Viikko Kolmetoista

maanantai:
Begining of Novermber! And I remembered to say ''rabbit, rabbit, rabbit'' but I actually said ''pupu, pupu, pupu'' then I said ''rabbit, rabbit, rabbit'' So I'm not sure if it counts... I guess we will see at the end of the month! Eija lost her voice by the end of the day. We were hanging out and the phone rang, she wispered ''can you answer it?'' okay... I picked the phone up ''Honkilahti'' I said, it was Anssi, he asked if Eija was there... ''Yes, but she can't talk right now'' ''well why not?'' he asked '' Her voice... not work...'' (this was all in my broken finnish fyi) He finally understood and laughed ''I'll be home soon.'' ''oh-ko'' So that was that, The Big Bang Theory finally came to Finland! So I watched that...

tiistai:
Today was great. I sleep in, then headed to Anssi's office on my way to school cause I had to photo copy a few things. I got there, but he wasn't so I asked one of the women at the desk... I kept trying to say photocopier (valokopiokone) but I must have been saying it wronge. Finally we just walked around the office, and she pointed at all the different office suppies until we got to the photocopier. There! School was cool. Later that day was the first paractice for the new band I joined. Anssi took me to it. It was a bunch of old men, except for me, the other French hornist who was about 30, and another teen who is also in my Puhallica band. Then there were about 20 singers. The band had two accordions (I decided accordions are one of the coolest intruments, and I would be the coolest girl ever if I knew how to play it!) then two horn, a tuba, base, drums, trumpets... the works. It was three hours of playing, but it was traditional finnish music (polka) I enjoyed myself!!! And the music was really fun to play! I got back home late, like 9:00 then it was bed time!

keskiviikko:
Had a meeting with Markku (my rotary guide) today, we talked about my bus card for when I move. That will be exciting! I've never had a bussi kortti before!!! Eija made riisi puuro (during christmas time they call it joulu puuro) it's similar to rice pudding, but better! Really good! Then it was rain so Eija drove me to Puhallica and Anssi picked me up. Then we went to SMarket!
torstai:
Tanssi kurssi tänään! (dance class today!) We finally put the dance with all the different groups together and performed it! It's funny how I can still understand what's going on when I really only know about 40% of what is said (that says something about body language! and in dance class there's alot of body language!) On the way home I stopped at SMarket, cause the night before I saw there was ''Monsters vs. Alliens'' and ''Kung-Fu Panda'' together for 8€ and the best part is that you can choose the audio to be Finnish, Swedish, and English (same with the captions) so I think it'll really help with hearing and seeing the words! Then Eija and I watched Finnish Big Brother. It was cool cause they did an exchange with Slovenian Big Brother, so there was a Slobenian girl in the Finnish house. And to comunticate they had to speak English (cause mostly everyone in the entire world knows English) But it was also funny to watch because when they werent talking to her, they spoke Finnish, and... I watched her, cause I totally knew what she was feeling! haha

perjantai:
Today was a whirl wind! Woke up, today was my interview with the local paper, 10:00. Eija and Anssi both had things to do. So I watched Monsters vs. Aliens till the reporter got there. She had really good English!!! With a British accent, so up until she talked about being form the west coast of Finland, I wasn't sure she spoke Finnish, cause when she first came in I asked ''Mitä mene?'' (how's it going?) And she was like... ''What?'' haha okay... She asked me stuff like what my hobbies are, and what I find funny about Finland. Finns love to hear that they are really quite and reserved... I mean they are to a point, but they are as quite and reserved as you'd think because of what everyone says... I tried to convay that point... I'm not sure how well it got across. Language, what I miss, anything I don't like... those kinds of things. Then I went to school. Amazing chicken nuggets for lunch... I swear, they are sooooo good!!! The last class of the day and the teacher wasn't there. It was Finnish history. In history, he prints me out notes similar to what we are learning in class that day from Wikapedia... hehe, But it is accurate, and I enjoy learning about the history that I never even knew about! So I read the notes he had for me that day (the rest of the class was working on a worksheet) Then I left early cause I had to catch the 3:30 bus for my lesson. My lesson was great! And I thought it was gonna rain, but it held off, which was also great! Riding/waiting for the bus is getting to be old hat for me. And it finally sank in on the ride back home, that people don't ride buses to make friends (the sad truth) Antti came home tonight, but I didn't see him cause by the time I had gotten home he had left for the night. Eija and I watched the creepiest movie Cloverfield!!! So creepy, I had a scary dream I'm sure but I couldn't remember what it was about...

lauantai:
HELSINKI PÄIVÄ!!! Bounced out of bed 7:00 in the morning, can't say I've done that in a while! Anssi and I were out the door by 8 and picked up Juhani and his friend at the police academy. Then a two hour drive south and east to the capital of this country I've been residing in for a little less then three months now, (it will be three months the 8th.) We dropped the boys off at a ski expo thing, and then Anssi and I toured the city. I'd concider the city a city of tourist! Everywhere you looked people were looking around and taking pictures (us included in this catagory) It's hard to say weither it's always so touristy cause today was also Pyhäinpäivä (like All Saints' Day, a day to clean the cemetaries and honor your family members that have pasted) I got to see where the president lives and a bunch of government buildings, AND I saw one of those gaurd people who don't move!!! It was freaky, I didn't think it was a real person, but Anssi was like ''Yeah he's real, why would they have fake guards who couldn't do anything if something were to happen?'' True true. There was just so much that we did! We ate at an Italian resturant, road the ''Raitiovaunu'' street trolley (more like a tram but trolly is more fun to say!) lets see... then we toured some of the big churches... and then went to a art museum and looked at all the finnish art Anssi pointed out all his favorite pieces and taught me how to stand at a distance from the painting to really see it's beauty. After a long fun day we went to the ski expo too. It's was a cool place where you could enter to win trips and stuff. There were two different places where you could enter to win a trip to New York, so heck yes I entered!!! Haha fingers crossed!!! Then we headed back. We stopped at different grills in Tampere looking for some traditional turkish I think, meat cake thing that was introduced to Tampere when someone moved here from, I think Turkey but I'm not sure, anyway this person got a job at a resturant, and convinced the owner to sell this meat cakes and they were a big hit! And it was good! It was deep-fried so that might be another reason I liked it so much, first deep-fried thing I've had in a while!!! Anssi had a kuuma koira (hot dog) but it was nothing like an American hot dog... I want to try one of those soon cause it looked so good!!! So yeah... Wow 14 hours of touring can make a person tired! So I slept.

sunnuntai:
Today I acutally didn't sleep as late as I thought I would! After getting up it was a lazy day until we left for the new baby of the families ''Ristiäiset'' a Christening, here the babies are born, but not named right away (I'm told the parents do know what they are going to name the baby but keep it a secret) Then, around 2-3 months later they have the ristiäiset, and then everyone is told the baby's name! So that was a fun family affair. Lots of good food, and coffee (I've come to the conclusion that coffee is a major, major, major part of life in Finland) And it's not just that everyone is addicted to it and needs to get their fixes of it all the time, but it's a social thing. After the party was over the whole family squished into the car, all four of the 'kids' in the back seat (that was fun!) and dropped Johanna off at her appartment, then Juhani back to the police academy, then the rest of us headed back home. It started snowing on the way back! A lot!!! And I looked like this snow was gonna stick around for a while! We got home and we all just were hanging around when the phone rang, and even though they said that they couldn't call today, I knew by the sound of the ring that it was my New York family calling.