Anyways, the Arrival Orientation was last week, and it was lots of fun! Everyone that went was in the Turku region for AFS Finland, so it wasn't all the kids staying here, but there were still a good 22-23 of us. I left Friday afternoon to get to Turku, and we stayed in a nice sized cabin until Sunday!
From Pomarkku, the bus ride to Turku is about 2 or 3 hours? I'm wasn't really keeping track, but it took a while. Once I got there, I hung out at the little bus station store with a girl from Turkey and a guy from Italy until one of the volunteers showed up and we went outside to wait for the rest. People arrived pretty quickly after that, and we then got on the bus to Rymättylä, which is where the campsite was.
We had a nice hike up to the cabin, it was a pretty good distance from the parking lot, so everyone was glad once we were finally there. We didn't have the keys, though, so we played a couple group games until the volunteer that had the keys got there to unlock it for us. Everyone put their things in their rooms, and after that we went back out to have dinner and do more icebreaker type games.
Finally, around 9 or 10, we had free time and were just able to hang out, it was really fun! There was a piano-sized keyboard (meaning it had all the keys a regular piano has) and me and a few others messed around on it, and a few groups split off to just hang out in our rooms and talk about stuff.
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| I think we were talking about politics here? |
Mostly we talked about differences between our countries, like food, weather, holidays, politics, and a bunch of other smaller stuff. I also had my first Kinder egg! The chocolate part was really sweet, and I'm kind of glad it's only a thin shell, but my toy ended up being a minion. Eventually, conversation died down and a volunteer came by and told us to go to bed, so we ended up going to sleep around 1 in the morning.
The next day, we woke up and had a little time to hang out before we had to hike back down to the parking lot where the main building was for breakfast, since most of it was a cafeteria. There was a pretty good spread of food out, and I ended up with porridge. Once everyone had eaten, we hiked back up and went over to the dock by the cabin, just to look around a bit.
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| The Baltic Sea! |
We played a few more group game kind of things before the volunteers let us have outside free time, and we wandered around the woods for a bit before we found a nice little place by the water where we sat for a while. Most of us just sat and enjoyed the view of the sea, some skipped stones, and then this also happened.
After we'd had lunch, we had the actual sort of orientation stuff, going over rules, what to do in certain scenarios, who to contact if you have problems, etc. To be honest, it was kind of boring, but I understand why we had to go over everything. All the different orientation stuff took about 2 or 3 hours, so by the time we were finished, it was time for supper!
Finally, after dinner we had a bit more orientation, and then we got to go to the sauna! It was a separate building a little ways away from the cabin, but it was really close to the shore, so a lot of us also ran to go swimming after getting out of the sauna. I didn't because the water was really cold, but I did stand in it for a bit!
Since the girls went first, we had to get out after a while so the guys could have a turn, and in the meantime we started the fire going in the outside fireplace. Someone had also brought one of the portable speakers, so people were taking turns playing music while we waited for the guys to get back. |
| Fire! |
Once all the guys finally did get back, though, it was getting dark, and most of us danced to the music and a volunteer brought out sausages, corn on the cob, and marshmallows for us to roast. There was also limbo and the kind of reverse version where you have to jump over the string/pole and it gets higher each time. It was lots of fun, but my feet were sore by the end since I was only wearing socks and the patio was made of stone.
I can't really remember what time we all got to bed on Saturday, but it was probably earlier than the previous night, so that was nice.
Finally, there was Sunday! We had breakfast (porridge again), and a little more free time and orientation, then lunch, and then we started packing up! We also had to clean the whole cabin, so we also took out the trash, vacuumed, and put everything back where it was supposed to be. Once the park guy came by to inspect the place and make sure we'd done everything, we hiked back down to the parking lot to wait for the bus.
And then we were on our way home! Once we were back in Turku we all exchanged long goodbyes and promises of talking later on facebook and such, and then the few of us who were going to Pori broke off to wait at the bus station. Our bus wasn't scheduled to come for a half hour, so we stopped at Hesburger for some food, and then got to the bus right on time!
Most of our small group got off the bus before we got to Pori, so I was the only one actually getting off there, but I didn't mind. And finally, I made it back and Äiti met me at the Pori bus station and drove me back home!
So yeah, that was the Orientation! Yay!
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