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 !

pikku matin autosta on kumi puhjennut

pikku matin autosta on kumi puhjennut,
pikku matin autosta on kumi puhjennut,
purukumilla me paikkaamme sen !

little matthews car got a flat tire,
little matthews car got a flat tire,
little matthews car got a flat tire,
so we fixed it with bubble gum !

cute song eh ?

its tuesday. yesterday was death day. the busiest day EVER. evereverever.

I got up at 7. took the bus to school. had art with Julia, Chet, Noora, and Krista, it was a blast :] We just practiced finnish ish and painted. Then we had lunch, and then I had psychology, and then dance but Joonas had a press conference for the newspaper and tv about his play, so I stood against the wall :/ And then I had finnish lessons, and then I had to run back to school and meet Kirsi and we went and got something to eat and then we met up with Chet. And then I begged chet to go with me to see Joonas's play, and he did :D And we went to go see that, but I had to leave during the break because I had to catch the bus back home. The whole play was 3 and a half hours, but I only saw the first half :/ But Joonas was really good, and played like 8 different characters haha. It got a little dry in the middle, the play was King Richard III, and they did a lot of talking, all in finnish of course. Chet and I tried to guess what was happening the whole time, which made it interesting, but we didn't really understand much...:P And then I came home and it was -22 degrees outside, which is most likely close to -3 or -4 farenheit....SOOOOOO cold. And then I showered quickly and my host dad made me the most delicious sandwich ever :] And yeah, it was a realllllly long day, not bad or anything, just really filled. Today was much better, I had art in the morning and then I stayed in the IT lab and worked on my presentation for religion which is coming along quite swimmingly I must say, I'm quite proud of it. And then we had religion, but we just talked and read and I went over the English exam that I got back today. I got a 9....on a scale of 4-10. I missed some things :/ But I got 99/99 on my essay ! Haha, well lets hope so. This isn't like, english english, this is englsih grammar, learning to speak english, so it shouldn't be hard. And then I had dance, which was really fun, Joonas and I shared a lot of good laughs :D And then I went hunting with Annina for a certain something, but no luck :/ I shall try again tomorrow ! Tomorrow we have chill night which I am most likely attending. And before that is the career fair downtown, wooooo :] And thursday is youth group that Jenna really wants me to come back to, so I'm definitely going to that ! And on Friday Maria is coming over, ahhaah, I'm really looking forward to that. And on saturday we go to Riihivuori, the local ski hill. And sunday isn't anything special. And then nextttt week we have a crazy schedule to get ready for the dance, and I pick up my dress that day, lets pray that it fits....and then on friday is the dance ! Ah, I'm so excited :'DDDD


And yeah, a great day for up !

lazydays.

This weekend was nice, and un busy, unlike the previous few. Saturday I had the house alllll to myself, so it was really nice. I took a long shower, wrote some letters, did some research for my religion project, and watched a movie. I went to chill night at the mormon church with Annina, we got a new missionary, Garret, from Las Vegas. He's funny and we just sat in the church played the piano and guitar, and ate delicious ice creammmm, mmm. It was really quite fun, don't worry I'm not becoming mormon. This morning we had a delicious breakfast, karjalanpiirakka, im not sure what it is in english, I don't think we have them, but its yummy. And a oatmeal porridge mix with apple jam, mmmmm. And hard boiled eggs on toast, it was so so good. I met Annina downtown at the library to talk about my religion project and then we looked through magazines to figure out how to do our hair for the dance :D And then we had lasagne for dinner, i love sunday food. Tomorrow I have school until 2 then finnish lessons until 4 and then I'm going to coffee with Kirsi, she was barbara's host sister, she goes to my school and shes really sweet :] And yeah, it was a nice weekend, very relaxing. Micah turns 11 tomorrow, Annina's brother turns 12, it's groundhogs day in the states, and its the second day of february ! woooo :D

anyways, happy sunday <3