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 50^th 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 18^th 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 2^nd of April

Today was my host dads 50^th 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 3^rd 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. 

2 MONTHS!!

The start of this week marked my 2 month week since I left Australia! Where is all my time going!  Another relatively normal week, on Monday I had  volleyball and I got to meet my host brother, Santeri, from my second family. There were only 4 of us at volleyball that night so we had a different sort of training. I had to use the ATM in Finnish for the first time which was a little daunting, normally I’m cool with making a mistake but when it comes to money I’m a little bit more wary! Somehow I managed to press all the right buttons and it was all good. I went to the library in one of my frees and discovered in the English section of the library there is a dictionary of all the English slang swear words and internet abbreviations, lovely! For a library with a small collection of English books it does seem a little stupid that they have this one. I found a learn Finnish CD in the library though which I did when I got home. It was all way to basic for me but it was a good refresher for some of my vocab.

On Wednesday we were doing grammar in English and its quite hilarious when you realise you have no idea about all this stuff they are learning even though its in your own language! I don’t know if it’s because I just don’t remember grammar stuff I learnt in year 4 or if it’s just because I do them instinctively and therefore can’t explain how they work? The class’s homework was to read the text “How to be Australian.” My poor host mum and dad and sister were all sick so I was confined to my room that afternoon but I actually got a lot of blogging done and wrote emails to all the people I had been neglecting! I backed up my photos and there was over 2000 of them, this is after 2 months!

In my English class the next day we listened to Down Under and talked about Australia, good lesson! I got to read one of my friend’s English papers for another course and they were studying Romeo and Juliet, I thought this was pretty funny because we study Romeo and Juliet in English! Obviously they don’t have to look at it so deeply like we do but it is still interesting that we study the same topics even thought they are doing it as a foreign language. To top of what was a pretty good day, our maths exercises were in English so I actually got to do something! I ran into a lady coming out of school to who had to be at least 80 and she spoke fluent English to me which made my day! Liisa, Antti and Pauli came home that evening and there was a meeting for some of the local residents at our house and it meant lots of hand shakes and being introduced as “she’s from Australia” all night. Not that I mind, i'm the interesting foreigner! 

On Saturday we all went to one of Antti’s friend’s house because Tiina and Antti’s band were recording a song for my host dad’s birthday. They had already done the music so it was just Tiina singing various bits of the song till it was all good to go. The song was Kaksi Puuta by Juha Tapio. It’s a really nice song and it means 2 trees, it’s my host dad’s favourite song. After that the guys played some rock and roll songs and for those that don’t know rock and roll to Finland is definitely a different sort to rock and roll to what’s in Australia. I will elaborate on Finnish music in my music post though! It was a good afternoon and when we got home we played Guitar Hero, watched Spiderman, went in the Sauna and had ice cream with Haighs chocolate frogs that my mum had sent me for Easter.

Sunday was really fun day; we went into the city to go sledding and spent most of the morning doing just that! We kept trying to go down as a train but there was too many of us and we kept ending up in a big pile! We came home and had delicious fresh pancakes that Liisa and Äiti had made and then they all had to leave, always the worst part of the week. I got to talk to the Lee-Anne in the afternoon which was nice, these days when I talk to people back home it’s a good thing rather than a sad I haven’t seen you thing. I love being able to tell people all the fun i’m having and my friends are glad to see me so happy. 

They broke the sled 

Back to School!

Back at school this week, on Tuesday there was a special sort of panel of speakers in the culture house related to the current election. My friends translated a few of the questions for me and it seemed like something I would really get into. They discussed things like Finland’s immigrants and government support for students etc. Our sport class switched to Basketball this week and the guys in my class are hilarious! There were pyramids, somersaults and tackling! At the end of our lesson the teacher got out the mini tramp so we could do slam dunks, cool teacher much? I went bowling with my rotary club that afternoon which was really nice and good for my Finnish too because they insist on speaking to me in Finnish even though I barely understand what they are saying! I came home that afternoon to find a parcel from Lisa with chocolate and Vegemite! I did lots of writing this week, letters and postcards.

