maanantai:
Pesäpallo again! I ran a couple home runs, the rules got harder for me to understand today, something about when the pitcher dosnt pitch right a certain number of times you get to go to the next base... I'm still not really sure, I just know I ran around the bases a couple times! Yeah go me!!! : P After school Eija took me to have tea with her sister in Nokia. It was a lot of fun and her sister tried helping me with my finnish by only asking me questions in finnish. At first it was great cause I understood mostly everything and could respond. But by the end of the night her questions got to be like 30 seconds long of her talking really fast, (half the time I wasnt sure she was talking to me until she said my name) then 10 more seconds of her talking, then a pause... "uhhhh" I said, then Eija would tell me what she asked. haha It really was a great deal of fun! We stayed there for a good three hours at least. Got home around 10, Hyvää Yötä (good night)
tiistai:
School was good. In maansa (geography) I gave a presentation on where I came from, wooo shoot out to Castelton, the Mohican Native American tribe, the Dutch and the Ice Industry that founded C-town! Last class of the day was government. Sanni and I found it hard to consentrait on the class when the pictures in the government book were so funny... we also found it hard to keep our giggles hidden from the rest of the class. I guess they just didn't find the pictures as funny as we did : P After dinner, It was just Eija and I cause Anssi was wandering in Lapland with a friend for the week, the door bell rang. Eija got up to get it, didn't open the door then called me. Many thoughts went through my mind: was it the new baby of the family that was born last friday?, did someone from New York miss me so much they flew out here just to see me?, was it some hot guy looking for me?, was it some hot guy with chocolate and flowers for me?, Eija says "Is this a friend of yours?" I peek out the window by the door, "Nope I don't know him," then she says "okay I'm not going to open the door" I was taken back by this remark, I me the man obviously saw us and knew we were there, and we both were kinda giggling, he could hear us, he kept ringing the doorbell then gave up and went to the neighboors house. haha that's a good trick to have, I thought it was funny...
keskiviikko:
I bought a roll of cookies today, they were just a pain kind vanila waffers with fudge filling, I wasnt expecting much but when I discovered that with milk they taste like the elf/elmer fudge cookies, there was no turning back. There were only a couple survivors that only lasted till the next day. Later Eija drove me to band cause she didn't have to work. Band was good, Densku brought me music from the library to play (here you can get sheet music from the libraray) that's awesome!!! After band Eija showed me some family pictures and baby pictures of the kids, awww Finnish babies : P
torstai:
Math class was crazy today, that teacher I'm pretty sure is going to burn out, he almost through his pen again (that would have been the thrid time) and he looked at his watch 23 times, that's in 75 minutes, I don't think he likes our class at all. We had a study hall after lunch so we went to TOKMANNI!!! Yeah, I bought candy! It was great. After school I went to that rummage sale place I went to last week with Eija. I think I was there for a good two hours. spent like 7 € on a jacket with a rediculous amount of zippers and pockets, a nice top, a bag, a book I'm gonna try to read, and an Ank ankku comic book (the finnish Donald Duck, people subscribe to this comic and it comes every week, but I just wanted one for myself so I could write translations in it) On the way back to the house I rode past this rock mountain thing, I couldn't help it, so I hid my bike and climbed it! yeah queen of the rock. It was really cool, here they have a lot of those random huge rocks, I bet they are from the glacers... Eija and I watched the Scream 2, it was creepy, but also made the movie: Scary Movie, a lot funnier to me! After it was over Eija discovered that the light in the attic was on and she didnt know why, so we had to venture up there to make sure there were no phico pathic killers up there, there weren't so we went to bed.
perjantai:
Today was the first day of tests! Math test... I think it went okay, there was only maybe one or two questions I wasnt completly sure what they were asking, so I just gave a lot of answers and hoped that the teacher would see the right one. (this was also a stratagie I used in English math classes) After the test we were free to go, we stayed for lunch anyway then went to Reeta's house for a movie night. I got to ride on the back of Sanni's scooter! It was sooooooo cool!!! I want one when I get home! The movie night was awesome, we made rice crispy treats, ate candy, popcorn, chips, and rice crispys of course, we saw: The Code (with the beautiful Antonio Banderas, and the great Morgan Freeman) then a British comedy: Hot Fuzz, which was funny all up to the end when it just got creepy, it made me afraid to live in small towns... ohhhhh Both Anssi and Antti came home tonight.
lauantai:
Woke up, made poradge. Eija was at work, and Anssi anounced that today we would clean the house. So Antti hid in his room, he had a head cold. Anssi and I rolled up all the carpets, brought them outside, and I wacked them with some weird wooden, woven thing, (I got a blister : ( and my arm got really tired) then we vacuumed, mopped, dusted, brought the carpets back in, then we were done. Anssi took me out for lunch, to a pizza kebab place, we both had kebabs (they aren't the kind on a stick) Let me tell you, I have discovered the Gyro's Finno/Iraquin long lost brother. It was soooo good!!!! There are many of these pizza kebab places around Finland, mostly owned by people who have moved to Finland from Iraq. I can't even stress how good it was. But it was big. Huge! So when I got home I took a long walk. I discoverd more of those huge rocks, so I climbed and conqured them all! It was a tireing day!
