(or lack of)
I can't even speak english anymore, seriously.
the other day, I asked my friend Lucie if immaturity was a word.
and then like 4 days later, on our way home from Lapland, me and her spent about an hour and a half trying to figure out how many syllables the word 'wasps' has.
(Seriously though, if you say it, it kind of has 1.5 syllables, wasps, wasps, wasps, wasps, wasps. just try it??)
Oh and today, my host mom asked me what the area that like horses go in while they are like within a fence but still kind of free? what is that called??
and she asked me what the little room is that a horse lives in? like with the sliding door on the front? I can't even remember english words.
all the horse talk is because we have 4 horses, 3 mares and 1 stallion. All week, the stallion keeps breaking the fence (my host mom has fixed it 4 times) and he just walks right through the electrical wires and pushes them down. Anyways, the horses have escaped every night and then been gone all night and come back in the morning.
So last night they escaped, all 5 of them. 4 of ours and one of our neighbours. they all escaped together and then this morning, I saw them running around the house so we had to try and capture them and take them to the barn. After that, we had to move the stallion to an icelandic horse farm in Varkaus, about 1.5 hours away so he will actually not run away anymore. It was actually really cool to be with the horses, even though the stallion is kind of scary. The rest of the horses are really old and calm so not scary at all. The stallion though is fairly young and its funny because he broke the fence so many times and then when we finally captured him, my host mom tied him to the trailer we were going to put him in and he just looked at us like 'hahahaha, im so cute. look what a mess i made. but aren't i just the cutest boy? will you forgive me?'
we had to give him some medicine to keep him calm and then it looked like he forgot how to walk and didn't know where he was. typical drunk finn ;) kidding.
my host mom was really glad she had Roosa's help and my help today. She said that moving a horse has never been as easy as it was today.
:)
Saturday, December 8, 2012
Thursday, December 6, 2012
christmas
My Christmas presents arrived while I was in Lapland and now they are sitting in my bedroom taunting me.
This is just the worst. And I still have to wait 19 days to open them!
This is just the worst. And I still have to wait 19 days to open them!
days 111-125
OKAY
things have been crazy and insane lately. that is why I haven't been posting.
to be 100% honest, I don't even use my computer that much anymore other than on weekends.
My last post was written on Helena's birthday, Wednesday and on Thursday, we went to see Skyfall and it was actually so good.
During the week, about 3 days a week I don't get home until 7 or 8 o clock and last week was especially busy.
My host sisters are all involved in Scout so last week we were baking for a scout fundraiser on monday, tuesday and wednesday. It was actually a lot of fun and we baked a crap load of things.
On Thursday, I think I came home. I don't really remember...
But on Friday, I left for Lapland. I left at 12:05am so I went to Roosa's at about 5pm with all of my stuff. I ate way too many clementines trying to keep myself awake (about 9) and curled Roosa's hair. She has a hell of a lot of hair and it is soooo long so it took forever.
Lapland was seriously so much fun. I don't even know how to describe it. It was an 11 hour drive for me. We only stopped once for half an hour because every other time we were scheduled to stop everyone was asleep. The drive actually wasn't that bad because we hadn't seen eachother in so long we had so much to talk about. There were 20 people on my bus, my whole district plus one other girl, which was amazing compared to the other buses who all had 40. We all talked and caught up and then all fell asleep around 3 or 4 am. People started to wake up around 8 or 9 and when I woke up and looked out the window, it was a lot different than what I had been seeing before. Although still dark, it was absolutely beautiful. All the trees were covered in snow and there were trees everywhere. The land was flat and in some places, far off you could see mountains. Not like real mountains but small ones. :)
We weren't supposed to arrive until 11 or 11:30 but we actually ended up arriving at around 10. It was nice to be so early because we had lots of time to get settled in the hotel before any of the buses even arrived.The rest arrived at 11 or so but one didn't arrive until almost 1 o clock. At 2 o clock, we all left and headed to Olos Ski Centre. It was absolutely beautiful because at the time we got there, the sun was already setting and it was just so pretty. We didn't actually end up skiing at all. Some of my friends and I tobogganed and then watched other people ski and tried to stay warm. It was about -26 Celsius that day. At night, we had dinner outside in this like I don't know how to explan it. It was like a huge gazebo with like 5 different rooms and we had actually really good salmon soup and yeah it was so pretty!
