Anni Haikka

2009-10 Inbound from Finland

Hometown: Tampere, Finland

Sponsor: Tampere Kissanmaa Rotary Club, District 1390, Finland

Host: Lakewood Ranch Rotary Club, District 6960, Florida, USA

School: Lakewood Ranch High School, Bradenton, Florida

Bio

Anni's Bio

Hello!

My name is Anni Haikka and I'm soon a 17 year-old-girl from Finland who decided to go and experience the culture and everyday life on the other side of the world. Words can't even describe how excited I am about this year here in sunny Florida!

Back in Finland I have a big family of two little brothers, one big brother, big sister, dad, mom and stepdad. My family has been a great support prior to my exchange year and has been encouraging me to pursue my dreams. I come from a city called Tampere which has a population of about 200,000 people and it's a great place to live in. I went to The Classical High School of Tampere, which has about 300 students, so going to Lakewood Ranch High School (about 2000 students) has been a huge change for me. Dancing is my passion and I've been doing it since I was 5 years old. I dance ballet, jazz, contemporary dance and hip hop. I also love for example watching movies, hanging out with friends, going to the beach, studying foreign languages and travelling.

I want to thank Rotary from the bottom of my heart for making this year possible for me and many teenagers all over the world. I'm sure that this will be an unforgettable year full of new experiences, new people, growing up, learning and most of all having fun!

October 19 Journal

Hello everyone!

It has been over two months since I arrived here in the USA and as you can see, I've been very lazy in writing journals here, but that's only a good thing, because I've been so busy having a lot of fun! I can't believe time has gone by so fast!

I will start by telling something about the beginning of my journey. On August 8th I flew to New York City for three days with a group of exchange students from Finland, and what an awesome time we had! It was amazing getting to make friends with the people from your country, but already being in your host country. During these three days we did a lot of sightseeing, shopping, saw Mamma Mia- musical on Broadway, and went to a Japanese restaurant on limousine rides! I've always wanted to go to New York, and this definitely was the way to do it! And I'm positive I will visit many many times after this too.

From New York City I flew to Albany, NY, where my host family was ready to pick me up. It was very exciting to get to finally meet the people I had been waiting to see for a long time! We spent one night in Saratoga Springs, NY and the next day drove to New Hampshire to spend some time with some more members of the family. It was great getting relaxing by the lake and enjoying the warm summer days. I thought it was warm in New Hampshire, but people told me "Wait until you get to Florida." Well, they were right. After a long drive all the way down to Florida when I opened the door to get out of the car I thought I was going to burn to ashes on the ground! I had never felt the air so hot and humid before! But now I'm all used to it and I love the warm weather here :)

Soon after my arrival we had the Inbound Orientation with all the other Rotary exchange students in Florida, and it was AMAZING! I made so much new friends, and especially the people in my district have become like a family to me! We love to get together during the weekends and just have fun :) I'm looking forward to the trip to Disney World in December, can't wait!

Right after the orientation weekend, school started. In the beginning it was very confusing and hard, because my school in Finland has about 300 students, and Lakewood Ranch High School has about 2000, so it was a huge change. Now everything's a lot easier when I'm getting to know more and more people every day and school days feel like a routine.

During the school days I don't have that much free time, because I take classes at the Sarasota Ballet School every week from Monday to Thursday. I absolutely love taking classes there, because the teachers are very professional and international too. It is very hard work though because the teachers expect a lot from you and you want to push yourself to become a better dancer, so you really have to work for it.

We also visited Tennessee with my host family a couple of weeks ago and it was great! We visited Elvis's house in Memphis, and we also got to see Nashville, The Music City. I loved the whole country music feeling in the city, and I also bought cowgirl boots that I wanted to buy for such a long time!!

Overall these past two months have been absolutely amazing and I don't even want to think about going back home to Finland. Of course I'm facing challenging and hard things every day and life isn't perfect, but this experience as a whole is making me so much stronger and more confident every day. I love it here and I want to thank all of the lovely people involved in making this year the best year of my life! <3

KIITOS! (Thank You in Finnish haha)

April 4 Journal

Wow, I have been sooooo lazy with writing this journal so there's a bit of catching up to do :D There are so many things I could tell about the past months but here are a few things that have been going on.

This Halloween I went trick or treating with Rea, one of the exchange students and we had a lot of fun! We don't do trick or treating in Finland so that was a nice experience. Soon after Halloween I volunteered at the Suncoast Wine Festival that was hosted by my Rotary club. It was a huge event and my first volunteering event here in the USA, and I really enjoyed it. It didn't take long until Thanksgiving was around the corner and that was something totally new for me. It was amazing to spend this traditional American holiday with my wonderful host family and their relatives. It was pretty much relaxing and eating loooots of turkey! :D I also went to my first college football game in Tampa to see USF play against Miami. I'm actually starting to like football now that I'm slowly starting to understand the rules better.