sunnuntai:
Woke up, again, made some more poradge, Johanna was home! She soon left back to Tampere. It was a lazy day, just chilling around the house. I went on another walk but didn't find any big rock mountains this time... Then I was home, Both Eija and Anssi were at work and I was hungery for more than just a sandwich, so I expiremented with cooking potatoes! I had never done it before. My first attempt I made a kind of thickish potatoe chip. Next I attempted to make hash browns but didn't get the slivers thin enough so I mixed it with egg and put some ketcup on it, It was good too. THEN I used the smallest potatoe I could find and I DID make me some hash browns, they were good. And I was full. Now I'm blogging, and got to go to bed cause tomorow I have a music test.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Viikko Kuusi (week 6)
maanantai:
School, eh nothing too special... Except we found this exciting, mysterious door in the school! It's near the gym and it is 10feet up in the air, the whole day we spent wondering where the door gose, and what's behind it. WE ARE GOING TO FIND OUT!!! some day... It was raining in the morning so Anssi drove me, of course that ment I got to walk home, a 45 minute walk it wasnt raining too much then but just enought to be annoying!
tiistai:
Finnish pea soup for lunch!!! yes score! It's funny cause I've never been a huge fan of soup, actually I kinda hated it, I mean it's a liquid, but you "eat" it... something about that isn't right! But here Suomissa (in Finland) soup and I, we're okay.
keskiviikko:
Skipped drama today... hmmm I just don't like it, plus Sanni was meeting her cousin but had an hour to wait so I hung out with her instead. We went to SMarket (an awsome paradise) and laughed at all the foods that were funny to me, and ate all the candy with our eyes, that's another thing, here, Suomissa, their is always a full candy isle!!! It's like the size of American cereal isles, ha that's funny cause I'd say the cereal isle here is about the size of the candy isle in Hannaford... switcherroo! : P. Oh Sanni says her favorite groccery store is K-market (pronounce Co-market) then I got home and Eija brought pizza slices, she said "This is from K-market, I like that store very much" So that's the one grocery store in Hämeenkyrö that I haven't been to so I guess I need to check it out!!! Bändi at 5:15, it was raining so Eija took me then picked me up at 7:00. It was good.
torstai:
I did a presentation in English class about me, where I live, and some differences between here and there. It went well! Eija was home when I got home, she asked me if I had anything to do cause she was going to Kauppatori, I had no idea what that was, but I also had nothing else to do. So I grabbed some money and we went to Kauppatori. It's a magical place!!! It's like a church rumage sale, but consently happening! How it works is people can rent little booths/tables, then price any items they want to sell and leave them in the booths. Went they get sold a percent of the money gose to the Kauppatori, and the rest gose to the person. You can sell anything there!!! It was magical!!! I didn't get anything but Eija got a book and an apple cake. I'll definatly be going back there sometime cause it's only a couple kilometers from our house! And I've been told that there are even bigger ones in Tampere so I'll definatly be looking into those too! I can't even stress enough how great this place was!
perjantai:
Hmmm why do my socks smell like cheetos? I'm not even sure why is smelt them before I put them on in the morning, but I did, and they smelt like cheetos... yummmm.... OH in liikunta (sports class) we played pesäpallo!!! Finnish baseball! It's sorta like American baseball, but way different!!! It's really hard to explain all the rules, but here's a picture that explains a lot:
So that was fun to learn! On my third time hitting I finnaly made it onto a base, then I made it all the way home!!! (of course it helped the the gym teacher was on our team, and hit right after me hitting it very far, it was funny cause once I got to the next base, my team spent the whole time yelling to me to keep running untill I made it home! YEAH!!! After school Sanni and I walked, the 45 minutes to my house. It was raining in the begining, but 2/3rds of the way home it stopped (thankfully) Later, her Äiti picked us up and brought us to Elo, in Ylöjärvi, it's a mall!!! And I bought my first pair of shoes Suomissa!!! They were also my first converse-type of shoes (fake ofcourse) and they were also on sale!!! 5€! Score!!! We found a panda in K-citymarket giving out Pepe samples, two good things together = picture time!!! I got home around 7:30 and no one else was home, but by 8:30 the ENTIRE family was home, I mean everyone together for the first time since the first Sunday I was with them. It was a lot of fun!
lauantai:
Anssi had left for his trip to Lapland before I got up. Johanna made an awesome lunch of chicken, pesto with mozzarella. It was soooo good!!! Then we had some of the rice crispy treats I had made earlier, Juhani was the only one who hadn't had them and when he hear what they were made of he didn't seem excited, but after one bite he goes: "God bless America" hahaha That's right! Rice crispys are the bomb!!! Them we walked to the neighboors house for her 90th birthday party!!! Where we ate even more, there was this really amazing soup (again soup's only good to me Suomissa) after finnishing the bowl Eija and Johanna started discussing what was in the soup, guess what! It was moose soup, I mean moose MEAT! The first time I eat moose meat and I didn't even know it haha! If I wasn't so full I would have gotten more so I could re-taste, and really examine what moose tastes like but I was so stuffed and I knew there was much more food to come. Then we all sat around and sang some songs and ate cake and cookies. We left after cake. Then onto the next party! Mummu's house! More food! I had a lot of fun there too! Then we dropped Juhani and Johanna off in Tampere, and went home.
sunnuntai:
Woke up, watched a movie, "Mad Money" with Queen Latifah, I'd been wanting to see it so when I saw it on sale in SMarket for 3€ I couldnt help but buy it! It was really good, not Legally Blonde good, but good! Then I went to catch the bus for Tampere. I arived in Tampere around 4, so I had 2 hours to spare before the concert. After locating the "Tamperen Konservatori" I walked around taking pictures and buying candy. Never say no to candy. The concert was amazing! They had 6 French Horns (Käyrätorvi) and just the whole thing was awesome!!! I plan on playing with them!!!!! Anyway, any how I can, I'm gonna! Oh also on the way home I SAW A MOOSE!!! It was far away, but a moose none the less! SWEETNESS!!! Yesterday I ate one, today I saw one! It was probably the sister of the one I ate yesterday : P Hirvi! (that's moose) Hyvä, hirvi päivä! JA... Hyvä koko viikko!
