Viikko Kolmekymmentäviisi

maanantai:
Test week! Today I would have had a math test... but since it was word problems, I hadn't studied, and I didn't feel like it... I stayed at home. But I kept busy by filling out Scholarships for college next year... cause unlike here, in America, you usually get to pay a ton of money for college education. yeah for money!

tiistai:
Another day of working on scholarships, It was really nice outside, you could actually smell spring coming, and in the feilds there were spots that you could see the ground, not just all snow!!! yeah. I also went to Tampere with my band for a concert. It went really well, I got home kinda late though, but no biggy.

keskiviikko:
Another really pretty spring day, the morning started out really foggy, but by after lunch it was sunny and breezy, nice and easy. I decided I would take a walk to the Kirpputori. Now, If I had the right shoes (rubber boots) I could have just walked from the house, to the back yard, right straight over the lake, and it would have been maybe 2ish kilometers walk, but I didn't and even though the other day I saw fisher men out there, in lawn chairs, maybe 50feet from the river area where there was open water, I don't think I would have had the guts to walk across it. So I took the road, double the length plus hills, but it was nice. Chatted with some old folks who were waiting for their taxi to pick them up so they could go grocery shopping, they offered me a ride, but I was almost there and didn't feel like blowing my cover as a Finn. I got a really cool spring jacket, and adorable tank top... now it's nice outside, but not yet tank top weather, But my thought was like in Feild of Dreams, if you buy it, it will come (summer clothes, summer)

torstai:
Today I took the bus to school, I had tons to do! Pick up books for my last period in school, look for gadgets, take care some banking business. So my walk around the whole world (our little town) took the entire morning and luckily I made it back to the school in time for free lunch, cause I was sooooo hungry! Then I hung out until the buses came. Eeva, Simo and I were going into the city, they were getting hair cuts, and I was doing more shopping. I hit up 2 out of the three kirpputoris that I know of in Tampere, we ate at Hesburger, and then got ice cream! yummy! In the mall they were doing auditions for Finnish Top Model TV show or something like that, so there were all these ridiculouly tall girls walking around! If our bus wasn't leaving in 20 minutes, I would have attempted to enter in my jeans and Kristy's Barn tee-shirt, woulda coulda shoulda. We went home, I was sooo tired.

perjantai:
So home day. Simo had a friend over after school and then my host dad brought us to a farmer get-together thing at an Agril Markets shop. They were giving out free bowls of pea soup, and coffee, and cookies and candy. Yummy! When we got home I headed off by bike to my friends house for a movie night. Three movies! crazy, and I left before the last one cause I didn't want to be riding home in the dark and I knew if I started watching it I wouldn't be able to leave in the middle of it! It was so much fun. Then I had to go to bed kinda early because there was a Rotary confrence in Turku this weekend and the Rotary men where picking me up at 6:15 the next morning. Yeah!

lauantai:
Up and out, practically sleeping the whole way, we did stop for coffee, I got a donut, So after that I was a bit more awake. It was definatly spring in Turku. The grass even was greenish! Then I got to hang out with all the exchangers!!! We had to give a small presentation to the Rotary men before lunch. We had split up and made small plays showing some odd/interesting things of Finland. My group did a reanactment of the first day at school as an exchange student. Then there was how excited Finns get about the sun, coffee, and potates. We then just hung out with the exchangers which is always the best. We finally sorta went to bed at 5:00am, just laying down where-ever, even though we all had rooms and beds, pretty much none of them were used. So basically I was up almost an entire 24 hours! Worth it!

sunnuntai:
We didn't get much sleep, up at 8ish, not by force, but by hunger, the camp place we were staying had awesome food so we couldn't wait any longer... oh man I want some of that food now! Eatting eatting till the ship is... sinking still works. Back to our Rotary people by 12, saying goodbye, and then I was sound asleep the entire ride home. I woke up a half an hour away from town and was shocked to see that spring must have followed us back from Turku! There sooo much less snow!!! I'd say 1/4 of a field had snow on it! wow!!! I just putted around the rest of the day, made pizza! But just putted, sleep, school would start again... Yeah... but it will be cool, a new classes!!!

taking a break

hang in there, I'll update soon, i guess I just totally forgot about this! weird, it must be the crazy amount of sun light I have been getting, days last from way before I get up around 7:00, till around 9:30, and beautiful sunsets almost every night! a full report update is on it's way!

Viikko Kolmekymmentänelja

maanantai:
Today in school there was a political thinggy... There were six candidates that were debating and telling their oppinions on topics such as, nuecular energy, getting involved with NATO and the Lybia conflict, homosexual marrage, ect. I tried to pay as much attention because that information would be interesting to know, but I think the candidates were using special and difficult words to sound smarter, so I really couldn't understand much and just ended up respectfully falling asleep... Later that day I went with my host mom and her friend, to the gym where we took a 30 minute, curves type, weight lifting class... I felt like such a wimp cause some of the other women in the class were like 65 and they were working way harder than I and didn't even look half as tired... wha...? But I lived, sorta, and really felt it on for the next couple of days.

tiistai:
Trying to get out of bed wasnt as hard as I thought it would be today (turns out muscles wait a day before trying to kill you) And that was sorta a good thing because today was our schools 'movement day' we all got bundled up and went to the near-by mountain to go skiing, snowboarding, and sleading. I worked on mastering my snowboarding... down the first run and I did an awesome face plant... ouch, but that scared the skill into me because for the rest of the day I didn't do that much falling, only like a couple more times, and most of them on my butt, which dosn't hurt as much as falling on your face dose. It was a pretty epic day I must say.
keskiviikko:
In school today Sanni brought her collection of german chocolate, which very quickly disappeared, not exactly sure how : P but... Gym class today! We played bad mitten, ping pong, and tried the rock wall a bit. After gym I went for a walk to Kyröskoski to wait for band to start. I got a popsicle from the store... yeah there's still snow on the ground, but when a girl wants a popsicle... it was layered, orange and strawberry with a picture of a bee on it, so you can't really go wrong with that! Tero picked me up, and we picked up some pizza on the way home, yeah pizza for dinner!

torstai:
So test week officially started today, which in exchange student world, means vacation! I basically worked on college stuff, found out I have to take placement tests... wooo, and one of them is on language, spanish, french, or german, your pick... what about finnish? I can't remember hardly anything in spanish, and when I try to speak it, it all just comes out finnish... oh well, I'll deal. Today in the local paper it said that tomorow they will be releasing some seals into the lake, suposibly there are 260 seals in Finland's lakes, and they want 400... I can't be sure, but I'm thinking this is an April Fool's joke, I have not heard of any seals anywhere over here, and my host brother had an odd grin on when he was translating some of the artical... well... Then I got a phone call today from these odd people in New York, claming to be my Mom, Dad, and sister... I humored them with an hour long conversation : P Later Eeva, Simo and I went to a play at the local theater! It was a really funny show and I knew some of the actors from school!

perjantai:
English test today! Meaning I did have to get up to go to school today. Usually I don't finnish my English test first, but today I was determinded! And I did! yeah! haha some parts were actually kinda hard, like we had to make odd words plural and then singular, and I had to remember how to say different phrases... and after hearing you native language spoken so much by non-native speakers, you begin to make their mistakes... But I think I passed. Then I went for a walk, KIRPPUTORI time! yeah, it has been sooo long. And I was in the mood for some new clothes. Unfortunatly I didn't find all that much. I'm thinking the one in Ylöjärvi is a better one so maybe I'll head over there sometime soon. Then I headed home. The rest of the day was mostly just little tricks played on each other. Hiding milk, putting things on top of doors so when they open, you get random things falling on you. That kind of stuff, oh and I made a really big snow man in the back yard, Merry April Fools!

lauantai:
Saturday is cleaning day. After cleaning, Simo and I went to a music, band practice, he took a drum lesson, while I practiced with my band. We have a concert coming up soon, fun. Then I had to get ready for the Rotary 30year party! A big event, I got to use my Vanhojen dance dress that I shortened a bit, and threw my Rotary jacket on top of it. Yup the one with all the buttons! I was looking fly. The party was fun, hanging with my Rotary men. There were also some district Rotary men, that I think I did a fairly good job impressing my my Finnish skills, Oh and there was a magic trick act. A boy probably 16ish, and I got practically pushed on the stadge to be in one of the acts. He had the deck of cards, then three empty cards, He told me to think of a number 1-13, then he 'read my mind' and wrote it down on the card then folded it away, asked me my number, it was 9, then he asked me to think of suite (kuvio) but what I heard was (kuvia) picture, I thought that was odd, he's gonna draw a picture... so I just thought of a cat, then he asked me what I thought of... Kissa, I said, 'what?'... kissa... and everyone just laughed, but he just kept going, and the trick ended up working fine. Soon after coffee I left, I had an early day the next day. Home we watched the Simpson's Movie, it's odd because pretty much all Finns love the Simpson's but there are so many jokes in the shows that I will end up laughing alone at because it's the small details about America, like I think one part was, Flanders and Bart ontop of a moutain where you could see the four states that boarder Springfeild, Kentucky, New Mexico, Maine, and Nebraska, or something like that, hehe. We went downstairs and they broke into Mämmi, an easter 'treat' that suposibly nobody likes, but they all eat it anyway, and then warn anyone who hasn't had it before, I was still full for the party so I passed for now, I'll try some tomorow... Google it, it's like this brown pudding like, but not, thing and you eat it with heavy cream and sugar...

sunnuntai:
Early morning, back to the band camp thingy. A full day of practice endding around 2, blah... It wasn't so bad though. The rest of the day was for chilling. My host mom had left early that morning for a meeting in Brysels, Tero soon left for a sport competition thing in Sweden, and we just hung out watching movies and dreading school tomorow... Oh wait, I don't have school LOVE TEST WEEK!

