Hey everyone!
I’m going on an exchange next year to Finland. I’m totally stoked about this. The thing is, I’m supposed to bring gifts for my host parents. So, if you had and exchange student from the West Coast of Canada, what would you like as a gift?
Maple syrup is a given:P
Thanks,
Megs
I went to Helsinki with my wrestling team in the summer of 2001, and I stayed with a local family for nearly two weeks. One thing that surprised me was that my host family seemed very embarrassed that my roommate and I brought as much as we did. Between us we brought two bottles of wine, a few t-shirts from our schools, a beer mug, and some sponge candy (which was the best local food I could bring - hot wings don’t travel well).
With that in mind, everyone would be amused if you could exchange some sort of moose paraphernilia, since there’s all kinds of moose crap in Finnish souvenir shops.
There’s a similar thread floating around from sombody from Alabama, so what I’m saying might repeat what I said there…But THINK LOCAL…if somebody visited you, what would be the items they’d buy to take back and give to their wife/mum/best friend? Imagine yourself as a tourist in your own land and work from there. They know what CANADA is, but I bet they know nothing about the west coast. Find things that will surprise them.
Also bring a photo album of you, your family, your school, church, town hall, the countryside around you, whatever is relevant. As long as it’s not more than 20-30 photos, it’ll be a very nice gesture. Any more than that and they’ll be bored 