paljon onnea van

happy birthday to youuuuu. Marias birthday party was a blast, Petra and I swam in the pool for three hours with 11 ten year olds. Haha, it was crazy, but so much fun. Anna rented out the party room at the swimming pool and it had a huge sauna and in the sauna there was this one bench that was like a lift ! Haha, it was really cool. We roasted hot dogs over a fire, ate some finnish cake, fruits and veggies, etc. I also went to Railas [the dress lady] that day and was hoping to retrieve my dress, but when I tried it on, it fell down ! Apparently I've lost weight in the last two weeks ? So now she has to fix it AGAIN. And I don't get it until the 9th, which is 4 days before the dance. Which by the way mom, is on the 13th of February, not in march. I got a package in the mail from my mommy, some really adorable cards :] and a letter from Katy ! My brothers fantastic girlfriend, so that made me happy. Friday was probably the best day of the week, it was just really nice. I had dance in the morning and Joonas and I laughed a lot, and had lots of fun. We learned the Vienna Waltz which has so many crazy turns and spins but is going to look so cool in dresses and tuxes and stuff. Then I had a break and went downtown [of course] with Annina, we bought yoghurt and i got a can of pineapple chunks ! mmmmm, they were so tasty ! My yoghurt was nasty though, we weren't sure what was wrong with it....Then I had psychology which I did most of the takling in, I felt so smart again ! Aha. Then an hour and a half of religion, in which I now have my first homework project I've had in six months....I'm so excited ! They're starting to study Religion in America, so I get to give a presentation, wooo. I'm sort of excited :] So now I have to do research this weekend, and actually DO work, this is so exhilarating. Joonas also invited me to see him sing/act in a play on monday, so I'm super excited for that, he said I can take pictures, just as long as hes not looking :P So maybe you'll get to see that ! After school I came home and we had dinner in which I laughed with Arttu ! Yayyyyy. Actually, he was making fun of me, but whatever it was funny. I was talknig to Raija about skiing and how I didn't like going up or down hills and then Arttu said something in finnish and ended it with "newb" ahahah and it made my day :D I got a letter from matthew as well in the mail [this week was a good week for post, eh ?] And then later that night I planned to hang out with Julia so we went to her house to watch a movie and two of her friends were supposed to come, but it turned into 8 of her other friends, haha. But it was really fun, no one brought any alcohol, so I didn't have any sticky situations, I was worried someone was going to....But we just spoke english the whole night [which is SO hillarious, because most of them suck at it :D] and we played Alias, like Taboo, but the words were in finnish. But they made a rule that you had to describe in english. It was hard for me because I kept having to have someone translate the word, and describing it in a way that Julia would understand was hard as well. ahaha but it was hillarious :] I came home around 12 30, walking home sucked, it was cold. Today its supposed to be -16 again, I want summmmmmer ! I'm most likely going to chill night tonight, we're getting new missionary. And tomorrow I think Annina and I are going to church and then maybe working on my religion project ? I dunno, I might just do that today...I kind of want a lazy saturday, I've had such busy weekends this past month, I just want to sit and stay home. So yeah, then next weeekend I'm having Maria over night at my house ! I'm really excited, as is she, we're gunna go shopping and then watch a movie at my house and eat candies and speak finnish all the time. I'm really excited :D Annnnnnd other than that my life is just wonderful :p

Happy Saturday !

kiiiiiiiiirrrrrreeeeeeee.

busy. is what I've been. The start of this week has been crazy ! Let us re cap :]

MONDAY: It was quite a nice day, I didn't do too much. I had art, finnish lessons and no dance because it was a free day....Finnish lessons were alright, we were in the computer lab and did different online things to practice our finnish. I rode the bus home with Julia and we talked about maybe going ice skating on friday and then going to my house to watch a movie or something :] I think its still on....And yeah, then I came home and showered and ate and some other things, not too bad, not too bad.

TUESDAY: Probably one of the worst days so far here....maybe. Anyways, the day was longggg. I had to be at school at 7 then I had to run over to the University, maybe 2 km or something, and go to finnish and then run back to school to make it in time for lunch. And then I had a religion class where the teacher had me read about the person she was talking about online so that I knew what she was saying. It was nice, I felt special :) Then I had dance class in which we learned the Salty Dog Rag, a really basic but fun dance, to some jazzy swing music. Then I had to put money on my phone [i really hate pre paid plans...] and catch a bus up to Palokka to go to the Sainpalos. I got there and ate some dinner with Maria and Harri, Juuso and Lauri were [surprise!] at ice hockey...Then after dinner Maria and I walked over to Railas house [the lady making my dress] only to find that she wasn't home ! We waited 20 minutes and then went back home. I was really angry cause the dance is in two weeks and I'd really like to have my dress. So Maria and I then put on our skiing clothes and got prepared to go cross country skiing. We walked about a km up a this huge hill to get to the ski tracks and then started the 3.5 km trip...the first half was death, alllllll uphills. It went like uphill, flat, uphill, flat, uphill, flat, etc. I suck at going up hill becauseI don't know how and I always end up sliding back down, and there are other people there, and I almost ran them over,and it was terrible. Then when we had reached the top I guess, we started all the down hills, which are even worse and more terrifying because I don't enjoy going very fast down hill....So I'm going down the hills with my toes pointed at each other trying to go slow, almost killing more people, almost killing me.....it was horrible. So we finally make it to the bottom of the hill and took off our ski's to walk home. I asked Maria for my phone [she was holding it because it always falls out of my pockets] so she gave it to me, but stupid me, I kept it. So when we got back to the house I asked for it once more and Maria said "missä se on? aijaa muistan, annoin sinulle." [where is it ? oh i remember I gave it to you]. So then I started freaking out, knowing I had once again lost my phone....stupid me. So I walked allllll the way back up the huge hill and retraced alll of our steps, telling maria to call it and asking everyone we passed if they had found a phone...no one had. At the end of the trail I just stood there and said "its not here. its not here." and then ! IT IS ! So I found my phone, lying inthe snow, right where we had stood when I asked for the time....>:[ But I only had about 5 minutes to get all the way back to her house, pack my stuff, and catch a bus back downtown to catch my bus back to muuratsalo. I put Maria on my back and literally ran all the way home, I'm sure we looked like the people from AMazing Race where one of the players gets hurt and the other carries him across the finish line...haahah. Anyways, so I missed the bus from Palokka so I begged Harri to drive me down there. We had 12 minutes....so I told him to speed and whenever we hit red lights I blew and blew and blew ! [ahaha grandma :] thanks for the tip] it worked too ! We got to the station and right behind us was my bus, so I made it. And I made it home. Barely. Anyways, so it was really hectic and everything. But Anna called today to say that Raila thought my appt. was today [which it wasnt !] but that I can pick it up tomorrow. So thats good.

