The Rotary youth exchange trip to Lapland 2015 was a week I will never forget. I can honestly say it was one of the best weeks of my life. The people I was with, the things we were doing, where we were, it could not have been more perfect.
After a 14 hour bus ride filled with anxious exchange students, we finally arrive in Lapland. It was some of the exchange students first time seeing snow! When we got there it was the afternoon, so once we settled into our rooms and said hello to all the other exchange students who weren’t on our bus, we immediately go outside to play in the snow. There were snowball fits, snowman building, sleigh riding, and other fun stuff going on. Within the first few hours an exchange student was unfortunately injured and had to go to the hospital from being pelted with a snowball to the eye. The next few days were full of fun and of course a few others getting hurt.
We ate outside many times around bonfires which wasn’t even too cold. I think the entire time I had at least three layers of clothes on, even though it was “warm” while we were there at -5 degrees Celsius. I was told it can get to as low as -40 degrees Celsius there so we should consider ourselves lucky!
Every day was full from the time we woke up around 8:00 am to the time we fell asleep around 2:00 am. I can’t decide what was my favorite. We went snowboarding and skiing, we went and fed reindeer, we were pulled by reindeer on a sleigh, we went to a Husky farm with over 400 huskies and were also pulled by them on a sleigh as well (They are very energetic dogs!),we went to Sauna then got in the snow, we went to Santa’s village and got to meet the real Santa, we had an exchange student party and got to say goodbye to the ‘Oldies’ (the exchange students leaving), the list is endless. Unfortunately we did not get to see the Northern Lights while we were there.
One of the best parts was being able to be with most of the other exchange students in Finland, we have all made such a strong bond together, they truly feel like family.
The only unfortunate part about the whole trip is that it was so short, I just wish it could have lasted longer.
Oh ya, we got to go to Sweden too! No big deal 😉
Beautiful photos Meghan! Looks like an amazing time! I love the huskies. 🙂