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