TODAY: Was nice. Really short :] I bought dance shoes, which you can see on flickr, www.flickr.com/ilovepaige345, only 20 euros ! What a steal ! And I practiced with them in dance class today, they're really quite comfy, so I'm happy. Arttu and Sanelma made pizza [again?] tonight, it was good. They're all in sauna right now. Maria might be coming over next weekend to stay the night, I'm excited for that :D Shes really fun to be with. Anddddd yeah :) I'm in a good mood now, I hope you're having a wonderfully fabulous wednesday !

happy sunday :]

This morning I went cross country skiing again ! On the frozen lake with my host mom, it was a bit easier than yesterday because there were no hills, but then again the whole time you have to be working your arms and legs, there is no resting point like there would be going down hill. I took a few videos [www.photobucket.com/josesuomessa] that you may enjoy :] At three we had our neighbors over, they have two boys Arttu and Alvars age, Johannes and Tobias. Johannes was really sweet and tuned my guitar for me, Tobias sort of reminded me of the chubby kid who is forced to eat the chocolate cake in the movie Matilda....aha. We ate some realyl good pasta and then had blueberry pie and ice cream for dessert, it was quite delicious. We sat around and talked for three hours about all sorts of things. Arvo is now skiing by himself at the same place we were at yesterday, and Alvar Raija and I are watching some old 80's or 90's movie...its interesting. They're fighting over the remote control like siblings, its hillarious. Tomorrow I have a short day at school, I might going to coffee with Kirsi, Barbaras old host sister who goes to my school. I'm not really sure yet. Last week I got in touch with a lot of the kids on exchange from washington state and we've been talking about all of our experiences and what not, its kind of cool :D Tuesday is my dress appointment and thursday is marias party, other than that I don't think I'm doing anything too exciting...Hopefully you're having a fantastic weekend !

Cross Country Skiing

was the adventure I took on today. It really is quite difficult, I was definitely on the ground way more than I was up and going...I mean it was fun and all, once I sort of got the hang of it, but falling four thousand times really started to get frustrating, and painful. But all the more hillarious :] We started out on a hill, which in my opinion is really stupid to put a hill at the beginning of the trail, but oh well. It was frightening, and I have it on tape ;D [www.photobucket.com/josesuomessa] and I almost killed 5 different people. The hills were horrrrrible, more than you know. You have to walk up the hill with your feet almost completely sideways, and its death. Down hill is really frightening, espescially when its big and just gets steeper as you go. On the biggest downhill I made it halfway down and then faceplanted, and then when I got going again I made it all the way to the bottom, but I guess I got too excited and then I front flipped head over heels, thank goodness snow is a soft landing, but even then it was probably the most painful of my falls. I eventually got good enough to work on my form, and the whole time Arvo would just randomly film me trying to attempt some great task, like starting....haha. But hey, it was really fun and we went 2.5 km, maybe a mile or a bit more ? The most hillarious video is the last one, which you have to promise to laugh WITH me and not AT me, because its really funny, but i definitely look stupid...I faceplanted trying to go uphill....:D But yeah, it was really fun, ish. I'll do it again no worries, but maybe not tomorrow. In an hour I get to talk to my loveeeely brother Jordan and then my host brothers come back home from their days activities [alvar went skiing and arttu went to Sanelmas]. I hope you have a lovely saturday <3

happy birthday beeeeef !

Jordan turned 19 today...so crazyyyy. Sorry I wasn't there to experience it :/ Today was also Barbara's last day at school, she leaves for Helsinki on Sunday morning and flies to Italy on Tuesday...for good. I made her a scrapbook with pictures we took [ www.photobucket.com/josesuomessa ] and gave her some starbucks coffee to remember me by. We skipped religion with Saga, Anna, and Petra and went to have one last coffee together. It was really fun and Barbara and I danced on the streets to the tune of some homeless guitar player :p Arttu and Sanelma made pizza tonight, it was really good ! Pizza dough, tomato paste, ground meat, onions, sliced tomatoes, and pinapple and cheese...interesting combo, but it was really tasty. And Raija made a cake ! We're eating it tomorrow though...darn, it smells really good. Raija, Arvo, and I went for a walk and I picked up the neighbors dogs Tili and Tilta [a springer mix and a newfie !!!! I love tilta, shes only 6 months old and so adorable.] and went around the island, it was really fun :D Tomorrow Raija and I are going for my first cross coutnry skiing experience ! I'm rather excited, I;ll make sure to film and take pictures, I'm sure they'll be hilarious, I'm not expecting much from myself....I'm not sure what my plans are for tomorrow but next week I have my [hopefully last] dress appointment and on Thursday Marias birthday party ! And yesterday I went to see Changeling with Petra, it was SO good, sad, but really good. I definitely reccomend it, and Australia. It was a "superpäivää" [super day] at the cinema and all tickets are only 5 euros and popcorn is only 2. [compared to 9 euros and 4 90 popcorn on normal days] so it was a nice deal, they only come about once a month, not even that. So that was fun, tonight Big Mama is on TV, I think we're going to view it, I don't really remember what happens ? I think it was funny though. Other than that, I'm talking to my brother tomorrow, to wish him a very happy birthday, while the rest of my family travels to Hoaquium [or something] to watch Micah compete in the Regional Basketball Hoop Shoot, best of luck to him !

