Thanksgiving

Today I celebrated Thanksgiving with my host family, and even though it was a little different it was still quite similar! We had everything that I would normally eat with my family at Thanksgiving.. Turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and so forth! We did have a bit of a hard time finding the cranberry sauce and the canned pumpkin, but we did find them...in a small American food shop in Helsinki. After eating the main meal we had pumpkin pie and coffee. Mmm the pie was so good...and the coffee was really good too. Maybe the best I have had.

I think that my host family enjoyed having Thanksgiving. They all thought it was so weird that there were marshmellows on top of the sweet potatoes...but they liked it! Especially my host mom! So.. I spent the whole day preparing for Thanksgiving... I actually cooked a lot. I made stuffing, my grandma`s salad, and mashed potatoes, then I helped with the rest. It was really nice though because I got to teach my host family about a holiday that they do not celebrate... I explained why we have Thanksgiving, and why it is so important to us.

After eating (and a bit of resting, I ate so much!), I headed off to badminton. I really like my badminton lessons. Mainly because I like to play, but also because I get to see Veera and Marjo(my host sister and mom from my first host family)! Then I came home, went to sauna, and now I am just relaxing.

This coming week will be a little hectic. First off, it is exam week. I will be taking my English exam and my Geography exam. I told my Geography teacher that I would take the test in Finnish (since all the notes are in Finnish), but I think I am going to ask her if I can take it in English. So tomorrow I am going to start working on translating the seventeen pages of Geography notes I have... That will be a challenge! Then... Next Friday I am leaving for Lapland! I am so excited!! I will get to ski, which I have never done before. I will leave Friday and come back on Tuesday.

After I return from Lapland a new period starts at school...with new classes. In that period I will be taking History, English, Philosophy, Math, Sports, and the Dance course for the ball in February.

I do not think anything else is new... Other than the fact that it is so dark here! The sun rises around 8:30 am, and then it sets at 3:30 pm. It is so crazy! It feels like the sun never really comes up...

Well... I should go and maybe start translating my Geography notes? Haha, I have a feeling that it is going to take a while.. and my test is on Wednesday.

Christmas is coming :)
Lahti has all of its Christmas lights up already, and all the stores have all of their Christmas goods out...
Now all we need is snow...since it all melted.

But, ahh.. I love Christmas time.. :)