School, eh nothing too special... Except we found this exciting, mysterious door in the school! It's near the gym and it is 10feet up in the air, the whole day we spent wondering where the door gose, and what's behind it. WE ARE GOING TO FIND OUT!!! some day... It was raining in the morning so Anssi drove me, of course that ment I got to walk home, a 45 minute walk it wasnt raining too much then but just enought to be annoying!
tiistai:
Finnish pea soup for lunch!!! yes score! It's funny cause I've never been a huge fan of soup, actually I kinda hated it, I mean it's a liquid, but you "eat" it... something about that isn't right! But here Suomissa (in Finland) soup and I, we're okay.
keskiviikko:
Skipped drama today... hmmm I just don't like it, plus Sanni was meeting her cousin but had an hour to wait so I hung out with her instead. We went to SMarket (an awsome paradise) and laughed at all the foods that were funny to me, and ate all the candy with our eyes, that's another thing, here, Suomissa, their is always a full candy isle!!! It's like the size of American cereal isles, ha that's funny cause I'd say the cereal isle here is about the size of the candy isle in Hannaford... switcherroo! : P. Oh Sanni says her favorite groccery store is K-market (pronounce Co-market) then I got home and Eija brought pizza slices, she said "This is from K-market, I like that store very much" So that's the one grocery store in Hämeenkyrö that I haven't been to so I guess I need to check it out!!! Bändi at 5:15, it was raining so Eija took me then picked me up at 7:00. It was good.
torstai:
I did a presentation in English class about me, where I live, and some differences between here and there. It went well! Eija was home when I got home, she asked me if I had anything to do cause she was going to Kauppatori, I had no idea what that was, but I also had nothing else to do. So I grabbed some money and we went to Kauppatori. It's a magical place!!! It's like a church rumage sale, but consently happening! How it works is people can rent little booths/tables, then price any items they want to sell and leave them in the booths. Went they get sold a percent of the money gose to the Kauppatori, and the rest gose to the person. You can sell anything there!!! It was magical!!! I didn't get anything but Eija got a book and an apple cake. I'll definatly be going back there sometime cause it's only a couple kilometers from our house! And I've been told that there are even bigger ones in Tampere so I'll definatly be looking into those too! I can't even stress enough how great this place was!
perjantai:
Hmmm why do my socks smell like cheetos? I'm not even sure why is smelt them before I put them on in the morning, but I did, and they smelt like cheetos... yummmm.... OH in liikunta (sports class) we played pesäpallo!!! Finnish baseball! It's sorta like American baseball, but way different!!! It's really hard to explain all the rules, but here's a picture that explains a lot:
So that was fun to learn! On my third time hitting I finnaly made it onto a base, then I made it all the way home!!! (of course it helped the the gym teacher was on our team, and hit right after me hitting it very far, it was funny cause once I got to the next base, my team spent the whole time yelling to me to keep running untill I made it home! YEAH!!! After school Sanni and I walked, the 45 minutes to my house. It was raining in the begining, but 2/3rds of the way home it stopped (thankfully) Later, her Äiti picked us up and brought us to Elo, in Ylöjärvi, it's a mall!!! And I bought my first pair of shoes Suomissa!!! They were also my first converse-type of shoes (fake ofcourse) and they were also on sale!!! 5€! Score!!! We found a panda in K-citymarket giving out Pepe samples, two good things together = picture time!!! I got home around 7:30 and no one else was home, but by 8:30 the ENTIRE family was home, I mean everyone together for the first time since the first Sunday I was with them. It was a lot of fun!lauantai:
Anssi had left for his trip to Lapland before I got up. Johanna made an awesome lunch of chicken, pesto with mozzarella. It was soooo good!!! Then we had some of the rice crispy treats I had made earlier, Juhani was the only one who hadn't had them and when he hear what they were made of he didn't seem excited, but after one bite he goes: "God bless America" hahaha That's right! Rice crispys are the bomb!!! Them we walked to the neighboors house for her 90th birthday party!!! Where we ate even more, there was this really amazing soup (again soup's only good to me Suomissa) after finnishing the bowl Eija and Johanna started discussing what was in the soup, guess what! It was moose soup, I mean moose MEAT! The first time I eat moose meat and I didn't even know it haha! If I wasn't so full I would have gotten more so I could re-taste, and really examine what moose tastes like but I was so stuffed and I knew there was much more food to come. Then we all sat around and sang some songs and ate cake and cookies. We left after cake. Then onto the next party! Mummu's house! More food! I had a lot of fun there too! Then we dropped Juhani and Johanna off in Tampere, and went home.
