Weeks 18, 19, and 20: Coffee, Falling, and Hyvää Joulua!!

The first weekend in December I went to Helsinki and met up with some of the other exchange students. It was a really fun day filled with shopping, discussions of Christmas, and firsts. One of the other students had never been to Starbucks before, so we met there and had Christmas flavored coffee to start off our day. We spent the day shopping and enjoying each others' company. We went to lunch and one of my friends ordered a burger and commented on how very "American" that was. When we got our food, the burger turned out to be extremely huge and she was questioning how she could possibly eat it. It seems that, often, when the exchange students get together, we discuss the stereotypes that exist about our countries and discuss if there is any truth to them and we then make light hearted jokes about them. We decided that if she managed to eat it, she would have truly learned what it was to be American, and, now, she has, in fact, learned how to be "American". 

The Thursday before last I had a really unique experience. We had something called Night School wherein all of the lukio students came so school at 8:00 in the evening and stayed until the wee hours of the morning. It was a really fun evening. There were a few activities that were planned for participation between all of the students including a team trivia thing where I don't know if I really helped my team much at all and then we had "night buddies" where we were all assigned a student at random and ask them questions to get to know them better. There were also games organized including a game of hide and seek that I'm pretty sure I lost almost immediately after it started. I also had a lot of coffee and therefore didn't even feel tired when I was walking home in the snow at 6:30 in the morning. 

In Finland, there is a store called S Market. To me, due to the Finnish pronunciation of the letter "S" it sounds like people are saying "ass market". A little while ago I discussed this with my host family. In the car on the way to visit extended family last weekend, my little brother said something about the store and my host mom asked me if it still sounded like "ass market" and I said yeah. She then explained what it meant to the little brothers who then proceeded to chant "ass ass ass ass ass" for a significant part of the car trip. It began snowing while we were driving and snowed for the better part of the weekend and I believe it was the most snow I'd seen since I was about five years old and moved out of the North. I am really horrible at estimating things so I am not sure really how much snow there was, but I'm pretty sure it was between four inches and a foot. Maybe. It was a really fun weekend, spending time with extended family and I got to meet several new people. 

Along with the snow came ice. Ice that covers the roads and is difficult to walk on and causes me to slip and fall more often than I would like to admit. On Sunday I had my dance performance and did not fall on the ice at all when walking to the train from my home or from the train to the place we were performing. I did, however, fall multiple times once I got inside. The first time I fell was while we were rehearsing before the show. There was one corner of the stage that was particularly slippery and I was not the only one to figure that out the hard way. The last time I fell was about ten minutes before the performance started. I was walking down some stairs (mind you: these stairs were inside and therefore not covered in ice like the ones I fell down at my school a few days prior) and about two steps from the bottom, I fell. I'm not really sure how, but it happened and hurt myself somewhat before having to go on in a few moments to perform. Other than mildly injuring myself right before performing, the performance went well. 

For the past few weeks, it has become obvious that Christmas is coming. Preparations are being made and the excitement for the season is heightening. At school, we have been singing Christmas songs in music class to get ready for the Christmas concert we had this past week. In my class we were singing songs in both Finnish and English—there was even a song we sang partially in each language! Also at school one day this week we had traditional Christmas foods for lunch, which I, for the most part, liked. At home, we have been making gingerbread cookies and have prepared the casseroles for the Christmas dinner. This past weekend my host father and I were attempting to build a gingerbread tractor which I got a cookie cutter for in the advent calendar. Throughout the month of December, we have had an advent calendar for me and my two little host brothers. It is great to have younger siblings at Christmas time and to see their excitement for everything. Every time it is my turn for the advent calendar, they remind me numerous times to make sure that I’ve opened it and every time it is one of their turns, it is the first thing they do in the morning. 