:]

Yes yes

Yes, I meant to post a blog yesterday, but I have this thing called a grumpy host brother who loves to play counter strike which requires a lot of bandwidth and I therefore cannot be on the internet. BUT he only talks to me if I ask him a question, any other time, like when hes mad if I’m online, he whines to his mom. Its so stupid and annoying, he had his girlfriend over yesterday, from 4-7 30 and I wanna give them their privacy yanno ? so I don’t go upstairs when theyre here. Then once sanelma leaves I go upstairs to finally use the internet, just to hear arttu teling his mom “mom, can you tell jose to get off the computer, it slows down my gameeee” and I understand finnish, so I know what hes saying. Raija doesn’t ever say anything to me, she knows that he gets grumpy, but then he just sits at the computer and slams the mouse and keyboard because it goes slow and goes “aiiitiiiiii [moooommmm]” so I just got up and left and was unable to blog. And that’s my excuse. Anyways, so, Sunday afternoon….I’ve sort of not gone to church in a while, which I know its not a good excuse, but I hatehatehate having to go an hour early to everything and come home an hour late just because of the bus and the 20 minute walk…it really sucks. So I decided that I would have church at home ! I figured something was better than nothing, so I told my family that I’d like a few hours to myself, locked my door and pulled out my cd collection. I chose 8 cd’s, most of which are from matthew, 2 from Janelle, from hillsong to jon foreman, some classical music, and mix cd’s. I then took out my ournal, randomly selected a cd, put it in and played track 1. while it played I wrote down my thoughts/feelings about and then like thought about how I could relate to God [some were worship songs, so sometimes it wasn’t too hard…] But for the classical songs, or songs about relationships or something, it was rather hard. But it was really nice, for the second cd I played track 2, and so on until I had gone through each cd twice, with 14 song descriptions. I felt really nice afterwards and took a short half nap and then came out of my room. It was quite fun :] On Monday I hadddd art, by myself because Barbara skipped ! >:[ and then Psychology and dance class and then finnish lessons ! It was a fun day, but really long….although not as long as Tuesday. I had to be up at 6, and I didn’t come home until 4. And I didn’t have any breaks during the day, I had art [with Barbara :DDDD], then finnish lessons, then religion [we watched the movie “Luther” about Martin Luther] and then dance. Right now in dance we’re learning the dance that a group of girls from our school made up [each school creates their own dance to perform] and ours is to the song “you can’t stop the beat” from Hairspray. Its so fast ! and sexist ! and turny flippy spinny jumpy, I honestly have no idea how we are going to do it in long gowns and high heels, we’re going to die….But it is really fun, once we remember it all….And then on my way home I got off the bus with Sanelma who actually has never said more than “moi [hey]” to me, but as soon as we started walking, she started talking ! It was crazy, but we talked the whole way home, about all sorts of things and decided we wanted to move to Hawaii because we hated the cold :] it was really cute and nice, shes really sweet (I don’t see what she sees in Arttu….) And then at 7 I watched the Inauguration of Barack Obama, it was really weird, watching it, knowing that I now have a new president, but I’m not even in the country…I dunno, it was an interesting feeling. Then came the angry arttu and I couldn’t blog….And then today, I woke up with 15 minutes to spare before I had to walk out the door to catch the 7 am bus [meaning I had to leave my house at 6 40] and I had religion this morning, which wasn’t terrible ? I just copied down a lot of finnish notes and told myself I’d translate them later, which probably isn’t actually going to happen to be perfectly honest…but at least I wrote them down ! And then I had a break so I went shopping for Barbara’s present with Annina. I found the cutest scrapbook and some ribbon and letter stickers and tomorrow I’m printing pictures and then giving it to her on Friday, the last day that I see her :/ And then we ate lunch, mmmmm porridge<3 href="http://www.photobucket.com/josesuomessa">www.photobucket.com/josesuomessa check them outtt and have a wonderful Wednesday !

just so you'll stop, yes you.

