maanantai:
Today was a super/insainely/crazy/great day. It started out with a ride to school. My music teacher still was sick and we had a different sub... so I kinda left. I had things to do! Picked up my portfolio from the art teacher, then walked to Tokmanni, last minute shopping and all... lost my mittens in the store so ended up going back in and spending a while retracing my steps. FOUND THEM!!! fuew! Then kept walking, to Kyröskoski book store to pick up my English book. They gave me candy too... Christmas time is candy time here! Then I followed all this candels to a kirpputori that I had no idea even existed... It was a really small one in the basement of a building... It kinda smelt like Hampsters... but not in a bad way... really hard to explain I guess. There I found the most ugly sweater... so ugly that I felt bad for it and just had to buy it! It's wonderful! Then the rest of my day at school. The last class was Dance class! We reviewed the 3 dances we already learned, then learned another one... I'm not sure why... we are going to be on break for about 3 weeks.... so are we really going to remember it? Well lets hope so! Then Susanna picked me up, then Roosa, and quick to the house, ate, and back to the car to be driven to the bus stop, I had my lesson! I was taking the 4:30 bus today instead of the 3:30 bus... It was way less crowded which was really nice cause of the horn! My lesson went great! Then hoped on the bus back... hehe And home!
tiistai:
LAST DAY OF SCHOOL THIS YEAR!!! SOOOOO GREAT!!! Everyone was so excited, and we had Riisi Purro (rice pudding) for lunch. In rice pudding, they put one almond in the batch and whoever gets the almond either: will get married in the year to come... get to make a wish... or as in school, go to the kitchen and get a present! I didn't get the almond, though I thought I saw it in my bowl... It must have slipped thourght the hole in the bottom of the bowl before I could spoon it up. I also gave my presentation on Christmas in America to my English class. I think it went really well... anyway I had fun doing it! And our last class was canceled, instead we all went to the auditorium for Kinkku Bingo! (Ham bingo) There were 4 games, 3 small ones where you win a box of chocolate... a big box of chocolate. Then a big game where you win a Christmas ham... I had bingo for one of the chocolate ones, but someone else yelled it out before me so... Oh well, Then I was really close to winning the Ham but nope. After school I was on a mission to go to my favorite Kirpputori! So I walked there... It's some 4 kilometers from the school, my friend Reetta walked a few of them with me to the Library. I finally got there, I was a bit chilled... I had a pair of snowish pants in my bag... But I was too lazy to put them on so I just got cold Catch 22 I'd say. I finally got there and looked around. Just as I remember, tons of cool stuff! I then realized that my cell phone is missing! Oh no and Susanna was going to call me in 45ish minutes to find out where I was to pick me up... So I freaked out a little, paid for the two things I'd picked up already, and headed on the search to retrace my steps... sounds a little like yesterday and my mittens. Plus I was kinda freaking out cause what would I do if I couldn't find it? Well I had a couple ideas... but my best idea was to find it. And I eventually did! It was just laying on the ground all cold and lonely about a kilometer and a half from the kirpputori. So we reunited and I headed back to the kirpputori.
keskiviikko:
Sleep time!!! Yeah LOMA! Break!!! I hung out all morning, Roosa and Juha went in to Tampere, and Susanna was working. She picked me up after work and we also went to Tampere to met up with Juha. Roosa was with some friends. So while Susanna and Juha were shopping for some last minute food items, like a cake shaped like an almond, and fish. I toured the city a bit by myself. It was sooooo busy! Everybody was out getting in last minute things! Wow! Then Susanna, Juha and I went to Prisma, a gigantic walmart like grocery store! And let me tell you, the food section was crazy!!! It felt like supermarket sweep mixed with black friday placed in Finland... so it was oddly quiet. I was shopping cart watcher, I found a place that I was mostly out of the way in, then stood with the cart while Juha and Susanna filled it. And I noticed something about these carts... now I don't know if it is just a Prisma cart thing, or all Finnish carts, but that bar that you put your foot on and then push the cart like a scooter... There was none! It was so annoying cause by habbit I kept raising my foot to rest it on the bar... and just air... I did that so many multipule times... Ugh! Then we escaped that market, picked up Roosa and her friend. Then Susanna and I went back in her car stopping at a Drive-Through McDonalds!!! Second Big Mac in forever, and First Drive-Though here! It funny here they only have like 6 different burgers to choose from and then the chicken nuggets, I'm so used to the two whole boards of options that It takes such a long time to read through, then deciding take just that much longer...
torstai:
No school again! Today we cleaned! Then around noon we went present giving... if that's even a phrase... Anyway, the cookies I baked with Roosa the other day, I packaged them up and gave them to my future host family, my last host family, and my Rotary man, Markku. I felt like Joulupukki! (Santa) It was soooo cold though! The few seconds that was spent out of the car, getting to the door, your hands almost frose off! And at my last host family, my snow man I made was still up! I've never had a snow man last that long cause it always ends up melting or falling over!!! But that one was like an ice sculpture now! I'd like to make another snow man, but the snow is now too cold and wont pack : ( The rest of the day was more cleaning and cooking, getting ready for the big day!
perjantai:
So today was Christmas Eve!!! Merry Christmas Eve, here Christmas Eve is pretty much, if not, bigger than the actual Christmas day. We started off with some last minute cleaning and cooking. Some Christmas tv programs and lots of Christmas songs. Later that day there was sauna and a great big dinner! It was great food! Lots of salads type dishes, casseroles, salmon (raw and smoked) then HAM!!! Yummy! After dinner we went to the cemetary where everyone in the town light candles for special people that have pasted. So the entire cemetary was compleatly light up with a billion candles... really something amazing! After coming back we opened presents and drank glögi... It was a great evening! Hyvää Joulua!!!
lauantai:
Hyvää Joulua! Merry Christmas everybody!!! Today was great. Around 2:00 grandparents came and we had another Christmas feast! Yum AGAIN!!! Then skyping with my family back home <3 After that, card and board games. What a great Christmas
sunnuntai:
Boxing day!!! Still not sure what boxing day actually means... but today we hung out. It snowed all day, we must have gotten at least 6-10 inches. And so we shoveled the driveway... a lot! It's weird cause I just realized that not many people here / noboday have plows to plow their own driveway... I guess that could be because not too many / hardly anyone have big enought cars to handle a plow. In the states everyone or their brother has their own plow! We also ate the Christmas feast again, we joked that we'll be eatting this for the rest of the year (which is probably pretty ture) but I don't mind cause the food is sooooo good!
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Viikko Yhdeksantoista
maanatai:
Today the music teacher was sick again, making my whole morning study halls. After realizing how much time I had, I headed to Tokanni and K-Supermarket to look into some Christmas shopping... Once I got there I realized I must have forgotten my wallet at home... So like in America, no money (or card) no shopping. But I looked anyway cause I had the time. After school Susanna and Juho picked Roosa and I up. We then picked the dogs up and drove to their groomers. While we waited for the groomer to cut the dog's hair we went to Idea Park, one of the biggest malls around... it was big... but I'd say Colonie Center size. Hesburger for dinner YUM! Then went to pick the puppies back up and play with the other puppies that were at the groomers, so cute!
tiistai:
Today went back to Tokmanni, wallet in hand : P, and bought my super secret Christmas presents for some of my school friends... I mention that they are super secret because two of my friends, who were going to get that present, were there with me so therefore... not so super secret. Then we waited in the history hallway working on our hairdos and modle-walks... yeah they were all really impressive walks... and hairdos for that mater. At home my "10" minute talk on skype with Shelby turned into like an hour and 20 minutes... hehe, then I talked to Karah for maybe 20 mins! Ha!
keskiviikko:
Today... school, again had all study halls before lunch. I bundled up and went on another Christmas present expedition! On the way back I saw Eija in her car! It's such an odd thing to only sometimes see people that you used to see all the time... My music teacher was still sick, but in her place was a gorgeous man, so not all was lost : P (dad probably loves this line. hehe hi daddy!) Then after school I got ready for the Rotary Christmas Dinner. It was such a fun time. Glögi, christmas food, music, they had me play a few songs I'd prepared, then we listened to a recording of F.E. Sillanpää, a local Nobel Peace Price winner, I think where he was born is just a couple kilometers from my house... so. It was such a great evening! I really enjoy hanging out with all the Rotarians, I've decided I'm going to make a shirt that has on the back: Mä <3>
Today the music teacher was sick again, making my whole morning study halls. After realizing how much time I had, I headed to Tokanni and K-Supermarket to look into some Christmas shopping... Once I got there I realized I must have forgotten my wallet at home... So like in America, no money (or card) no shopping. But I looked anyway cause I had the time. After school Susanna and Juho picked Roosa and I up. We then picked the dogs up and drove to their groomers. While we waited for the groomer to cut the dog's hair we went to Idea Park, one of the biggest malls around... it was big... but I'd say Colonie Center size. Hesburger for dinner YUM! Then went to pick the puppies back up and play with the other puppies that were at the groomers, so cute!
tiistai:
Today went back to Tokmanni, wallet in hand : P, and bought my super secret Christmas presents for some of my school friends... I mention that they are super secret because two of my friends, who were going to get that present, were there with me so therefore... not so super secret. Then we waited in the history hallway working on our hairdos and modle-walks... yeah they were all really impressive walks... and hairdos for that mater. At home my "10" minute talk on skype with Shelby turned into like an hour and 20 minutes... hehe, then I talked to Karah for maybe 20 mins! Ha!
keskiviikko:
Today... school, again had all study halls before lunch. I bundled up and went on another Christmas present expedition! On the way back I saw Eija in her car! It's such an odd thing to only sometimes see people that you used to see all the time... My music teacher was still sick, but in her place was a gorgeous man, so not all was lost : P (dad probably loves this line. hehe hi daddy!) Then after school I got ready for the Rotary Christmas Dinner. It was such a fun time. Glögi, christmas food, music, they had me play a few songs I'd prepared, then we listened to a recording of F.E. Sillanpää, a local Nobel Peace Price winner, I think where he was born is just a couple kilometers from my house... so. It was such a great evening! I really enjoy hanging out with all the Rotarians, I've decided I'm going to make a shirt that has on the back: Mä <3>
torstai:
Today in English class we had a listening test... I soooo did really badly! I don't understand how they expect these kids to know the answers, expecially if I can hardly do it (and a lot of the time can't do it) wow!!! I know if they tried to get me to do anything like that in Spanish... man I would have just bombed... Oh wait : P Then for lunch we had Christmas food! Ham and mustard, samon (that was really good, unexpectedly) and lots of other things that I forgot, but all really good!!!
perjantai:
Today... went to Tampere! After school with Sanni and Laura (Laura soon ditched us : P) But Sanni and I had a blast! McDonalds!!! My first Big Mac in FOREVER!!! And I missed their fries and ketchup... Hesburger's ketchup, just isn't the same... too sweet, not enough salty I think. There was a Joulu Tori (a Christmas Market) in the city center, a bunch of little shed-like selling booths all decked out in Christmas cheer and lights all over, there was a Santa Claus too, but we stayed away from him cause they're kinda creepy... Then we hit up all the Sales in the other stores, I restrained myself cause you can't buy too much for youself before Christmas. That's just the rule, but after Christmas I'm going back there for sure!!!lauantai:
Today I sleep in! Around noon we went to go pick Roosa up from a sleepover she was at. They dropped me off at Tokmanni and KSupermarket to do some last minute baking supply shopping. Then Roosa and I baked the rest of the day! It was sooo tireing... but fun too. Then just a relaxing day!sunnuntai:
Today was a lazy day too. I didn't have to do anything, except for the last Christmas concert. That was at 6:00, so that was fun, It was the same concert as last Sunday, only in a different place. I liked it at the Church last Sunday better, but it wasn't as cold here! Juice and buns and cookies and marshmellow when it was over. It's funny. They do have marshmellows here, but they are usually colored, a bit flavored, and they eat them just like skittles... or m&m's... hmmmm. Once home Roosa and I realized that it was Sunday night and that means Monday morning is really soon... meaning school. : ( but only a couple more days then LOMA!!! (BREAK!!!)
Monday, December 13, 2010
Viikko Kahdeksantoista
maanatai:
Happy Independance day Finland!!! So I've heard that what everone dose on this day is stay home and watch this program on TV, of the president shaking hands with everyone coming to a speciall ball, all dressed up in beautiful outfits, then some finnish war film... the war film part reminds me of the Christmas Story, and how we always end up watching at least some of it on Christmas Eve. But for Independance day we were on a Rotary trip in Lapland with all the other rotary exchange students currently in Finland, and some even from Estonia. It was a busy day today. First we went to a reindeer farm and learned about the history and present reindeer farming culture. Then we got to feed some reindeer, and rope/try to rope fake wooden reindeers. Then we went to a small meuseam and watched a film on the seasons, plants, and animals of lapland. Then we headed back to the hotel, but on the way we took a detour over the bridge to Sweden!!! Where we promptly turned around, and the bus stopped to let us get out. I dug in the snow until I found a small rock that wasn't frosen to the ground! Ha now I have part of Sweden too!!! Then headed back for real. It surprised me how little security there was to cross the boarder. There was an offical looking building, but it didn't look like anyone was there and the bus didn't stop for anything, just crossed then crossed back... Well maybe it had to do with the fact that it was the Independace day today and everyone was home watching TV... or maybe that's just the way it is. After lunch we went snow shoeing to this place where they had a teepee set up and a reindeer sleigh ride!!! The reindeer behind my sleigh was crazy and kept trying to run our sleigh over, but the ride was awesome. Then we walked back and took a dog sleigh ride! The dogs were much smaller than I thought they would be, but that didn't stop them from pulling us! and running us half into a ditch : P So after dinner they had a man in traditional dress sing to us, he had four songs and they all were so beautiful, the last one he sang was expecially special. It was written by a man who spent a lot of time in jail and missed the sound of the wind, so in the song, he sang high-pitched squilling noises that did sound exactly like the wind howling!!!
tiistai:
Today we were leaving Lapland... sad. So got packed and on the bus, five hours later we stopped at Rovaniemi, where Santa's tourist home is (he really lives on, Korvatunturi, a mountain in Lapland, or at least that's what the Finns belive, but they will fight you if you say he lives on the North Pole... no joke!) But Rovaniemi was a cool little touristy place where you kept acidentally saying 'anteeksi' to the people you might bump into, EVEN THOUGH you knew they all didn't speak finnish... haha. Still a lot of fun taking pictures, buying random touristy things, hanging out with friends, searching for Santa, (our group never did find him...) Then a lunch and goodbyes to everyone not on your bus : ( It was so fun to be around all the exchange kids, it's crazy pretty much everyone have had pretty similar problems, experienses, ect. And we were able to help eachother out, whether it was how to find your favorite TV shows on the internet, or how to deal with home sickness, it was just amazing! The bus ride home was again around 14 hours, this time I got no sleep cause I was talking too much with everyone around me. Another girl from the states and a girl from Germany living in Tampere now, a boy from Canada and Japan also in Tampere. Then a girl from South Africa who has almost been here a full year now, she is leaving in early January, and another boy who lives in Tampere, from New Zealand and he is also leaving in January. But talking to the Oldies (the kids who have been here way longer than us) was also really cool, asking tons of questions, hearing how well they spoke finnish, it gave... i'm not sure of the right word, maybe... oh now i'm forgetting words, I know what word I want. ENCOURAGMENT, if that's spelt right than that's what I wanted, encouragment to keep working hard at learning this language, cause it didn't come easy to them either, and they can now talk it!
keskiviikko:
Around 2 this morning I gave hugs to the bus and said good bye cause I was back in farmiliar territory, the Hämeenkyrön SMarket parking lot! Once getting home I quickly fell asleep, not waking up until 12ish. Obviously I wasn't planing on going to school today. Roosa wasn't either, she was sick, so we watched movies until I had to go to my Puhallica concert. That was good, and two/three rotary men showed up. I say 2 or 3 because one of them I didn't recognize because he said he hadn't been to a meeting since I have started coming. But of course I recognized the other two. It kind of feels like I have a bunch of Finnish grandfathers now.
torstai:
School... again... waking up early wasn't anything close to fun, and the thought of having to go wait at the bus stop in the freezing cold wasn't helping at all. Luckily Susanna brought me to school on her way to work. That just means that I'll get to school half and hour earlier, but if it means I don't have to wait in the cold for the bus, I'm okay with it! After school Roosa and I watched Zac Eefron's 17 Again movie... surprisingly, pretty good.
perjantai:
FRIDAY IS HERE!!! It so did not feel like Friday, probably because it's 'my' 'tuesday'... idk. First class of the day was Vanhojan Tanssi Kurssi. We were told that we will have to learn six different dances. And today we learned one of them. We are actually moving pretty quickly, unless this was just the easiest dance they taught to get out of the way... After lunch my music teacher was sick so I had free time untill the bus came. I went to the library, and later Laura and Sanni caught up with me and we went to SMarket to buy CHOCOLATE!!! I got Fazers Dark Chocolate. Yumm!!! (and might I add, it didn't last very long at all) After school Roosa had a friend over and we rented a movie The Mist, a Stephin King based on novel, movie... It was so freaky and the endding just made me so sad. I'm not gonna give it away... they all died... sorta. So it was a late night.
lauantai:
Sleep!!! Very long. Then hung around, after lunch Roosa's friend went home and we piled into the car to go see the grandparents. They were so cute, and reminded me sorta in weird ways of John and Alice, their house did too... maybe it's the Norwegian/Finnish thing... we had coffee and buns and cake then watched skiing competions that are going on, on the TV... I don't know what they are called but they are happening! Then headed home to Skype with the family and Sauna!
sunnuntai:
Slept late again today. When I got up (around 11:00) the sun was gracing us with it's first presents of the day. I sat in the sun trying to soak in the D... I don't know if it actually worked or not... Then I hung around, walked the dogs with Susanna, TV, ya know, stuff, untill I had to go to the church for rehearsal and concert. It was a Christmas concert. We would play a peice or two, then they gave everybody booklets of Christmas songs and the crowd would yell out numbers, then we'd sing those. It was so cute! We must have sang around 20 christmas songs!!! And Anssi and Eija came! It was so awesome to see them again! So then we went home and got ready for another week of Christmas cheer.