I plan to spend Christmas at home with my host family. We have some extended family coming in to celebrate with us as well. On Christmas Eve, Joulupukki will be visiting our house and bringing presents. One big difference between Christmas celebrations here and what I’ve grown up doing in the United States is that the presents are opened in the evening on Christmas Eve here rather than in the morning on Christmas day. Here, Christmas Eve is celebrated more than Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve we will be eating the Christmas rice porridge for breakfast and then going to sauna before getting dressed nicely for the day and getting the food ready for the Christmas dinner. Yesterday we went to the forest and got our Christmas tree, which was also a new experience for me as I have always gone to a tree farm to get a Christmas tree. Our tree is not inside yet as it is still defrosting in the garage. We will be decorating it on Jouluaatonaatto, the 23rd of December, with baubles, candles, and gingerbread. I am very excited to experience these new traditions and to celebrate Christmas with my host family. 

Hyvää Joulua!!

Weeks 14, 15, 16, and 17: or “November”

Hey. I’ve not posted on my blog in a super long time. I’ve done many things since last I posted. And at least a few things have happened since then. 

Just a few days after I last posted, in my geography class, myself and the other foreign exchange student in my school gave presentations to our class about where we come from. I talked about interesting things about my state, town, and school. After my presentation my class asked questions. One of the questions I was asked was about the driving age where I am from and I informed them that one could could get a learner’s permit at 15 and a license at 16…which then prompted a question about whether I had my license and then their probable slight envy as one cannot get a license here until age 18. I also learned much about the other student’s home country that day. 

Before coming to Finland, I don’t think I had ever watched more than maybe five minutes of ice hockey, let alone an entire game. I have now definitely seen more than five minutes of ice hockey as it is the sport that is most often showing on our TV. Also one weekend I got together with some of my friends and, after they learned I’d never watched an ice hockey game, we watched a whole game. And I got to fully experience how enthusiastic Finns are about ice hockey. 

Another exciting thing (at least exciting to me) that has happened since last I posted is that it has snowed…like real snow…on multiple occasions. Something that was a totally new experience to me was the snow staying on the ground for many days without melting. Where I’m from snow doesn’t really stay on the ground for even two days. I get excited about the snow. It isn’t something I’m used to. Recently, I’ve heard a few people complaining about how little snow there is and it would be nicer in the dark, cold winter time with the snow because it makes it seem lighter outside. That’s another thing that I’ve been getting used to: how dark it is. Today, for example, sunrise was around 9:00 this morning and sunset around 15:15. 

Our second exam week of the year occurred during November. This exam week happened to coincide with the exam week at my school in the states and with the best intentions at heart, I wrote each of my classmates a short letter wishing them the best on their exams, though they didn’t get the letters until yesterday, nearly a week after exams had finished. One thing I have noticed that is very different from the school I’ve gone to for the first three years of high school is that here, people don't seem to visibly stress as much about exams as I’ve experienced the past few years. I still held onto the attitude that exams are a very stressful time and was studying very much throughout. At one point my host mom recommended I go out and walk for a bit as I hadn’t done much but stare at my notebooks, text books, and computer screen and stressed for several days. I went out and saw what might have been the last little bit of autumn in the forrest. 

After having the exam week, we have begun the third grading period of the year. I have now been taking my new set of courses for a week and they seem to be going well thus far. In our “sports” class this period we are leaning the dances for the Vanhojen Tanssit which includes leaning choreography for a variety of ballroom and partnering dances. Yesterday we learned the Virginia Reel. My school in the states has a tradition every year where we square dance and so I was excited by the prospect of doing something I am already quite familiar with. I am also, again, taking an English class. So far we have been doing quite a bit of partner work. It is quite interesting because there are exercises in the text book translating from Finnish to English and vice versa and so when we are working in pairs it is kind of a way for me and my friend to teach each other our languages. 

Along with trying to learn the language, another piece of Finnish culture I am becoming familiar with is cooking/baking Finnish dishes. Most recently my host mom taught me how to make karjalanpiirakka which have been one of my favorite things to eat since I’ve gotten here. We have also been making Finnish gingerbread cookies as it is getting to be the holiday season and so it is becoming an appropriate time of year to be having Christmas cookies. Another thing I had never really done before coming here was eat gingerbread. My family doesn’t make gingerbread as part of our traditional Christmas cookies and so the only gingerbread I’ve really been around on a regular basis is the gingerbread we use to make our gingerbread house each year which is not intended to be eaten—it is very hard and doesn’t break when dropped. Here, I have discovered that gingerbread can actually be edible and is pretty good. 