Viikko Kolmekymmentäkolme

maanatai:
New family, new house, new week, new bus stop... Or lack of bus stop, I headed up to look for my new bus stop, I remember now that over breakfast, they were telling me that there was now bus stop sign, you just had to flag the bus down, but that didn't set in until the bus had already passed by. Luckily my host brother Tero, had a class in the morning too, so I went to school with him. School was pretty much exactly the same, except a lot of people missing, victoms of sickness, and the Germany trip. But I got through it, and got the right bus home, and stopped it at the right place. I got in the house, and there was a bunch of professinal camera equipment... that's odd I thought... then I remembered that today in tomorow, they said that a Finnish tv serise would be filming here... Pirunpelto, on of the characters is a farmer, and a couple times before they used this house to shoot too, cool! So us kids hung around, asking random questions, what dose that do, why are you doing that, those kind of things. It was a big production, lots of people, equipment, and coffee (of course coffee, it's Finland) So that was an exciting day, I told lots of creeper photos, and even creeper videos of the whole ordeal, cause how often do you get a Finnish TV show being taped in your living room? I'm gonna say not that often.

tiistai:
I made the bus today! My host mom walked me to the bus stop place and waited with me, it felt like the first day of kindergarten again! awww, oh and infront of the bus stop a few hundred feet, is a lake and today, there were a bunch of swans. Finland's bird, and the sign of fall and spring, is seeing them around. In the fall, I didn't see so many, and they were gray, but now there are a lot of them and they are all white! Pretty! School... nope, not really anything was happening, still a lot of people missing. When I got home the TV shooting was happening outside now, by the side of one of the barns. Simo dropped his bags and ran out there. They taping was done by four I think, I never went out there because I couldn't tell which direction they were taping, and didn't want to accidently get in the back of the shot, that would have been cool if they didn't notice, and just ended up putting me in the show, but judging by how good they were yesterday at picking up on the tiniest things, i'm gonna say they would have noticed.

keskiviikko:
School, makkara for lunch! yeah! We were supposed to have gym outside today, but they canceled it because the ground is all ice, it melted yesterday, and froze, pretty much everywhere is just a thick sheet of ice. Home, then soon headed out for band. Band was good. Leaving band was fun because it had snowed like penguins and polar bears while I was in, so everything was covered in snow, and I'm still trying to learn the new cars of this family, so I just waited a bit until most of the cars were gone, then picked one and hoped for the best... lucky me I choose right!

torstai:
Again school... it's getting kinda old : P last study hall Laura and I explored Tokmanni, I found this Aloe Verra juice stuff, that as on sale, two bottles for 1€, it reminded me of so juice stuff that Karah and I would always get at one of the dollar stores at the mall until they stopped selling it. So heck yeah I got it. And if i'm remembering that juice right, it was pretty much the same, yeah score! Home it was just Simo and I, everyone else had meetings and other stuff... not really sure. Simo showed me around the barn and all the favorite cows, I hung out with the babies, made friends with the all white baby who was born on the same day I moved to this house, cause I think we are alike enough, and we should be buddies. Night, dinner, coffee at grandma's, and bed.

perjantai:
Yeah! Friday!!! So school was regular, yah know, an eventful day at home though, a cow fell in the barn, so that was a big deal. Then Simo and I went to a floor ball pick up game. We ended up playing handball too, just a lot of random people, young and old, and lots of fun. I had never played floor ball either, like hockey without the ice, and a ball not a puck. It was fun. Then our older host brother picked us up and we got a pizza to take home. It was a really good pizza too! My Big Fat Greek Wedding was on TV tonight, so we all stayed up late to watch it.

lauantai:
Eeva came back from Germany at like 4 in the morning, but I wasn't sleeping well anyway so it didn't bother me. I was worried about my Finnish language test that I would be taking for 5 hours today... yup, lots of fun. It's not like I didn't want to do it, well maybe I didn't want to do it, but I want to know how much I know, and this is really the only way to find out... soooo... Markku picked me up, the drive was about an hour, I kept falling asleep because that's what I do best in long car rides. Markku left me at the place with my other exchange student friends, he went to visit his mother who lived close by. There were four of us. All taking basic level Finnish, all Rotary exchange students, all freaking out! The first part we did was reading and writing. That wasn't too bad... because there you have time to read over and over again. 3 sections, 50 minutes each. Just endurance. Then a bit of a break, we were suposed to eat, but with my nerves I really couldn't, I knew listening would be the hardest for me, and it was, I was hoping not so hard, like maybe they would talk slowly and about cats or something. But they were talking soooo fast, way faster than a normal Finn talks, and I didn't really know what they were talking about. I found out later that they were talking about robbers in a shop stealing beer... okay... Whatever that part was over. Then was speaking, I wasn't too worried, and I got to go first so I just got it over with. It was like an interview with a really nice lady. First part was about yourself, the norm, then about food, I ended up talking about tacos for some reason and now I'm not even sure if the word for tacos in finnish is tako... oh man, hope so! Then the last part was about work... she asked what I want to do when I'm older... oh come on! Even if you asked me that in English I wouldn't be able to answer... Oh well, what's done is done. I didn't realize how tiring test taking was until I was home and couldn't really function properly. Luckily almost everyone else was pertty much drained so we all went to bed super early! yeah for bed!

sunnuntai:
Got up at 8, well with daylight savings time I guess it was 9, then rolled around all morning. My host dad had come back from his trip to Scotland, so that was exciting! We made Waffles, and ate them with Maple syrup from New York, yum! Simo and I did some work in the barn, and played with the new baby cow that came yesterday when I was at the stupid test : ( next baby I'm gonna be around for! Then some cosins came over so we hit them with snow balls, then had coffee at Grandmas'. And ended the weekend with Wipe Out UK, and Funniest Home Videos with a Finnish host, but still the mostly American videos... cause in America when you get it on tape you could get it in cash, plus get 15 minutes of fame! uh oh... school tomorow...

Viikko Kolmekymmentäkaksi

maanantai:
School once again... but what can you do? But after school I took my trip to my Horn lesson, and what was really great was that I could actually notice all the diferences that an exact month made. The last month I was walking to my lesson in dusk and from my lesson to the bus stop in complete darkness. But one month later I was walking to my lesson (5-5:30ish) in day, and walking from my lesson (7:00) when it was starting to get dusky. So weird! But a good weird because now I know that spring is actually coming, it's not just a myth.

tiistai:
School was odd today. I got spring fever and didn't want to be inside anymore so I spent the second half of English class outside in the sun shine. SOOOO NICE!!! Then after school Markku picked me up to get more trips onto my bus card. Later that day I went to a Rotary meeting where I also noticed how light it is outside. Usually I can't see into the corner of the room across the room, but now I could because there happens to be a window in that corner that I never knew existed! Funny!

keskiviikko:
I got sick today : ( Felt funny on tuesday night, was okay in the morning but felt something odd. Got overly excited that we were having sausage for lunch and ate too much. Went home before gym. : ( and we were going ice skating too : ( Oh well, It was kinda nice to just be and get better. And by the end of the night I really was feeling much better!

torstai:
I started knitting socks today!!! Yeah they are orange and going to have a couple gray stripes... but now I'm thinking I should have gone with orange and a light blue... Oh well I've already started, and who knows I could be making many more if these go well. They way they are knitted is using five needles, with no back on them. I'm going to find a picture, because that will be easyer to see...



So you kinda knit it in a square, and use the last needle... to knit onto so the needles are always exchanging places. It's sorta hard, keeping track of all the needles. And getting back into the groove of knitting was hard too, I ended up starting over maybe 5 times... But know I'm on a role and I've even switched colors a couple times, Now I'm really wishing I had gone with light blue...


perjantai:
It's a Friday!!! And you could feel in school that everyone just wanted out, even the teachers! I think it has to do with the way that spring feels like it's on it's way. Don't get me wrong, it still is cold, and there is penty of snow left on the ground, but the light of the sun dose wonders in making people cheerful. Last night at my second host family, full of The Dudesons, Packing, and CAKE!!!

lauantai:
Cake for breakfast, yummy! Then the finishings of packing, my new host dad and sister picked me up around 10, we shoved all my stuff, I really don't understand how I accumulated sooooo much stuff. But luckily It all fit and we only had to make one trip. Oh and remember how I kept saying that spring was coming... Well I jynxed it cause today I woke up and it was like a blizzard outside... oh well. That snow came in handy later when we had a snow ball fight! Yeah! My new host family is great! We live on a dairy farm of around 50 head, drink the good milk! I am sooo excited about that! I have a host sister, and three host brothers, and host grandparents living right next door! So great day, great move, and even though there is fresh snow on the ground, it's still almost spring.

sunnuntai:
Yeah for weekend! Today so Russians visited the farm, friends of friends, actually not quite sure, but they were given a tour of the farm and then they heard about an american girl living here to, so big photo opp... uhhh well, story to tell the grandkids maybe. Then we went cross country skiing, Simo, my new little brother and I didn't make it as far as my host sister Eeva and host mom, so we headed back and built snow balls to attack them with... like good children. The rest of the day was hanging out, dreading school's start again, last minute homework, and packing. Monday Eeva gose on a school trip to Germany for a week and my host dad will go to Scotland... or somewhere, not exactly sure why or for how long. I'll find out. Well school again.