So I just got back from a majorrrrr 1 hour and fourty five minute walk with my hosties on the frozen lake with Nordic Walkers, the oh so popular walking stick in Finland. They help you get more than just leg movement while youre out walking, its acutally quite nice, really stretches the back :) Anyways, so it was fun, we stopped and talked to some ice hole fishers along the way, he pulled out 3 fish while were there ! And they were hugeeee. I have pictures, they'll be up soon, www.photobucket.com/josesuomessa [if you dont have it favourited yet, you're lame.] And yeah, it was really fun, and nice weather. Only about -7 celcius today, with a slight wind chill, that part sucked...my chin always freezes and it makes it hard to talk :/ But even though I sometimes dread going on walks, each time I go I always feel so much better when I get back, its so refreshing, you should try it. Mom and Dad, look out, we're going on walks when I get back. Anyways, so my host mom is cooking pork, my favourite....not. It'll be interesting. And then I might be going to church....I'm not really sure yet....Tomorrow is school :/ But we have dance :] So I'm excited for thattt. Last night Anna, my previous host mom, called me and just wanted to chat, so we talked for a while, and then Maria wanted to talk...I do fine understanding her in person [she only speaks finnish, no english] but usualyl we can use examples and hand motions and such to further explain, this was our first phone conversation. But it went well ! I asked her what she did that day and she told me she and Saimi went ice skating and that she was going again tomorrow, and that she watched videos on the computer and played dolls. So we had a nice chat :) I was proud of myself. She invited me to her birthday party next thursday, Anna asked if I could be a supervisor ish thing with Petra, so I'm excited for that, we're going to the swimming pool ! Woo (: So yeah, hope you had/are having a fabulous weeekend.

i just baked

pulla ! and lots of it :) Raija and I made it and it tastes so yummmmmy, I seriously cannot wait for you all to try it back home, its so delicious. I took, well rather Raija took, some photos which should be up by the time youre reading this to view here: www.photobucket.com/josesuomessa. Dante [exchange student from canada living in a town from me, Lahti] is in town at some hackysack/footbag competition in Jyväskylä, pretty stellar. Uh, while waiting for our pulla to rise Raija and I took a quick lap out onto the re frozen lake [10 inches !], it was so pretty. There was even a rainbow ! In the middle of winter ! It was so cool, Raija said they're really really rare, so it was really cool to see that. You can view pictures of it here: www.flickr.com/ilovepaige345 ! And now I'm just sitting here, full of yummy pulla [pronounced poo-luh btw] and I'm not sure what I'm going to do the rest of the day or tomorrow...I really have this urge to go running which I haven't done since like last spring maybe...haha. But its so freaking cold outside that I would probably die, quite literally. So maybe not...and yeah, not much else to say I guess....Hyvää Lauantai ! [happy saturday, pronounced hoo-vah [a as in asteroid] l-ow [as in cow] - un - tie [like a neck tie]] :'D

were gunna have some fun tonight,

all right here we go, here we go tonight.

TUESDAY: What did I do......hm. Well I wore boots :) I had another dance class, we learned the Virginia reel, an old hicktown southern dance, yeehaw. I really don't know how they expect us to do all this running and jumping in long gowns and high heels....They're crazy. I also went to Chill Night that night, not the most exciting day ever, but it was better than sitting at home doing nothing ! I was sick on Tuesday and couldn't really eat anything, so that was no fun :/

WEDNESDAY: Hm. I don't really remember wednesday either....this whole week has kind of blended together, a lot of the same things over and over again. I started the day off with a really hillarious art lesson with Barbara, the Italian exchange student, who is leaving to go back home for good in 10 days :/ I'm really sad. So every day we've seen each other we've had a party ! On wednesday we took paint and painted a picture outside the classroom and then while waiting for it to dry we had a dance party to old Disney songs and Backstreet Boys from her iPod, pretty much the best thing ever. :D It was super fun and by the end we were half crying half laughing cause we were having so much fun, but she's leaving so soon :[

THURSDAY: No dance class today, just psychology religion and art, and finnish lessons ! Barbara didn't have anything to do so she came with me to my finnish lessons and hung out with me there ! They were actually kind of cool, the kids in there are all really cool, and the teacher is super nice. I have them three times a week and she teaches in parallels, so she speaks in finnish and then says it in english afterwards, so its really helpful, I'm glad I'm finally getting a hang on it.

FRIDAY: Well today was nice as well, we learned to Waltz in dance class which was really fun...althoguh I got stuck dancing with two boys who didn't speak any english and weren't really talented at dancing, at all...but oh well, they can't all be perfect. Then I hung out with Chetttt and it was um, interesting, but fun. We just went around town sitting in different coffee shops and random staircases and whatnot...really interesting. And then I came home and made enchiladas for my host family ! They turned out quite well, althoguh I dunno if my host brothers liked them...they didn't really eat them...but my host mom and dad did :] And I thought they were delcious, although I'm still feeling sick when I eat, so I didn't really get to enjoy them to the fullest....Hopefully that goes away soon. Its no fun >:

Tomorrow I'm baking finnish Pulla in the morning with my host mom and then possibly going to Chets ? And then maybe to saturday chill night ? I haven't gone to youth group in awhile and I really want to, but going downtown by bus takes more than an hour...so it sucks to have to leave so early to get places and then leave that place early to get home on time [I have a curfew here], so it kind of makes things difficult....I'm looking for a way around it, but I've found none so far. Right now my host brother Arttu is at his girlfriends house and my host brother Alvar is spending the night at his friends house near by, so its just me and my hosties at home, its quiet :]

Wishing you a fabulous weekend ! It was really warm last weekend and into monday, +3 celcius or close to, but now its finally getting cold again, today it was -15 celcius, yayyyy :] The half warm/half cold weather is horrible and gross and wet and not fun >: Either it needs to be really cold or hot, not in between.

Happy Friday !

rules for easy living

rule number one: don't wear nike dunks [grandma, its a type of shoe now in fashion] when everything, and i mean everything, is slippery.
rule number two: don't walk quickly while wearing dunks when its slippery.
rule number three: don't look up while walking quickly while wearing dunks when its slippery.

following these three simple rules will save you from falling not once, not twice, not three times, but four and suffering from intense humiliation because when falling not the first, second, nor third, but the fourth time you slide into some poor innocent bystander and bring him down to the watery street as well.

