Marissa, age 14, was awarded a partial scholarship by our club to attend the Salolampi Finnish Language Camp Summer 2008. She wrote the following:
“In Bemidji, MN, there are language camps sponsored by the Concordia College. I attended the Finnish Language Camp for a week. Going to Salolampi was the coolest experience I have had! Starting with flying alone without my mother and eating all my meals where only Finnish was spoken — was amazing.
I got to experience being ’submerged’ into a Finnish world. We would go to language classes all morning where I actually was able to understand and speak quite a bit Finnish. We sang songs in Finnish, went to a dance, went to arts & crafts where Finnish was also spoken, and we got to buy things with euros.
I spent Juhannus (Midsummer) with an actual bonfire by the lake where it was cold, instead of 100 degrees as in Tucson.
All of this made a difference in how I think about being Finnish. I hope to return to camp next summer and to learn to speak Finnish fluently.”