Viikko Kolmekymmentäyksi

maanantai:
School again : P It was sooooo terrible trying to get up today! BLAH!!! But it was really great to see everyone again! My one friend was still sorta on vacation, coming home from some island near Portugal JELIOUSE!!! In a study hall we went to the library. I found a book call 'When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit' ... hmmm so I will someday figure out what all that is about... Then pretty much a chill day the rest of the day.

tiistai:
Today I watched a bunch of really cute cat videos on the internet, which made me miss my cats even more! But the internet cats are so adorable! I can tell spring is starting to come our way. It says light outside soooo much later, I think we are up to around 6:30ish the sun gose down. I'm excited for grass, and unfrozen lakes that you can swim in for more than 10 seconds at a time. I mean I live right next to a lake, and my next family I will live next to a lake too so EXCITED FOR SPRING!!!

keskiviikko:
My friend, Piia, who went to that island somewhere in by Portugal came back to school today! She brought post cards and candy! YEAH! Someday I will eat candy from every country! A thing on my bucket list! After school we had gym, and for some reason only us 2nd grade girls showed up, so we played basketball. It was epic, my team didn't win, but we were sorta half-way close. But it was a lot of fun. Then I headed to band. Stopping at some stores on the way looking for an outfit that I could wear to the school party on Friday, I didn't find anything, but I have something in mind. Band was a lot of fun. A new girl around my age showed up to play the clarinet. It turns out she is going to Argentina on exchange next year, not with Rotary, but some other organization I can't remember, But it's still pretty cool. So I told her I could get her in touch with the girl here in Finland on exchange from Argentina. Yeah helpping!

torstai:
My friend Laura missed the bus today, and forgot her key to her house so she got to wait outside all day until her dad came home from work... That's not cool, but luckily spring is on it's way and it was a lot warmer than it could have been, It was hovering around freezing, so not too bad! In school I was suposed to have a study hall while everyone else had their 'mother tounge' class aka Finnish. But SOMEHOW I got dragged into the class, against my will. They said I had to sit in Laura's seat so the teacher wouldn't count Laura absent. But the teacher noticed it anyway, go figure. Anyway I choose my next periods' classes. I'll be taking: Tourism (the class that takes a trip to Riga, Latvia!!!) Swedish, German, and Russian... Game on! Then after school was our sewing class. I shortened my Vanhojen Tanssi dress to right above where I got a stain on it. Now it's a cute party dress for any occation. I still have a ton of that fabric left... Not really sure what I'll be able to do with it but we'll see. Then it was clean the house time when I got home. Sparkly!

perjantai:
Good morning FRIDAY!!! Not only is this the day that starts an amazing weekend of adventures, but... I didn't think that through, this is the day that starts an amazing weekend of adventures... what could be better than that. Only need to get thourgh the 6ish hours of school, which wasn't hard considering I had 2 study halls in the morning. So first off, I returned my bottle colection for 3.80€, nice! Then I tried to crack the code of a friends locker, she told me I couldn't figure it out by the end of the year, so I'm on it, It's a 4 number code, possiblity of 0-9 for each number, so Game on! Worked on my music project, Then classes, math and swedish, there was a 'ord test' (vocab quiz) but considering I didn't even realize that there was gonna be a quiz, I decided not to waste the paper to epicly fail. I know now that there is a quiz next friday, so I'll probably study for that one and we'll see what happens then. School's out! Sanni and Laura came to my place to chill before the Party. We youtube surffed, Then the anouncment about the earthquake in Japan showed up on the screen. So scary! I have exchange student friends here that are from Japan! I have no idea what I would do if something like that ever happened to me, I just hope everything is alright with them and all their families and friends! Scary... Then we got ready and hit the road to the party. It was great because pretty much all my friends decided to show up. We went for a snack at Final 1, a pizza/kebab place, we got french fries so I still have to go back there sometime to compaire their kebab's to the others that are around here. Then we just danced the night away, and crashed at Sanni's house. Awesome night!!!

lauantai:
Early morning! Sanni and her family were going to visit their grandma in Tampere today so we got up earliy, considering it was a non-school day after a late night, but it wasn't that hard to get up! I was excited about the adventure today. Exchange student get together in Tampere. I got a ride with Sanni the the city which was really nice of them. Then wondered around the city until the others would come. I found out that on Saturdays they do all their advertising, and giving samples out. I got free cookies for walking into a grocery store, then two packets of margrine for walking past these guys giving margrine out. And a lot of newspapers, 'Jesus is coming soon' paper handerouttters, (yes that is a word in MY vocabulary) cool stuff. Then Sonja snuck up on me, she is from Illinois, we had some time to kill before the others would get there, so we headed to a kirpputorri! Yeah it had lots of good stuff. And surprisingly a lot of the really ugly stuff was also really expesive. We just didn't under stand it, but that's what you get sometimes. Then the other's popped out of nowhere. Josh from Flordia, Adam from Canada, and Clemence from France. We checked out a Salvation Army, tried on fur coats, sequine jackets, and unbrella swoards. Then headed to Wok Wok, for lunch it was stir fry type of meal, atempting to eat with only chop sticks took forever, but then again there's always a ton to talk about when you're with fellow exchange students! Soon we all had buses to catch, host families to catch up with, life, and so on. But on the bus ride home I saw a moose in the woods near the highway! At first I thought it was a big brown cow, but then was like... MOOSE!!! American hamburgers for dinner, yummy!

sunnuntai:
We went on a walk today. A traditional thing to do in Tampere, every year on a winter sunday hundreds of people walk on the lake, a kilometer ish out, to this light house where there was a ship wreck and around 150 people drowned. The walk has a name, I just can't find it on the internet yet, but I'm looking...okay the lighthouse is called Siilinkari, and it is in the lake called, Näsijärvi, I couldn't find the name of the event. Anyway, There were people skiing out there, biking, babies in sleads, babys on steaks, but really, everyone who has a baby, or small child, puts a fuzzy mat/rug in the slead, bundels the kid up, and tugs then around, not just on this walk thing, I've seen it many times before, just today there were so many of them! And some of them weren't even pulling the slead themselves, they hooked the slead to their dog, had their dog on a leash, and off they went! Crazy! We bought cold makara from some guy and found free spaces next to one of the many fire grills, and made our lunch. I also saw Adam from Canada hanging with his family. They had pretty much the exact same dogs my family has, two smallish white puffy puppies! ha Then we headed back home. And I cleaned and got rid of stuff I wouldn't need, exchange students a an awesome ability to collect the most random, unusable things! We discused this yesterday at Wok Wok, random napkins from random resturants, ours, and other compleatly random stuff to! Roosa studied for her history test by bundleing herself in my bed, eatting all my chocolate (I had way too much if there is a thing so I told her that she needed to eat it all), and telling me about Hitler. I also did laundry but after it was already half done I found like a pair of dirty socks... Hate that! Then we had waffles! yum! Awesome week! except the weekend went way too fast, I woke up on Monday thinking it was Sunday... nope : P

Viikko Kolmekymmentä

maanantai:
So today was a really early day, woke up and to the airport around 5:30, funny cause today is the first day of our week long winter break, and I got up 2 hours earlier than I would have for school. Check in and security at the Helsinki airport went really fast so soon my parents and lil'brother were out of site, headed back home. I hung around the airport until it got light outside. Sitting on a bench, people watching, trying to guess if they were going off to vacation, or going home from vacation, and what land they were from. Not easy but I guessed about everyone right : P Headed to the center. Hung around there for an hour, then got a train ticket for 11, had an hour more to wait so I stuck around the station cause I was tired. There were some interesting folks who spend time in the train station... real interesting. I got to Tampere and planned on checking when the bus would head back, then spend some time shopping in the city, but once I got to the bus station, there was a bus there waiting, and I didn't feel like walking around anymore, so I just got on and headed home. Chilled for the rest of the day, I've been in 'go' mode for the past couple weeks, and it's not over yet!

tiistai:
Today Laura, Sanni, and I went to little Sweden (aka Ikea) A giant store full of anything to do with home decor... huge, we got lost many times and took many pictures. Found icecream for 50 cents! nice! Went we were done with Ikea, we went to the other mall, poked around, found my friend Niina in the grocery store and creeped on her for a while, popping out at her from behind the yoga matts, lots of fun. Then back home and chilling, catching up on Chelsea Lately online (almost the best show ever)

keskiviikko:
Early day again today. The fam headed out for a 5 hour drive North-ish to a place called Tahko vuori, A ski/holiday resort. The parking lot was on the lake... like literally all the cars were parked on the ice of the frosen lake. I know crazy huh! And on another part of the lake was a race track, you could pay 150€ to partake in a race, using one of their race cars, I didn't get to see a race happen, but for 150 it better be a pretty awesome race! Roosa and I went skiing. The mountain was much bigger than the mountain we went to on the Lapland tour. I think 24 routes down the mountain, and bunch of toe lifts and two chair lifts, so it was really neat! We skiied the entire rest of the day, and had tacos for lunch, which is now funny to me, cause the place is called tahko (pronouced pretty much like taco)

torstai:
Woke up, and headed out skiing again. Break for lunch was at a fire pit area at the bottom of the mountain were Susanna and Juha (along with many other people) were cooking sausages on a grate over a fire. Everyone kept an eye on their sausages, making sure they stayed in line, in their area. It was neat, and yummy! A few more hours of skiing and then we decided to switch to snow boarding! Some trips down the baby hill (or should I say falls) and we got on the lift to the medium babyish hill. I fell half way up the lift so started from there, Roosa made it the full way up. I actually think I got the semi hand of boarding, just don't fall. After snowboarding we headed in and went swimming. There was a cool slide, and an outdoor pool. We threw snowballs at eachother while trying to stay in the semi heated water for warmth. Pizza for dinner! Yum and we all were just so tired that we pretty much went right to sleep.


perjantai:
Breakfast and eatting leftovers from the fridge because we were heading back. Another 5 hour car ride. This time I wasn't so tired so I couldn't fall asleep, so I played the alphabet car game, which was hard here because they don't even use a lot of the letters so I had to keep an eye on the car's license plates which were all dirty because It was a bit above freezing, so the road sludge was crazy and the plates sometimes were unreadable. But I got through the alphabet in the 5 hours, except for the Åå, which I don't know if I count cause that's swedish and I'm in Finland, and a non-Swedish speaking part of Finland too... So we got home and I was dead tired after the ride and two days of skiing! SLEEP!


lauantai:
Daddy's Birthday today! I skyped with them a bit, then just hung around most of the day... Cut my hair... the usual haha. At night I watched The Miss Suomi (Miss Finland) contest, It was interesting, there was one of the contestant's final 10 who lives in Nokia, like half hour from my house! It was funny to see that in the contestaint's photos, they were smiling with teeth. But I've noticed that non-contestant Finns don't smile with teeth when taking a picture... Intersting... What do they find beautiful then, a toothy grin or a non toothy grin... yet another thing to figure out about these Finns.


sunnuntai:
Early day today, It's Rotary's winter day at a local ski mountain about 30mins from where I live. I'll be trying my hand at snow boarding again so... We got there, and I got to see all my rotary friends again! Awesome!!! We hit the slopes, most of them had never skiied or snow boarded before Finland, but the ones who have been here all winter (we call oldies, all the kids who came to Finland in August like me) Then the newbies are from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina, This was one of the newbies first times going down a snow covered mountain, but they all caught on really fast! We had more sausages at a grill ontop of the moutain, I think sausages are like their picknic food. Then just hung out. Soon the day was over and everyone left, lots of hugs all around. And I went home and realized school started again on Monday... I hadn't done any homework, not even sure what homework I had because the week before winter holiday I hadn't really gone to school because my parents and brother were visiting... woops, oh well.

