My experience in Finland

Winter in Finland
To begin with the nature, thus winter and its snow are the things which caught attention. I couldn’t believe my sight and feelings when I stepped down from plane at the Joensuu airport, really I was shocked by the sudden cold temperature I experienced and the layers of snow which were covering the earth which were bit slippery and irritate as l walking on it. At that moment wished if it was possible to reverse my journey to our country. To be honest, Finland is very cold place for me and it was not too easy for me to adjust to the situation. The other thing which caught my attention the sunrise and sunsets, thus I have experienced that the daylights are very short while the nights are long comparable to our country (Botswana) in the southern Africa. The sun rises late around eight o’clock in the morning and the sunset is early at around four o’clock in the late afternoon and while in spring the situation was vice versa with adjustment of an hour ahead of GMT. Of course there are thick, tall trees forest and the heaps and layers snow which gave the forest white colour sites amazed me when I arrived to Finland because I haven’t seen snow before and in Botswana, there are also no big forest lands, instead there are mainly shrub savannas in most areas and mountains at some places, with exception to the northern part of the country which have average tall trees.

The spring time
The arrival of spring enabled me to have chance to witness the beauty of the country thus the surface is green covered by the sprouting grass and the trees too are so green as the snows disappears with moderate sun shine.

The spring in also gave me the opportunity to see the ocean and enjoyed the sunshine and the moderate wind which was coming from ocean.

Finnish and their culture

Finland people are different from us in many respects include their behaviour, foods, entertainment, sport activities, sauna just to mention the few and the list is endless. In relation to behavioural wise, I learnt that the Finns are the quietest people, and it is difficult to figure out a person’s mood. Beside that Finnish people are living in a sparsely populated areas and preferably nuclear family with an average size of one to three children in a very big house which is hardy and rare into African family in general. In Botswana we mostly stay in extended family with closely neighbouring just harness the spirit of socialization and due to this, I find it difficult to practice my in born habits because I sometimes afraid of bothering people to talk rather I put my faith by dance to tune of silent tolerant. However, although the Finns are silent tolerant, they are also sound tolerant especially when they are drunk. Of course I also discovered that they are intrepid people to socialise with, respect others and friendly especially after you get to know each other and if you demand assistance.

Professional Excursion
The excursion lessons were important to my learning during my studying the NKUAS. The learning experience I achieved are of imperative to me as an agriculture teacher, since it gave me hands on experience which I could confidently impart knowledge to students on general agriculture practices with high technology for instance the milking robots, molecular breeding of cattle, organic farming style to mention a few. My experiences in different practices of agriculture is added advantage for job opportunity in the different fields of agriculture. In addition my experience could help in advocate for agriculture curriculum review on both vocational and higher secondary schools of Botswana to put in place the some of the practices I have learnt in Finland.

Finland a Place I stayed freely

It will be unfair to myself to report some serious kind of negative feelings during my stay in Finland, although I did sometimes felt missing my parents and friends and bad tastes of some foodstuffs, but its common habit when you are in foreign country. Truly speaking I would like to assure you that I stayed freely in Finland without any sign of racism. For instance on regular occasions on weekends, my student tutor , lecturer tutor and some classmates invited me to their family places and where normally felt and treated as their member of the family. Once more again I should appreciate to this exchange programme as it has increased my interpersonal skills, solidarity, abroad academic experience and of course networking friendship with European exchange students. Moreover I express a particular attention to Finnish people and once more I like would to acknowledge to those families I was invited to their families which gave me an opportunity to learn their culture close in the family orientation, for instance leaving your shoes and jackets by door when getting in the house. And to all Finns, thanks for unique culture and I like your phrase which says “movement in Finland is every man’s right” with reference to natures.