Good afternoon everybody!

Apparently you are all enjoying your stay abroad and it is very nice to hear (well, read actually)such news!

To be honest - and unfortunately - it is not exactly the same for me. I was really excited about discovering another city and beginning kind of a new life here. I even left before our last day at school! I knew it would not be easy every day and I had prepared myself to that. But actually it is worse than what I had imagined. Of course I remain optimistic and I will until the end, but I think it is important to tell the truth on this blog ...

The word that would represent Finland the best is "cold". Not only the weather can be described this way, also the Finnish people. But it seems that both the weather and the people look much better during the summer so I will have to come back here one day just to confirm this assertion.

My work at school became clearer this week. I have twelve hours of different French courses to assist and then I chose to attend about ten hours of English courses. The aim of my Comenius is to improve my English, isn't it? I will also have the opportunity to work at the primary school but nothing has been decided yet. During the French courses I usually show some Powerpoints about the subjects they are studying at that time. This week I presented the general things about Belgium and the more specific topic I had to spoke about was "household"!

Even if nobody speaks to me at school, I begin to feel at home there. I know how everything works, I try to accost as many teachers (or even students) as possible, and when I feel lonely I just read a book or listen to music!

Actually, everything would be quite fine if I had the chance to live in a residence with other students. But it is not the case. All my flatmates are workers, which means they are never present during the day and feel tired in the evening ... It is simply and totally inhuman and depressing. So after 3 weeks I decided to move out. The problem is that you must be linked to a university in Helsinki in order to have the right to lend a student's room ... So the only solution I have found is to "squat" some of my friends' livingroom!!! I miss some privacy as well as comfort but it is still much better than being on my own the whole time!

Anyway, I am still smiling and working as well as I can, so do not worry at all! It is just not as funny as I thought it would be and I am a bit disappointed. But I have two more months left to change that ... AND I WILL!

Take care and have fun!

Odile