The family that I stayed with have a son (Max) who graduated from Highschool this past weekend. Max went to Karleby Svenska Gymnasium (a swedish highschool) The ceremony was in swedish. There were a bunch of speeches and a lot of singing. When the graduates get their diplomas they also get a white hat; it looks like a sailer hat but it is really nice. There were some old people sitting in front of me wearing thier sailer hats as well; its tradition that the 50 year alumni come to the graduation and wear their hats. Everyone, especially the graduates looked so nice in their suits and dresses.
After the ceremony we rushed back to the house. Jamie and I have been helping out, getting everything clean
and ready for the graduation party. The mom of the family gave everyone a job; Jamie was in charge of the dishes and I was in charge of the coffee and drinks. I swear over 100 people came to the party. Jamie and I were really busy; at one point the line was out the door just to get into the house. The coffee and the drinks went fast! I felt like I was doing shuttle runs from the back room to the dinning room and Jamie had dishes up to the ceiling at one point, but the coffee never ran out and there were always clean dishes for the guest. A job well done! 
The party was really nice; it was a cake buffet. So many people brought over all types of homemade cakes and many different kinds of dips. Everything was so good! Everyone that came to the party brought Max a gift and roses. There were roses all over the house; I loved it. Every graduate gets tons and tons of flowers on their day. Once the party started to fade away Max opened his gifts. The common gift is money but he also got things for an appartment for when he goes off to school again. He is going to med school next. Did you know in Finland you do not have to pay to go to college? They pay you! Students get a monthly salary for going to college. His highschool also gave him money for going to college and getting good grades. The Fins eduactional philosophy is smart; its a great incentive to continue your education and it gives everyone the oppertunity to go.
Once the graduation party was over Jamie, Kerstin and I went to the beach to continue the celebrations with the students. We had to ride our bikes there and we were wearing dresses... so we wore our soccer shorts over our dresses and then tied our shorts to our bike once we got to our destination. It was a genius idea but the Fins thought we were crazy Americans. Everyone was at the beach; graduates, friends and random people. The temperature started to drop so the next stop for all the graduates was downtown kokkola. The music was great and DJ was really good. I was impressed and everyone danced (with their sailer hats and all) till their feet hurt. The graduates were celebrating all night but the celebrations ended for the Americans at about 3am. We put on our soccer shorts, got on the bike and went home. I am glad I got to experience a full Finnish graduation; it was a great day!
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