On Sunday, we had the same options or we could stay at the hotel and do ice sculpting. Again, we chose to do this because then we could come in and get warm for a bit and it was a much more relaxed day and ice sculpting seemed really cool. It was not actually ice sculpting but snow sculpting. but still super cool. It was fun. We made a sculpture and hung out in the hotel and stuff for a bit and I forget what else :D At night, we had almost a concert thing in the local high school and they played music for us and we danced and then each country did their own little thing. some people sang, played a game or danced. the Canadians sang the hockey song.
On Monday, we all had different activities during the day. In the morning, my group (Bus #4) snowshoed to the reindeer place and then we all had rides pulled by reindeer sleighs. It was so cool but scary at the same time. There were 3 reindeer and 3 sleighs all attached so it went reindeer, sleigh, reindeer, sleigh, reindeer, sleigh. I was in the very back sleigh with 2 of my friends and our reindeer was the youngest and craziest. Halfway through our ride, the rope attaching the reindeer's collar and the sleigh infront of it got wrapped around the reindeer's antlers so it started going crazy and trying to get it off. It was the scariest and saddest thing I think I have ever witnessed. Not only was it trying to get it off, it was still running because the 2 reindeer in front didnt know something bad had happened and just kept running. It was so sad and at one point we almost jumped out it was so sad. We got hit by some trees and the reindeer actually layed down on the ground and the other 2 stopped for a second. He started rubbing his face in the snow really fast, like a dog when it's face is itchy and then the rope finally came free and they all started running again. It was a realy cool experience even though it was quite scary.
After that traumatizing experience, we walked to the husky farm to have dog sled rides which ended up almost being just as traumatizing. We got on our dog sled and the dogs were so excited to see people and they had so much energy. Well one of our dogs ended up getting angry at another one and started to bite its neck and like play fight with it. And the dog was like HELL NO. and then they all started to run. The dog escaped its collar, ended up jumping on our laps and then quickly running away. The craziest thing was that I don't even think the man on our sled yelled anything but as soon as the dog got out of its collar, the lead dogs knew to stop. So while everyone else ran with an even number of dogs, ours was odd but we still got there and it was such a cool experience :)
After that, we had lunch and then went to another reindeer farm that has about 800 reindeer. The craziest thing about Lapland is there are reindeer everywhere. They just were chilling on the side of the road or in the middle of the road while we were trying to drive or just everywhere. On this reindeer farm we learned about like the history of reindeer and yeah! they aren't really used for anything. They aren't even like penned in (i cant think of the word... like there are no fences) they just wander in the forest and when they want food, they will come back to their original farm. They all have distinctive ear markings and every spring, the Swedes and Finns have to cross eachothers borders to get their reindeer back. We went in the main house which was built in like the 1700s and met the lady who owns the farm.
After that, we went to this small mountain range in lapland and we went to the visitors centre. When we got here, the sun was setting and we got to take lots of beautiful pictures!
After that, we went to Sweden. Our hotel was literally right on the border, there was a river beside the hotel and that river was the border. So on Sunday, I waved to Sweden (and Alexis) and on Monday, I went to Sweden. We just drove across the border and drove back and parked. Then we walked to the middle of the bridge to take pictures of the actual border sign.
After that we went back to the hotel and although it was only 3pm, it was pitch black outside.
We all got ready for our party that night, which turned out a lot differently than expected. We thought it would be just a dance but actually for 3 hours it was performances almost. In the beginning we had a few country performances we didn't have time for the night before and then the Oldies (people who's exchange started in January) presented some of us with gifts. Turns out, there are all these gifts that are passed from Oldie to Newbie and one of them has been going on for 27 years, which is 54 exchange students. It is a hat and it is passed to someone who is a leader of the group and talks to everyone and keeps everyone together. After all of that we danced for a little while but I felt sick so I went back to the hotel with my friend Sarah.
The way home was horrible, it lasted forever. We drove for 2 hours, stopped for 3 hours, drove for half an hour, stopped for an hour, and then drove the rest of the way without stopping. We left at 9am and I got home at 11pm. It was a long day.
