4-H YOUTH DEVELOPMENT EXCHANGE TO FINLAND Rachel McGovern

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1 4-H YOUTH DEVELOPMENT EXCHANGE TO FINLAND 2008 Rachel McGovern

2 Where I was in Finland Helsinki First Host Family in Haapajärvi Second Host Family in Ristijärvi and Oulu

3 I was in Finland for a total of eight weeks. Four weeks with one family on a diary farm and the last four weeks with a different family. My first family had eleven people living in one house (including me), five of which were small children ages 1,3,5,7, and 9. My second family, had three children, two sons (1 and 11 years) and a daughter. The daughter who is 19 was actually and IFYE exchange to Oregon last summer for eight weeks.

4 FIRST FAMILY

5 I had a great time on working on the Dairy Farm, every afternoon around 4 pm we would leave to go and milk the cows. I got to help and I loved every minute of it. In this picture I was cleaning off the cow getting her ready for milking.

6 My host Mom, Tiina, feeding a calf that was just born The sign to their Dairy Farm

7 My host sister Iita called me Ratzel instead of Rachel One of my host brothers, Otto, and I arguing who was going to be the first one to dive into the freezing lake in our back yard In the photo above I am standing on a famous bridge right out side of Haapajärvi

8 The youngest child, Tenho, making a funny face while eating his breakfast To the photo on the right are all of my host siblings Vilho(7), Otto(9), Elo(3), Iita(5), and Tenho(1)

9 To the right, my host family sitting around a fire roasting sausages by the lake in our back yard Above, the three year old, Elo, riding a toy tractor while his dad was driving the big tractor in the background One of our three dogs, Pikku, watching the house

10 Above is a beautiful picture of a reflection on a lake Below, the sun is peaking around the bush and shining off the lake in our backyard

11 Below is the first president of Finland's childhood home. It was made into a museum and it still had all of the original siding and furniture inside. Above is a picture of our front door. It was a pretty small house for the 11 of us to live it but it all worked out great

12 To the right is a picture of the local church. Surrounding the church is a graveyard with many war veterans and people that lived there To the left is a picture of a very famous bridge right outside of Haapajärvi where I was staying

13 SECOND FAMILY

14 My second host mom was the town 4H leader and so one day I visited her in her office to see what she did. While there I meet many other important people that were involved in the 4H program. I learned all about mushrooms and went out hunting mushrooms as a project. I never know how many different types there were and how to tell them apart.

15 I had the honor and privilege to take my host sister s, Annika, graduation picture The youngest son Vertti, eating a chocolate treat.

16 To the right is our family cat Mirri. Above is a picture of one of my host sister s gerbils. I love watching them run around the cage and play. To the left is a picture of me hunting mushrooms. Sadly it was the wrong kind and we had to through it out

17 My host brother Hannas(11). Him and I were always joking around and laughing Annika(19) and Vertti(1) are picking wild blueberries in the forest behind their house

18 Above is a cool picture of a bug on wheat. I was visiting our family s farmland and was able to help out a little bit too This is a red gooseberry, I had never had one before I visited their farmland where they grew, harvested, and sold gooseberries. The Finnish people eat tons of these berries all the time

19 Finland has tons of lakes and rivers thought the country and so as you can guess fishing is a normal occurrence. We never caught any big fish that we could eat so we would just throw them back in.

20 When the sun starts to set on the lake it is simply breath-taking. It is so beautiful seeing the sun setting behind the mountains and seeing all of the wonderful colors and the reflection in the lake.

21 The sauna is a very important part of the life of a Finnish person. The saunas are build into the house and are used almost everyday. My family went to the sauna daily. Finnish people love to make the sauna really hot. Somewhere between F is the normal temperature. At first it feels like you are going to burst into flames at any moment but after a few times you learn to enjoy the heat. When you toss water on the heater for steam, it feels like your face and ears are burning however if you can get past the burning feeling, the sauna is amazing. I love the sauna and I wish that I also had one in my home.

22 My trip to Finland was amazing and I am so happy that I was chosen to go on this exchange program. I met so many great people and made some great friends. I keep in contact with both of my host families and one day I will return to Finland and visit them. If you ever get the chance to go on an exchange program I would definitely take the opportunity to learn more about our world and how different we can be, but at the same time you can see how similar we are. By going to a different country you can really open your eyes to the world as a whole not just the part that you are familiar with.