IN COPENHAGEN!

OH MY GOSH I NAVIGATED COPENHAGEN AND DIDN'T GET LOST HERE'S A BLOG POST AND A SELFIE OF ME AND THE REALLY HAPPY LOOKING WALL SOCKET

Written on my flight from Helsinki to Copenhagen:

This is it, I'm saying goodbye to my favorite country-that-isn't-Canada again! Finland, we need to stop meeting like this.

All jokes aside, I had a great time over these past two weeks visiting with friends and host families. Everyone was so supportive and only a few people groaned when I showed up! 

Visiting my old school was weird. A Canadian flag hung on the wall of the Kahvio, joined by a German flag from the exchange student who visited the year after me. Other than the flags, it was like nothing changed. Like seriously, they still hadn't replaced the photos from my second year "coming of age" dance. I feel like all high schools share a multinational lack of enthusiasm in updating pictures and suchlike.
Of all the reactions I got from my teachers, my old Physics teacher's was the best. As he saw me, he casually greeted me, then did a double take and said "whoa, where'd the Canadian come from??"

This time, not only did I have to say goodbye to my Finnish friends and host families, but I had to part with the new family I'd become a part of: over the past week I have become an honorary Iraqi.

having been "adopted" by one of the families living in the refugee camp. Saying goodbye to them was more difficult than one would expect, since I'd only just met them a week ago. 

Last Saturday I met with a woman who has been actively involved with the refugees for almost the entire two months that they've been in Päivärinne. She brought me to where they were staying, just a short walk from my host family's house, and introduced me to some of the families and individuals that had finally started to settle in after a long journey across Europe. 

Their kindness was to a degree I'd never experienced; every single time I greeted them I was met with a smile and an enthusiastic "terve!" Their warmth and friendliness was inspiring, especially after I had a change to speak with some of the asylum seekers about their journey to Finland. 

I volunteered at the camp teaching Finnish for Beginners classes. I felt that I was fairly qualified in that field, having gone through the exact same struggle of language learning only two years earlier. From the enthusiastic nods and thumbs up I received, I figured I was getting my points across decently well and they understood what I was trying to say. I had an unrealistic amount of fun teaching the three classes I did, laughing with my students about silly Finnish language rules and coaching them through tough pronunciations. I like to think they had as much fun as I did, and I hope I made learning one of the hardest languages in the world look a little less daunting. 

After every lesson I would walk to the family housing and enjoy spending time with my new Iraqi family, a family of four living in cramped quarters that would always magically have a chair on hand for me to sit in, no matter when or where. They fed me uncomfortably spicy foods and laughed as they taught me how to eat soup with a fork. I taught them Finnish and I attempted to teach my throat how to make the sounds necessary to speak Arabic. My botched pronunciations were always met with laughter and then encouragement to try again. I will now impress you by writing my name in Arabic:

حلادا

So yeah, I'm pretty much fluent. All jokes aside, I had so much fun and can honestly say that spending time with these amazing people changed my life for the better. I hope that I will one day have the pleasure of seeing them again

So, with the tears and heavy hearts aside, I have arrived in Copenhagen! Okay no, I haven't yet, I'm writing this in the plane, but I will post this when I land and get WiFi! Woot! I'll update again when I have time (aka another flight). 

وداعا!
حلارا