On Thursday I went to the stationery shop and bought some coloured pens and a Moomin pencil case. Moomin stuff here is really expensive! You could stick a Moomin picture on a rock and sell it for 5 Euros but I guess I can’t critique because I love it! (The pencil case that is, not the rock) That evening was the night of the really cool moon so there was a special skiing track set up on the lake. It was my second time skiing and thankfully it was only flat so I didn’t have to worry about uphill! It was tough at first but once you get used to the action it doesn’t hurt so much. We got to have warm juice by the campfire and the trip back was in the dark and the moon made everything glow which was really awesome. I was actually really proud of myself that night because it was tough work that at the start wasn’t that enjoyable but I stuck at it and it was great fun by the end. I guess a lot of things are like this on exchange, you might find things different or difficult but I guarantee if you keep up with it you’ll start to wonder why you didn’t like it to start with! I have had this with a lot of foods too, like fried egg and capsicum. Both foods I never really liked or ate in Australia but love now!

We had porridge for lunch at school on Friday which I thought was hilarious! I really need to do a “normal school day” post soon; I promise it is on my list! Antti was the only one home this weekend and on Friday the snow was perfect for snowballs so we had a snow fight and made my first ever snowman, although I didn’t really do much of it! It had a name, but I’ve forgotten it. We played guitar hero after that and I am getting pretty good at it.

Our Snowman

Cool photo! 

On Saturday my host mum brought Tiina and I to the school to go ice-skating! I’d skated before but I wasn’t very good and I was terrified I was going to smash my head open on the ice! We didn’t skate for very long and after we went to the shops to buy stuff for my cooking. We went to family friend’s house after that and it was really nice to meet them, somehow I was actually part of the conversation even though it was in Finnish! I fooled even myself! We had a really delicious dinner and then watched a movie and had ice-cream. When we got home we played guitar hero for almost 4 hours and it was super late when we all went to sleep.

Sunday was my day for doing a bit of cooking and I was making ANZAC biscuits first up. I had just assumed that because Finland uses the metric system they would use the same cups etc. I was very wrong. They use decilitres, I had heard of these a few times in maths before but it was very confusing especially since I was using an Australian recipe! It was actually quite stressful as I had no idea if I was doing the right amounts of everything. In the end, I had the right amount of butter and golden syrup but not of flour, sugar etc so they were very oily and a bit crunchy. They were still good though and I now knew to change it next time. The next recipe I attempted was a Sticky Date Pudding. I know it’s not very Australian but my dad makes the best Sticky date and I just really wanted to make it. The pudding was really good but definitely not as good as my dads. I made fried rice for dinner and again very Australian! It was tasty though and it was nice to have a food I love from Oz. I literally collapsed on the couch after that, I was drained! Cooking in a foreign country is exhausting! Also I didn't take any photos which I was pretty disappointed about.

Tallinn Cruise

I had a few more days of break and a few exciting things happened. I got my Finnish bank card, I went into the cow house for the first time; I got to see the new calf! On the Friday we drove into Physälmi and went to this old flea market, lots of old books and videos, it reminded me of the Port Elliot market. We went to a sports store and it had some really nice bikes in it! I found a golden shoe horn! Points to anyone who knows why this is funny. We picked up Liisa on the way home and spent the afternoon looking at old baby photos of all of them and packing.

