By Esther Till, Finland 2023

Welcome to Loviisa, a city with typically wooden houses, lots of trees and access to the sea. I stayed there for five weeks during the summer 2023 and worked at the Lurens Sommarteater with Erasmus+. This year they played “Aladdin och den underbara lampan”.
The Östra Nyland Youth Association`s (ÖNUF) summer theatre activities began on 22th June 1958. The play “Sockenskomakarna” was a great success and so they decided to continue with the open-air theatre. 1966 they built the spinning “lektare”, which means “stand” and renewed it in 1982. Since then the platform wasn’t changed until today. Located in Kuggom, about 7 kilometres from Loviisa, the theatre’s mission is to get to know different aged people who are interested in acting and to entertain the audience. It’s one of only a few 360° stages and because of this, people from far away come to see the spinning stand. 
The first few days there where about 200 people, but after the first week the plays were sold out and they had to sell extra chairs to let people watch the show without sending them back home. The most visited day was nearly at the end of the performance time with around 500 visitors. Of course the actors where excited and a little bit nervous, but all of them did a great job!
I worked four days a week in the afternoon and finished in the evening, then I cycled home by bicycle. Luckily it didn’t get too dark and I arrived at home in about ten minutes. 
At the Lures theatre I had to braid the actor’s hair and open the door 15 minutes before beginning. During the first half of the play I sometimes made some snacks for the break and did the dishes, even if no one asked but they were very thankful for what I did. I also rang the big, old bell on the roof of an old building through a rope three times before the play started and after the break again. When the coffee was empty I made new one, because nearly all of them needed more as two cups of coffee a day. As soon as the second half of the play started, Ida and I took all the cash and counted it. 
After work was done, I made my way home before the show finished. 

Ida was my contact person, the one who organized everything and made the shows work well.
I learned some interesting things as well, for example that the people of the south part of Finland mostly speak Swedish instead of Finish. I also learned the Swedish words “Korv” which means “sausages”, “bra” translated to “good”, “Tack så mycket!“ when you want to say „thank you so much!“. Sometimes Swedish words sounded similar to the English or German words and I could follow the conversations. 
I also watched the play with my grandma at the premiere and since we don’t understand Swedish, we had to watch closely at the gestures and acting of the actors. Fortenatly they did great and we were able to follow the plot. 
Sadly we had no car but the next supermarket was about 7 kilometres south from our appartement and so we had to ration the food. But when we got the chance to drive to Loviisa we enjoyed the city. On my grandma’s birthday we made ourselves an amazing day in the small but charming town and went to an adorable café and afterwards to the arm of the sea. We both were fascinated by the gorgeous looking buildings which where found nearly everywhere. My grandma was joking about moving to Finland even if she can’t speak English not to menshion Finish. Of course we bought some souvenirs and presents for our family.
All in all I have to say that I really enjoyed doing my internship at the “Lurens Sommarteater“ and learned lots of new things. I had a wonderful time (with my grandma) in Finland!
Tack så mycket Ida, Päivi, Mrs. Schlick and Mrs. Huber for making this internship possible and to all the kind and warm hearted people I got in contact with during my stay there! I will never forget this special summer! 🙂