soooo yeah....

its been ages. but to be honest, blogging and pictureing have been put on the back burner while i try and spend every second I can of my last TEN days. Thats right, I'm coming home in 1 week and two days.....oh my gosh. This post will be short, so no amazing details about what I've been up to, but in short I have: talked with my family; bought new jeans; went cycling at Elixia; went to horse camp !; baked cookies; watched Ice Age 2 with Petra; camped in a home made tent made of chairs in blankets<3; jumped on a trampoline; said goodbye to Lauri, Juuso, and Harri for the last time :/; explored underground mines of "KanaVuori" which means Chicken Mountain :D; moved back to the Turpeinens; visited my host sisters at Scouting Camp; went to anninas over night and curled her hair :); spent saturday packing almost all of my things, which miraculously are all fitting into my suitcases !; got rid of three bags of clothing; talked with booboo online<3; went to Alvar's confirmation; ate a TON of food; got a cold >:O; got my report card from school; finished off some presents; wrote in my blog. If you'd like to know more, please write down your questions and keep it in a safe place until I return (:

This is what I'll be up to for the next ten days, probably not filled with blogging: have my going away party at the Viertolas cottage in Kangasniemi with annina, piia, petra, anna, maria, mimmi, nuppe, sirpa, raija, and me :D; celebrate Midsummers night eve, where the sun doesn't set, at the turpeinens cottage in tampere (vehnäjärvi) until sunday; go rowboating with raija and say my goodbyes to them; spend the night at anninas and spend the WHOLE ENTIRE day with her on tuesday; finish packing everything, say my last goodbyes, and head down to helsinki on wednesday; fly off on thursday ! i shall reunite with my family (hopefully :}) around 2 30 p.m. on thursday afternoon.

thats it ! <3

my first mo ped rideeee :)

Petra got a mo ped a while ago and took me for my first ride on one ! It was a blastttt :D We went downtown to see Slumdog Millionaire which was really good, I thouroughly enjoyed the entire thing (: And then we rode back home and we took the path along the lake which was gorgeous as the sun was just beginning to set, (at 11.00 at night...it doesn't go all the way down until pushing 2 am. and then comes back up around 5 ! yeah. sleeping is getting more difficult. but its so niceeee<3) and it was so pretty. Today I'm baking twice baked potatoes and yummy chicken for the Sainpalos, the potatoes are sizziling in the oven (should they be?....) I just heard from my mom that my one and only big brother Jordan shot a 73 and 74 in my dads Golf Tournament this weekend and ended up with the lowest score next to my dad with the lowest score with his handicap. He won 150.00 bucks ! Ah, I'm so proud, congrats beefy, that is wonderfulll. And congrats to you too dad, it looks like your kidney held up ! Maybe its like a lucky kidney or something ? :P Anyways, so thats really awesome news. And tomorrow morning I think I get to skype with my lovely family members one last time before i come home (which is in a shocking 19 days. now its less than 20. getting closer and closer...) My going away party is from tuesday the 16th to wednesday the 17th at the Viertola's summer cottage in Kangasniemi. I went to that cottage in the winter to cover up some trees, but we didn't stay long, so I didn't get to experience it. But now the lake is all warm (well probably not really warm because our weather has sort of sucked this past week. its been in the mid to high 40's this whole week, on wednesday it was only +3 (38 or so) degrees outside. in SUMMER. gee. fun. But today the sun is shining a bit and its +8 right now at 11 30. not the best, but its not raining ! I'm listening to my little host sister obnoxiously singing singstar in her bedroom...its cute, but shes very loud....(reminding you of anyone ? ;D) Maybe I'll sit outside her room and film her ? ahaha. yeah maybe. Today I'm maybe going with Petra, pinja, and maria to this fairytale land in the town that Annina lives in. It sort of sounds like fun !? I don't really know what it is, just an amusement park fairytale land with a witch that walks around or something. and then ! this week Maria is going to a 3 day horse riding day camp, from 9 30-6 monday tuesday and wednesday. And then anna called the lady running it and asked if I could go with her one day, the lady said yes, but I would be an actual part of the camp. I mean of course I can help out with the kids, but I'll be actually doing the things, riding the Iceland Ponies, doing the arts and crafts, etc. So on tuesday, I am going ! To horse camp ! With a group of 10 year olds! HAhhaha. I'm really excited :D All I can think of is the one year Kelsie and I went to Miracle Ranch :) That was so fun ! I heard my brothers girlfriend is working there this year, how fun ! Anyways, then on thursday I leave to go back to Säynätsalo...and then that weekend I'm helping Raija bake lots of nummy things for Alvar's chruch confirmation which is on Sunday. He asked me if I would bake hime cookies, how sweeet ! I baked with Maria yesterday, she made (or tried to...they came out...interesting tasting...) White Chocolate Muffins and I made really tasty Mint chocolate chip cookies with white chocolate chunks, delicious. Anna and Lauri really liked them. And yeah. Thats it for now I believeeee. heres some pictures, more on my flickr !

We did it !

Hooray ! :) We finished our race ! It was a total of 5.4 km, roughly the equivalent of 3.5 miles, in 41 minutes, 22 seconds. We didn't run it all out, just a good steady pace and we never stopped ! But it was really fun, although the worst possible weather ever. Rainy, freezing cold, super windy next to the lake and over the bridge, kind of miserable. But altogether really quite fun :) We got a huge picnic lunch dinner thing afterwards as well as a free plant ! Haha, how cute :D But yeah, here are some pictures from it ! The first two pictures are of this old man who picked my number randomly and then read my forecast from my palm. I had no idea what was happening ! It was really hillarious and the girls just kept laughing and laughing down below, haha. Good times. The next picture is of our whole team with our medals ! :D Andthe last one is of me piia, piia's friend Lili i think, and annina :)

my video

of my speech and my choir singing on the last day of school, is UP ! on my photobucket.

www.photobucket.com/josesuomessa (i think....) anyways, go watch it !

these weeks go by like the seconds on a clock.

does that even make any sense? It's already been another week since my last post, this is probably one of the last few that I'll post before returning to the United State, June 25th still seems far away however. I dont even know where to begin, I've sort of forgotten what I've done on each day thats passed. I took a few tests, Englsih and Religion, I got a 10 (A) from English and a 7-(B-/C+) from Religion, but to remind you the whole class was taught in Finnish and then my test was translated into english. So it was acutally a fairly good score seeing as I had no english material the whole course ! Anyways. Then I had a good wednesday off which I sat around and enjoyed the sun. Thursday I gave my big end of the year presentation to the Rotary, all in finnish which surprised almost all of them who had no idea I had mastered the language so well. So that was fun :D They gave me some really nice books to take home (gee, more heavy things...). Then that same night, thursday, was Lyseo (my school's) "Art Night" and the theme was animals. There was a play put on by the teachers that was hilarious, I ahve part of a video to show when I get back. And then there were various performances put on by the students, mini dramas, bands, musical pieces, etc. It was really fun though, and I got lots of pictures with my friensd, some of which are on my flickr ! Friday I went to anninas in the morning and went running with piia, not very far, maybe 2 miles. And then I spent the whole day with her translating my speech in to finnish which I wsas giving the following morning to my school. I was really nervous about that...But we just spent the whole nice day together, and then I spent the night and it was really fun. In the morning we were up at 5 to do our hair and get ready for our last day of school. We were singing in the choir, John Lennons Imagine, which went realyl really well, we got lots of compliments on it. I have video of it that I can maybe upload this week somtime. It also includes my speech that went realy well, althoguh I spoke really fast....as always. But the crowd laughed at my jokes and gave me a nice long applause and cheers, so I felt good. That weekend we, the Turpeinens and myself, went down to Helsinki for Lauris graduation party, it acutalyl was really fun. The beginning was a bit awkward, I just stood with Mimmi on the side randomly saying to people I didnt know, and neither did she. Haha. But once the crowd died down The cousins and I all played really long games of barefoot soccer and jumped on the trampoline. The next day we did the same things and also played Risk, the boardgame. In which Mimmi and I won ! By completing all of our missions first, and capturing all of north america, Ha :D It was actually quite an exciting game, I realyl liked it. We left their house in the evening and returned home around 23.00. On monday I went downtown with Annina and toured this really gorgeuos foresty part in Jyväsklyä that was realyl awesome, and I took pictures, flickrrr. I have a sun burn now ! which will turn to a tan ! Finalllllyyyyy. I really thoguht I'd have to go home stark white. Today was a bit oversast but annina and I went on a crazy long run around the lake, and without stopping, not even once, we finished 9.3 km, roughly equivalent to 6 and a bit miles. It was death, and my feet hurt, but it was realyl nice ! And ! I don't ahve to go on the big trip that would have taken 9 days to Turku anymore, I'm staying with the Sainpalos from today until next thursday which means I get to go on my run with the girls ! And stay in Jkl. ! Hooray ! So I'm really stoked for that, but I actually should be leaving now so I can go catch my bus to go there. Hopefully I can blog again soon, but no promises....Pictures on flick. Three more weeks. Jeee !

more time.