sunnuntai:
Woke up, watched a movie, "Mad Money" with Queen Latifah, I'd been wanting to see it so when I saw it on sale in SMarket for 3€ I couldnt help but buy it! It was really good, not Legally Blonde good, but good! Then I went to catch the bus for Tampere. I arived in Tampere around 4, so I had 2 hours to spare before the concert. After locating the "Tamperen Konservatori" I walked around taking pictures and buying candy. Never say no to candy. The concert was amazing! They had 6 French Horns (Käyrätorvi) and just the whole thing was awesome!!! I plan on playing with them!!!!! Anyway, any how I can, I'm gonna! Oh also on the way home I SAW A MOOSE!!! It was far away, but a moose none the less! SWEETNESS!!! Yesterday I ate one, today I saw one! It was probably the sister of the one I ate yesterday : P Hirvi! (that's moose) Hyvä, hirvi päivä! JA... Hyvä koko viikko!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Second List of Differences
K so it's been a while, and I have been meaning to update this list so here gose:
- Traffic lights, they go: green, yellow, red, (wait for it!!!) then red AND yellow, back to green!!! It's like a get ready to go warning! varry nause!!!
- They pronounce skype: scoo-pay
- You can buy pre-made burgers, buns and all, in bags in the grocery store!
- I've only seen like 2 stop signs the entire time I've been here, it's all yeilding with these people
- No school sports or clubs for after school, or before school...
- FREE LUNCH AT SCHOOL!!!
- 99% of cell phones are Nokia
- What the kids ride to school with, scooters, mopeds, mopoauto (like a moped car, they're so little and here they are considered mopeds because of the size of their engin, so kids can get a licence for those things at the age of 15) there are also kids who ride their dirt bikes, quads, mini motor bikes, and today I even saw this kid leave the parking lot in a smaller sized tractor. I go to Sanni: now that's got to be weird even for you! She gose "not really." CRAZYNESS!!!
- They're always taking their shoes off
- Eggs come in cartins of 6 or 10, and they keep them in the cupboard, for the longest time I didn't think Finns used eggs, but one day I opened a cupboard, and BAM! like 2 cartons! hmmmm
- In the kitchen there is this drawer that is specifically designed for slicing bread! It's like the best thing since sliced bread!!! wait a minute.....
- What old people use to get around, its like a walker mixed with a scooter! like <----!!!! It's so funny for me to see a bunch of old people, like an old persons gang, rolling down the side walks in these puppys headed to SMarket (my favorite store!)
- Oh that reminds me! At SMarket (and all other stores), to get in you have to go through these, smilar to subway turnstile, but instead they are atomatic, one-way motion deceted gates, I guess so you have to exit the store by passing the check-out line... So you have to buy something ; )
- Also! In all the grocery, and convince stores there are slot machines!!! wooo big money!
- And you have to buy the plastic bags you put your purchased items in. (so far I've managed to just shove everything in my bookbag so I havent had to buy one yet)
- The crutch style here, they use forearm crutches, look em up, my friend Reeta is on them right now, she says they are way more comfortable then the crutches that I'm used to seeing, she says with these you can still run and play sports (which is exactly what you are suposed to be doing when you're in crutches!!!)
- Water fountains, the water comes AT you instead of to the side (kinda annoying and hard to get used to)
Monday, September 13, 2010
Viikko Viisi (week five)
maanantai:
Today was cool, I took pictures as I rode to school for mom so someday I'll get around to uploading that to my blog so you can see it. In sports we played vollyball (lentopallo) so there dad, I have played volleyball. I think I did pretty well... After school I went to the library to renew the one book I vow to finnish!!! It's in finnish, and I'm going to finnish it (k sorry just had to do it!) Then I went to SMarket (one of my favorite places to go in Hämeenkyrö) I mean, they have hamburgers in bags! How could you not love that place? Oh they also have slot machines and if you are older than 15, you can gamble! I'm gonna have to try it someday, someday when I have friends around to tell me if I'm doing it right....
tiistai:
School was school.... but after school I traveled to Tokmanni! and SuperPäivä to find ingredents for the rice crispy treats I wanted to make cause Wednesday (keskiviikko) is offically a month that I've been in Finland! Today is a month since I left New York! Anyway, I heard a rumour that Tokmanni had marshmellows, well if Tokmanni did, I couldnt find it. So I went to SuperPäivä and found big bags of marshmellow-ish candy stuff on sale. On was pink hearts... the other was grayish daimond-shape (which means it's salmiakki) so I went with the pink hearts, cause ya know... I had a feeling that might be more the direction that I'd want to go in. I got home and made them (I had to guess all the measurements cause they have no "cups" here) but they turned out really good! Eija and Anssi were reluctant to try, but they both really liked them!
keskiviikko:
I packed up what was left of the rice crispys and headed to school. At lunch I grabbed an extra plate in line and after finnishing lunch I broke out the rice crispys! [oh yeah for lunch we had these little green pancake-like things made from spinach and mashed potatoes, the mashed potatoes I swear tasted like they were from KFC!!! man I was in heaven!!!! The pancake things were good too...] (k back to the rice crispys) Everyone at the table really liked them! I then took them on the road and ambushed random people to try them! (It's a good way to make friends : P) It then hit me that it's really weird to me that no one had seen anything like them before... And they all really liked them. hmmm why haven't they ever had rice crispy's before, I mean they have the butter, rice crispys and sorta the marshmellows.... hmmm oh these Finns! I skipped drama class (I'm bad to the bone) I wasn't feeling it, so I went home and relaxed before band. Band was good, so was my lesson after.
