Time Flies..

Wow, it has almost been a month since my last post, but it seems like just the other day. Time has been flying by so quickly. The New Year was good. We did the traditional, Finnish iron in the fire thing. Haha, well you make the iron hot to melt it (by putting it in the fireplace).. Then you throw it into a bucket of water to quickly cool it. You take it out to see what shape it has made, and by that shape you know what your year is going to be like. I got many little pieces, which means lots of money, and one piece that sort of looked like a turtle. I am not sure what that means. And after the New Year we got to eat the gingerbread house my host brother and I made before Christmas.

I have mainly been busy with school, being with my host family (my second one), and Finnish lessons this past month. I started my new Finnish lessons in the beginning of January. I go on Tuesdays and Wednesday.. Two and a half hours each lesson. Ohh sooo long! But it is nice, because I learn a lot and it gives me something to do. Then I still have badminton practice every Sunday with my first host mom and sister. Anddd I have been skiing a lot during the last month.. Cross-country of course. I have actually learned how to do it properly.. My host family taught me (my second one.. haha). So it's not as hard as it was the first time I did it in Lapland.. Haha. I love cross-country skiing through the Finnish forest. It is so beautiful, and there are never many people so it is very peaceful. I just love the feeling of being in the forest. But wow, I feel so much more active here in Finland. I walk everywhere as well. I think I am probably the healthiest I have ever been.

Well, something big, I have moved to my third host family. I am living literally in the center of the city now, it is so weird! Since I am used to the country.. Haha. But I really like it. I miss my last host family of course, because they were so amazing to me, but this family is really nice and I will still see my last family. There is a son my age, so that is pretty nice as well. Oh, and I am living in an apartment, which is also very different for me. It is hard to move, but change is good and I get to meet more people this way and see the Finnish lifestyle better.. Since I have so many families!

A new period in school starts pretty soon. I am not sure what I am taking yet. Next week I am going to another session of the European Youth Parliament. I am excited about that. I have a really awesome topic. It is foreign affairs, and it deals with Afghanistan and Pakistan (I believe) and the Taliban.. I will write more about it later. I do not have the paper by me.

But.. I guess I don't really have much else to say! I am just really enjoying Finland.. That is the simplest way to say how I am feeling right now. In the last month I have become really comfortable here.. I really love Finland. And I have gained a little more confidence in speaking Finnish.. I guess I just can't care about making mistakes or sounding stupid.. Haha.

Oh! The formal ball is soon! Like in three weeks, I think.. So during practices at school now we actually go through the whole ball and do all the dances. I actually like doing the dances. If it wasn't so expensive, I would have taken some sort of dance class here in Finland.

Well.. I think I will go read some Aku Ankka.. haha. It is Donald Duck cartoons, but in Finnish of course. It is the most popular magazine in Finland. This is the truth..

And oh, this is irrelevant, but Egyptian oranges are the best thing I have ever tasted. Yum, I love them..

Moikka!

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A Finnish Christmas

Well, I wasn't going to make this post until after New Year's... So that I could just write about them both at the same time, but I am a bit sick and I have some time. So I can write about New Year's later! Anyway. I really don't know where to start, it seems like so much has happened! This might be a bit long. Well here goes...

I shall start off by saying how much snow we have had latey! I'm not good at measurements exactly, but I can say that it's a lot. I was thrilled to have a white Christmas... It was beautiful. The weekend before Christmas my host family and I went to Turku, a city on the coast of Finland in the southwest. My host dad's parents live there. In Turku we went to many little market places with handicrafts and fresh foods, we saw the Turku Cathedral and the Turku Castle, and we went to the harbour. It's a really nice city..

In a few days time Christmas Eve came, the big celebration day for Finland. A short while after waking up we watched some traditional television programs on tv, including the Declaration of Christmas Peace from Turku. Then we had brunch together. We had riisipuuro, or rice porridge (traditional Christmas breakfast), and bread and really good cheeses. Riisipuuro is really delicious. You can put just sugar and cinnamon on top, which is what I did, or you can put this kind of date sauce/soup on top that has actual dates in it as well. I have tried it both ways. Anyway. There is a tradition in Finland where a small almond is hidden in the big pot of riisipuuro, and whoever finds the almond in their bowl is said to have luck for the new year. They also get to make a wish. So usually people keep eating and eating until they find the almond. Well. On my smaller, second serving of riisipuuro I found the little almond! I got to make a wish, and now I suppose I am lucky.

