January 11, 2026 — 7:30pm
As an exchange student living in Finland, naturally, Australian teenager Marley Hines had to take classes in the local language, Finnish.
Eventually, she could follow roughly what the teacher was on about, but getting her head around the unfamiliar pronunciation was a challenge.
Exchange student Marley Hines, left, on a walk at Kaitalampi lake near Espoo with her host family “sister” Tanja.
“To say ‘r’, they roll their tongue, it’s like ‘aarrrthh’. It’s not something that comes naturally to me.”
But in her four-month stint in the Scandinavian nation, Hines, 17, from Mount Martha in Melbourne’s south-east, achieved her goal of experiencing life in a different culture on the other side of the world.
She ate sauteed reindeer and visited the self-proclaimed home of Santa Claus in Rovaniemi, Lapland, in the Arctic Circle, where the temperature was -25 degrees.
Hines was struck by how beautiful Finland is — how often you’d find yourself “right by a forest or a lake”.
Snow worries: Marley Hines, right, standing with her host family “sister” Tanja, left, and host “mum” Marjo, centre, in Rovaniemi, Finland.
Scenic cities in nearby countries were very accessible. Tallinn, in Estonia, took two hours’ travel by ferry from Finland’s capital, Helsinki.
Hines is the fourth and last person profiled in The Age’s Living Abroad series about Australians who resided overseas in 2025.
Hines said she had “an incredible time” during her exchange placement in the city of Espoo, in Finland’s south, which was organised by agency World Education Program Australia.
She said most Finns she met spoke English well, including her lovely host family – a couple, their 21-year-old daughter and 18-year-old twin sons.
Marley Hines, left, with host family “sister” Tanja eating sauteed reindeer and reindeer pasta in Rovaniemi, Finland.
Her favourite Finnish meal was sauteed reindeer with mashed potato and cranberry sauce. “It was delicious,” she said.
It surprised her that her hosts didn’t eat fish, nor did many people she met. “I had a stereotype that Scandinavians eat a lot of fish.”
Her secondary school in Espoo ran like a university in Australia, with no uniforms, an independent study vibe and students who controlled how many subjects they took at a time.
While Hines attends school from 9am to 3pm in Australia, in Espoo, you could “walk home when your classes are done. It’s not strict at all”.
Her school provided students with free laptops and hot lunches.
Hines said teenagers were more reserved in Finland. “At school, everyone kept to themselves and minded their own business, so it was difficult to mingle.”
But Finland felt safe and children had more freedom. You’d often see young kids out walking alone, even in Helsinki.
Asked what she missed about home, Hines said Australian beaches and having uniforms at school, which meant not having to worry about what to wear every day.
“I missed Aussie food like parmas, meat pies and sausage rolls.”
But Hines, who returned to Australia on December 30 and is soon to start year 12, loved her Finland foray, which included trips to the historic city of Turku and Stockholm in Sweden.
The Finnish people were very welcoming, she said. They asked her whether everybody in Australia surfs, and how often she sees snakes and spiders.
“They were very curious because most people hadn’t met anyone from Australia before.”
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