Yes, if you haven't already guessed, this was my day. What, do I need to wear a reflectors vest, flashing lights, and hold a sign reading "Caution: standing in close proximity may result in a lot of pain, or even death." ?

Bah. It was terrible. And then I was in wet jeans for the rest of the day >: But my whole day wasn't terrible, when I was inside, where it wasn't slippery, my classes were really fun. I had art with Barbara this morning and it was probably the best art class I've ever had, we couldn't stop laughing ! But she leaves in two weeks to go home, back to Italy, for good :/ I'm so sad ! After art I had psychology, meh. not too fantastic, but not completely pointless either. And then I had dance ! :D Its so much fun, even though I'm not the greatestttt dancer ever, Joonas is super good, and super fun to be with, so I'm having a good time :] Then I had to run [okay, not really because I had learned my lesson (finally) that I should just walk slowly] over to the University for my first Finnish 2 lesson. My class is small, onlya bout 10 people compared the the 25 or so in the first course...but I like the teacher a lot and the girl sitting next to me was nice. After finnish I went back downtown [I walk SO much here, I don't know how I'll survive when I get back home...guess I'll be walking ! hey, less gas money right ? except, finland doesn't have hills....so that could be a problem...] and caught a bus up to Palokka to go try on my dress, which wasn't finished :[ But it was super pretty and fit just right and is so perfect and has a huge but not too huge (hm...rusetti...thats the finnish word, but I can't think of what it is in english...not a ribbon, but you know. um. like. A BOW ! aha wow.] on the back, its so princessy :D The lady making it for me doesn't speak any english, so I told her "en tieda kuinka tanssia, mutta mulla on ihana pari ja nyt ihana mekko !" = "I don't know how to dance, but I have a great partner and now a lovely dress !" She smiled :) And then I went over to the Sainpalos and visited them ! Harri was the only one home when I got there, Maria was at girl scouts and Anna at work, Juuso at ice hockey of course. And Lauri was in his room. So I talked with Harri for a bit and then Lauri came in [he lives in a bedroom in the garage] and at first he walked in without his shirt and I was like "hiiii :D" and then he said "oh..." and turned right around, back to his room, and came back with a shirt :] It was so cute. So I talked with him for a bit and we watched a reallly old episode of The Hills on MTV and then Maria came home ! She showed me all of her new Bratz that she got for Christmas and then we played a board game until her mom came home. We chatted for a bit and then Anna drove me to the bus station and I got on the bus to go home. An hour later I walked in the door, almost dead from walking home because the roads are so so so slippery, luckily, I didn't fall...And yeah. My day was really good and really bad ! wooooo.

friday nightttt, lets go.

So Piia's birthday was a blastttt ! She invited 6 people, Make, Annina, Ella, Hanna, Tipu [?], and me to go rock wall climbing with her and hang out at her house for a while. Before going to Hutunki, the rockwall place [and bowling, and pool tables, and badminton, and tennis, and and and...] we ate chips and dip, Arnolds, and grapes and then played Yahtzee ! Make and Piia were the only licensed drivers so we all rode with them, Piia attempted to do a doughnut in the back corner, but the first time we only got halfway around...so we tried again ! And she drives a hunk of a car, its like a Lincoln Towncar, only made by mercedes....yeah. So, not really the best car to do doughnuts in...but hey, we successfully made it around a full circle the second time. :D Then we went inside and got changed into like p.e. clothes and walked to the back room with climbing walls ! We met our instructor/rope man and tried to find shoes that fit. Piia went up the wall first, followed by Make and then Hanna. I went after Annina and apparently was super fast ! It felt like ages though, but it was really fun. Your arms feel like really thick jello afterwards, it was so weird. Then we tried to go up the second wall which had smaller stones and at the top was a slant...Piia and Make were the only ones who made it all the way up. I got stuck about 3/4 of the way and couldn't find any stones to grab on to...and then I fell off which was scary cause the rope man didn't stop my rope quickly ! So I was like free falling....but it was hillarious afterwards :] Of course I took pictures, which you can see at: www.photobucket.com/josesuomessa ! Wooo, fun. Then afterwards we went back to Piia's and played some more Yahtzee and then I had to catch a bus from Piia's house to downtown, and then from there back to my house....more than an hour and a half of bus riding....bleh. And todayyyyy I'm going to see the movie Australia with my friend Julia who lives down the street :D So that should be fun, hope you all are having a nice weekend ! Happy Sunday :]

happy name day veikko :]

yes, finland has name days. its like a birthday for your name. its pretty cool. Today was veikko and a few others that I don't remember, but I have a friend named Veikko, so happy name day to him ! This day was a nice relaxing no stress friday, I always enjoy those. I didn't have school until 1, and it was only one class, history of religion. I don't really mind the class, yet, but it does get a little annoying not understanding a thing the teacher says minus a few words here and there. But maybe with time I'll start to get the hang of it. My host mom made us pizza tonight, it was good. Although, finnish pizza is SO different than American pizza. They don't have like, certain pizza's with different toppings, they kind of just put alllll the toppings on one pizza. Pepperoni, cheese, olives, onions. garlic. tuna, pineapple, chicken, shrimp, salami, ham, etc. [yes. i did say tuna. yes, i did say shrimp.] But Raija knows that Alvar and I don't really care all that much for the all in one type pizza, so she made a ham, salami, pineapple, and cheese pizza for us and a pepperoni, tuna, shrimp, olives, and cheese pizza for her and Arvo. Arttu hates his mom's pizzas so he opts for a frozen microwaveable pizza ! Go him. After dinner I went for a walk with my new friend Julia who lives down the street and happens to be in my art class ! We stopped by Raija's friend Virpi's house so that Raija could go walking with her and so I could see their adorable dogs Tilta and Tilli. Tilta is a newfoundland and only 6 months old, and tilli is a mix of some springer something and is 7 or something. On our way out, Virpi asked if I wanted to take the dogs with me ! I of course said yes, they are the cutest things ever, so Julia and I took them on a nice walk around the island ! It was super fun and after dropping them off back home I went over to Julia's house. She has two younger brothers 13 and 11 who seemed quite nice and said "hi" to me, meaning they spoke englishhhh. Julia and I sat in her room and played with her cat, looked at some pictures, and just talked about different things for a while and then I walked back home :) So yeah, it was a nice day. Tomorrow I'm going to Piia's 19th birthday ! We're eating some yummy food at her house around 3 and then at 5 we're going rockwall climbing ! I'm very excited :D Anddddd on sunday I'm going to see Australia with Julia maybe ! So it should be a fun filled weekend, hope yours is as well !

