Everythings as if we never said goodbye

Snow!!!

I had my soccer trainings this week at 8PM at night! On a turf field. It was so good to get out on the field again. It is a good stress relief and somehow centers me and keeps me grounded. Literally and physically. I can't really say much about my weekend. It snowed for the first time, though! Nothing stuck to the ground, unfortunately. It is getting quite chillier, but if the sun is out, it is not too bad. I was talking to my friend Jenna Porter who lives in Helsinki and I met her before I left. At the last foreign exchange conference we had in the U.S.A we roomed together. We have gone through the whole process together and now we are here! But anyways, we were talking about how much we missed theatre. We feel so empty without it. Being on stage is so fulfilling and here it is so time consuming it would be hard to do especially since it is in Turku and I would be going there a lot. But I have, however, joined a choir of about 7 people at my high school. We will sing on a Swedish Saint Lucia holiday and also on a parent's night I believe. This week is also the start of the fall break. From Thursday to next Tuesday we have a fall break. I think I am going to a cottage in Pori but my friend Christine lives really close to there so I will stay one night at her house! Yay! I also think that the exchange students near Turku are putting together a Thanksgiving :) Yummy! The leaves are turning and it is so beautiful! Especially during dusk. When I woke up this morning, I thought it was 2AM and really, it was 6! It was still black outside! Ou nouuu!! Anyways, I am going to eat lunch now and warm myself up!

This weekend

This week was my first week with my new schedule. I have a psychology class and when I walked in, he asked if I knew what a white-tailed deer was and continued by saying that he killed two before going to school that morning. Then I have two other English classes and a sports class and hopefully I will be getting a singing course and possibly a dance course. For the next period, I will take a class for the old dance. We have to learn the dance and then perform it for people. Much different than prom! I am also joining the soccer team and some friends from Helsinki are thinking of starting a foreign exchange theatre group (yay!) I am like a fish without water because I have not been performing. On my weekend, well, Friday, I went to a Mexican and Finnish bar. At the Finnish bar, cleverly named "poro" (reindeer), I met two adults from the United States that worked with Carnival cruise lines. I eavesdropped and heard them say "Turku" like an American and I was like HEY! I am going to talk to them! Very refreshing to hear that. I think it is going to be so strange to come back to the states and understand all the conversations being had because I am so used to not understanding fully what people are saying. I am beginning to understand much more, though. Thank God! I can pick up on words and hopefully in a few weeks, I will be able to piece together what people are talking about. On Saturday, I lounged around did laundry etc. Then around 7 I went to Linda's house, the girl from Rotex who went on exchange to Mexico in 08-09 and there was a little girls night. One of her friends went to France and another to Italy. The girl from Itally Anni, did all of our nails and was such a sweetheart! Then today I went to a basketball game with a team from Turku vs. Helsinki. There were two American players, and the coaches were screaming in English (yay!) Then I went home and did sauna :) I have not been warm in a long time and it definetely helped. Supposedly, this is supposed to be the coldest winter in 1,000 years. Perfect timing, Christina! Anyways, tomorrow I will be going to Turku because my English teacher has a colleague there, and coincidentally, it is my next host sister's school! It is called TSYK. I have realized that my English is getting worse and worse. Uh oh. Tuesday I have training at 8 o'clock. Since we do not have practice after school, we have it very late in the night. AKA: cold! No pictures this time, sorry! Hyää yötä (goodnight)

Every weekend

Emppu, me, Gaby and Maiju on the top floor

sunset on the baltic

I have decided that I will blog post every weekend because it will be much easier for me and gives me something to do on lazy Sundays. So this week/end went by SO quickly! It is already October! This week I had my English exam and finished it rather quickly, as you can imagine...But afterwards it was nice to come home and relax. Then on Wednesday, I went to Turku with exchange students and had coffee and walked around. I cannot express how awesome it is being with them. Then on Thursday, Gaby and I went to Turku and then took the wrong bus to a town outside of Lieto. The bus read "Lieto As." which we mistook for Lieto central...gah! So we went to Aura and I was so happy because when we walked into somewhere to ask when the next bus was coming I said, "Milloin on seurava linea-autoa" which is like When is the next bus? And she understood me and gave us a schedule! Gaby's mom came and got us,, that will never happen again!! Then on Friday I just layed low, went to the skatepark, because yetserday morning I got up around 7 to leave at 7:45 for the Picnic Cruiser! Gaby, her host mom, Hanna (my mom), Maiju, and Enppu went on a HUGE cruiser to the middle of Finland and Sweden then we switched boats and came back to Turku. Everything on the boat was tax-free including alcohol and the adults there were not afraid to show it...There were SO MANY drunk people, it was actually quite frightening...I was sitting there thinking "That could be my mom falling down that ramp". It was like a security blanket was just ripped away because average adults were stumbling drunk.

some islands before sweden-ish area

Finland is too good for other vodkas so they made their own :)

But other than that, the sights were absolutely BEAUTIFUL! There are thousands of islands between them and some of them have never had man step on them before. The islands go from lots of foliage, to rocky, and that is how you know you are getting closer to Sweden. There were quite a few foreign people and quite a few people that acted foreign (who were just drunk). The food was SO DELICIOUS! And it was buffet style. Watching the sea and eating fish- not a good mix. I ate deer and it was disgusting. My mom let me have a glass of wine. And I was hammered. Not really. But the shops were really nice and I got a Svea hat! Everyone my age has a Svea hat and theyre about 19 Euro, but on the boat they were 16 Euro. It is a Swedish company, but Finland wears it...strange because they hate each other. Anyways, the boat had I think 7 floors and a nightclub, sauna, etc. Then when we got home around 8PM i was exhausted. I will add pictures later! God bless! Until next time

turku river at night

i thought this was a cool picture of the cold fog riding my bike to school in the morning