Happy Independance day Finland!!! So I've heard that what everone dose on this day is stay home and watch this program on TV, of the president shaking hands with everyone coming to a speciall ball, all dressed up in beautiful outfits, then some finnish war film... the war film part reminds me of the Christmas Story, and how we always end up watching at least some of it on Christmas Eve. But for Independance day we were on a Rotary trip in Lapland with all the other rotary exchange students currently in Finland, and some even from Estonia. It was a busy day today. First we went to a reindeer farm and learned about the history and present reindeer farming culture. Then we got to feed some reindeer, and rope/try to rope fake wooden reindeers. Then we went to a small meuseam and watched a film on the seasons, plants, and animals of lapland. Then we headed back to the hotel, but on the way we took a detour over the bridge to Sweden!!! Where we promptly turned around, and the bus stopped to let us get out. I dug in the snow until I found a small rock that wasn't frosen to the ground! Ha now I have part of Sweden too!!! Then headed back for real. It surprised me how little security there was to cross the boarder. There was an offical looking building, but it didn't look like anyone was there and the bus didn't stop for anything, just crossed then crossed back... Well maybe it had to do with the fact that it was the Independace day today and everyone was home watching TV... or maybe that's just the way it is. After lunch we went snow shoeing to this place where they had a teepee set up and a reindeer sleigh ride!!! The reindeer behind my sleigh was crazy and kept trying to run our sleigh over, but the ride was awesome. Then we walked back and took a dog sleigh ride! The dogs were much smaller than I thought they would be, but that didn't stop them from pulling us! and running us half into a ditch : P So after dinner they had a man in traditional dress sing to us, he had four songs and they all were so beautiful, the last one he sang was expecially special. It was written by a man who spent a lot of time in jail and missed the sound of the wind, so in the song, he sang high-pitched squilling noises that did sound exactly like the wind howling!!!
tiistai:
Today we were leaving Lapland... sad. So got packed and on the bus, five hours later we stopped at Rovaniemi, where Santa's tourist home is (he really lives on, Korvatunturi, a mountain in Lapland, or at least that's what the Finns belive, but they will fight you if you say he lives on the North Pole... no joke!) But Rovaniemi was a cool little touristy place where you kept acidentally saying 'anteeksi' to the people you might bump into, EVEN THOUGH you knew they all didn't speak finnish... haha. Still a lot of fun taking pictures, buying random touristy things, hanging out with friends, searching for Santa, (our group never did find him...) Then a lunch and goodbyes to everyone not on your bus : ( It was so fun to be around all the exchange kids, it's crazy pretty much everyone have had pretty similar problems, experienses, ect. And we were able to help eachother out, whether it was how to find your favorite TV shows on the internet, or how to deal with home sickness, it was just amazing! The bus ride home was again around 14 hours, this time I got no sleep cause I was talking too much with everyone around me. Another girl from the states and a girl from Germany living in Tampere now, a boy from Canada and Japan also in Tampere. Then a girl from South Africa who has almost been here a full year now, she is leaving in early January, and another boy who lives in Tampere, from New Zealand and he is also leaving in January. But talking to the Oldies (the kids who have been here way longer than us) was also really cool, asking tons of questions, hearing how well they spoke finnish, it gave... i'm not sure of the right word, maybe... oh now i'm forgetting words, I know what word I want. ENCOURAGMENT, if that's spelt right than that's what I wanted, encouragment to keep working hard at learning this language, cause it didn't come easy to them either, and they can now talk it!
keskiviikko:
Around 2 this morning I gave hugs to the bus and said good bye cause I was back in farmiliar territory, the Hämeenkyrön SMarket parking lot! Once getting home I quickly fell asleep, not waking up until 12ish. Obviously I wasn't planing on going to school today. Roosa wasn't either, she was sick, so we watched movies until I had to go to my Puhallica concert. That was good, and two/three rotary men showed up. I say 2 or 3 because one of them I didn't recognize because he said he hadn't been to a meeting since I have started coming. But of course I recognized the other two. It kind of feels like I have a bunch of Finnish grandfathers now.
torstai:
School... again... waking up early wasn't anything close to fun, and the thought of having to go wait at the bus stop in the freezing cold wasn't helping at all. Luckily Susanna brought me to school on her way to work. That just means that I'll get to school half and hour earlier, but if it means I don't have to wait in the cold for the bus, I'm okay with it! After school Roosa and I watched Zac Eefron's 17 Again movie... surprisingly, pretty good.
perjantai:
FRIDAY IS HERE!!! It so did not feel like Friday, probably because it's 'my' 'tuesday'... idk. First class of the day was Vanhojan Tanssi Kurssi. We were told that we will have to learn six different dances. And today we learned one of them. We are actually moving pretty quickly, unless this was just the easiest dance they taught to get out of the way... After lunch my music teacher was sick so I had free time untill the bus came. I went to the library, and later Laura and Sanni caught up with me and we went to SMarket to buy CHOCOLATE!!! I got Fazers Dark Chocolate. Yumm!!! (and might I add, it didn't last very long at all) After school Roosa had a friend over and we rented a movie The Mist, a Stephin King based on novel, movie... It was so freaky and the endding just made me so sad. I'm not gonna give it away... they all died... sorta. So it was a late night.
lauantai:
Sleep!!! Very long. Then hung around, after lunch Roosa's friend went home and we piled into the car to go see the grandparents. They were so cute, and reminded me sorta in weird ways of John and Alice, their house did too... maybe it's the Norwegian/Finnish thing... we had coffee and buns and cake then watched skiing competions that are going on, on the TV... I don't know what they are called but they are happening! Then headed home to Skype with the family and Sauna!
sunnuntai:
Slept late again today. When I got up (around 11:00) the sun was gracing us with it's first presents of the day. I sat in the sun trying to soak in the D... I don't know if it actually worked or not... Then I hung around, walked the dogs with Susanna, TV, ya know, stuff, untill I had to go to the church for rehearsal and concert. It was a Christmas concert. We would play a peice or two, then they gave everybody booklets of Christmas songs and the crowd would yell out numbers, then we'd sing those. It was so cute! We must have sang around 20 christmas songs!!! And Anssi and Eija came! It was so awesome to see them again! So then we went home and got ready for another week of Christmas cheer.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Viikko Seitsemäntoista
maanantai:
No school again! Man I'm getting too used to this! I watched the season finale of Finnish Big Brother. Eetu didn't win, he was the one I wanted to win... oh well. Then I hung around until 3ish when I had to go to the bus stop to go to my lesson in Ylöjärvi. The bus was full again so I had to smush in with my horn and some people. Oh well. I took my time getting to my teachers house. Waited in the park/playground thing next to his house and discovered that they had turned the once soccer feild into a ice feild! It was rough ice but I'm sure they weren't done with it yet. My lesson went really well. And after I was picked up by my host parents who had been out. The whole ride back we watched the thermeter in the car at one point it was -25 degrees! At our house it was a bit warmer, -21.5, but still!
tiistai:
Today I caught the bus in the morning because Sanni and I were going to Tampere later that day! Sanni had a test in the morning so I walked to Anssi's work to return the house key. It was cool to see him again. Then I wandered SMarket then headed back. We waited for lunch, cause why pass up a free lunch? Then caught the 11:30 bus to Tampere. We were on a mission! HARRY POTTER!!! We got there with tons of time to spare, the movie was at 2.30 and Sanni had pre ordered the tickets and seats so we would definatly get good seats. It's weird, here, they have exact seat numbers on each ticket so you have to sit in that seat. It was so weird to walk into movie theater looking at your ticket and trying to find the right seat! That just dosen't happen where I'm from. Anyway we couldn't help but notice that everyone in the line waiting for the Harry Potter movie was speaking english! (Well including us sorta) Some had a british accents, other's were maybe other exchange students, but they must have been with a different program cause I didn't know them from Rotary. The movie was really good! I didn't realize a couple times I was full out screaming cause some parts were so startling! After the movie we did some more "shopping" It's in quotes cause I don't think either of us bought anything... Then we ate at RAX, a pizza buffet, the closets to American pizza I've gotten my whole trip, but still different. And we ate a lot! Then waddled to the bus station and headed home.
keskiviikko:
Today I was on a mission to go to the Kirputorri! It was about a 5 kilometer walk (50mins) I started off coldish, but by the end I was soooo hot! And I had missed the kirputorri and it's many wonderful treasures! I bought the ski coat I had my eye on for a while, before it was 20€ but today it was 15€! And I needed it for Lapland! Then I headed back, my friends from school Iina and her boyfriend past me, stopped and asked if I wanted a ride. Okay! The rest of the day I chilled, then went to band practice, concert next Wednesday!
torstai:
So back to school today. Roosa and I took the bus that comes 20mins earlier because it is less crowded and we get to sit together. I wasn't feeling the best, but wanted to stay in school so badly because today we started the Vanhojan Tanssi practices (sorta similar to American prom but they actually learn the dances beforehand, Waltzs and fancy dances like that) My partner is my friend Emma since my other partner backed out on my last minute. But what ever. I'm dancing the guy part cause I am taller and offered. Dancing was so much fun, I'm not even sure what kind of dances we did but nothing like I've ever done before! After that class it hit me again that I was feeling pretty sick so I asked Juho to pick me up, he did then stopped at the pharmacy to get head cold medicine. Then I just chilled the rest of the day trying to get better, I can't be sick! I'm going to Lapland tomorow!!!
perjantai:
So I didn't go to school today either cause I needed to get better, it worked cause by mid to late day I was feeling better. The bus was picking me up at SMarket around 9:00 so after dinner and packing we headed off. It felt like the first time in Kindergarten getting on the bus... I wasn't sure who would be there, only knew that 5 am next morning my friend Janet from Nebraska would be getting on, then 11 am we would finally arrive! But I got on, sat down and quickly made friends with the girls around me, two girls from Mexico and a Rotex (as Finn who has been on exchange before) she had been to Brazil. Then we made some pit stops, I talked to even more people. SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT!!! We ALL have something/many things in common so it was really easy to talk. I also discovered some really cool people who live really close to me! So I'm thinking we'll be hanging out at some point. I think I got some sleep on that bus. I crawled the floor, a trick anybody who has been on any long bus trick before has learn, and got maybe a couple hours.
lauantai:
Days get so confusing when you don't sleep that long and you aren't in your own bed! 5am and Janet got on the bus! So crazy I haven't seen her in so long! She looks so different, one cause she dyed her hair, and two (like everyone else) we are all now super pail! We ended up just laughing for hours until we fell somewhat asleep. 10 we were pretty north and the sun was trying to come out but we kept running away from it heading even more north! Soon it caught up to us and the at 11 we arrived. We all jumped out of the bus and quickly gave hugs to all the other exchange students who had arrived on earlier buses. It was awesome to see everyone!!! Then the mad rush to get our luggage and rooms. There were 3 to a room and it was sorted by bus, then home contry, then alphabetically. I was gonna say random, but it really wasnt. Then greeting the last bus to arrive, lunch and getting ready to go skiing. We finally got to the hill... That was kinda disappointing... But we suited up. The snow was pretty icy, there was really only one run down it, and it was super cold. Needless to say we only lasted a little while before heading in to warm up and wait for the buses to bring us back. Then it was a late night of hanging out and talking.
sunnuntai:
Woke up, breakfast and chilling with random people. Then a bus trip back to the slopes to let people who wanted to ski that day off. I stayed on and we went back to the resort to learn the fine art of ice carving! First a trip through the igloo, that was super cool! Then they lead us to small collums of snow that they made, gave us a bunch of randoms tools and put us to work. My group made a penguin. We named him Isosolies. Then we took a bunch of pictures with Isosolies and then had lunch outside on reindeer pelts. My group didn't last too long out there and soon went to the couches in the lobby of the resort, I think they hated us there! Well I think I would hate a bunch of wound up teenagers in my resort too! Then we went up to the TV room and just chilled and talked for hours. They broke out the ginger bread house they made last night and we ate it! YUMMY!!! Sauna was warm but I and the people I was hanging out with, didn't really feel like bothering. Later, after dinner they took us to a near by school where the kids of the school put on a show with dancing and music. Then each of our countries did something special. My favorite part of the night was just dancing. That and after they brought us outside these two local boys light balls on sting on fire and did a sorta dance with them. That was cool. Then on the ride home they told us that someone has been diagnosed with Mono... It was one of my room mates... great. But there is no way I'm getting sick so I'm not even gonna worry about it. The rest of my Lap land adventure soon. My favorite day was Monday so stay tuned! : P
No school again! Man I'm getting too used to this! I watched the season finale of Finnish Big Brother. Eetu didn't win, he was the one I wanted to win... oh well. Then I hung around until 3ish when I had to go to the bus stop to go to my lesson in Ylöjärvi. The bus was full again so I had to smush in with my horn and some people. Oh well. I took my time getting to my teachers house. Waited in the park/playground thing next to his house and discovered that they had turned the once soccer feild into a ice feild! It was rough ice but I'm sure they weren't done with it yet. My lesson went really well. And after I was picked up by my host parents who had been out. The whole ride back we watched the thermeter in the car at one point it was -25 degrees! At our house it was a bit warmer, -21.5, but still!
tiistai:
Today I caught the bus in the morning because Sanni and I were going to Tampere later that day! Sanni had a test in the morning so I walked to Anssi's work to return the house key. It was cool to see him again. Then I wandered SMarket then headed back. We waited for lunch, cause why pass up a free lunch? Then caught the 11:30 bus to Tampere. We were on a mission! HARRY POTTER!!! We got there with tons of time to spare, the movie was at 2.30 and Sanni had pre ordered the tickets and seats so we would definatly get good seats. It's weird, here, they have exact seat numbers on each ticket so you have to sit in that seat. It was so weird to walk into movie theater looking at your ticket and trying to find the right seat! That just dosen't happen where I'm from. Anyway we couldn't help but notice that everyone in the line waiting for the Harry Potter movie was speaking english! (Well including us sorta) Some had a british accents, other's were maybe other exchange students, but they must have been with a different program cause I didn't know them from Rotary. The movie was really good! I didn't realize a couple times I was full out screaming cause some parts were so startling! After the movie we did some more "shopping" It's in quotes cause I don't think either of us bought anything... Then we ate at RAX, a pizza buffet, the closets to American pizza I've gotten my whole trip, but still different. And we ate a lot! Then waddled to the bus station and headed home.
keskiviikko:
Today I was on a mission to go to the Kirputorri! It was about a 5 kilometer walk (50mins) I started off coldish, but by the end I was soooo hot! And I had missed the kirputorri and it's many wonderful treasures! I bought the ski coat I had my eye on for a while, before it was 20€ but today it was 15€! And I needed it for Lapland! Then I headed back, my friends from school Iina and her boyfriend past me, stopped and asked if I wanted a ride. Okay! The rest of the day I chilled, then went to band practice, concert next Wednesday!
torstai:
So back to school today. Roosa and I took the bus that comes 20mins earlier because it is less crowded and we get to sit together. I wasn't feeling the best, but wanted to stay in school so badly because today we started the Vanhojan Tanssi practices (sorta similar to American prom but they actually learn the dances beforehand, Waltzs and fancy dances like that) My partner is my friend Emma since my other partner backed out on my last minute. But what ever. I'm dancing the guy part cause I am taller and offered. Dancing was so much fun, I'm not even sure what kind of dances we did but nothing like I've ever done before! After that class it hit me again that I was feeling pretty sick so I asked Juho to pick me up, he did then stopped at the pharmacy to get head cold medicine. Then I just chilled the rest of the day trying to get better, I can't be sick! I'm going to Lapland tomorow!!!
perjantai:
So I didn't go to school today either cause I needed to get better, it worked cause by mid to late day I was feeling better. The bus was picking me up at SMarket around 9:00 so after dinner and packing we headed off. It felt like the first time in Kindergarten getting on the bus... I wasn't sure who would be there, only knew that 5 am next morning my friend Janet from Nebraska would be getting on, then 11 am we would finally arrive! But I got on, sat down and quickly made friends with the girls around me, two girls from Mexico and a Rotex (as Finn who has been on exchange before) she had been to Brazil. Then we made some pit stops, I talked to even more people. SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT!!! We ALL have something/many things in common so it was really easy to talk. I also discovered some really cool people who live really close to me! So I'm thinking we'll be hanging out at some point. I think I got some sleep on that bus. I crawled the floor, a trick anybody who has been on any long bus trick before has learn, and got maybe a couple hours.
lauantai:
Days get so confusing when you don't sleep that long and you aren't in your own bed! 5am and Janet got on the bus! So crazy I haven't seen her in so long! She looks so different, one cause she dyed her hair, and two (like everyone else) we are all now super pail! We ended up just laughing for hours until we fell somewhat asleep. 10 we were pretty north and the sun was trying to come out but we kept running away from it heading even more north! Soon it caught up to us and the at 11 we arrived. We all jumped out of the bus and quickly gave hugs to all the other exchange students who had arrived on earlier buses. It was awesome to see everyone!!! Then the mad rush to get our luggage and rooms. There were 3 to a room and it was sorted by bus, then home contry, then alphabetically. I was gonna say random, but it really wasnt. Then greeting the last bus to arrive, lunch and getting ready to go skiing. We finally got to the hill... That was kinda disappointing... But we suited up. The snow was pretty icy, there was really only one run down it, and it was super cold. Needless to say we only lasted a little while before heading in to warm up and wait for the buses to bring us back. Then it was a late night of hanging out and talking.
