Lucie Leaves for Turkey

This afternoon I waved goodbye to Lucie who is flying off to Turkey for ten days. She is going to represent Finland with ten other Finnish people at the European Youth Parliament in Istanbul.  There will be over three hundred young people taking part in the event from all around Europe and Lucie will be the youngest person there.

The EYP is an organisation which introduces current issues to young people such as tackling problems of racism, terrorism, drug trafficking and other human rights issues. Delegations are given problems to consider and they have to work together to come up with a resolution designed to tackle the problem. These resoutions are then debated and voted on, all of which are valuable skills for the participants. Lucie participated first in the regional rounds in Helsinki and then in the national competition in Tampere before being chosen to represent Finland in Istanbul.

Until the end of last year Lucie was at school at the European School in Helsinki. She started there in 2008 when we moved to Finland.  All the teaching in her section of the school was in English and French, so she didn't learn Finnish as quickly as she would have liked to, but she gradually picked it up by going to Finnish camps over the summer holidays each year.

When we moved to Somero we gave Lucie the option as to which school to go to and she said she would like to try the Lukio in Somero. In January she went there for a trial week and was made to feel extremely welcome. The headmaster, Jari Timonen, together with Armi Nurmi both took a lot of trouble to consider whether Lucie would be able to cope in a Finnish school with English as her mother tongue.

She fitted in straightaway and had friends by the end of the week, so we all decided that she should move to the lukio full time. 

"It's a challenge studying in Finnish, but that's one of the reasons why I like it," she says. "Everyone has made me feel welcome. My two best friends are Jenni and Marianne and we all get on really well.  At first I was worried that I wouldn't understand what the teachers were saying, but the first few weeks have been ok and I think I am going to manage."

Lucie has started off studying English, French, Art and History, and again the teaching staff have done everything they can to make sure she can keep up. Even studying English has its challenges for her as she needs to be able to translate from Finnish in order to take the tests, but it means that she is learning more Finnish all the time.


"I can't wait to go to Turkey," she said this afternoon. "Hopefully when I get back I can tell the people at Somero Lukio about EYP and we can get a team together to compete next year. I know that some people are interested in going already."

Lucie has been lucky enough to travel a lot during her childhood but at 15, this is her first time going on a plane on her own, so the whole experience will be one she never forgets. Good luck Lucie.... we will be thinking of you!