need it need it need it. I'm actually really dreading this because I know its going to be so long...But I have lots of time, which I guess doesn't really fit with my title here. But today, for now, I have time. So I will attempt to blog about my past week in the lovely, beautiful, GREEN, finland. It happened I swear over the course of 3 nights. Everything was dead, then there were a few buds on the trees, and now everything, I mean everrryythinggg, is so green. Everywhere. Its really amazing, and really really gorgeous. The days here have just been so great, really nice weather, a few rain spots here and there, but I love the rain, so it was really nice. Last tuesday I went to have a talk with Lea Pulkkinen, the lady I met with when I wanted to talk about the Lapland trip. Shes a globally known psychologist, and probably the greatest woman I've met in my entire life, besides my mom. She just sees things so perfectly. She first showed me around the University campus here in Jyväskylä, in one part of the campus there is a building with one half called the Matti something buidling (i totally forget his name, but he was the first (or something) finnish president. I asked around my school just now, but no one knows...niceee.) anyways and then the other half is the Lea Pulkkinen half. So I felt like a celebrity walking around with her. Imean you could just tell as we passed people that they just started whispering "oh my gosh, that was HER." haha. So that was fun. Then we sat down and she started to ask me about the problems I was having with my host family and stuff. And then she just took the whole situation and turned into something positive. She first asked me what I wanted to do when I got older, what I wanted to be. And I told her I'd really like to teach, 1st and 2nd grade. And she then explained to me that although maybe this situation was hard to get through and not really fun that if I think about it, when I teach my classroom won't be filled with kids from families like mine. Some of those kids are going to come from broken families, like the one I'm currently in. And that by being in this situation I can learn how to deal with them and how to reach them on a personal level and help them out. And gah, it was just so wonderful. So now, I am just really great. I finally feel back to my old happy self again, I think for a bit I was realy down and just not happy and it just felt so weird, because thats just not me. I have bad days, but they dont really last for 3 or 4 weeks. So this was something new for me, but it was really great once I got out of it. I went and talked it out wiht Raija and Arvo as well and they were really supportive of everything. Things still aren't perfect at my house, there are still fights, but there are less of them. If anything, me bringing this to light may have been hard for them to hear, but I think it might have kind of made them notice that things could be better and now we're all working on it together. So its really great, thank you all out there for your prayers during this as well, I'm positive they helped a great deal. On Wednesday I went with Mimmi to her school all day and hung out with her and her friends, they were quite fun :D Then we made our big trip down to Turku to stay with Pike, my host moms sister, for four days. We left on thursday and when we got there we were immediately greeted by two happy boys happy to give lots of hugs. Leo and Otso. Leo is 5 and Otso 9, it felt so much like home it was almost scary. I felt 12 again, taking care of Micah and Spencer. Otso even looked like him ! Same head shape, same big eyes, and same funny hair flip in the front :P Leo was one of those kids who just hung on to you like a monkey, and if you didn't want him he'd just move on to the next closest person. His parents, Pike and Ville, were really busy that weekend so Mimmi Nuppe and I just spent most of it babysitting, which was fine with me. Ville was being given his Diploma for his Ph.D. He wrote his thesis in the field of Bio Technology in 2007 but the ceremony is only every 3 years, so this year he finally got the big party for all his hard work. They went to lots of dinner parties and on Friday there was a big ceremony downtown where all the recipients walked down the main street led by police horses and cars to the big monumental church. It was on tv and a really huge event so that was really cool to watch. Pike was wonderful, we had some really great talks, she's a first and second grade teacher :D So talking to her was really cool because shes exactly what I want to be ! On saturday Sirpa the girls the boys and I went downtown to see the big war ships of finland and some famous spots of Turku like the Castle that wsa built in the 1300's. It was really great, long, but really great. There was a thunder storm on the way back, so that was fun to be in, it was my first of the year :) Today is my official 1 month until I go home date, boy am I excited. My schedule is pretty much full up until I leave, which may be good or bad, I'm not sure yet. I just finished up my English Exam and tomorrow I have my religion test and then school is overrrrrr. Summer ! Yay :D On friday night I'm staying at Annina's because we have to be at school at 7.30 am to get ready to sing :P Then after our school party my family leaves for Helsinki for Lauri's (their cousin, not my host brother) Graduation Party. We come back on sunday though. Then tuesday we go back to helsinki to stay with that same family for maybe 3 days and then train up to Turku to stay with Pike Ville and the boys for a few more days until Sirpa gets back from Estonia. Meh, I'm more or less excited about that trip, its the one kind of ruining my plans, but it'll still be fun to see more of the city I guess. And when I got to Turku again I get to see Bailey ! Yayyyyy. Anyways, I am really tired of typing and I think that was all I had to say anyways. Enjoy your day off I think ? Memorial day right ? I dont remember. But yeah, the end ! :D

looking on the brightside

after trying to work through some recent problems ive been having, mainly due to communciation issues i think, I'm just going to let things go for now and enjoy the last bit I have here. So, let me further update you on my busy life ! Today, is monday, and one of my last three days of school, which seems very surreal, everyone is acting so normal...I just gave a presentation to 10 kids about the history of religion in the United States, it was interesting. They didn't ask any questions, although they never do :/ Tomorrow Annina and I give our presentation on intoxicants and we're bringing chocolate to bribe the kids into responding, hehe. Tonight I'm going to Anninas to finish up our project, hopefully we get it all done. I guess I don't have anything afterschool tomorrow..it seemed like I did. Wednesday I think I'm going to mimmi's school because she really wants me to, and then I'm going over to the viertolas. On thursday my family leaves for Turku for four days, I'm sort of looking forward to that ? It should be fun I think. Next week I have a religion test on monday, and an english test on tuesday, and then choir practice and then wednesday a freeeee day. maybe I'll go visit the sainpalos ? I'll have to call Anna today, I can't make it to the cycling class tonight because I'm going to Anninas...Thennnn next thursday is Lyseon Yö, which I found out is like a little school fair/carnival with decorated rooms and different things to do and such. So I'm looking forward to that, I think it lasts until midnight so I'll probably spend the night at Anninas house that night. Friday is no school, and then saturdddday is our last day of school ! I sing iwth Annina and give my speech and then I leave to Helsinki with my family. We come back on sunday I think ? I'll probably spend Monday and Tuesday with myt other families or with Annina, or amybe take some friends bowlnig or on a picnic ! I have yet to decide. And then that wednesday I have to go to Helsinki for 3 days and then to Turku for another 4 while my host mom goes to Estonia, which means I can't run my marathon race with Annina and Piia and I can't go to Roosas party. But I've sort of gotten past that now and jnow I'm jsut looking forward to spenmding the time I do have with my good family and friends. But I realyl ahve to catch a bus now, hence the horrible typing and spelling errors ! gotta run :)

time flies when youre having...

fun ? ive been really busy this past week, hence the lack of blogging, but ive been doing lots of interesting, some fun, things :) on tuesday I went running, 30 minutes non stop with annina and piia ! It was exhilerating, and that was after mondays 45 minutes of intense cycling and 15 minutes of the hardest core workout ever, jeeees. But both were still really great. i also had choir practice on tuesday for the school and we're singing John Lennons "Imagine" for the graduation practice, in which Annina and I are sort of singing the lead, (if we sing loud enough, which we will, then we'll just over power Minttu who has a hard time with singing anyways, so yeah...that sounded mean, but it wasnt meant to be. shes a really nice girl, but the song is in english, and well some finns just don't prnounce english words so well, and yeah...anyways) so I'm excited for that. Hopefully I can get someone to tape it for me. On wednesday I had art, and we're busy making different props and posters for Lyseo (my school)Day in two thursdays from now. I really have no idea what actually happens there, but I've heard that our schools bands play (rock bands, not concert) and there is some art thing ? I dunno. I guess I'll just wait and see ! What else did I do on wednesday. Oh yeah I went to the Lutehran church wiht Annina to interview the youth pastor on Intoxicants and such for our project. So that was fun, we'll hopefully be finishing that up this weekend as we present on Tuesday...Im also giving another presentation to the Church History class on Religion in the US (sort of like the same one I did back in December with more emphasis on my own church) and then on the same day as Lyseo Day I give my final Rotary Presentation to the Rotary Club, so I have to start making that. And I have to give a speech to the students on the last da of school, which is a saturday. The 30 th of may ! Next week we only ahve 3 days of school because of some holiday and the week after that is test week and then its done ! over ! yeah ! Anyways so then yesterday, thursday, I had school until three and then I went and met with Martti my rotary counselor here and then we enjoyed a delicious dinner provided for the Rotary Meeting. Then at the meeting we heard from an authour who talked about his latest book called "Paha" meaning Evil and it talks aobut the different kinds of evil...yeah. Theennnnn I went with about half or maybe a quarter of my school to a concert put on by one boy from my school, Antti, who was giving this concert as his Music Diploma. It was really cool, he was the drummer, and really really good at it, and his band was really awesome as well. Half of the members attend the church that I go to youth group which was cool to see. Antti is Pentecostal I believe, so it was held in that church. But yeah it was really really awesome. Theres a picture on my flickr from it, so you can go see that. Today I had one hour of school, sooo nice. And then I came home and we cleaned the house and then I layed out in the sun for a bit and read a book. But the wind was quite cold so I came back in and now I am here. Tomorrow I'm going to Anninas house to work on our project. Nuppe is really sick right now, head and nose stuff, no funnn. Mimmi went to her dads for the weekend. I think Nuppe and I are going to watch LOTR tonight, so that should be fun. Next weekend, for our fourday weekend we are going to Turku and staying with Sirpas sister and her kids. I hope that will be fun. And that is it ! enjoy the sunnnn. or at least I will, its probably raining where you are. Fun fun !

7 days

left of schooooool. although, its over the course of two more weeks, so it still feeels far off. So estonia was really nice ! The town, Tallinn, was really gorgeous, espescially old towne which was just filled with old buildings and shops and the side of one of the castles had been caved out for little hand knitted shops, sweaters and socks galore ! Haha. Well on saturday, after staying the night at Sirpas' friend Ulla's house we left for the harbor of Helsinki and boarded the huge cruise ship :) Nuppe and I headed off after eating and spent most of the two hours on the ship playing Joker Poker slot machines ! I think we only lost like 2 euros or something...pretty good. So then we got to Tallinn and waited picked up a handicap taxi (ulla is the one in the wheelchair) and drove over to our hotel. After dropping off our bags, Nuppe and Mimmi and I were staying in our own room, wooooo !, we went over to the hairdressers and shopping center. For a bit we shopped and then we had our hair appointment because its lots cheaper in Estonia than in finland. I was really dreading going, I really hate hairdressers and prefer to cut my own hair. The lady I got didn't speak a lick of english, and not really finnish either, although Estonian is rather close to the finnish language, but I suck at finnish anyways. So it was a bit confusing telling her what I wanted. I tried to emphasize that I liked my hair and wanted to keep it long, and that I only wanted 1 centimeter off, just 1. And at first she seemed like she understood all that and I was happy because I thought she'd finally be a hairdresser who listened to me. But then as she was cutting away, two inches of hair started falling to the floor. GAH. I hate hairdressers. During the cutting she kept looking at my hair in disgust and somehow I ended up telling her that I cut my own hair, and then she replied with (in finnish) "OH, I thought you just had a really horrible hairdresser in America" uhhhh. thanks ? What am I supposed to say to that ? I dunno but it was horrible and now my hair is the same length it was when I left for finland....fjdsaklfklsdaöjlask. Stupid. really. but I guess I can't really do anything about it. Anyways so after that we spent the rest of the day shopping. Then at night the girls and I walked over to the convenience store and bought Sirpa a cake for mothers day and asked the hotel if they could keep it in their fridge, which they did. And then the next morning at breakfast we snuck out from the table and got the cake and then surprised mom with it :D It was quite fun. That day we did some more shopping and hten when to old towne and then around 5 boarded the ship to come home. All in all it was a fine trip, really beautiful city. And has given me yet another reason to cut my own hair. :) But now I ahve religion class to get to, piictures soon !

