Wait till the winter…

Ever since I came here people have been warning me about the winter, the darkness and the cold. Everyone has been repeatedly saying –“wait till the winter…”, “it’s not even cold yet”, “in December it just gets worse..” etc. And because of that I was really afraid of spending those months (November and December) here in Finland.

But now we have are already passed the first half of December and I still don’t see anything getting worse. Okay it gets dark when it’s not even 17:00 and yes, sometimes you just feel more tired than you normally would, but you also have really good stuff like the snow (even if it doesn’t last a whole day). In addition, because of Christmas you have these special foods (or desserts) and these parties where you get food and Glögi, not to mention everyone is decorating their houses with a lot of lights making them look pretty.

On December Finns also celebrate the anniversary of independence and this year it was more a special date because a country doesn’t turn 100 years independent every day. We had the day off from school and I had dinner with my family at home but it wasn’t a normal one, this one was more special and fancy and the whole family was there, after eating we went to Helsinki to see how the buildings were lightened with the colors of the Finnish flag and of course we couldn’t have left without watching fireworks (which were so cool). Even though this was a nice day it was not as I expected or at least not what I am used to because when I think on an independence day I think of having he typical food at home (maybe the family reunited), going to hang out or partying with friends and then going to some square to the city center to see the representation of the main event (or the beginning of the  independence fight) and then enjoy the fireworks that light the sky at night.

I still have the next half of this month to experience the things that everyone have been warning me about, but for now I am glad to be here and I hope to keep feeling the same way till the end of my exchange time.

Originally written by Sofia Zamora