Last Wednesday I went to a Fuksiaiset. Never heard of that before? Well, I had not either! We were all sitting at lunch when Jan, the other German exchange student suggested to go join this event. At first I was hesitant but then I thought, why not? I'll probably only experience all this once in my life. Besides, he said, I could always leave if I didn't like it. The Fuksiaiset is basically an event for Finnish freshmen to have fun and get to know each other...in the middle of the woods. Yeah! So we met up with these people at the main train station and then we got on a bus. I had no idea where we were going or how on earth I would get back home. after half an hour on the bus I thought, ok, there is no way that I can just leave whenever I feel like it now. We were on this island in the middle of nowhere and it was raining. Did I mention I have neither an umbrella or rain jacket?! But here is something about Finns: if they didn't go outside just because it was raining, like we Germans do, they would hardly ever get any fresh air, especially in autumn! Apparently it's time to invest in proper rain equipment! So what did we do? We were divided into groups, luckily I can count to ten, and found myself in group neljä (4), and sent into the woods. There we found different station where we had to fulfill different tasks. For example we had to reunite different bottles of alcohol with their owners, without knowing who likes to drink what. Also, we had to wear a blindfold handing over the beverages. Then there was a sitsit station, remember, the meal, where you have to suggest different songs to sing, and toast to something with mustikka likööri (blueberry liquor - at least I think it was) and eat food ( noodle salad in this case). At another station, we had to perform different movie titles without words or explain certain words. The only thing I could really participate in was the acting-movie-titles station, because most of the other stations required an understanding of the Finnish language. Well, at least I met some Finns, participated at a typically Finnish freshmen activity and got totally soaking wet in the process ;).
I know...the quality of this photo is awful, it's all blurry, but it's about as good as my vision with rain-wet glasses...
There will be another Fuksiaiset, this time for international students, on the 12th of September. Hopefully with better weather this time!