torstai:
Lunch was also really great today, rice with yellow sauce, and the best chicken nuggets I had in years!!! Cafeteria food at Maple Hill needs to step it up!!! And here, it's free! ha.... Later, after school I met with my friend Laura to tour the paper factory in Kyröskoski, they were having an open doors tour. We got to wear these really fly, neon yellow vest, saftly glasses, and ear plugs!!! We were lookn' hot! The factory was really cool, smelt like eggs... And then, after the tour, they fed us! and gave us some candy, and I got a free pen for trying to guess how many pine cones were in a container. It was so cool, and then we rode our bikes up a huge hill to see the water fall, since they opened the dam. It was like a fair/huge party up there! EVERYONE came out to see it! It was so cool!
perjantai:
Oh man TGIF! (that's actually what my friend Piia said) and I was like: how do you say that in finnish? TGIP? and she was like: hmmm I don't know, I alway just say TGIF... wow good story, I'm gonna tell that one at parties!!! After school, and when Anssi came home we went to kesä mökki (summer cottage) I got some pictures of the sunset before my camer started to die, I need to get an addapter for my battery charger *note to self* Antti showed up later, he comes home every other weekend from the army. Then we all left, I was really dark when we were walking/stumbling to the car. But we made it up the hill, finnaly.
lauantai:
Today was a crazy/long/awesome day! Got up at 6:30, cause I had to catch the bus at SMarket at 7:35. Anssi made sure the bus driver knew I was going to the bus station in Tampere (luckily) cause I thought I knew where the bus station was from my previous visits to the city, so when we pass what I thought was the bus station, I started freaking out, pressed the "Stop" button. After the bus stopped, I got up, but the bus driver didn't open either of the doors, I let out a little help me scream/whine. Then the bus driver said "No you go to bus station, this is not bus station" defeated, I sat done in the seat right behind him... The bus station had "Bus Station" in big letters on the top of the building, along with "linja autoasema" oh man.... As I was getting off, and thanking the bus driver, he continued to point to the building we were right next to. "Kiitos Mr. Bus driver, kiitos" (they do tell dumb blonde joke here too hehe)
My bus to Turku came at 8:25. I had no trouble with it, and I didn't try getting off anywhere but the bus station. I arrived in Turku 11:30. Map in hand I navigated the city to the place we were to meet all the other rotary people. I crossed this one city square/plaza thing and a HUGE market was going on! Apples, berries, veggies, fish, bread, anything and everything. It was so cool cause usually I on the other side of the table, selling things, but today I was the "just looking" person. I met up with everyone and talk about all the things that have happened, there were so many similar stories, it was so fun to compair. It was nice to spend the day. We took a bus to Ruissalo. The part we were in was sorta like a park on the ocean. We had makkara (sausage) and leipä (bread) and candy/salmiakki. I'm afraid I'm really coming around to that stuff... oh no, when I go back to New York I'm gonna be outta luck cause I hear you get addicted, and there's no where to get it in New York... Caught a bus back home, got into Tampere around 9, Anssi and Eija were waiting, I was so tired, it was an awesome day. Then I went straight to bed!
sunnuntai:
Today was also a busy day! I had a little concert in Kyrösköski with my band. It started at 1:30, we had to be there at 1:00, we played two songs and I was on my way back home. I did get a cool band polo though!!! SWEETNESS!!! When I got home I attempted to write my blog, but the website was acting up so I gave up finaly after two trys of getting half-way done, then it deleting everything I had. Technology, Ya love it, ya hate it!!! I spent the next two hours baking chocolate chip cookies for the meeting I had at 6 where I would met my future host parents! I was scooping the cookie dough onto the baking sheet when Eija came out. She looked at them and said "oh, American sized cookies" haha I love it!!! She's so cute, and they were big! The cookies came out really well everyone like them, and the meeting also went really well!!! Everyone was so nice, it's weird to think I'm not just staying here the whole year, but I'm excited for everything! They told me the date I'll be moving. November 20th is when I move the first time, then sometime early to mid March the second time (can't remember exactly which date.) So that's that... Se oli viikko hyvä! (it was a good week)
Today was cool, I took pictures as I rode to school for mom so someday I'll get around to uploading that to my blog so you can see it. In sports we played vollyball (lentopallo) so there dad, I have played volleyball. I think I did pretty well... After school I went to the library to renew the one book I vow to finnish!!! It's in finnish, and I'm going to finnish it (k sorry just had to do it!) Then I went to SMarket (one of my favorite places to go in Hämeenkyrö) I mean, they have hamburgers in bags! How could you not love that place? Oh they also have slot machines and if you are older than 15, you can gamble! I'm gonna have to try it someday, someday when I have friends around to tell me if I'm doing it right....
tiistai:
School was school.... but after school I traveled to Tokmanni! and SuperPäivä to find ingredents for the rice crispy treats I wanted to make cause Wednesday (keskiviikko) is offically a month that I've been in Finland! Today is a month since I left New York! Anyway, I heard a rumour that Tokmanni had marshmellows, well if Tokmanni did, I couldnt find it. So I went to SuperPäivä and found big bags of marshmellow-ish candy stuff on sale. On was pink hearts... the other was grayish daimond-shape (which means it's salmiakki) so I went with the pink hearts, cause ya know... I had a feeling that might be more the direction that I'd want to go in. I got home and made them (I had to guess all the measurements cause they have no "cups" here) but they turned out really good! Eija and Anssi were reluctant to try, but they both really liked them!
