last few months :)

I went to Helsinki in April with my host mom, her friend and her friends daughter, Alisa. We visited the city but unfortunately it was raining the whole weekend so I don't have many good pictures. Helsinki is pretty small compared to Toronto but it is so much different. The city is NOT a grid, which is the most confusing thing. I had no idea where we were at all. I went to Helsinki for a day again in the beginning of May for a Rotary thing but I didn't take very many pictures then either cuz it was raining AGAIN. I'm convinced it rains in Helsinki all the time.

In the end of April, I went to St Petersburg, Russia with the rest of the exchange students. It was a great 4 days and Russia is really beautiful but I was so glad to be back in Finland.

 Vappu in my school. The day when the retired teachers have a celebration and the whole day is like Labor Day in Canada but its more of a celebration. Its the biggest drinking holiday in Finland, other than Midsummer. These are all the teachers in my school with their white caps (which students recieve when they graduate).

 On Vappu, I went to the highest waterfall in Finland with my host parents. It's May 1st in this picture and theres still snow on the ground.

 My host parents at Korkeakoski.


Weather started to get warmer in the middle of May!! Since then it has been friggen hot. It was 33 one day, which is REALLY hot for Finland. Usually it is 23-26, at the warmest. In the end of May, Finland was the warmest country in Europe!!

 Aku's house

 Host brothers jumping on the trampoline.

 My host family!

 Julia (Aku's niece)

 Sunset!! :)

 Aku, Markku and Arja. They are like my 4th family.

 Reetta, Aku's sister.

Anna, Aku's other sister. 

I don't know why this is upside down but me, Finja (Germany) and Mara (Italy), my two best exchange friends from my school. 

 Me saying my goodbye speech at school. :(

Me swimming in the lake with Julia (2 years old)

We had our district conference in Kotka, Southern Finland. All of our districts exchange students were there. 

Sarah and I sitting on the dock, Lucie and Maddy making the heart.

 Rotary Jacket is pretty full!

 Sarah. I swear this girl might be my long lost sister. Living just in New York State, we plan to meet up often. We have a theory that we are sisters and were born in Niagara Falls and then separated at birth and I was adopted by Canadians and she was adopted by Americans.

 Our whole district. I'm not the only Canadian but one went home early and the other doesn't have a red jacket because she's from an American/Canadian district.

Sarah, Lucie, me and Maddy <3

 For Juhannus (Midsummer), which is the longest day of the year. I went to Kajaani with my host family. We had a typical finnish night. Food, sauna and sunsets. We went fishing at like midnight. the sun set behind the trees for about an hour and then came back up again.

 Lettuja, like Crepes. These are a VERY popular finnish summer food. cooked on a grill outside and eaten with ice cream, jam, or chocolate sauce.

 Aku and I fishing. I tried to get him to take a picture with me but i just ended up taking them of myself :D

 We caught like 40 small fish and then Aku's mom made Kalakukko. Fish pie. You cut off the fish heads and then cook them inside this bread for a few hours. ITS DISCUSTING.

 The best part about Finnish summer, BERRIES!!!

 and sunsets :D

 This picture was taken at 11pm, watching the sunset on a lake near Roosa's house.

 This is at the top of the ski hill in my town. We went up there at 2am and stayed until like 3, watching the sky and the lakes and the view. Then, the mosquitoes were too much to handle and we had to leave.

Slept in a tent in Roosa's backyard. 

 
 Celebrated Canada Day in a Smoke Sauna at my Rotary President's house. Basically,  you make a fire inside this house during the day, let all the smoke sit inside all day and then you go to sauna in there. It smells really bad but feels really good.

 I went back this week to visit my 2nd host family. We went swimming and boating and to sauna and just chit chatted all night.

 Which one of these just doesn't belong?

 Leila (14), me, Maija (7) and Kaisa (11)

 I went flying with Aku and his Uncle over Kuopio and Siilinjärvi in a small 4 person airplane. IT WAS AMAZING

 Theres literally lakes everywhere here, i love it.

This is my town!! 

That's all that has happened other than eurotour. But i have WAY TOO many pictures (almost 2000) for me to upload even a few of them here now.. 

been a while!

I haven't written on here in a reallyyyyy long time.
So I apologize.

Things have been so so busy in the last few months. There have only been a few free days for me.

January:
Right after my last post, I went to visit Sarah, Maddy and Lucie in Iisalmi. It was a lot of fun. A weekend of shopping, chinese food and mcdonalds. Sarah and I tried to make steak (they dont have steak in finland really.. the only beef they eat is ground beef).

It ended up being like stewing beef so it wasn't the greatest. but it was worth the effort. We also bought a cake for the 4 of us to eat the next day. But being exchange students, Sarah and I ate the whole thing and immediately regretted it. Both of us felt sick for HOURS.

On January 24th, my Rotary Club took me to a KalPa (which is like London Knights but in the Kuopio, the city nearest me). I went with Helena and Leila, my host sisters and then my 3rd host parents drove us home after the game. There were maybe 20 Rotarians and their families there. We had a huge section together. It was so good to watch hockey again. I've missed it.

