FUSYE Pre-Departure Orientation

Hi everyone! I'm currently writing this post on the flight to Rekjavik, Iceland where I will connect to my flight to Helsinki, Finland. I have been in D.C. since Wednesday, June 4th, at the FUSYE pre-departure orientation but with the busy (but amazing!) schedule I haven't really been able to blog. So here is what I've been doing for the past three days!

At 6:00 in the morning on Wednesday, June 4th, I woke up excited and nervous that I was about to take the first step in my Finland adventure. Although I should have been tired because I packed until 1:00 a.m. in the morning (not something I wouldbreclmmend!) the excitement of taking what would be my second flight alone to meet a group of intelligent and like-minded people kept me wide awake. During my car ride to the airport I was convinced that I had forgotten to pack something extremely important, no matter how many times I checked that my passport and wallet were still with me. I had never been away from home for more than 6 weeks so I wasn't completely sure what qualified as too much or too little. As I dragged my suitcase through the airport to check-in, I was pretty sure that I packed too much. I could barely lift my own suitcase onto the scale. I remember beginning to worry as the numbers on the scale quickly began to rise to 53 pounds: 3 pounds above the weight limit. I somehow managed to squeeze my clarinet books into the little space left in my carry-on bag and bring the weight of my suitcase down to 49 pounds. I guess I won't be shopping very much in Finland! After saying goodbye to my mother and father, I boarded my plane to Charlotte where I would be connecting to D.C. Although my flight was rather uneventful (the lady next to me moved after the first 10 minutes of the flight), I kept thinking and wondering what my fellow FUSYE students would be like and how I would introduce myself to the Finnish students from the FYAP program. However, soon after I found my gate in Charlotte I was greeted by a girl who had a YFU lanyard just like mine and was also headed to the FUSYE pre-departure orientation in D.C.! We immediately started talking and compared our lives in Alabama and New Hampshire. When we finally arrived in D.C. we were greeted by a very friendly YFU representative who we had already been in touch with via email ever since we started our applications. Shortly after we got our luggage, we took a shuttle to American University. Once we arrived, we met the 7 FUSYE students that had already arrived before us. I remember that everyone was gathered around a phone watching the Russian police sing "Got Lucky" by Daft Punk. Everyone introduced each other (all of the FUSYE students are really amazing) while we waited for the Finnish students and the remaining FUSYE students to arrive. Once everyone had arrived and introduced themselves we went to have a very "American" dinner with the FYAP students complete with pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, and any soda imaginable. The lunch room had one of those new soda machines where you can mix as many flavors as you want and have over 50 different choices. While these machines are still rare in America, they do not even exist in Finland. The FYAP students could hardly believe that such a machine existed and one girl even exclaimed that it felt "just like Christmas". Next, we played some "get to know you" games with the FYAP studebts, even though they were incredibly exhausted after a 10 hour flight from Finland to D.C. The Finnish students then went to another room while we got our first Finnish 101 lesson. Finnish is pretty difficult in some ways but also a bit easy in some ways. Of course the language is very difficult to learn and I'm still very proud of my vocabulary of 7 words, but for example Finnish doesn't have a gender for he or she. It's just hään which works for either he or she. After this short lesson, the Finnish students came back to help us with our projects that we would present to the YFU staff at the YFU headquarters. I was placed in a group with three other FUSYE students who also wrote about the extremely successful Finnish education system for their application essay. We asked the FYAP students a few questions about their school life (only 30 minutes of homework!) and ended up making a poster and preparing a short skit that compared three students:one from Asia, one from America, and one from Finland. Finally, we all went to sleep extremely exhausted from our long day. We all shared a room with one other student. My roommate was really great and talkative so we had fun comparing our home states Alabama and New Jersey as well as our expectations for Finland. 

The next morning we woke up at 6:30 to take the metro to the Capitol Building area where we would meet with the senators of our state, or a staffer or legislative assistant if the senators were unavailable. I met with a staffer and legislative assistant, both of which were very kind. Unfortunately, I was a bit nervous and awkward but it was a great experience. Next, we all took the bus to the Finnish Embassy. The Finnish Embassy definitely looks very different from the embassy's surrounding it. It has vines growing over it and the copper of the building has a greenish hue too it. The Finnish Embassy is the most "green" or eco-friendly embassy's and everything is given special attention in terms of its effect on the environment. All of the materials have to be made within a certain distance of the embassy, the temperature is always in the 70's, and of course everything is recycled. Each office is also required to have a window, which is enforced by Finnish law. In Finland, everyone has a window in their office and if they do not, they recieve a raise in pay. We practically spent all day at the embassy. We met the FYAP students there and did a countless number of activities that compared and contrasted our two cultures and stereotypes. We were also able to meet the Ambassador as well as the Chief Deputy who told us about what they do and how we can best represent our countries. We even had a dinner party at the embassy where we met the CEO of Youth For Understanding (the organization that placed us FUSYE and FYAP scholarship winners) and many other YFU workers that we had been in contact with for months since email. The dinner was very good and has many typical Finnish foods such as meatballs with lingonberry jam. The FYAP students were very nice and I talked a lot with them. We then took a nice 30 minute walk back to our dorms at American University and walked by some very nice Embassy's. I talked to one of my fellow FUSYE students and turns out she knows two of the people who are in my online course about Korean culture! We finally arrived back at American University and finished our projects before going to sleep.

On Friday I woke up with that same feeling of excitement and nervousness I felt on Wednesday: today I was leaving for Finland. But first we would do some sight seeing with the FYAP students. We walked around the Capitol area and saw the White House, The Lincoln Memorial, The Washington Monument, The Vietnam War Memorial, and the World War II memorial. After a lot of picture taking, we went to the National History Museum, or Smithsonian, for lunch. Unfortunately, the FYAP students had to leave for Colorado right after lunch. It was quite sad to say goodbye because it felt that we had just started to get to know what could be some of our best friends. However, we got to exchange our Facebook names and Instagrams so that we could keep in touch and maybe even meet up in Helsinki since they return home earlier than the FUSYE students. After saying our goodbyes we were able to tour the Smithsonian for an hour. Although I had been to the museum before, it was 8 years ago or so and I had not really understood anything in the museum. However, I had an amazing U.S. history teacher this year so it was great to see original items of famous people I has learned about all year (Nat Turner's Bible, one of the first copies of The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas, and the very first American flag). We then waited for the bus by eating ice cream under a tree in the park infrint of the Washington Monument. When we got on the bus I was touched by a letter that I found on my seat. It was a letter from the FYAP students, complete with pictures of typical Finnish things, saying how much they enjoyed their time with us. Next, we went to the YFU headquarters to meet with the YFU staff and present our presentations. Our presentations all went quite well, in my opinion, and I enjoyed seeing the presentations of my fellow FUSYE students. Finally, we left for the airport where we were met by two YFU representatives who would take us through security and make sure we made it onto the plane safely. I had some Chinese food before boarding the plane and eating, what I'm sure will be tasty, Finnish food for 6 weeks (Chinese food is very American, I know). I then boarded the plane and started the next chapter of my adventure.