The End

I have been home a week now and a day hasn't gone by when I have thought about my time in Finland. It was without a doubt the craziest, most intense and maybe even the best time of my life. I met so many people - I knew at least 100 by name and counted most of them among my friends. I had no idea that things on exchange would be so good. Before going to Finland I feared I had made a huge mistake and would be stuck in a freezing country all alone for five months. Instead I did things I've never dreamed of, met some of the nicest people I've ever known and simply had an enormous amount of fun.

Many people signed my flag with farewell messages

So many great things happened in Finland. I went on three cottage weekends. I went camping. I tried the sauna for the first time. I went to Estonia. I went to Lapland. I went to Sweden. I even went to Russia of all places. I've seen the sun set at 10pm in the summer and 2pm in the winter. I've drunk in a bar made of ice, eaten reindeer and learnt to eat squid with chopsticks. I sang karaoke in a taxi, passed out on a cruise ship and built an igloo.

Some of the Erasmus Intensive Language Course group, August 2006

I was trying to think of my favourite moment in Finland, but there are far too many. Instead, here are some of the most memorable:

• Lying on the roof of a summer cottage, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by forest, listening to the sound of wolves howling in the distance
• Running out of a traditional wood-fired sauna and jumping in the Baltic Sea, while it was snowing
• Sitting on the edge of a jetty out in a lake at night with a friend, gazing at the stars
• Climbing to the top of a hill I discovered in Leppavaara, watching over the whole town as the sun set
• After our bus suddenly stopped, looking out the window and seeing my first wild reindeer walk across the snow-covered road right in front of us, in Lapland
  
  

Evtek exchange student group, Autumn 2006

And how did Finland affect me?

• England now feels warm
• I cannot get drunk on beer any more
• My English actually got worse
• ...but my Finnish is considerably better than before I left!
• Every Thursday I get an urge to go to Onnela for happy hour
• I consider it normal to get away with not buying a ticket when travelling on a train or tram
• I can now swear in a wide variety of different languages
• I am now addicted to coffee (Finns are the world's biggest drinkers)
  
• I get confused when crossing the street, trying to remember which side of the road cars drive on
  
  

Most importantly of all, I'd like to thank all the wonderful people who made my time in Finland so special. It was magic guys. You will not be forgotten!

So to sum up, how best to describe my Erasmus exchange in Finland? In the words of one friend...it was erasmic.

Thanks for reading!

David Allan,
December 2006