keskiviikko:
I packed up what was left of the rice crispys and headed to school. At lunch I grabbed an extra plate in line and after finnishing lunch I broke out the rice crispys! [oh yeah for lunch we had these little green pancake-like things made from spinach and mashed potatoes, the mashed potatoes I swear tasted like they were from KFC!!! man I was in heaven!!!! The pancake things were good too...] (k back to the rice crispys) Everyone at the table really liked them! I then took them on the road and ambushed random people to try them! (It's a good way to make friends : P) It then hit me that it's really weird to me that no one had seen anything like them before... And they all really liked them. hmmm why haven't they ever had rice crispy's before, I mean they have the butter, rice crispys and sorta the marshmellows.... hmmm oh these Finns! I skipped drama class (I'm bad to the bone) I wasn't feeling it, so I went home and relaxed before band. Band was good, so was my lesson after.
torstai:
Lunch was also really great today, rice with yellow sauce, and the best chicken nuggets I had in years!!! Cafeteria food at Maple Hill needs to step it up!!! And here, it's free! ha.... Later, after school I met with my friend Laura to tour the paper factory in Kyröskoski, they were having an open doors tour. We got to wear these really fly, neon yellow vest, saftly glasses, and ear plugs!!! We were lookn' hot! The factory was really cool, smelt like eggs... And then, after the tour, they fed us! and gave us some candy, and I got a free pen for trying to guess how many pine cones were in a container. It was so cool, and then we rode our bikes up a huge hill to see the water fall, since they opened the dam. It was like a fair/huge party up there! EVERYONE came out to see it! It was so cool!
perjantai:
Oh man TGIF! (that's actually what my friend Piia said) and I was like: how do you say that in finnish? TGIP? and she was like: hmmm I don't know, I alway just say TGIF... wow good story, I'm gonna tell that one at parties!!! After school, and when Anssi came home we went to kesä mökki (summer cottage) I got some pictures of the sunset before my camer started to die, I need to get an addapter for my battery charger *note to self* Antti showed up later, he comes home every other weekend from the army. Then we all left, I was really dark when we were walking/stumbling to the car. But we made it up the hill, finnaly.
lauantai:
Today was a crazy/long/awesome day! Got up at 6:30, cause I had to catch the bus at SMarket at 7:35. Anssi made sure the bus driver knew I was going to the bus station in Tampere (luckily) cause I thought I knew where the bus station was from my previous visits to the city, so when we pass what I thought was the bus station, I started freaking out, pressed the "Stop" button. After the bus stopped, I got up, but the bus driver didn't open either of the doors, I let out a little help me scream/whine. Then the bus driver said "No you go to bus station, this is not bus station" defeated, I sat done in the seat right behind him... The bus station had "Bus Station" in big letters on the top of the building, along with "linja autoasema" oh man.... As I was getting off, and thanking the bus driver, he continued to point to the building we were right next to. "Kiitos Mr. Bus driver, kiitos" (they do tell dumb blonde joke here too hehe)
My bus to Turku came at 8:25. I had no trouble with it, and I didn't try getting off anywhere but the bus station. I arrived in Turku 11:30. Map in hand I navigated the city to the place we were to meet all the other rotary people. I crossed this one city square/plaza thing and a HUGE market was going on! Apples, berries, veggies, fish, bread, anything and everything. It was so cool cause usually I on the other side of the table, selling things, but today I was the "just looking" person. I met up with everyone and talk about all the things that have happened, there were so many similar stories, it was so fun to compair. It was nice to spend the day. We took a bus to Ruissalo. The part we were in was sorta like a park on the ocean. We had makkara (sausage) and leipä (bread) and candy/salmiakki. I'm afraid I'm really coming around to that stuff... oh no, when I go back to New York I'm gonna be outta luck cause I hear you get addicted, and there's no where to get it in New York... Caught a bus back home, got into Tampere around 9, Anssi and Eija were waiting, I was so tired, it was an awesome day. Then I went straight to bed!
sunnuntai:
Today was also a busy day! I had a little concert in Kyrösköski with my band. It started at 1:30, we had to be there at 1:00, we played two songs and I was on my way back home. I did get a cool band polo though!!! SWEETNESS!!! When I got home I attempted to write my blog, but the website was acting up so I gave up finaly after two trys of getting half-way done, then it deleting everything I had. Technology, Ya love it, ya hate it!!! I spent the next two hours baking chocolate chip cookies for the meeting I had at 6 where I would met my future host parents! I was scooping the cookie dough onto the baking sheet when Eija came out. She looked at them and said "oh, American sized cookies" haha I love it!!! She's so cute, and they were big! The cookies came out really well everyone like them, and the meeting also went really well!!! Everyone was so nice, it's weird to think I'm not just staying here the whole year, but I'm excited for everything! They told me the date I'll be moving. November 20th is when I move the first time, then sometime early to mid March the second time (can't remember exactly which date.) So that's that... Se oli viikko hyvä! (it was a good week)
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Viikko Neljä (week four)
maanantai (Monday)
A pretty much awesome day! At school I think I managed to not pay attention to what was happening in any class I was in... except in music class. Instead I just worked on remembering words. In English I worked on verbs, geography, weekdays and months... yada yada (oh fun fact! all the months in finnish end with 'kuu' which in finnish means month... soooo its like each moon of every month has a different name, pretty cool!) My sports class took a trip to Tampere to go rock climbing and play lasertag. IT WAS AWESOME!!! I have to say I'm a pretty good lasertagger... yeah lasertagger. Rock climbing was great too, but lasertag was amazing! My friend Piia and I defended our base, and these two little random boys kept coming up from behind and killing us. They were like two feet tall, we couldn't see what hit us! It was a game with three teams and 18 players, all but those two boys were from our sports class so why they were there? i'm not sure... I came out number 6 of 18! Yeah go me! Poor Piia was lucky number 18 of 18 but who's keeping track... (okay so I think everyone dose but what eva)
tiistia (Tuesday)
Wow another variation of hot dog soup has found it's way to me once again! This time it was more chunks of meat in the soup... it's so weird to me. It was raining when I had to ride my awesome finnish bike home, so I stopped in the library to return a book I had taken out (it was a little kids book and the stupid kids on the cover annoyed the heck outta me so 'they, have got ta go!') Then I spent a good 45 minutes in the little kid section (we're talking baby book section) trying to read some/any book. I only succeded with like one (it was the kind of book with a picture of an apple or something, then it says the name... so that's kinda sad) I can't read! ahhhh. Then I went to S Market! I wanted cookies!!! SURPRISE! My friend Sanni jumped outta no where, scared me a little, she was waiting for the bus to Tampere to go pick up her new camera so she was getting something to eat. She showed me that here in Finland, they put burgers pre-made (with buns and everything) in bags for you to buy then stick in the microwave! Oh you tricky Finns!!!
