American Exchange Student Goes Undercover as a Finnish Student and Visits the US Embassy

That's a long title but that's basically what happened.

I can actually be a spy.

They had no clue except for my passport at security that I was an American. Only then... but afterwards! No idea!

So now I better explain what all went on.

Monday, my US history class (my favorite class) took a field trip to the US Embassy in Finland. And when you take a field trip here in Finland you don't go together, you're told a place to meet up and you have to get there by yourself. High school here is more like college, actually is is just like college. Anyways back on topic.

I am constantly confused and I am so thankful there are kind people out there which won't take advantage of my cluelessness. This lead to three girls meeting up with me at the school and going with me to the Embassy.

Before I left though I had to go to only one class... Finnish for Foreigners. But sadly this is for kids which moved here when they were three or so, this makes them all fluent in Finnish and makes Luis and me confused and bored at times. The result is shown above. 

Here we go!

Once we arrived, since we were early, we sat on the shore which over looked my beloved Baltic.

above is the only two photos I was able to get of the Embassy. It was interesting to see such high security on the US Embassy but you could honestly just walk into Brazil's. We had to have a photo ID and go through a security check. We were not able to have our phones on us.

The building is beautiful though. It was recently renovated and is the "greenest" out of all the US Embassies.

When we sat in the Q+A session, the worker man sat right next to me. The class all laughed because he was still clueless I was the American. I just listened the whole time though, I didn't want to stand out in this case. He actually thought the girl across the room was. I even asked a question about the USA foreign policy dealing with the Ukraine and he didn't hear my accent! Yeah! I have an accent!

I smiled when I saw the flag waving. It was a bit of home up there waving.
 I was asked why I was proud of it. I was surprised at how hard that was to answer but at the same time so obvious. It stands for more than the government. I may not agree with the system but the people and the ideas which are grown here- which are watered and fed by the rest of the world- is what I am proud of. The system and the culture are two different things. I am proud of where I come from. I am not Croatian or Irish. It would be dishonest to say I am like them. I am not. I learned that I am American. I am bits and pieces from around the world, this makes me. I will constantly be changing just like my country. I am not proud of everything but I am proud of my home.

The United States of America