fifty something days

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

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

Kesä on tällä :)

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

mä säin 4 suomen kurssilta !

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

no internetttt. lalallaa.

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

Hyvää yötä :)

JYP VOITTI !!!%¤&!&#!

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

lets talk about easter !

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

Some big events coming up:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

good friday

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

heiiii :D

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

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

Hyvää Pääsiästä !