sunnuntai:
Woke up, breakfast and chilling with random people. Then a bus trip back to the slopes to let people who wanted to ski that day off. I stayed on and we went back to the resort to learn the fine art of ice carving! First a trip through the igloo, that was super cool! Then they lead us to small collums of snow that they made, gave us a bunch of randoms tools and put us to work. My group made a penguin. We named him Isosolies. Then we took a bunch of pictures with Isosolies and then had lunch outside on reindeer pelts. My group didn't last too long out there and soon went to the couches in the lobby of the resort, I think they hated us there! Well I think I would hate a bunch of wound up teenagers in my resort too! Then we went up to the TV room and just chilled and talked for hours. They broke out the ginger bread house they made last night and we ate it! YUMMY!!! Sauna was warm but I and the people I was hanging out with, didn't really feel like bothering. Later, after dinner they took us to a near by school where the kids of the school put on a show with dancing and music. Then each of our countries did something special. My favorite part of the night was just dancing. That and after they brought us outside these two local boys light balls on sting on fire and did a sorta dance with them. That was cool. Then on the ride home they told us that someone has been diagnosed with Mono... It was one of my room mates... great. But there is no way I'm getting sick so I'm not even gonna worry about it. The rest of my Lap land adventure soon. My favorite day was Monday so stay tuned! : P
Monday, November 29, 2010
Viikko Kuusitoista
maanatai:
Today was the first and last day of school this week... sorta (I had a test wednesday, but that's nothing) But it was my first time using my new and totally awesome bus card! It is sooo cool, unfortuantly I had no clue how to use it, so when the bus came, Roosa got on (she has a different type of card, where you just show the bus driver) Then I got on and I thought I knew how to use it, there's this circle thing that I thought was a dictector decives that you just tap the card on it, and it reads it. So after 5 seconds (or more) of me smacking my card on what turned out to be something that opens the door to the bus. I handed my card over to the bus driver defeatedly, and she took it out of it's case... and stuck it into the machine, and gave it back... Okay i felt dumb but just got over it and found Roosa in the back of the bus and sat down. The bus was pretty full. I was surprised! After school was a similar story with the bus card. Except I did take it out of it's case this time, and found the right machine to put it in. But I just put it in and right back out like the hotel doors and keys... it turns out that's not right either. I started walking to the back of the bus and the bus driver yelled 'wait' than took my card and put it in the machine, then waited, the card poped itself out and he gave it back to me. So same as last time, I just took it and went to find Roosa.
tiistai:
Woke up late today, cause (no school) the whole day I worked on my Rotary presentation. (Markku had asked me at the last Rotary meeting to work on a presentations of the differences between America and Finland) So I left it to the day of to work on it (of course) and yeah... So I actually really liked how it turned out! It was long enough (10-15mins) and they said they could understand everything that I said SCORE. Some of the things that they thought were the weirdest were:
keskiviikko:
Today was an extremly WINDY day!!! I can't remember the last time I heard wind so loud! But I had to get up early for the bus, for my English test. (I concored the bus card, if you were wondering) Then the English test. She asked me if I wanted the test everyone else was taking with finnish to english putting verbs in the right form, or the english to english test... yum give me the hard one, I've got nothing to lose!!! And really, english to english, what would I gain from that? Well I think I did well, I knew all the words, and only left maybe one or two of the questions blank, she told me I could use the dictionary, but I wanted to prove to myself I didn't need one. Then we waited for the bus. Sanni, Laura, Henriikka, and I, well Piia and Jonna were there too, but they left after lunch cause Jonna has a mopoauto and Piia lives like a kilometer from the school. FREE LUNCH WOOO!!! Then we chill, went on the computer, took crazy pictures... yah know. Laura is on the same bus as me now! Coolio! Puhallica today, the conductor wasn't in the best mood, but whatever. Juha and Suesanna picked me up after, but I'm still gettin used to the new cars so I thought it was them, opened the door and said 'is this the right car?' It was, luckily or else the people would have been so confused cause I said that in English as well as a random foreign chick climbing in their car : P.
torstai:
Hyvää Kiitos päivää!!! Yeah it's thanks giving, I decorated a little bit, then got ready for a rehersal for this thing I'm playing at the church on Sunday. That went well, I'm excited and nervous. After that we came home for our Thanksgiving meal and dessert! Yummy icecream and fudge cake!!! I realize now that everybody cuts their icecream weird. Ice cream comes in a rectangle carton right, so then they opent that compleatly open so its a rectangel piece of ice cream on the flat carton cardboard. Then they cut it into squares or rectangles and put those pieces in a bowl and you scoop out the icecream from the bowl piece by piece. Then after dinner and dessert I waited on skype for my family to call. It was awsome to see everyone! And all my animals! The baby kittys got sooo big, and Charliee looks goregous as always! They said that Charliee could hear me and knew it was me. Good cause I'd hate for her to forget who I was! It was cool introducing everyone to my host family, and vise-versa! Then we hung up and sauna tonight! yeah!!!
perjantai:
Today I got up earlish cause Markku was picking me up at 9 to show me what he dose at his job. He works for a timber, paper manufacture and is in charge of finding trees to cut down and buy. We first checked a place that trees were already cut down and we had to mark which trees were for the owner of the land to keep. I got to spray paint, MO (stands for forest owner) on a bunch of stacks of logs! Then we went to another place were a big machine was piling the trees up into bunches. Then we oreinteared. Markku had just worked a plan with a forest owner to cut those trees down, so we got to use maps and ribbon to mark the area so the machines would know where to cut, and where to say away from. It was very important to mark in the right places cause in some spots we were on the property line so if we went over and the neighbors tree was cut down, bad things could/probably would happen! But we did it right! So then we stopped for lunch (makkara) and then we watched another big machine cut down trees! It was soooo cool and super fast, Markku said that this operater just started on this new piece of equipment or it would go even faster, but I cant imagine how fast it would go cause it was so fast! This claw-like thing gripped the tree at the bottom, then cut it, then it fell down with the claw still attached. Then the tree slipped through the claw thing like corn on the cob kinda, getting rid of all the branches and cutting the log into similar sizes, maybe 20-25 ish (not quite sure we weren't that close) or more foot long pieces. They wer thinning the forest, taking 1 out of every 3 trees, mostly the sick and/or curvy trees so the healthy, straight trees can get even bigger. Markku talked about when they do clear cut, they leave a couple treas for the sceanary, and then some really tall stumps (over 5 meters) for the wood peckers. Then they have to re-plant it with-in a year with 2000 trees in every square... kilometer I think... I think that's what it is... or else you go to jail! Then we found another big machine (smaller than the last but still big) Markku told him we were just watching, and he was just showing me the job. This machine picked out the small trees (sometimes 5 at a time) and cut them up. They were going for fire wood/pellets I think after they dryed. The as we were leaving the guy asked if I wanted to try to drive it, Markku said no, probably for the best, I probably would have cut the entire forest down my accident and then I'd have to find 2000 new trees to plant there or I'd be put in Finnish prison, which is the toughest prison ever (I'm not so sure about that but...) Still not the best thing to have on my rap sheet. I got back home around 2:00, soooo tired. Then I had a concert to go to at the Tampereen Talo (Tampere's music house) we had signed up for it a while ago with Puhalica, and that place was sooo beautiful!!! And the music was awsome too, my horn teacher was playing in it too! He's awsome. So that was a long day, a good day, but long!
lauantai:
Today we headed out around 10 for shopping, there was a craft place in Ikkalinen that we looked through, so many awesome home made things! Wow! Then we went to Elo, Roosa and I shopped for jewlrey and clothes, I found an amazing sales rack in one store. I found these great (green) flats on sale for 5€ and really cool bottoms to a bathing suite for 50 cents! So heck yes! I go to pay for them (no tax I'll be paying 5.50€) And the lady says 1.65€... what? Okay, not gonna argue, turns out that sales rack was also all 70% off! SCORE!!! When we finally got home Roosa and I went to Roosa's friends house, it was her brother's birthday so the family was over, they all had so many questions to ask. Then Roosa, Johanna, and I played Cluedo (Clue) Johanna won, I was close though! It was the Yellow guy (me) in the biljardi huone with the revolveri. Then there was awsome cake, finnish pitza, and lots of candy. And we played in the snow and then Juha and Suesanna picked us up.
sunnuntai:
I had to wake up way too early! Had to be at the church 8:45 for warm up. Church started at 10:00, The playing thing went really well, and I really like singing hyms in finnish! Then after we went to the other church in Kyröskoski and had riisi purro (rice pudding) and then we played a bit more. So then I was done, It was a little after one o'clock. And they said I could stay for coffee and some more people talking, but I'm a busy girl, and texted for a ride home. haha. Then we went ice skating!!! YEAH I love ice skating!!! My skates were a bit tight, but I just ignored that. And I've never skated on such a big lake before! At one point the ice cracked (like a half mile long) and it made the coolest sound! And I was right by the shore so I didn't get freaked out. Cause ice settles... Then after hot cocoa and getting warm again we baked cookies! First ginger bread cookies, then I did chocolate chip cookies... yummy!!! Then very long skyping with Shelby, then the family. Karah's gonna come soon! Then I said I have to go to bed, and we hung up. I missed who won Big Brother, but they recoreded it for me and I'll watch it tomorow, Eetu is my favorite but I don't think he'll win cause I think the Finns like the other people better...
Today was the first and last day of school this week... sorta (I had a test wednesday, but that's nothing) But it was my first time using my new and totally awesome bus card! It is sooo cool, unfortuantly I had no clue how to use it, so when the bus came, Roosa got on (she has a different type of card, where you just show the bus driver) Then I got on and I thought I knew how to use it, there's this circle thing that I thought was a dictector decives that you just tap the card on it, and it reads it. So after 5 seconds (or more) of me smacking my card on what turned out to be something that opens the door to the bus. I handed my card over to the bus driver defeatedly, and she took it out of it's case... and stuck it into the machine, and gave it back... Okay i felt dumb but just got over it and found Roosa in the back of the bus and sat down. The bus was pretty full. I was surprised! After school was a similar story with the bus card. Except I did take it out of it's case this time, and found the right machine to put it in. But I just put it in and right back out like the hotel doors and keys... it turns out that's not right either. I started walking to the back of the bus and the bus driver yelled 'wait' than took my card and put it in the machine, then waited, the card poped itself out and he gave it back to me. So same as last time, I just took it and went to find Roosa.
tiistai:
Woke up late today, cause (no school) the whole day I worked on my Rotary presentation. (Markku had asked me at the last Rotary meeting to work on a presentations of the differences between America and Finland) So I left it to the day of to work on it (of course) and yeah... So I actually really liked how it turned out! It was long enough (10-15mins) and they said they could understand everything that I said SCORE. Some of the things that they thought were the weirdest were:
- When you are learning to drive in America, anyone over 21 that has a license can be teaching you, and you aren't required to have a second brake in the passenger seat. (Here if even your own parent wants to teach you how to drive they have to go take a really hard test on all the rules of the road, then install a second brake in the passenger seat) That's why most people go to car school to learn how to drive.
- I calculated the price of gas here and there and they thought that was crazy! here it is 1.43€ a liter, and we pay 80 cents for the liter (and I didn't even calculate in the exchange rate) So they just laughed at that.
- And they don't really have caffine free coffee here, actually they might, it's just allusive, cause I haven't seen it yet.
keskiviikko:
Today was an extremly WINDY day!!! I can't remember the last time I heard wind so loud! But I had to get up early for the bus, for my English test. (I concored the bus card, if you were wondering) Then the English test. She asked me if I wanted the test everyone else was taking with finnish to english putting verbs in the right form, or the english to english test... yum give me the hard one, I've got nothing to lose!!! And really, english to english, what would I gain from that? Well I think I did well, I knew all the words, and only left maybe one or two of the questions blank, she told me I could use the dictionary, but I wanted to prove to myself I didn't need one. Then we waited for the bus. Sanni, Laura, Henriikka, and I, well Piia and Jonna were there too, but they left after lunch cause Jonna has a mopoauto and Piia lives like a kilometer from the school. FREE LUNCH WOOO!!! Then we chill, went on the computer, took crazy pictures... yah know. Laura is on the same bus as me now! Coolio! Puhallica today, the conductor wasn't in the best mood, but whatever. Juha and Suesanna picked me up after, but I'm still gettin used to the new cars so I thought it was them, opened the door and said 'is this the right car?' It was, luckily or else the people would have been so confused cause I said that in English as well as a random foreign chick climbing in their car : P.
torstai:
Hyvää Kiitos päivää!!! Yeah it's thanks giving, I decorated a little bit, then got ready for a rehersal for this thing I'm playing at the church on Sunday. That went well, I'm excited and nervous. After that we came home for our Thanksgiving meal and dessert! Yummy icecream and fudge cake!!! I realize now that everybody cuts their icecream weird. Ice cream comes in a rectangle carton right, so then they opent that compleatly open so its a rectangel piece of ice cream on the flat carton cardboard. Then they cut it into squares or rectangles and put those pieces in a bowl and you scoop out the icecream from the bowl piece by piece. Then after dinner and dessert I waited on skype for my family to call. It was awsome to see everyone! And all my animals! The baby kittys got sooo big, and Charliee looks goregous as always! They said that Charliee could hear me and knew it was me. Good cause I'd hate for her to forget who I was! It was cool introducing everyone to my host family, and vise-versa! Then we hung up and sauna tonight! yeah!!!
perjantai:
Today I got up earlish cause Markku was picking me up at 9 to show me what he dose at his job. He works for a timber, paper manufacture and is in charge of finding trees to cut down and buy. We first checked a place that trees were already cut down and we had to mark which trees were for the owner of the land to keep. I got to spray paint, MO (stands for forest owner) on a bunch of stacks of logs! Then we went to another place were a big machine was piling the trees up into bunches. Then we oreinteared. Markku had just worked a plan with a forest owner to cut those trees down, so we got to use maps and ribbon to mark the area so the machines would know where to cut, and where to say away from. It was very important to mark in the right places cause in some spots we were on the property line so if we went over and the neighbors tree was cut down, bad things could/probably would happen! But we did it right! So then we stopped for lunch (makkara) and then we watched another big machine cut down trees! It was soooo cool and super fast, Markku said that this operater just started on this new piece of equipment or it would go even faster, but I cant imagine how fast it would go cause it was so fast! This claw-like thing gripped the tree at the bottom, then cut it, then it fell down with the claw still attached. Then the tree slipped through the claw thing like corn on the cob kinda, getting rid of all the branches and cutting the log into similar sizes, maybe 20-25 ish (not quite sure we weren't that close) or more foot long pieces. They wer thinning the forest, taking 1 out of every 3 trees, mostly the sick and/or curvy trees so the healthy, straight trees can get even bigger. Markku talked about when they do clear cut, they leave a couple treas for the sceanary, and then some really tall stumps (over 5 meters) for the wood peckers. Then they have to re-plant it with-in a year with 2000 trees in every square... kilometer I think... I think that's what it is... or else you go to jail! Then we found another big machine (smaller than the last but still big) Markku told him we were just watching, and he was just showing me the job. This machine picked out the small trees (sometimes 5 at a time) and cut them up. They were going for fire wood/pellets I think after they dryed. The as we were leaving the guy asked if I wanted to try to drive it, Markku said no, probably for the best, I probably would have cut the entire forest down my accident and then I'd have to find 2000 new trees to plant there or I'd be put in Finnish prison, which is the toughest prison ever (I'm not so sure about that but...) Still not the best thing to have on my rap sheet. I got back home around 2:00, soooo tired. Then I had a concert to go to at the Tampereen Talo (Tampere's music house) we had signed up for it a while ago with Puhalica, and that place was sooo beautiful!!! And the music was awsome too, my horn teacher was playing in it too! He's awsome. So that was a long day, a good day, but long!
lauantai:
Today we headed out around 10 for shopping, there was a craft place in Ikkalinen that we looked through, so many awesome home made things! Wow! Then we went to Elo, Roosa and I shopped for jewlrey and clothes, I found an amazing sales rack in one store. I found these great (green) flats on sale for 5€ and really cool bottoms to a bathing suite for 50 cents! So heck yes! I go to pay for them (no tax I'll be paying 5.50€) And the lady says 1.65€... what? Okay, not gonna argue, turns out that sales rack was also all 70% off! SCORE!!! When we finally got home Roosa and I went to Roosa's friends house, it was her brother's birthday so the family was over, they all had so many questions to ask. Then Roosa, Johanna, and I played Cluedo (Clue) Johanna won, I was close though! It was the Yellow guy (me) in the biljardi huone with the revolveri. Then there was awsome cake, finnish pitza, and lots of candy. And we played in the snow and then Juha and Suesanna picked us up.
sunnuntai:
I had to wake up way too early! Had to be at the church 8:45 for warm up. Church started at 10:00, The playing thing went really well, and I really like singing hyms in finnish! Then after we went to the other church in Kyröskoski and had riisi purro (rice pudding) and then we played a bit more. So then I was done, It was a little after one o'clock. And they said I could stay for coffee and some more people talking, but I'm a busy girl, and texted for a ride home. haha. Then we went ice skating!!! YEAH I love ice skating!!! My skates were a bit tight, but I just ignored that. And I've never skated on such a big lake before! At one point the ice cracked (like a half mile long) and it made the coolest sound! And I was right by the shore so I didn't get freaked out. Cause ice settles... Then after hot cocoa and getting warm again we baked cookies! First ginger bread cookies, then I did chocolate chip cookies... yummy!!! Then very long skyping with Shelby, then the family. Karah's gonna come soon! Then I said I have to go to bed, and we hung up. I missed who won Big Brother, but they recoreded it for me and I'll watch it tomorow, Eetu is my favorite but I don't think he'll win cause I think the Finns like the other people better...
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Viikko Viisitoista
maanantai:
Today was a crazy and long day, but a good day! Although we didn't have school today, I woke up early because Sanni had to take the only morning bus from her house to Hämeenkyrö. So we hung out at my house until Jonna's mom was taking us to Laura's house around 11:00 for her birthday party. I made Salmiakki rice crispy treats cause I couldn't find the regular marshmellows, at first (I found them later, but already had these so... plus I was curious what these American treats would taste like with a Finnish twist to them. (They were just okay, but I think that's because I used way to much butter and marshmellows) We then went to Laura's house, had awsome cake that Sanni made, pizza that she made too. Then played some a game (sorta like the crinkled paper game but without the crinkled paper) that was fun, and I got to use a lot of my finnish! Then we watched The Grudge 3, it was freaky!!! I'd seen the first two Grudges and the second one was really bad, so I figured that the 3rd one would be really bad too... well it wasn't!!! (or maybe it was just because I underestimated it) After that we headed to the bus stop for Tampere. We shopped and ate at HESBURGER!!! The lady taking my order immediatly knew I wasn't Finnish so she switched to English... ugh. I don't get it, I was with all these Finns... what ever, then we shopped some more, there was a store in one mall named ''Your Face'' I thought that was hilarious, next time I'm taking a picture! Took the 8:30 bus back to Hämeenkyrö, So by the time I got off the bus and walked home it was 9:15 and I was really wet. But other than that it was a really great day!
