Finnish exchange student conquers Palermo
Hello fellow students around the world. It’s time to look for the main differences between the culture I’ve known all my life, the Finnish lifestyle and the culture I somewhat learned during my stay in Palermo, the Italian lifestyle.
Because Comenius is a schoolproject, I’ll start this monologue from that as well.My school here in Finland is very different from the one I visited in Italy, mainly because the system itself is different.
The Finnish schoolsystem lasts for 12 years before university, polytechnic or worklife and it’s divided in 3 sections, comprehensive school lower level, which lasts for 6 years. After that, comprehensive school upper level, which lasts for 3 years. These are obligatory and you have to go at least through these. After this we begin highschool which I’m at, which lasts for 3 to 4 years.
In Italy, schools last for 13 years divided in 3 as well. You begin school at the age of five, in scuola elementare (primary school) for 5 years, then it’s time for scuola media (middle school) which lasts for 3 years and after that you continue to scuola superiore (secondary school) which lasts for 5 years. After that you have the opportunity to proceed towards university. So that was that for universal knowledge, now my egoistic personality takes over and it’s time to talk about my experience.
Let’s talk about living. During my stay in Italy I lived in 2 places, one was the 12th floor of a 13th floor high apartment house a few stops away from the center and the other was a 4 store high, almost ancient block of flats in the heart of Palermo. One thing I always wondered was how big the apartments were, compared to Finnish ”boxes” they were huge.
The freetime. Usually in Finland, we have all this stuf to do during our freetime like we have these youth house meetings and stuff. But in Palermo , we had almost nothing to do, except going in some bars ( not that we wouldn’t do it in Finland as well) or I just lacked the imagination to do something creative (most likely) .
The thing I miss most in Italy is probably freedom and this funny attitude, loudness and such that we seem to lack here in Finland.
March the 20th 2008 A.M
Because Comenius is a schoolproject, I’ll start this monologue from that as well.My school here in Finland is very different from the one I visited in Italy, mainly because the system itself is different.
The Finnish schoolsystem lasts for 12 years before university, polytechnic or worklife and it’s divided in 3 sections, comprehensive school lower level, which lasts for 6 years. After that, comprehensive school upper level, which lasts for 3 years. These are obligatory and you have to go at least through these. After this we begin highschool which I’m at, which lasts for 3 to 4 years.
In Italy, schools last for 13 years divided in 3 as well. You begin school at the age of five, in scuola elementare (primary school) for 5 years, then it’s time for scuola media (middle school) which lasts for 3 years and after that you continue to scuola superiore (secondary school) which lasts for 5 years. After that you have the opportunity to proceed towards university. So that was that for universal knowledge, now my egoistic personality takes over and it’s time to talk about my experience.
Let’s talk about living. During my stay in Italy I lived in 2 places, one was the 12th floor of a 13th floor high apartment house a few stops away from the center and the other was a 4 store high, almost ancient block of flats in the heart of Palermo. One thing I always wondered was how big the apartments were, compared to Finnish ”boxes” they were huge.
The freetime. Usually in Finland, we have all this stuf to do during our freetime like we have these youth house meetings and stuff. But in Palermo , we had almost nothing to do, except going in some bars ( not that we wouldn’t do it in Finland as well) or I just lacked the imagination to do something creative (most likely) .
The thing I miss most in Italy is probably freedom and this funny attitude, loudness and such that we seem to lack here in Finland.
March the 20th 2008 A.M