Post Helsinki

Ok,I think it's time I just lay it straight and say I doubt I will ever make timely and regular posts. I will tr, but im sure you can empathize with how busy I am. Right now, I am on my last day of Autumn Break. I spent my past week with no school in and aound Finland's capital Helsinki. I wish I had some pictures to put up, but I'm afraid my camera has no battery left and I have found it absurdly difficutlty to find a power converter. I am currently awaiting one in the mail, once I have it, expect more pictures. Anyways.

Helsinki was pretty amazing. I dint realize how much I missed the sea until I breathed salty air. Damn. Well i have the lakes here, but there is soething about the sea isn't there. Well Helsinki was a ctually a lot like Seattle. Kind of. All of the new buildings are SO much like Seattle's. Also the size and population is equivilant. Plus it's a port city. The big difference was in the old buildings and the cobble stone streets. It is pretty much a European version of Seattle. This isn't a bad thing at all, I think Seattle is an incredible city. Helsinki is better though haha. It was cleaner and safer too. One thing I loved, the thing that really reminded me that I was in Europe was how many languages I heard. In my short time, I heard German, Finnish, Swedish, French, English, Russian and some balkan languages. It's pretty incredible to be in the middle of all of that.

Life in Finland has been good to me. Finnish is finally starting to catch. I can almost always get my point across when I want to say something. I can engage in decent small talk with my host brother and father. Sometimes, I even surpise myself. I have a lot more confidence that I will really learn in whilst I am here. Living among so many languages makes me feel really dissapointed to live in the USA. There, we exposed to maybe two languages. It's considered a feat to speak more than one. Here, everyone speaks at least Finnish, Swedish and English near fluently. I really wish my parents raised me bilingually.

A few weeks ago I went hunting with my host father and although I wasn't with him as it happened, he and his brother caught a moose. It was crazy. I had to help them drag it out to the road to be butchered. It was enormous. Apparently, when a hunter makes his first kill, he is supposed to drink the blood of the moose, kind of like a coming of age thing. So next time, if I am there as it happens, I will probably have to glug some moose blood haha. Well, when in Rome I guess.

I'm still waiting for Winter to really hit. It snows almost everyday, but it's juuuuuust to warm to stick. It's about +1 C so we're on the balance point. All it takes is a little bit more cold and we'll have some serious snow fall. I really can't wait. I'm just waiting for the day I wake up with a turly white morning.

Until then, I have little more to say and no pictures.

Kiah

A reason to get out of the city.

It's been a little more than a month now in Finland. I have finally settled into life here and am in the normal flow of things. My Finnish is progressing, slowly but surely. I still cant speak for shit, but I think once I leanr some better sentence construction, I will. Last weekend, I went with my liason Tuula and her family to Kuusamo. It's about three hours north of Kajaani. We were celebrating here grandson's first birthday. Her daughter is married to a man from London, so he has an english name Samuel, but all of the finns pronounced it phonetically saying "Samwell" =). There are some slight phonetic differences in Finnish. The letter Y makes and oo sound and the letter J is always soft making a yuh sound. You get used to it after a while, but its wierd at first. Hah, then you take Russian and the finnish alphabet seems easy. Kuusamo was incredible. We were in a summer cottage about half an hour from the main city, right on the side of the most beauftiful lake I have ever seen. th sauna was built right next to the lake so we got to run into the lake after going to the sauna. I saw tons of reindeer. They are really docile and there are lots of raindeer herds like sheep. At one point, I went for a walk and got about 10 meters away from a group of them, but alas,I didn't bring my camera. I also saw some moose. One mother and two babies. The babies were of course enourmous, probably the size of a full grown deer. I will be going to Helsinki at the end of October with my host brother. I am really excited for this. Rest assured, I will take like a bajillion photographs. Speaking of which, here are some I took in Kuusamo.
Kiah.

8 days?

