days 126-151- Christmas Time!

Okay so the last month has been crazy. I have been so busy. It has been almost a month since I have even wrote here.

So in the last month, lots has happened. Probably too much that I can't even remember.

In the beginning of December, people started putting up their Christmas decorations. Lights, stars hanging in the windows and candles in the windows. No Christmas trees in houses yet, although they were in the downtown areas.
It was weird because the closer it got to Christmas, the darker it got. The sun was rising at 10 am and setting at about 2:30, when I got on the bus at 3, it was almost completely dark outside.

As Christmas got closer, we had a few Christmas parties, one with Rotary and one with Helena, Kaisa and Maija's Scout group. Finnish Christmas food is fairly different from Canadian Christmas Food. Finnish meal consists of cold ham, rosolli (which is a cold salad with potatoes, beets, apples, carrots and onions), warm potatoes, carrot casserole, and turnip casserole. That is the foods that we ate at those dinners.

On the 17th, my host dad arrived from Uruguay. It was almost weird to have him there, as I haven't had a host dad the whole time I've been here. It was weird but nice at the same time.


We finished school on the 21st, and our principal made an announcement at 1 O'Clock that we could all go home early as a Christmas present. I was so excited to give out all my presents that I actually ended up giving them away on the 19th but on the 21st, I recieved lots of presents from my friends and from my previous host family. I spent the night at Mara's house and the next morning we had some sort of Christmas Assembly at the school, on a Saturday!! It began with Church (we didn't go) and then Christmas porridge (we didn't eat that either) and a presentation from the teachers and from some of the students who acted out a play.
After that, Helena, Leila and I caught the bus (and they let us ride for free as a Christmas Present) and went home to have a nap and relax. It was great that Christmas vacation was finally beginning. That night, my host dad's mom came to our house to stay for the week.
On Sunday, the 23rd, my moms whole side of the family came over for Christmas Porridge. It was disgusting  Its not the flavour that is bad, I just didn't like the consistency of it in my mouth. I didn't want to insult my host grandma so I ate half of it anyways. They all stayed for about 5 hours and went horseback riding and everything and JOOOOO. It was good.
On the 23rd at night, my host dad's sister and her husband came to our house for the Christmas time. Her husband, Kevin was from Britain and spoke about as much finnish as I did, so it was nice that everyone spoke a little bit of english. Also, since he is British and is used to Turkey on Christmas, they brought turkey to have with Christmas dinner too. We cooked our ham (and caught it on fire) and prepared the salads and everything for the following day.

On the 24th, which is pretty much just like Christmas Day for Finland (although it is still Christmas Eve, but all the celebrations are on the 24th), my host mom and I went to Church at 12am. Not that either of us are really avid church goers but it was peaceful and gave us something to do to get out of the crazy house. After church, we came back home and then finished making dinner and everything. Finnish Christmas dinner is fairly different, all the foods are cold, except for potato casserole, carrot casserole and turnip casserole. So jooo we ate dinner and then Santa (my host dad) came and handed out all the presents and then I opened my present from my home family and then I went to sleep.

On the 25th, Christmas Day (and the day we celebrate in Canada) we went horseback riding (and I fell off) and snowmobiling (and we almost fell through the lake). It was a scary but fun and interesting day.

I don't really remember what else has happened since Christmas or what else I can tell about Christmas.

Since then, I have been snowmobiling many times, and even horseback riding one other time. My host mom and I went last Saturday and I didn't fall off and we even galloped pretty fast and rode for like an hour. Thats pretty good for someone whos never rode a horse before. I'm proud of myself.

I am going into exams soon in school. BOOOORING.





This weekend, I am going to visit Sarah in Iisalmi and Lucie and Maddy are coming too. It will be so good to see them. We haven't all seen eachother since Lapland and wont again until some time in February. We originally planned to get together for my birthday but this weekend will work just fine :)

I hope to see Sarah more often because it is only 5 euros for me to get to her house by train :) woohoooooo. Im gunna go like every other week now.


:)


I seriously love this country so much