estonia in two dayyyys.

what fun what fun what fun ! ITS 11.11 :D i made a wish. annina and I are wroknig on this really awesome religion project for our religion and ethics class, and we're going around to every church in our city and interviewing pastors on what they're attidtude is towards the use/abuse of intoxicants is. And its really exciting although we haven't actually interviewed anyone yet. We tried yesterday at the Orthodox church, but the pastor was on holiday. But tomorrow we have an appointment with Father Alexander, from the orthodox church, and tonight we're meeting with the mormons ! Next week we should be meeting with the Lutherans and then hopefullly the rest of them will reply to our emails ! But its quite fun, althoguh we're sort of crunched for time, I only have 9 school days left....so crazy ! Although its over the course of three weeks, so it seems far away still...Its mothers day on sunday, while we're in Estonia...I don't know what I'll do for Sirpa. Something. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of our trip, not many videos because I never have enough time to wait for them to uplaod and then no one gets to see them. So lots of pictures :) Tonight is youth group, I'm excited for it and Annina is coming with, yay :D Uh and yeah. we leave tomorrow at 16.00 or 17.00 and come back around 3 am on monday morning, but I'm really excited. I just hope and pray there are no fights...I dunno how likely that is to happen, but I hope it does ! But I've got to get to english now, we just had a listening exam, I think I did sort of bad....which is really sad. but anyways ! check out my flickr ! lots of pictures :D adios ! moikka ! see ya later alligator. :P

OH

and I DO have pictures for every day of the past two weeks for my flickr, I just haven't had a way to put them online, but I borrowed Annina's memory stick and they should all be up tomorrow ! Haha, there are a lotttt of them...be sure to check it out !

ho hee hum

this past weekend was indeed happy :) We had a three day weekend thanks to the wonderufl holiday of Vappu, which means free. Its in honour of the workers, so its sort of like Labour Day. But its just fabulous, downtown there was a huge bounce house and some carnival games and millions of booths set up selling candy and t shirts and other random things. Huge ginourmus fair balloons (yanno, those helium filled pretty coloured ones ?) were being sold, I bought a large pig ! It was sorttt of expensive, but hey, when it dies I can always fold it up and take it home and keep it forever. So I wasn't too upset. And there are colourful streamers put everywere and on everyone, and everyone is just so happy and yeah. It was nice. My host mom, mimmi, and I went to Paappa's cottage and spent the wonderously sunny weekend there. We went to sauna and swimming (for about 7 seconds) in the freezing cold water (maybe 40 degrees F or something...so cold) because all the ice had jsut melted. And we went boating, and climbed on rocks (I fell off one and got a large scrape all up my shin, it looks very pretty) and got a tiny tiny tiny bit sunburned (hallelujiah). And it was nice :D Its supposed to rain today, and I'm sort of hoping it does, I haven't had good rain since I left home I don't think. Maybe once or twice when I first arrived here, but its certainly been awhile. I went running last night with Annina and Piia and Make, it was really quite fun. I was supposed to go to the gym with Anna today but she has to work, so I'll try and make up for that and do something on my own. Tomorrow I'm going to go visit the Viertolas sometime and pick up my bike and have coffee or something. And on wednesday I'm going running again with the girls and on thursday Annina and I are going to youth group. Last week I took Nuppe with me...She hated it...haha, but I'm glad she at least came with me and experienced it. And on friday I leave around 16.00 for Helsinki to pick up Ulla and then go to Estonia for the weekend ! I'm excited for that :D and the girls (nupppe and mimmmi) and I get our own hotel room ! Yipppeeee :P And now I'm going downtown to go shopping with Annina<3 Today I sent out a letter to two very special little brothers of mine, hopefully it makes it there <3! :D

fifty something days

and then i come home :) If all goes as planned, I hope to return to the United States on the 25th of June. Not so far away, eh ? Right now I'm busy planning (or trying...my host mom is being a bit stubburn) my weekends and trips and things to do and such. This weekend we are going to Papa's cottage and guess what I'm maknig for food ! Aha, I think I'm gunna be sick of enchiladas soon....Oh well, everyone likes them, so I guess thats all good. Next weekend we're going to estonia ! Yay :D Then the weekend after that I'm possibly going with Annina to Tampere to go to Ilkka and Elina's youth group down there :) We're still planning that one out, so....Then the weekend after that I'm going to Turku to meet Sirpa's other sister and meet up with Bailey ! Yippee ! We have a four day weekend that weekend, so we're there the whole time. Then the weekend after that is the last day of school, yayyy. I'm staying in town to watch Piia and Make graduate but Saturday afternoon I think we're driving down to Helsinki (we as in my family here) to see their cousin Lauri also graduate. Thennnn the week after that, June 4th, is the big marathon that Piia, Annina, and I have been training for, but my host mom is being kind of dumb aobut it and saying I can't go because she had other plans...Plus that weekend is also Roosa's big birthday party that I've been looking forward to and she says that I'll have to miss that too. So we're working that one out at the moment, hopefully it all goes well ! Then the week after that I think I'm having my going away party with all the women in my life in finland at the raija's sumemr cottage in Kangasniemi, which will be super nice because we're just going to spend all day eating, going to sauna,swimming in the lake, repeat. Hehe :P And then soon after I leave ! Wow, I'mmm busy. :D

Hello to everyone ! and now I want some lunch, numnum.

Kesä on tällä :)

Summer is here. Goodness, finally. Well, rather spring is here, but its been so long since the sun has shined that it feels like summer ! The lake is still a bit frozen, but I think it'll melt within the two weeks coming. So my Rotary Conference was a bore. Seeing the other exchange students was fun, we had a blast at dinner, and at bowling. I hung out with Cindy for most of it, but I was surprised and how many other people seemed so different than back at Karkku (our language camp) or at Lapland, so it was really quite fun. Except when Rotary made us sit for four hours at a time listening to boring speeches in Finnish and in Italian....blahhh. But we found ways to entertain ourselves the first day, thanks to chet and kathleen ;D The food was nice, minus that huge cabbage rolled carrot thing...ew. Our dinner on saturday night took four hours to get through, but Trey Cindy Nathan, the girl from South Africa, and I all had a blast at our end of the table :P There are two kids who got here in January from Australia, Jordan and Ashley, both who were really quite fun and the girl from South Africa who was really cool, but I don't remember her name... I went home in the evening as Rotary wouldn't let the kids from Jyväskylä stay in the hotel (seeing as the conference was in our town) so Anna came and picked me up at 10 45 and I slept at their house for the night. Then we went back to the hotel at 8 15 and I met with all the other kids who apparently didn't sleep at all, so they were all dead. Nice. The first four hours of the morning were spent listening again to more long boring speeches in finnish and in italian. And then we had to sing some stupid song aobut grandmothers laying our mothers eggs and then our grandmothers laying ours ?! I dunno, it was so weird. It was one of those songs that has play on words or something ? "Mun mummuni muni mammani muni mummuni muni mun" were the words. So Fun ! Then we were off to lunch which was nice and then all the exchange students went home, which was the last time I'll see any of them, kind of sad. Anna picked me up and I went home to her house to finish packnig up my stuff because Sirpa came home on Saturday and was picking me up on Sunday. Being home is nice now, I missed my own room and Nuppe and Mimmi. Sirpa was in a good mood and came home bearing gifts :) I got a really nice shirt from Canada and....an 8 GB Blue Ipod Nano of the newest selection. Oh my word am I spoiled or what. I didn't really know what to say when I opened it, I was in complete shock I think. Who just buys their exchange student an Ipod ?! So crazy. But I'm really happy, it was really nice. Gosh it was so insane, I just gave her like some huge big hug hahah. But yeah, and then she made us waffles, num ! Tonight I'm going to the gym with Anna again, going cycling. I should be going every week from now on because the lady said I can go for free ! Wow ! Then tomorrow I'm ´planning on going running with Piia and Annina around 20.00, and maybe this weekend go to the fair with Petra and Pinja and Maria :) We have a three day weekend this week because its Labor Day here. Then in two weeks we have a four day weekend for some odd reason that I don't remember ? We have a lot of random days off. But we also have school on Saturdays sometimes...that kind of sucks (yeah well to be honest I don't go to those...theyre usually test days on subjects that I'm not taking) I now have to go ! Adios.

mä säin 4 suomen kurssilta !

