day 57

Today is exactly 8 weeks since I left Canada and I am absolutely loving it here. I can not believe that I have been here almost 2 months!!!! its crazy.. I will write more about that on my 2 month anniveersary.

Today, I didn't do much! Outi was working and Minna was at her dads so I just hung out around here and did a school project!
I also got bored so I straightened my hair :)
And then I skyped Kayla and then Zoe :D


It was a goooooooood dayyy :D

day 56

I didn't really do anything exciting today. Another day off school!

This morning we went grocery shopping and then I started to watch Ted for a bit. Also, I watched Glee on the internet :) I love glee. It just  makes me happy.

Then I made Red Pepper Chicken for my family. They dont really have chicken breasts here so I just used pieces of chicken breasts that you can buy in the grocery store and I think it turned out better than ever before :D
 It was really good!!!

And then Minna went to her dads, and Outi and I have just been hanging around here singing all night.

We watched X Factor and now we are watching Talent Suomi I think (I forget what this show is called), but today there are like 2348230498 english songs and i keep getting really excited.
YEP THAT IT


HEIPPA <3

day 55

Today, I didn't have an exam so I basically didn't wake up until almost 11. After I woke up, my host mom left for work so I just hung around for a bit and then I decided to go to town with Mara. We went grocery shopping. It was funny because we were trying to find ingredients to bake cookies but everything was in finnish and we couldn't even figure out where the flour was. It was complicated.
After that adventure, I came home and made the simplest peanut butter cookies that exist. Peanut butter, sugar and an egg. It was so easy.
But, the recipe was in cups and finnish people dont measure in cups.... soo.... I found a measuring cup in the drawer that had millilitres. then I had to figure out how many mL were in a cup. So I poured that many millilitires of water (i think 236??) into a certain container to try and figure out approximately which container was a cup. Then I filled that container with peanut butter to measure the 1 cup. It was complicated but the cookies taste great.

Thats pretty much all I did today. Outi was working until 6 so Minna and I made dinner together. Its hard to make dinner when the recipe was in Finnish. So Minna pretty much told me what to do and I helped :)

Pretty soon I am going to sauna with candles and a magazine :)

Also, today I found a massive bruise on my leg. I very lightly hit my leg on Arlene's bike last night when I was trying to bike. (That's the 2nd bike I havent gotten along with since I've been here... what the heck) Apparently I am not meant to bike.........
It hurts.. and is like dark purple...




Also the other night, we watched the X Factor USA and I fell in love with this song!

So good.

And this girl sings it way better than the original people. Awesome <3

day 53 and 54

 the last 2 days have been fairly boring thats why i havent been writing :D
on tuesday, I had to walk to school in the morning to hand in a project and then I walked back home and watched a movie. It was a really long day because there was nothing on tv!!!!
Today, I had a french exam. Well I thought I had a french exam. So i went to school and you can choose to go at either 8:15 or 9 and my whole class chose to go at 9 so when we went to go into the exam at 9 the teacher was just like 'okay you 3 exchange students can just go to the computer room and do your exam there.' and then she was like 'do you know what you have to do?' and we were like 'no.......' all we had to do was write about the cultural differences and differences in school between Finland and our home countries. It was so easy. We were on facebook and listening to music and all talking. Also, we didnt even have to hand it in today, we just have to hand it in sometime this week to our counsellor. It was pretty much the most pointless exam ever. :P

Then, I came home and watched another movie and then I went to the finnish course. We have a different teacher and she is a lot nicer than the last one :D and then Arlene, Finja, Mara, Lumo and I went for pizza.

Thats been my 2 days so far!!

day 52

today was the last day of school before exams start. it wasnt exciting or stressful like it normally is in canada, it was rather relaxed actually....
tomorrow, i just have to go to school to hand in my geography project, any time between 8:15 and 11. so i will probably just sleep until whenever and then go. we dont have an exam in that class. and then i can come home and sleep.
:)
but yeah today was good! it was rainy and cold and yuck but whatever.


Oh, and last night, i went to bed at 5pm for a nap. alarm didnt go off and i woke up at 10. I had to go and tell my host mom that I was still alive. she said she was going to come in and check on me soon :P
i fell back asleep soon after that and woke up at 6:30 this morning.
i got almost 14 hours of sleep and im still tired... what the heck...

MY WEEKEND WAS AMAZING. - days 49,50,51

okay this might be a little long cuz i have a lot to say and it might not make sense in some parts because i havent slept in almost 30 hours. and yes. so forgive me. also, i am too lazy to capitalize words, so youre going to have to suffer :)


Friday- I got off school at 1 and Outi picked me up with all my clothes and everything and we went to the train station. I was kind of nervous to take the train by myself because ive never done this before in canada. it wasnt scary at all. when I got on, there was someone in almost every single group of seats and finns dont sit beside eachother so i just found an empty one and then sat there until Kuopio when everyone got off. at kuopio i had to wait for 20 minutes while my train changed routes techincally. it was going from Oulu-Kuopio when i got on and then it was going from Kuopio-Kouvala after so it had to like wait a while for people. I dont know.
but during the wait in kuopio, Rebeka (brazil), gustavo (ecuador), katharina and kiara (germany) got on too and i knew them kind of and i had talked to them about taking the train together. so yeah and then the train ride went really fast and it wasnt scary and yaaaaaa.
when we got to the train station in Pieksamaki, there was nobody there. so we basically just wandered around until we found someone... we ended up finding amelie from quebec and then we all started taking some group pictures.. (like exchange students usually do...) and then the rotarians walked in. they were really nice and they took us to the camp. we were the first group there. there was only one person, Lucie who was there already because she had come with one of the rotarians. we sat around and people drank coffee and we laughed and got to know eachother. there are 19 people in my district, 5 boys and 14 girls. and they are all very different. some are very shy and some are very outgoing.

