ERASMUS EXCHANGE STUDENT FEEDBACK

Grant Money?

The amount of 336€ donated by the Erasmus program is necessary, I spent about 500€ in total during the trip wich amounts to 200€ for my family spent for 2 months of travel, a very small amount.

I think that the granted money was the good amount. I've spent all the Erasmus money two weeks before the end of the trip.

The grant money (336€) was fully used, I also had to make some additional purchases but nothing too excessive. I think the amount given to us was sufficient.

Host family rooms/houses?

I had a bedroom with a desk, a printer, a wardrobe and all the necessary space to work. My host family's house was beautiful and spacious, with a sauna, I really have nothing to complain about!

I must admit that It took some time to accommodate with my hosts´ smaller house. Since I succeeded seeing through it though, it was okay. My host family was extremely kind and present. They made me go and do everything and even more I wanted to do and go, and I can only be thankful for it.

The house was very beautiful and big. My room was large with a desk for work and a closet with enough space to store all my belongings. It is a very pleasant place to stay for two months.

Meals/food?

The meals were good and varied.

I have nothing to say about this subjects, except that i've eaten only good food, very diversified. I've eaten also way too much.

Nothing to say about the food except that it was really good. I still wish I could have tasted more traditional dishes.

Clothes?

My host family lent me clothes when did activities like skiing or skating, they had all the necessary equipment. I brought enough warm clothes so I didn't had any problems with cold temperatures.

I think I brought here the good amount of clothes, which let me have a little diversification of the clothing I put on, without having too much. My hosts having given me a jacket and gloves and beanie when it was really cold, i've always had enough to survive Finnish weather.

I bought my own clothes in France just before coming in Finland and once there I bought boots too. My host family also gave me gloves and socks and that was enough.

Finnish People?

We had some integration problems at the beginning at school because the Finnish students were very shy and not very open to talking with us, but during the stay we met very friendly and talkative students who taught us a lot about their country. The Finns are a little shy in general, and they are reserved, don't talk about themselves and won't try to learn more about you neither. But my host family were really kind and caring with me, so the trip was very pleasant to live!

I've been really surprised by finnish people. Without saying they have bad intention or they are mean, at the opposite, they are very kind and polite, i've been startled by how nobody try to speak with you. I'm very sad that I didn't make real friend that I will miss in Reunion, though I tried.

We noticed that the Finns are a little shy and introverted, so our adaptation to school with the other students was a little difficult at first but once we get to know them, they are really nice and welcoming.

Finnish customs/habits?

The Finns eat a lot of times a day ! It's very funny, but as I was not used to it, I had to refuse to eat a lot of times. They also go naked in the saunas ! It is not in our tradition to be naked in front of strangers, so I couldn't go to the public saunas where swimsuits are forbidden.

I've been surprised by some habits here, like for example the TV habits : everyone seem to watch all the time the TV, from waking up to going to bed. Second thing I was surprised is the different meals finnish people have and how they take it. First of all, they take 4 different meal, (the last one I finished not to take it anymore). Secondly, they almost never take the meals together, or they do not wait for everyone to have finished before leaving the table, which is so different from French Culture. But I like how much the Christmas habits are important here, and how we start talking about it at the beginning of november.

The fact that Finns go naked in saunas even in front of strangers seemed very strange to me ! It's the custom that marked me the most!

Freetime Activities?

We did a lot of activities in our free time : horse riding, climbing, going out with our friends, billiards, bowling, skiing, skating, shopping, walking in the forest, etc... It was awesome !

I've been enjoying a lot freetime activities. Indeed, I have been going out to town almost every evening, thanks to the devotion of Saku. During the holidays and weekend, my family also brought me to so many different places, and, being a very enthusiastic and active teenager, i've never felt bored !

In our free time, we did so many activities, and I was so happy because for some of them it was the first time I did it as a horseback riding, climbing, billiards, ice skating and so many others !

Finnish Language?

Finnish is a very pretty language, which seems complicated to learn. However, we have learned to count, to tell the time and some basic vocabulary words like mother or cheese.

I've been learning pretty much Finnish language. Maybe a little bit less than expecting, but the fact that I was every day talking to french people, I wasn't that much enveloped by finnish speaker, so I think it may have braked me from learning. I think it's also the place to add it, i've beeb agreeably surprised by how finnish people tried to speak english with me when I was alone in a group of finnish people. (For example when I tried to go to a theater class with Saku, every body was trying to speak english)

Finnish language is really hard but we've been able to learn some words.

Schedule/Lessons/Tests?

We were able to change our timetable to make it the best for us so the schedules were perfect. The lessons were very interesting, the Finns have a more relaxed and human approach in the way they teach students. We didn't have to do any finnish test because we had already our Reunionese test to catch up.

This is one amazing point, every teacher understood the amount of work we had and that we couldn't assist to a lot of classes or lessons. Tiina, as all the teachers, were totally comprehensive. However, the fact that we needed to work a lot from home just the three of us made us being not really integrated in Laanila High School. Again, none of us made real friends.

Our schedule was reduced so that we could catch up on our Reunion courses and if we needed more time to do so we could miss courses, which was very useful to us. The lessons we attended were mainly English simply because attending the other courses was complicated because we don't speak Finnish. We still took classes in sports, physics and music and the teachers took the time to translate, what was very much appreciated. We didn't do any tests because we already had those from Reunion Island.

Anything else you'd like to comment?

This was a really good trip that made us learn so much about ourselves, about Finnish country, about life I'd say. This type of exchange has to continue, because everyone should have a chance to live that. Thank you for making me able to live that !