Today was a crazy and long day, but a good day! Although we didn't have school today, I woke up early because Sanni had to take the only morning bus from her house to Hämeenkyrö. So we hung out at my house until Jonna's mom was taking us to Laura's house around 11:00 for her birthday party. I made Salmiakki rice crispy treats cause I couldn't find the regular marshmellows, at first (I found them later, but already had these so... plus I was curious what these American treats would taste like with a Finnish twist to them. (They were just okay, but I think that's because I used way to much butter and marshmellows) We then went to Laura's house, had awsome cake that Sanni made, pizza that she made too. Then played some a game (sorta like the crinkled paper game but without the crinkled paper) that was fun, and I got to use a lot of my finnish! Then we watched The Grudge 3, it was freaky!!! I'd seen the first two Grudges and the second one was really bad, so I figured that the 3rd one would be really bad too... well it wasn't!!! (or maybe it was just because I underestimated it) After that we headed to the bus stop for Tampere. We shopped and ate at HESBURGER!!! The lady taking my order immediatly knew I wasn't Finnish so she switched to English... ugh. I don't get it, I was with all these Finns... what ever, then we shopped some more, there was a store in one mall named ''Your Face'' I thought that was hilarious, next time I'm taking a picture! Took the 8:30 bus back to Hämeenkyrö, So by the time I got off the bus and walked home it was 9:15 and I was really wet. But other than that it was a really great day!
tiistai:
I woke up late cause I didn't have class till 10, I was so jelious of the cats!!! They were just sprawled out on couches... not worrying about getting to school on time or anything! Got my butt to school and did school things. After school Markku picked me up and we went to the bus station to get my bus card, because when I move, I'll be taking a bus to school! Later that day I went to a Rotary meeting, they talked to me about the News paper artical, they were upset that Rotary wasnt mentioned at all! I was too, cause in the interview I mentioned it over and over, I also mentioned all my families that I'll be staying with, a lot, cause I wanted them to be in the artical too. But nope. If I ever get another chance I'll find a way, maybe by asking for them to put a thank you in... Anyway, also they had me talk at the rotary dinner, and after they decided that they would take another rotary student next year, (they said it's cause I've been so good : P)keskiviikko:
Today was mostly normal. After school I went to Tokmanni to pick up a picture frame, then headed to the local picture printing place to get a picture printed for the frame. I was going to give it to the Honkilahti's, It was a picture of all of us eatting dinner. I succefully understood the women in the shop, and came back in a half-hour to pick the pictures up (I printed one for me too) I like the shop, it reminded me of Kristy's only not produce, pictures, there was a husband and wife working, a dog, and i'm pretty sure the daughter too. Later was Puhallica, I got a ride with Eija, so that was nice. When Anssi came home that night he came with a box from America! Yeah!!!torstai:
Snow today!!! It's funny cause in the morning, I thought to myself: should I wear my boots... nahh it's not gonna snow! Put my sneakers on and went outside, closed the door, THEN realized that it WAS snowing!!! But I didn't feel like going back to change my shoes. School was school, I gave my Bio presentation (in Finnish) I used the vocabulary of a 3 year old to tell about X-chromosome resessive gene disorders (like red-green color blindness, and hemophilia.) Then in psycology we had another presentation. I talked about the type of sleep disorder where you act out violent dreams, by kicking and moving you legs and arms... that was a group project, and my part was like a sentance long. Study hall, I rode my bike in the snow to Kyröskoski to get my bus card. When I got there, all I had to say was eilin (yesterday) and the lady gose 'bussi kortti?' bus card? 'yup' I said, and she handed it over and I was on my way back to school. Dance course was with the new teacher. It was more like arobic class, but I didn't mind. I felt like mom! On the ride home, I got off my bike the place that the last time I almost fell down the hill, cause... well I didn't want to fall! Soon there were these two little girls asking me something about my bike... I'm not really sure what. And after a couple words from me, the one girl gose ''I from Finland'' Busted! They caught me. But for about a kilometer we walked and talked. They were 9, didn't like school, liked snow cause you could slide in it, but wished this snow was the type you could make balls with... I told them about New York, my family, friends, things like that. Then we we different ways and I was back on my bike, and home.perjantai:
Sleep in!!! I packed a bit cause tomorow I'm going to move. Did laundry and stuff. I wanted to get to school for lunch, but again my laundry wouldn't dry fast enough, and I had bottles to return. So I got there a bit late for lunch, but I sat down with them and broke out the reeses peanut butter cups i'd talked about, and the silly bands. That was pretty funny! After school, I hung out until Eija got home. There was some banquet that we would be going to tonight, but both of us had forgotten what time Anssi had said, so around 5:00 we just started playing dress-up. (We later found out it was at 7:00) I spent more time getting ready for this than I did for prom last year!!! But it was fun. And by the time we were finnished, we both looked fabulous! The banquet was a lot of fun. It was all older people, but I didn't mind. Amazing food!!! Eija and Anssi said it was Christmas food! Well I can't wait for that!!! Then there was a scotish-ish band that played (they were wearing kilts soo...) And after they were done, the broke out the karioki! Pushed away the tables and stated to dance. By the end there was just maybe 12 people. I sang ''You aint Nothing but a Hound Dog'' Haha and they all got up and danced, so funny! Then this one man talked to me. He had visited the Penn, New York, great lake area. He said he really likes America, all the people there are so friendly and ready to help. And he liked that when a school bus was stopped all the cars on the road had to stop, and he like that someplaces when school was in, they had a blinking sign that changed the speedlimit slower, and he also like Motells and how cheep they were for really nice rooms! These were just some of the things. We left around 2:30 and headed home, Antti was home from a hard week in the army. They had ''attacked'' this small town, then the towns people randomly found tear gas, so they all got tear gased! K so I found this extremly funny but that's cause I wasn't the one who got tear gassed!lauantai:
After such a long night, I had to drag myself out of bed! But I had things to do! Anssi and I went to SMarket, then the reak market, had pancakes there, baught musta makkara, then the bakery. Once home we ate, I gave them the picture, then I finnished packing. I can't belive how much stuff I have, I don't even thing I bought all that much... maybe it's cause my packing was really bad, I didn't fold all that well... Anyway then we all just lounged in the living room waiting. My next host parents came, we loaded everything up I gave hugs and thank you's then we were on our way. After getting settled we went to the store to get taco stuff!!! Yummy! Sauna that night. And bed, I was so tired!
After such a long night, I had to drag myself out of bed! But I had things to do! Anssi and I went to SMarket, then the reak market, had pancakes there, baught musta makkara, then the bakery. Once home we ate, I gave them the picture, then I finnished packing. I can't belive how much stuff I have, I don't even thing I bought all that much... maybe it's cause my packing was really bad, I didn't fold all that well... Anyway then we all just lounged in the living room waiting. My next host parents came, we loaded everything up I gave hugs and thank you's then we were on our way. After getting settled we went to the store to get taco stuff!!! Yummy! Sauna that night. And bed, I was so tired!
sunnuntai:
Woke up, tried to sleep in as long as possible but it didn't work too well, I was up 9:30. My sister Roosa was out still. Had breakfast, then hung out... lunch then they heard that there was a pikku joulu parade (little christmas) in Tampere! So we went to that. It was such a cute parade (little) smaller than the Castleton parade, but it was really cute and very nice! After some shopping and seeing joulupukki (santa) he gave us chocolate!!! yumm. We headed home for skyping with Sonja! That was awsome! She talked about the gallons size of milk! Thats one of the things I noticed too! haha Then I skyped with Shelby and Josh!!! That was sooo much fun! That was a good hour, hour and a half of my life extremly WELL spent!!! Then we stayed up late seeing who Finnland voted off Big Brother, it was Elisabet, one of my favorites, but I guess it's hard to choose when you don't really know what they are saying... Anyway school tomorow!!! Taking a bus, using my awsome bus card!!!
Woke up, tried to sleep in as long as possible but it didn't work too well, I was up 9:30. My sister Roosa was out still. Had breakfast, then hung out... lunch then they heard that there was a pikku joulu parade (little christmas) in Tampere! So we went to that. It was such a cute parade (little) smaller than the Castleton parade, but it was really cute and very nice! After some shopping and seeing joulupukki (santa) he gave us chocolate!!! yumm. We headed home for skyping with Sonja! That was awsome! She talked about the gallons size of milk! Thats one of the things I noticed too! haha Then I skyped with Shelby and Josh!!! That was sooo much fun! That was a good hour, hour and a half of my life extremly WELL spent!!! Then we stayed up late seeing who Finnland voted off Big Brother, it was Elisabet, one of my favorites, but I guess it's hard to choose when you don't really know what they are saying... Anyway school tomorow!!! Taking a bus, using my awsome bus card!!!
Friday, November 12, 2010
Viikko Neljätoista
maanantai:
3 months Suomessa! It's crazy that a 1/4 of a year had already gone by! SO FAST!!! The snow from last night lasted! Maybe we have about 5 cm... That was fun to ride my bike in! In art class we painted, that was a lot of fun! Then in my study hall I went to the music room where the music teacher told myself, and another student about this one music project course where you work on making music with computers and technology and recording. So that was really cool! When I got home from school, the gas man was there, well so was everyone else... After he got done working Anssi and him had coffee and sandwiches in the kitchen. I didn't get the feeling that they really knew each other, so maybe it's customary here to feed people after they work on your house... I'll have to look into that more!
tiistai:
My finnish lesson was really great, we looked up good websites for me to study with because he is going to be going to France for the whole month of December. My friends taught me the ''Itzy bitzy spider'' song! Their spider is on it's web. Which made me think... why is the English spider in a water spout? What did he think was going to happen... it is a WATER spout! That spider was just asking to be 'washed out', now the poor Finnish spider... he was just minding his own bussiness in his own web, and the rain came! Crazy English spider! The ride home wasn't a cake walk, for the first (and only time so far knock on wood) that I half-way wiped out in the snow. I caught myself so I never hit the ground, but my pride was hurt cause there was a decent amount of people around, a car driving by, and old lady on a rolatteri, and some other kids coming home from school. So I just jumpped back on, giggled, and got out of there fast! Another polka/chour band practice today! It was a lot of fun, and the other French hornist (a different one than last time) looked a lot like Angelina Joe Lee, only pregnant... and a really talented horn player!
keskiviikko:
It snowed last night, so there was even more snow on the way to school, in some places they hadn't snowed the walking/biking paths yet so I had to walk a bit. I also built a tiny snow man! I couldn't resist, the snow was perfect for it! My one friend Piia wasn't there today, she went to the doctors earliy that morning with stomach problems and she was sent to the Tampere hospital to have her appendix removed! Wow, but everything went okay. The whole school day was spent shoeless! I liked it so much, many people just wear their wool socks and take their shoes off as soon as they get in the school cause of the wetness. Anyway, it was a good time! Puhallica was really good, and the second half I woked with the a pianist on some of the things I'm going to play for a church mass in a couple weeks. That went really well! Oh also tonight I got my phone bill... ohhhhhh noooooo for the entire time I've been here.... my phone bill was 8.39€!!! haha big money!
torstai:
Today's like a friday cause there's no school tomorow!!! YEAH!!! The town saves money by ''laying off the teachers'' a couple days a year, so when the teachers are going to be at school, the kids definatly are either! The teacher's werent so happy about this, but the kids weren't complaining! My study hall I spent again in the music room working on the computer/music thing. I didn't say for tanssi kurssi cause I had my lesson. That went really well too! On the walk from Ismo's house to the bus stop it was snowing, and I had plenty of time so I made patterns in the snow, a foot-print trail that zigged and zagged, and loopy looped... That was a good time, and then I pasted a women walking her dog. I just giggled and walked staighter so she didn't think I was on something. Then after a while I couldn't help but looking back and I saw her just standing there looking at the trail I made, then she looked back at me, and I continued on my way...
perjantai:
Long, but great day! No school! But I didn't sleep in too much cause I had things to do! I went to the kirpputorri and found amazing boots! Really warm and only 5€ Juhani, Johanna, and Eija said that I found a treasure! Score! Then I rode to Tokamanni and K Supermarket. And back. That took a while! Then I waited for Juhani, and Johanna to come home because today was our family night, and they were coming in the daytime to start cooking. They came and we started on the gingerbread cookies. Johanna and I cut them into shapes and put them on the baking sheet, while Juhani worked on cutting heads off a couple angel shapes, and amputating some gingerbread men legs, and eatting them like a mad man. haha. Then Johanna took the extra dough left over and rolled some blue cheese in to it. Believe it or not, those tasted really good! Blue cheese here is called 'sininen homejuusto' which translates to 'blue mold-cheese' yumm the Finns tell it like it is! Next Antti came home, then Anssi, then Eija. We ate hamburgers, first hamburger in a long time, first hamburger EVER eatten with a fork and knife! I know they eat pizza with fork and knife but I thought 'No way can the eat burgers that way' but just to be sure, I ate my salad until everyone had started on their hamburger... guess what... fork and knife it was! I said 'wow this is my first hamburger with fork and knife' Johanna explained that sometimes they don't use forks with hamburgers, but since they had a glass of wine, they were keeping it classy (well that's my translation) haha, Then we had dessert, ice cream with a mint chocolate-covered warmed pear, and a liquorice cigar yummy! After dessert we played Trivial Pursuit (with teams cause of the whole language thing) I was on Johanna's team, Anssi and Antti, and Juhani and Eija. Johanna and I started strong, getting the first color triangle thingy, but that what the only one we got : P Antti and Anssi was in the lead the majority of the game. And it was a long game! around 12:30 (Anssi had already been in bed for a while) we started the quick fire round. And out of no where, Eija and Juhani answered maybe 4 questions in a row correctly getting all the colors before Antti could (and he only had one color left) he wasn't too happy about that, but Eija and Juhani were very pleased. Then we all crashed! Hyvää Yotä!
lauantai:
Today was a sleepy day, woke up late and everyone was still kinda tired from last night. Just hanging out. Then I headed off to the concert I was playing in. The concert was awesome! The mens choir did really well, and then a famous (Finnish famous) opera singer that was born in Hämeenkyrö came and sang too! He was amazing! They had intermission and coffee and cake were offered to everyone! It surprised me that one, it was free, and two, everyone got the same drink, coffee, and just one type of cake, glutin free or not. Now that I'm thinking about it, I haven't heard the word, ''decaf'' in a very long time... is there decaf coffee here? I don't know... I haven't seen any orange rings on coffee pots either... hmmm. Well after the second part of the consert was over, many people left. But many stayed because that's when the band I was in played all the dancing songs! It was the greatest thing I've ever seen! Waltz, Tango, Cha-cha, Swing, you name it, we played it, and they danced it! It was so much fun, they danced for a good 2 hours! And by the end there were only a couple of pairs left dancing. One pair that seemed like they were professional dancers, two pairs of older people that may have had too much to drink, just swaying back and forth holding onto eachother tight so they didn't fall, and then the rest of the ten pairs were really cute old couples! It was a great/long night again. I got back home around 10:30.
sunnuntai:
HYVÄÄ ISÄNPÄIVÄ!!! Today is Finnish father's day! After sleepping in (again) and lounging around for the morning, we headed off to Eija's father's house for a family get together. It was a full house! Eija's brother and his long time girl friend. Then Eija's sister, her husband, and their daughter and here husband and new baby, and Eija's sister's son and his new wife (the couple I went to their wedding the first night I met this family) Then Eija's mom and dad, and our whole family! We had food, I got another taste at moose meat! This time it was a cold cut of meat, and again it was really good. It had a simlar taste to roastbeef, but different! Then we had cake, and everyone just talked. Eija's mother told a bunch of really funny stories (in Finnish) but luckily they were translated to me! After many hours there, we headed back to the house, gave presents to Anssi, I made him a card, and then we said our ''So long for now's'' because the kids aren't coming back home next Friday and I'm moving Saturday. Busy weekend! And tomorow is a busy day too!
3 months Suomessa! It's crazy that a 1/4 of a year had already gone by! SO FAST!!! The snow from last night lasted! Maybe we have about 5 cm... That was fun to ride my bike in! In art class we painted, that was a lot of fun! Then in my study hall I went to the music room where the music teacher told myself, and another student about this one music project course where you work on making music with computers and technology and recording. So that was really cool! When I got home from school, the gas man was there, well so was everyone else... After he got done working Anssi and him had coffee and sandwiches in the kitchen. I didn't get the feeling that they really knew each other, so maybe it's customary here to feed people after they work on your house... I'll have to look into that more!
tiistai:
My finnish lesson was really great, we looked up good websites for me to study with because he is going to be going to France for the whole month of December. My friends taught me the ''Itzy bitzy spider'' song! Their spider is on it's web. Which made me think... why is the English spider in a water spout? What did he think was going to happen... it is a WATER spout! That spider was just asking to be 'washed out', now the poor Finnish spider... he was just minding his own bussiness in his own web, and the rain came! Crazy English spider! The ride home wasn't a cake walk, for the first (and only time so far knock on wood) that I half-way wiped out in the snow. I caught myself so I never hit the ground, but my pride was hurt cause there was a decent amount of people around, a car driving by, and old lady on a rolatteri, and some other kids coming home from school. So I just jumpped back on, giggled, and got out of there fast! Another polka/chour band practice today! It was a lot of fun, and the other French hornist (a different one than last time) looked a lot like Angelina Joe Lee, only pregnant... and a really talented horn player!
keskiviikko:
It snowed last night, so there was even more snow on the way to school, in some places they hadn't snowed the walking/biking paths yet so I had to walk a bit. I also built a tiny snow man! I couldn't resist, the snow was perfect for it! My one friend Piia wasn't there today, she went to the doctors earliy that morning with stomach problems and she was sent to the Tampere hospital to have her appendix removed! Wow, but everything went okay. The whole school day was spent shoeless! I liked it so much, many people just wear their wool socks and take their shoes off as soon as they get in the school cause of the wetness. Anyway, it was a good time! Puhallica was really good, and the second half I woked with the a pianist on some of the things I'm going to play for a church mass in a couple weeks. That went really well! Oh also tonight I got my phone bill... ohhhhhh noooooo for the entire time I've been here.... my phone bill was 8.39€!!! haha big money!
torstai:
Today's like a friday cause there's no school tomorow!!! YEAH!!! The town saves money by ''laying off the teachers'' a couple days a year, so when the teachers are going to be at school, the kids definatly are either! The teacher's werent so happy about this, but the kids weren't complaining! My study hall I spent again in the music room working on the computer/music thing. I didn't say for tanssi kurssi cause I had my lesson. That went really well too! On the walk from Ismo's house to the bus stop it was snowing, and I had plenty of time so I made patterns in the snow, a foot-print trail that zigged and zagged, and loopy looped... That was a good time, and then I pasted a women walking her dog. I just giggled and walked staighter so she didn't think I was on something. Then after a while I couldn't help but looking back and I saw her just standing there looking at the trail I made, then she looked back at me, and I continued on my way...