Viikko Kaksikymmentäyhdeksän

Warning, I'm feeling really lazy right now, so this probably will be a very short blog even though a ton of things actually happened this week! But I'll give ya the general low down:

maanantai:
School after a busy weekend, wasn't as bad as you would think. I had lots of energy even though I probably was really tired. Messing around in study hall, ya know, the norm. On the bus home a saw a very interesting hair do! It was a guy, with his whole head shaven, but a long haired, rectangle patch in the back. The upper half of the patch was in the form of a long dread lock, the lower half was just hair, but he had it bundled up into a bun and tied using the dread lock. I would never have thought of this hairdo myself, and after figuring it out I wondered why he wasn't wearing a hat in almost negative 30 C!

tiistai:
I got up early today! That's cause my parents and brother Jaker were coming! Flying into Helsinki around 10:30 and I was going to met them, so bus to Tampere, train to Helsinki, bus to the airport. I had found a video on Youtube about transportation from the Airport to the Trainstation, It said you could take the Finn Air bus, the 615, or the 61. I planned on taking the 615 bus, but couldn't find it. I now know that I was looking on the wrong side of the station. But I just jumped on the Finn air bus, paid a bit more money, but getting to the airport just in time to meet them. AWESOME!!! We then got to navigate back to my town, rest, we all were beat, them a bit more than I because they had left 7:00pm the day before Finland time, and we got to the place we would stay around 2:00pm so... Then the rotary meeting. Again AWESOME!!!

keskiviikko:
After taking our time getting up I took them out to show them around the town. The two centers, the church, local shops, the kirpputori, the big old tree, well we couldn't actually find the tree... Then out to lunch, Kebabs! I had them once before, and this one reminded me that I need to get them more often! Big though, we only ordered two and a pizza for all four of us and we took a lot home with us in a box. Later that night we all, my real family and my host family went to the sauna club, the one with the hole in the frosen lake, and smoke sauna. They all did it, the girls went in the lake 4 times, and the boys one-upped us at the last minute and went 5 times. It wasnt a compitition though!

torstai:
Took Jake to school. For english class. And lunch. In english class we had a listening test, in that room that reminds me of NASA's headquarters. The test was all in English and Jake took it too. He thinks he failed, but we'll see when I get it back, I got a few wrong I know, but what ever, it's a hard test, and my English is getting weak : P <-- good and bad thing. Then lunch, Jake liked the fact that it was free, well it is great. There were a lot of 3rd graders there, even thought technically, they are done with the schooling part of this school, we all just joked that they got hungry so they came in. Then to the Munkilja for donuts, and Mom and Dad picked us up to go to Tampere. I took them to all the spots I could think of, got lost a couple times, hit up the free bathrooms in the places I could think of that had free bathrooms. Then met up with my host family to go to a hockey game. Tappara vs. Blues. Blues won 3-1, although it was tied at 1-1 for a really long time. And this game seemed much louder and the players a lot fisstier, they kept trying to fight each other, and really that's what hockey is truely about : P

perjantai:
Nothing really special happened today... NOT it was my birthday so pretty much the best, even though I kept forgetting that it was my birthday and random people kept reminding me. I made a short apperence at school, they sang and fed me cake (the best) then I brought in my family cause my mom wanted a picture of all of us. Then we left, went back to the sauna club to take pictures in the day light. There was a man there that answered any and ever question we could think of. Then back home, had pea soup and small minow like fish that had been fried for lunch. Dad spent a couple hours with the owner of the place we were staying learning about their boiler system and general farm stuff. Then we headed off to my next family's house for a visit. They showed us around, really cool place! They have a robot that milks the cow without someone having to touch the cow! Neat! Then to my last host family. <3

lauantai:
Up and out to the market in the center of town, had musta makkara to buy since the people in Tampere had been on vacation. Then we went to Ikaalinen to drive on the ice road, surprisingly I remebered where it was. Mom wasn't so happy about driving on it, but we lived, It actually wasn't that different from the normal roads here because they don't plow all the snow and ice off them, so pretty much the same thing. We also saw some odd activity going on on the lake, so we investigated. Turns out they were having a horse race on the ice, horse and buggy... coolio! But wouldn't the horses slip... Then back home, nobody hated the musta makkara! Then to Roosa's soccer game, she won, and after the game we saw that they were going to play Finnish baseball, so we stuck behind to figure it out... I think we understand it now... Then a big feast and very late night!

sunnuntai:
Up early, breakfast and left by 9:30 to get to Helsinki by 12, found a hotel and headed into the center. Road the T3 for a tour of the city, then walked to certain destinations, like the big white church, the president's castle, the other church, and various other places. For dinner we had Thai, yummy! Then hopped on the bus back to our car we had left at the airport, and back to the hotel. Card games for a while then turned in kinda early cause we had a 5:00am early morning tomorow cause their plane back home would leave 7:30. It was awesome having them here, the time just flew by, but then again, that seems to be a common occurence in this entire trip!

Viikko Kaksikymmentäkahdeksan

maanantai:
Happy Valentines day!!! Here it is called Ystävän Päivä, or Close Friend day, so it's more about friendship then single awarness. My friend brought baked goods in, and we ate them all! Yum. The younger kids in the school were all running around with a big paper heart on a string around their neck, then they would hug each other and have the people that hugged them, sign their paper. It was a cute idea! There was a new girl in school today, she was in my first class. It was weird because I kept asking throughout the day who she was and if she was new or not. No one knew! So weird, because back at my high school it only takes 3 minutes flat for the entire school to know every basic detail about a new student, and my old high school is about 3 times the size of this school. I finally found out last class of the day when the teacher talked to her about getting the school books, so I concluded from that, that she would be studing here, and I guess everyone else did too. Lesson later that day. New bus driver! hmmm wonder what happened to my favorite one? The lesson was great, at the bus stop for home, I'm usually alone waiting, but this time an army boy came to wait too. Weird, but it would be a long wait so I decided to try and start a conversation, It was -30ish degress C, so I jokingly said in my Finnish 'It's just a little cold'.... Nothing, he said nothing back!!! I was so confused... did that really just happen... not even a nod or chuckle... wha... so it was quiet, I was dumbfounded... The bus came, we got on, later I got off, and went back home... wow happy Valentines day!

tiistai:
I had gotten a package from Nana and Pop yesterday with Valentines stuff, so I passed that stuff out at school today, Valentines continues!!! haha The new girl sat next to me in English today, she seems really cool, and oddly not shy. We all chated and didn't do any work because the teacher was out so fun was on the agenda! Bus home and two younger girls got off with Roosa and I, usually it's just Roosa and I and sometimes another boy who walks the other direction from the bus stop. We got ahead of them and Roosa told me that they were 7th graders who wanted to go to Silvi a hamburger joint I haven't been to, but it's by SMarket, about 8 kilometers from my house. I guess they just forgot and accidently rode the bus all the way out here... odd! And it was cold, I wonder if they made it. Got a package from Mom and Dad today! yeah Valentines continues with conversational hearts! Then Roosa and I baked becasue Susanna's father and girlfriend was supposed to come over for coffee, but something was wrong with their car, so we just had to eat all we baked ourselves... oh no! : P

keskiviikko:
Today we had Dance practice in the morning at the second school we will be dancing at. And for one really easy dance we had to choose a partner from the school, like 11 or 12 year olds. My partner was Laase, maybe 4 feet tallish... but he was really cool, had three pircings in one ear! It was just a little awkward with the height difference, but fun anyway! Then we headed back to school. Henriikka and I went to get something to drink at SMarket, I saw Eija in the check out line! Yeah! Then school, after school was gym, but the 3rd graders were decorating the gym for their Penkkarit, tomorow, so we ended early because who can really spend 75mins in a weight room without going crazy! Then started my adventure to Rotary Theater Night in Tampere. Hopped on a bus, did some shopping for the dance before going to the Theater. We saw Lekaa ja Leivoksia, a comedy. I understood most of what was going on, and it helpped that I had looked it up before hand. Lots of fun! Great evening!!! And I noticed that most of the time in the play they used the written form of Finnish, not slang spoken... I wonder why that is.

torstai:
Penkkarit today!!! It's the 3rd graders last day of classes, so they decorated the gym, and TP'ed the halls. They taped funny quotes that the teachers had said on those teachers doors. We spent a while reading those, then all filed into the gym where all the 3rd graders were dressed as super heros, and mocked the teachers. They had teachers vs. students test, they had the math teacher and a student do a math problem, and it was set that the student knew the answer and so answered the question really fast, making the teacher look dumb. Same thing with the English teacher. Then when they decided the teacher had suffered enough, the sent them to a 'jail' the whole thing was actually really elaborate! Then they had teachers to realay races against eachother, and a mystery date one, my math teacher asked 3 'mystery ladys' questions through a screen about different things, then had to choose one to go on a 'date' with, he choose my biology teacher, and they had to tango to the weirdest music. So funny!!! Then the cute baby picture slide show of all the 3rd graders. Then they went out and threw tons of candy all over the school, TONS AND TONS, I was picking candy up all day. Then a moive they had put together of their time in this school. Then they all got in two decorated trucks and threw candy at us from there too, then the trucks drove all around the town so they could celebrate... But it was really cold that day so I don't know how they could stand to be in the back of trucks like that!!! Then a dress rehersal for out Elder's dance (Vanhojen Tanssi, which might be spelt with a W and not a V... not really sure anymore) Then waiting... couldn't wait, I was so excited for the dance!!!

