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I am using this blog to tell everyone what I'm thinking and doing beforehand, during and after my exchange year in Finland for 2011.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Väinön Syntymäpäivä

I was sick this week; I’d picked up whatever my family had and spent Monday and Tuesday in bed. I blogged a lot and skyped a few people. I watched a movie with Finnish subtitles and I found it actually helped on picking up basic words. I gave a talk to my English class on Wednesday, it was the same talk I gave to my other English class and it went pretty well. I brought in a tube of Vegemite and they all tried it on a bit of bread. None of them liked it but a few said it wasn't as bad as they were expecting which I think was good!

Thursday was a slow day, I decided to go to the shoe shop and I had been in the store before so the owners knew I didn’t speak Finnish but one of them came up to me and just looked at me, so I looked up waiting for him to speak but I think he was waiting for me to speak so we just sort of looked at each other for a bit! So embarrassing, I just ran out of the store and won’t be going back without my host mum. I can normally get away with speaking just Finnish at the supermarket because its just numbers and basic stuff but whenever someone comes up to me in any other store I have to say en puhu suomea (I don’t speak Finnish) and I really don’t like doing that because sometimes, like at the chemist, they insist on finding someone who speaks English even though all I want to do is get some panadol and leave!

Anyway Antti, Liisa and Pauli got home soon after I did; they were here early because of Vaino’s 50th Birthday. We played Guitar hero, from my blogs it sort of seems like that’s all we do but I swear we do other stuff too! After dinner we all helped Liisa make her cheesecake. We talked about how they found about me back and I told them what I had to do to apply etc. It was super weird thinking it was a whole year ago, 2010 was an eventful year!

I’ve just looked at my journal and I was super happy about the fact that I got to have porridge on a school day! Hahaha I really love porridge! It was one of my friends 18th birthday’s as well and she was having a party that night, unfortunately I didn’t end up getting to go. It was good day at school and when I got home we drove to Physalmi to pick up Eeva and Ville. Eeva had knitted me a beanie and one of those cool circle scarfs! :) It was mostly cleaning up and preparing like crazy all afternoon! We had sausage and chips one night early and even got ice cream with love heart sprinkles.

Saturday 2nd of April
Today was my host dads 50th birthday and we were having a big party at the house so we were all up early getting stuff ready and showering and Eeva did everyone’s hair. We all dressed up and a few of them did little speeches and Antti played the song and Väinö really loved it and it was really sweet. I even did a little speech that Liisa had helped me write, I thought I said it awfully but Eeva said I did a good job :)  People started arriving after that and we shook a lot of hands and talked to a lot of people. I got to meet my host nanna from my second family and she was really awesome. I talked to her for a long time about Finland and her pen pal she has in the States. She was very funny and I know we are going to be good friends. Eeva's niece arrived and she was adorable, we sung Incy Wincy spider well Eeva sung it in Finnish and I did the actions. I must learn the Finnish words!

I got to speak to some host cousins and lots of family friends who were all very nice.  Everyone started to leave after that and we all just talked and ate the delicious cake. According to Eeva, I’m not really in Finland, it’s just imaginary! I must have a pretty good imagination! We all got a bit silly with the camera and everyone was taking stupid pictures! Vaino’s running team turned up and one of them took a picture of all us together, me without my shoes on, whoops! Just to add, my host dad is 50 and he’s going to be running a marathon in Sweden soon, that’s pretty cool! At the end of the day we all played monopoly with old Finnish money, markka. The markka was replaced with the Euro in 2002. We played some more guitar hero and went to bed.

Getting our hair done.


The food

Trust me to ruin a very nice photo! 


No comment! 

Yay! Finally one with us all together :) 




Sunday 3rd April
Wow, it’s April already! Slow start this morning we had porridge and played guitar hero (again? really Julia this is ridiculous!) At midday we walked down to the little hut by the river with pitch forks and an axe and it had rained the day before and all the snow had iced over so it was good fun to walk on the ice! We barbecued some makkara and drank warm juice. It was very pleasant and nice to just sit there and talk. We talked about my birthday, Pauli gets off the army at the same time and Henriikka comes back just beforehand so there will be lots of celebrations! To anyone reading who isn’t a teenager, don’t worry because when you turn 113 you can be a teenager again! Pauli thinks he’s so clever! Liisa and I tried to find the cache that is supposed to be there but it seems its gone walkabout. When we got home Ville and Eeeva came over and we all had kahvi and leftover cake and then everyone had to leave. Antti and I played Guitar hero but Tiina wanted to play Monopoly so we did that but then she got upset because Antti made her bankrupt so we stopped playing and played more guitar hero! I have a permanently sore hand from that game but I don’t care because it’s awesome!



This was our last day of winter wonderland, its all melting away now. 

1 comment:

  1. Hei Julia!

    Ihanaa lukea vaihtovuodestasi Suomessa! Suomessa harvemmin törmää vaihto-oppilaisiin. Kiva kuulla kokemuksistasi ja ajatuksistasi Suomesta ja suomalaisuudesta. Kaikkea hyvää sinulle! (:

    Terveisin blogisi lukija

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