went in a Sled behind a snow mobile, really fast
− Started to build a snow motor bike out of snow, but I didn’t get to finish it
− Went tobogganing
− Went walking through the forest
− Went downhill skiing for the first time for 40min
− Ate sausage and pancakes cooked on an open fire with hot juice, YUM
− Had fun!
→ Downhill skiing and the Accident
Wednesday my third host mum Pia and her son picked me up from the summer cottage and took
me to Purnu the downhill skiing centre (which I was at briefly the day before). We got a skiing
teacher for an hour, he was very funny. Then I went on to the slopes by myself …
That was fine for the first few times and unlike the day before I only crashed three times as
opposed to 13 times the day before. The second crash was very, very funny. I had been warned
that the end of that particular run was very steep and I went yeah well it can’t be that bad. So as I
went over the top of it quite fast I looked down at a near vertical drop and of course tried to brake.
I ended up cart wheeling on skis for about 70 meters, creating a giant snow ball looking thing. My
last host sisters (who were also skiing with us) thought it was unbelievably hilarious and laughed, A
LOT!
The third crash was the nearly fatal one! Buy this time I had almost mastered turning and I was
going quite slow and turned just a little wide and I was on track to hit my host sister. But I didn’t
want to do that so I swerved to miss her and lost control hit a patch of snow and fell over! It was
the best, slowest crash I had done but I couldn’t get up! So after I screamed a bit at my sister to get
the ski of my leg, I attempted to get up which didn’t work so well! This was the last run before
lunch which was to be in a little hut half way down the ski slope. I got a snow mobile to the hut and
we ate lunch for the next hour but throughout I was in a lot of pain so we trooped off to the Sysmä
Hospital.
At the hospital the doctor took off the make shift bandage me and my last host dad (vet) put on
and poked and prodded my knee, to which I said ow a lot. Then I had an x-ray; nothing was broken.
So he taped my knee up and gave me crutches and sent me away. But while I had been there I had
to walk from the doctor’s room to the x-ray room and back. This I did not want to do, but did and
on the way back as I was in the room my patella popped out, ow! But the doctor didn’t see and
clearly didn’t understand when I tried to explain. My patella popped out again when I was on my
way home via the pizza place!
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
→ Specialist in Lahti
My host mum was not happy about my knee (she is a physiotherapist) so she said that I had to go to
the knee specialist in Lahti (big town an hour away). I did not want to go but my host mum won the
argument.
The specialist gave me a proper brace with strict instructions to wear it for 6 weeks; I still have three
to go. He also prodded my knee, thought, and decided I needed an MRI, but suspected that I had
severed my medial ligament which is on the inside of my right knee.
This was all on Thursday and that particular Thursday I was supposed to have gone cross country
skiing, playing table tennis and badminton and I would have gone to an ice hockey match; I missed
out on the lot and was pretty grumpy about it.
→ Helsinki , Friday to Sunday
I did get to go to Helsinki sore knee and all. Helsinki is about 2 hours drive away. The hotel we stayed
at had a disabled suite, which was given to me so I had at least 1.5 times more room than any other
room and I had everything! Even though I didn’t want this room I have to admit it was a lot, lot
easier.
Friday afternoon we set out to explore the city! I did this in a wheelchair because at that stage I
couldn’t walk very far at all on my knee with crutches. Helsinki is an unbelievably pretty city with
classic style houses and cobbled streets which are very ugly when travelling in a wheelchair. We went
to the Helsinki museum and I self navigated my way through the various floors, in my wheel chair! On
the way to the museum we went past parliament house and out the front of it was an igloo fort thing
with a big sign on it which roughly translated to “our government is corrupt”.
On Saturday I went on a bus tour of Helsinki (by myself), it was a one and a half hour trip giving a
basic back ground to Helsinki and visiting the most famous places. I learnt almost nothing because of
the pain from my knee travelling in the bus. I did learn that Finland makes 60% of ice breaking ships
and Helsinki is the only city in the world where the big ships can sail right into the centre of town
(which they do)!
Saturday afternoon we met Heli’s sister because I was to spend the night with them (their daughter is
going on exchange) I had a very nice time there and we played the Finnish version of Scrabble, which
was really, really fun!
The Wheelchair experience- Well what I would say is the world is and looks unbelievably different
from a wheelchair and you notice very different things. I would hate to be in a wheelchair
permanently and it would be so difficult for anyone in a wheelchair in Helsinki or any other cold
place! For several reasons among which are the snow and ice clumps make it very difficult.
→ Sysmä theatre
On Sunday night I went to the Sysmä picture theatre which is just around the corner from my house.
