Sofia, Our Rotary youth Exchange Student

At the last meeting, we had the pleasure of hearing our Rotary Youth Exchange Student Sofia Poyry talk about her homeland. Sofia comes from a small town in Finland called Laihia (also known as the Scotland of Finland) with a population of just over 8000 people. Sofia is the youngest in her family at 17 and she has 2 sisters and one brother. Her two sisters live 3 hours away in a town called Tampere and her brother lives next door to Sofia with his wife and baby daughter.

Sofia showed us a picture of her beautiful house and garden. At the back of the house is a jogging track that can be used for walking and running during the warmer months, but also doubles as a ski track once the snow arrives.

Sofia attends a small school with only 120 students. Sofia said that it is a comfortable and relaxed school with one of the benefits being that the teachers get to know you well.

Sofia said that she has tried many sports in her life including volleyball, swimming, dancing, (contemporary dance, hip-hop, dance sport) and athletics. Sofia likes to spend her time listening to music, watching TV shows and movies and reading a good book.

A Snapshot of Finland

200,000 lakes
Half a million cottages
Over 2 million saunas
the word “Sauna” is Finnish. It’s also the only Finnish word making it into everyday English language.
Finland is the place to see the Northern Lights. Each year, the Aurora Borealis appear more than 200 times in the skies above the Finnish Lapland.
Midnight sun: Visit the north of the country during the months of June and July and you’ll see the sun never drops below the horizon.
At Finland's northernmost point, the sun does not set for 73 days
during summer, and does not rise at all for 51 days during winter.
Four seasons
National animal: bear
Finnish schools are some of the top in the world.
Children don’t go to school until they are seven years old. Education is free and good meals are supplied free of charge.
University students can get student allowance and housing allowance
Equality in Finland is great. Men and women have the same rights.
Woman president Tarja Halonen 2000-2012
Finland has some of the world’s best “freedom to roam”
opportunities.
We don’t wear shoes inside
Finns don’t do much talking, and we don’t ask how other people are (it’s not rude). This is something Sofia has had to adjust to since arriving in Australia.
Average Finn consumes 12 kg of coffee every year.
Most people drink milk when they eat, not just little kids
Santa Claus lives in Finland!!
We have some of the world’s strangest sports: wife carrying, swamp soccer, rubber boot throwing, air guitar world championships, cell phone throwing.
Our national sport is Finnish baseball
Finns are passionate fans of ice hockey. It’s the most popular in terms of spectators. (Ice Hockey World Championships 2016 final Finland-Canada, 69% Finnish people watched that game on TV.)
Soccer is the most played team sport.

It was great to hear Sofia tell us about her life Finland. We can most certainly look forward to hearing Sofia talk about her upcoming experiences in Australia at future meetings.

Report on Sofia’s talk by Richard Nolan.

Eye Contact at Guildford Grammar School Monday

The Chaplain of Guildford Grammar School, Fr Philip Raymont:

A Year 6 Teacher has written: “I also wanted to say thank you for allowing us to view the Exhibition this morning – it was confronting, thought provoking and engaging all at the same time and was well received by the students. We had lots of in-depth conversations and it was interesting to hear how the photographs made them feel. Definitely something that I will remember.”

Photos Ken Mullin