perjantai:
Long, but great day! No school! But I didn't sleep in too much cause I had things to do! I went to the kirpputorri and found amazing boots! Really warm and only 5€ Juhani, Johanna, and Eija said that I found a treasure! Score! Then I rode to Tokamanni and K Supermarket. And back. That took a while! Then I waited for Juhani, and Johanna to come home because today was our family night, and they were coming in the daytime to start cooking. They came and we started on the gingerbread cookies. Johanna and I cut them into shapes and put them on the baking sheet, while Juhani worked on cutting heads off a couple angel shapes, and amputating some gingerbread men legs, and eatting them like a mad man. haha. Then Johanna took the extra dough left over and rolled some blue cheese in to it. Believe it or not, those tasted really good! Blue cheese here is called 'sininen homejuusto' which translates to 'blue mold-cheese' yumm the Finns tell it like it is! Next Antti came home, then Anssi, then Eija. We ate hamburgers, first hamburger in a long time, first hamburger EVER eatten with a fork and knife! I know they eat pizza with fork and knife but I thought 'No way can the eat burgers that way' but just to be sure, I ate my salad until everyone had started on their hamburger... guess what... fork and knife it was! I said 'wow this is my first hamburger with fork and knife' Johanna explained that sometimes they don't use forks with hamburgers, but since they had a glass of wine, they were keeping it classy (well that's my translation) haha, Then we had dessert, ice cream with a mint chocolate-covered warmed pear, and a liquorice cigar yummy! After dessert we played Trivial Pursuit (with teams cause of the whole language thing) I was on Johanna's team, Anssi and Antti, and Juhani and Eija. Johanna and I started strong, getting the first color triangle thingy, but that what the only one we got : P Antti and Anssi was in the lead the majority of the game. And it was a long game! around 12:30 (Anssi had already been in bed for a while) we started the quick fire round. And out of no where, Eija and Juhani answered maybe 4 questions in a row correctly getting all the colors before Antti could (and he only had one color left) he wasn't too happy about that, but Eija and Juhani were very pleased. Then we all crashed! Hyvää Yotä!
lauantai:
Today was a sleepy day, woke up late and everyone was still kinda tired from last night. Just hanging out. Then I headed off to the concert I was playing in. The concert was awesome! The mens choir did really well, and then a famous (Finnish famous) opera singer that was born in Hämeenkyrö came and sang too! He was amazing! They had intermission and coffee and cake were offered to everyone! It surprised me that one, it was free, and two, everyone got the same drink, coffee, and just one type of cake, glutin free or not. Now that I'm thinking about it, I haven't heard the word, ''decaf'' in a very long time... is there decaf coffee here? I don't know... I haven't seen any orange rings on coffee pots either... hmmm. Well after the second part of the consert was over, many people left. But many stayed because that's when the band I was in played all the dancing songs! It was the greatest thing I've ever seen! Waltz, Tango, Cha-cha, Swing, you name it, we played it, and they danced it! It was so much fun, they danced for a good 2 hours! And by the end there were only a couple of pairs left dancing. One pair that seemed like they were professional dancers, two pairs of older people that may have had too much to drink, just swaying back and forth holding onto eachother tight so they didn't fall, and then the rest of the ten pairs were really cute old couples! It was a great/long night again. I got back home around 10:30.
sunnuntai:
HYVÄÄ ISÄNPÄIVÄ!!! Today is Finnish father's day! After sleepping in (again) and lounging around for the morning, we headed off to Eija's father's house for a family get together. It was a full house! Eija's brother and his long time girl friend. Then Eija's sister, her husband, and their daughter and here husband and new baby, and Eija's sister's son and his new wife (the couple I went to their wedding the first night I met this family) Then Eija's mom and dad, and our whole family! We had food, I got another taste at moose meat! This time it was a cold cut of meat, and again it was really good. It had a simlar taste to roastbeef, but different! Then we had cake, and everyone just talked. Eija's mother told a bunch of really funny stories (in Finnish) but luckily they were translated to me! After many hours there, we headed back to the house, gave presents to Anssi, I made him a card, and then we said our ''So long for now's'' because the kids aren't coming back home next Friday and I'm moving Saturday. Busy weekend! And tomorow is a busy day too!
Monday, November 8, 2010
Viikko Kolmetoista
maanantai:
Begining of Novermber! And I remembered to say ''rabbit, rabbit, rabbit'' but I actually said ''pupu, pupu, pupu'' then I said ''rabbit, rabbit, rabbit'' So I'm not sure if it counts... I guess we will see at the end of the month! Eija lost her voice by the end of the day. We were hanging out and the phone rang, she wispered ''can you answer it?'' okay... I picked the phone up ''Honkilahti'' I said, it was Anssi, he asked if Eija was there... ''Yes, but she can't talk right now'' ''well why not?'' he asked '' Her voice... not work...'' (this was all in my broken finnish fyi) He finally understood and laughed ''I'll be home soon.'' ''oh-ko'' So that was that, The Big Bang Theory finally came to Finland! So I watched that...
tiistai:
Today was great. I sleep in, then headed to Anssi's office on my way to school cause I had to photo copy a few things. I got there, but he wasn't so I asked one of the women at the desk... I kept trying to say photocopier (valokopiokone) but I must have been saying it wronge. Finally we just walked around the office, and she pointed at all the different office suppies until we got to the photocopier. There! School was cool. Later that day was the first paractice for the new band I joined. Anssi took me to it. It was a bunch of old men, except for me, the other French hornist who was about 30, and another teen who is also in my Puhallica band. Then there were about 20 singers. The band had two accordions (I decided accordions are one of the coolest intruments, and I would be the coolest girl ever if I knew how to play it!) then two horn, a tuba, base, drums, trumpets... the works. It was three hours of playing, but it was traditional finnish music (polka) I enjoyed myself!!! And the music was really fun to play! I got back home late, like 9:00 then it was bed time!
keskiviikko:
Had a meeting with Markku (my rotary guide) today, we talked about my bus card for when I move. That will be exciting! I've never had a bussi kortti before!!! Eija made riisi puuro (during christmas time they call it joulu puuro) it's similar to rice pudding, but better! Really good! Then it was rain so Eija drove me to Puhallica and Anssi picked me up. Then we went to SMarket!
torstai:
Tanssi kurssi tänään! (dance class today!) We finally put the dance with all the different groups together and performed it! It's funny how I can still understand what's going on when I really only know about 40% of what is said (that says something about body language! and in dance class there's alot of body language!) On the way home I stopped at SMarket, cause the night before I saw there was ''Monsters vs. Alliens'' and ''Kung-Fu Panda'' together for 8€ and the best part is that you can choose the audio to be Finnish, Swedish, and English (same with the captions) so I think it'll really help with hearing and seeing the words! Then Eija and I watched Finnish Big Brother. It was cool cause they did an exchange with Slovenian Big Brother, so there was a Slobenian girl in the Finnish house. And to comunticate they had to speak English (cause mostly everyone in the entire world knows English) But it was also funny to watch because when they werent talking to her, they spoke Finnish, and... I watched her, cause I totally knew what she was feeling! haha
perjantai:
Today was a whirl wind! Woke up, today was my interview with the local paper, 10:00. Eija and Anssi both had things to do. So I watched Monsters vs. Aliens till the reporter got there. She had really good English!!! With a British accent, so up until she talked about being form the west coast of Finland, I wasn't sure she spoke Finnish, cause when she first came in I asked ''Mitä mene?'' (how's it going?) And she was like... ''What?'' haha okay... She asked me stuff like what my hobbies are, and what I find funny about Finland. Finns love to hear that they are really quite and reserved... I mean they are to a point, but they are as quite and reserved as you'd think because of what everyone says... I tried to convay that point... I'm not sure how well it got across. Language, what I miss, anything I don't like... those kinds of things. Then I went to school. Amazing chicken nuggets for lunch... I swear, they are sooooo good!!! The last class of the day and the teacher wasn't there. It was Finnish history. In history, he prints me out notes similar to what we are learning in class that day from Wikapedia... hehe, But it is accurate, and I enjoy learning about the history that I never even knew about! So I read the notes he had for me that day (the rest of the class was working on a worksheet) Then I left early cause I had to catch the 3:30 bus for my lesson. My lesson was great! And I thought it was gonna rain, but it held off, which was also great! Riding/waiting for the bus is getting to be old hat for me. And it finally sank in on the ride back home, that people don't ride buses to make friends (the sad truth) Antti came home tonight, but I didn't see him cause by the time I had gotten home he had left for the night. Eija and I watched the creepiest movie Cloverfield!!! So creepy, I had a scary dream I'm sure but I couldn't remember what it was about...
lauantai:
HELSINKI PÄIVÄ!!! Bounced out of bed 7:00 in the morning, can't say I've done that in a while! Anssi and I were out the door by 8 and picked up Juhani and his friend at the police academy. Then a two hour drive south and east to the capital of this country I've been residing in for a little less then three months now, (it will be three months the 8th.) We dropped the boys off at a ski expo thing, and then Anssi and I toured the city. I'd concider the city a city of tourist! Everywhere you looked people were looking around and taking pictures (us included in this catagory) It's hard to say weither it's always so touristy cause today was also Pyhäinpäivä (like All Saints' Day, a day to clean the cemetaries and honor your family members that have pasted) I got to see where the president lives and a bunch of government buildings, AND I saw one of those gaurd people who don't move!!! It was freaky, I didn't think it was a real person, but Anssi was like ''Yeah he's real, why would they have fake guards who couldn't do anything if something were to happen?'' True true. There was just so much that we did! We ate at an Italian resturant, road the ''Raitiovaunu'' street trolley (more like a tram but trolly is more fun to say!) lets see... then we toured some of the big churches... and then went to a art museum and looked at all the finnish art Anssi pointed out all his favorite pieces and taught me how to stand at a distance from the painting to really see it's beauty. After a long fun day we went to the ski expo too. It's was a cool place where you could enter to win trips and stuff. There were two different places where you could enter to win a trip to New York, so heck yes I entered!!! Haha fingers crossed!!! Then we headed back. We stopped at different grills in Tampere looking for some traditional turkish I think, meat cake thing that was introduced to Tampere when someone moved here from, I think Turkey but I'm not sure, anyway this person got a job at a resturant, and convinced the owner to sell this meat cakes and they were a big hit! And it was good! It was deep-fried so that might be another reason I liked it so much, first deep-fried thing I've had in a while!!! Anssi had a kuuma koira (hot dog) but it was nothing like an American hot dog... I want to try one of those soon cause it looked so good!!! So yeah... Wow 14 hours of touring can make a person tired! So I slept.
sunnuntai:
Today I acutally didn't sleep as late as I thought I would! After getting up it was a lazy day until we left for the new baby of the families ''Ristiäiset'' a Christening, here the babies are born, but not named right away (I'm told the parents do know what they are going to name the baby but keep it a secret) Then, around 2-3 months later they have the ristiäiset, and then everyone is told the baby's name! So that was a fun family affair. Lots of good food, and coffee (I've come to the conclusion that coffee is a major, major, major part of life in Finland) And it's not just that everyone is addicted to it and needs to get their fixes of it all the time, but it's a social thing. After the party was over the whole family squished into the car, all four of the 'kids' in the back seat (that was fun!) and dropped Johanna off at her appartment, then Juhani back to the police academy, then the rest of us headed back home. It started snowing on the way back! A lot!!! And I looked like this snow was gonna stick around for a while! We got home and we all just were hanging around when the phone rang, and even though they said that they couldn't call today, I knew by the sound of the ring that it was my New York family calling.
Begining of Novermber! And I remembered to say ''rabbit, rabbit, rabbit'' but I actually said ''pupu, pupu, pupu'' then I said ''rabbit, rabbit, rabbit'' So I'm not sure if it counts... I guess we will see at the end of the month! Eija lost her voice by the end of the day. We were hanging out and the phone rang, she wispered ''can you answer it?'' okay... I picked the phone up ''Honkilahti'' I said, it was Anssi, he asked if Eija was there... ''Yes, but she can't talk right now'' ''well why not?'' he asked '' Her voice... not work...'' (this was all in my broken finnish fyi) He finally understood and laughed ''I'll be home soon.'' ''oh-ko'' So that was that, The Big Bang Theory finally came to Finland! So I watched that...
tiistai:
Today was great. I sleep in, then headed to Anssi's office on my way to school cause I had to photo copy a few things. I got there, but he wasn't so I asked one of the women at the desk... I kept trying to say photocopier (valokopiokone) but I must have been saying it wronge. Finally we just walked around the office, and she pointed at all the different office suppies until we got to the photocopier. There! School was cool. Later that day was the first paractice for the new band I joined. Anssi took me to it. It was a bunch of old men, except for me, the other French hornist who was about 30, and another teen who is also in my Puhallica band. Then there were about 20 singers. The band had two accordions (I decided accordions are one of the coolest intruments, and I would be the coolest girl ever if I knew how to play it!) then two horn, a tuba, base, drums, trumpets... the works. It was three hours of playing, but it was traditional finnish music (polka) I enjoyed myself!!! And the music was really fun to play! I got back home late, like 9:00 then it was bed time!
keskiviikko:
Had a meeting with Markku (my rotary guide) today, we talked about my bus card for when I move. That will be exciting! I've never had a bussi kortti before!!! Eija made riisi puuro (during christmas time they call it joulu puuro) it's similar to rice pudding, but better! Really good! Then it was rain so Eija drove me to Puhallica and Anssi picked me up. Then we went to SMarket!
torstai:
Tanssi kurssi tänään! (dance class today!) We finally put the dance with all the different groups together and performed it! It's funny how I can still understand what's going on when I really only know about 40% of what is said (that says something about body language! and in dance class there's alot of body language!) On the way home I stopped at SMarket, cause the night before I saw there was ''Monsters vs. Alliens'' and ''Kung-Fu Panda'' together for 8€ and the best part is that you can choose the audio to be Finnish, Swedish, and English (same with the captions) so I think it'll really help with hearing and seeing the words! Then Eija and I watched Finnish Big Brother. It was cool cause they did an exchange with Slovenian Big Brother, so there was a Slobenian girl in the Finnish house. And to comunticate they had to speak English (cause mostly everyone in the entire world knows English) But it was also funny to watch because when they werent talking to her, they spoke Finnish, and... I watched her, cause I totally knew what she was feeling! haha
perjantai:
Today was a whirl wind! Woke up, today was my interview with the local paper, 10:00. Eija and Anssi both had things to do. So I watched Monsters vs. Aliens till the reporter got there. She had really good English!!! With a British accent, so up until she talked about being form the west coast of Finland, I wasn't sure she spoke Finnish, cause when she first came in I asked ''Mitä mene?'' (how's it going?) And she was like... ''What?'' haha okay... She asked me stuff like what my hobbies are, and what I find funny about Finland. Finns love to hear that they are really quite and reserved... I mean they are to a point, but they are as quite and reserved as you'd think because of what everyone says... I tried to convay that point... I'm not sure how well it got across. Language, what I miss, anything I don't like... those kinds of things. Then I went to school. Amazing chicken nuggets for lunch... I swear, they are sooooo good!!! The last class of the day and the teacher wasn't there. It was Finnish history. In history, he prints me out notes similar to what we are learning in class that day from Wikapedia... hehe, But it is accurate, and I enjoy learning about the history that I never even knew about! So I read the notes he had for me that day (the rest of the class was working on a worksheet) Then I left early cause I had to catch the 3:30 bus for my lesson. My lesson was great! And I thought it was gonna rain, but it held off, which was also great! Riding/waiting for the bus is getting to be old hat for me. And it finally sank in on the ride back home, that people don't ride buses to make friends (the sad truth) Antti came home tonight, but I didn't see him cause by the time I had gotten home he had left for the night. Eija and I watched the creepiest movie Cloverfield!!! So creepy, I had a scary dream I'm sure but I couldn't remember what it was about...
lauantai:
HELSINKI PÄIVÄ!!! Bounced out of bed 7:00 in the morning, can't say I've done that in a while! Anssi and I were out the door by 8 and picked up Juhani and his friend at the police academy. Then a two hour drive south and east to the capital of this country I've been residing in for a little less then three months now, (it will be three months the 8th.) We dropped the boys off at a ski expo thing, and then Anssi and I toured the city. I'd concider the city a city of tourist! Everywhere you looked people were looking around and taking pictures (us included in this catagory) It's hard to say weither it's always so touristy cause today was also Pyhäinpäivä (like All Saints' Day, a day to clean the cemetaries and honor your family members that have pasted) I got to see where the president lives and a bunch of government buildings, AND I saw one of those gaurd people who don't move!!! It was freaky, I didn't think it was a real person, but Anssi was like ''Yeah he's real, why would they have fake guards who couldn't do anything if something were to happen?'' True true. There was just so much that we did! We ate at an Italian resturant, road the ''Raitiovaunu'' street trolley (more like a tram but trolly is more fun to say!) lets see... then we toured some of the big churches... and then went to a art museum and looked at all the finnish art Anssi pointed out all his favorite pieces and taught me how to stand at a distance from the painting to really see it's beauty. After a long fun day we went to the ski expo too. It's was a cool place where you could enter to win trips and stuff. There were two different places where you could enter to win a trip to New York, so heck yes I entered!!! Haha fingers crossed!!! Then we headed back. We stopped at different grills in Tampere looking for some traditional turkish I think, meat cake thing that was introduced to Tampere when someone moved here from, I think Turkey but I'm not sure, anyway this person got a job at a resturant, and convinced the owner to sell this meat cakes and they were a big hit! And it was good! It was deep-fried so that might be another reason I liked it so much, first deep-fried thing I've had in a while!!! Anssi had a kuuma koira (hot dog) but it was nothing like an American hot dog... I want to try one of those soon cause it looked so good!!! So yeah... Wow 14 hours of touring can make a person tired! So I slept.
