The Summer of Sisu

It's only twenty-seven days until I'll depart on my trip Europe-bound, but who's counting, right? Pssh. Well, this summer, I will be spending seven weeks as an exchange student with a host family in a far-away place one would call Finland, or more authentically, Suomi. So, I guess I should share my story of how I got to this point.

Almost a year ago, a foreign exchange student from Switzerland who was attending my school wrote an article in the school newspaper about what it meant to her to be an exchange student in America. Immediately this caught my interest and at the very end of the article, she wrote about the foreign exchange organization she came to America with. Youth For Understanding, or YFU, was the organization and as soon as I could get my hands on a computer, I would be searching its website. While I was cruising around YFU's website, I came across the scholarships page. Bam. Scholarship at the top of the list: Finland US Youth Senate Exchange, which was a fully funded scholarship provided by the Finnish Government. I read through the criteria someone would have to meet to be able to attain this scholarship and I was eligible. So, I went out on a whim and applied.

This application...wow. It was long. But in the end so worth it. On March 22, I received a large white envelope from YFU. You can only guess what happened. I got the scholarship! Everything just felt so unreal that it didn't really hit me right away. For someone whose only travel abroad is Canada (exotic place, right?) this was my first opportunity to go overseas. And I wouldn't just be a tourist. I'd be living there just like I was a Finnish resident, learning the language and the culture first hand. I'm very into learning foreign languages and started learning Finnish on my own a few years ago, just because Finland seemed so interesting and unknown to the world. Now with all the Finnish I have learned, I will be able to put it to use finally!

So, here I sit starting this blog while I'm anxiously awaiting my departure. I'm calling this blog "The Summer of Sisu" because it will be my summer full of the Finnish term 'sisu.' This can't be translated into English, but a nice translation of 'sisu' would be strength of will and perseverance in the face of adversity. It is the most important word explaining the Finnish culture and mindset. I'm calling this my summer of sisu because I'm going to have to push through the barrier of being the foreigner and really try to be a Finnish teenager. I will have some instances where there will be a cultural barrier but I will push through, even if it might be tough at times to defy the fact of me being the foreigner. But I know all will be well and this will be one the of things I will look back at later in my life, remembering all the great memories I will have made.

I'm so thankful for all of the people who have made getting this scholarship possible. I can't even begin to thank my family, friends, teachers at my school, the YFU staff, and the Finnish Senate enough for this once in a lifetime chance to be an exchange student.

And here my introduction comes to an end. I hope you will follow my trip this summer, and I hope I can bring my trip into your home as well as I can. I will post a lot of my pictures on both this blog and on a separate site. So be sure to follow my stories here and my pictures here. Näkemiin!