Then we just hung around for a bit and relaxed until it was time for dinner. We had three courses, a cold course with lots of cold fish, a warm course with ham and the three traditional casseroles (potato, carrot, and rutabega), and then dessert. And then... While waiting for dessert... Santa Claus showed up! With one of his elves and a bag of presents.. My host family sang some Finnish Christmas songs to him, then after we had dessert we opened all of our presents. I got really cool things.. Including a Finnish CD, some Marimekko things (Finnish designer), and this little Russian jewellery box. :)

On Christmas day everyone just relaxed basically. We had dinner in the evening, about the same as Christmas Eve, except we had reindeer too. Later we went sled riding later down their massive hill, and then had glögi and played a game. The day after Christmas, Boxing Day, is pretty important in Finland as well. It is Tapaninpäivä in Finnish. People usually visit their relatives or spend time with their friends. We went to Turku to see my host dad's parents. Then during the evening we traveled to Lohja (a small town) to see friends of my host family. That was fun. We went in their hot tub. Finnish hot tubs are pretty different than the hot tubs I have seen back home. They are wooden, round, and have a sort of fire pit and chimney in the back... And it was outside. When the hot tub got too hot we took a dip in the whole cut out in the frozen over pool or we ran around in the snow. Then we went to the sauna as well, and I saw my first vihta. A vihta, defined by wikipedia is "a kind of whisk made of birch twigs and used in the sauna to enhance the effect of heat by gently beating oneself with it." Yup. I used it to. It doesn't hurt or anything.

Lohja was nice. The next day we did some more relaxing. The family we stayed with was really nice. In the evening we headed home. Thennn the next day, which was yesterday, we went to Estonia for the day. To Tallinn, the capital city. It was really beautiful. Very medieval looking. There were so many colorful buildings and I saw a really awesome looking Orthodox church. We walked around, saw the old city, shopped at many handicraft stores, and came home. It was funny though because all though the Estonian language sounds SO much like Finnish, I couldn't hardly understand a word of it.

Now, I am just relaxing... Again. I actually wanted to put a good amount of photos in this blog... But my the blogger thing won't allow me upload any. So sorry about that.

Oh, and I got accepted into American University in Washington DC! So I am definitely going there next fall! I am going to major in International Studies..along with another major or minor as well. I am so excited!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.
Happy New Year's!

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Lapland and Finland's Independence Day

I got back from my trip to Lapland two days ago. It was so much fun! Mostly because all of the exchange students were together...all 150 of us. We arrived in Lapland on Saturday, after a 13 hour bus ride.. We had lunch at the lodge we were staying at, which was really nice by the way, then headed straight towards the ski slopes. I decided to start with downhill skiing. First I tried the bunny slope, fell once, then moved on to the bigger slope, and never fell. I was surprised to find out that I actually like skiing! We had a candlelight dinner in the evening with fish soup and amazing blueberry pie. On Sunday we went to ski again. I decided to try cross country skiing that time... I thought it would be easier, but it was actually harder for me than down hill skiing! It was fun anyways.... It was just nice to see the nature of Lapland while skiing. It was so beautiful there. Everything was completely white and it reminded me of the movie The Chronicals of Narnia!

We had winter programs in the evening (after sauna and going out in the snow in our bathing suits!), which included some entertainment and a little show that the exchange students participated in. Mostly everyone put on a small skit or something about their country. Monday, our last full day, was definitely the busiest day. We visited reindeer and huskies, rode on reindeer sleighs and dog sleds, visited a Sami woman's old house, walked in snow shoes, ate reindeer for dinner (yum), and saw a Lapland nature museum. We even crossed the border to Sweden...just to say we were there! We had a little program during the night...which consisted of a Sami man singing traditional songs, the Rotex putting on skits, and the oldies giving away gifts to the newbies (us).