I got a four from my finnish course ! yay :D I got 5/5 on listening, speaking, and text comprehension/basic understanding (aka the most important parts) and then a 2/5 on vocab and grammar...hm. well that little stuff is unimportant at this point anyways, so I'm really happy :) I have a Rotary Conference tomorrow, I'm sort of excited ? Well not really excited, but I'm not dreading it or anything. Anyways, tonight I'm cooking chicken and making a yummy salad for the Sainpalos and tomorrow after the Rotary thing I move back home, Sirpa comes home then :D So that should be fun. Yesterday Annina and I went a movie after school, Kieletty Hedelma, a finish movie about these two Amish like teen girls who live in the country side who then trael to Helsinki and experience with Teen Life down there. It was really good and I understood the whole movie ! (it was in finnish if you didn't catch onto that). Then we went window shopping and then went to youth group which wasn't the best one we've had so far, but I think next week's will be fun because its Labor Day in finland ! And they eat lots of doughnuts or something ? And give out balloons ? I dunno I'm rather confused by it all..anyways, I guess I'll let you know ? Now I'm off to school !

no internetttt. lalallaa.

well i do have it, but theres not really a way for me to upload any photos at the moment because my computer is being dumb and won't connect. So for the next uh, week or maybe even 2 no picture uploading...darn. Maybe I'll end up borrowing Annina's memory stick like she had offered...Yeah, maybe. Anyways, so just to warn you, no pictures for a while. But I can still blog :) Tomorrow I have my final big finnish test from my Finnish 2 course at the University. I got a 3 out of 5 on the first test in Finnish 1 so I really want a 4 from this one. Wish me luck ! Right now I am staying with the Sainpalos, which is really fun. My four days with the Viertolas was nice, but I really like it here as well. Last night I went swimming with Maria which was quite entertaining. We made up some wicked crazy dance routine thing in the water ? Haha, but we spent almost half an hour on making it up, so it was acutally really cool ! And then I swam maybe 15 or 20 km in the lanes. Then today I had school, english and art, art was really fun, we painted ! And we painted on these huge pieces of paper and I made a really big mess and had paint all over me and my clothes, but it comes off. But yeah, it was really fun. Then this evening I went with anna to her gym cycling class which was super really hard but really fun, look out spencer, I'm gunna be so ready for our tri athalon :P And yeah, then we had 15 minutes of cardio, which felt like 45. I'm pretty sure thats whereI need work....:D But yeah so thats sort of all my news I guess, I got to talk with my family (except Jordan, of course, who is forgiven because apparently he's in Yakima playing amazingly good golf, he shot a 76 today ! (which is really awesome for those of you who don't know golf) and yeah, I'm proud of my brother, although I miss him and haven't "seen" him since his birthday :( yeah...) Anyways, so that was nice except for Lauris computer (which I was using to Skype) died in the middle of our conversation, which sort of sucked. And now I'm ready for a good nights sleep !

Hyvää yötä :)

JYP VOITTI !!!%¤&!&#!

So yesterday was well, interesting on many levels, but it ended nicely, so I slept alright. But I'd like to start by going back to Weds. night of last week. Nuppe and I came home from soccer practice, which was really fun and I didn't play half bad, so that was nice. And on the way home we listened to the first game of the SM-Liiga Finals of Finnish Ice Hockey. My cities team, JYP (pronounced yoop) made it to the finals with a fairly good record from the regular season and were playing against the team from Oulu, a city up north in Lapland, the Kärpät (which is somewhat close to a Mink, but I have yet to know the real translation). To win the finals one team must win 4 games, the max played being 7, the min obvs. is 4. So on the first night, weds., we listened to the game on the way home in the car, and didn't get to see it on TV because we went to an easter play at Anna's church in a town near mine. But JYP won, 1-0 :) Yay ! The next game happened on friday and nuppe and I painted our faces, a picture should be uploaded to my flickr for that sometime soon...And yelled at the TV cheering them on, and dancing when JYP pulled out another win 2-0. The next game was scheduled for Sunday, Easter. If JYP could win with a shutout (not letting any goals in) then they would make history as the first team to go more than 2 consecutive games without a single goal against them in the finals. But they didn't :( Jyp did however pull out a 2-1 win which was just as nice :D The next game was for tuesday, last night and if JYP won then the series would be over and they would be gold medalists ! It was an intense game, Oulu was fighting for death, playing really dirty, but JYP fought back and had scored their first goal in 3:31 of the first period ! They whipped out another goal shortly before the first period ended, leaving the score 2-0. Somewhere in the middle of the second period JYP pulled out another, and unexpected goal, the score now 3-0. Just before the second period ended Kärpät snuck in and got one back, it now being 3-1. In the third period everyone started playing dirty, everything was on the line. Kärpät scored yet another and were gaining ocnfidence as they were one point away from being tied and sending the game into over time. But in the middle of the third period JYP made a breakaway and scored their fourth goal ! The score was now 4-2 Jyp, and there was 3 minutes left in the game, one of JYPs players sitting inside the penalty box. So Kärpät took advantage of the situtation and pulled out their goal keeper so that it was 6 on 4 on JYPs end of the rink. But with JYPs amazing offense one of the forwards made an awesome breakaway and skated down to an empty net, making the score 5-2 with less than a minute to play. It was over, and everyone knew it. It was so great. JYP made history as the first team to go 4-0 in the finals ! Yeahhhh. It was realyl exciting and I called Nuppe so that we could just scream with each other. (I had already moved to the Viertolas and she was at her friends house, so we had to use the phone to communicate our overflowing joy, haha) Anyways, so that was really exciting and today at school everyone is just happy and has no voice :D But yeah. So yesterday my host mom left for 11 days to Canada to visit her daughter Maija who is on an exchange in Vancouver. So I'm staying with the Viertolas until Saturday, then I'm with Annina for her birthday party until Sunday and then I stay with the Sainpalos until the next Saturday when I leave for a Rotary conference in a town nearby. I'm a busy kid :P Tomorrow I'm taking Annina with me to youth group, which I'm really excited for !!! I hope she likes it even half as much as I do. And then maybe on sudnay night or monday morning I get to talk with my familyyyyy "¤%#"¤&&#!"¤ Which I am more than excited for. And I'm actually really tired of typing now, so if I think of more I'll blog tomorrow !

lets talk about easter !

Cause its sort of really different here, but really interesting. So most finns are of the Evangelical Lutheran Church here, which is a lot different than my Evangelical Free Church back home. Easter traditions start around Palm Sunday where children dress up as little witches, decorate willow branches with fun things like feathers and tissue paper, and then go around to different houses singing a song at each door and recieving candy (and they say they don't celebrate halloween, ha !) The tradition has been going on for many many years, and its actually quite fun ! Mimmi and I made some willow branches and "Virvon Varvon"-ed my host mom (we sang the song), I have video of it, but uploading videos takes almost a half an hour for just one, so it really sucks. Then comes Good Friday and there is no school, many finns attend a church service lit with only one candle and singing songs without any instruments, its a very quiet day and many finns travel to a cottage for the easter holiday. My family is staying here because my host mom wants to be at her church. Then on Saturday night, around 11 pm, is the easter service which lasts until maybe half past 12, so thats tonight ! And then Easter Sunday there is a big meal, salmon or chicken, with Finnish Easter Pudding called Mämmi which you either hate or you love. I had heard awful things about it, and hadn't met many people who liked it, so of course I had to try it for myself. So yesterday, I ate mämmi ! And it tasted like eating pure molasses with cream. Not exactly the grossest thing in the world, but definitely not the best either....It was really interesting. It looks absolutely revolting, and the smell isn't too great either, but the taste isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Also during easter families plant little bowls and baskets of grass seed all over the house, my house has more than 15 ! Its to represent life, and the ressurection of Jesus Christ, and once the grass starts growing its actually pretty cool. Once the grass is tall and long you put little fluffy chicks and chocolate eggs inside :D Its fun. And then Monday we also have off and theres another church service for that, but I dont think my family is attending.

Some big events coming up:

Today: I'm cooking enchiladas for Annina's family ! And then maybe going to Chill Night, which is no longer Chill Night and is now a D.A., dinner appointment. Weird.

Monday: I'm going running with Annina ! Piia would be coming too, but she left yesterday for Italy until the 20th of April to visit her boyfriend ! He's finnish but is playing soccer for an Italian team, so hes living there. Gosh, Europe is so cool.

Tuesday: I move to the Viertola's to stay with them for four days while my host mom travels to Canada to visit her daughter Maija who is on an exchange in Vancouver !

Friday: My best friend, Annina's, birthday party is on Saturday until Sunday :D I'm really excited for that :D (I'm making enchiladas for her party, and her mom wanted me to try them out at her house first, hence the reason I'm going over today. Mom, I'm going to be better at these enchiladas than you when I get back !)

Sunday: After Annina's party I move to the Sainpalos to stay with them for a week until Sirpa returns ! I'm definitely excited for that, plus I should get to SKype my family while I'm there because the internet here is stupid.

The saturday after that, the 25th: There is a Rotary District 1390 Conference (My district, basically all of Central Finland-Keski Suomi) in Jyväskylä. It lasts for two days, but you can also choose to just go for one, so I need to figure out what I want to do.

Sometime in May: I'm traveling to Estonia ! Either the first or the third weekend, we're not sure yet. Sirpa's best friend Ulla is coming with us, so we have to check with her schedule as well. Ulla and her husband Arvo came over for Good Friday dinner yesterday, so I got to meet her. She's in a wheelchair. Its a really tragic story too. On the second night of her honeymoon maybe 4 years ago or something, her and her husband Arvo were taking a Safari in Africa when they're vehicle overturned and was in a huge crash, which left her paralyzed from the waist down. Ah, so sad.

Last weekend in May: I'm traveling to Turku with Sirpa and the girls to stay with Sirpas sister Pike (pee-kay) for the weekend. And just last week one of my best exchange student friends, Bailey, texted me and asked me if my host mom was Sirpa. So I replied and said yes and asked her how she knew, and she replied saying that she was giving a presentation at a school and was talking to the teacher who mentioned that there was a Jocelyn coming down to stay with her at the end of may ! So it turned out to be Pike's class that Bailey was in, so now I'll get to see her before I leave ! Yay !

