Learning

Here comes part two of my blog writing assignment.

I suppose every exchange student learns a lot related to culture, both the new one you have to face during your year, and also the one you used to live with before and have to readjust to.
For me, the most concrete thing I learned in Hungary was the Hungarian language but that is certainly not all there was. At some point I began to realize that the Finnish way of doing things is definitely not the only and often not the best way.
One of the most visible everyday things that I think we Finns have not really gotten the hang of is MANNERS. Compared to not only Hungarians but many the other nationalities, too, Finns suffer from a serious lack of manners. Of course, I'm doing a bit of generalizing here, BUT, I really think many of us would benefit from seeing how they handle social situations elsewhere. I'm not talking about huge differences here but about some small gestures that could really brighten everyone's day, like opening doors for other people, for instance. Yes, it might be a bit dated to think that boys should always open doors for girls and let them go first, but that's not even the way they do it. I think anyone can open a door and be polite for anyone, regardless of gender, and I believe this is the opinion of a few other people besides me.
So, this is the nice way of acting when it comes to going through doors. Then, there is the Finnish way which basically includes desperately trying to be the first one to get out or in. In addition to this, the Finnish way sometimes features the act of slamming the door onto the next persons face. I mean, let's face it, we are all too busy to hold doors for people we don't know.

Enough with the doors, now. I'm not saying that everyone in Finland is rude and has no manners, that's not the case at all. What I'm trying to say is, we may have some things to learn and work on, like this matter of politeness, for instance. Needless to say, there are also many wonderful things in our culture that I missed while on exchange. Like our famous education system (and school food - really, nothing makes you appreciate Finnish school food more than eating in a Hungarian school cafeteria) and the fact that we are good at not saying too much and knowing when to keep quiet.

In conclusion, traveling and getting to know other cultures makes you think about your own culture too. Having contact with foreign people makes your point of view so much wider!

See the world, it makes you happy!

Leaving

Looks like I got myself together and started writing again. On one hand, this is a part of the blog-writing assignment of my English course, but on the other hand, it really feels reasonable for me to write about the last moments of my exchange year now when it's not too difficult to think about it anymore. Also, the fact that I'm writing in English makes this understandable for all my friends :)

I suppose this one will be more of an emotional post than a check-in with nice pictures.

There was never a bucket list for my exchange. Sometime during April or May I realised how fast time had gone and how there were still many things I would've wanted to do. Therefore, I decided to make my last months count. They did turn out to be the best months of the exchange, maybe even the best ones I'd ever had. Still, they came to an end.

Prague trip, one of the best memories I have

It's been four and a half months since I arrived home. My Finnish home, that is. I didn't fly home straight from Budapest, but spent a week in the YES seminar with all the European YFU students in Germany. Before leaving for YES, going home seemed like the utmost difficult thing to do. Saying goodbye to my friends and host-family made me cry like never before.
The sad thing wasn't not seeing them again, because I knew I would come back on autumn holiday (like I did), but knowing that it would never be the same again. We would never have the same group of exchange students in Budapest, I would never be my ex-classmates' classmate and I would never actually live at my host-family's house again. One thing won't change, though, and that's the city. I can always go back to Budapest and Budapest will be there waiting for me.
The week in Germany felt quite long. In fact, at the time I felt like I would've rather gone straight home to Finland. I had to leave my host country anyway, so being in the middle of my two homes felt pretty meaningless. Now, afterwards, I think going straight from Budapest to Helsinki would've been a big crash. The time spent on the camp was a time for me to really prepare myself for the upcoming challenge of going back home. It was also the last chance to spend time with the European exchange students who were in Hungary.

So, leaving my host country was way harder than leaving my original home country. I would've never thought that it would be so, but it is pretty common amongst exchange students, I guess.

Readjusting to the Finnish culture was tricky but it's something I will write about some other time.