                   

Saturday 10th of March

We had an early start as we had to be in the city by about 8.30. There was about 16 or so of us travelling to Helsinki and it was a long trip but it passed pretty quickly. I listened to Hamish and Andy, wrote in my journal, had some Finnish lessons with Lisa and played cards. We stopped for lunch at the same roadhouse as I did when I drove from Karkku to Kiuruvesi! It was very strange thinking that it was only 6 weeks ago that I came to live with my family! It was nice to look over how much fun i’d already had and how much I’d changed even in that short amount of time. When we arrived in Helsinki it was straight to the dock and we all piled off the bus and went and picked up our tickets. We had to wait a little bit before we could get on the boat and we saw Aira Samulin who is a famous Finnish dancer, Tiina and Sophia went and got a photo with her. I was blown away by the size of the ship; I’d never been on a cruise ship before. When we go onto the ship we found our room, Liisa and I’s room was just a little room with two beds but the other room was a nice fancy room with a lounge and mini bar! While we were still docked in Helsinki we saw a bus with KOSONEN on it! That was pretty cool! We had a huge buffet lunch and then went back to mum and dads room and did our hair and hung around for a while. We docked at Tallinn at about 10pm and at about that time we headed down to the main sort of dance floor and they had music and dancing. The guy playing the guitar was one fo the Idol judges and I recognised him, which make him the first Finnish celebrity that Iäve recognised! We all danced and watched the music; Liisa told me all about her Abi cruise. If you remember back to my Penkkarit post now, after we put the Abit on the bus they drive to Helsinki and go on a cruise to Tallinn. We’ve decided I’m coming back for Tiina’s Abi cruise in 2018! After a while, everyone started to head to bed and Liisa and I decided to find the disco which was on the top floor, we were a little lost and someone offered to help us, in English because he’s heard me speaking English and then Liisa replied to him in Finnish and he was all shocked that she was speaking Finnish. Looking back I think maybe the time of the night made it funnier than it really was! We found the disco and danced for a while and actually had a tiny Finnish lesson at 2 in the morning! Finally we went back up to our room and turned on the TV to see that in the main area there was a rock and roll band playing, had to resist going back down there!  

On the bus

Getting an Autograph

My host Parents :)

The main stage

Liisa and I in the disco

Sunday

Somehow Liisa and I managed to drag our selves to breakfast at a reasonable time and then we all got ready to go into Tallinn! We walked off the ship into a sort of terminal thing. No one checked our bags or passports or anything, mind you. We went to a shopping centre first where seeing shoes sold for like 700 euro’s startled me until I realized it was Estonian money! Estonia now uses the Euro but only as of last year I believe so they still take Kroons. Actually I just looked it up and Kroons are no longer used in Estonia, only Euro’s so it must be for people to know what price they are paying for things. Anyway, afterwards Liisa and I went for a walk across the snow which, unlike Kiuruvesi, was starting to melt which didn’t make it fun to walk on! I was trying to find a cache but after a lot of searching we had to give up and walk back to the ship. It was near a really nice old church though so we got some great photos and got to see this strange statue which is a memorial for the 852 people that died on a cruise that sunk in 1994. When we got back to the ship we went “shopping” There was 3 main shops on board, one that sold chocolates and lollies, one that sold duty free perfume and another one that was by far the biggest, which sold alcohol. There is a chocolate called Julia! We had left Estonia now and I spent ages just watching the ship going through the ice, it was really cool, it sort seemed like we shouldn’t be moving but we were! I met the head of the Kokoomus party which means if they win, I can say i've met the Prime Minister! Liisa and I went back to the cabin and packed our stuff up because we had to leave the ship. I got to pose with the Kosonen bus before we left for the long journey back home. I tried to sleep, wrote in my journal and listened to U2 for most of the way. I also wrote my rotary article which I promise to post soon! We got home very late and we all collapsed utterly exhausted! 

Me looking pretty cool and Tallinn in the background

Walking in the city!

Liisa and I with the church

The statue

:D

I'm famous in Finland....

Oulu

5th-8th of March

I had a surprisingly productive Saturday, I got to skype the whole family and the Parrs too in the morning, I got some blogging done, wrote a few emails, cleaned my room and packed for Oulu. When Antti got home we all played Guitar Hero, I am going to be very good at Guitar hero by the end of the year! We left Kiuruvesi at about 6 and picked up Eeva and Ville in Pyhäsalmi. It was long drive to Oulu but we talked about all sorts of interesting things and it was gone in a flash. When we got to Oulu we went to Liisa and Pauli's apartment and it was such cute little apartment! We had dinner and they all spoke a lot of English for my benefit which for once I was grateful for. Normally it makes me feel really bad that everyone have to speak English around me. We messed around and played Uno, watched youtube videos and talked about what our plans were for the weekend.