on friday night once everyone was there we had dinner and then we sat in the girls cabin (not sure how it was decided that our cottage was the leisure/party/hangout hall but it was....) we all sat in a circle and the rotarians and rotex were there too and we all just talked about our host families and school and the language and whether we were having any troubles. rotary just wanted to check up on us. it was realy nice actually to be able to sit and have this conversation with everyone because the more you listen to what they say, the more you realize that everyones going through the same problems (although i dont have any problems with my family, the language or school)

after that, we went to sauna and we went swimming in the lake and it was so cold but it felt so good. and it was manoels birthday so we all sang to him like 3 times and gave him and Andrea (who's birthday was on saturday) cake and sang to them and gave them presents and yeah!

after that, the party continued at our cottage. the only horrible thing is that the cottage was 2 floors but the top floor was kind of just a loft, so everyone trying to sleep on the top floor could hear every word of the people on the bottom floor. I stayed up until about 1:30 i think before i tried to go to bed. TRIED being the key word. i didnt succeed. people were running around the house and slamming doors and playing music so finally at 3:30, i yelled 'can  you all just go to sleep so that the rest of us can finally go to sleep? we all have a long day ahead of us tomorrow.' and they did :D yay for 4 hours of sleep!

on saturday morning, we had breakfast at 9 (at least they let us sleep in!!) and then we packed lunches for our hike. the hike took about 2 hours. i think it was like 8 kilometres, i dont remember through. but it wasnt that bad. we stopped for lunch and started a fire and cooked our Makkara on the fire and it was fun :)
after we went back, we played volleyball for a bit and just hung out until we went to meet the rest of the rotarians who had been in meetings all day, as well as the rebounds. i actually dont know if anybody from the Siilinjarvi club came because I didnt see them there when i was there.... who knows. Erkka was there though.

after this, we had dinner (at 3:30 which is really early...) and then we had the camp olympics. we were in 4 teams and had to run up this hill and at the top of the hill there was a piece of paper taped to the tree and we had to read the lyrics and try and memorize them and then run back and write them down. the team to get the lyrics the most correct the fastest won. GUESSS WHO WON. my team. oh and we had to then sing the song.... which was the finnish national anthem :D and its been stuck in my head ever since. its so catchy.

after that, i forget what we did.... we might have all written our letters. we all had to write letters to ourselves 1 year from now. it was a lot harder than the last letter i wrote to myself (at wanakita that i will recieve in february). this one was much harder so i just ended up writing different things. and then someone had the idea that we would all write messages to the future ourselves. so we all signed eachothers things and yeah :D so that was cool..
somewhere during this, people started dancing. mostly the mexicans but then the more people joined in, it just got louder and hotter and there were so many people dancing in such a small space. it was really fun though. and we danced like popular dances from many different countries. but mostly mexico and brazil because the latinos LOVE to dance. its insane
i think at around 1, a few of us went into one of the bedrooms just because we wanted some peace and quiet and away from the crowds. when we heard call me maybe on the radio at like 2, we got really excited. when we went out, almost half the people were gone and it was mostly just us so we all just kept dancing. we danced until 4:30am.....
at this point, Sarah (USA) and I just decided that there was no point in going to bed. I think around 5 or 5:30, Manoel, Caique, Shelby, Rebeka and Katharina went to bed but Pedro, Sarah and I all stayed up all night... we were so hungry all the night. so when morning finally came, we were dying for breakfast. we werent even that tired, until right before breakfast, because we just needed food.
and then this morning, we just went to breakfast and then came to the train station..

everyone! mexico, ecuador, brazil, canada, usa, germany, taiwan, :)

it was such a good weekend and we had so much fun and got so much closer :D and yes! i loved it !






oh but all of my leg muscles are killing me from running/hiking/dancing. :P

weekend!

again, I will be away this weekend so I will be unable to post :D


I will tell you about it when I get back on Sunday Afternoon!


<3

day 48

Today was great!!!
we had presentations at school for all the exchange students. we all made like a 10 minute presentation and then we were all interviewed in a big group with the 3 returning exchange students.
I went third and my presenation actually went really well. :D I wore my canada hockey jersey. which may have made people hate me, but canada is better than finland at hockey, they just need to face the facts.  :) kidding
It went really well. I was in such a good mood after! and I jsut felt so much more comfortable and people starting like saying hi to me in the halls and ya! it was good :D
i stayed at school for my spare and it was boring but i got some work done and watched ellen on youtube :)

After that, we all went to town and bought ingredients for texmex night at arlenes.
i forget what we made but it was like baguette cut into small pieces and then she put it in a frying pan with butter quickly and then put cheese on top and tomato sauce. it was really good. im pretty sure it was more italian than mexican but whatever.


after that i came home and finished my geography project and henriikka came over to hang out with minna and they made food. im not sure what it is but it smells good!!
and i have just packed to get ready for Pieksamaki tomorrow!!

day 47

Nothing really exciting happened today. Okay well thats a lie it totally did...



Well ill start with yesterday, because I was too busy to write a lot last night. I came home and did my geography project for like hours and my health project for hours and then we went and picked apples and it was fun :)
and then I came home and did more homework..... and then I went to bed. Oh but also yesterday I got a notice that a package had arrived from Canada, and I was just like 'oh its just my boots, woot....'

