NJing Zhu
Firstly I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to Ringwood and Fordingbridge club, my host family, and the local Finland Lion Clubs for offering me this amazing opportunity to Finland, this is my first-time travel alone to a non-English speaking country, it has been one of the best memories in my life.
The first 11 days, I was with my host family at Sastamala, although my host family parents don’t know much English, their daughter was very fluent at the everyday talk – therefore my google translator was never in use. After a few days of staying, I start to feel a strong bond with my host family, I was be able to understand them speaking Finnish without understanding actual Finnish words (a bit confusing… but Nina (host mom) was surprised when she’s taking pictures of us and telling me to raise my shoulder in Finnish and I immediately did it).
First day, after a welcoming dinner, we went to St Olaf’s Church near a beautiful lake for a walk around, I soon fall in love with this place, everything was so peaceful and pleasant (their grandma told them during the witch hunt period, anyone who acts abnormally would be pushed off from the top of the church).
My host family loves to go for a random short walk in the forest after work, we picked up some wild blueberries as we walk, Nina (host mom) was especially scared of snakes and frogs, she screams every time they are walking past which made the trip very energetic; we’ve also discovered some random things in the forest, e.g. random artwork on the woods, animal skull (don’t worry this area is safe).
• Finnish people do not have breakfast, lunch, and dinner; they eat whenever they felt hungry
• In the summer, every Finnish people would hike into the forest and have grilled sausage.
• Even though everybody knows everyone in the area, we would still try to avoid conversation. (unless they are drinking; except our grandma was very engaging at all time)
• Until 4 am, the sky was still clear blue, the sun never sets.
• Special Fin sweets called Salmiakki were literally everywhere. (my host family has kindly given me several different packs in case I miss Finland :)
• I tried a mix called the Kama, which was invented during the War time when food was scarce, it consists of a mix of different grains, it tastes very unique (tart and sour)
• I tried Mustamakkara, which I am still struggling to figure out whether I like it or not.
• They love strawberry, blueberry, and raspberry!
• Mosquitos were my biggest enemy, the second is wasps.
• Sauna is literally everywhere, on lakes, restaurants, home etc.
• The temperature was exceptionally hot!!! It remains 30 degrees throughout, they called any day above 25 degrees ‘Helle’, honest description.
• The terrain is relatively flat, rocky, and full of complex tree roots
• Swimming in lakes and Sauna afterwards was literally everyday essential activity.
• I met Mr Hakkarainen (Clutterbuck), a famous Finnish children’s book character who always sleepwalking in children’s bedtime story, it takes time to try to spot him on each page!
• We randomly stopped our car to watch the ‘blood moon’, after a few mosquito bites, we finally got a decent picture. Beautiful and worth it!
• My host family has a legendary dog called Milo, who accidentally ate 19 chocolate bars and managed to survive, no one believes it at the time until vet approves
Then I arrived at my camp at Kisakallio Sports Institute for another 10 days, it was a huge sports training centre located at South of Finland, they offer 200+ different sports including Finland National Basketball training centre (Susi). I have been allocated into the three-person room, one of my roommates Rio (from Japan) shares the same birthday with me and she has been to Salisbury a few years ago, the world never felt so small! Also, Max from Slovakia is doing his Gold DofE, we have a lot to talk about since I did my Bronze two years ago. Overall it was fantastic, and I’ve made lots of lifetime friends. Also lots of tears during the last two days, we stayed up every night and trying to enjoy every hour when the time is ticking away.
Our camp has 36 people came from 21 different countries, everybody was extremely engaging, active, and warm to everyone, most of the days we were trying out different sports as our daily schedules where everybody must participate, activities such as Finnish baseball (Finland’s national sport), air-rifle shooting, Kin-ball, curling, elephant football and camping etc. We eat four times a day (buffet), most of the night we played beach volleyballs where I have found my best position of been a scorekeeper, every volleyball night was so relaxingly vigorous!!!
During our free time, we also loved to play card games such as ‘Donkey-we invented this name’, ‘slap’, especially during ‘2,7 and 10’, we have ‘Mattai tactic’ invented by our lovely Deutschland boy Mattai, sometimes it works. In addition, we have several tea parties at midnights hosted by our Tea Master, Tommaso, (entitled to include this). In addition, Chris from Belarus loves our British culture, he keenly asked me if he can have my British flag by the end of the camp. Also, Guitar and drums were played as background music throughout.
Our camp also visits kindergarten (nursery school) at Lohja as a part of our duty to contribute to the local community, where we have joined them and learned a key song called ‘Banani Monica’ (‘Hello Banana’ with an arm cured like a banana). We then split into small teams, taught them some simple origami and give-away some paper cranes, their smiles have truly melted my heart.
Here’s the local newspaper article about our visit to Lohja: https://www.lansi-uusimaa.fi/artikkeli/691030-leijonanuorten-lohja-paiva-ojaniitulla-paivakodinjohtaja-leikit-onnistuvat-ilman
Our lions FB group: Nordic Lions Adventure Camp 2018 https://www.facebook.com/groups/280609679171235/
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 \ |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