sunnuntai:
Today I acutally didn't sleep as late as I thought I would! After getting up it was a lazy day until we left for the new baby of the families ''Ristiäiset'' a Christening, here the babies are born, but not named right away (I'm told the parents do know what they are going to name the baby but keep it a secret) Then, around 2-3 months later they have the ristiäiset, and then everyone is told the baby's name! So that was a fun family affair. Lots of good food, and coffee (I've come to the conclusion that coffee is a major, major, major part of life in Finland) And it's not just that everyone is addicted to it and needs to get their fixes of it all the time, but it's a social thing. After the party was over the whole family squished into the car, all four of the 'kids' in the back seat (that was fun!) and dropped Johanna off at her appartment, then Juhani back to the police academy, then the rest of us headed back home. It started snowing on the way back! A lot!!! And I looked like this snow was gonna stick around for a while! We got home and we all just were hanging around when the phone rang, and even though they said that they couldn't call today, I knew by the sound of the ring that it was my New York family calling.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Viikko Kaksitoista
maanantai:
Today was my first day at school since two Thursdays ago... yeah... Anssi woke me up as usual, but because I had been sleeping in longer and longer as the mornings got shorter and shorter, it came as a huge shock to me when I had to wake up so early and in the pitch black (unlike two Thursdays ago when there was a decent amount of light/sun at 7:30 in the morning) I thought "Why is Anssi waking me up in the middle of the night?" yeah It was 7:30, I don't know if I'm stressing how crazy it was to me... but it was! But in the end it was nice going back to school. (Got there by the light of the stratigically placed street lights) by stratigically I really mean everywhere. Hurried home after school for another exciting adventure to Ylöjärvi! This time I decided I'd just wave at all the buses even if it might be the express bus that wont pick me up, cause it might be the right bus (cause there are any distinctions that I can see) so I don't want to miss ther right bus just cause I didn't want to wave and have it not stop for me (if that makes much since) ANYWAY so I wave to what I thought was the express bus, I was cause the bus driver just waved back and kept on driving (ha love it!) My lesson went really well and Ismo said that our lessons don't have to be just an hour long "cause if you're going to take a bus all the way here and back..." so I stayed much longer and that worked out really well cause then I didn't have to wait in the cold as long as I did the time before! And this time I pressed the stop button at the right place so it was only a few meters to my bike! Yeah mastered the bus route! haha
tiistai:
Sleep in a bit today, very nice! (cause Tuesdays = class dosn't start till 10ish) Pea soup for lunch!!! You wouldn't think it but it's one of my favorite dishes... it's like a pea purre of amazingness! In biology I was busy finding out everyone's birthday and favorite color, I mean that's related to the subject right?... Anyway I found out one of my friends Joona was born on Christmas! WOW LIKE JESUS!!! Then I went to the Rotary meeting. There was this women presenter today. She was from a food company and had a whole presentation about that, and at the end of the presentation she had a taste test thing. Cup A, B, C, and D were each filled with a different type/brand of... wait for it... beer! Yes I was tasting beer at the rotary meeting (who are the very people who made the rule about me not drinking) I just thought that was ironic... Anyway, so you had to rank the beers in order of what you liked the most, and you could try to match the cup with the kind of beer it was (she had the four types of beers that were in the test on the board) I didn't even try that, but 4 of the rotarians correctly matched them all! WOW now I'd call that talent!
keskiviikko:
MUSTA MAKKARA for lunch!!! Yeah this week has been an awesome lunch week so far! Nummi numi!!! And I guess other than Puhallica, it looking like midnight when I was going to school (which for some reason is reminding me of Michigan... hmmm not exactly sure why), I found out that there's a baby Hannah puppy dog at my house in New York! and the fact that I'm in Finland!, it was just a regular day today... wow that sounds funny... : just a regular day in Finland... yup same old Finland... oh yeah good ol' Finland... haha I could go on forever (except I really can't, which is why I stopped... I couldn't think of anymore and struggled to think up that last one) ... : P Okay then... TORSTAI!
torstai:
"Huomenna on perjantai!" (tomorow is Friday) that was the phrase of the day today. No matter where you go, kids in school like the weekends! Oh today I was late for class for the first time of the year! And I had to knock on the door and wait those couple terrifying seconds untill the teacher opened the door for me. I've noticed some teachers wait a little longer before they go open the door for a tardy student. But luckily I was just a tiny bit late for my Psycology class, the teacher there is super nice and didn't mind at all that I was a bit late. I know Mom and Dad you're wondering ''Why were you late Paige?'' Well I was talking to the music teacher, Johanna, about playing with her at somepoint, since the first day of school she's talked about accompaning me, I thought I had enought time to hand her the music and discuss a few points, but I forgot that she's a talkative Finn... so that's why I was late for class. : P
perjantai:
PERJANTAI!!! yeah! My all-time favorite day this period cause not dose it mean the weekend is so close I can smell it, but it also means I don't have to go to school until lunch or if I don't feel like a free lunch till after lunch, (but who wouldn't want a free lunch? I mean really) So I sleep in than ran some errans before heading into school for a free lunch. It was some beef slices in a sauce that you put ontop of rice. My friend Iina had told me about it Thursday, it's her favorite dish, but she couldn't really explain it so I just had to see for myself, only she said later that it wasn't the same today cause it was with rice and not potatoes... but it would have tasted great either way! I got home and just hung out, a chill day! I also stayed up late to watch Big Brother (I hadn't watched that in a while and I think I missed something cause there was a giant chicken walking around the house, and it'd randomly sit on people and pretend to 'peck' them... I'm not really sure who was inside but you don't need to know any finnish to know that it was funny!)
lauantai:
Another chill day, Antti was home and told me that the days are now 2 hours shorter... wow no wonder I'm so tired, and the hours that the sun is up, It's been cloudy so it still seems like it's dark! I went to the Kirputori today, just to see what's what. I came home with a sweet yellow jacket and an awesome belt with a big belt buckle! I've been wanting a belt with a rediculously big belt buckle for a while now, so finding one for 1.5€ was just iceing on the cake, I love that place! That night Eija and I watched a movie with Amanda Bines in it ''Lovewrecked'' It's weird cause it said it came out in 2005, so I was wondering why I had never even heard of it... but after watching it I understood, not one of her best works. I debaited about staying up till 1:30 in the morning to watch the scary Halloween movie that Eija said was super scary, but decided that I didn't feel like staying up until 3:30 just to watch the whole thing, and then who knows if I'd be able to get to sleep!
sunnuntai:
It was a good thing I didn't stay up that late last night cause today was a busy day, I was tired already from the lack of sun, and... and yeah that's all I got. Today was the day that Finland turns back their clocks an hour to save daylight. I thought that was tomorow, so I got up at what I thought was 9:30 only to be informed it was 8:30... ugh, anyway it was Halloween, so I put on my birthday tiarra (that thankfully I brought) Eija called me the princess of Halloween the entire day! I kept forgeting I had it on so I was like... why are people looking at me weird... I must be looking good today haha! And we went all over the place. First to a local man's house, he had asked about me playing with their band for an up coming concert. He talked about them playing old Finnish folk songs and I was hooked! I want to learn that stuff so badly! Later that day I found out there's a Rotary happening occuring on the same day so hopefully they will let me be excussed from that so I can take part in the folkyness! Then we went to Nokia to visit Mummu, and I learned why coffee is such an important thing in Finland (to keep you up when the sun is being lazy) Then Eija and I walked around Tampere while Anssi had a meeting, I think it was 6:00ish or something, compleatly dark, I kept forgetting how early it was and continued to be surprised at how many people where walking around! The city also had put up a bunch of decrative lights! I'm told they are light for a couple weeks now when it's so dark and dreary, then they turn off until CHRISTMAS time!!! They were really pretty! THEN, Anssi picked us up and we went to a hockey game! First hockey game in Finland! It wasn't a pro game, but it wasn't a not pro-game... Kalle (the groom of the wedding I went to) was playing, and his team won!!! Yeah! The best parts were when the players slamed up against the sides of the rink, sometimes really hard, Eija and I would just laugh, and than sometimes the players would just push eachother around, that was funny too. Oh and they drive Zambonies the same way here, couple times around the outside than down the middle. I always wondered why they didnt just keep going around and around, but now it makes since to me. It's suddenly clear.
Today was my first day at school since two Thursdays ago... yeah... Anssi woke me up as usual, but because I had been sleeping in longer and longer as the mornings got shorter and shorter, it came as a huge shock to me when I had to wake up so early and in the pitch black (unlike two Thursdays ago when there was a decent amount of light/sun at 7:30 in the morning) I thought "Why is Anssi waking me up in the middle of the night?" yeah It was 7:30, I don't know if I'm stressing how crazy it was to me... but it was! But in the end it was nice going back to school. (Got there by the light of the stratigically placed street lights) by stratigically I really mean everywhere. Hurried home after school for another exciting adventure to Ylöjärvi! This time I decided I'd just wave at all the buses even if it might be the express bus that wont pick me up, cause it might be the right bus (cause there are any distinctions that I can see) so I don't want to miss ther right bus just cause I didn't want to wave and have it not stop for me (if that makes much since) ANYWAY so I wave to what I thought was the express bus, I was cause the bus driver just waved back and kept on driving (ha love it!) My lesson went really well and Ismo said that our lessons don't have to be just an hour long "cause if you're going to take a bus all the way here and back..." so I stayed much longer and that worked out really well cause then I didn't have to wait in the cold as long as I did the time before! And this time I pressed the stop button at the right place so it was only a few meters to my bike! Yeah mastered the bus route! haha
tiistai:
Sleep in a bit today, very nice! (cause Tuesdays = class dosn't start till 10ish) Pea soup for lunch!!! You wouldn't think it but it's one of my favorite dishes... it's like a pea purre of amazingness! In biology I was busy finding out everyone's birthday and favorite color, I mean that's related to the subject right?... Anyway I found out one of my friends Joona was born on Christmas! WOW LIKE JESUS!!! Then I went to the Rotary meeting. There was this women presenter today. She was from a food company and had a whole presentation about that, and at the end of the presentation she had a taste test thing. Cup A, B, C, and D were each filled with a different type/brand of... wait for it... beer! Yes I was tasting beer at the rotary meeting (who are the very people who made the rule about me not drinking) I just thought that was ironic... Anyway, so you had to rank the beers in order of what you liked the most, and you could try to match the cup with the kind of beer it was (she had the four types of beers that were in the test on the board) I didn't even try that, but 4 of the rotarians correctly matched them all! WOW now I'd call that talent!
keskiviikko:
MUSTA MAKKARA for lunch!!! Yeah this week has been an awesome lunch week so far! Nummi numi!!! And I guess other than Puhallica, it looking like midnight when I was going to school (which for some reason is reminding me of Michigan... hmmm not exactly sure why), I found out that there's a baby Hannah puppy dog at my house in New York! and the fact that I'm in Finland!, it was just a regular day today... wow that sounds funny... : just a regular day in Finland... yup same old Finland... oh yeah good ol' Finland... haha I could go on forever (except I really can't, which is why I stopped... I couldn't think of anymore and struggled to think up that last one) ... : P Okay then... TORSTAI!
torstai:
"Huomenna on perjantai!" (tomorow is Friday) that was the phrase of the day today. No matter where you go, kids in school like the weekends! Oh today I was late for class for the first time of the year! And I had to knock on the door and wait those couple terrifying seconds untill the teacher opened the door for me. I've noticed some teachers wait a little longer before they go open the door for a tardy student. But luckily I was just a tiny bit late for my Psycology class, the teacher there is super nice and didn't mind at all that I was a bit late. I know Mom and Dad you're wondering ''Why were you late Paige?'' Well I was talking to the music teacher, Johanna, about playing with her at somepoint, since the first day of school she's talked about accompaning me, I thought I had enought time to hand her the music and discuss a few points, but I forgot that she's a talkative Finn... so that's why I was late for class. : P
perjantai:
PERJANTAI!!! yeah! My all-time favorite day this period cause not dose it mean the weekend is so close I can smell it, but it also means I don't have to go to school until lunch or if I don't feel like a free lunch till after lunch, (but who wouldn't want a free lunch? I mean really) So I sleep in than ran some errans before heading into school for a free lunch. It was some beef slices in a sauce that you put ontop of rice. My friend Iina had told me about it Thursday, it's her favorite dish, but she couldn't really explain it so I just had to see for myself, only she said later that it wasn't the same today cause it was with rice and not potatoes... but it would have tasted great either way! I got home and just hung out, a chill day! I also stayed up late to watch Big Brother (I hadn't watched that in a while and I think I missed something cause there was a giant chicken walking around the house, and it'd randomly sit on people and pretend to 'peck' them... I'm not really sure who was inside but you don't need to know any finnish to know that it was funny!)
lauantai:
Another chill day, Antti was home and told me that the days are now 2 hours shorter... wow no wonder I'm so tired, and the hours that the sun is up, It's been cloudy so it still seems like it's dark! I went to the Kirputori today, just to see what's what. I came home with a sweet yellow jacket and an awesome belt with a big belt buckle! I've been wanting a belt with a rediculously big belt buckle for a while now, so finding one for 1.5€ was just iceing on the cake, I love that place! That night Eija and I watched a movie with Amanda Bines in it ''Lovewrecked'' It's weird cause it said it came out in 2005, so I was wondering why I had never even heard of it... but after watching it I understood, not one of her best works. I debaited about staying up till 1:30 in the morning to watch the scary Halloween movie that Eija said was super scary, but decided that I didn't feel like staying up until 3:30 just to watch the whole thing, and then who knows if I'd be able to get to sleep!
sunnuntai:
It was a good thing I didn't stay up that late last night cause today was a busy day, I was tired already from the lack of sun, and... and yeah that's all I got. Today was the day that Finland turns back their clocks an hour to save daylight. I thought that was tomorow, so I got up at what I thought was 9:30 only to be informed it was 8:30... ugh, anyway it was Halloween, so I put on my birthday tiarra (that thankfully I brought) Eija called me the princess of Halloween the entire day! I kept forgeting I had it on so I was like... why are people looking at me weird... I must be looking good today haha! And we went all over the place. First to a local man's house, he had asked about me playing with their band for an up coming concert. He talked about them playing old Finnish folk songs and I was hooked! I want to learn that stuff so badly! Later that day I found out there's a Rotary happening occuring on the same day so hopefully they will let me be excussed from that so I can take part in the folkyness! Then we went to Nokia to visit Mummu, and I learned why coffee is such an important thing in Finland (to keep you up when the sun is being lazy) Then Eija and I walked around Tampere while Anssi had a meeting, I think it was 6:00ish or something, compleatly dark, I kept forgetting how early it was and continued to be surprised at how many people where walking around! The city also had put up a bunch of decrative lights! I'm told they are light for a couple weeks now when it's so dark and dreary, then they turn off until CHRISTMAS time!!! They were really pretty! THEN, Anssi picked us up and we went to a hockey game! First hockey game in Finland! It wasn't a pro game, but it wasn't a not pro-game... Kalle (the groom of the wedding I went to) was playing, and his team won!!! Yeah! The best parts were when the players slamed up against the sides of the rink, sometimes really hard, Eija and I would just laugh, and than sometimes the players would just push eachother around, that was funny too. Oh and they drive Zambonies the same way here, couple times around the outside than down the middle. I always wondered why they didnt just keep going around and around, but now it makes since to me. It's suddenly clear.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Viikko Yksitoista
maanantai:
Today I slept in cause... SYYSLOMA!!! (fall break) yeah!!! A whole week with no school. NICE! Then Eija, Johanna, and I got ready to hit the town. Yeah for Hämeenkyrö. We spent the morning at the kirpputori (flea market), then got a bite to eat and coffee at a cafe. Then went grocery shopping. I couldn't believe it. Finland is already in Christmas mode!!! And I always thought America was bad, but that's nothing! It probably has something to do with Finland dosen't celebrate Halloween that much, or Thanksgiving (at all, I mean why would they?) So America has two holidays to slow Christmas fever... But here, It's Christmas starting... NOW!
tiistai:
All my pens I brought from America are dying! I'm down to one last american pen that works. It's a small thing but it's gonna be a sad day when that pen kicks the bucket! Day two of syysloma! I made/attempted to make the orange gingered carrots like my parents make. I think it tasted similar, and both Eija and Anssi like it!
keskiviikko:
I spent the morning on Youtube watching the Little Mermaid (in finnish) and for the rest of the week I had ''Part of Your World'' stuck in my head, the funny thing was, parts of the song that was stuck in my head was in english, parts were in finnish... So what can ya do? For lunch Eija took me to a local cafe/resturant where they don't serve any meat. It was really good food, and they had this awesome, fresh/warm carrot bread... ohhh sooo good. Anssi showed up for lunch too!
torstai:
Kirpputori again today, I just can't get enought of that place! And later Eija's parents picked me up to bring me to a candle party (like avon party but with candles) at their other grand daughter's house. And on the way there they pointed out where my 3rd host family lived, so that was cool! The party was a lot of fun, and they had brownies there!!! I hadn't had brownies in FOREVER!!!
perjantai:
Today I got really good at jumpping into random cars. It was all planned but It was a funny 'hot potatoe-like' feeling! We were all going to my friend Jona's dad's house in Ikaalinen (about a half-hour away) to watch scary movies. Sanni's mom picked me up, then dropped Sanni and I off at the school where Piia's parents promptly picked us up again and brought us to Ikaalinen. We rented the movies; The Crazies, and Paranormal Activity. Then stopped at a grocery store for snacks, then to Jona's dad's house. Another thing about Finland is you're usually no more than a couple kilometers away from a grocery store (unless you're in the middle of nowhere, I'm not sure how many grocery stores they have out there) It was 6:00 and 0°C!!! ahhh The movies were sooo good!!! Then we jumpped in more cars to get back home, but after watching those movies we double checked that they were the right cars to be getting into!
lauantai:
If felt like a sunday, not a saturday today. It felt like I should be going to school tomorow (probably because I've been out of school for so long!) Eija and I went to the market in Kyröskoski, then K Market, and Tokmanni. Then we did a little cleaning. Sauna at night, and then we watched some german soap opera... German sounds so funny when they are made, we couldn't help but laugh!
sunnuntai:
Today after lunch we bundled up and headed to Kesä Mökki. We had to close it for the season. It was so foggy on the lake, you couldn't tell where the fog endded and the water began... uuuhhh creepy! Eija and I raked some leaves, the boys got the water pump out of the lake, piled up the cairs, and emptyed the 'toilet'... yum. When we got home they changed the car tires into the winter tires (with spikes in them) And Eija and I planted some plants she bought at the market yesterday, then drank glögi. Then I realized that school starts tomorow... which isn't all that bad I guess.