So this morning, I went to school, had french class and then Roosa drove me to the post office during spare. We didn't really factor in the size of the box on the moped though....... So, I went to the post office picked it up and as soon as I saw it I said 'crap.' So we opened it, (just to see if there was anything exciting inside) and it wasnt my boots in fact. IT WAS MY KETCHUP CHIPS :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D they werent even chips they were just crumbs but they still tasted good. I am savouring them and making them last until Christmas though...

So then Roosa and I walked back to the moped and us 2, with the huge box inbetween us, drove back to the school. Thank god it fit in my locker or I don't know what I would have done.........

Then I had class again and it wasnt exciting.
And then me and my box of wonderful walked home (I still looked like an idiot carrying a big box down the street..)

And so far tonight, I've done more homework (WAHOO) and then I went and bought my train ticket for Friday's camp in Pieksamaki and then..... I did more homework and finished my presentation for school tomorrow!


BEDTIME. HEIPPA <3

day 45 and 46

Sorry for not writing a lot in the last 2 days. I might not write a lot this week because I've been really busy doing final projects for exams.
I have to write 3 exams, French English and English. and I have a final project in French, Geography, Health and I have to do a project for my guidance counsellor because I only have 3 exams. Its fair to say I'm getting kind of stressed.
I had my rotary presentation yesterday, it went okay. It was really hard for me because I felt like I couldn't say half of the things I wanted to because they dont really understand english that well. So yeah. Also, I started my finnish course yesterday and it sucked because everyone in our class (other then exchange students) already know finnish so our teacher wants us to move to a different class. OH AND the book I have to buy for my course is 47 EUROS.
Ya.

day 42, 43, and 44.

okay day 42, i went to school. Don't really remember if anything exciting happened because it was so long ago, but after that I went for pizza with Roosa and then came back here and packed for Nurmes. :)
At like 5:30, we left for Nurmes and arrived there around 6:45. We had coffee and snacks and just hung out and then went to sauna and then went to bed.

Day 43, we woke up around 9:30 or 10, made breakfast, and hung out for a bit. Minna started reading a book. She finished it by the end of the day.. Apparently it was a good book!!!
At about 11:30, we went into 'downtown' Nurmes, which technically was smaller than Siilinjarvi but seemed a lot bigger. I dont know why. But we went to the town's 3 clothing stores, because Minna needed new jeans. We didn't find any though. We also started to look at winter coats for me but not many stores have them out yet!After a very unsuccessful shopping trip, we went to the grocery store. We bought lots of candy and food and then went back to Terhi and Pekka's house, which was kind of in the middle of the woods. It was so pretty though. :)

We watched Camp Rock 2, (I miss family channel) and then went for a walk around the property where I took some photos. I have discovered that my camera takes REALLY nice pictures (THANKS SARAH :D) and really loves the sun. 

 pond

 Lingenberries!

Terhi and Pekka's house. Originally built in the 1900's. On the inside (which I somehow managed not to get pictures of... ) it is like a log cabin. Its so cool. 

Later in the night, we went to this spa/hotel thing where there's a public pool. And we went swimming in the pool and then there's a pool outside, which is right on the lake and the view is so pretty. And then, bringing out the daredevil exchange student in me, I went swimming in the lake. I can't even say it was cold because you know, I couldn't really feel my skin... We think the water was somewhere between 8-12 degrees celsius. COLD for water. And it was really windy which made it worse. BUT YA I SWAM IN A LAKE IN THE MIDDLE OF SEPTEMBER WHICH WAS REALLY COLD, WAHOOOOOOOOOO.
So then I went home and went to bed. :)

Day 44

We woke up late cuz we sleep a LOT, around 10 again. Made breakfast, and then we went to visit Terhi and Outi's father, (who I also met the day before, forgot to mention that...) at his house. I didn't really know what was going on the whole time because the people that were there didnt speak english :D BUT we ate these really good apple things. MMM. they were good :)

After that, we went to be tourists and went back to the Hotel where I was the night before  to take some pictures and explore. There is this building there that used to be in the part of Finland that is now owned by Russia. Its the only building in all of finland thats like it. I forget what its called but its like a huge house where the animals live on the bottom floor and the humans and the hay are on the top floor. Its kind of weird if you think about it . We went inside and it was cool, really dark though. BUT YA. 

heres more pictures

 here you can see the outdoor pool that i swam in as well as the lake! in that building in the winter, they cut a hole in the ice so you can go ice water swimming.

After that, we went home and had dinner and then headed homeeeee. 

then, I skyped HANNAH AND DEMI. 

we love eachother. 

and now im gunna skype zoe I think and then go to bed! 

:) it was a great weekend!

weeeeeeekend!

well, I am leaving soon for Nurmes with my host family.
SO.


I will write about today and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow when I get home :)



have a good weekend!

....

I just said moi to someone who speaks english....

day 41

nothing too exciting happened today! i discovered that there are twins in my class. totally didnt even know they were twins. they look nothing alike... its weird!!!

and in english class, my teacher showed us this video. HILARIOUS. I laughed so hard.

you know youre an exchange student when...

okay so i found this on this website. here are the following things that apply to me.