Ök, it's been 8 days here. It feels like much much more. Not in a bad way, just that so so so much is new and has transpired.
Well I am safe and sound here in Kajaani. I started school on monday. School is suprisingly good. I have pretty easy classes, I have Russian again, music, philosophy (which I love) and even art.
My Finnish is coing slowly, but surely, my conversation is pretty terrible, but I know many words. Still, after a week, I feel quite proud. Finland itself is so so beautiful. I have taken pictures and will put them up just as soon as I figure out how. Everything is in Finnish on the computers so I work really slowly.
My host family is wonderful, I have two dogs and a cat. My host brother and I have a good amount of similar interests so we get along really really well. Plus, he speaks English which saves me. The host father is halarious and very very friendly. He speaks no english, so we communicate through gestures, broken English and Finnish and translations. The host mother is also great. She is pushing me to learn Finnish which is good. Far too many people speak fluent anglish here and want to practice.
I got to go to one of Finland's many many lakes on my first day here. It was lovely and I will post some pictures of it.
I have a few friends here. All of us exchane students have clung to one another, so I spend most of my time with them. I am becoming steadfast friends with Chisako, a girl from Japan, Lauren who is from Australia and Reka who is from Hungary. I am the only boy exchange student, but I don't mind too much. We all speak english now, but we are collaborating our knowledge to learn Finnish.
My favorite thing so far is the Finnish Sauna. Every evening, I get to go to the Sauna. It's more hard-core here than in America which is to be expected. The house has a Sauna built in which is apparently really really common. It's a giant part of Finnish culture. My host brother said it where Finns talk and bond.
It's already freakin cold here for August. Winter isn't even here yet. I'm looking forward to winter the most though. Especially the snow.

Kiah

First Update in quite a long time.

Hello. I know I have majorly slacked these last months as far as keeping up on this blog goes. I suppose you all know I accomplished my fundraising and I am now going to Finland. Tomorrow in fact. Well I'd like to thank all of those who supported me in my endeavor and expect thank you cards later during the year. I plan on sending a card with a sweet picture of me doing something extreme and Finnish ie) swimming in an icy lake or wrestling a polar bear or something. While i'm abroad, I am required to keep up on my blogging so expect entries monthly-to-every two weeks. I will also be posting many many pictures. Next you hear from me, I will be out of America and on my big adventure!

-Kiah S.

Sentience

Good News!

As you may have already heard, I've been working on a book of poems. Now, it has finally finished publishing! The book is 20$ and can be found at the link on the top of my page. All the poems are original compositions with all the money going towards my exchange. Also, my payment deadline is on May 1st, so if you are interested to donate, now would be the time.

Thanks!
Kiah

Official Info

I got my big news! My host family information was just sent to me. I am going to be staying in a town called Korholanmaki in central Finland. I'll be living in the countryside as I had hoped. I will have two exchange brothers, one two years older than me, the other four years. The eldest is in the military but the younger will be living in the house. I will have my own room and two dogs also. The mother and the younger son speak English, so I won't be as hard pressed to learn the Finnish language instantly, but I still definitely will. They told me that it was -35C (about -30 Fahrenheit)and that they had 50cm (about 1 foot, 7 inches) of snow which is a light snowfall. It's going to be a crazy winter.

Hearing this news is phenomenal, It's really sinking in that I'll go on an exchange next year. It's going to be crazy not seeing anyone I know for a full year, but i know it will be amazing and hugely beneficial to me. All I need now is to accumulate the needed funds. I am working on getting a book of my poems published so keep an eye out for the post announcing that.

I also got pictures of my house, dogs and host father, so take a look!

Kiah

First of Many

Hello, My name is Kiah Saavedra and I am going on a foreign exchange to Finland starting in July. I will be gone for a full school year in a country across a great sea.

All my life I have dreamt of travel. In dreams, I have walked the road of Santiago and swam in the Nile. It has been a dream that has kept with me despite all my growing and changes. I always considered High School a stasis period to study before setting of into the world until my school adviser suggested a foreign exchange to me. It was one I couldn't shake. I have taken all the necessary measures to begin my first great adventure. I am a writer and a thinker and one thing I have learned is that the only way to truly expand either of those sides of me is through experience. I hope that this exchange will give me a unique outlook on the society I have been raised in and give me experiences that I couldn't find here in the U.S. My friends and family recognize me as a driven person and know that I have the resolve and will to make he most of my time abroad and stick through any difficulties I will face. I know my parents are proud of me and my friends excited for me. I have had to overcome many obstacles and jump through several hoops. My first and foremost challenge was convincing myself that is was something I could accomplish. I knew this is what I truly wanted and I persevered, knowing that the power rested in me alone to make this happen. I know that all obstacles in my way are ones I can pass through if I put my effort into them and it is something I have done, am doing and will continue to do.

I started this blog for several reasons. The first and foremost is that my final great wall to break down is my fund raising. The tuition for this trip is a large one at an estimated $9'500. Through my personal savings and scholarship awards, I have knocked $2'500 off already. I am hoping that through keeping this blog, I can tell people interested of any efforts I am making, be it benefit concerts, car washes or other of many ideas. I will have a way available to make donations directly to me and am working on publishing a book of my poetry. Every dollar I make will be put directly into my tuition and not used for anything else. I will continue to blog whilst abroad in Finland so anyone who wishes to can read about my adventure.
More details will come in time.

Sincerely,
Kiah Saavedra