There I saw the movie Up in The Air, with George Clooney. The Theatre was just a biggish screen and
some chairs, but I loved it a lot. Not many people go to the theatre where there were just ten people
including me and the people I came with!
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Back to school
Monday the 8th
to Friday the 12th
Monday
� First day on crutches, result: far too many stairs at my school
� I had my first Finnish course in Lahti; it was fine except for the 2 hour wait before the class started!
Tuesday
� Had my sport class changed to music, was so upset! But it turned out to be pretty good.
Wednesday
� Had first three periods off, don’t even know why the teacher just said the class wasn’t on, yes!
� Saw the road surface for the first time in Finland!! (Previously it had been covered in a lot of snow)
� Went to MRI scan in Lahti
I had my MRI, I had to take off everything metal and lay completely still inside a big round thing. I
never want to do that again! And I wasn’t going to get my results back until the following
Wednesday because my doctor only worked two days a week.
Thursday
� Had an impromptu cooking class, made chips and everybody loved them, me included. One girl said
while I was chopping the potatoes, I quote ‘I have never seen potatoes look like that before’!
Friday
� Again timetable was changed so that I didn’t have sport, but no one told me and then it was
changed to English. Thus giving me five periods of English which was all my classes for that day. I
protested so now I have art, a vast improvement.
� Missed home a tinny, tinny little bit, for the first time.
Saturday the 13th
to Sunday the 14th
Saturday
� I went and stayed over the night with Anniina (my host sister). We went to a Floorball match in
Sysmä. It was a very important match to see who would make it to the final! Sysmä kicked butt and
it was awesome! Floorball is an awesome game to watch and play!
Sunday
� Watched a lot of Muumi’s (a Finnish animated cartoon, where Muumi’s are a hippo like creature
and really cute!) with my host sister, I love them a lot.
Monday the 15th
to Friday the 19th
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monday
� Conducted an Australian cooking class, we had bacon and eggs on toast with pancakes! Yum!
Except the cooking class didn’t have a toaster! I couldn’t believe it! We had to toast it is a PAN!
Because no ovens have grills here!
� Finnish course in Lahti; it goes for 2.5 hours which I think is a little long. I met up with another
exchange student (she is from N.S.W near the A.C.T border) before the course that night.
Tuesday
� Saw my first grass/moss in Finland! Couldn’t believe it!!
� Started to see the massive cracks in roads, because it is so cold here the soil freezes under the
roads and it causes the concrete, asphalt, etc. To crack. (The biggest crack I have seen so far was
35cm deep!!)
Wednesday
� Got my MRI results
The results of my MRI scan were… thankfully I have torn my medial ligament (not ruptured it) this
means that if I look after my knee I probably won’t need an operation.
Thursday
� The rest of the school had a skiing trip and I couldn’t go! So instead I went to the primary school for
their first period and taught English! Then I trooped of to my host mums and I was supposed to be
viewing what she does for a living (physiotherapy) but her first patient cancelled, so instead we
figured out what my knee is capable of. The results were very good. Then Heli had another
appointment and I got to see all the things she has to do in her job. After that we went out for
lunch and came back just in time for me to teach the last period of English for the day!
Friday
� Relaxed, except Friday is cleaning day!
� Also heard a lot of funny stories about what had happened to all the people skiing the day before!
The best I think was… there is only one lift to the top of the runs but there are 5 runs; the site of
the lift and towers is quite separate from the ski runs. One girl went to a lot of trouble to make her
way down the slope under the lift! Another kid forgot to put his skis on; he went up on the lift to
the top of the mountain before he worked out that he didn’t have skis!
Saturday the 20th
to Sunday the 21st
Saturday
� I went to Lahti and saw Alice in wonderland in 3D and went to a Viking restaurant where everything
was in a traditional Viking style. So we had heavy hand moulded cups and there were furs
everywhere and you could even wear a plastic Viking hat, which I took advantage of.
Sunday
� Went for drive around Sysmä and looked at very, pretty summer cottages.
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monday the 22nd
to Friday the 26th
Monday
� Had my Finnish course in Lahti again, and figured out that when I leave in the morning It will be 14
hours before I get home again,If I am lucky!
Tuesday
� Went to Anniina’s place and made stick things out of willow, feathers and tissue paper; this was for
Sunday.
Wednesday
� Went to a Rotary meeting and organised to go on a fishing trip on Saturday.
Thursday
� Had an awesome cooking class, the whole class worked on one massive buffet tea thing, we had
sandwich cake (like a layered sponge cake but with bread and stuff you put on a sandwich), a Greek
salad, Pasties with rice, egg and capsicum as the filling (I made those), Homemade sugar coated jam
filled biscuits and my favourite a white chocolate cake/moose thing. It was all very yummy!