You ask for some type of food/snack/drink to be care packaged to you as your X-mas present.
You buy everything in sight with the name of the country you went to visit so when you go back people are bound to ask you about it.
You're so used to another culture and language that your home country is a distant memory.
Getting yelled at doesn't bother you because they just sound so funny getting all worked up in a foreign language.
You get letters and emails in a language that no one else can read.
You've ever attempted to fit all your worldly possessions into 2 suitcases and a carry on
You cringe at the mention of 'baggage weight limit'.
You're living or have lived in a country that most people can't identify on a map, or in a city that nobody you know besides you has ever heard of... ... and you recommend it as a vacation spot to all your friends.
You have been in the country long enough that when you see a 'foreigner' you laugh and shake your head - but you never help, just watch.
It becomes habit to introduce yourself by saying 'I am from (country) and my name is (name)
You 'talk' to your pets when you phone home.
You become really good friends with people you barely spoke to back home because they e-mail you more than the people you considered your 'good' friends.
You can't imagine what life will be like without all the wonderful things you have experienced and friends you have made in your new country.
You think blazers with tons of pins are way cool, although everybody laughs at them.
While other, non-exchange people are amazed by how many pins you have, you insist that you have very few and won't be satisfied till you've at least doubled the number.
You've got friends on more than two continents.
When you walk down the street, everyone stares at your 2nd head.
You begin to think like you're 4 again, because you have no language.
You begin to feel like you're 4 again, because everyone just leads you from place to place and you never know what's going on.
'Good job! I understood you!' is a compliment.

day 40

okay here is the funny thing of the day that happened....
My health teacher, Olli (oh yeah everyone calls the teachers by their first names..) was asking us to write down the first thing that came to our head when he said a word. so he said like happy, determined, and then he got to one word in finnish and he couldnt think of the word in english. so he asked Erkka (guy who went to LA last year) for help.. Erkka looked at me and said 'relentlessness?' and then Arlene, who also needed the english word, looked at me too and said 'explain' so I was like 'well ummmmmm, i dont know how to explain it, kind of like nothing can stop you' and she goes 'OOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH BADASSNESS' and then Olli was like 'yep, thats it!'


It was hillarious


Thats all that happened! I had school, then walked home and now its been raining all nightt :( OH i got a library card.
HAVING FUN ISNT HARD, WHEN YOU'VE GOT A LIBRARY CARD.


i wish arthur was for teenagers. best. show. ever



TV IN FINLAND.
I pretty much watch MTV(which has most of the same shows at MTV and MuchMusic in Canada), MTV3 (which is like global) and Liv (which is like a combination of HGTV, TLC, Health Network, Food Network, yaaaa.). We only have like 20 channels but its not that bad. there's always something in english on! Also, they have the same shows here. like The Voice, and Talent Suomi, and Finland Idol and So You Think You Can Dance, and Big Brother Finland, and a whole bunch more :D Its awesome except I dont understand whats going on because its in Finnish :D

On the plus side, i start finnish lessons on monday. and also have a rotary presentation. GOING TO BE A LONG DAYYYYY....

I tried to attach my video but it wont work :(

BEDTIMEEEE, NIGHTY NIGHT XOXOXOO 

welcome to finland.

day 39

Went to school today. As normal :)
nothing too exciting happened today, other than going for pizza!
I am starting to notice my english starting to fail. My teachers will ask me a word or what is more commonly used in english, and half the time I can't even think of the english words. The simple words, like the ones i write here, arent complicated. but its when i get in my environmental english class that i struggle. today, i couldn't explain to someone what indiginous meant..... how sad is that?
On another note, the finnish sounds are starting to take over my brain. when i see a y, usually i would pronounce it like english people do. ie. nope...

Take the word 'usually' for example. English people say 'usually'. Finnish people say 'usualluu' technically if they are pronouncing it like that. I dont really know how to explain it, but sometimes when I see english words, the Finnish pronunciation (? is that spelt right because it seriously doesnt look like it.....) comes to my head.

I found this picture. it makes me feel extremely bad for people who are trying to learn english. I'm glad finnish makes sense....

day 37 and 38

Day 37- Sunday
We all slept until like 10, which was really good because I was really tired from the day before. I am usually the first one to wake up. Well everyone else wakes up when I wake up because of the dogs. Sometimes I just cant sleep and I get bored of laying in my bed. When I woke up, I started to make my slideshow for my Canada Presentations. I have a presentation at Rotary on Sept 17th and a presentation at school on Sept 20th. I got a few slides done and then we decided to go to Kuopio to the tower. It is this big thing that is kind of like the CN Tower but not as tall.. Also, it was originally built in like 1904 or 1906 (somewhere around there) so its pretty old. But it has been re-constructed since then. It was really awesome to go up in the tower because there was such a pretty view of the lake and the city and you could really see how spread out the city was. And it was crazy how many trees you could see. You don't notice how many trees there are until you can actually see the top of every one. It was really cool.
Oh, before we went up the tower, we walked around the area because there are all trails everywhere. We walked by the ski jumping things. I dont know how to explain it but like the huge ramp that they ski down and then jump off? yeah we walked by those things. they're HUGE. and scary. and really high. So cool though. I have pictures and I will add them when I get to it  :)
After we left the tower, we went to this little cafe on the golf course that was like a little petting zoo. It was cute :) and I had some really good apple pie. mmmmm. After that, I forget what we did. Had dinner and I skyped Kayla and Mom and Dad and made them eat Salmiakki :D that was entertaining.
After dinner, I went to Fontanella (Outi's work) with her, and got a private tour. I have been there before but there was a lot of people and I didn't really have a chance to figure out my way around (since there are 10 different pools). It was nice to be able to do this and now I am more comfortable going there :) After that, I went to bed I think, I dont remember :D

