Our Exchange Experience in Laukaa, Finland

In November and December 2019, we had the opportunity of a lifetime to visit Laukaa, Finland for a 6-week exchange program. Heading off for our long journey, we left the warm summer days in Tasmania, Australia and replaced them with cold snowy ones in Finland! Whilst in Finland, we were able to experience many new things– some of the highlights included ice skating, playing ice hockey, hiking, enjoying the snow and of course trying lots of new food! Our personal favourite Finnish food and drinks were Fazer chocolate, Panda liquorice, glögi, rye bread and joulutorttu. We were very impressed that Laukaan Lukio provides great food for school lunches – in Australia, we have to make and bring food for ourselves! The Finnish school system was very interesting and we greatly enjoyed being able to experience it firsthand! We were so impressed that everyone can speak English so well considering it is not even your first language! We also loved being able to learn Finnish. Although it was a lot harder than expected and we don’t have much use for it back in Australia, the experience will certainly never be forgotten and created many funny moments along the way.

Experiencing a white Christmas for the first time was one of the most magical moments of our trip. It was definitely a change from our hot Christmas days which we often spend at the beach!

Overall, we had the most amazing trip and loved every minute. We’d like to express our sincerest gratitude to everyone who made this trip possible and those who greeted us with warm welcomes. We hope more students from Laukaan Lukio will one day have the opportunity to participate in this exchange program and visit Australia as well!

Holly Grainger and Tess Hanlon

St Michael’s Collegiate School, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.