Today I slept in cause... SYYSLOMA!!! (fall break) yeah!!! A whole week with no school. NICE! Then Eija, Johanna, and I got ready to hit the town. Yeah for Hämeenkyrö. We spent the morning at the kirpputori (flea market), then got a bite to eat and coffee at a cafe. Then went grocery shopping. I couldn't believe it. Finland is already in Christmas mode!!! And I always thought America was bad, but that's nothing! It probably has something to do with Finland dosen't celebrate Halloween that much, or Thanksgiving (at all, I mean why would they?) So America has two holidays to slow Christmas fever... But here, It's Christmas starting... NOW!
tiistai:
All my pens I brought from America are dying! I'm down to one last american pen that works. It's a small thing but it's gonna be a sad day when that pen kicks the bucket! Day two of syysloma! I made/attempted to make the orange gingered carrots like my parents make. I think it tasted similar, and both Eija and Anssi like it!
keskiviikko:
I spent the morning on Youtube watching the Little Mermaid (in finnish) and for the rest of the week I had ''Part of Your World'' stuck in my head, the funny thing was, parts of the song that was stuck in my head was in english, parts were in finnish... So what can ya do? For lunch Eija took me to a local cafe/resturant where they don't serve any meat. It was really good food, and they had this awesome, fresh/warm carrot bread... ohhh sooo good. Anssi showed up for lunch too!
torstai:
Kirpputori again today, I just can't get enought of that place! And later Eija's parents picked me up to bring me to a candle party (like avon party but with candles) at their other grand daughter's house. And on the way there they pointed out where my 3rd host family lived, so that was cool! The party was a lot of fun, and they had brownies there!!! I hadn't had brownies in FOREVER!!!
perjantai:
Today I got really good at jumpping into random cars. It was all planned but It was a funny 'hot potatoe-like' feeling! We were all going to my friend Jona's dad's house in Ikaalinen (about a half-hour away) to watch scary movies. Sanni's mom picked me up, then dropped Sanni and I off at the school where Piia's parents promptly picked us up again and brought us to Ikaalinen. We rented the movies; The Crazies, and Paranormal Activity. Then stopped at a grocery store for snacks, then to Jona's dad's house. Another thing about Finland is you're usually no more than a couple kilometers away from a grocery store (unless you're in the middle of nowhere, I'm not sure how many grocery stores they have out there) It was 6:00 and 0°C!!! ahhh The movies were sooo good!!! Then we jumpped in more cars to get back home, but after watching those movies we double checked that they were the right cars to be getting into!
lauantai:
If felt like a sunday, not a saturday today. It felt like I should be going to school tomorow (probably because I've been out of school for so long!) Eija and I went to the market in Kyröskoski, then K Market, and Tokmanni. Then we did a little cleaning. Sauna at night, and then we watched some german soap opera... German sounds so funny when they are made, we couldn't help but laugh!
sunnuntai:
Today after lunch we bundled up and headed to Kesä Mökki. We had to close it for the season. It was so foggy on the lake, you couldn't tell where the fog endded and the water began... uuuhhh creepy! Eija and I raked some leaves, the boys got the water pump out of the lake, piled up the cairs, and emptyed the 'toilet'... yum. When we got home they changed the car tires into the winter tires (with spikes in them) And Eija and I planted some plants she bought at the market yesterday, then drank glögi. Then I realized that school starts tomorow... which isn't all that bad I guess.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Viikko Kymmenen
maanantai:
Today I went to school armed with Skittles. Everyone liked them (duh they're Skittles, pretty much impossible to not like) Lunch was really good today, some type of fish meat ball, and mashed potatoes, anyway... after lunch we had a free period where we played cards and ate skittles. I taught them the card game; B.S. that was a lot of fun! After school I got all ready for my Ylöjärvi/French horn adventure. I got to the bus stop with plenty of time to spare. I saw a bus coming, so I wave at it... I just kept going... hmmm not the best start to the adventure. I waited and hoped that there was another bus coming soon. After 15 minutes I saw one, this time waved at it plenty of time in advanced cause I wasnt sure if the last bus didn't stop cause I didnt give it enought time to slow down. This bus stopped. I got on, it was also crowded, I'd never been on a bus during commuting time, so it was kinda a shock when It was kinda hard to find a seat. I then wasnt exactly sure where I wanted to get off, so for the next 25 minutes I kept my eyes pealed on the road ahead. I pressed the button at the right time cause I got off at the place I had decided to get off (the night before I google maped my whole trip) and I guess that googling was effective cause with no trouble I was able to find Ismo's house (I was going to have a lesson with him for the first time) He was awesome, and an awesome horn player! After the lesson I thought I had 10 minutes to get back to the bus stop before the bus would pass. So I walked very fast, and at one point jogged. I got the the bus stop and waited, then the bus came, I waved at it... it just kept going... What?!?!?!? That time I totally gave the bus enought time to slow down and stop for me. It was a 45minute wait till the next stop, which I spent hoping that that bus would stop for me, and yelling at the last bus for not stopping for me, laughing at how funny it felt to be standing on the side of the highway (tell ya the truth I felt kinda like an overdressed hooka ; ). Then next bus did stop for me. I found out later that there are Express buses, that only stop at certain bus stops, and regular buses that stop at any bus stop, so the buses that didnt stop for me... well it wasnt anything personal. I then had to figure out when to push the button for my stop... I pushed it too soon and endded up walking a bit more then a kilometer to get to my bike. I didn't mide that because I knew exactly where I was, and it gave me the change to figure out where I should push the button next time, now I know! (exciting day)
tiistai:
Snow fell for the first time today! We were in psychology (psykologia) and all the sudden everyone noticed that it was snowing. It was funny how even the teacher got really distracted. So exciting! Snow means winter is on it's way (most people love winter here). Went home, the power kept going on and off, must be because of the wind. Then I went to the Rotary meeting, there was a very talkitive man who was giving a speach about his trip to India (Intia) with the Stop Polio Now movement. It was very intresting, going into a little over 50 minutes of it and the power went out : ( he was forced to end... Oh well... Then I went home.
keskiviikko:
In biology (biologia) we did a cross word puzzle about photosynthesis (fotosynteesi) and I actually got one of them right (out of the two that I answered) : P I'm on my way! Puhalica band tonight, I really like some of those songs were playing (she gives me some great solos)!
torstai:
It was sorta rainning in the morning, but I used the water-proofish snow pants Eija gave to me when riding to school. Good thing I did cause I would have had really wet pants if I hadn't! It stopped raining (luckily) for my hyppytunti (free period) cause I had to go Kyröskoskilla to get my books from the book store. I made stops at Tokmanni and K Supermarket on the way back. I had fifth period class today, Tanssi Kurssi! (dance course) Pretty much no one showed up for the class because Syysloma would start as soon as school ended that day, so some people just ditched. It was just Piia, Jona, Henriikka, Sanni, a 3rd grader, the teacher and I. We spent the whole class trying to remember how the Oprah 24th season dance went (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvt3chGuU8I&feature=related) It's pretty much awesome! We also found fun hats and played with those, mine was like a russian furry hat, I wanted to keep it really badly but alas! We stayed past the time that the fifth period endded. It was snowing when we got out!!! Lots of snow, that was sticking way longer than the snow on tuesday. Sanni missed her bus, so after running around trying to catch snowflakes (it wasnt that hard cause some snowflakes where the width of golfballs!!! so they floated down really slowly) Then Sanni hoped on the back of my bike and we went to my house, laughing the entire way there, we passed a bunch of people that were waiting for a bus, I'm pretty sure they think we're crazy now. Then we almost ran over an old man on one of those rollaattori things (key word: almost) Then we hung out until her mom picked her up. Then Eija and I went to Tokmanni! It was a good day!
perjantai:
No school today!!! YEAH!!! Eija also had a day off of work, so around 10ish we headed of to the Ikaalisten Kylpylä (Ikaalinen Spa) It's a hotel/swim-park/bowling ally/lots of other stuff. We went swimming! It was a great place with a water slide, hot life guard, and lots of other things. They had hot tubes but theirs arn't even close to as hot as the ones in America! They also had a outdoor swimming pool with heated water, so we swam out there as it snowed, that was fun! There also was a höyrysauna (a steam sauna) that was REALLY nice, I liked that a lot!!! Then we picked up Eija's mom and went to this place known for really good food. It was a classy all you can eat buffet! With lots of traditional Finnish food. I tried a little of everything. I was surprised when I actually enjoyed the cold fish that were in different kinds of sauses, they didn't like somehting I would be able to keep down, but they were really good. We all ate a ton, then went back to Eija's mom's house for coffee/tea time. On the way home we stopped at this German store: LIDL, it was like a grocery store with only German and Finnish items. It was really funny to see that the german sizes were way bigger than the finnish sizes and usually cheaper, neither Eija or I could figure out why. I bought peanut butter, and when we got home PB&J's were made!
lauantai:
Eija was already at work when I got up today, Anssi was up getting a grocery list together, he asked if I wanted anything, I asked for the rice crispy cereal, but he didn't know what that was so I said I'd go with him. We first returned bottles (here each bottle is worth 15-20cents so they all get returned) Dad always said that if the return amount was higher, people would recycle, and it's true! He started making lunch, then he and Antti went somewhere so he asked me to watch the potatoes. I don't (didn't) know how to cook potatoes but didn't want him to know that so before he left I staggard my questions, asking little by little about cooking potatoes, pretty soon I knew how to cook potatoes, and he knew I hadn't known, mission 1/2 way success! Later Anssi went to Pori ("west coast town") to go to a hockey game, he had a great time! Eija and I watched the movie Se7en tonight with Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, ahhh such a good movie!!!
sunnuntai:
Raked some leaves today. There are so many leaves! When Eija got back from work we went to Tampere to visit with Johanna. She made us Glögi, a traditional christmas drink. It tasted like that Poupperi smells (not how it tastes cause I know from experience that that tastes nasty) but Glögi is awesome and I've got till Christmas to drink as much as I want of it! Johanna came home with us. We went on a walk around the block, all bundeled up with refectors hooked on our jackets, it was like a 4k walk and by the end of it I wished I hadn't bundeled up so much! Then we watched P.S. Rakastan Sinuait (P.S. I Love You) oh man such a good movie! Then It was bed time!
Today I went to school armed with Skittles. Everyone liked them (duh they're Skittles, pretty much impossible to not like) Lunch was really good today, some type of fish meat ball, and mashed potatoes, anyway... after lunch we had a free period where we played cards and ate skittles. I taught them the card game; B.S. that was a lot of fun! After school I got all ready for my Ylöjärvi/French horn adventure. I got to the bus stop with plenty of time to spare. I saw a bus coming, so I wave at it... I just kept going... hmmm not the best start to the adventure. I waited and hoped that there was another bus coming soon. After 15 minutes I saw one, this time waved at it plenty of time in advanced cause I wasnt sure if the last bus didn't stop cause I didnt give it enought time to slow down. This bus stopped. I got on, it was also crowded, I'd never been on a bus during commuting time, so it was kinda a shock when It was kinda hard to find a seat. I then wasnt exactly sure where I wanted to get off, so for the next 25 minutes I kept my eyes pealed on the road ahead. I pressed the button at the right time cause I got off at the place I had decided to get off (the night before I google maped my whole trip) and I guess that googling was effective cause with no trouble I was able to find Ismo's house (I was going to have a lesson with him for the first time) He was awesome, and an awesome horn player! After the lesson I thought I had 10 minutes to get back to the bus stop before the bus would pass. So I walked very fast, and at one point jogged. I got the the bus stop and waited, then the bus came, I waved at it... it just kept going... What?!?!?!? That time I totally gave the bus enought time to slow down and stop for me. It was a 45minute wait till the next stop, which I spent hoping that that bus would stop for me, and yelling at the last bus for not stopping for me, laughing at how funny it felt to be standing on the side of the highway (tell ya the truth I felt kinda like an overdressed hooka ; ). Then next bus did stop for me. I found out later that there are Express buses, that only stop at certain bus stops, and regular buses that stop at any bus stop, so the buses that didnt stop for me... well it wasnt anything personal. I then had to figure out when to push the button for my stop... I pushed it too soon and endded up walking a bit more then a kilometer to get to my bike. I didn't mide that because I knew exactly where I was, and it gave me the change to figure out where I should push the button next time, now I know! (exciting day)
tiistai:
Snow fell for the first time today! We were in psychology (psykologia) and all the sudden everyone noticed that it was snowing. It was funny how even the teacher got really distracted. So exciting! Snow means winter is on it's way (most people love winter here). Went home, the power kept going on and off, must be because of the wind. Then I went to the Rotary meeting, there was a very talkitive man who was giving a speach about his trip to India (Intia) with the Stop Polio Now movement. It was very intresting, going into a little over 50 minutes of it and the power went out : ( he was forced to end... Oh well... Then I went home.
keskiviikko:
In biology (biologia) we did a cross word puzzle about photosynthesis (fotosynteesi) and I actually got one of them right (out of the two that I answered) : P I'm on my way! Puhalica band tonight, I really like some of those songs were playing (she gives me some great solos)!
torstai:
It was sorta rainning in the morning, but I used the water-proofish snow pants Eija gave to me when riding to school. Good thing I did cause I would have had really wet pants if I hadn't! It stopped raining (luckily) for my hyppytunti (free period) cause I had to go Kyröskoskilla to get my books from the book store. I made stops at Tokmanni and K Supermarket on the way back. I had fifth period class today, Tanssi Kurssi! (dance course) Pretty much no one showed up for the class because Syysloma would start as soon as school ended that day, so some people just ditched. It was just Piia, Jona, Henriikka, Sanni, a 3rd grader, the teacher and I. We spent the whole class trying to remember how the Oprah 24th season dance went (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvt3chGuU8I&feature=related) It's pretty much awesome! We also found fun hats and played with those, mine was like a russian furry hat, I wanted to keep it really badly but alas! We stayed past the time that the fifth period endded. It was snowing when we got out!!! Lots of snow, that was sticking way longer than the snow on tuesday. Sanni missed her bus, so after running around trying to catch snowflakes (it wasnt that hard cause some snowflakes where the width of golfballs!!! so they floated down really slowly) Then Sanni hoped on the back of my bike and we went to my house, laughing the entire way there, we passed a bunch of people that were waiting for a bus, I'm pretty sure they think we're crazy now. Then we almost ran over an old man on one of those rollaattori things (key word: almost) Then we hung out until her mom picked her up. Then Eija and I went to Tokmanni! It was a good day!
perjantai:
No school today!!! YEAH!!! Eija also had a day off of work, so around 10ish we headed of to the Ikaalisten Kylpylä (Ikaalinen Spa) It's a hotel/swim-park/bowling ally/lots of other stuff. We went swimming! It was a great place with a water slide, hot life guard, and lots of other things. They had hot tubes but theirs arn't even close to as hot as the ones in America! They also had a outdoor swimming pool with heated water, so we swam out there as it snowed, that was fun! There also was a höyrysauna (a steam sauna) that was REALLY nice, I liked that a lot!!! Then we picked up Eija's mom and went to this place known for really good food. It was a classy all you can eat buffet! With lots of traditional Finnish food. I tried a little of everything. I was surprised when I actually enjoyed the cold fish that were in different kinds of sauses, they didn't like somehting I would be able to keep down, but they were really good. We all ate a ton, then went back to Eija's mom's house for coffee/tea time. On the way home we stopped at this German store: LIDL, it was like a grocery store with only German and Finnish items. It was really funny to see that the german sizes were way bigger than the finnish sizes and usually cheaper, neither Eija or I could figure out why. I bought peanut butter, and when we got home PB&J's were made!
lauantai:
Eija was already at work when I got up today, Anssi was up getting a grocery list together, he asked if I wanted anything, I asked for the rice crispy cereal, but he didn't know what that was so I said I'd go with him. We first returned bottles (here each bottle is worth 15-20cents so they all get returned) Dad always said that if the return amount was higher, people would recycle, and it's true! He started making lunch, then he and Antti went somewhere so he asked me to watch the potatoes. I don't (didn't) know how to cook potatoes but didn't want him to know that so before he left I staggard my questions, asking little by little about cooking potatoes, pretty soon I knew how to cook potatoes, and he knew I hadn't known, mission 1/2 way success! Later Anssi went to Pori ("west coast town") to go to a hockey game, he had a great time! Eija and I watched the movie Se7en tonight with Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, ahhh such a good movie!!!
sunnuntai:
Raked some leaves today. There are so many leaves! When Eija got back from work we went to Tampere to visit with Johanna. She made us Glögi, a traditional christmas drink. It tasted like that Poupperi smells (not how it tastes cause I know from experience that that tastes nasty) but Glögi is awesome and I've got till Christmas to drink as much as I want of it! Johanna came home with us. We went on a walk around the block, all bundeled up with refectors hooked on our jackets, it was like a 4k walk and by the end of it I wished I hadn't bundeled up so much! Then we watched P.S. Rakastan Sinuait (P.S. I Love You) oh man such a good movie! Then It was bed time!