Last night when I set my alarm for today, I was like 'I am going to set my alarm for 6:30 and then I will have time to make my hair look good and pick out a nice outfit and yes!' Yeah so this morning, my alarm went off at 6:30, I layed in bed until 7, decided my hair looked fine the way it was (ive been going fairly natural lately...), put on a nice outfit, ate breakfast, did my makeup and was all ready at 7:20. Then I looked out the window and at the thermometer in my room. It was extremely foggy and only 2.4 degrees outside. The nice outfit went back in the closet, sweatpants came out. I put on a scarf and mitts and a warm coat and headed off to school. It wasnt that bad once I was walking, my  hands were really hot in my mitts actually and I took them off eventually. And by the end of the day, it was like 12 degrees and sunny.
Nothing too exciting happened while I was at school today, but a girl I know, Henna ran up to me and yelled 'I MET SOMEONE WHO KNOWS YOU. I MET SOMEONE WHO KNOWS YOU!!!!" turns out, she was at her friends in Kuopio, and met one of the exchange students who lives there who knows me just over facebook and from camp and stuff. Henna was so excited, she was like freaking out and thought it was the coolest thing ever. I laughed. Small world :).
That was pretty much the last 2 days. I went to Minna's riding again tonight and not to rotary. The speaker was speaking about finance (In Finnish) so I didn't really think there was any point of me going. I was just there on Thursday anyways and I will be there next week to make my presentation.
Also, tonight I finished my presentation and now I am headed for bed because I. Am. Exhausted.


not like thats a change or anything though...


Trying to understand a new language seriously tuckers a girl out..







Heippa! Nähdään Huomenna!

day 36- kuopio

Today, Emmi, Laura, Roosa, Arlene, Finja and I went to Kuopio. We went by train. Arlene took FOREVER to get ready. I waited outside in the rain for 20 minutes for Roosa to pick me up because she was waiting at Arlene's for her to be ready. So eventually I started to walk. After finally getting picked up at 10:49, we arrived to the train station at 10:51, the train left at 10:53. we JUST got on the train before they closed the doors. We bought our tickets on the train, and headed towards Kuopio. Taking the train was very easy and it was really empty so we were able to just choose whichever seat we wanted. We got to Kuopio around 11:20 and it was raining, so Laura and I (not caring about our hair) just walked in the rain while everyone else had to stop and get their umbrellas out and then fix their hair and blah blah blah. :)
We met Sanna in Kuopio, and then went shopping and for lunch and for smoothies and then bought candy for the night time. I didn't buy anything except my train ticket, my lunch, a smoothie, some candy and a bus ticket. Only tried on 2 shirts and had no intention to buy either of them. I wasn't really in a spending money mood, plus I didn't really find anything I loved, which helped me not feel so bad about spending money.  We took the bus back home which took a lot longer than the train. Just because the bus takes all these side roads and has to stop and let people on and off. I liked the train better. But now, I am more comfortable taking either the bus or the train (good thing because I have to take the train by myself in 2 weeks.)
We got back to Siilinjarvi around 4 and got off the bus near Roosa's house. Roosa, Arlene, Finja and I got off there so we could get a ride to Emmi's house, where we were all hanging out for the night. When we got there, there were me, Roosa, Emmi, Laura, Sanna, Arlene, Finja, Henna and Tiia. We all danced and sang and ate food all night. Around 9, we went outside for a bbq on Emmi's outdoor grill. We cooked Makkara (sausages) and baby corn. It was so good. :)
After that, Finja and I went home, while everyone else stayed and had a sleepover. I'm kind of glad I came home because I was exhausted. Exchange student problems..

It was a good day :) 

day 35

today i had school, BOOOOOORING. and then tonight, I went with Roosa, Emmi, Laura and Petra to this kind of youth centre thing. It was kind of fun, kind of boring, considering I didn't really know anyone other then them and everyone there spoke finnish. We had fun though, we hid in parts of the building and then jumped out and scared Roosa- priceless.
Tomorrow is going to be a good day. My friends and I are going shopping in Kuopio (window shopping for me....) around 11, and then coming back around 3 or 4 and having a bbq at Emmi's house. :)
It should be a good day, so don't be upset if I'm too tired to write a blog when I get home. I will write at least 2 on Sunday. PROMISE <3

forgot to mention...

... that I already watched the whole 2nd season of Awkward online, so now...... I have nothing to watch until the next season comes out :(


saddddd, but i just HAD to watch it!

day 34

Today seemed really crazy busy for some odd reason.
I woke up and the morning went normal. In Geography, we had to draw out maps for our project. Seems pretty easy right? No. No atlas in the school had a map of Canada in it. Only the States. Bullcrap. So I ended up drawing like 1/4 of Ontario, really tiny... Not pleased so I guess I'm going to have to print something off to do it.
During the middle of class we had a fire drill. In Canada, a fire alarm sounds like weeeeeeeeooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh, wwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeooooooooooooooooh, wwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeoooooooooooooooooh. You get the point....
Here, fire alarms are like weoh, weoh, aspijfaiosjfioasjfoiasdoijsf (in finnish) weoh, weoh, asoijfoaisjdfoiajsdfoajsdfo (in finnish). It's really quiet and not even scary. Our fire alarm is like 'OH CRAP LEAVE THE BUILDING ITS ON FIRE.' here its like 'ya the buildings on fire, lets just walk away slowly and calmly.'
But something awesome about fire drills, and completely different from in Canada. All the teachers wear like construction vests so you can see them and then you just find your teacher to take attendance. We dont even take attendance during fire drills usually at IDCI...... Also, when the fire alarm sounds, the teacher who is closest to the door grabs these bags and boxes out of a closet and throws them out the door. They are full of thermal crocs and blankets. Since so many people dont wear shoes in the school, its hard to predict when youre going to be standing outside in -40 degree weather without shoes or a coat on. I thought this was awesome. Although it was cold today, I sucked it up and went outside in my t-shirt. I am a true Canadian.


