A world of new experiences, travel and self-discovery, for this is the year I partook in the Rotary Youth Exchange program, the year that I lived in Finland.

2020. This year meant different things for everybody. It was the year of a worldwide pandemic, a year of staying home and avoiding others. It was certainly not what we were all expecting as we waited for the clock to tick over to midnight on that New Year’s Eve night in 2019. Interestingly however, for me this year meant a world of new experiences, travel and self-discovery, for this is the year I partook in the Rotary Youth Exchange program, the year that I lived in Finland.

For Finland, this year was strange right from the beginning, before Covid-19 even arrived. The 2019/2020 winter season was the warmest ever been, with no snow in southern Finland. Straight from the airport we were sent to a small town called Karkku close to Tampere where we had a week-long orientation camp where we learnt the basics of the infamously difficult Finnish language and also some cultural differences, such as in Finland people do not engage in small talk, about Finnish sauna culture and we were able to go swimming in freezing temperatures.

The first 2 months of my year were what you’d expect from a normal exchange year, meeting my host family, going to Rotary club meetings, hanging out with friends, attending school and discovering this new Finnish culture and lifestyle. I instantly fell in love with the country and the culture and I became really close with my first host family and exchange student friends. I was super impressed with the school system in Finland, high school there was much more like university, students had a lot more freedom in their schedule, what time they came and what they studied, and there were no such mandatory uniforms. Every student also receives a free hot meal every day!

On March 13th this was all about to change. The country went into lockdown, schools, museums, restaurants, everything closed. Supermarkets were empty and many of my exchange student friends were sent home. I became the only exchange student left at my school and taking online classes as an exchange student when you are still getting to know the language is pretty difficult, but by the end of my year I was able to speak basic Finnish. At first, it was a little lonely, and frustrating knowing that you’ve come on an exchange year and are now spending all your time at home but I spent my time getting closer with my host family, studying and exploring every inch of my host town, Klaukkala with my host dog, with my favourite places during this lockdown period being the top of the ski hill, and the many walking tracks leading through the forests.

Fast forward a few months into summer and the things began opening again. By June everything it seemed had reopened and although with some restrictions surrounding the number of people and social distancing it seemed life was pretty back to normal. Before summer holidays I had only around a month of school total so I didn’t have many Finnish friends to meet during summer, but I am super grateful for my 2nd host family taking me up North on a sort of Finland tour, so I could see many beautiful cities and towns in Finlands new summer colours, suddenly the country was no longer cold and grey, but colourful and hot. I was able to go up to Tampere, Pohjanmaa, Vaasa, Kalajoki, Oulu, Rovaniemi and Kuusamo. During this time, I was also fortunate enough to be able to visit Santa’s Village above the Arctic Circle and see the man himself, and I was also able to experience the summer midnight sun, since during summer in Finland it does not become dark.

During this summer period I was fortunate enough to have been able to take a ferry over the Baltic sea to another country, Estonia and stay a night in Tallinn. Before going there, I had not heard anything about Estonia, but its capital city Tallinn is one of the most interesting places I have been to. The city is very old- from medieval times and it was a lot of fun to explore the sights and castles and experience a night in another country.

For two months after summer, I was able to attend school again but then the country went into another lockdown. This time was much harder since I was just beginning to make new Finnish friends and I knew my exchange year was almost coming to an end. When people talk about exchange a topic that is usually glossed over is the hard times, although in my opinion it is just as important to share these. It was around this time I was beginning to struggle a little with my mental health, having gone back into lockdown and not being able to go places again, it brought some old feelings back up. It seemed for a while like my exchange had come to an unexpected and uninvited abrupt end, like it was all over. However, with the help of professionals and my school and rotary support systems I was able to realise that I needed further help when I go home to Australia and I made sure to spend the rest of my exchange making the most of it and do as much as I can.

With this new free time, I had with my school being online, I made multiple trips to visit exchange friends (safely of course, masks and social distancing) in some other towns, Kouvola, Sipoo and Tampere and to Turku to catch up with District 9570’s past exchange student Erika Holm.

And finally, the highlight of my exchange year has to be making a final trip to Lapland over Christmas break with my fourth host family. Since southern Finland did not receive a proper winter that year, and our rotary planned trip to Lapland was cancelled, they offered to take me with them to experience real cold and a white winter. During the week I spent there in Äkäslompolo the coldest it went down to was almost -30 and I was able to experience (accidentally) having frozen hair. There was over half a metre of snow in some places and to see everything white and peaceful was surreal and really quite beautiful.

My 2020 has definitely not been what I would have expected at all. If you had’ve told me a few years ago that I would’ve spent my 16th year in Finland during a global pandemic I probably would have thought you were mad! However, the year was still the best year of my life and I would love to come back to this beautiful country when the world has had time to heal. As I am writing this, I am in hotel quarantine in Sydney and looking forward to coming home and seeing my family and friends again, and of course catching up with my Sponsor club, Discovery Coast Rotary.

Gemma Nicol