In the morning I helped Liisa make these really yummy scone things with carrot in them and then others arrived and we spent awhile discussing plans for the weekend. We spent so much time discussing or were we arguing? We argued/discussed that too! We walked down to the big shopping centre and we had to wait a while because it was closed, Sunday morning 11 o’clock opening time? I guess some things don’t change between countries! It was a nice walk and they pointed everything out for me and Eeva took over my role as tourist and took photos of us walking. Eeva made pizza when we got home and it was sooooo good. We played Uno and Liisa and I made Pulla which was really cool except we were playing Mafia and accidently burnt the top of some of them! They were delicious all the same and they were a special pulla called Laskiaipulla and is traditionally eaten on shrove Tuesday. I don’t know why but I’m not a big fan of pulla with cardamon in it but this one was really delicious!  

We went in the sauna after that and Liisa had little bottles of scented oil so we had a cinnamon scented sauna, it was nice. It was a really hot sauna so I spent a while just standing outside in my t-shirt and jeans, made me chuckle, not sure why it was just a funny standing outside in next to nothing when it was below freezing temperature! We went over to Antti and Henri’s apartment and watched the American remake of Death at a Funeral. I didn’t except it to be that great but it was pretty funny! We had ice+cream and Ville somehow managed to rip the bag of popcorn so that bits of popcorn went flying everywhere! I guess you had to be there but it was pretty hilarious.

The gang minus Eeva who's taking the photo

Liisa and I looking like professional Pulla makers!

Laskiaipulla!

We woke up a bit earlier and had breakfast and got ready for our day in the city! When Ville and Eeva arrived we walked down to the bus stop and caught the bus into the shopping domain of Oulu! We went to a few different shops and It was mostly for me because I hadn’t really done much shopping since I got here and I bought a jacket, a scarf, 2 t-shirts, a cardigan and a pair of jeans. H & M is officially my new favourite store but I’m glad I have to go all the way to Oulu to shop there or I’d end up with no money! We wandered down to the sea front and had very delicious Chinese buffet! 

Afterwards we walked to the Tietomaa which, for any that have been, is like Melbourne’s Science Works or Canberra’s Questacon. We spent a few hours looking at all the things they had there, there was interactive games and quizzes and all sorts of cool stuff. The best part was probably when Ville tried to do the switched over vision thing that I will post a video of! We went to the shops on the way home and because Eeva and Ville had classes the next day they had to head back to Jyväskylä. Once they left Liisa and I had a Finnish lesson, Liisa is a very good teacher and I always remember stuff the best when she teaches me. It helps that she is studying Finnish at university! I am starting to pick up more and more phrases and words when people speak!

Eeva and I with a fat policeman! 

Group shot at the cool mirror

Eeva and I playing this game which I forget the name of.

It was just Liisa and I today and we woke  late and went shopping again in the city, I bought a few more things and Liisa found it hard to find me in the shops because I had my sweet new jacket so I blended in a lot more than I did with my bright blue one! We went to this really nice pancake house and had a pancake with strawberries and chocolate. I understood about 90 percent of the menu! We walked down to the frozen sea because they had all been joking about how it should be so exciting for me; it was pretty cool except the snow on the footpaths was melting and we both got really wet feet!  We had to go home after that so that Liisa could go to work, Antti and I had ice-cream and then he drove me to the bus stop. The bus trip was quick and before I knew it I was back at home in Kiuruvesi. 

Herkullinen!

The frozen sea!!! 

Downhill skiing!!