keskeviikko (Wednesday)
Today is the day of sexy legs!!! seriously I biked like a thousand kilometers! To school and back (4kms up-hill each way :P ). Grabbed something to eat, strapped my horn to the back of my bike (seriously I must look crazy with this thing haha) Then about an eight km ride to band and back... So maybe more like 24ish km... but still. There's this one long hill that I had to go up on the way back from band, seriously I was gonna die, and the only thing that kept me going was just thinking how good my legs are gonna look if I keep all this biking up!
torstia (Thursday)
Today was good... the most exciting thing that happend... OH in math class today the teacher, 10 minutes from when class ended got so frustrated that people were talking that he threw his pen down, yell a bunch of stuff in finnish, then kicked us out... I mean I don't have to know any finnish at all to know he was ticked off! Let's see... Oh I finnaly made it to the cute little bakery shop across the street from the school! I got an awesome cinnimon roll with amazing carmel topping for 1€, good trade! Then my friends and I played cards and I taught them Egyiptian Ratscrew... it was a good time!
perjantai (Friday)
Okay so today was pretty much one of the best days ever!!! So in finnish lukio (highschool) they have this thing, idk the name, but it's like a spirt week in a day mixed with kill the freshmen day. So a couple weeks ago they told the first graders (freshmen) that the theme for this day (which was today) was "pimps and hoes" So the first grade boys had to dress up like hoes, and the girl like pimps, I know pretty awsome. Some 2nd and 3rd graders put signs on all the doors to get into the building except for one saying first graders couldn't enter. So here you have all these pimps and hoes wondering around the outside of the school, in the cold, trying to get in. (Priceless) Plus when we got into to school there were all these signs saying "first graders must do this, can't do that" I'm not sure what they all said but they had the 1st graders doing some pretty funny things! There also were lines in tape all through the hallways and the 1st graders were only allowed to walk on those lines. Then, the last class of the day was canceled and we all went to the gym to see them preform the dance the 2nd and 3rd graders had taught them (it was hilarious) and then they had to do a three legged opsticle course (also amazing) and then they had to clean up all the signs and tape that the 2nd and 3rd graders had put all around the school (also great) *note to America* We need to start this!
After school I took a bus to my friend Sanni's house. It was so cool, I think it was my first time on a public transportation bus (not including school buses, but idk if those are considered public...) We hung out, played uno with her little sister, watched AWESOME youtube videos, ate dinner, then headed to the party. I think it was like a student government organized event. It was sooooo much fun! It was at this place ontop of like a mountain or something idk, and it was had this really big open room with a stage on both ends and three old cars in the corner (they were really cool cars) and we danced the entire night! Can't even explain how much fun I had! Can't even.
lauantai (Saturday)
Today's the day I was introduced to Oreos' very attractive cousin Domino, oh he's fine! Milk's favorite cookie may need to step up his game to keep that title : P I also remembered to recharge my Ipod so now I have unlimited Billy Joel!!! And I don't even want to calculate how many countless hours I spent working on my Rotary presentation, but I started it today, and finnished it!!! Sorta, now I've got to practice it and I'm probably gonna change all the words from English to finnish so the Rotarians can understand what's going on. But there's a lot of pictures which as everyone knows "A picture's worth 1000 words." in English OR finnish!
sunnuntai (Sunday)
Today has been a slightly lazy day. Woke up around 10 for breakfast, then just chilled, worked on learning finnish names for foods, then around 3 Anssi took me to Eija's brother's farm where they were having a day open to the public to learn about siene (mushrooms). Wow hold on to your socks!!! But I had know idea!!! There are so many kinds!!! I mean I knew there were a lot of different kinds of mushrooms, but... wow! And the cartoon mushroom you always see that has a white steam, then red top with speckles on the top... it's real, I saw it today. I always thought it was just a made up mushroom. It's not... So that was my siene-filled day and now Ima go eat something.