And thats all the stuff I have planned for now :D Happy Easter !

good friday

or pitkäpäivää (long friday) in finnish. its today ! In finland that means no school ! Theres also no school on monday, which im pretty sure I already metioned. But today I was supposed to connect up with my parents on Skype but it didn't work, I'm pretty sureI can blame the weather. This morning we got a nice easter blizzard of three new inches of fresh snow. ITS EASTER. goodness, this is so bizzare ! So yeah, now it works just fine, and apparently the weatherman are still assuring us a nie 13 degree weather (maybe 50 F?) for easter, even with all this new snow. Gosh I hope so.....

heiiii :D

Hello ! It's been awhile. And the past week was crazy. Last week was a hard one for me, I got quite the bout of homesickness which wasn't too fun :/ But I think its passed now and I'm having a good week so far. Last weekend I traveled on friday with mimmi by train ! to a town called Iisalmi, about an hour north of Kuopio, the biggest city in Savo, a section of Finland. It was really fun and we stayed with mimmi's cousins, the Martikainen's, Senni is 12, Asse is 10 and Jasse is 8, so they were fun to be with. Mimmi and I documented the entire trip by video and ended up with 26 that I somehow need to find time to upload. I managed to get three or something up yesterday, but that was it and they were from the end of the trip, not from the best part on the train. So sometime soon ! This week is test week, so I dont have any school but yesterday I went to Nuppes school and it was nice. I just followed her to all her classes, ntohing too special. And today I had my big listening exam in finnish which went alright, there were only a few things that were really tough. Last week I had my remu aaltonen presentation and it went fantastic ! I felt so finnish, like the inner finn in me just came out and i was just pouring out finnish words and sentences, it was really fun :D Tomorrow I have my english exam in the morning and then a meeting with Marjatta to pick my last classes for the last period at school, so crazy ! And then an oral exam in finnish ! Oh gosh....I'm really scared for that because even though I know a lot of words and stuff, my pronounciation still sucks and thats what we're being tested on...Then on thursday I'm going running with Piia and Annina, which I did on Sunday as well, Make came too ! It was really nice and really fun. Then on friday everyone has the day off because of Good Friday (Pitkäpäivää in finnish, which means long day) and so we're going to a church service in the morning. Saturday I'm going to cook at Anninas house because I'm cooking enchiladas for anninas birthday party but her mom wants to taste them because she won't be there for the party ! So im making them for them on saturday ! I'm really excited for that. That night, around 23.00 we have easter service, that goes until after midnight to celebrate easter ! Which should be fun. And then easter is on sunday ! Its a big holiday infinland, we even have monday off too because its another special day. So that will be nice :D And now I'm going to eat !

So have a very happy easter, thanks for your thoughts and prayers !

Hyvää Pääsiästä !

and again

I fail to blog more than once a week, goodness. I haven't even been that busy really, well maybe a bit....but this lack of internet (my host mom went off on yet another work trip, taking the laptop along for the ride) really makes it tough. Let the recap begin !

Thursday: Hm. Well I went to school and to finnish lessons and then hopped on a bus over to Palokka and spent the day with the Sainpalos. It was really fun, Maria and I enjoyed the wonderufl sunshine HEAT, and played tag for a bit. Before dropping Juuso off at ice hockey we went shoe shopping for him and in turn Anna bought me shoes as well ! They were on sale and she was so excited :) It was really sweet, I am too spoiled. Then Anna drove me to youth group and Maria barely let me out of the car. Youth group was again really great, I sat with Jenna this time, the past few times I've always missed her somehow and end up sitting with Heidi. But it was really nice, the worship leader had such a unique voice, it was so nice to listen to. Ánd tthat was that and then I went home !

Friday: No school ! For me anyways becuase my psychology class was in france for a week and that was the only class I had on fridays. So I spent the day at home, sat in the SUN for an hour attempting to tan...hahaha. I took care of the demon cats who were living with us, whom I hate. Exccept theyre so cute ! But evil at the same time, life sucks. Anyways, so then the girls came home and we ate some food, I dont remember what. Mimmi had her friend Emppu over and Nuppe had her friend Inkka over, so it was a house full of girls.

Saturday: Mimmi, Emppu and I went to the swimming in the morning, I swam laps for the first hour, 2 km ! nice. And then went over and joined the girls and we hung out for a bit before going to shower. There was this spanish clan family at the pool that day and there was this 14 year old, or something, boy who kept hitting on Emppu and Mimmi, it was hilarious :D Espescially becuase he was doing it in english becuase he didnt speak finnish obviously. Hahaha. They hated it, but I got a kick out of it. Then I met up with Annina for some yummy pasta at this cute little restaurant and then her and I went to the mormon church. Chill night wasn't so bad, although it sort turned into me questioning their beliefs which I tried to do without insulting them...I really hope I didnt. It was a very interesting night to say the least, but I didn't go in over my head, I made sure of that. IM NOT CONVERTING. So please don't get the wrong idea. Then afterwards Piia and Annina came over to my house to spend the night which was buckets of fun. Except for the fact that we had daylighht savings time this weekend which cut off an hour >:O That kind of sucked.

Sunday: Annina and Piia left in the morning and Paapa came over becuase Sirpa was also leaving for her second trip of the week, she comes back tuesday and then leaves AGAIN on thursday. But on friday Mimmi and I are taking a train (!!!!) to Kuopio where Sirpa is and meeting up with her sister and her sisters kids. So that should be fun :) Nuppe isnt comnig because shes going to some other city with on of her friends. I'm going swimming tomorrow with mimmi and I have a big presentation on Remu aaltonen on Thursday with Franziska which we are so not ready for...Our time tables are really clashed, so its hard to get together. But I think it should be fine.

And thats it.

oh wow

it has been quite a long time ! I'm sorry....I've been wicked busy this past week, let me tell you all about it :) Starting with last Tuesday, after I blogged. I went on an 8 km, 5 miles, run with Mimmi which was really nice....not. Aha, I haven't ran in forever and I was dead by the end of it. But still, I did it ! Wednesday was the start of me getting sick, but I still went to school and it wasn't too bad, just stuffy nose and stuff. Thursday I had planned to go visit the Viertolas but I left schoool after the first class cause I was dying of not being able to breathe. So I went home and slept out on our covered porch because the fresh air helped me breathe. It was freezing though so I had two blankets and laid out on a bed of folding chairs...so comfy. :) I didn't go to school on friday, I only had one class anyways, and I was still sick. Friday night, around 9, Mimmi Sirpa and I left with Milli (my other sister who lives on her own across town, shes 19) to Tampere to stay at Papa's cottage. We got to the cottage around 12 30 or so and I went straight to bed with 7 pillows so I was practically sitting upright...so fun ! Then on saturday we went into the actually city of Tampere, met up with Sirpa's Godson Samu, hes 24 or something and was bald but had a huge beard ! He was cool though, and spoke really well english. We went to a tower much like the Space Needle only less cool and then we went to the Muumin Museum, Muumi is a famous finnish storybook character that originally started in swedish and now is in buckets of different languages. You should look it up :) Afterwards we went to a small town called Nokia, yes, where the phone company comes from :D, and went to this hugeeeee hotel pool water park thing which was super super fun. We sat in the sauna for about an hour before swimming and it cleared up all of my head and nose which was so nice. We went to Finnish Sauna, the kind where you throw water on hot rocks to make it hotter. And we went to Turkish Sauna which is a bunch of room temperature steam but really good for your skin. And then we went to Roman Sauna which is filled with white steam and the room is divided in half, one side for women the other for men, which was a little awkward, hahaha. But it felt really good. Then we went swimming ! Water slides, tunnels, lazy rivers, you name it. There was also this tunnel that led to an outside pool which is really nice in summer. But this was winter, but we went out there and then Mimmi and I ran out of the pool and onto the ice covered ground and laid on it for a minute and then ran back to the pool, it was exhilerating ! The hour long trip back to Tampere was really bad as I couldn't breathe which was no fun and I had to keep asking Sirpa to pull over so I could step out of the car and get fresh air, haha. But yeah. We came back on Sunday night and then we had to go watch Nuppe's soccer scrimmage which was outside and it was snowing and cold and freezing and miserable....but whatever. Then on monday I worked crazy hard on my Remu Aaltonen presentation with Franziska and then I came home. Yesterday I worked crazy hard on thinkng up themes for the yearbook, which was fun, but time consuming. I got one theme done now I'm working on a few more...I met up with Raija at 2 30 for coffee which was really nice, I miss her. Then that evening Mimmi and I went on a 11 km, 6.8 miles, run which was really nice because the sun was shining. But yeah, I was dead....again. She is tiny and a super fast runner, so sometimes I have to tell her to just run on without me and then come back for me,because I'm much slower than her...but she says she doesn't mind :) Which is nice. Today I was supposed to go running with Annina and Piia to train with them for a marathon that we're running in June, but I still have a nasty cough and it seems to get worse when I run. Plus I only had one class today becaus all of my psychology classmates are in France so I would have had to wait four or five hours until theywere done with school. So we're going on saturday and then they're both coming to stay the night at my house ! :) Also in the morning of saturday I'm going swimming with Mimmi maybe, so that should be fun. On thursday I'm going to visit the Sainpalos after school and then to youth group at night. Friday I have no school because of them being in france, so yay, three day weekend for me ! :) Right now my host mom is in a different town for work until thursday so Milli and her boyfriend are staying with us (and their evil cats >:O I hate cats. most of the time...) And that is that, I promise to blog more often now, sorry for the delay !

omena banaani

i miss piia.

but this weekend was pretty thrilling. thursday night youth group was again, so amazing. everyone was crying during the fantasticamazingwonderfulpowerfulmoving worship session we had, one of my friends from school had like a life changing turn over a new leaf experience, he was pretty emotional which was really cool to see. and yeah, it was awesome. we sang the song thats like "spirit rain, flood into our thirsty hearts again, you'll come." yanno ? but yeah, they did it really really well. anyways, so that was awesome. friday was another very short wonderful school day of psychology and then dr phil and cool soap operas :) it was nice. the girls and i watched the oc that night, which we have continued to do every night since, hah :) on saturday we had to get up at 4 45 to leave for nuppes soccer game in a city that was maybe 2 hours away, Kuopio. it was in this retarded egg shaped dome, a dirt field, and no heat. So it was absolutely freezing and pretty miserable, but I took loads of pictures to keep me occupied (some of which you can see on my flickr, www.flickr.com/ilovepaige345) and randomly gave out bandaids or ice packs. They played three games, but each game was only 35 minutes long ? No one really knew why...But yeah, they tied the first one, lost the second, and won the third in a shoot out. It was intense :P We got home around 10 or something, watched some OC and then went to bed. Sunday was pretty lazy which was nice, Nuppe and I made a fabulous lunch for everyone, and we even folded the napkins all pretty like (thank you McKay Campbell). When Mimmi got home that day (she spent the weekend camping with the girl scouts...crazy children) apparently both the girls were really tired and they got into this huge shouting screaming fight so lunch was awkward because Sirpa and I were the only ones talking....weird. But yeah, then Nuppe and I made a really yummy white chocolate cheesecake, mmmm. Janelle, I thought of you the whole time (and the fact that you failed to make me a cheesecake for my going away party...but I still love you <3). Monday was alright, I had psychology and art and art and finnish lessons, none of which were too terribly exciting, but not unbearable either. My yearbook teacher to be wrote me this weekend and told me about Yearbook Camp in the summer, so I'm really hoping I'll get to do that (hemhem mom and dad....:D) My host mom has been planning almost every weekend for me to do something, we're going on a lot of trips, which I'm super excited for :D This weekend we're heading to Tampere, a near ish city, maybe an hour and a half, and going um, sightseeing ? I don't actualyl know what were to do....Then in a few weeks were going to Turku, another big city, and then to Helsinki again for shopping, and then to Tallinna which is in Estonia ! I'm really excited for that (: and she said that we'll go to greece if she wins the lottery...so lets hope for that ! Yesterday she came home from work and the girls were both at scouts so she and I sat in the living room for almost half an hour and just had soem cool conversations, all in finnish. I was really quite proud of myself. She doesn't speak english very well, so I understand her better when she speaks finnish. Plus she is super good at speaking clear, slow finnish without being retarded, so its really been helpful. And yeah :D THEENDDNEEHT.