perjantai:
YEAH!!!! It's finally here!!! We have been practicing since before Christmas, and now it's here and actually happening. I woke up and got ready, we had to be at school 9:30, Markku picked me up because Susanna had work. I saw Sanni's Dad's van in the school lot, and she was in it, waiting for Jonna, so I jumpped in and we watched all the other dancers arrive in their dresses and hair all did up. So exciting!!! Lots of picture taking, and celebrating, we are now the oldest of the school! We first preforemed for the 1st graders and the middle school. Dancing went well, my dress worked really well, it only could have been a bit wider at the bottom for a longer step capablity. Then we ate, all very worried about getting food on our dresses, then got on a bus to the other school we danced there, then went home to wait for the night dance, the real one, that all our parents were coming for. I was an odd type of nervous, the kind I usually get though I guess, the denile kind, like 'oh it's not really that soon' but it really is. Got ready again, headed back to school. Everyone was so gittery! Soon we were all ushered into order and waited to enter, I saw Anssi while I was waiting! I didn't know he was planning on coming! Eija came too!!! Dancing and preforming went well, I played the xylophone for my music class's song we had been pracicing for this, I play a mean xylophone! I also played a piece on my horn. That went really well, I was really pleased with it! Then the rest of the dance, and dancing with a family member. Then more photos, lots of photos, then free waltz, I waltzed with Anssi and Markku, and friends. Lots of fun! Soon it ended and all the dancers got on a bus to Tampere to eat. Really good food! We all couldn't belive that it was over, and no more dance practices!!! We were all kinda glad about it though, the dances had gotten kinda boring to just repeat and repeat. Then back to the school, picked up by parents, I went with Sanni, and we got ready for the after party!

lauantai:
We got to the party around 12:30-1:00 in the morning. No one was dancing really, just sitting, talking, but I only came to dance, so I did! Lots of fun! We left around 3:00 and went to my house, we practically collapsed when we hit the pillow!!! Good night! We woke up around 10:30, breakfast, and getting ready for our next adventure! Sleepover-movie night at Laura's summer cabin. We made the Oreo cake thing that my parents had sent me. It was a pretty good representation of how alot of the baking happens in America, instructions on the box, packaged and labled ingredients, just add butter, milk, mix and bake (or in this case, no bake) Juha came home around 12 from California, he showed us his pictures of Manhattin from the plane, really cool. Then musta makkara for lunch and later Piia's dad picked us up and brought us all to Laura's house. We jumped in her van and drove to the cabin. She brought her dog Emma, the cutest dog I think I've ever seen! <3 Emma!!! The Cabin was really cute too, I decided later that if someday I have my own place that I live alone in I'd want it to be like that! Just plan adorable!!! We watched scary movies... so many scary movies! And the bathroom was outside so everytime someone had to go we had to make big elaborant plans, 3 would bundel up and go outside so when someone was in the bathroom there would be two waiting outside instead on one just waiting all alone in the dark, then 2 would be back in the cabin so they wouldn't be alone, because we knew the rules of scary situations, once you're alone, you are a gonner! Chicken taco's for dinner! yum! We did watch a funny movie right before bed, Mad Money with Queen Latifah, she's one of my favorites!

sunnuntai:
Up, we ate the Oreo cakes for breakfast because we forgot to eat them for dessert. Yum! A couple more moives, then we planned to try and go ice fishing on the lake, but we didn't get very far because the keys to the equipment were somewhere at Laura's house. haha So we just ran around the lake with the dog, taking pictures and videos of random things. Then clean up and head out. Home again and I was sooooooo tired!!! School tomorow... Oh no! but what can you do? : P Great week!

Viikko Kaksikymmentäseitsemän

maanantai:
It's the 7th of the month meaning that it has been another whole month since I left New York, and meaning that tomorow (the 8th) is another whole month since I've been in Finland! This month is expecially special, because it is Feburary, the best month of all, and since I left in August, it has been 6months! CRAZY!!! Well my arm really hurt today from bad mitten yesterday, thats crazy too! I had a music test that I should have studied more for... but what can you do. Then spent a lot of the rest of the day sewing it still took me a couple more times to get the zipper right. I got the zipper facing the right way, so I sewed the side of the dress up, then tried it on, but my heart sank when the dress didn't fit right at all, maybe a bit tighter, so I undid one side of the zipper and made it tighter, still didn't fit... dang, then to my relief, sorta, I realized that my zipper was sewed uneven, so it started on one side right under the arm and the other at the waist... haha, so I fixed that and it then fit awesome!!! I only have the hem and a few details left!!! Then I ran so errends, post office stuff, had to get a picture taken for my student travel card (a card that gets me 1/2 price on train and long bus rides) SWEET!!! Then I ran into a rotary man, I always seem to run into him out and about, he reached into his long coat and pulled out a handful of candy for me. awww!!! never say no to candy <3<3<3 it!!!

tiistai:
Day of exploration! I had no test today, but I had plans! Markku picked me up 9:00 to go order my student travel card. There is a rotary district skiing/snowboarding day in early March, I told him I was gonna try snowboarding, he had some snowboards, so we checked if they fit me, they did, and the snowboard is YELLOW!!! Awesome, then he gave me many pointers on how to snowboard, we'll see if I got it soon. Then back home, but not for long cause I caught the 11:30 bus to Ylöjärvi to explore, I've seen a sign for a kirpputori over there that I've been wanting to check out forever, so why not today? As I was waiting for the bus a man pulled over and said he was going to Tampere and wanted to know if I wanted a ride. This has never happened before, and I've stood on so many bus stops, he seemed like an okay person, but I wasn't going to take any chances, I just said 'Ei kiitos' (no thank you) and he drove away (or tried, he got stuck in the slush and it ended up taking like a minute for him to actually leave... awkward) The bus came, I went to Ylöjärvi, found the kirpputori, It was awesome!!! So many great things, and at really good prices! Then went across the highway to Elo, looked around, then to find a way back home, I wasn't really sure about when or where a bus would be coming, so I just sorta wandered until I saw a girl standing at a bus stop. I went over. She said the bus was going to a town past where I live, so I decided to try it. It worked! It was 3:30ish went I got back to my town, so I got off near our kirpputori so I could look around there, and then Susanna would come pick me up after work around 4:00. Amazing adventures! When you fly by the seat of your pants, it seems to always go smoothly.

keskiviikko:
English test today, over the course of the class we were to read a book, and the test was to write a book report. I had decided to read a Finnish book, and write the essay in Finnish too, half because I wanted to, and half because the teacher said it would be too hard for me to do. Ha, I half think she said that to make me try it in Finnish, or dose she really know me that well... Anyway, my essay might not have been as long or as good quality as the others, but I did it, I also realized so simple words that I really should know but don't like: angry, sad, mean, happy... Why don't I know these yet... I will soon. Then I had band, but wandered around, Tokmanni, grocery stores, picked up my student travel card, because I had a lot of time before Puhalica started. Long day, but good day, and good band practice too!

torstai:
School started again for the 4th and second to last time! Crazy new period, new classes (sorta) In the morning we got to skip Government to practice our dances, I'm getting really borded of the same dances... Now I just want to dress up and dance them and have it be over, but I guess that's a sign that we really know the dances... Then English class, then lunch and study halls, I worked on my dress, hung out with Laura and Sanni, Then back to the sewing room for actual class. Sanni started working on the vest she is making, and I finnished the hem of my dress, walla, done, and just in time to bring it home to show Mom, Dad, and Nana when we skype tonight, Long skype, great skype, Gotta love skype! <3

perjantai:
FRIDAY!!! Study hall in the morning, I worked in the music room on garage band, I've been in a self course, for a couple months now, but this is pretty much the first time I've actually worked on it. We make music on the computer, pretty cool! It's coming along pretty well! Then lunch, pea soup for lunch, I love pea soup, how would have thought it! First day of new math class, everyone waits right by the door so they can get in the class first to get the best seats (the back seats) My friends and I were the first ones in, so yes we got the best seats : P Then my first Swedish class! The teacher came up to me while everyone else was working, and asked me if I really wanted to take this class (because everyone else had been taking this language for around 4 years now) I told her that I might not understand a lot of what is said in class, but that's not a lot different from the other classes. She laughed, she had really good English! With an American accent, not like most here who speak with a british accent, if I didn't know, I would have thought she was an American! I did actually learn something in class, not what everyone else was learning, but 'Vi åt ärtsoppa för lunch idag' We ate pea soup for lunch today, the truth, and a full sentance, and now I understand where the swedish accent comes from, I just comes naturally when you say swedish words, It's crazy but true! Oh and Juha left on a work trip to California today... lucky, It's warm over there!

lauantai:
Crazy, Awesome, Amazing, Adventurous day! Started really early, earlier than days I go to school! Today I was going to a Rotary exchange student district meeting in Turku. So my train left from Tampere at 10:10, There was a bus to Tampere 7:35, and one at 9:00 that wouldnt get there until 10:05, I couldnt take the chance of missing my train, because buses are often late, and it's my first time using the Finnish train system so I don't want to be in a crazy rush trying to figure everything out! There were two other people on the bus, boy from my class at a school, Joel, and some lady. Joel was headed somewhere by train too. I had a couple hours in the city to kill, but that early on a saturday, pretty much nothing is open. For some reason all the college kids where up and in their party outfits, college students all wear jumpers to parties, and each subject that you might study has a different color. So if you are studying nursing, you might wear a blue jumper, art, a black jumper... ect. And then went you met other college students from different places or feilds of study, you trade patches to put on your jumper, and those are like passes into those types of parties. It's a unique thing, I'm pretty sure really only Finnish, but cool, and for some reason it seemed like everyone on the streets of Tampere, 8:00 in the morning, were in these jumpers... were they still out and about from last night's parties, or were they starting early for this night's, not sure. When I realized that there really isn't anything to do this early in the morning besides McDonalds and getting cold, I went back to the train station, it was really busy in there! I just waited for the next hour or so. At one point there was this really old man in only a winter coat, boots, and a winter cap walking around... Oh no!!! It's seemed too crazy, like something out of a movie. He wandered out of sight down the hall, but when I went to go to the train platform, I looked down the hall he had wandered, and there he was still, He must have dropped something, because he was so ungracefully bent down like trying to pick something up. I was spared, as in he was far enough away that I saw no details, and was able just to laugh, but I saw a poor women no more than 5 feet directly behind him... poor sole. Found the train. It wasn't too hard, found my seat, and we left. The ticket man excepted my ticket and a hour and a half later I was in Turku. Headed to the center to find the group. I was a little late so they had already left, texted the person in charge and she said to cross the river and they would wait for me there. I didn't know where the river was, but asked someone using my awesome Finnish : P And quickly caught up with the group. It was the first time I'd been with them since September, I was a little nervous that they wouldn't accept me because I havent been going, but that was quickly erased. We went sleading and I met our new exchange student additions from Australia and South Aftrica. They are really cool. Then we ate at Hesburger, we all squeezed to fit as many people at the same tables, and had a great time messing around, joking around, taking pictures, going against the quiet Finnish ways... I'm not sure it was so much appreciated by the Finns around us, but it was MUCH, MUCH, needed!!! The crazy party continued to our next activity, BOWLING!!! Messing around, jumping out at people as they were going to roll the ball so they would mess up, and the ball would go straight into the gutter. Great times... Soon good byes, and I hurried back to the train station, found the right train again, my right seat. Then home. Sauna. SLEEP, It had been a long, much needed day!!!