This week I was kind of sick at the start of the week and missed two days of school, I started a really big puzzle and basically spent all of the day doing it :P I got to do a whole family Skype while they all ate dinner on Wednesday and that made me feel better, my nanna was down in Adelaide which made me a little homesick because its easy to miss nanna because she’s always lived in Melbourne but I know its going to be hard whenever she’s in Adelaide without me. I was supposed to go skiing with my school on the Thursday and I somehow convinced myself I was well enough to go and I definitely don’t regret that decision! It was a great day! I borrowed my maths teachers ski’s and helmet (thank goodness I had one!) The bus ride was really long and when we arrived I was so freaked out! We had a quick lunch before we put all our gear on and went straight out onto the snow.

My friends took me to the baby hill first and I couldn’t even use the pully seat things right and went splat on my back! When I finally got to the top of the tiny hill they showed me how to turn and stop and we went down the hill step by step until I lost control and went whizzing down the hill and somehow managed to get to the bottom in one piece. The next time I lost control and ran into a kid! I was so embarrassed and the poor kid was crying but I didn’t hurt him he was just scared. I was so ready to quit, I did not want to kill any more children!

We went up again and I actually managed to gain some controls of the ski’s this time which was good but apparently deemed me ski ready and they all piled me onto to the chairlift! I was freaked out and knew all too well as soon as I sat down on the chair the only way down was to ski! I was a bit of a wuss and it took me a second (a few hundred seconds more like it) to convince myself to even start the hill. I was scared out of my mind but once I’d fallen and realised it didn’t hurt that much and also started skiing down the hill backwards and had one of my friends ski into me to stop me I felt a little better and was a bit more brave although I am pretty sure there was tears when I started skiing backwards, it was shameful!

We eventually made it down the hill, took us like 20 minutes! We headed back up the chairlift and skied over to another slope that was a little simpler and because I was a bit more confident I managed to actually ski some of it while holding Paula’s hand. Poor Paula, the amount of times I went smash into her and dragged her down into a pile of skies and snow! If your reading this Paula, KIITOS! I am very grateful for your help, I never would have gotten to where I got to without you!

After that we went to Heseburger for lunch and it was nice to have a bit of a break. We went up to the same slope afterwards and I held Paula’s hand for the most part and then actually skied the last 80 or so metres BY MYSELF without falling! Pretty stoked, we went up again and I skied even further by myself even thought I went splat beforehand. We did a few more then decided to find a few other slopes and we ran into Ari and he took a picture of us all which I really need to get of him because it’s the only pic I have from the whole day! I managed to ski the end of that slope by myself too although I fell twice at the top.

We were back at the resort now and my friends went up again and I had a rest, when they got back Anni and Julie decided we had enough time to go for one more so we went up. In hindsight bad idea, we had to do a medium level one and it was too steep to do holding Julie's hand and after 3 tumbles we decided I should take my ski’s off and slip down on my bum for the steep part and then put them back on! Talk about embarrassing but we were running late for the bus and it was actually kind of fun! When we got into the bus I could finally take my ski boots off, they are not the most comfortable things to wear for 7 hours! We stopped in Kajanni for a little bit on the way home and everyone went on the slot machines. You can do those at 15 in Finland! It’s really strange although my friends tell me that they are looking to change it to 18. At home we all worked on our puzzle and I told them all about my day. We watched House and I fell asleep seconds after I got into bed!

I had school the next day and I had the option of not going but I did because I felt fine! I tried to translate my Chemistry book but my dictionary lacks sciency words but one word jumped out me as I was searching. Koti-ikävä, homesickness and it made me happy that I don’t have it! I miss my family but there’s a difference between homesick and missing your family. Everyone kept asking me if I missed my mum especially because I was sick and maybe if I was 12 I would have but what teenager still gets their mother to look after them when they’re sick? Come on guys! Toughen up! :P 

We had some sort of traditional soup for lunch that was very nice but was another one of the eat it and don’t ask what’s in it meals. I took my first trip to the chemist and thank goodness the Chemist spoke perfect English so he helped me find what I was looking for. He was really funny, basically told me that these two brands are exactly the same, this one just charges you 4 times the amount because it has a famous brand! Got to love honesty like that! I had to do my first rotary report that night and it wasn’t so bad, I actually enjoyed writing about all the exciting things I’d been doing! Just like I enjoy writing on my blog! 