i feel a new day coming

again with the song lyrics...

today is thursday ! isn't that exciting. not really...life has been good with the turpeinens, my new family. i get on with the girls so well, nuppe and i act like real sisters and mimmi is always the sweet one :) I'm pretty sure its going to be lots of fun :D Although time is certainly flying by...kind of good kind of bad...I dunno. But this week has been nice. Tuesday night the girls and I had the house to ourselves because Sirpa, my host mom, left for a conference. We had lots of fun though, making things, mastering the german stars that lady from my dads work gave me (I have tried like 5489479321 billion times to figure out how to make them over the course of this trip and never could get the last part right, but finally ! we did ! and now its all we do...aahhaa) but yeah, and we watched a lot of the O.C., always good. Did I tell you about my fun bus adventure last week ?! Yeah well I meant to take 21, but somehow I got on 21M which takes the highway to Muurame, a different town, and I wanted to go to Säynätsalo, so I called Nuppe and asked her what to do and she said that I'd have to wait for another bus to come by and go back to town...But I didn't want to so I saw a sign that said "Säynätsalo -----> 6km" and I thought, well thats not too far...But I was wrong...After like 3 km I called Raija and asked if she was anywhere near and she started freaking out and told me that the town was probably 11 or 12 km more and that I'd never make it all the way within an hour...so she came and picked me up :) how nice. anyways, it was adventure.

I've had finnish lessons this week, they're alright, although this remu project is sort of really hard and annoying....bleh. But english class is fun at school, I get asked everythingggg, but its not too bad. Art is really cool too, we're working with colors at the moment and doing this cool colored paper creation thing, I'm sort of proud of mine :) We were assigned an essay in english, I haven't written one in so long, it felt sort of good to write again. Although I'm sure it was terrible. Psychology is alright, its the last course of it so I'm trying to actually learn a lot this time. Tuesday will probably be my favourite day of the week now because to school at eight and come home at 12, :D soooo nice.

I'm waiting to go to coffee with Sirpa in a bit, I'm at the university library. Tonight I'm going to youth group, looking forward to that definitely :D Hopefully I'll get to see Jenna, last time I think she was in the kitchen baking :/

But yeah, I still haven't figured out how to continue my picture uploads, but I've been taking the pictures for my 365, so if I do find a day, I won't have another big break in between.

TTFN !

im all moved in now

I've moved into my third and final house ! Somehow, I seem to have collected A LOT of stuff since being here....I came off the plane with two suitcases, and moving yesterday I barely fit two suitcases, my soccer duffel, my backpack, and seven grocery bags into Arvo's tiny Audi....I dont know where it all came from ! I have a big problem...

Anyways, so on Friday after leaving Annina's I went out to dinner with Raija and her friend Virpi and her daughter Suvi, at the little chinese place in Jyväskylä. It was quite tasty :D That night both my brothers were gone so I slept upstairs on the couch ! Just cause. and I hadn't slept on a couch since I left home, it was thrilling ! In the morning I talked to my family, except jordan >:O I assume the blame lies with matthew. But that was fun, I love talking to them :) Then I went grocery shopping with Raija because I was cooking for them on Sunday, mmmm twice baked potatoes, yummy chicken, a fabulous greek salad, and ice cream sundaes ! It turned out really well by the way. Saturday evening Raija and I went to a movie ! She had argued with Arttu about ordering the tickets online before we went, Arttu said we should have but Raija said that we didn't need to. But when we got there, Benjamin Button was indeed sold out. There were 3 finnish movies playing at the same time, but they didnt come with english text, so the only other choice was Confessions of a Shopaholic, hahaha. It actually wasn't horrible, but not my first choice for a movie...but it was fun. Although after the movie we were walking down the stairs and there was this old lady who had some disorder and had to use the railing to walk and there were these two stupid kids sitting right on the stairs drinking and asking everyone who walked by "mikä leffa se oli ? oliko hauskaa ?" (what movie was it ? was it funny ?) and then this lady was trying to get by them but she needed the railing, but they wouldnt move ! I was so mad, they were such jerks. And then at the bottom of the stairs there was a big patch of ice and the little lady couldn't go any where cause there was no railing and all the people kept walking past and didn't do anything. So I went back and took her hand and helped her across teh ice. I almost went back to the little brats but then I was too scared...aha. But gosh I was so angry at them. Anyways, so then on sunday I went on a lovely sunny bright sort of warm with Raija, and then later on we went again and Sanelmas dad bought us coffee because it was womens day yesterday ! Althoguh Sanelma didnt come because she was with arttu and told her mom to stop calling her and then hung up. Weird. But yeah then I baked all day, everthing turned out perfect if i say so myself, my host brothers ate everything ! Which is unusual. they usually dont eat what I make....I don't know why. But yeah, it was really nice. Then I went and moved to Säynätsalo and unpacked over there, showered and then slept, I was quite tired.

Todayyyy I have finnish lessons >:O but maybe they'll be fun. And I have to start writing this essay for english, but I keep procrastinating....

Thats it ! I have limited internet access, I should be able to blog, but as for picture uploads..I'm not so sure...I'll try and figure something out.

today

I recieved the greatest present ever to be given. Today I spent time with an aquaintance, a laugh, a cry, a shoulder, a heart, a listener, a giver, a friend. my friend. a blessing from God, an angel in my life. Today I got my storybook from Annina Kasvi. There is no way to describe the ultimate feeling I get just from looking at this book, touching all of the special details, thinking about the time and heart put into this, its indescribable. I'd like to thank all of you who contributed such kind letters and memories, tthey are something I will cherish for a lifetime. But more importantly I'd like to thank God, for Annina is truly a blessing from Him. Without her, my trip here would not have been the same.

I look forward so much to showing this incredible book to you and I hope to somehow introduce you to one of the most amazing people on this earth.

I am so lucky to have a friend like you Annina, thank you so much. For everything.




To conlcude, happy friday, and happy birthday matthew :)

videos

from last nights trip on the lake are up !


www.photobucket.com/josesuomessa !


and remember to check out my flickr www.flickr.com/ilovepaige345

let's go retro, party all night

Yesterday I went to the Sainpalo's to visit them, I was supposed to go also the JYP Hockey game with Anna and work in the kioski but the game got moved to this thursday, so I guess I'm going then ! Maria and I watched some cool disney tv shows dubbed in finnish, always fun. And played some board game called Blokus, it was swedish...but fun I guess :D Lauri came home, looking adorable I might add (;]) ahahaha, but yeah....he said hi and that was that. Then Juuso came and I talked to him for a bit about his break. We ate some delicious lunchdinner that Anna had made, she was at work though so I didn't get to see her...Harri and I shared a few laughs, I made some jokes in finnish ! yessss. I took the 17:55 bus from Palokka downtown but it went too slow so I missed the 18:17 bus to Muuratsalo...So I went on a walk out to the Kuokkala bridge and went out on Jyväs Järvi, the lake, and talked to random ice skaters and made some videos for you all to see ! But I haven't uploaded them yet, soooon i promise ! But yeah it was really pretty and nice, so I'm glad I missed the bus :D And then I took the 19:17 bus home and got home around eight ish. OH ! and that morning I had decided to ride my bike to the bus stop...bad idea. The roads were really snowy, ice wasn't the problem, it was snow. But Alvar does it every day so I thoguht surely that I could as well....wrong. I made it almost to the bus stop but then I fell over and was just sort of laying there for a moment, about to get back up when this car came up and started honking at me ! I was laying there, obviously jsut fell off my bike, could have been unconcious or something, and this car is honking at me ! I was so angry ! But it was fine...I parked my bike and continued to walk the rest of the way to the bus stop when I see this one girl running, so obviously I was about to miss it. So I ran, so fast !, and made it :) It was interesting. Anyways, so I then had to of course ride my bike back home that night, or walk it, but that seemed stupid, so I did and made it almost all the way, then walked up the hill to my house, not falling :D go me. Anyways, so yeah, interesting day. Today is wednesday, I have a jump lesson (hyppi tunti ? jumping lesson ?) like a break I guess, so I'm in the lab typing this up waiting for my psychology class to start. I had english with Annina this morning. Marjatta, the teacher, and my counselor, had me read the english vocab aloud and the class would repeat it, like five year olds. It was realllllly weird, but funny :) And everytime America was brought up she would turn to me and ask me "is that true ?" "is that how it works ?" "what about in your state ?" ahahaha its going to be a long period....:D
I need rotary to pay meeeeee soon, I need money. Well, not really, but I'd really like some. I think they pay me on friday. Just two days ! I move on sunday by the way, I'm cooking for my current family, chicken and twice baked potatoes and ice cream sundaes ! Woo hoo ! Raija is taking me to a movie on friday, Benjamin Button, suppposedly really good. Annina is also showing me some surprise on friday, wooo :D And yeah, life is good.

