By Kyle Goodall
Special to the Review
You know that feeling you get when you’re around that special someone? Or when you’re with your best friends and the first snow falls? I’ve had those butterflies all month. Not because I’m nervous or scared. I’m in love — with Finland.
My journey began last summer in Beijing, China where I met Riikka Tuomi. She and I became close friends on our Youth for Understanding exchange program, and she suggested that I come study in Finland. Three months ago, I called to tell her that I was accepted to Helsinki Summer School. She made preparations for me to stay with her family in Hyvink??, a forty-minute train ride from Helsinki, and there I was. I lived with her mom and dad and sister, Riina.
Right from the beginning, I was met warmly and taken in as part of the family. They were been so helpful and took such great care of me. I always looked forward to waking up. Riina is the older sister I’ve always wanted. Mom and Dad inspired me each day. Riikka always has creative input and we would hang out in the morning outside and bark at the birds together when no one else was around.
My school was about 56 kilometers away, and so I took the train each morning to go to class. I was one of 300 plus students studying at Helsinki Summer School (HSS), a joint effort between nine universities in the Helsinki area. It consists of a multinational student body, with representation from over 67 different countries.
I studied Developing Intercultural Competence in a class of 24 students. My classmates were from Germany, China, Russia, Norway, Austria, the Netherlands, and Finland. Going to school there was an intercultural experience in itself. There were only two other students from the United States, and I only saw them occasionally at HSS social program events.
Developing Intercultural Competence challenged me to become a more conscious global citizen by offering a critical analysis of culture and communication.
Everyone at Helsinki Summer School speaks English, but it was always a treat to listen to my classmates speak their own language. Outside of class, we often adventured in the city. My friend from Norway, Lars, and I often hit cafes after class.
There is so much to do and see in Helsinki. Every day was filled with surprises and the nightlife here is fun too. The internationals usually went out once or twice during the week to bars and clubs in Helsinki. The bar scene there is much cleaner and more respectable, I think.
Helsinki Summer School (HSS) experience is packed with opportunities to have fun with others from across the world. After getting to know the city, we also planned a lot of our own trips. One week, my friend from Holland, and I traveled outside of Helsinki to the old town of Porvoo. There we visited a magnificent cathedral, Viking ruins, and went camping on Pihlajasaari, a beautiful island off the coast of Helsinki in the Finnish Bay of the Baltic Sea.
My rich family experience at home in Hyvink?? has revealed a tremendous bit about Finnish culture. I am still struggling with the Finnish alphabet, but I have caught on to the Finnish ‘natural way of being.?
In Finland, silence and quietude are communicative practices, normal in social settings. This is a special kind of social practice, as it is considerate of others? privacy and allows one to be undisturbed in one’s thought. Olla omissa oloissaan (being disturbed in one’s thoughts) is important to one’s well being and is traditionally practiced.
For the future, I am considering the University of Helsinki, either the Master’s Degree program in Ethnic Relations, Cultural Diversity, and Integration, the MA program in Intercultural Encounters, or the MA degree program in Media and Global Communication. Since there is no tuition fee to study in Finland, perhaps I could study in two or three before considering a doctorate’s program somewhere else in the world.