sunnuntai:
I slept until like 10, then 11, then 11:30 and dragged my butt out of bed. Awesome chill day. It was cold outside, this next week is suposed to be pretty cold too... yeah..... : ( haha, Walked the dogs with Roosa, howled a bit at the half-moon that was out. I was a little worried that wolves or bears or a moose would come out from behind the trees and eat us. But that didn't happen... Good. Watched The Happening, a scary, but not really scary movie where the plants feel threatened, so they release a nerotoxin into the air that makes people kill themselves. Really crazy, but not so much scary because it was plants making people kill themselves... not as skary as, say plants themselves killing people, or making people kill other people. But it still made you think. Then I realized I had math homework... hmmmm.... doing homework... : P

Viikko Kaksikymmentäkuusi

maanantai:
Music class we had the weirdist 'jam' session... we each had an instrament, and symbol, then on the board she drew a big score and put our random symbols randomly. Then took a ruler and we played when her ruler was on our symbol... anything we wanted to play... and we recorded it... it sounded terrible!!! That recording should be made into a CD so we can burn it or at least break it into a billion shards... Study hall I went to the sewing class so I could work on my dress. It's coming along, and there were other students from the middle school there, and one of them was my next host sister Eeva, cool. English we had a test in the language studio... the room that reminds me of the room where they launch ships into outter space... everyone with their own spot and big set of headphones and microphone... cool. Last class of the day (sorta after schoolish) was dance practice, everyone was oddly in a fooling around mood. It was so funny and made practice so fun! Tonight my host sister now, Roosa found out that my cat Charliee, back home, has her own facebook. I didn't think it was that funny, but Roosa laughed about it for hours and called all her friends to laugh with them about it. LOVE YOU CHARLIEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tiistai:
No school!!! It's test week, basically meaning loma (vacation) for all exchange students. I do take some tests but... really... But I did have work to do, blogging, and writing my history essay, and Exchange student things to take care of. There are actually more than you would think. Then rotary meeting! I always love those! But this time I didn't know what the presenter was talking about... he didn't have any written information up, which really helps me, but I also think he had an accent... But awsome time!

keskiviikko:
No school again! I found out that Phil the groundhog didn't see his shadow, which means spring is on it's way... but dose that mean for Finland too? I guess we will have to see, it's seems like it has been warmer lately, but the weather might just be playing a bait and switch on us. Band today, not too much exciting happened there. And I finally finnished my history essay at 10:00, which was good cause it was due tomorow. I think I work better in cruch time, cause there is no other ways but just to get it done.

torstai:
School again! We had dance practice after lunch. Before lunch I went to the sewing room and did more work on my dress. After practice most of my friends walked to town where there was a summer job fair going on. I went to Sanni's house. We had a plan to watch all the Fast and Furious movies so when the fifth one comes out in May or something, I will be all caught up. Those movies were actually really good! The 3rd one wasn't as up to parr with the others, but it was still pretty good. Went sledding for the first time in Finland!!! Sanni's little sister Silja and I climbed that hill many times! Sanni held the flashlight. haha SO much fun! Then time for bed... 11:00ish... haha yeah right I think it was around 3:30 when we actually did fall asleep. Sleepovers are the same here, you get very little sleep.

perjantai:
7:00 and we were up again. Caught the bus around 8:00ish, we almost had a 'snow day' because it did snow quite a bit yesterday, but the bus came. They don't actually have snow days here, because the school isnt resposible for getting you to school, but if your bus dosen't come, you get your own snow day. One of the perks of living so far away from school, except you still have to wake up and get out of to the bus stop to wait for the non-coming bus... Dance practice again, but today pretty much no one came. So practice ended early, and I again went to work on my dress. I worked for awhile, then it was time for the zipper. After ripping the same seam out 5 times, I decided I was too tired and ended for the day. Music practice for the test. In the test we have to recongize a number of pieces and write their names, composers, and period they come from. The teacher told me I had to go to this Sami people singing consert that was happening, so I got out of class a little early. The singing was really cool, I think the people put their own, more modern spin on it, but still very cool, ipod worthy! That evening, we went to a public sauna night at this place by a lake. There was a normal sauna, and then the more traditional sauna (smoke sauna) Then there was a dock to the lake, and they have a pump in that part of the lake to keep the water moving so it can't freeze. You get really hot in the sauna, then got to the dock, at that point you still were warm, then get in the water... You are then freezing! The jump out. Still cold... then you sorta dry off and you get really warm again. Then you go back into a sauna. Susanna got in the water twice, Juha, his brother, his brother's wife, and I went in four times, and the last time we jumped in the snow too, and made snow angels (that was the worst, like you were getten bitten by ice, and then you get stuck in the snow and can't get out) but still a lot of fun. Roosa had a fever, so she was just taking picture, proof pictures! Then home and grilling sausages on the fire. Yum!

lauantai:
Slept! And just hung out all day. You can always enjoy a chill day! We also ate musta makkara for lunch, yum (the black sausage I talk about once and awhile) Watched the whole serise(I know that word is spelt compleatly wronge, but decided just to write this note instead of looking up the correct way to spell it, yup, what word describe this action, cause it's not lazyness, cause this note is taking me longer to write than if I were just to look it up... idk you answer) *anyway* of 'Alex Days reads twilight' on Youtube, so he read the Twilight book chapter by chapter, and gave an overview of it, and his thoughts and things (he basically just made fun of the whole thing the whole time) It was really funny, and he had really good points! Then I found Chelsea Lately online, I used to stay up half an hour later every week night just to watch her, and now I remember why! Still one of my favorite shows!

sunnuntai:
Another chillish day, except in the evening we went to a comunity sports complex, type thing. And played Badmitten for an hour or so. Who would have thought you could work up a sweat doing that! Roosa and I hit against eachother, and Susanna and Juha. Then teams, Susanna and Roosa, vs. Juha and I. (We totally won!) There were very interesting people on the other courts... A bunch of 'oh no' moments, almost or actually worst then that guy who was wearing purple crocs, if Josh or Shelby is reading this... A big man with black shorts and white details... I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me, but at second glance it was definate, the white detail on the front, center of his shorts was a playboy bunny symbol... really.... really... oh man. Then headed home, a 20ish minute ride, I must be pretty out of shape because I was already sore from badmitten and could hardly get out of the car, and my hitting arm was hurting! Then I saw that Wipe out, that water obstical course where they make fun of the people too, was on but the UK version... The comments weren't as funny, but people falling off those big red balls will never get old!!! hahahaha Then skyped with Karah!!! Good week, music test tomorow... I should had studyed a bit more, but we'll see... : P

Viikko Kaksikymmentäviisi

maanantai:
Baaaa, school again... somehow I got up in time. In music we talked about the 'prepared piano' where you put random objects on the strings of the piano, and it sounds really cool! Fish sticks for lunch... "Pidätkö kalasta tikut?" Isn't as funny as "Do you like fishsticks?" but I tried... In english there were presentations on Victoria Beckhem, (posh spice) I then realized I couln't remeber all the spice girls... I'm a failed 90's child... but it turns out I do know them all, I just thought I was getting Ginger, the movie star from Gilligan's Island, mixed up with the spice girls... but there is a ginger spice. Then a presentation on Justin Beiber. Woooo..... Dance class! we now know how to dance all the dances with only a few mistakes and awkward moments. Soon we will be ready to go! After school some quick dinner and then right to the bus stop for my lesson. I don't understand, with no fail, every time I have my horn on a bus it's pretty much full! But it was my favorite bus driver!!! Both ways, there and back! When I got home, I made Rice Crispy Treats because I'm bringing them to the rotary meeting tomorow... If I can handel resisting them for a day...

tiistai:
English class, there were presentations on the Simpsons, Samuel L. Jackson, and Mr. Bean. I really need to see more Mr. Beans, I've only seen one actually movie, but then him in Rat Race, Love that movie! Study hall, and Henriikka and I headed to the center. She had a doctors appointment, and I was bored. We didn't want to, but we had to go back for history... blahhhh On the bus home, when it was time for my stop I tried to press the button... But it wasn't working... I had a quick moment of panic, like, 'oh man I'm gonna be stuck on this bus forever!' Then I started running around the bus pressing all the buttons I could find. Finally one of them beeped the driver, we had maybe 300 feet till the bus stop, so she could have stopped for me, but she didn't. I got to walk... I have realized the metric system has messed me up and it's hard to convert stuff to our system, so a quarter kilometer... i'm not sure, and it's not even that important. I got to walk. Home, and I got ready for the rotary meeting, Rice crispy's cut and boxed. And I'm off! I love the meetings! This meeting we had a presenter about making a water pipe that gose all the way to Nokia, so we can share water with them. I think because a couple years ago they had a really bad water contamination disaster and many people died. Now their water is really cloronated, and maybe if this tube went in, they wouldn't have to cloronate it anymore. But that's just my guess for only half understanding what was going on. And they really liked my rice crispy treat! People were grabing some to bring home! Score! And they have all the things to make them here... I guess they just don't.

