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