A pretty much awesome day! At school I think I managed to not pay attention to what was happening in any class I was in... except in music class. Instead I just worked on remembering words. In English I worked on verbs, geography, weekdays and months... yada yada (oh fun fact! all the months in finnish end with 'kuu' which in finnish means month... soooo its like each moon of every month has a different name, pretty cool!) My sports class took a trip to Tampere to go rock climbing and play lasertag. IT WAS AWESOME!!! I have to say I'm a pretty good lasertagger... yeah lasertagger. Rock climbing was great too, but lasertag was amazing! My friend Piia and I defended our base, and these two little random boys kept coming up from behind and killing us. They were like two feet tall, we couldn't see what hit us! It was a game with three teams and 18 players, all but those two boys were from our sports class so why they were there? i'm not sure... I came out number 6 of 18! Yeah go me! Poor Piia was lucky number 18 of 18 but who's keeping track... (okay so I think everyone dose but what eva)
tiistia (Tuesday)
Wow another variation of hot dog soup has found it's way to me once again! This time it was more chunks of meat in the soup... it's so weird to me. It was raining when I had to ride my awesome finnish bike home, so I stopped in the library to return a book I had taken out (it was a little kids book and the stupid kids on the cover annoyed the heck outta me so 'they, have got ta go!') Then I spent a good 45 minutes in the little kid section (we're talking baby book section) trying to read some/any book. I only succeded with like one (it was the kind of book with a picture of an apple or something, then it says the name... so that's kinda sad) I can't read! ahhhh. Then I went to S Market! I wanted cookies!!! SURPRISE! My friend Sanni jumped outta no where, scared me a little, she was waiting for the bus to Tampere to go pick up her new camera so she was getting something to eat. She showed me that here in Finland, they put burgers pre-made (with buns and everything) in bags for you to buy then stick in the microwave! Oh you tricky Finns!!!
keskeviikko (Wednesday)
Today is the day of sexy legs!!! seriously I biked like a thousand kilometers! To school and back (4kms up-hill each way :P ). Grabbed something to eat, strapped my horn to the back of my bike (seriously I must look crazy with this thing haha) Then about an eight km ride to band and back... So maybe more like 24ish km... but still. There's this one long hill that I had to go up on the way back from band, seriously I was gonna die, and the only thing that kept me going was just thinking how good my legs are gonna look if I keep all this biking up!
torstia (Thursday)
Today was good... the most exciting thing that happend... OH in math class today the teacher, 10 minutes from when class ended got so frustrated that people were talking that he threw his pen down, yell a bunch of stuff in finnish, then kicked us out... I mean I don't have to know any finnish at all to know he was ticked off! Let's see... Oh I finnaly made it to the cute little bakery shop across the street from the school! I got an awesome cinnimon roll with amazing carmel topping for 1€, good trade! Then my friends and I played cards and I taught them Egyiptian Ratscrew... it was a good time!
perjantai (Friday)
Okay so today was pretty much one of the best days ever!!! So in finnish lukio (highschool) they have this thing, idk the name, but it's like a spirt week in a day mixed with kill the freshmen day. So a couple weeks ago they told the first graders (freshmen) that the theme for this day (which was today) was "pimps and hoes" So the first grade boys had to dress up like hoes, and the girl like pimps, I know pretty awsome. Some 2nd and 3rd graders put signs on all the doors to get into the building except for one saying first graders couldn't enter. So here you have all these pimps and hoes wondering around the outside of the school, in the cold, trying to get in. (Priceless) Plus when we got into to school there were all these signs saying "first graders must do this, can't do that" I'm not sure what they all said but they had the 1st graders doing some pretty funny things! There also were lines in tape all through the hallways and the 1st graders were only allowed to walk on those lines. Then, the last class of the day was canceled and we all went to the gym to see them preform the dance the 2nd and 3rd graders had taught them (it was hilarious) and then they had to do a three legged opsticle course (also amazing) and then they had to clean up all the signs and tape that the 2nd and 3rd graders had put all around the school (also great) *note to America* We need to start this!
After school I took a bus to my friend Sanni's house. It was so cool, I think it was my first time on a public transportation bus (not including school buses, but idk if those are considered public...) We hung out, played uno with her little sister, watched AWESOME youtube videos, ate dinner, then headed to the party. I think it was like a student government organized event. It was sooooo much fun! It was at this place ontop of like a mountain or something idk, and it was had this really big open room with a stage on both ends and three old cars in the corner (they were really cool cars) and we danced the entire night! Can't even explain how much fun I had! Can't even.
lauantai (Saturday)
Today's the day I was introduced to Oreos' very attractive cousin Domino, oh he's fine! Milk's favorite cookie may need to step up his game to keep that title : P I also remembered to recharge my Ipod so now I have unlimited Billy Joel!!! And I don't even want to calculate how many countless hours I spent working on my Rotary presentation, but I started it today, and finnished it!!! Sorta, now I've got to practice it and I'm probably gonna change all the words from English to finnish so the Rotarians can understand what's going on. But there's a lot of pictures which as everyone knows "A picture's worth 1000 words." in English OR finnish!
sunnuntai (Sunday)
Today has been a slightly lazy day. Woke up around 10 for breakfast, then just chilled, worked on learning finnish names for foods, then around 3 Anssi took me to Eija's brother's farm where they were having a day open to the public to learn about siene (mushrooms). Wow hold on to your socks!!! But I had know idea!!! There are so many kinds!!! I mean I knew there were a lot of different kinds of mushrooms, but... wow! And the cartoon mushroom you always see that has a white steam, then red top with speckles on the top... it's real, I saw it today. I always thought it was just a made up mushroom. It's not... So that was my siene-filled day and now Ima go eat something.
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