14 mondays left !!!!¤#"&¤#"&#YUQ"%!¤

Tuesday-Monday

So my meeting with franziska went great, we worked for about an hour and a half, and almost got 7 complete sentences done ! [we’re doing a report on a finnish celebrity, in finnish of course. So we have to do research online, translate what we find so that we understand it, and then re translate it back into our own finnish sentences ! We’re doing a report on Remu Aaltonen, a famous rock musician whos now 61 and still trying to make music, its interesting.] But anyways, so that was fun. Except at first Franziska and I had a little mix up about what library we were both thinking of, she thought the university library, but I was thinking the main public library….whoops. I got home around 5 ish, maybe a bit earlier. Mimmi had her best friend Henna over, she stayed the night. Nuppe made dinner, a delicious fish masterpiece, and I made a beautiful salad :D We watched Private Practice and then Pirates of the Carribean, Nuppe and I also enjoyed a nice long game of rock paper scissors slap :P Our hands were beat red by the end….haha. The cats go home today, we also leave for Helsinki ! We’re staying with Sirpa’s sister who has a really cute dog :) yay ! And we’ll come back on Friday :D


So obviously, that was Tuesday ! Today is Monday, goodness gracious I have a lot of catching up to do….first off, I have pictures up on my flickr [www.flickr.com/ilovepaige345] that you can look at. So ! Our trip to Helsinki was really nice, Sirpa’s sister was great, she had three kids, Riina who was moving out on Friday to her boyfriends apartment, Lauri who’s a senior, and little um, shoot what was his name…I forget. Well he was fun anyways, ten years old and plays every sport imaginable. Mimmi, him, and I played Scrabble, finnish style, and I WON ! wooooo :D It felt really good to beat finnish kids at their own game….ahhah yeah. Anyways. We went to an Aquarium because the weather sucked, but it was really cool, they fed the sharks ! We also took a nice long trip to IKEA, Mimmi’s favourite shop, and then Nuppe, Mimmi, little boy, and I went shopping ! I bought a 2 euro hat ! Yesssss. On Friday morning we packed up and headed back home, I slept almost the whole ride :) Friday night Sirpa’s neice and nephew, Senni and Asse, came over to stay for the weekend. They were really sweet and fun, we played Imagine If, finnish style :D [I won again, I’m a pro at finnish board games ! hoorah !] Saturday we went to the pulkamaki [sledding hill?] and then to the swimming hall for a few hours and then out to Pizza Raxi for dinner ! Longggg day, but super fun. On Sunday we went to Nuppe’s soccer game, they won both of them, 2-1 the first and 1-0 the second. And then I made enchiladas ! I’m now famous for them and all my families are begging me to make them for them :D Sirpa’s dad, the one with the cottage came over on Sunday and then asked if I could come back with him to his cottage and cook for him every night, hehehe :] Then we headed over to Sirpa’s other daughters house, Milli, who is 19, and had coffee over there. [Sirpa has four daughters, Milli lives on her own, and Maija is in Canada as an exchange student] Then Sirpa took me home and I talked with Raija for a bit about their trip, she bought me a stuffed reindeer ! :D I started to pack all of my stuff, I’m pretty sure I’m moving this weekend, I’m really excited. Raija is sad, and I’m a bit sad to leave her too, I really like her, but I’m so excited to move in with the girls, we get on so well.

But yeah, today I went to school and then Chet and I went on a walk around the city, it was a bit chilly, but not too bad. Tomorrow I have finnish lessons and school and then I’m going to the Sainpalos to hang out with them for awhile and then Anna and I will go to the JYP Ice Hockey game and work in the kioski ! Yay :]

And thattttttt is all ! TTFN :P

well well well

I have no internet. Well, I do, but not to use freely....I've spent the past four days with my next host family, they're erally great, I've had so much fun :) But I don't really have internet access....So yet again, my blogs may be cut short, as well as my picture uploading, etc. But yeah, the weekend was realyl great. Friday night Nuppe (14 yr old host sister), Sirpa (host mom) and I ordered pizza, went to sauna, and watched bridget jones' diary :D It was quite nice, relaxing. Saturday Nuppe and I went to the pool and swam for two or so hours, that was fun, we spent most of it in the wave pool or jumping off the diving boards. On sunday I went to Nuppes football (soccer) practice and pracited with them ! We ran stairs to start off with, I almost died. I haven't actually done anything like that sinc last year...nice. But yeah then we did some drills and then played scrimmages, I was in goal ! Haha, it felt good. Althoguh I sort of sucked...but they said they needed one, so hey I volunteeered. That evening we left for Sirpa's dads house, also their sumemr house, which was aobut an hour and a half away, near Tampere. We spent Sunday night and all of monday there, going to sauna, playing with the cats, watching the Oscars, etc. On Monday we went to a sauna near the lake and Nuppe and I ran out (completely naked I might add :P) onto the frozen lake and jumped around in the snow. It was really erally fun, but absolutely freezingggggg. But still so much fun :D On wednesday we will go to helsinki for a few days, I'm not sure what we'll do there,but I'm sure it'll be fun. Right now I'm at the public library....yay. And then next week starts our 5th period of school, I'm taking 2 art classes, english with Annina, Spanish 2 (which is really spanish 1), and psychology, along with my finnish lessons three times a week :D Busy schedule, but I have to get back into the swing of things, like actually working, before next year....

And yeah, aloha !

we just watched dr. phil

:) Today was another non school day for me and my still sick host mom, shes getting better though. I spent part of the day packing a bag for my week stay at Sirpa's house. Yesterday night I rode the bus home with my 14 year old host sister Nuppe, shes so funny and adorable, I think we'll get along really well :D She said that during this next week we might stay a night at her older sister, Milli's house, maybe go to Helsinki, and maybe see a movie or something. My host family leaves tomorrow morning for Lapland, Raija's been doing laundry day and night, packnig and re packing, its kind of hillarious. Yesterday was crazy busy, but really good. I had finnish lessons in the morning and we were assigned a group project where we have to research and make a presentation about a Finnish Celebrity, and at some point go downtown to the Compass and interview finnish people [in finnish!] about this celebrity. I'm working with Franzika [fran-che-s-ka] and we're researching a finnish drummer who's had a really hard life, Remu Aaltonen. He tried out for the EuroVision contest this year, hes really old now, and it was horrible. But apparently he was good when he was young. So that'll be interesting. Then I met up with one of the Rotary members, a globally known youth psychologist, Lea Pulkkinen, and we had a really good meeting where I really got to express my concerns about Rotary and what it stands for, etc. But she really understood me, so it was really nice. Then I saw chet for maybe 15 minutes and headed down to the Rotary meeting just in time for a delicious dinner of mashed potatoes and reindeer meat :D Mmmm, so good. After the meeting I went up to the church and went to youth group which was really really good, again. The speakers were two missionaries about to leave to live in South Asia and the explained all about why they were going and how they got involved and it was really cool and eye opening. It took me awhile before I even realized that being here is sort of my own little mission project, and I talked with one of the ladies afterwards about it and she prayed with me and we talked about everything, from being scared to seeing miracles, it was so cool.

Tonight I leave to Sirpa's, Harri brought me a bike today, so I don't have to walk so far to the bus :D And when spring comes its really nice to bike around the islands and such :] I'll take lots of pictures this week and try and blog when I can ! I finally got the professional photo that Annina and I took at the dance, its really cute, so I'll uplaod it here :D

Adios!

my host mom is sick

almost dying, or at least she makes it out to be that way. granted, she has been just getting worse, not better, for the past four and a half days....surprisngly none of us kids have gotten it yet, thats always good. So on sunday, right before raija got sick we went on a 6 km cross country sking trip to the end of the island and back, it was really exhilarating and fresh. We met Virpi and her husband along with the dogs on the way and tilta [the cute newfoundland] kept rolling over, again and again, in the snow, it was so adorable. On monday I went to school and met my counselor, Marjatta, and she took me out for coffee and we went over my schedule for next period, after the break. I'm taking English with annina :D, spanish [one of the first courses, so it'll be really easy], psychology, and art 11, wooo. I'm excited, I'll also have finnish lessons, which are usually fun I just always dread going to them, I dunno why....same with psychology class. After coffee I went to the library and did some finnish studying and then headed over to the university for lessons. We played a verb conjugation game and right now we're have student teachers teach us, they're two girls probably 20 or so, and they're both really nice. After that I came home and tahts where I've been since then. Tuesday I had no school and no finnish lessons, so I stayed home with my dying host mother bringing her hot juice, more blankets, or carrying her stuff upstairs so we could watch her favourite drama series from Australia, McLeoud's daughters or something like that. But it was fun, not horrible or anything, she's just not as funny when shes sick...and her english is worse, :] I made dinner for everyone that night ! Spaghetti, it was delicious. Then today I also had no school or anything, so I did the same basic things all over again, watched movies [the theif lord was really good, I must say], wrote some letters, watched tv, cooked some food, napped a few times, very relaxing. Tomorrow will be the exact opposite. I go into town at 11, finnish until 1 45, a meeting with a rotary psychologist at 3, the rotary meeting at 5, and then youth group at 7. Hopefullly I get to eat at this meeting, otherwise I'll be awfully hungry. Friday I'm not going with my host mom to her school because she isn't going either...so I'll spend the day packing my clothes and other necessities for the break where I'll live with my third host family, the Turpeinens. They came to my dance on friday and I really like the girls, Nuppe and Mimmi are really sweet, and Sirpa is adorable :] Next tuesday I'm going to work the kiosk at the ice hockey JYP game [you could look up JYP finland ice hockey on the internet, you might find something interesting] with Anna, and then maybe weds-sat I'll be in Helsinki with Sirpa and the girls, we're not sure yet.I'll be sure to take lots of pictures over the break, I have pictures and some videos up from the dance [www.photobucket.com/josesuomessa] and I'll try and get more over the break from my friends and such. Have a lovely wednesday, sorry I blog so ill frequently....I'll try and do better ! I think I have wireless internet at this next house, either that or I have no internet at all...I'm not really sure, I guess we'll find out on friday !