Other preparations for the Christmas season have been happening as well both in my school and the town. For many weeks in our music class we have been singing Christmas songs, in Finnish as well as a few in English. I think that singing in Finnish is helping me with my pronunciation, though I don’t really know what I am singing apart from that it has something to do with Christmas. Last Thursday in our town there was Christmas Opening where there were vocal performances and the Santa Claus! Also in my ballet class we have been rehearsing for our show that is to be around Christmastime. 

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving. On Saturday, I celebrated Thanksgiving with my host family and friends. I was really worried about preparing everything properly for the meal and nervous about if everyone would eat the food I made. In my opinion, the food turned out really good (it tasted almost exactly like how I’ve always had it in the past so that’s an indicator that I probably did it right). I really enjoyed sharing a piece of my culture with my new family and friends here. The comments that I got about the food were similar to those I got about the few things I made at Halloween—everything was good but sweet! 

I fully intend to update my blog again in December. Maybe even before Christmas. 

Weeks 12 and 13: Confusion, Tricks, or Treats

If you've been following my blog for a while, you may remember my describing something which falls from the sky that isn't really rain, but also isn't really snow. Well, whatever it's called, it happened again this morning while I was walking to school, but this time it was at least a little bit closer to snow. It doesn't collect on the ground in piles as snow would, but rather in small puddles as rain would. It does, however, collect in little frozen piles on fallen leaves in a manner that is more similar to snow than to rain.* I know it isn't snow, not really, but having grown up in a relatively warm part of the world where school would be closed (or at least the beginning of the day delayed by two hours) at even the slightest hint of snow in the air, any sort of weather that resembles snow is yet somewhat fascinating to me. I realize that a few months from now snow may become a rather commonplace thing and I will get used to it and it will become less of a thing of wonder to me, but for now, it is still fascinating to me.

Apart from the weather, another difference between where I am from and here is the use of the Metric System. In school, I have been taught about and how to use the Metric System for many years and have even used it many times in various mathematics and science exercises. That being said, I don't fully comprehend everything about the metric system and that has been made clear over the past week or so. Last Thursday, for instance, in my chemistry class, I spent about 40 minutes reworking the same problem in attempt to get to the right answer before we figured out that my errors weren't in the math of how to solve that type of problem, but in my converting milliliters to liters, etc. thus making my answer about 100 000 times bigger that it should have been. I think though, now, that I may understand better, and hope in the future to be able to do math without so much struggle over comprehension of basic metric units.

Last Friday was Halloween. Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays; the costumes, treats, and parties being something to look forward to each year. Halloween is not really celebrated here traditionally. Over the past ten years or so, I've been told, some Halloween things have crept into stores and things, but as nothing much more than in a commercial way, and it still isn't really celebrated. For instance, I heard someone saying something to do with Halloween celebrations on Friday "even though it isn't the actual day of Halloween". I didn't interrupt and correct the person, I am much too shy to do that, but it made me realize that not much is known about what Halloween really is. During the day on Friday, I told the children (with my host mom translating) about Halloween, including about trick-or-treating, and they then went "trick-or-treating" inside our house. Also, in the spirit of the season, I carved a Jack-O-Lantern and made some of my family's traditional Halloween foods in an attempt to share a part of my culture with my host family.




*Some people consider discussions of the weather an indicator of whether or not someone is a boring person. I don't agree with this ideology. I find discussions of the weather interesting and I assure you, I am not a boring person. Probably.

Weeks 10 and 11: Fall Holiday, Museums, and Tiramisu

This past week was fall holiday. The previous week was rather uneventful. My fall holiday schedule was filled with many fun things. The first Saturday of the fall holiday I travelled to my host mom's mom's for the weekend. I was slightly worried about accidentally getting on the wrong train and ending in the wrong place, but thankfully that didn't happen. That evening, we went for pizza and I discovered that strawberry-kiwi Fanta exists and that it is delicious*. We then went to the movies and saw Muumit Rivieralla. It was, of course, in Finnish, but I'm pretty sure I understood enough to know what was happening most of the time, though I was somewhat confused about the relationships between characters at times.

