WHY YOU SHOULD BECOME AN EXCHANGE STUDENT Dear O’Times readers, our exchange year is coming to an end, and we are now here to tell you about our experienAS MANY OF YOU KNOW, we arrived in Finland in August 2021, without knowing anything about Finnish and your culture. Starting a new life here, however, wasn’t that easy. We struggled to make friends at school, especially because of the language barrier. But after all our struggles, we are now very happy with the life we have created in Helsinki. You may wonder why we decided to become exchange students. Living abroad, leaving your family, your friends and your city to go to anot- Our group of exchange students her country that you don’t know anything about: is it all worth it? In our Of course, it wasn’t always easy: we had to put a lot of effort into everyopinion, yes, it is worth it. thing we wanted to do. We had to Of course, leaving was a little bit sca- take risks and put ourselves in the ry and sad, but we were extremely game, because it was the only way excited and anxious to start this new to find our places here. adventure.
Emma with her host family
There are several reasons why you should consider doing an exchange year. Getting to know a new language and a new culture for example. When you arrive in your host country, you start learning its habits and customs and, without even noticing, you start to use them like a native. For example, we tried salmiakki for the first time and now we can’t live without it. We always have a pack of salmiakki with us, just in case we need it. You also get to have another family in another part of the world. Living with a host family is very challenging. At the beginning it can be weird because you don’t know each other. But after a while you’ll start to get more and more involved in the family activities until you become an active member of it! At the end of the exchange year, you’ll feel that your host family is like your second family, and you’ll miss them as much as you missed your family when you