keskiviikko:
Today I went to Tampere to met my other exchange student friend Ashleigh, She lives right now outside of Kouvola, And she's from the US, West New York actually! We were talking how we have probably passed each other somewhere, highway, ect. But to actually met we had to come to Finland. My bus was suposed to get to the train station half and hour before she got there, so when I got there and she wasn't, I kinda freaked out a little... I first sat in the obvious loby for a little while. I found other exchange students! Lots of hugs, and laughs, I got some cell numbers so we could met up later, and went back to wait for Ashleigh. I then walked all around, thinking maybe there was another loby that she could be waiting in. Nope. And we probably should have traded cell phone numbers... Then I just sat and wait at the lobby, I decided I had the time her train came wrong. She finally came! HUGS!!! I just I had the time right, her train had broken, cause today was really cold, and she had to switch and stuff, hence the delay. We found a place to lock her bags up, then explored the city. I took her to the Kaupa halli (store hall) and introduced her to Musta makkara. we shared a link, it was actually really long. And when I say shared, I mean that she had a bite, and I ended up eatting the rest, she dosent like that texture. But it was really good sausage! And we spoke in Finnish a lot that day, It was fun to speak with someone on a similar level as you, I think she is better at speaking and understanding than me, but similar level : P. Then meeting up with the others, and around 4:00 the new exchange students from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and I met a girl from Argantina, It was her birthday. We only got glimses of some of the newbies, they wanted to explore on their own, and I understand that! But running into some around was a lot of fun. Teaching them some things that they don't tell you at the language camp. : P Ashleigh and I had McDonalds, and then for the first time in my history of being in Finland, I used a pay toilet... well Ashleigh and I shared the same pay, she went in first, then me. But the lights had turned off for my turn, luckily I have a flash light on my phone so, let there be light! Then we realized our bus would be leaving soon so we scrambled to get to the bus stop in time. We made it! Then home, We slept in the TV room, I don't think we slept too much... Just spent pretty much the whole night talking. It was awesome!

torstai:
Up, and to school, with Ashleigh, I hadn't told any teachers she was coming, because it was kinda last minute that we decided that we would go to school. We dropped her stuff at my locker, then I showed her around Hämeenkyrö, well as much as you can by foot. She said it was such a long way to the center, and then not much happening there, unlike her town. Which, I guess explains why she says she dosn't go to school a lot. Location. I guess she travels a lot too, I need to travel, I've been her over 5 months and havent missed more than two full days of school. That is unexceptable! We went to English class, presentations on South Park, and a little known actor, I forgot his name, Then I brought Ashleigh to the bus stop because her train was leaving at 1:07, So sad to say goodbye, but we decided that soon I'll be visiting her and we can compare schools! I'm excited! Dance class, then Sewing class, I got darts and gathers done on my dress, and sewed up the sides... when I got home I realized I wasn't suposed to sew up the sides because I for got to put the zipper in... woops. When I finally got home I was just so tired, from going all yesterday, and then getting little sleep. I just fell asleep on the couch.

perjantai:
Today, not much happened... Last block of the day I had study hall, so I visited a few stores. As I was leaving the school there were some 3rd graders (seniors) in the parking lot, they had a sled-type-thing, tied to the back of one kid's car and were driving around and around. Oh the fun you can have with snow and cars... I miss my car. I was the third graders last friday so they were all dressed funny and going finnish crazy... a new term coined by the exchange students of finland. Then waited for the bus home at the SMarket spot. I had a long time to wait, and my bus was 20ish minute late. So I made up a game you can play at Finnish bus stops. You smile at the people in the cars going by and watch their reactions. 2 out of 5 people don't see you, 1 out of 5 people stare at you, and the last 2 out of 5 people do double takes and look really confused. It was soooo funny! The bus actually stopped for my stop this time. Good. Roosa and I made a snow fort! I was planing on sleeping in it, but it's cold outside. Then I skyped with mom and dad! <3<3<3

lauantai:
It's getting lighter! I can tell because I can't sleep in to late anymore, I was up before 10 (a much improved time since christmas break when I could easliy sleep to 12) Not too proud of it, but it's the truth. Landry day! Also do your history essay day! And so on. Roosa had soccer training in the city, and Susanna and Juha went gorcery shopping, I stayed home to try and finnish my history (well, start and finnish it) I have gotten so lazy with school work, all exchange students have i hear, I think of it as, I'm getting all my lazyness out this year, so next year in college I will be ready to work! Roosa and I made our fort even bigger! Made pizza for dinner,sauna, and watched Potous, a finnish comedy series... so funny!

sunnuntai:
Worked more on my history essay, I started enjoying the process of researching. The essay is on international relations of a country of your choice (I chose Finland) from 1990-2010, So it's reasently current event stuff. I realized that I had no idea of what was happening in the 1990's and early 2000 probably because I was little, and nothing outside my little bubble of Castleton, interested me. Well, and plus this was about things Finland was involved in. I learned that in 2003 Yugoslavia became two different countries, there gose my dream of vacationing in Yugoslavia...

Viikko Kaksikymmentänelja

maanantai:
Lunch today was scalloped potatoes... first of them since I got here, I just figured Finland didn't have them because I hadn't seen/eatten them yet. Oh this Finland, always keeps ya guessing! In English class, the kids have started giving their 15 minute presentation on a culture thing in an English speaking country, Sanni and Laura did their presentation on the band Good Charlotte, I'm excited to see everyone's presentation because... well it's just interesting! Then I found out that if I take this one tourism in the world class, we will be taking a 3 day trip to Riga, Latvia. So of course I got the paper with the information about it, most of my friends are planning to go! Awesome! Looks like I'll make it to Latvia after all (since it origanally was suposed to be the country I spent my exchange year in) Dance class, we almost know (and can do) all the dances, It's really cool seeing everything come together!

tiistai:
Today I got the okay from Rotary to go on the Riga trip. YEAH!!! I'm so excited! In English class they presented on Disney, that was really cool to hear about, and they showed a clip from Steam Boat Willy, which I realized I have never seen the whole thing before, well that needs to change! It's on my list. Today for lunch was fish soup... my least favorite, I just took a little, the good thing about fish soup day is that there is always really good bread to go with it, so I ate that. After lunch I had study hall, so did my friend Henriikka, so we went to SMarket, then she went to the Library, and I went on my mission to see Anssi, my last host father, It was great to see him again! I miss that family a lot! I told him about my parents, and brother coming, so we made a plan that I bring them over sometime for coffee. I'm so excited!!! Then I met Henriikka at the Library, we read magazines, until we were forced, by time, to head back to school... even though we both would have rathered to stay. History, still no movie... Caught the bus home. Today Juha took Roosa and I to a hockey game in Tampere!!! It was Tappara vs. Ilves. I wasnt sure who we were rooting for so I decided I'd root for the Ilves because they had yellow in their jersey, Tappara was orange and blue, and had these really bad cheerleaders... so that was my reasoning for the Ilves. Ilves score the frist goal. I got the feeling that the one lady to the right of me was a Tappara fan so I didn't cheer to loud for the Ilves, and Roosa and Juha were quite to. Until Tappara scored their first point, then I realize that I was rooting for the wronge team and switched, traitor, I know, but It's good that I did switch because Tappara won! 3-2. Hockey games here are much quieter! The last one I went to was quiet too, but I thought that was because it wasn't major league. This was, and it was still pretty quiet. Another thing that I thought was really cool. From my seat I could here Finnish, English (and not from me) and Swedish (or German or French) not really great at detecting the difference of those, but I'm pretty sure Swedish. But just the people around me! Really neat, back home you might get English and Spanish... but that's only sometimes! It was snowing on our way home. It seems to snow at least once a day now. So pretty.

keskiviikko:
In study hall Reetta taught me a new game, on graph paper. Like the game dots, where you try to finnish a square, but intead you each had a symbol (x and o) and you took turns trying to get 5 of them in a row, (like tick-tack-toe) I didn't get the tricks to getting the 5 at first, but by the end I had, and I almost caught up, the game ended at 27, 24 I think, me losing, but it was fun! Musta makkara for lunch again!!! It's been so long since I had it last! Yummy. Meeting about the Riga trip! We are taking a plane from Tampere to Riga, then staying at a hotel there, we visit a museum and some other places, but it looks like we get a good deal of 'Oma aika' own time we just have to have at least one buddy always! I'm excited!!! I started a gym class at the end of the day with all my friends, we played volley ball, (our team was losing pretty badly) then we went to the weight room for the rest of the block to work on our rock hard abs! The term 'liha sika' came up a lot, it means the same as muscle man but straight traslates into 'muscle pig' fun fact. Then Puhallica, I went straight from school, Susanna dropped my horn off and I walked. I got there a bit early so dropped my horn at the place and walked to a grocery store (very close one) and got a roll of cookies and a carton of milk. Yum you bet cha I dunked them cookies!!! You better believe it! Puhallica was good, new music with really great parts for me.

torstai:
Lots of presentations in English today... Jane Austin, Sex in the City, and Hugh Lauri (from House) I had no idea that Hugh was actually British, and has a British accent and everything!!! Ya learn something new... Then last class of the day was sewing class! I finnished cutting out the fabric for my dress, luckily the teacher helpped. It didn't even cross my mind that I would have to treat the fabric differently since there is a pattern on it... crisis avoided! I can't wait to put it together and wear it! It's fairly simple, four parts that have to be sewn together = my dress, batta-bing, batta-boom. Emailed my travel agent the 3 dates for going home. It's really weird to have to think that far ahead. It's seems like all of my friends birthdays are in early-middle July, so I'm staying till the last one is over, also that's when the second part of the Harry Potter and something, something, is coming into theaters, and since Sanni and I saw the first part of that moive, we decided we need to see the second part together too. So then I'll be home. Weird.

perjantai:
We now know all the dances!!! And I can do them all only with a few mess ups. I need to start practice with my heels, I've decided to wear my kinda tall, but old heels, I've had a lot of practice wearing them and they are farly easy to walk in so. IT'S FRIDAY!!! During lunch the 3rd graders (like the seniors of the school) brought out these two big arm/claw things. The other panting is of our English teacher, as a werewolf... so those were really funny, I'm not quite sure what they are exactly for, but since the 3rd graders will soon be leaving the school to study for their graduation tests on their own, something will happen soon I guess. After school we all walked to Reetta's house for a movie night. Theme... American Pie movies... not so excited about that, but hanging out with everyone was so much fun. Reetta had also made a type of mini pigs in a blanket! They were different, but still, it's the concept! Reetta also has two cats, I made fast friends with them! I miss kitty's so much! They are deffinatly the best! So after enduring 3 different American Pie movies, we all headed home. Roosa was sleeping over at her friends house, so the three of us hung out, and watched the Dudsons in America. This time they were attacking aliens in New Mexico, actually really entertaining!