oh. my. word.

its 8 27 am. the sun is still down [as always], and its -18 degrees celcius outside.


do you know how cold that is in farenheit ?


-0.4. NEGATIVE. BAH.


itttttttts death out there.

i need to go now and put on 3545742763 more layers.


enjoy your nice 40-50 degree rain, ill enjoy the nice clear blue skies of negative degree weather :D

it just keeps coming,

more videos ! www.photobucket.com/josesuomessa :) this time of my host family cooking chinese food [my host mom is obsessed with all things chinese, i think she thinks she IS chinese. they lived in china for about 8 months like 10 years ago, so thats why.]

"do you want ice cream"

"no, not right now, thanks"
".....oh. are you sure ?"
"um, yeah, pretty sure."
"....oh. hm. how about now ? :D"


ahahhaha, that conversation just occured between my host mom and i, she was the one wanting ice cream. She hates eating alone, she says she feels too fat, its so cute :] So yes, I am now sitting here, eating ice cream, watching some crime show, and talking to a fabulous friend named Nico ! Yes, its thrilling :) Today was rather wonderful. I had my first dance class ! And we danced ! Joonas is a wonderful dance partner, I'm actually really looking forward to this now :] I also bought presents for my lovely brothers who's birthday's are coming uppppp, so be looking forward to those :D Tomorrow is a short day, yayyyy. Friday is as well, I like these days. Um, I guess i don't really have anything else to add......maybe I'll think of something later ?

Yeah.

ice skating

ON THE FROZEN LAKE. Today we went ice skating on the lake ! Probably the scariest thing I've ever done in my entire life, and quite possibly the most painful...but also one of the funnest [?] things I've ever done too :) Yes yes , of course I have videos :D My host dad took them and theyre not too bad actually. Check 'em out : www.photobucket.com/josesuomessa (I'm probably going to stop using youtube for videos because photobucket uploads faster and in bulk so its much easier.) My host brothers are skiing right now, so the house is quiet. Later on tonight I'm supposed to go walking with this one girl that lives down the street ? I haven't met her before, my host mom gave her my number...? But she seems nice ! So hey, I guess it'll be fun. School yesterday was alright, nothing too interesting, the start of a new period however. I'm taking art [oooh shocker.], psychology :), a religion history course in finnish with Annina [thatttt'll be interesting.], and the dance class with Joonas so that I can learn the dances for the big dance on February 13th ! Boy oh boy. We're learning 6 different dances, the salty dog rag, virgina something, the waltz, tango, and two other finnish dances, hopefully not oompa or jenkka, I hate those dances. But my life is practically perfect right now :) Each time I tell someone who I'm dancing with at the dance thing, they all say the same thing "Oh my goodness, you are so lucky, he's SUCH a good dancer, and so nice and sweet. You're gunna have so much fun." etc. So I'm really excited, espescially cause Joonas danced last year as well, so he knows the dances and as long as I'm a good follower, I'll be just fine. I hope....Tomorrow is our first day of actual dancing, I guess we'll see how it all goes. OH. and today we had the day off of school, its some national finnish holiday. I dunno why, in honor of some guy or something. But hey, I don't mind :D My hair is looking fabulous today, you can see it in the videos, I like it a lotttt. Although I really wish it would grow longer faster, my hair suckkkks at growing quickly :/ This was a really interesting blog, i hope you had fun reading !


oh oh oh, and i learned swedish ! :D I can now say my name is jocelyn, i can count to ten and from 14 to 20, andddd I can say I play the guitar ! go me !

i have video!

www.photobucket.com/josesuomessa



it means jocey in finland, my nickname here is jose [not jose in spanish, but yo-say] its easier for them to say because they dont have a j sound. it makes the y sound. confusing eh ?



andddd pretty pictures can be found at: www.flickr.com/ilovepaige345



enjoy ! :]

pictures !

just pictures, no videos yet....


http://photobucket.com/josesuomessa


:)