We stopped in Santa's Village in Rovaniemi. Yes, Santa Claus lives in Finland and they actually have a post office here where they get letters every year from over 90 countries. It was really cool but I thought there would be more to do. The whole place was just full of souvenir shops and it was very touristy. We wished that there had been more activities. We got to meet Santa and get our picture taken, although that was way too expensive :D
It was such a good trip and it was so good to be with all of my friends. I have seriously made some of the best friends in the world here. I have 3 best friends in my district, Lucie, Sarah and Maddy who are from West Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania. I am so glad we are only about 12 hours apart. I don't know what I would do if they were on the other side of the world.
On the way home, we got so sad that we were leaving eachother that the 4 of us sat in 2 seats. Me and Lucie sitting in the chairs and Sarah and Maddy sitting on our laps. We sat like this for probably an hour and all cried and talked about how much we loved eachother. I can't even believe how close we have become in the last 4 months. None of us even talked to eachother at Language camp and just met when we found out we were in the same district. As of day, we have only ever spent 6 days together but our friendship is inseparable.
During this last month, I have really realized how much I love this country and this town. I don't know what I would do without my friends and my families. I no longer picture this as a town that I live it, it is a home to me and I actually feel like I am part of it :D
So so happy to be where I am and I can not imagine myself anywhere else or with any different people.
things have been crazy and insane lately. that is why I haven't been posting.
to be 100% honest, I don't even use my computer that much anymore other than on weekends.
My last post was written on Helena's birthday, Wednesday and on Thursday, we went to see Skyfall and it was actually so good.
During the week, about 3 days a week I don't get home until 7 or 8 o clock and last week was especially busy.
My host sisters are all involved in Scout so last week we were baking for a scout fundraiser on monday, tuesday and wednesday. It was actually a lot of fun and we baked a crap load of things.
On Thursday, I think I came home. I don't really remember...
But on Friday, I left for Lapland. I left at 12:05am so I went to Roosa's at about 5pm with all of my stuff. I ate way too many clementines trying to keep myself awake (about 9) and curled Roosa's hair. She has a hell of a lot of hair and it is soooo long so it took forever.
Lapland was seriously so much fun. I don't even know how to describe it. It was an 11 hour drive for me. We only stopped once for half an hour because every other time we were scheduled to stop everyone was asleep. The drive actually wasn't that bad because we hadn't seen eachother in so long we had so much to talk about. There were 20 people on my bus, my whole district plus one other girl, which was amazing compared to the other buses who all had 40. We all talked and caught up and then all fell asleep around 3 or 4 am. People started to wake up around 8 or 9 and when I woke up and looked out the window, it was a lot different than what I had been seeing before. Although still dark, it was absolutely beautiful. All the trees were covered in snow and there were trees everywhere. The land was flat and in some places, far off you could see mountains. Not like real mountains but small ones. :)
We weren't supposed to arrive until 11 or 11:30 but we actually ended up arriving at around 10. It was nice to be so early because we had lots of time to get settled in the hotel before any of the buses even arrived.The rest arrived at 11 or so but one didn't arrive until almost 1 o clock. At 2 o clock, we all left and headed to Olos Ski Centre. It was absolutely beautiful because at the time we got there, the sun was already setting and it was just so pretty. We didn't actually end up skiing at all. Some of my friends and I tobogganed and then watched other people ski and tried to stay warm. It was about -26 Celsius that day. At night, we had dinner outside in this like I don't know how to explan it. It was like a huge gazebo with like 5 different rooms and we had actually really good salmon soup and yeah it was so pretty!
On Sunday, we had the same options or we could stay at the hotel and do ice sculpting. Again, we chose to do this because then we could come in and get warm for a bit and it was a much more relaxed day and ice sculpting seemed really cool. It was not actually ice sculpting but snow sculpting. but still super cool. It was fun. We made a sculpture and hung out in the hotel and stuff for a bit and I forget what else :D At night, we had almost a concert thing in the local high school and they played music for us and we danced and then each country did their own little thing. some people sang, played a game or danced. the Canadians sang the hockey song.
On Monday, we all had different activities during the day. In the morning, my group (Bus #4) snowshoed to the reindeer place and then we all had rides pulled by reindeer sleighs. It was so cool but scary at the same time. There were 3 reindeer and 3 sleighs all attached so it went reindeer, sleigh, reindeer, sleigh, reindeer, sleigh. I was in the very back sleigh with 2 of my friends and our reindeer was the youngest and craziest. Halfway through our ride, the rope attaching the reindeer's collar and the sleigh infront of it got wrapped around the reindeer's antlers so it started going crazy and trying to get it off. It was the scariest and saddest thing I think I have ever witnessed. Not only was it trying to get it off, it was still running because the 2 reindeer in front didnt know something bad had happened and just kept running. It was so sad and at one point we almost jumped out it was so sad. We got hit by some trees and the reindeer actually layed down on the ground and the other 2 stopped for a second. He started rubbing his face in the snow really fast, like a dog when it's face is itchy and then the rope finally came free and they all started running again. It was a realy cool experience even though it was quite scary.