In the beginning of December all of the exchange students in Florida got together for a 4 day weekend in Disney World Orlando, and it was one of the most amazing weekends of this year! Everyone was so excited to see each other again after many long months apart. It was so much fun and I got to finally fulfill my lifelong dream of going to Disney World!

This Christmas was definitely something very different from what I'm used to. In Finland we have lots of snow and the perfect white Christmas, here you have a tropical paradise! During Christmas I was feeling a bit homesick for the first time, but I still enjoyed this different kind of Christmas down here in Florida. I got invited to a New Year's Concert with a German Rotary couple from my club and I enjoyed it a lot. I love classical music and they also had some ballet dancers performing so that made me enjoy it even more.

I moved to a new host family after New Year's and it feels good to have some change and experience different families. My new host family is awesome and I feel very comfortable with them. I have a 4-year-old sister and a 6-year-old brother who are so adorable and very excited for having me. Soon after that it was time for Sea Camp in Key West and oh man, I can't even find the words to describe that trip! Just pure awesomeness! Getting together with all of the amazing exchange students of Florida was so much fun.

This winter in Florida has been really cold so I'm so glad it's finally hot! My 19-year-old big sister from Finland spent the Spring Break here which was awesome! Now the rest of this spring is going to be very busy with practicing for the upcoming dance show in May and getting everything for school done. I'm also very excited about Prom in May, I already found a dress too! Whenever I have time to relax on the weekends I love just hanging out with my friends and going to the movies etc. I'm really glad I've made many good American friends here

:)

It feels so weird being torn between two countries all the time:

I'm excited for going back home but then again it'll be very difficult leaving all these amazing family members and friends behind and the places where I feel like home now. But it's all part of the exchange experience and I'm so glad I've had such a great year and I'm sure the rest of this spring and summer will be just as amazing.

Again I want to close my journal (my second journal ever, isn't that pathetic haha) by thanking every single Rotarian in Florida that has affected this amazing year for all of us inbounds 09-10 here in the Sunshine State! Simply loving it here!

May 29 Journal

Hey yall!

I'm loving the spring here in Florida! Only less than two weeks of school left and then it's summer! Some highlights from this spring: Prom was awesome, it was a lot of fun getting all dressed up. It was an expensive night though with the dress, getting your nails done, the ticket and everything. But definitely a great American experience I'll always remember. I also moved back to my first host family just for change and I love it. I don't want to leave this family, they ARE my family, not just a host family. My host sister is just like a real sister to me and I love having someone to laugh with and tell everything to. I'm still keeping in touch my 2nd host family by going to the beach with them and doing stuff together which is great.

Also one big thing this spring has been dance classes and getting ready for our spring performance. Sarasota Ballet School's show this year was called "The Legend of Pixie Hollow" and it had basically the same characters as the Disney movie (Tinkerbell, Peter Pan plus all the other fairies etc.). We had two shows and both of them were great! I'm so happy it's over because we had practice practically every day for the whole April and May so it was a lot of work, but I'll also miss going to dance classes because I made really good friends with all of the dancer girls, but we're still hanging out even though the classes are on a break. Now that I've had more free time I've been going to the beach more (getting tan, yeaah!!) and just chilling which I love. Also I've had time to realize that I only have about 37 days left in the US and it's going to fly by, especially since 2 weeks of that time I'll be on the West Coast Trip (sooo excited!) I'm kind of excited about going back home because I can't wait to see my best friends and my family, but then again I have to leave my best friends and family here. And it's definitely not any easier than leaving home last year. It is amazing how you can create a whole new life with loving family members and friends only in one year. This year has definitely been a blessing and I know I'll always keep coming back here to visit and who knows, maybe I might even go to college here some day. I love how exchange opens up so many new possibilities that you might have not thought about before and after this year I feel like I can do anything.

One of the greatest moments of my exchange was two days ago when I received a Paul Harris Fellow award from my Rotary Club for "significant assistance given for the furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among peoples of the world". Also the Rotary club donated 1000 dollars in my name for the Rotary's worldwide project against Polio. This is a great honor and it made me feel like I've left my mark here and I've accomplished to create bonds between such far away countries as Finland and the US and I'm so proud of that. This year has given me so much and opened my eyes to so many things. Even though I'm going back to Finland, I'll never be the same Anni, the girl from Finland. I feel like I'm part American also and I'm proud of that! Gotta love America :) Thanks Rotary, you're the best!!

with love, Anni