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Viikko Yhdeksän
maanantai:
Headed off to school on Yrjö this morning, listening to my ipod, as always... after passing the libaray I heard someone talking, and looked over and this old man, riding his bike paralle to mine was chatting away to me, I didn't catch all he was saying, something about rain and the sky and mopoautos (the baby cars that you can drive when you turn 15) I didn't want him to figure out that I'm not Finnish, but I also couldn't think of anything good to say on the spot so I just nodded my head saying "niin, joo.... niin!!!.... joo..." It worked pretty well, and then he rode on straight, and I turnned "Moro" I said, and he waved... wonder if I'll ever see that old man again... Later that day Eija and I went to the libary, then we took a new way home, which answered my question of where that other road went to, cause we ended up driving that whole road but from the other direction so I didn't know it was my mystery road until the end of it when I realized where we were. It actually is a really cool road, with a couple farms, a lake, and a 700 year old, famous tree!!! I can't believe I'm living within a kilometer of a 700 year old famous tree!!! AWESOME!
tiistai:
I got to sleep in today cause I didn't have a class first period. That was nice! But surprisingly, even though I only had 3 classes, the day felt really long to me! It may have been because I was expecting the day to go by quickly, so I over-anticipated it... hmmm Later I went to the Kipputori (the flea market wonderland) I found a nice scarf, shirt, wife-beater, and hair bow, and spent a grand total of 4€ nice!
keskiviikko:
Puhalica (band) today, It's getting darker and darker earlier and earlier! riding back I realized that there are street lamps everywhere, and for good reason too! Sauna tonight! It's nice after a day in the cold to get heated up at night, it makes you kinda tired too, so you sleep really well!
torstai:
Today was 2 months since I left New York, wow! I had a study hall after lunch so I rode my bike to the book store to order my books, the older woman who owns the book store dosen't speach English, but I guess I know enough basics to get what I need across, and it helpped that before I went, I wroted down what I needed so she read the book titles that I needed instead of me having to remember and sound them all out. I think she said that they would be in next wednesday, but I'm not a totally sure... hmmm. Today was a long day to, we had dance course 5th class so we got out at 4:05. Eija and I got home at the same time. She then showed me around a near-by town, Ikaalinen, she said it is one of the oldest towns in Finland. Wow! And she showed me where the ice roads go.... I was like wait, people drive on the ice of the frosen lakes in Finland?!?!? I guess they do. Wow! I'll have to check that out when it's frosen enough! (Which might not be too far off cause Eija also said she heard on the news that snow may be coming next week!) Then we went to a sauna night. A group that Anssi is in rented a sauna lodge for the night. It was great! First you get all warm in the sauna, then you go out to the lake and swim in the extremely cold water (12 degrees C) the air was 8 C but the water felt way colder!!! Then you go back and forth from sauna to lake as many times as you want. I went swimming 3 times. It was actually really enjoyable! Then we went to the smoke sauna, It was my first time in a smoke sauna, the air tasted different (kinda smoky but not in the bad way) I think that the smoke sauna is the more traditional sauna, and there arn't may around anymore because they are harder to start up and work. So I was lucky to get in one! Then we ate makkara (sausages) and candy.
perjantai:
Today, the 2 month anniversary of being Suomissa, I cried : P I got to sleep in cause I only had two classes, and they were both after lunch. I ment to go in for lunch, but my plans changed when all my clothes were still not dry from washing them. So my jeans were a little wet when I rushed into school, hoping I wasn't late for class, I wasn't I had about 15 minutes. haha. Then it was a lazy day after that.
lauantai:
After waking up, Anssi went off on his motorcycle, and Eija and I went to the (tori) similar to a farmers' market. We bought musta makkara (black sausage) and some amazing, really big, really good, jelly doughnuts, I think they might have been in the shape of a cats head, but I don't know if that was intentional, or just I see cats everywhere... Well anyway they were good! Then we went to Tokmanni and tried on all the hats, it was so much fun, some of those hats are crazy! Then we cleaned up around the house, and just chilled for the rest of the day. When Anssi came home he was carring a big box with a picture of a trout on it, hmmm I thought, that looks like a cherry box from the store.... AHHHH MY PACKAGE!!! It was like Christmas morning! I got Skittles, Oreos, Marshmellows, Candy corn, Silly bands, Skittles, Long johns, and Kristy Barn Tee-Shirts!!! Ima be representing KB in the FI!
sunnuntai:
After lunch Eija and I organized the attic, she showed me her dolls from when she was little. They were in really good condition, unlike my Paige Doll, who is practically bald, and has magic marker stained on her face. (how I got magic marker to stain, I don't know...) There also was an adorable baby carage that Juhani and Antti used. Then I took a bike ride. I invented biking photography, (it's where you take pictures... wait for it.... WHILE you ride your bike) I know, I'm a genious : P I got some pretty interesting pictures, I think I'll become a pro bikegratographer (and look, I just made up a word to go along with it) Later that day, Eija, Anssi, and I went to the Rotary's concert at the Hämeenkyrö church that was raising money for the End Polio Now cause. It was a great program, a singer, pianist, violinist, and guitarist. All the songs were beautiful, and one of them was Amazing Grace, but in finnish. Which made me wonder, what language was that song origanaly wrote for?
Headed off to school on Yrjö this morning, listening to my ipod, as always... after passing the libaray I heard someone talking, and looked over and this old man, riding his bike paralle to mine was chatting away to me, I didn't catch all he was saying, something about rain and the sky and mopoautos (the baby cars that you can drive when you turn 15) I didn't want him to figure out that I'm not Finnish, but I also couldn't think of anything good to say on the spot so I just nodded my head saying "niin, joo.... niin!!!.... joo..." It worked pretty well, and then he rode on straight, and I turnned "Moro" I said, and he waved... wonder if I'll ever see that old man again... Later that day Eija and I went to the libary, then we took a new way home, which answered my question of where that other road went to, cause we ended up driving that whole road but from the other direction so I didn't know it was my mystery road until the end of it when I realized where we were. It actually is a really cool road, with a couple farms, a lake, and a 700 year old, famous tree!!! I can't believe I'm living within a kilometer of a 700 year old famous tree!!! AWESOME!
tiistai:
I got to sleep in today cause I didn't have a class first period. That was nice! But surprisingly, even though I only had 3 classes, the day felt really long to me! It may have been because I was expecting the day to go by quickly, so I over-anticipated it... hmmm Later I went to the Kipputori (the flea market wonderland) I found a nice scarf, shirt, wife-beater, and hair bow, and spent a grand total of 4€ nice!
keskiviikko:
Puhalica (band) today, It's getting darker and darker earlier and earlier! riding back I realized that there are street lamps everywhere, and for good reason too! Sauna tonight! It's nice after a day in the cold to get heated up at night, it makes you kinda tired too, so you sleep really well!
torstai:
Today was 2 months since I left New York, wow! I had a study hall after lunch so I rode my bike to the book store to order my books, the older woman who owns the book store dosen't speach English, but I guess I know enough basics to get what I need across, and it helpped that before I went, I wroted down what I needed so she read the book titles that I needed instead of me having to remember and sound them all out. I think she said that they would be in next wednesday, but I'm not a totally sure... hmmm. Today was a long day to, we had dance course 5th class so we got out at 4:05. Eija and I got home at the same time. She then showed me around a near-by town, Ikaalinen, she said it is one of the oldest towns in Finland. Wow! And she showed me where the ice roads go.... I was like wait, people drive on the ice of the frosen lakes in Finland?!?!? I guess they do. Wow! I'll have to check that out when it's frosen enough! (Which might not be too far off cause Eija also said she heard on the news that snow may be coming next week!) Then we went to a sauna night. A group that Anssi is in rented a sauna lodge for the night. It was great! First you get all warm in the sauna, then you go out to the lake and swim in the extremely cold water (12 degrees C) the air was 8 C but the water felt way colder!!! Then you go back and forth from sauna to lake as many times as you want. I went swimming 3 times. It was actually really enjoyable! Then we went to the smoke sauna, It was my first time in a smoke sauna, the air tasted different (kinda smoky but not in the bad way) I think that the smoke sauna is the more traditional sauna, and there arn't may around anymore because they are harder to start up and work. So I was lucky to get in one! Then we ate makkara (sausages) and candy.
perjantai:
Today, the 2 month anniversary of being Suomissa, I cried : P I got to sleep in cause I only had two classes, and they were both after lunch. I ment to go in for lunch, but my plans changed when all my clothes were still not dry from washing them. So my jeans were a little wet when I rushed into school, hoping I wasn't late for class, I wasn't I had about 15 minutes. haha. Then it was a lazy day after that.
lauantai:
After waking up, Anssi went off on his motorcycle, and Eija and I went to the (tori) similar to a farmers' market. We bought musta makkara (black sausage) and some amazing, really big, really good, jelly doughnuts, I think they might have been in the shape of a cats head, but I don't know if that was intentional, or just I see cats everywhere... Well anyway they were good! Then we went to Tokmanni and tried on all the hats, it was so much fun, some of those hats are crazy! Then we cleaned up around the house, and just chilled for the rest of the day. When Anssi came home he was carring a big box with a picture of a trout on it, hmmm I thought, that looks like a cherry box from the store.... AHHHH MY PACKAGE!!! It was like Christmas morning! I got Skittles, Oreos, Marshmellows, Candy corn, Silly bands, Skittles, Long johns, and Kristy Barn Tee-Shirts!!! Ima be representing KB in the FI!
sunnuntai:
After lunch Eija and I organized the attic, she showed me her dolls from when she was little. They were in really good condition, unlike my Paige Doll, who is practically bald, and has magic marker stained on her face. (how I got magic marker to stain, I don't know...) There also was an adorable baby carage that Juhani and Antti used. Then I took a bike ride. I invented biking photography, (it's where you take pictures... wait for it.... WHILE you ride your bike) I know, I'm a genious : P I got some pretty interesting pictures, I think I'll become a pro bikegratographer (and look, I just made up a word to go along with it) Later that day, Eija, Anssi, and I went to the Rotary's concert at the Hämeenkyrö church that was raising money for the End Polio Now cause. It was a great program, a singer, pianist, violinist, and guitarist. All the songs were beautiful, and one of them was Amazing Grace, but in finnish. Which made me wonder, what language was that song origanaly wrote for?
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Viikko Kahdeksan
maanantai:
Half way through my bowl of porage this morning it dawned on me that my dream last night was almost half in finnish! Sweetness! Cause I hear that when you start dreaming in another language it means that you are becoming fluent. So that's a good sign! Had my music test today, hyvin meni, (it went well.) I could have gone home but instead I hung out with Sanni, we ate lunch, then went to the Munkkilja (a bakery across the street from the school) I got a munkki with banana frosting, she got one with strawberry frosting. Then we went back to school and discovered the student lounge. It's a great place with couches, wheely chairs, a computer, a microwave, TV, playstation, radio, and a kitchen sink, literally. Then Sanni's bus came and I rode home on my bike, which Piia and I named: Yrjö (a really, really, finnish name.)
tiistai:
I didn't have a test today, so I didn't have to go to school. I was thinking about going in for lunch, but was too lazy. Good thing I didn't because Eija came home with Hesburger just for me. I have never been to a Hesburger but now I can say I've had it. It was really good too! I then headed off to the Rotary meeting, I had my presentation to give. That also went really well. They asked me if we get snow EVERY year. It's kind of funny because I think it's hard for them to belive that places south of Finland can get any snow at all. But we get snow days, (they don't here, I've asked many people, they get probably 2 to 3 times as much snow as us, and they still go to school! yeah can't wait!!!) I also met a girl, Asta, at the meeting who spent last year in Germany. She had to give her presentation too. Germany seems like a cool place.
keskiviikko:
Again I didn't have to go to school. Eija made lunch then went to work, and I went on a walk to figure out if these two roads near my house connect. So I started walking down one of them... and walking.... and walking. In the forest between the two roads is a huge cell phone tower so I was able to use that as a reference to where I was. The road that I took got very close to where it should meet up with the other road, then it split into three roads... ugh One was headed in the complete wrong direction for meeting up with the other road, one headed into the woods, and the last was headed in the right direction but soon dissolved into a bunch of brush... So I gave up, walked to the tower and then home to get ready for band. I'll have to walk the other road and see where that gose next time I'm free!
torstai:
Once again, no school for me! Eija took me out for lunch, a little old place just down the road. Hot dog soup found me again! (Makkara keito if you want to get technical) After lunch she showed me around the place. It used to be a farm that belonged to seven sisters a very long time ago. When they all pasted away, a group of older men took it on themselves to fix up all the buildings (they were in really bad shape) and make it into what it is today. One building to get lunch in, one that you can rent a hall to have a party in, one that you can rent to have a dance in, one that you can rent for wedding party (with a honeymoon suite above) and also a smoke sauna that you can rent. It was a really cool place! Lots of charm! Later that day I spent 2 and a half hours hitting up all of the grocery stores in town. Just for fun, and now that I think about it, there are a ton of grocery stores for such a small town, K Market, Valintatalo, 2 Siwa, Tokmanni, K Supermarket (Super Päivä), and S Market. And S Market is still my favorite with Super Päivä a close second (they always have bread samples out so...)
perjantai:
School. I had an English test so I had to go... I think I failed it : P wouldn't that be funny! Then Sanni came over, we watched I, Robot with Will Smith (love him!) watched Youtube vidieos, "Shoes, lets get some shoes" never made it to Finland, sad. Then we made waffles (the most amazing waffles ever!) they were so good, and I had bought this Maito-Suklaalevite sauce stuff, that went really well with waffles, it tastes like those hershey kisses 'hugs' (the ones with white and milk chocolate swirled) but at a peanut butter consistency. Anyway, really good on waffles! Antti and Juhani both came home!
lauantai:
I realized that I now have a better understanding of how cats or dogs can tell when they're owners are going to leave for a while. Things started changing, I didn't know where we were gonna go, that was if it was a "we" thing. But sure enought within five minutes we were out the door and headed to Kesä mökki (summer cabin) we raked leaves and cleaned up, getting ready to shut it down for the winter, moving fire wood, lots and lots of fire wood : P. Then the sauna, Eija and I dared to swim in the lake, It was super cold, and I forgot I had my 3€, talking watch from Tampere on, so now that's dead... oh well. Then it was the boys' turn, none of them dared to go in the lake. I don't think it was that bad, and I hear that in the winter they cut a swimming hole out of the ice and people go swimming and saunaing then too, I've got to try that!
sunnuntai:
We spent the day in Tampere! First we went to this 'Home Expo' with lots of infromation and products to get if you are building a house, or adding on to you house, or decorating your house. Like the free-stuff building at the State Fair! It was really cool and you could enter to win different things, like money, products, gift cards... cross my fingers that I win! Then we went to Manhattan, yup we flew all the way there and back in a day. Nahh it was a dinner place. I got a taco, Finnish tacos have a asain flare to them, (they are served with rice that tasted asian to me... haha idk) but it was good! Then we walked through the fish market, Anssi bought these little breaded fish (the size of larger minnows) from a food vender. Yup head, skeleton, and all! They actually were pretty good, you grab em by the tail, one bit and all that's left is the tail (which you don't eat) But I don't think they would sell very well in America, nahh...
Half way through my bowl of porage this morning it dawned on me that my dream last night was almost half in finnish! Sweetness! Cause I hear that when you start dreaming in another language it means that you are becoming fluent. So that's a good sign! Had my music test today, hyvin meni, (it went well.) I could have gone home but instead I hung out with Sanni, we ate lunch, then went to the Munkkilja (a bakery across the street from the school) I got a munkki with banana frosting, she got one with strawberry frosting. Then we went back to school and discovered the student lounge. It's a great place with couches, wheely chairs, a computer, a microwave, TV, playstation, radio, and a kitchen sink, literally. Then Sanni's bus came and I rode home on my bike, which Piia and I named: Yrjö (a really, really, finnish name.)
tiistai:
I didn't have a test today, so I didn't have to go to school. I was thinking about going in for lunch, but was too lazy. Good thing I didn't because Eija came home with Hesburger just for me. I have never been to a Hesburger but now I can say I've had it. It was really good too! I then headed off to the Rotary meeting, I had my presentation to give. That also went really well. They asked me if we get snow EVERY year. It's kind of funny because I think it's hard for them to belive that places south of Finland can get any snow at all. But we get snow days, (they don't here, I've asked many people, they get probably 2 to 3 times as much snow as us, and they still go to school! yeah can't wait!!!) I also met a girl, Asta, at the meeting who spent last year in Germany. She had to give her presentation too. Germany seems like a cool place.
keskiviikko:
Again I didn't have to go to school. Eija made lunch then went to work, and I went on a walk to figure out if these two roads near my house connect. So I started walking down one of them... and walking.... and walking. In the forest between the two roads is a huge cell phone tower so I was able to use that as a reference to where I was. The road that I took got very close to where it should meet up with the other road, then it split into three roads... ugh One was headed in the complete wrong direction for meeting up with the other road, one headed into the woods, and the last was headed in the right direction but soon dissolved into a bunch of brush... So I gave up, walked to the tower and then home to get ready for band. I'll have to walk the other road and see where that gose next time I'm free!
torstai:
Once again, no school for me! Eija took me out for lunch, a little old place just down the road. Hot dog soup found me again! (Makkara keito if you want to get technical) After lunch she showed me around the place. It used to be a farm that belonged to seven sisters a very long time ago. When they all pasted away, a group of older men took it on themselves to fix up all the buildings (they were in really bad shape) and make it into what it is today. One building to get lunch in, one that you can rent a hall to have a party in, one that you can rent to have a dance in, one that you can rent for wedding party (with a honeymoon suite above) and also a smoke sauna that you can rent. It was a really cool place! Lots of charm! Later that day I spent 2 and a half hours hitting up all of the grocery stores in town. Just for fun, and now that I think about it, there are a ton of grocery stores for such a small town, K Market, Valintatalo, 2 Siwa, Tokmanni, K Supermarket (Super Päivä), and S Market. And S Market is still my favorite with Super Päivä a close second (they always have bread samples out so...)
perjantai:
School. I had an English test so I had to go... I think I failed it : P wouldn't that be funny! Then Sanni came over, we watched I, Robot with Will Smith (love him!) watched Youtube vidieos, "Shoes, lets get some shoes" never made it to Finland, sad. Then we made waffles (the most amazing waffles ever!) they were so good, and I had bought this Maito-Suklaalevite sauce stuff, that went really well with waffles, it tastes like those hershey kisses 'hugs' (the ones with white and milk chocolate swirled) but at a peanut butter consistency. Anyway, really good on waffles! Antti and Juhani both came home!
lauantai:
I realized that I now have a better understanding of how cats or dogs can tell when they're owners are going to leave for a while. Things started changing, I didn't know where we were gonna go, that was if it was a "we" thing. But sure enought within five minutes we were out the door and headed to Kesä mökki (summer cabin) we raked leaves and cleaned up, getting ready to shut it down for the winter, moving fire wood, lots and lots of fire wood : P. Then the sauna, Eija and I dared to swim in the lake, It was super cold, and I forgot I had my 3€, talking watch from Tampere on, so now that's dead... oh well. Then it was the boys' turn, none of them dared to go in the lake. I don't think it was that bad, and I hear that in the winter they cut a swimming hole out of the ice and people go swimming and saunaing then too, I've got to try that!
sunnuntai:
We spent the day in Tampere! First we went to this 'Home Expo' with lots of infromation and products to get if you are building a house, or adding on to you house, or decorating your house. Like the free-stuff building at the State Fair! It was really cool and you could enter to win different things, like money, products, gift cards... cross my fingers that I win! Then we went to Manhattan, yup we flew all the way there and back in a day. Nahh it was a dinner place. I got a taco, Finnish tacos have a asain flare to them, (they are served with rice that tasted asian to me... haha idk) but it was good! Then we walked through the fish market, Anssi bought these little breaded fish (the size of larger minnows) from a food vender. Yup head, skeleton, and all! They actually were pretty good, you grab em by the tail, one bit and all that's left is the tail (which you don't eat) But I don't think they would sell very well in America, nahh...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)