Vanhojen Tanssit!

Just a little fill in on why I have been so incredibly busy! We have been practicing 2 months now for a little(big)...(huge)...thing called Vanhojen Tanssit which literally translates to "Old Dances". People are paired up from the second years and practice about 12 different dances from the end of November to February. The purpose is that it is a "send off" because the third years, after this weekend will be done with school. So in honor of them, we will do dances such as the waltz, tango, dance squares, and many others. We perform once during the day in front of the rest of the school and once at nighttime for parents and teachers. The girls wear very VERY nice dresses- similar to those of a quincinera and the guys in tuxedos. So since we are still the "babies" of the school, we will dress up as babies for "Vauva Paiva"...baby day- tomorrow. We will have the dances on Friday. Which means a full schedule from 7 in the morning when I get my hair done to 3AM for the afterparty...Then the next day around 7PM we are going aboard on a Silja Line cruise ship to Sweden and back with a few different other high schools who are celebrating like us. Garaunteed to be a crazy crazy CRAZY ship ride! I borrowed a dress from a good friend Linda, my counselor's daughter and made it a little bit bigger to fit just right. Mom sent shoes from home and painted my nails tonight and I am ready to go! Wish us luck! (pictures later)

Just a quick note

Living in a different country definetely makes you appreciate things you didn't even realize you should've been grateful for before. It also brings out your patriotism like crazy! Oh, and it also makes your English dwindle to phrases and very simple and small descriptive words!