We left Tuesday morning. We drove about three hours and then stopped in Rovaniemi to visit Santa's village. Just incase someone did not know, the real Santa lives in Finland! In Santa's village we did a little shopping, took some pictures, and saw Santa (of course!). Then we headed back on the bus. Overall, I really enjoyed the trip. It was so nice to just be with exchange students for a while. Exchange students just understand eachother... Since we are all going through the same thing. Plus, I just loved Lapland. It was cold, mystic, and beautiful. Did I mention the coldest day was -15 Celcius? Burrr. Oh! And the darkness! That was the only thing I didn't like as much. The sun came up around 10:30 am...and then set at about 2:00. So it was dark most of the time..haha. But, I really hope that I get another chance to go to Lapland during my exchange! It was amazing.

Other than my trip to Lapland, I started new classes at school, which are going very well so far, and I got my Christmas package from my parents! Pancake mix, maple syrup, pop-tarts, my new amazing camera, and a few other things! I am so grateful. Then, this Sunday, December 6th is Finland's independence day, or itsenäisyyspäivä in Finnish. There was a ball last night at my school to imitate the ball President Tarja Halonen has at her house to celebrate the independence day. I could not go though, because I had Finnish lessons. We did have another small celebration at school though today. They celebrate their indepence day a little differently than in the US. It is more of a gloomy and depressing holiday here. At the assembly sad sounding music was played, speeches were given, and the Finland flag was held up. They do not have the Finland flag up everyday of the year like in the US.. The Finnish flag is only raised on special holidays... I am sure that on Sunday I will see many Finnish flags. There was also a traditional polka dance performed in the assembly, which I though was really interesting, and then a small skit/song performed by a group of guys. I think the skit was about some sort of battle, but I am not sure since I can't quite understand Finnish 100% when it is sung... Lastly, Finland's national anthem was played, and everyone sung along. It is a really pretty song, I think.

I am interested to see if anything else will happen on the actual independence day. It is nice to see the patriotism Finns have for their country. People are patriotic for their country here, but it is in a different way than I am used to. I guess in the US we are just more outwardly patriotic I suppose. I don't know... It is really hard to explain. All I know is that the Finns are very proud of their country, even though they do not always show it.

Now, the Christmas holidays are coming soon. I only have two full weeks of school left until Christmas break. Their Christmas break here is much longer than mine back home! I have almost three weeks off here! Ahh, I love Christmas. It is such a wonderful time of the year, and I am excited to experience it here.

Well that is enough for now...actually quite a lot...
I will post more probably during the holidays!

Moikka!

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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.. :)

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Sataa Lunta...

Well, I just wanted to write a quick and short post. Everything is still going well. My second host family is really nice! They speak to me only in Finnish, because I asked them to, and that is really great! That will really help me to learn. It is getting pretty cold here! It is snowing right now and it is so beautiful! But I think I will have to find a warmer coat somewhere, because I was so cold walking home from school today!!

I made pulla the other day with my host mom... That was a lot of fun! So now I know how to make pulla! It was really good pulla too.. Last weekend I went to Helsinki to see the Picasso gallery. Then it was Fathers Day on Sunday (which is why we made pulla!). Sunday night we just had a bunch of food to celebrate Fathers Day. Along with the pulla we had amazing mustikkapiirakka (blueberry pie). YUM.

This week will be pretty uneventful I believe. I might go to watch a hockey game on Friday with my friends from school. That will be fun! I have heard though that their team (the Pelicans) are no where near as good as the Pittsburgh Penguins...haha.

Well. I should study some Finnish now :D
ahh I love snow...

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Moving and a Relaxing Sunday...

First off, my holiday in Spain was very nice! It was so warm (around 80 degrees Fahreinheit everyday!) and sunny. We spent a lot of time at the beach and at the pool, and going shopping of course. It was nice to hear Spanish too! It is spoken so much faster than Finnish. But Spain (at least where we were... Tenerife) reminded me a lot of living in Florida. It has a lot of similarites. Of course Florida is a little cleaner and safer probably. But all in all, I had a really nice time, and would definitely want to go to Spain in the future for a longer period of time.