Our puzzle! 

Weekend in Tahkovouri

This weekend we were off to Tahkovouri for my Host grandmother’s birthday. The trip took about 2 hours and we were all squashed up into Pauli’s car. When we got there I went all major touristy because it is a ski resort and you can see all the slopes form the Spa place we were at and it was so cool! You could see all the people zipping down the slopes! The spa we were at to go bowling had a Down Under bar and advertisements for Fosters everywhere! I got to meet a lot of the extended family and we all had a game of bowling together. We had buffet lunch after that and we went to our cottage and messed around and drunk Jaffa till we had to get ready for dinner. Liisa did my hair all curly and it looked very nice. It was a tad chilly in just stockings and a dress and my heels kept sinking into the snow! The dinner was lovely; we had 4 really delicious meals which included a really nice steak and delicious cranberry tart for desert. The wine being served was Jacobs Creek! That’s 3 Aussie things in one weekend! There was Jazz music playing the entire time which was really nice although a little annoying for conversation. We all headed outside for the surprise of the night! Fireworks!!! I had never actually seen fireworks so close! We must have been less than 100 metres from them. I guess the chances of a spark creating a fire is a little less when you’re surrounded by snow! We had some speeches and then it was time to leave. Antti, Tiina and I went back to the cabin and we played cards and watched James Bond

                                                                                                   

We all dragged ourselves out of bed and tried to pack our bags before going to breakfast. Everyone started to leave after that so we said our goodbyes and piled back into Pauli’s car but minus Tiina this time so not as squishy! Antti and I were trying to figure out how this card trick I learnt at Wirraway works mathematically. We made pizza when we got home and Antti finally figured out how the trick works, wed’ seriously been trying to work it out all weekend so that was a relief! They all left after lunch so I watched The Land before time in Finnish with Tiina and ate ice cream! Really great weekend!

Aussie! 

Tiina and I

The band, Tiina, Antti and I

Everyone at Dinner

Fireworks! 

First Week of 5th Period

21.2 – 25.2 

Pretty normal week, well normal for an exchange student! It was my first week in my own proper classes. To be honest I didn't really do a lot in class, I participated a far bit in my English class but Maths and Chemistry is just note taking and reading. My sport class is good, one thing I learnt though is that they are a lot more relaxed than Aussie sport classes. Most people just wear trackies and a t-shirt, so no compulsory uniform. All the games are for fun so no one minds passing the ball rather than claiming all the glory like boys tend to do in Australia. Definitely my favourite lesson because it’s a lot easier to feel included too. Because my poor blog is becoming very neglected I am going to keep the week time posts a bit shorter but ill probably still do full length ones for the weekends.

Anyway some other highlights from this week were; getting my ugg boots – I just thought I’d mention this because what country lets you go to school everyday in ugg boots and then when you get to school you can just walk around in your socks! I had quite a few small language achievements in class. Mostly just working out what we are talking about in Kemia. I managed to figure out what the word for heat was just by recognising where it was being used in the diagrams on the board. Little triumphs like this always make me feel good about learning Finnish. While it is tiresome and very frustrating at times it is also very rewarding at the end of the day.

I met my host grandmother and grandfather this week and that was really nice! :)

I sometimes go to the library café when I have a free and none of my friends have frees and drink coffee and read or write letters. This Thursday I was there and I ran in to our principal, Arja and she invited me to have lunch with her husband and daughter which was really nice. Pretty much sums up exchange life pretty well, you go to the library to have coffee and read and end up having lunch with your principal’s family! On the Friday Liisa, Antti and Pauli arrived and we all made pizza and played this hilarious game called Imago and ate lollies. So many funny memories from that night but I won’t try and explain because well they were all pretty you had to be there things! 

I am getting really bad at taking photos of stuff :/

Here is the game we played!