At 5:30, I went to rotary. Our district governor was there and was making a presentation. I actually  understood like 15 words on her slideshow. so proud of myself :D :D :D

And then I walked home in the spitting rain. It wasn't that bad except it made me cold. Got home as fast as I could and when I walked in the door, it just smelled like Cinnabon, OMG. My host sister and her friend made Pulla, which is exactly like a Cinnamon Bun without the sugar shit on top. It is so good and not too sweet. MMMMMM I've only been home half an hour and I've already eaten two. I should probably go for an extra walk tomorrow....


It's been a good day and now I am sitting in my room singing to Lady Antebellum. I don't even care what my neighbours think. I'm gunna belt it out :)

accomplishment

forgot to mention....


yesterday when we went for pizza, I ATE A WHOLE PIZZA BY MYSELF.


i'm so proud of myself!


really!

day 33

Schooooooooool today!!
didnt do much.

After school, I went for pizza with Arlene(Mexico) and Mara(italy) and then we went to meet Finja (Germany) and Henri and Anssi and Minna (Finland!!) and then we went back to Finja and Minna's house because it was Finja's birthday! We all sat around and ate cake and had talks like exchange students do. It was good because we could all talk about similiar things with eachother. Its nice to have friends who are exchange students so you can talk to them about things you are both experiencing. On the other hand, I'm trying not to spend too much time with them. Finns are great too :) :)
and I wont learn anything if I'm always with exchange students. We all have the same group of friends so its fun too and we can all learn finnish together!!

day 31 and 32. scary.

Soo today is Tuesday, that means school.
Yesterday was Monday, that also means school.

Yesterday was okay, until English class. My teacher never explains anything in english, like our homework. but expects us to hand it in. We had a writing assignment due that I found out about the night before because she told the whole class in finnish and i had no clue what she was saying the whole time. So yesterday, she asked us to read a story and then summarize it into 100 words. Me, being the eager student I am was like 'oh that's easy! I can do it' .... It had to be in Finnish.and if it was written in the wrong language, it was worth 0 marks.
I came home, wrote it in English and then tried my hardest to think of the finnish words to go along with the english I had created. It wasn't easy. I got 8 words and many hours and 1 anxiety attack later, I gave up. It's frustrating to not be able to keep up with my classmates, and that is just the kind of student that I am. I feel like a horrible person because I can't do any homework and I can't understand what is going on half the time. It's hard. I pushed myself so hard to get that stupid project done that my brain literally gave up. I was frustrated that I couldn't do it too and that contributed to the stress. In the end, I ended up with 8 finnish words, a ripped up paper, some tears and a whole lot of hope gone out the window. After talking to my host mom and Anni (in Canada) we all concluded that the teacher is unfair and Anni doesn't like her either. Apparently she's not a very good teacher, not even to stuents who speak finnish.

So today, I walked into that classroom with a smile on my face, nothing to hand in, and the thought that I am an exchange student and she can not expect me to catch on that quickly. I have been here 1 month today. No, I am not fluent. Yes, sometimes I can put together sentences and I can have a very short conversation with a friend but No, I can not write 100 words in Finnish about Parkour.

That is my exchange student mentality.

im in a good mood and feel like writing for once.

Today is officially my one month in Finland and I can't believe i've already been here that long. If it keeps going this fast ill be coming home in what feels like tomorrow. That is a day I am not ready to face.

It sounds weird but I am already becoming so emotionally attached to this country. I think one of the main reasons is because it is so similiar to Canada. People keep asking me if I miss Canada. Of course I miss Canada, I love that country and all that it stands for. But yet, I feel like I'm in Canada all the time here. I feel accepted and like I fit in here. I can't even explain why, I just do.

Some of the other exchange students are starting to get really homesick. I feel so bad and I try to help them. We have become like a family and I talk to them more than most of my friends talk to me from home. A lot of them have already thought about going home before the 10 months is over. They dont think they are going to make it. I hope every single one of us does. We are all so strong for taking this risk in the first place. Yes, it is a risk. Picking up your life from one country and moving to another is not easy. Making new friends, establishing a new meaning of family, struggling with the language, not understanding anything. It's all a risk. But the whole experience makes us stronger as people. I can already say that I have learned a lot about myself during this experience. I learned ways to control my emotions, that sometimes its okay to cry for no reason, and so much more..
There is this song that a girl sang at language camp. I listen to it over and over and over every day. Its depressing but positive and I dont know. It just makes me think of this whole experience and how much it means. And when I miss home, it pushes me to keep going.

It started out as a feeling

Which then grew into a hope

Which then turned into a quiet thought

Which then turned into a quiet word

And then that word grew louder and louder

Til it was a battle cry

I'll come back

When you call me

No need to say goodbye

Just because everything's changing

Doesn't mean it's never

Been this way before

All you can do is try to know

Who your friends are

As you head off to the war

Pick a star on the dark horizon

And follow the light

You'll come back

When it's over

No need to say good bye

You'll come back

When it's over

No need to say good bye

Now we're back to the beginning

It's just a feeling and no one knows yet

But just because they can't feel it too

Doesn't mean that you have to forget

Let your memories grow stronger and stronger

Til they're before your eyes

You'll come back

When they call you

No need to say good bye

You'll come back

When they call you

No need to say good bye

I haven't really felt homesick yet that much. Seeing my dogs I think was the hardest thing. They kept looking for me when they could hear me on skype and that was the thing that made me the most homesick. Today I've been a little homesick, seeing everyones statuses on facebook about how they are so excited to start their last year of high school and how should cherish every minute of it and blah blah blah. Kind of makes me wish that I was there celebrating it with them. But in other ways, I know that the things they do this year are never ever going to live up to the experiences I will have. 

