Day 1: Arrival in Washington

Hello everyone,

I apologize that it has been so long since I posted something! There was no wifi at American University or on the airplane, so it took some time to get another post up. Anyways, I'm currently at my temporary host family's house because my regular host family lives too far away from Helsinki for me to partake in the FUSYE activities in the capital. Sanni (the host daughter) and Jaana Toppari (host mother) are extremely welcoming, compassionate, and warm people!

Anyways, I left my house in Cupertino at 4:30 in the morning. As my mother drove to SFO, I made sure to drink in the sights that I would not be able to see again for 6 weeks. I appreciated the quiet stillness and tranquility of the highway so early in the morning; I've grown accustomed to traveling on this particular highway especially since I did the World Affairs Council summer institute all throughout last summer, but there was something different about traversing the highway in the darkness and mysteriousness of the night. 

Because of the nonexistent traffic, we arrived at SFO at 5:05, which was about 30 minutes before my boarding time. After dropping me off at the departure gate, I used the e-ticket machine to print out my boarding passes (so efficient and convenient!) and lined up for security check. Saying my last “goodbye” to my mother, I marched off in search of Gate 66, which was the gate to Dulles International Airport. Boarding began as soon as I arrived, so luckily I did not have to lounge around the Gate for too long.

My seat in the plane was 22F (a window seat, thankfully) and I sat next to an elderly couple going to South Africa! The flight was over 5 hours, but I slept through most of it. Before long, I heard the flight attendants tell me to put my seat back in upright position because we were descending!

Before leaving the airplane, the elderly couple wished me good luck in Finland and I found my YFU representative waiting for me at the end of the walkway. together we found the red-shirted orientation staff, Katie Russell (who is coincidentally my YFU representative,  the person who admitted me into the program in the first place!) I thanked her profusely for the opportunity of a lifetime.

I was one of the last FUSYE scholars to arrive in Washington, but coincidentally, the group of Finnish students on the Finland Youth Ambassador Program also arrived at the same time as me, so I was able to interact with many of them on the 30 minute shuttle ride to American University. Finnish people are so polite and humorous-  Some of them even joked that the bus was like a moving sauna.

I felt ashamed that most of them could speak nearly perfect English, and I could not speak a word of Finnish. Because of the jetlag and inherent Finnish-ness of the Finns, I was pleasantly surprised by how enthusiastic everyone was to be in America!

 At American University, we were assigned to live in Anderson Hall. My roommate had already arrived 2 hours before me, so she had claimed the innermost bed. 

 Anderson Hall (and some Finnish students)

I settled down, laying out my formal clothes for tomorrow and went across the hall to the lounge, where most of the FUSYE scholars had already congregated. Everyone is, for lack of better words, awesome and cool!! I met Vincent (from Alabama), Elizabeth B. (from Kentucky), Elizabeth Y. (from Nebraska), Michael (from NJ), Ivy (Nevada), Kimberly (Michigan), Will (Michigan), Fabian (Texas), Caroline (North Carolina), Anna (Illinois), and Emma (New Hampshire). A while ago, I already met the two Elizabeths, Michael, Will, and Ivy through the Facebook group, but it was so wonderful to meet them in face! All the other 11 students are amazingly intelligent and just as enthusiastic to be Finland US Senate Youth Exchange scholars!

Together with the Finnish students, we toured the campus of American University, which is very beautiful! My favorite thing about AU is the fact that it's at the end of the famous Embassy Row- where all the foreign embassies are located. There were animal statues all throughout the campus, such as pandas and colorful zebras, which the FInnish students found very funny. I also spotted the Elephant and Donkey statues, which represent the two American political systems, Republican and Democratic- of course American University in Washington DC would have these statues! 

The beautiful American University! 

After dinner at the American University dining hall, the Finnish and American students traveled to a classroom in one of the lecture halls at AU. Our first task was a game called Common Ground, where we gathered in a large circle and one student would be in the middle. The person in the middle would say I share common ground with people who_____. For example, "I share common ground with people who enjoy watching basketball." And then everyone outside the circle who shares that common ground would move into another position. There would always be one person who didn't have a position, and they would start of the next "I share common ground with people who_______."

The purpose of this game was to forge lasting relationships and bridge superficial divides between people from different countries. Despite cultural differences, there were still many aspects of life that we shared in common. 

Then, the Finnish and American students branched off to partake in separate activities. From Satu Muja, our Finnish orientation leader, we held a "Finnish 101" course, learning basic Finnish pronunciation and words. The Finnish language is endlessly beautiful, so elegant and graceful. I loved feeling the words leaping and dancing across my tongue, and it was especially fun fluttering out the rolling "r" sound for the first time in language. Olen Amerikkalainen! Ole hyvaa! Kiitos paljon! Hyvaa Ilta! Hyvaa huomenta! So why is Finnish so difficult? There are 15 grammatical cases, as opposed to English's 2! 

We also were assigned "Presentation Groups" after the language lesson, which were assigned based on scholarship essay topics. There were four groups in total- 2 focusing on Finnish education, 1 focusing on culture/arts/dance, and mine focused on the environment&society. Michael and Ivy were in my group, and we decided to present our information in the form of a journalism broadcast.

Afterwards, Anna (my roommate) and I trudged upstairs to room 458 to get ready for bed, because lights-out was at 10:45 PM. We ended up talking a lot about where we're from (she's from the Chicago suburbs) and discussing the differences between our schools and communities.