For my birthday, my host family surprised me by bringing Aku and his family to my house for cake and coffee (typical finnish people. :) ). That was the weekend before my birthday because we had exams. With my family, we went to fontanella (the complex) swimming as a family and had cake and ice cream. With my friends, we just went shopping and eating in Kuopio. It was fun :) and I bought my (now) favourite skirt. We went to our favourite restaurant. It is called Rax Buffet. You pay like 8 euros and get to eat as MUCH food as you want. and they have pizza and really good food. Its amazing.
The weekend after that, I went to Iisalmi with Mara to meet Sarah again.  :) We went out dancing and it was a lot of fun!

February:
On February 6th, (SOPHIES BIRTHDAY), I went with my host mom to pick up our crazy horse (again). Now, he had started jumping out of the fences in that one horse farm and they didnt want their fences being destroyed anymore so we had to move him again. This involved 6 hours in the car. It wasn't fun. But i went to help my host mom and keep her company.
February was full of snowmobiling and adventures with my host family. We pulled a sled behind our snowmobile and all of us went out to an island for a winter picnic. We cooked Makkara (sausages) and drank hot chocolate.

In the middle of February, my school had their graduation. The 12^th graders would have their last day of school on Thursday. This means a huge celebration. They all come to school dressed up in costumes and throw candy at people. It is a combination of a parade and Halloween. They all visit classrooms in groups and play games. In my class, we had rock stars, Smurfs, Superheroes and sailors.  I got so much candy that I don’t even know what to do with it anymore.  

After the classroom visits, there is an assembly in the gym where they all thank the teachers and give awards for ‘best smile’, ‘best personality’, and so on. After this, all the 12^th graders lined up at the doors to leave the school. This is when the 11^th grade boys had to carry each of the 120 students into trucks. They all got in the back of these big decorated dump trucks and then did a parade around my town and the city nearest us!

The day after this is called ‘Wanhojen Päivä’, which means ‘the day of the old’. This means that my grade was now the oldest in the school. To celebrate, everyone dresses up in huge ball gowns and they do some traditional dances and fun dances, for about an hour and a half. There are 2 shows. I was what is called your ‘Ykkosystävä’ which means first friend (or slave), which is exactly what I was.  So I served my friends food and took pictures of them. I also had to fix many dresses and hair-do’s but that was my own choice J

After the 2 shows, we all headed to a hotel near our town where there was a huge celebration for all ‘Wanhojen Tanssi’ students within a 100km range. There were over 700 people there and the whole hotel was closed off to us. It was a huge celebration and a lot of fun and I met a lot more people. 

 Right before Wanhat, Mandi-the exchange student who was here last year- came to visit. It was really good to finally meet her!

In the end of February, we had a Rotary weekend in my town at the Ski Centre. It was cool cuz I got to be kind of a tour guide to everyone. But I was really sick so that sucked. It was still fun though and I skied about 7 kilometers with some people.

March:
That week, I packed up all my stuff and said my goodbyes to my host family. On Saturday morning, I went to Aku's and we went to Ruka with his family for ski holiday. It was a great week of cross country skiing, downhill skiing (not me though), hiking, sauna and just relaxation.

                                 I made smores!                                   Sanni (Aku's niece) and I.

                               Our cottage !                                        Markku (Aku's dad) and I.

                                                                                               Sanni is 4 and was skiing on the regular            mountain with her dad and grandpa! What a daredevil.

                                     Sanni and Aku                                     It was a long day!

After we came back from Ruka, I moved to my third and final host family. I have 2 brothers, Rasmus (16) and Justus (12). So far, it has been really good here. I get along really well with my host parents and my host brothers. Although my last family was amazing, this one will be too!!

Two weeks ago, I went to Leppävirta to an exchange meeting with Lucie. There, we met the exchange students who will be leaving for next years exchange in August. It was awesome. There are 3 of them from my district coming to Canada,  (haven't met the one coming to 7080 yet though!!). It was fun and it was good to talk to exchange students and be able to answer their questions.


Last weekend was Easter. It was kind of different. The weekend before, kids showed up at our door with decorated sticks and sang us a song to ward off the evil witches (don't ask me where that tradition came from) and to wish us luck for the next year. It was cute.

Easter weekend, we went to Kajaani, where my host parents' families live. We did a little shopping, some sightseeing, went for a walk on the ice and had another picnic on an island. We also went snowmobiling. It was fun :)
My host mom's brother owns a Tree Harvesting company and while we were visiting them, I got to drive the harvester and cut down trees. It was honestly the coolest thing I have ever experienced in my life!
I ALSO DID AVANTO. which is swimming in a hole in the ice. and it was amazing. it wasn't even cold and it felt soooo good! i wasnt cold until all the snow collapsed when I was walking back to the sauna. Then i couldnt feel my legs :D

Nothing much has happened yet this week.

Yesterday, I had my Finnish Language test. It was really really difficult but the speaking part (the part i was most scared of) went the best!! Now, I am not afraid at all to speak Finnish and am so proud of myself for completing the test :D

Next weekend, I will visit Helsinki with my host mom and her friend :) will write sometime in the next few weeks :)