This week is only half over and it has been so darn amazing. I’m finally getting into the flow of my classes, I’ve discovered some beautiful hidden spaces on campus – as well as found my bearings and oriented myself as to where all the buildings are in relationship to the others, and I’ve spent some time with my beautiful Finnish family baking, singing, storytelling, and hiking. It’s been a really good week and I am looking forward to this weekend.

First, my classes. I’ve officially finalized my class schedule and the whole thing is really weird. In Europe, class credit is based on how many hours you are expected to dedicate to a class. 1 European Credit (ECT) translates to 27 hours of work (but it varies by country). Finnish college only considers “contact teaching” – the time you spend in a classroom with an instructor – to be part of the education process. So for my Foreign Language Pedagogy class (5 ECTs), I have 11 class meetings of 2 hours each – 22 hours. But I am expected to spend another 113 hours doing group work, writing papers, and reading supporting text, while my Supporting Socioemotional Development and Welfare class (3 ECTs) only has three class meetings of an hour and a half each, leaving 76.5 hours left expected of me to work independently. It’s definitely a different approach to education than the States. Apparently though, it’s uncommon even for Europe. So it makes me feel better than everyone is confused. Ha!

Another strange thing about University here is how its semesters are organized. Not only are there two semesters, but within the semesters are two periods, and classes don’t even necessarily have to follow the system of the periods. In America, we can half some half-semester courses but they are clearly defined, and there’s only a couple. Here though, only the most complex classes last the whole semester.

Anyways, these are the classes I am taking this semester:

Issues in Education (5 ECTS) – 9/4 – 12/8

This class is amazing! Guest lecturers from all over the world (literally, the first two lecturers were from Australia and the UK) come and speak about whatever their education research topic or educational issue is and we write reflections on their topic. We also attend PhD defenses and watch people become doctors.

Survival Finnish (2 ECTS) – 9/10 – 10/13

This is a basic course that just kind of orients us with the language so it doesn’t look or sound like nonsense, but it will in no way create native speakers out of us.

Foreign Language Pedagogy (5 ECTS) – 9/12 – 12/12

AAAAHHHHH!!!!! This class is essentially how to be an ESL teacher. It’s all about digging into the psychology of language learning and the theories and the practice and all the goodies about how to teach English to kids who didn’t grow up learning it natively.

Cultural Identity and Internationality (3 ECTS) – 9/14 – 10/19

This class is about the roles schools and culture play in strengthening each other and what we as teachers can do to create an inviting space for a multicultural classroom.

Creative and Cultural Language Development (2 ECTS) – 9/22 – 10/6

This is just a smaller supplemental class to the pedagogy class.

Education in Finland (3 ECTS) – 10/12 – 12-8

Just an overview of the different aspects of Finnish education.

Communication and Interaction (2 ECTS) – 10/30 – 11/20

This is about learning to better communicate and interact in a professional setting with other educators to collaborate and with students to… you know… educate.

Supporting Socioemotional Development and Welfare (3 ECTS) – 10/31 – 11/9

This is looking at what we as teachers can do to make the learning experience inclusive for all individuals – the class is from the special education department so it will be an exciting perspective.

I’ve already attended a couple lessons in the first three classes and I am so beyond excited to be here. I can already tell I’m going to learn so much and it’s all about my favorite thing in the world: teaching. aaahhh!!!!

Next, nature. Gosh this place. Every time I walk outside I’m happy. I had two hours between my classes yesterday, so I spent my time exploring the campus. The morning rain had stopped so I put my umbrella down and only got sprinkled on when I walked under the rustling trees. I found some walking trails around the oldest part of campus, where the buildings are as old as the school (opened in 1863, just like ESU!)

I love this campus. I love that it feels like the campus grew out of the ground with the trees instead of being built on top of the ground, destroying everything natural in its way. One day, I’ll take photos of some of the modern buildings too, but even those don’t feel intrusive to the natural essence of the land.

Finally, being Finnish. ahhhh!!!! I so love hanging out with my family. I got to get to know Vesa a bit more today, the first time we all hung out, he had to work so I didn’t get to do much more than say hi. Today, he shared with me about his mission work and his travels all over the world, including his trip 20 years ago to the States. He has a subtle humor about him – he believes coffee three times a day is super healthy, just like pulla (Finnish sweet rolls) 😉 As soon as Outi and and I arrived at their home with Lucia, Vesa had dinner ready. He’d made an Indian dish of rice and green beans with salad and it was yummy. Of course, also bread rolls – all three daughters love to bake and Iisa baked the rolls.

After dinner, Outi made pulla dough and while it rose, all of us girls went hiking in the forest behind their home. Walking through the trees as the sunset was so beautiful, and the girls were so fun to watch climb all over everything. They found some wild berries and made me try them, and on our way home we climbed on some playground equipment that *might* have been too small for us hahaha!

When we got home again, we finish up the pulle and they turned out delicious! Then we (well mostly me) danced around the room singing “Do You Wanna Build a Snowman.” It was a fun time. Too soon, it was time to go home 🙁

Bonus, what’s coming up. This weekend I will be going with a bunch of international students to Laajis Adventure Park. It will be an exciting time and my brother will be jealous of all the zip lining and rope challenges he’ll be missing. Then, if not Saturday, then definitely Sunday, I’ll be visiting my family’s church. They attend a state church on the edge of the city and I’m super excited to worship like the Finns do. The last couple weeks, it’s just been me and my bible, so I’m pretty ready to get inside a church. It will be a really interesting experience – the state church is Lutheran, so not only will it be in an unfamiliar language, it will also be an unfamiliar service. But I betcha I’ll be able to pray just the same 😉

I’m still amazed that all of this is real. But I also feel like I’ve been here forever. Jyväsklyä officially feels like home.

“And you will feel secure, because there is hope, you will look around and take your rest in security.” – Job 11:18