Monika's Internship in Finland

Hello,

My name is Monika, I'm one of the Austrian trainees and I will tell you something about my internship from last year in Finland. I was in the middle of Finland on a diary farm for 14 weeks with about 150 cows, 140 cattle, some calves and one bull.

I am from an agriculture farm without any animals, so I decided to do my internship on a dairy-farm to get experience with this kind of farm work. It was a good decision, because I gained a lot of new experiences. I learned how to milk cows with the help of a milking robot and how to feed calves. I also learned a lot about the Finnish way of life. For example, I got an insight into the typical finish Sauna–culture and participated in a hunt. I also experienced the bright night skies, because in Scandinavia the sun doesn`t go down in the summer.  I also visited other parts of Finland. 

Finland is called “The land of thousand lakes”, and I confirm it. On every corner is another lake and around the lakes, the people have their small summer-cottages to spend their holidays in in a silent area. Finland has also a lot of woods and the inhabitants like it to collect the tasteful berries, mushrooms and herbs and use it in the kitchen to prepare food. And when you are “lucky”, then you can see elks, bears or rabbits in the finish nature. But especially in the northern of Finland, you are able to see a lot of Reindeers directly on the streets or in the cities.

In Finland were a lot of differences to Austria, but all in all, I learnt a lot, enjoyed the summer and I`m able to look back to a really, really great time. And now I am looking forward to a nice time in Maryland to collect impressions of the American way of life.

--- Monika Friedl