Vanhojen Tanssit

oli mukavaaaaaa :) Ah, it was so much fun ! I don't even know where to begin with the details of how it went. I guess I'll start in the morning. Raija and I woke up at 5 30, I ate some breakfast and proceded to brush my teeth for ten minutes [there ain't nothin' better than minty fresh breath] and then got dressed in tights, leggings, a tank, and sweats ! I'd put on my dress after getting my hair done. Then at 6 45 Raija and I left for Piia's house [Raija's niece, not her sister in law] and got there around 7 10. We sat down, and started to take out all the hair curlers which I slept [or rather, tried to sleep] in, and then did my hair. It took about an hour and a half to complete the whole thing and I got to school perfectly on time. My hair was really pretty, I really liked it :] At school we stood in line to take a picture and then marched down the stairs through a tunnel made of first years [sophmores]. At high school here there are different classes of students, sort of like an ASB, but there are multiple ones. Each class has about 20 students, and they usually have a lot of the same classes together, but not always. Annina is in 07 D or something, and Joonas was in 07 E, I think. So the sophmores have corresponding classes [08 A, B,C,D,E,F and IB, just like the juniors, and the seniors as well] So the sophmores all make up some sort of skit to perform on the day of the big dance that basically shows their "respect" for the older classmen :] It was really interesting, but really hilarious, one of the classes did a harry potter rendition, one did rambo, etc. So that was fun to watch :] Then we had to dance for the first years. All of the juniors were split up into three different groups, and each group did three different dances that we had been learning. My group went first and we dacned the Austrian Opening Waltz, the Virginia Reel, and the Tango, it went well, although my dress was too long in the back for some reason and I kept stepping on it ! And it was still a bit too big, so during the tango it would turn almost completely around and I'd have to secretly tryy and fix it during one of the turns...hahah it was hillarious :D After we danced for the sophmores we had two or three hours until our lunch reservation, so Joonas went to go visit his older sister at her apartment ? I just hung around at school....haha it was interesting. At 12 30 ish Joonas and I started walking to where we were going to eat for lunch but we made a stop at the supermarket to buy some food for him for later in the evening, the boy really doesn't stop eating, ever. Then we went up to Rosso, the restaurant we had reservations at and ate with Olli and his date, they were both really fun :] I had the vegetarian pasta which was really really tasty, there was peppers and tomatoes and summer pumpkin, mmmm. Two hours later we took a bus up to HipposHalli, the place we'd be dancing at. We had practice from 4-5 30 and then the parents started to arrive. Annina and I got a professional photo taken which should be emailed to me at some point this week I think, but it was really pretty :D And then at 6 the whole thing started, my host parents [all 5 of them] arrived along with Maria and Saimi [her cousin] and Nuppe and Mimmi [my next host sisters] so that was fun. We started off dancing the Austrian Opening Waltz, then virginia reel, tango, mignon, salty dog rag, our own school dance, cicapo, some traditional finnish dances, and then the finale the Wiener Waltz. I had loads of fun, and I'm sure we looked really nice, all the girls looked so prettty and the boys so dapper :) Our own school dance was awesome, and the best one there really, it was so much fun to dance to. I did get lots of pictures but the ones I have are really, um, not so good. So I'm waiting to get ones from Annina, and anna, and Joonas, and Piia, but I'll upload what I have. I also have videos of it, but since Joonas and I were in the second row, you can't really see us because theres always this one couple in the way....But we tried. Anyways, so afterwards my feet hurt SO bad, but it was well worth it. I didn't go to the afterparty, I just went home wiht my host mom [it took an hour to get out of the parking lot and Raija and I had to help push cars because the got stuck on the hills because of all the ice...:D]. And then yesterday was valentines day, and nothing special happened, it was just a nice day. But in the evening we had Virpi [Raijas best friend, the one with the cute dogs] and her husband come over and staying with them is this one man that their daughter Suvi met in Brazil last year and he is now in Finland. He's from florida and working on a business project he strated called K.N.O.W knowledge of the nationalities of the world or soemthing like that, and hes been travleing the world for the three years now. He's 23 or something and really awesome. we talked about everythinggg, from experiences to missing home to meeting new people to racism [he's black and wanted to know what it felt like to be black in different countries] He has amazing stories, it was so cool to talk to him. I hope I get to again before he leaves for some other coutnry. But yeah, now its sunday. Tomorrow I ahve an art test at 9 and then a meeting with my counselor at 12 and finnish lessons at 2. And tuesday starts my break ! Friday I'm going with Raija to her school, thursday I have a meeting with a Rotary member, and friday I go to stay with Sirpa [my third host mom] for a week while my current host family goes up north ! Yeah :D keep checking www.photobucket.com/josesuomessa for pictures and videos, they'll be up soon (:

oh gosh

is it already wednesday ? goodness time went by so fast ! I got my dress ! on monday, and its so pretty and fairytaleish, i really really like it. I went through Anna's jewlery collection and actually found a really pretty bracelet and necklace that look really great with my dress. I'm getting my hair done by my host moms sister in law who did her friends hair for her wedding, so I'm thinking it'll look pretty good :] I'm actually going to her house tonight to "practice" it, we'll see how it goes ! Yesterday was meh, not really all that interesting. On monday afternoon we practiced dancing in the hall/gym thing that we'll be dancing in on friday. There are about 700 pairs dancing, from 5 different schools, and then theres going to be all the fans watching us, its going to be sooooo crowded, but I'm definitely looking forward to it. The lady making my dress also used some of the leftover fabric and made Joonas a tie ! So now he matches and it'll look wonderful :D Today we had 3 and a half hours of dance practice, practicing our own school dance which we finally know all of, and joonas and I are actually one of the better pairs ! It's gunna look really cool I presume :] Tomorrow we have three more hours of practice and then we have this celebration for the seniors in our school, somewhat like a moving up assembly because the seniors now get a month off of school as a study break for their big huge ginourmous finals coming up. Its very different, but pretty cool I guess. So after tomorrow, me and my friends will be the oldest in the school. And then next week is test week, so I don't have much school but I'm going with Raija to her school and hanging out with her students for a day :] And Thennnn we have a winter break ! [like a sprign break, only in february] And my curent host famliy is going up north to lapland so I'm satying in Säynätsalo with my third host family and we're going down to Helsinki for a few days ! So I'm really excited for thatttt. And then its march, already.Holy moly, time is flying.

But happy wednesday, I gotta go shower ! Look forward to pictureeees from the dance !

Theres always too much to do,

and not enough time to do it all. After I left the library I took a bus up to the church to go to youth group which was SO good, it was really fantastic. I didn't really talk to anyone when I got there, except this man from Ghana who was really interested in meeting americans and other students strudying abroad. He's studying at the local university, he was really nice. I ended up sitting with Jenna's older brother Jussi, because Jenna was the announcer for the day, but it was fine. The thing I love most about this youth group isn't just the fact that the kids who go there are really cool, or that they're music is really fantastically awesome, or even the fact that we sing half the songs in english. Its because no matter who is there, or who is watching, these kids don't care, and if they want to jump, they jump. If they feel like lifting up their hands, they do it. There's no judgement or criticism, its so nice. I feel so comfortable there, its really nice. Afterwards we had juice and bread downstairs, and then I took the bus home. On Friday I had dance at the hall where we will be dancing, but Joonas never showed so I AGAIN had to dance with girls. I'm not really sure where he was, he never replied to my text, so I guess I'll ask him tomorrow...I dunno. I was pretty ticked that he didn't show, but whatever. I guess it doesn't really matter. Then I had an interview with Annina about the ways different cultures communicate or give speeches or something, it was pretty interesting....haah. And then I decided to go to her and Olli's math class and observe how they learn math ! It was really weird...I'm really really really bad at math, I forget almost everything about it. I'm really scared to take the SAT next year....hm. Then I had two hours of religion and thennn I met up with Maria downtown ! We walked around and went shopping for an hour or so, got something to eat, mmmm Panini's. Then we took the bus home and played tag on the walk to my house. For the first two hours we made "music videos" singing the choruses of the three songs we both knew, head shoulders knees and toes, hyvää yotä ja juomenta, and kaksi vanha puuta. It was VERY intersting, but hillarious. I'll upload videos when I have time sometime this week. Then we made Banana Bread ! Mmmmm and it is so tasty, it turned out perfect and everyone loved it. We watched a short film and ate candy, took a shower, and played card games until 11 30. In the morning we played in the snow for about a half an hour and then Anna came to pick her up. Around 11 my family and I went to the local ski hill and the boys went downhill skiing with their friends. Arvo took a snowboarding beginners class, and Raija and I went sledding on the kids hill for 3 hours straight. It was so much fun, we were the only big ones there, all the other kids were between 3 and 8 maybe, :] But they were so cute and wanted to race us and ahaha it was just so much fun. Afterwards we had a couple from Arvo's work come over for dinner, spinach shrimp pasta, and then we ate cheesecake, mmmm. In the evening I went over to Julia's and Chet came over and brought movies and we watched one at her grandparents house [its on the same property]. I had to be home by twelve so I made Chet walk me half way and then his host brother came to pick him up because the last bus leaves fromj Muuratsalo back to town at 11, [or at 3 am] And yeah. Then today I went running ! For the first time since last year....it felt really good though, but now I'm wicked tired and sore. And now its dinner time ! [yes, at 3 pm.] :D

its sunday !

today today today

is gunna be the day.

I don't know why I always use song lyrics as my title...hm. Well today is thursday, I'm currently at the local library downtown. It's actually really busy and I feel bad for using up so much computer time (but not really...:]) In two hours I'll go to youth group, which I'm excited for, but it really sucks to have to wait downtown after school for four hours....yeah. But I've just been walking around, got something to eat (a delicious can of peaches, some blueberry yoghurt, karjalanpiiraka (i have no idea how to translate that....)and orange juice, mmm) and now I'm at the library. European keyboards are really hard to type on...they have lots of funky letters like äåö and everything is in a different place, besides the normal letters of course. But yeah. So today I had art with the usual group of people, Chet Noora Krista and Julia. And then we had the most disgusting pea soup everrrrr. And then I had finnish lessons which were really fun we learned adjectives ! wooo. Tomorrow I have dance at the dance hall to practice our placement and stuff, and then I have religion and psychology. I then meet Maria somewhere downtown and we'll do a little shopping and then take a bus to my house, play some board games, bake banana bread (I've had to yell at my host mom nearly every day to not eat the bananas ! :]) and watch a movie or something. Haha so that should be fun. Yesterday was nice, I went to chill night and it wasn't bad, we played cards, spoons and egyptian rat slap, but chill night can only last an hour now. There are new church rules or something. I dunno, I don't really mind. Annina and I ate Submarine for lunch, kind of like subway, but better. More like quiznos really....and yeah. Thats it. Probably won't post tomorrow, so saturday hopefully full of lots of pictures and videos from the weekend !

Happy perjantai !