Kali kali kali - Brr brr brrr

It is -14 degrees celcius outside, which is somewhat like 9 or 10 degrees in farenheit. So yeah, its freezing. I’ll tell you more about what else is freezing later on J [warning: make sure you have an hour or two set aside for reading this, it’s a beast.] Let’s talk about Helsinki ! So Sunday night Annina came over and spent the night. We had the lovely chance of webcamming with my church for their Christmas [belated…] service, and Annina and I got to be a part of it and read Luke 2: 8-20, it was really cool, Annina really liked it, and I had lots of fun getting to talk to people I hadn’t seen in five months (: So lots of fun there. We then headed off to bed and woke up at 6 am to shower, eat, get dressed, and leave at 8. My host mom, Raija and her friend Virpi were kind enough to drive us down to Helsinki, saving us 25 euros for a train ticket ! The ride down there was nice and pleasant, I slept most of the way. We stopped at a rest stop and ate rahka pulla, a type of doughnut, and used the bathroom halfway through the trip. (and ironically stopped at the exact same one on the way back ! Pretty snazzy.) We got dropped off at the railway station in Helsinki where we met up with Johanna, Annina’s cousin ! We were to stay with her family for the duration of our trip. So we walked with Johanna, and all our bags, up the street to the bus station which was inside the mall ? It was wicked. We then paid 3.80 euros for the bus ride up to Espoo, a city just outside Helsinki, which is where Johanna lived. When we got to her house we met her mom, Tiina, dad, Hannu, little brother, Antti (14), and her other little brother Tapio (9). (His name is Tapio and he lives in Tapiola [a suburb in Espoo], pretttty cool.) After getting settled in and were finished setting up our beds, we went downstairs and ate some um, well I dunno what to call it. It’s called pirraka in finnish which means pie, but its not pie. So I’m not sure how to explain it. But yeah, we ate that and drank some tea, and continued to make fun of Annina for being sick. She was coughing and sneezing and blowing her nose constantly, so we just called her different forms of “the gerrrrrm” and what not (: We then decided we wanted to go shopping ! Haha, shocking. So Johanna’s mom drove us to Seppo, the mall in Espoo. They told me it was small before we got there, but when we walked inside my face was like :O ß that. There were escalators everywhereeee ! And pretty lights and 5 floors, and yeah, it was amazing. I bought some shoes that might work for my dress for the dance thingy, but other than that I didn’t really find anything worth spending the limited amount of cash I had. So then we went home and had some delicious spaghetti made by Johanna’s dad, and soon after, around 8 30, we decided to get into bed ! Haha, we weren’t really sure why, but we were all tired, so we just talked until like 10 and then fell asleep. And when we woke up, it was 12 ! Haha, we slept a lotttttttt. But it felt nice, although I woke up with a stuffy nose and headache and realized I probably had slept too close to Annina and was now “the gerrrrrrm” with her :/ That day we three traveled downtown to go sightseeing and do more shopping. The mall in Helsinki was even bigger ! I really didn’t think it was possible, but it was. And it was huge. I should have a lot of photos up soon, I’ll post a link to them when they’re available. We went and saw the coolest and biggest church in all of finland, it was so so pretty, I also have pictures of that. We went to this huge bookstore, but again, nothing really worth buying, seeing as I could get it just as cheap if not cheaper, back home. But it was like 3 floors of just books books and more books. It was really nice. We took a bus back home around 3 and soon after we got home Johanna’s aunt and uncle came over with their two little kids, Leo, 5, and Eea, 3. They’ve been living in China for the past year or something, so Leo was in an English speaking school, so he actually knew and understood a lot of English. It was so cool, cause I haven’t been able to talk with any kid under the age of ten since I left home. We played different games, mostly consisting of him being a giant and hitting us with pillows yelling “YOU MUST SLEEP NOW.” “oh oh, who is waking ?” “SLEEEEEP !” It was really cute J Then they turned the sauna on and Johanna, Annina and I all went after Leo’s family and her brothers had gone. It was nice, as always, although I hadn’t been to sauna since the trip to Lapland, because my family here goes to “family sauna” and its not really something I’m comfortable with….So, it was really nice to go again :D Then we ate homemade pizza, made again by Johanna’s dad and then Tapio played the piano for us. Apparently their whole family is really musically oriented and really good at some type of instrument. Johanna plays violin, tapio piano, Antti guitar, etc. It was really cool and I also have video of that as well. Around 9 30 we went to the train station with Johanna’s dad and picked up her other cousin, Anni. We hung out with her family watching tv for a bit and then went to bed ! We were planning on sleeping in again, but at 10 15 we got a nice wake up call and 15 minute warning from Johnanna’s mom saying we were leaving in 15 minutes to go shopping at Itakeskus, the biggest shopping center in all of Scandinavia. Boy oh boy ! Well, it probably would have been really exciting and everything had Annina and I not been sick :/ It was the worst of all the days, we both had headaches, stuffy noses, and couldn’t walk faster than .5 miles an hour. The other girls were yelling at us to hurry up, but we really couldn’t go any faster, so we didn’t really see much of the huge mall. Just one floor, out of the million. But oh well, at least we got to go there. We drove on the other side of town before going home to see “westend” which is where all the rich people and celebrities of Finland live, the houses were hugeeeee, and we saw a family of swans ! You’ll see those in the pictures as well (: When we got home Johanna’s dad made us tacos that were so so yummy and delicious. During the day we baked so many desserts, I helped make a chocolate cheese cake, Johanna made some brownies, and I think we made something else as well, but I forget….But they were all very tasty :D That night we went downtown to see the Espoo fireworks, they were really cool. I think even a better show than the one at waterfront….Although it wasn’t over water, which would have made it really cool. But the fireworks themselves were really awesome. Although, the finnish crowd, probably 500 or so people, were very quiet. There was no oohing and ahhing, just staring and they clapped at the end. It was interesting….When we got home Johanna’s friend Rikka came over, she was really cool J We participated in lots of finnish traditions this new years eve. We melted