Viikko Kahdeksantoista

maanatai:
Happy Independance day Finland!!! So I've heard that what everone dose on this day is stay home and watch this program on TV, of the president shaking hands with everyone coming to a speciall ball, all dressed up in beautiful outfits, then some finnish war film... the war film part reminds me of the Christmas Story, and how we always end up watching at least some of it on Christmas Eve. But for Independance day we were on a Rotary trip in Lapland with all the other rotary exchange students currently in Finland, and some even from Estonia. It was a busy day today. First we went to a reindeer farm and learned about the history and present reindeer farming culture. Then we got to feed some reindeer, and rope/try to rope fake wooden reindeers. Then we went to a small meuseam and watched a film on the seasons, plants, and animals of lapland. Then we headed back to the hotel, but on the way we took a detour over the bridge to Sweden!!! Where we promptly turned around, and the bus stopped to let us get out. I dug in the snow until I found a small rock that wasn't frosen to the ground! Ha now I have part of Sweden too!!! Then headed back for real. It surprised me how little security there was to cross the boarder. There was an offical looking building, but it didn't look like anyone was there and the bus didn't stop for anything, just crossed then crossed back... Well maybe it had to do with the fact that it was the Independace day today and everyone was home watching TV... or maybe that's just the way it is. After lunch we went snow shoeing to this place where they had a teepee set up and a reindeer sleigh ride!!! The reindeer behind my sleigh was crazy and kept trying to run our sleigh over, but the ride was awesome. Then we walked back and took a dog sleigh ride! The dogs were much smaller than I thought they would be, but that didn't stop them from pulling us! and running us half into a ditch : P So after dinner they had a man in traditional dress sing to us, he had four songs and they all were so beautiful, the last one he sang was expecially special. It was written by a man who spent a lot of time in jail and missed the sound of the wind, so in the song, he sang high-pitched squilling noises that did sound exactly like the wind howling!!!

tiistai:
Today we were leaving Lapland... sad. So got packed and on the bus, five hours later we stopped at Rovaniemi, where Santa's tourist home is (he really lives on, Korvatunturi, a mountain in Lapland, or at least that's what the Finns belive, but they will fight you if you say he lives on the North Pole... no joke!) But Rovaniemi was a cool little touristy place where you kept acidentally saying 'anteeksi' to the people you might bump into, EVEN THOUGH you knew they all didn't speak finnish... haha. Still a lot of fun taking pictures, buying random touristy things, hanging out with friends, searching for Santa, (our group never did find him...) Then a lunch and goodbyes to everyone not on your bus : ( It was so fun to be around all the exchange kids, it's crazy pretty much everyone have had pretty similar problems, experienses, ect. And we were able to help eachother out, whether it was how to find your favorite TV shows on the internet, or how to deal with home sickness, it was just amazing! The bus ride home was again around 14 hours, this time I got no sleep cause I was talking too much with everyone around me. Another girl from the states and a girl from Germany living in Tampere now, a boy from Canada and Japan also in Tampere. Then a girl from South Africa who has almost been here a full year now, she is leaving in early January, and another boy who lives in Tampere, from New Zealand and he is also leaving in January. But talking to the Oldies (the kids who have been here way longer than us) was also really cool, asking tons of questions, hearing how well they spoke finnish, it gave... i'm not sure of the right word, maybe... oh now i'm forgetting words, I know what word I want. ENCOURAGMENT, if that's spelt right than that's what I wanted, encouragment to keep working hard at learning this language, cause it didn't come easy to them either, and they can now talk it!


keskiviikko:
Around 2 this morning I gave hugs to the bus and said good bye cause I was back in farmiliar territory, the Hämeenkyrön SMarket parking lot! Once getting home I quickly fell asleep, not waking up until 12ish. Obviously I wasn't planing on going to school today. Roosa wasn't either, she was sick, so we watched movies until I had to go to my Puhallica concert. That was good, and two/three rotary men showed up. I say 2 or 3 because one of them I didn't recognize because he said he hadn't been to a meeting since I have started coming. But of course I recognized the other two. It kind of feels like I have a bunch of Finnish grandfathers now.

torstai:
School... again... waking up early wasn't anything close to fun, and the thought of having to go wait at the bus stop in the freezing cold wasn't helping at all. Luckily Susanna brought me to school on her way to work. That just means that I'll get to school half and hour earlier, but if it means I don't have to wait in the cold for the bus, I'm okay with it! After school Roosa and I watched Zac Eefron's 17 Again movie... surprisingly, pretty good.

perjantai:
FRIDAY IS HERE!!! It so did not feel like Friday, probably because it's 'my' 'tuesday'... idk. First class of the day was Vanhojan Tanssi Kurssi. We were told that we will have to learn six different dances. And today we learned one of them. We are actually moving pretty quickly, unless this was just the easiest dance they taught to get out of the way... After lunch my music teacher was sick so I had free time untill the bus came. I went to the library, and later Laura and Sanni caught up with me and we went to SMarket to buy CHOCOLATE!!! I got Fazers Dark Chocolate. Yumm!!! (and might I add, it didn't last very long at all) After school Roosa had a friend over and we rented a movie The Mist, a Stephin King based on novel, movie... It was so freaky and the endding just made me so sad. I'm not gonna give it away... they all died... sorta. So it was a late night.

lauantai:
Sleep!!! Very long. Then hung around, after lunch Roosa's friend went home and we piled into the car to go see the grandparents. They were so cute, and reminded me sorta in weird ways of John and Alice, their house did too... maybe it's the Norwegian/Finnish thing... we had coffee and buns and cake then watched skiing competions that are going on, on the TV... I don't know what they are called but they are happening! Then headed home to Skype with the family and Sauna!

sunnuntai:
Slept late again today. When I got up (around 11:00) the sun was gracing us with it's first presents of the day. I sat in the sun trying to soak in the D... I don't know if it actually worked or not... Then I hung around, walked the dogs with Susanna, TV, ya know, stuff, untill I had to go to the church for rehearsal and concert. It was a Christmas concert. We would play a peice or two, then they gave everybody booklets of Christmas songs and the crowd would yell out numbers, then we'd sing those. It was so cute! We must have sang around 20 christmas songs!!! And Anssi and Eija came! It was so awesome to see them again! So then we went home and got ready for another week of Christmas cheer.