lauantai:
Sleep! It's so good! Hung out most of the day, got some stuff I needed to done... of course not everything (that's just the way weekends work, you get the time to do everything that you need to, but you never do get it all done.) For dinner we went to New York Resturant in Tampere. It's funny, Josh asked if there are American themed resturant, and there deffinatly are! And with my last host family we went to Manhattan one time for dinner (another New York themed resturant) Of course they are New York City themed, cause practically no one knows there is anything else to NY, but still, It's really cool. And I had the New York burger! REALLY YUMMY!!! It had bacon and coleslaw on it, I think the first time I've had bacon since I got here, I see it in the stores, but no one uses it... I think I was eating bacon almost every other day before I left... hehe. And coleslaw too, but I haven't seen that in the stores. There is cabbage thou... maybe I'll make some for myself at some point. Anyway really yummy burger! Then we bought lottary tickets because the lottary was at the highest it been 7 million €, none of us won... sadness. But maybe thatäs for the best because who knows how your life would change if you won... maybe for the better, but I hear that a lot of the time it's for the worse. Then we watched Putous, the Finnish comedy show, with Munamies, google him, he is adorable, a full grown man stuffed inside a giant white hoody, with white gloves and slippers and hat on, and he is squatting so he looks so small and adorable, and he uses a really high voice somehow... that's got to be hard. But he is so cute and everybody loves him!

sunnuntai:
Sleep again, last night I decide also that it was time I saw the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's, since that song had been stuck in my head all day, I was a lot different than I thought it would be, but really good. Then today I finnaly got around to watching Saving Private Ryan, so sad, so good, Private Ryan is good lookin' (when he is young, but then he get's old... silver fox... jk) I also saw on TV a history program about the Russian Royal family and their exicution... which made me think, that I don't remember what happened in the movie Anastasia, since I watched it when I was so young. So I watched that after going skating with Roosa, we didn't last long because the ice was so bad, I think because of the snow, then rain, It killed the ice, sad. And then the weekend was over, sad again. But it's always nice to get back to school... somehow.

Viikko Kaksikymmentäkolme

(just a cautionary pre-note, after writing this, I realized that there is a lot of rambling going on)
ENJOY!

maanantai:

Another whirlwind Monday. School started again... Bitter sweet. Studying, playing cards, the word of the day in Psycology class was "selfefficiency" it's a hard word, they kept asking me to saying it so they could learn how, but the 'ficiency' part is very un-natrual in a Finn's mouth, they got really close though! Dance course! We now know 5 out of the 6 dances that we will be performing, so that's really exciting. Stright from school home for dinner then the bus stop to Ylöjärvi for my lesson. Ismo was good, one of the funniest things he ever did, he said,"Music is like a painting, you must paint on the paper" then he took his hand from his bell, and like he had a paint brush and the bell was the palet of paint... It might be a 'you had to be there' moment, but it really was hilarious! Then waited for the bus home again, these buses just keep getting later and later, probably because of the snow and all... but still.

tiistai:

In study hall today we went to the library and then SMarket. I found this liter bottle with "Pure Apple Juice, 100% pure apples directly from the source" on it... I thought, that sounds a lot like apple cider... So I bought it... the full liter was gone very soon because it was! Yeah I found apple cider, it was pasturised for sure, but better than nothing... Later that day I talked to Shelby, and then watched Mulan in Finnish from the internet! I love Mulan, and I did understand most of what they were saying, It probably helps that I could quote that movie, but still! But the whole time I was just laughing because why would a Chinese person be speaking Finnish... but then it hit me, a Chinese person probably wouldn't be speaking English either...

keskiviikko:

Two study halls in the morning... usually I would go out on the town, but I wasn't feeling like cold so I just hung out inside, worked on reading my book, the second study hall some of my friends were in so we played cards. I wonder where cards originate from... Did they come from one place and just spread, because they must be an extremly old thing. Yeah they must have started in one place then spread, because there is no way that all the people could have choosen the same suites, and 13 numbers, and all ended up the same! But that made me wonder how the majority of number systems are the same... We all call them different names, but they are all the same symbols, (except for a few) how did that happen? We joked that somebody just sent an e-mail out to all the different lands with 1= o, 2= o o, 3= o o o, ect... That's definatly how it happened. I walked to the Kirputori after school, found an adorable scarf and hat set that were soft yellow and sky blue 3€ and I had to have them, they were too cute. I got home and put them in my winter close bin, then I realised that I have a problem... how did i end up with so many scarfs? I didn't even come with any! But they are just too fun... Dinner, than off to Puhalica band!

torstai:
Yesterday in History we started the movie Saving Privet Ryan, I'm pretty sure she said that we would continue watching it today... So I came to school all ready to watch the movie, but when I got to class, there was no movie at all... sad.com/boringclass. I think that as an American I should have seen that movie already, but I just haven't, so if we don't finnish it in class, I'll watch it someother time. After dance course, we all traveled to the Munkijla (a small bakery across the road from the school) It's actually called like 'moisin leivon....' I'm not really sure cause everyone just calls it the munkijla. They have the best dunuts!!! yummy yummy! Next I had study hall so while everyone was headed back to class (haha) I headed to Tokmanni, the KSupermarket, then on the way back I stopped at this place I had never been to before, Hintakaari, It looked like a Truevalue to me so I had just never bothered to check it out. Well that was a mistake! Yeah I was right that it was Truevalue like (in one part) but in the other part there was just a bunch of random stuff that all fit together in no way what-so-ever, it was merchandise paradise/chaos, it was wonderful. The last class of the day (it's more like after school) club-like, is a textile course, we can sew and knit, and do stuff like that. It was our first class, and it will happen for the rest of the year, the teacher said we could basically do what ever we wanted, so I decided I'd make my Vanhojen Dance dress, I had the style in mind, and had my eye on some fabric I had seen at the Kirpputori, so why not? I sketched it out and the teacher pointed me to the right magazine for the patern and I found the perfect one! Score, double score, triple score (tomorow)

perjantai:
Friday! Score!!! My last block of the day (not including the after-school-class block) I had studyhall (It may sound like I have a lot of study halls because I'm always talking about them, but I really don't, well I have more than some students, but less than others definatly! It's just nothing exciting or worth mentioning usually happens in classes so you get to hear about my adventures in studyhall. Anyway. I had a plan, busses leave the school at 2:30ish, it was 1:15 now. I would walk to the kirpputori to pick up that fabric for my dress, check out the Hintakaari store over there (yup there are two of them) then be at the bus stop near the kirpputori to catch my bus as it passes, probably around 2:40ish. Good plan. As I walked to the kirpputori I lost track of time because I was playing hearts on my iPod, so it took me a bit longer to get there than usuall because I wasnt bored, although it seemed like it was a shorter time, you know how that gose. Anyway I checked out the other Hintakaari, it wasn't as cool as the one I'd been to yesterday, but still pretty neat. There were mopos and scooters and motorized bycicles for sale. And a little sauna for around 1,000€ I'm not sure if that's a good deal or not, I havent bought many saunas. Then the kirpputorri, I circled for a while making sure there wasnt another fabric I liked better, I should have know I wouldn't find one. So I paid and left around 2:45... woops I think I missed the bus. It would be a 15minute walk to where the bus would pick me up probably. But I walked anyway if I missed it, it would be a 50minute walk or so. I got in sight of the highway where the bus would be coming from, still about a 8 minute walk from the bus stop, and my bus came and went. Oh well. I wasn't even upset at all, I was just so happy about the fabric, and I really wasn't cold at all, sort of excited to be able to say " Yeah I walked home from school, all 9 kilometers" haha yeah but ½ a kilometer from the house is a pretty sizable hill... at that point I wasn't as happy but still, I did it! Later that night we watched Dudesons in America... similar to Jack Ass, but these crazy stunts actually had some sort of plot, so it wasn't just pure madness. Still a lot of madness though. SLEEP, no school tomorow!

lauantai:
We went in to pick up Roosa from Tampere in the afternoon, and looked through a book store, I found a Finnish cookbook that was on sale for 10€, it is authentic finnish food so I bought it so I can make food finnish food when I'm back home. I went up to pay and surprise there was a thrity percent discount! yeah!!!! haha Then we went grocery shopping, at my least favorite store 'Prisma' It's my least favorite because it's shoppingcarts don't have that bar where you can rest your foot... evil... Then just hanging out for the rest of the day, Sauna, watched The Princess and the Frog, on Fin-Tv.com (where I watched Mulan in Finnish) I was thinking it would be in Finnish too because all little kid movies are dubbed, but it just had subtitles... I think probably because the cajun accents where a main part of the movie. Or maybe they just haven't gotten around to it yet. I wonder how they would make the finnish language have a cajun accent...


sunnuntai:
Watched the movie Bolt, that was in Finnish... it was okay, I might have missed a few things, but I understood that basics of what was going on, and what they were going to do. Then we all got bundeled up, but not to much, to go cross country skiing. It was a different place this time, a bigger place, with a lot of people. You skiied and skiied and suddenly a cabin pops up and you can get something to drink and eat, we got hot cocoa and dunuts. Then you ski back. It was nice. On the way back I was going down this medium, small hill, and at the bottom the tracks, that your skis go in, the snow wasnt packed or something so I ended up face planting, epicially! I was all spreadover the track, taking up almost both ways. Luckily there was only one man around, behind me, but going the same direction, so when he found a way around me, he took it and continued on... It's weird because there was another time I fell, and people obviously saw, but they didn't say anything. It was kind of nice, because the embarassment wasn't confermed... if that makes any sence. I could pretend that no one saw it, because no one reacted like they did. I'm sure they would say something and help if I was hurt, but, no problem, no reaction. We skyped with Sonja that night, and I skyped with my parents too... It felt like it had been forever since I last talked to them. School tomorow.... ugh, I like school, but I don't like having to wake up early... blachk!