tin horseshoes on a stove top and then threw them in water and examined the mold to predict our future year. I apparently will be getting lots of money and luck ? Haha, I dunno. It was fun though, and I have video of it as well ! Yay. We did home fireworks as well, they were really cool, I have lotttts of videos of that, so I’ll pick the best ones to upload. We did the countdown to the new year in English, which was really fun, and I taught them how to oooh and ahhhh after each firework (: Except, the first time we tried it, the roman candle tipped over and started shooting the fireworks in crazy directions, sometimes at us, so we hid behind a car and were screaming ooooh, AHHHHH. It was quite hilarious :] After fireworks we went inside and played guitar hero until 2 or 3 in the morning. Tapio is so good ! He plays on expert and is amazingggg. So I played against him most of the time, because everyone was guaranteed to lose against him anyways, so there wasn’t any way I could possibly win anyways [: But I still did horribly….but oh well. On Thursday Johanna’s mom wanted to take me to some museums of famous Finnish people, so we went to Akseli Kallen-Gallela’s house. He was a famous finnish painter/artist and his house is now a museum. It was pretty cool to see, he was really good. We walked around outside for a bit, part of the lake down there had frozen and people were out on it, but Tiina said it really wasn’t safe yet and they were stupid. It looked scary, and sounded really weird. That afternoon Leo and Eea came over again and we played lego’s and cowboys and Indians ! It was really fun, I built a cool army with Leo, we talked about ships going fast and how high planes can fly, it was so much fun to talk with a little kid again. That night there was a huge light show downtown at the big church. It was really awesome, I have video of it as well [I took lots of videos J], so you’ll have to watch it. We went home and just hung around watching random tv shows, built a lego spaceship, and played catch for hours with some stupid ball. But it was really fun. I don’t remember when we went to bed, but probably around 11 or 12 or something. On Friday morning we woke up at 9 ? I think, and went downtown at 11 by bus. First we walked to Ateneum, the finnish Art museum, which was so amazing. Before coming here I didn’t really like museums and I thought they were boring, but I love them now and I wanna go see so many more. The Japanese photography after Nagasaki was probably my favorite exhibit, but there was so much more that was so cool. Clips from old finnish films, different art pieces from finnish artists, books, buildings, all of it was so cool. Afterwards we walked around downtown searching for the American Store ! We found it and found cereal, pop tarts, butterfingers, goldfish, ROOTBEER<3, jelly belly’s, peanut butter, etc. I was in heaven :D It was very nice :] Then we continued to walk around, thinking of where we should eat before we go to the movie that evening. At 4 ? we met up with Johanna’s friends Maiju and Elina, and then decided to go to Pizza Raxi for dinner. It’s a buffet, so you can get what ever you want basically, it wasn’t bad. Although we were there for 2 hours waiting for Anni to finish eating her 6 slices of pizza and 15 chicken wings, it was gross. After eating we walked over to the theatre of Helsinki, 24 screens. It was HUGE. The biggest thing I have ever been in in my entire life. Friday night was the opening night of Twilight, movies come out like 3 months later than in America because they have to put finnish and Swedish subtitles on the bottom. So the kids there were going crazy, there were only 5 seats left in the whole room, which sat more than 600 people….it was so big. After picking up our pre ordered tickets we sat outside the theater, on the third floor. The cool thing about movies in finland is that when you buy your movie tickets you pick the seats you want. So if you pre order tickets, you don’t have to get to the theater early to get good seats, your seats are already saved for you. It’s genius. The movie was alright, I haven’t read the book which I guess might have made it more special, but it all seemed unreal, who falls in love in the first 3 days of school ? I dunno, it wasn’t bad, but not the greatest either….But it was still fun to go to the premiere (: Especially being in that huge theatre, it was so cool. Maiju’s dad drove us home, all 7 of us in a 5 person car….Annina was on my lap and Elina on Johanna’s. It was a very interesting ride home :] We went to bed pretty soon after we got home, although Johanna’s mom forced us to eat something before we went to sleep. So we had some toast and tea. On Saturday we took Anni to the train station at 10 and then went back to the house so that Annina and I could pack our bags and wait for her mom to pick us up and drive us home [another 25 euros saved !]. Leo and Eea came over one last time so we got to play with them for a bit and then Annina’s mom came and we piled into her car and started out 4 hour drive home. Like I previously mentioned, we just so happened to stop at the same rest stop as we did on the way here, but this time we got meals, blue cheese chicken, mmmm. It was good. We dropped my bags off at my house and then I went to Annina’s house for like 20 minutes and then we had to leave again, catch a bus back downtown to Jyvaskyla, and go to chill night so I could meet the new missionary, Brian. He was really cool and funny, much better than the previous one. We played Scatergories and another paper game that I don’t know how to describe….and then at 7 50 Anna came and picked me up so that I could go with her and Maria and their cousin Maija who I went on the Sweden cruise with, to Lauri’s hockey game ! It was super fun, Lauri got put in the penalty box, had an assist, and his team won 6-2, so it was really fun. Then Anna drove me home and I showered, which felt so good, and watched part of Sin City with my host family. I wrote some letters in reply to those that I had received while I was gone and they should go in the mail tomorrow, and then went to bed. I woke up today to the wonderfulness of our family breakfast<3 I missed it. Then I went with Raija to take Alvar and his friend Janni to the local ski slope. It was really small, but hey, its only 10 minutes away, so that’s nice. Then my host mom and I went outside and…….WALKED ON THE FROZEN LAKE. It was very exciting :] And really scary…..but the ice is more than 6 inches thick, 15 cm about, so its apparently really safe. There were tons of people out there ice skating and sledding and ice hole fishing. It was very nice, and yes I took pictures and video, of course. So you should see those as well. And now I’m just relaxing and typing up this really long massive sized blog so you all know how fun my new years was :D I hope you enjoyed, if you even made it this far…..