<3<3<3 minä rakastan suomi, on paras. 

(I love Finland, it is the best) 

day 29 and 30- weekend!

Didn't do much this weekend considering I am still sick. It is starting to go away now though. I'm not as stuffed up, I just have a cough and my throat is kind of blocked. But this means that it is going away.
On Saturday, we went grocery shopping (like always) and then we just layed around and watched tv all day. Minna went to her friends house and I layed on the couch and watched a tv show called Awkward! for literally the whole day..... I fell in love with the show! Good thing season 2 was soon. We had soft tacos for dinner and they were super good and then watched some more tv and went to bed. Considering I had slept like 30 hours in the last 48 hours, I didn't go to sleep until like 11:30 last night.

Today (as well as yesterday) I woke up early, around 8 and came out to watch some more tv. There is nothing but infomercials in on the morning though which sucks. At about 11, we decided to go to IKEA. :D I love ikea. This ikea was kind of small compared to the one that I'm used to going to. But I still got many ideas for my new room (consdering my sister took it over for the year and re-did it to her style and I have a completely different idea in my head...) Ikea was great for this. I found this fabric that is honestly the epitome of everything I want in my room. It's black and grey and cream and dark purple. Just amazing. Here's a picture.

Ikea was fun. I found way too  many cool kitchen utensils, fantasized way too many times about owning my own house and having an unlimited ikea budget, learned way too many swedish words, and fell in love with way too many black and white pieces of art.









Originally our trip to ikea started because Outi bought this light a while ago that she saw in ikea and loved. We put it up last night and none of us can make it look good.. We went to ikea to see how they had it displayed in the store, and to see if we could make it look good in the house. This is how it looks in the store. It doesn't look nearly as interesting in the house... We WILL figure it out.










So after ikea, we came home and guess what? Awkward! marathon was on again. I love my life..
I watched the same episodes for another 2 hours and then we watched The Hunger Games (so good). And then, at 7, the 2nd season premiere of Awkward was on, so I watched that too :)


Overall it was a good weekend..



On the good side, I went to ikea and I didn't buy ANYTHING. Who's proud of me? I am.

Doesn't mean I didn't want to.......





Heippa! <3

my life in finland.

Technically, today is exact 4 weeks since I've left Canada. I am going to try and do a summary of all the amazing things that have happened to me and all the things that I've discovered in the past 28 days. I might do a little thing about my day to day life considering I haven't written much about that.

Since I've been here, I have discovered many reasons why I think Rotary sent me here.

1) I am reserved at times and not much of a small talker. If I don't have anything important at all, I don't usually say anything.

2) I'd rather smile at someone as a greeting rather than make a huge conversation with them (Finn's are great at this).

3) I love to sit by the water and stare at nothing. Not sure how Rotary discovered this but its so true.

4) I love the small town feel. (Everywhere in Finland feels small town)

5) I never thought I used to connect with nature that easily. Rotary obviously knew something about me that I didn't because it is my favourite thing here.

6) I'm kind of impatient and like to embrace change..... a lot. Finnish school changes... a lot :) so does Finnish weather.

7) I like design, fashion and architecture. All things that Finland knows lots about. Not saying that I'm in the fashion capital of the world, but just saying Finnish people know how to dress. That's all.

8) I love to wear tights and boots. EVERYONE HERE WEARS TIGHTS AND BOOTS!!!

9) I love cucumber. Rotarians, were you spying on me for my entire childhood? Its all I used to eat!

....

I cant think of anything else right now.. I'll get back to you.



I dont really know what else to write because I've discovered so much and experienced so much in the last 3 weeks.

Language
I'm doing fairly well. I know foods, drinks, greetings, basic sayings, some body parts, days of the week, months, numbers, colours, some items of clothing, weather, some basic questions (name, age, time, weather, nationality, where are you from?) and some other random words. I think I am doing pretty good considering I've only been submersed in the culture for 3 weeks. I am starting to understand more and more of what people are saying everyday. Especially if I say something in English and then they repeat it in Finnish. I am now able to catch words and understand WHAT someone is talking about, even if I don't understand everything they are saying about that something. I start Finnish lessons in 2 weeks and it will only go uphill from there. I am a lot more comfortable attemping to discover what someone is saying rather than speaking Finnish myself. I am still having trouble pronouncing things. Doesn't help that I pronounce everything wrong and someone at school always corrects or makes fun of me because I say it wrong :(. Whatever, It'll come..
I am hoping to be able to understand (and possibly speak) most Finnish by Christmas..  that is my goal.

Differences
Vehicles- I don't remember seeing one pick up truck since I've been here. Everyone has vans but they are not like Canadian Vans. They are shorter and boxier and they kind of look like .... I cant explain. Here's a picture.
                                 \
Everyone drives those or cars. Not very many trucks or SUV's here...