Recently... I have moved! I moved yesterday to my second host family`s home. It is a very nice home. It sits on a hill, and overlooks the whole city of Lahti. The view is beautiful. I have my own room... and kind of my own bathroom.. I don`t think that they use it very often. But I am living with my host mom, Marja, my host dad, Lasse, and my 9 or 10 year old host brother, Viljam. They also have a daughter and another son, but they are studying in college and do not live at home. They seem like really nice people though! The mom is a really good cook too...from what I have aten so far!

Today has been a really nice day though. I will go through my day! Well, most of it... So. I woke up and ate breakfast with Viljam, did some homework, went to the store with my host mom, and then came back and had lunch. Hannes, my older host brother, and his girlfriend came for lunch. We had shrimp, chicken, these really good potatoes, salad, bread, and two berry pies. Yum. Then I went to my badminton lessons. I have those with my first host mom and host sister, so it is nice that I get to see them every week! I really loved my first host family, so I still want to see them! Anyway... I came home after badminton and went to sauna. Ah, I love sauna... I am determined to have one in my home when I actually have my own house. Then we had iltapala. Hot tea, bread, fruit, and yogurt. So good. Such a good day :)

Last week was pretty good too. It was funny because after we came back from Spain it seemed so cold and dark here in Finland. It is crazy though how dark it is! The sun starts to set before 4:00 pm and it is fully dark by 5:00. Ooh! To change the subject... Lately, like all of a sudden, I have been able to understand so much Finnish. It kind of clicked. I can listen to people speak and understand a lot of what they say. I am still working on my speaking though. I am no where near being fluent. I just need to speak more. I am gaining a little more confidence in speaking, but I am always still a little nervous! I told my host family that I want to speak a lot of Finnish so that I will be able to learn! I want to be able to get to the point where I could survive soley on Finnish...but that will take some time!

So, I think this coming school week will be fairly uneventful. The main thing is that I need to buy winter clothes. It is starting to get really cold here. I just got boots the other day! I think that next weekend will be really fun though. On Friday evening I am going to a show with my host family. It is a show that Hannes is in for his school. He is in a theatre school. Then on Saturday or Sunday we might go to Helsinki to see the Picasso gallery. There are original Picasso paintings in the gallery. That would be amazing to see. So, needless to say, I am excited for next weekend.

This is pretty long, so I think I will end it now. I should get to bed soon.
Good night!
(I can`t say it in Finnish because I dont` have the characters on my computer)
:(

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Dancing and the First Sight of Snow

Well. A good amount has happened lately actually! I must mention first, that this might be the last blog that I will write for a little while, because next week is Syysloma, or Fall Break. I am going with my family to the Canary Islands! I am so excited. It will be nice to be somewhere that is warm! Speaking of weather... I was sitting in my room today and I looked out my window and I saw that it was snowing! Not like a blizzard or anything, but it was lightly snowing. I think the temperature is about thirty-five degrees fahrenheit today. I was so excited though! I love the snow. Only bad thing is, is that in an hour from now I have to walk to my Finnish lessons in this cold weather!

School has been really good lately. I like the classes that I have. I am taking this dance course (I think I might have mentioned this before) to learn the traditional dances for the ball in February. The dances are fun, and actually a little hard to learn considering that I have never formally danced before. Haha. But I am really looking forward to the ball in February. I just have to find a dance partner first. There are literally a shortage of guys in Finland...

Also in February, I will be attending a national session of the European Youth Parliament! I just found out today. The delegation I am in from my school got chosen to go to nationals! That is really amazing.

Wow. Maybe not as much is going on as I thought previously... Haha. Well I got accepted into college! University of Pittsburgh. But I think do not think I want to go there. I am going to apply to the college I really want to go to, and that is the American University. And at least if I do not get accepted at AU, I still have Pitt to fall back on!

Ahh.
Syysloma on kohta!!
Fall Break is soon!!

:D

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