After that traumatizing experience, we walked to the husky farm to have dog sled rides which ended up almost being just as traumatizing. We got on our dog sled and the dogs were so excited to see people and they had so much energy. Well one of our dogs ended up getting angry at another one and started to bite its neck and like play fight with it. And the dog was like HELL NO. and then they all started to run. The dog escaped its collar, ended up jumping on our laps and then quickly running away. The craziest thing was that I don't even think the man on our sled yelled anything but as soon as the dog got out of its collar, the lead dogs knew to stop. So while everyone else ran with an even number of dogs, ours was odd but we still got there and it was such a cool experience :)
After that, we had lunch and then went to another reindeer farm that has about 800 reindeer. The craziest thing about Lapland is there are reindeer everywhere. They just were chilling on the side of the road or in the middle of the road while we were trying to drive or just everywhere. On this reindeer farm we learned about like the history of reindeer and yeah! they aren't really used for anything. They aren't even like penned in (i cant think of the word... like there are no fences) they just wander in the forest and when they want food, they will come back to their original farm. They all have distinctive ear markings and every spring, the Swedes and Finns have to cross eachothers borders to get their reindeer back. We went in the main house which was built in like the 1700s and met the lady who owns the farm.
After that, we went to this small mountain range in lapland and we went to the visitors centre. When we got here, the sun was setting and we got to take lots of beautiful pictures!
After that, we went to Sweden. Our hotel was literally right on the border, there was a river beside the hotel and that river was the border. So on Sunday, I waved to Sweden (and Alexis) and on Monday, I went to Sweden. We just drove across the border and drove back and parked. Then we walked to the middle of the bridge to take pictures of the actual border sign.
After that we went back to the hotel and although it was only 3pm, it was pitch black outside.
We all got ready for our party that night, which turned out a lot differently than expected. We thought it would be just a dance but actually for 3 hours it was performances almost. In the beginning we had a few country performances we didn't have time for the night before and then the Oldies (people who's exchange started in January) presented some of us with gifts. Turns out, there are all these gifts that are passed from Oldie to Newbie and one of them has been going on for 27 years, which is 54 exchange students. It is a hat and it is passed to someone who is a leader of the group and talks to everyone and keeps everyone together. After all of that we danced for a little while but I felt sick so I went back to the hotel with my friend Sarah.
The way home was horrible, it lasted forever. We drove for 2 hours, stopped for 3 hours, drove for half an hour, stopped for an hour, and then drove the rest of the way without stopping. We left at 9am and I got home at 11pm. It was a long day.
We stopped in Santa's Village in Rovaniemi. Yes, Santa Claus lives in Finland and they actually have a post office here where they get letters every year from over 90 countries. It was really cool but I thought there would be more to do. The whole place was just full of souvenir shops and it was very touristy. We wished that there had been more activities. We got to meet Santa and get our picture taken, although that was way too expensive :D
It was such a good trip and it was so good to be with all of my friends. I have seriously made some of the best friends in the world here. I have 3 best friends in my district, Lucie, Sarah and Maddy who are from West Virginia, New York and Pennsylvania. I am so glad we are only about 12 hours apart. I don't know what I would do if they were on the other side of the world.
On the way home, we got so sad that we were leaving eachother that the 4 of us sat in 2 seats. Me and Lucie sitting in the chairs and Sarah and Maddy sitting on our laps. We sat like this for probably an hour and all cried and talked about how much we loved eachother. I can't even believe how close we have become in the last 4 months. None of us even talked to eachother at Language camp and just met when we found out we were in the same district. As of day, we have only ever spent 6 days together but our friendship is inseparable.
During this last month, I have really realized how much I love this country and this town. I don't know what I would do without my friends and my families. I no longer picture this as a town that I live it, it is a home to me and I actually feel like I am part of it :D
So so happy to be where I am and I can not imagine myself anywhere else or with any different people.
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