Clothing- everyone has a lot more fashion sense here. People care about what they look like and they make an effort to show that. Coloured pants, converse, and blazers are everywhere. This isn't really clothing, but a whole bunch of people in my school have these things called Teeth Jewels. It's like this metal thing that goes on your tooth and I think it looks really stupid and it would bug the crap out of me. At first, I thought a girl had something stuck in her teeth but it was just this stupid jewel thing. I dont understand it..... Also, some people at my school have scary piercings. This one guy has this huge metal ring that goes through the cartlidge between his nostrils. He looks like a bull. Its gross. But I guess that goes along with any country. A lot of people here wear glasses. I guess contacts aren't as common because I see way more classes here than I do at home. Also, almost everyone has blonde hair and blue eyes. Everyone is pale (I've seriously seen like 4 people who are tan. Fake tan. I have seen  one that is kind of tan and everyone refers to him as 'Sami, the one who is dark and doesn't look Finnish' well at least that's what Arlene (Mexico) refers to him as.)

I can't think of what else to write so I guess I will just move on...


Day to Day Life

Here is an outline of my average day. Both weekday and weekend.
Weekday
6:45am- Wake up
6:50am- Shower or get hair wet.
6:55am- Get dressed, do hair, do makeup.
7:15am- Eat Breakfast (toast with cheese, cucumbers and cold meat) or cereal or fruit.
7:30am- Pack School Bag, try to decide which shoes I'm going to wear..... (this takes a while)
7:35am- Wait for time to pass so that I can leave for school.
7:40am- Leave for school.
7:55am- Arrive at school.
8:00am- Find my friends and sit down at a table for a few  minutes before class.
8:05am- Go to class and wait outside for my teacher.
8:10am- *no bell* and class begins.
8:10am-9:25am- Sit in class and pretend I have some idea what is going on. Wait for time to pass.                     Count down the minutes until class is over.
9:25am- *no bell* class is over. Halls fill with people, so everyone else leaves class.
9:25am- find friends, sit down for a bit before class starts again.
9:40am- Go sit outside 2nd class, and wait for my teacher.
9:45am- *no bell* and class begins.
9:45am-11:00am- Sit in class and pretend I have some idea what is going on. Wait for time to pass. Count down the minutes until class is over.
11:00am- *no bell* and class is over. Halls fill with people so everyone else leaves class.
11:00am- Meet my friends in the halls somewhere. (They're impossible to miss with only 300 students)
11:05am- Wait in line in the Ruokasali (Cafeteria) for free lunch!!
11:10am- Eat Lunch
11:25am- Go downstairs and sit on the couches and wait for class to begin.
11:35am- Go sit outside 3rd class and wait for my teacher.
11:40am- *no bell* class begins
11:40am-12:55pm- Sit in class and pretend I have some idea what is going on. Wait for time to pass. Count down the minutes until class is over.
12:55pm- *no bell* and class ends. Halls fill with people so everyone else leaves class.
12:55pm- find friends and sit for a bit before class begins.
1:05pm- go sit outside class and wait for teacher.
1:10pm- *no bell* class begins.
1:10pm-2:25pm- Sit in class and pretend I have some idea what is going on. Wait for time to pass. Count down the minutes until class is over.
2:25pm- *no bell* class is over. Halls fill with people so everyone else leaves class.
2:30pm- walk home
2:45pm- arrive home.
2:45pm-2:50pm- pet the dogs for 5 minutes becasue they are so excited I am home.
2:50pm- Take the dogs outside to go pee and for a little walk to burn some energy.
3:00pm- Come inside and lay down and maybe watch tv or go on my computer for a little bit. Or do homework if I have any I can comprehend.
(**at some point between 2:30 and 3:30, Minna arrives home**)
4:15pm- Outi arrives home.
4:30pm- we begin making dinner
5:00pm- we eat dinner
5:30pm- we clean up dinner
6:00pm- we think about going to sleep.........
6:30pm- still thinking about it.....
7:30pm- still thinking (on the computer now or watching a tv show)
8:00pm- heat up the sauna
8:30pm- sauna is ready!!
8:30pm-10:00pm- everyone goes to sauna and gets ready for sleep.
10:00pm- ALYSSA GOES TO BED :)
10:30pm-11:00pm- everyone else goes to bed.


Thats about as detailed as it gets folks... Except I never have 4 classes a day. I only have 3 and my schedule is different every day. I am done school at 12:55 on Monday, Thursday and Friday and on Tuesday and Wednesday I am done at 2:25. On Tuesday I don't start school until 9:45 but the rest of the days I start at 8:10. On Wednesday, I have spare (hypäri) 2nd period with Arlene and Roosa. Sometimes we go to town, sometimes we go to the computer lab, sometimes we sit on the couches and talk. :D


Okay weekend, I am not going into that much detail....


8:00am-10:00am- RISE AND SHINEEEEEE.
11:00am- breakfast.
11:30am-12:00pm- think about getting dressed and doing something with the day.
12:30pm- grocery shopping (We grocery shop a lot...Today I think we went to 3 different grocery stores)
1:00pm-1:30pm- come home.
1:30pm- think of what else we are going to do that day. (nap, watch tv, go somewhere, do something. this changes up.)
3:00pm- make lunch/dinner. Usually this is the main meal on weekends. It allows us to have our snacks earlier and have time to burn them off before we go to sleep. It's bad to eat right before you sleep...
3:30pm- Eat dinner
4:00pm- clean up dinner
4:30pm- think of something else to do.
7:00pm- have a snack.
8:00pm- **see weekday schedule** :)



So that's my life. If you have any questions or want to know anything else that I have left out, just let me know. I am still sick and my brain is not in the mood for thinking so you should be glad that I was able to write this much...



Nähdään :)