soooo yeah....

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

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

thats it ! <3

my first mo ped rideeee :)

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

We did it !

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

my video

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

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

these weeks go by like the seconds on a clock.

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

more time.

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

looking on the brightside

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