Inside, the hotel was bustling with activity. There were dozens of kids about my age with the same amount of luggage wandering around, trying to find where they were supposed to be. Some were excited, and others were in tears. I made my way to the check in desk. The lady there told me that in order to sign I had to say my goodbyes. I turned to my Aunt Sheila, who had driven me there that morning. I gave her a hug goodbye knowing that she might be the last familiar face I would see for a year.
That done, I gave the lady my name and my destination and she sent me into the hotel’s ballroom. There were about 150 kids going to about 10 different countries in that room, and all of their baggage was there too. Needless to say, it was a chaotic mess. Once things got started (about an hour later) it got better.
We broke up into groups by country. Altogether there were 8 of us going to Finland! I wasn’t expecting so many. Four of them were going for a semester, and the rest of us were going for a year. Over the next day we quickly became friends. In our groups we discussed culture shock, the "do's" and "don’ts", and what to do if we need help. We also played a few team games. They fed us dinner and then sent us to bed.
My roommate was 17 year old Heather from a farm in the middle of Kentucky. She had never been out of “Middle East America” before, as she called it (with an endearing Southern-twang). She was going to be in Helsinki for a year, and was freaking out about living in such a big city. I told her that there are only about half a million people in Helsinki, and that it was smaller than Cincinnati, and she calmed down. But she started freaking out again when she looked out on New York from our 6th floor room.