Friday
� I saw a squirrel - it was so cute and little and it has a funny run. I was so excited for a good few
hours, everyone thought I was crazy! I saw it on the way to school and I just stood there watching it
for so long that I ended up being 7 min. late for school But it was worth it.
� Went to “Hesburger” for the first time!! (the Finnish version of McDonald’s, which they have as
well).
Saturday the 27th
to Sunday the 28th
Saturday
� Fishing Competition
Saturday morning I packed a bag of food and hot drinks and trooped off with my fishing gear to the
lake, where I had entered a fishing competition. We had to register before 10.30am for an 11 o
clock start. The competition was for 2 hours and the heaviest fish would win in each category. The
size of the fish wasn’t so important. As I am still slightly handicapped (only very slightly) I got a little
help and didn’t have to drill my own holes. I had three holes and I rotated around them but the first
hole was the best! I caught three fish, my first fish was in with a chance at the smallest fish award
(approx. 3 cm long), my second fish was slightly longer at around 4 cm but it was a lot fatter and my
last fish was a fat fish around 10 cm. And guess what I came first in my division. There were 18 in
the men’s comp., 4 in the ladies comp and 2 in the youngsters comp. My competitor was a 5 year
old boy who in fact caught a lot more fish than I did but he had his mum and his dad to help. So I
got first because I am a pro ice fisher. The whole day was a lot of fun, I got a medal for coming 1st
and then a won a bottle of alcohol in a raffle which I gave back so it could be re drawn and last I got
given a bag full of different styles of ice fishing hooks.
� Floorball Match, 315 spectators (impressive for a small town)
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
The Floorball match was the final and it was between a Helsinki team and the Sysmä team. The
match was a nasty one and there was lot of pushing and shoving and dodgy calls. Sysmä ended up
losing, but you could plainly see they were the better team but they played nicely and that was why
they lost. It was really good and I love Floorball.
Sunday
� Today was Palm Sunday and on Palm Sunday in Finland the little kids get dressed up as witches and
go around to people’s houses and wave a brightly decorated willow twig (Tuesday) and sing a song
which means something like I wish you a good year, a stick for you, a treat for me. So you get given
chocolates and if they don’t have chocolate they give you something else like money.
This is actually a mixture of traditions. In one part of Finland the kids used to make the twigs and
sing the song and in another part they kids dressed up as witches and caused havoc and that night
there would be a massive bonfire and they would burn the witches (fake ones). This is all to bring a
good New Year kind of thing. Recently they have combined the two traditions. It is similar to
Halloween in America but you do it during the day time.
So guess what I did today? I dressed up as a very, very fat witch (looked hilarious, I used many a
pillow/jumper and at one stage had to get in car which was difficult) and me and my host sister
Anniina (she was a very, very tall witch) went around to people’s houses with our sticks and sang
the song and got a lot of chocolate and about 13 Euros each.
We met some other kids on the way and there was one girl who was really, really scared of me! The
best reaction I got was when my host mum Heli opened the door and just laughed and laughed and
laughed for so long. I also got my picture taken 3 times on my rounds and scared the crap out of a
cat (the first cat I have seen while being here, I miss my cats).
Things to look forward to:
� 2nd
– 5th
April, Easter and Easter holiday; I have the Friday and Monday off from school and on the
Saturday and Sunday I am going to be Jyvaskyla.
� 10th
April , sports day thing between the shire councils in this area and we are playing archery this
year
� 14th
April, I am supposed to give my rotary presentation in Finnish to the rotary club!
� 17th
– 18th
April, district conference
� 29th
of April, doctor’s appointment, final decision!
� 2nd
may, I am moving!
� 6th
– 9th
of May, St Petersburg trip!
� 6th
-24th
June, Eurotour!
� 1st -4
th July, Drag Racing!
Currently:
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
• My knee is healing well. I only need crutches for long distances and I am slow up and down stairs.
But I am pretty much crutch free, yes!!!
• I am eating some of my many eggs
• My term ends soon, so this week I have less classes because my oldest class start their exams and
then the following week my second eldest class has their exams so I get a new timetable! I got to
choose my classes but I couldn’t choose so I wrote a small list and then wrote I don’t mind what
you give me. So we will see what I get.
• There is still a lot of snow around but everyday more melts and you can see the difference. There
was also a lot of ice this month because the snow would melt and freeze and so on, wasn’t so good
for my knee.
• The days are getting a lot warmer and you can see dirt and things in some places!
I wasn’t happy with the old layout so I changed it and because photos don’t work so well I will send them in
a different email (I will label them so you know what they correspond to).
I think that is about it,
Lots of Love,
Steph
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
Monthly Report
March - 2010
Written by
Stephenie Kelley
Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Finland
