koulu

that means school.

but the school i'm attending is actually referred to as a lukio.

Finland is not this foggy, my host father just didn't have his contacts in yet.

I was a bit terrified about my first day of school here, because I've heard so many things about Finnish people's recalcitrance around strangers. The language camp even suggested using a clever ruse to get conversation started - purposely spell a Finnish phrase incorrectly, then go ask whoever you want to talk to for help. This sounds like an inept pity ploy to me, but who knows? Maybe the Finns really like dumb Americans who don't know how to use a Finnish dictionary. (Luckily, it has not yet been necessary for me to exemplify cultural stereotypes.)

I biked in early this morning to set up my school schedule...the Finnish education is number one in the world and all, but their scheduling system is massively confusing, and all written out by hand (for me, anyway). Eventually I worked it out so that I'm taking Music Appreciation, Art, Sport, French and an advanced English discussion class. Classes are 75 minutes long, with quarter-hour breaks in between each. Today, the breaks were painfully long, but I am confident that they will shorten when people stare at me less and talk to me more.

The music class was so full that I had to sit on an extra piano bench. We seemed to be learning how to sight-sing. I can already do that, but not in Finnish.

In art I have an assignment - to create a small project denoting the most important place in the school. Art, like many things in Finland, is rather liberal: the teacher suggested that I find pieces of trash in the street and arrange them artistically in the school, or have someone take a picture of me sleeping on the school floor. Since at that point, I'd been at the school less than three hours, I spent most of the class talking to a girl who had been best friends with last year's American exchange student. Contrary to popular belief, some Finns actually do talk to you first.

I'm taking a third-year French course, so I already know all the French, and can focus on translating back into Finnish. For some reason, I never thought about how people in other countries don't go from English to French, but learn from their own language. Random piece of culture-centrism.

For lunch, I met up with some girls who had been assigned to me (hey, in the staring traffic-jam halls I'll take all the "friends" I can get) and we made awkward small talk about my hobbies and pets while in line for our potatoes, rye bread and meatballs. Since I am still a novelty, they didn't seem to mind, but it's pretty obvious to me...I have to learn Finnish fast. As an exchange student, people want to talk to you, but not if they have translate every word.

As to the Finnish teenagers themselves...well, H&M is obviously their temple of worship. There

is an inordinate number of blonde heads swirling through the halls. I have never seen so many cinched-leg sweatpants in one place, either. Also, those Zoppini bracelets that everyone had around 7th grade? All the rage. Collectively, they could be champions of staring contests worldwide. The people I have talked to say that this is just because the majority are shy and wish they could talk to me... but it feels like I'm wearing a scarlet F for foreigner. The kids at my high school work a lot, too: there are study areas everywhere in school, and they're actually used. Even from a total outsider's perspective, they are definitely the same species as the American teenager - though with less making out in the hallways.

hey, I'm not complaining.