On Sunday, we went hiking at a national forest. We hiked up a rather tall mountain/hill and saw some really amazing views of the trees in the surrounding area with their leaves changing with the season and the lakes below. Also, along our hike, there was a bridge that was used to go over the lake. After our hike, my host mom's mom showed me some of the sights in the surrounding area until it was time for me to go home. Again, I did the trains right and ended up exactly where I was supposed to go.

Monday was a very chill, relaxing day for me. I accomplished little to nothing productive, as far as I can recall. But it was a very relaxing day and for that, I am thankful. I slept in uncharacteristically late on Tuesday, waking up only when my host mom texted me asking to make sure she had turned off the coffee maker that morning before she left, which she had. I then started to prep the "American" style dinner I was making for that evening. I made hamburgers and fries (both from regular potatoes and sweet potatoes) for dinner. Just before we had dinner, we went to pick up Sindi, the student from Italy who is studying in Finland with the same organization as I, from the train station. We had dinner and later, for dessert, we made chocolate, strawberry, and banana milkshakes, which were delicious. 

On Wednesday, my host mom, little brothers, Sindi, and I went to Hämeenlinna and toured the castle and the prison museum. In the castle, much to my dismay, very few of the informational signs were in English, and my reading comprehension of Finnish is not yet at a point where I could understand museum displays. There was, however, one small exhibit in which all of the information was in English and I spent much more time in that exhibit than anyone else I was with, thus leading me to believe they were all probably very grateful there wasn't English signage throughout. We then toured the old prison museum, which everyone, aside from myself, seemed to enjoy. 

Friday, we went to the city of Lahti where we toured the Ski Museum, visited the Sibelius Hall, and walked around the harbor. The ski museum was very interesting and had most of the information in English as well as Finnish, so I was able to fully understand the history of skiing in Finland. At the Sibelius Hall, not only were we able to appreciate the integration of modern and historic architecture, we were able to go in to the concert hall where someone happened to be practicing organ and the awesome acoustics. For lunch, we went to an Italian restaurant which everyone, including Sindi, thought was pretty good. 

On Friday evening, we had out "Italian" style dinner and ate really yummy Italian food that Sindi made, including caprese and tiramisu. Our week was very busy, filled with a lot of fun activities. I realize now that I've not discussed the weather much, if at all, in this post and it had seemed, from the past few posts, that I'd come into a routine of beginning each with discussion of the weather. There's not much new to say. It is still around freezing most of the time, it sometimes rains, and occasionally there is something falling from the clouds that isn't really rain and isn't really snow.

*Strawberry-kiwi is my favorite flavor. When I was little, I remember we would have this strawberry-kiwi juice that I loved, but in recent years, I've not had it at all. Maybe it was discontinued...

Weeks 7, 8, and 9: Chillier Weather, Exams, and a Trip to Helsinki

These past few weeks have been rather busy and, in a way, seem to have flown by. So busy, in fact that I haven't had anytime to work on  the craft projects discussed in the previous blog entry; neither have gone anywhere since that post. Someday I will finish my hat and sock gray-wool rectangle, but that day has not yet come.

The 'week seven' was the last week in the first grading period, the week proceeding the exam week. Rather than reviewing the entire week for the exams, we seemed to learn new material until right before the exam, only taking about a day for review in most classes. And then came the exam week. I was very, very stressed about my exams, and it seemed to me that I was maybe stressing a bit more than my peers, and therefore most of my stress wasn't entirely necessary. The exam week is set up so that everyone takes one exam each day. The days of the exams, school starts at 8:00 in the morning. Students must test for an hour and then leave whenever they are finished with the exam, the longest time they can test being four hours, ending at noon. On my first English exam, I had finished all of the exam apart from the essay before the first hour was up. I then spent about half an hour writing what I thought was a pretty good essay within the 150-250 word limit. Upon finishing my essay, I recounted my words and realized that, while writing, I had somehow counted wrong and had actually written a nice 265 word essay. I then spent between twenty and thirty minutes going through my essay and trying to cut it down to proper length, ultimately ending up with a 249 word essay on which I scored nicely. Also, the morning of the Tuesday of the exam week it snowed. Sort of. There was a mix of snow and not quite snow in the air, but none of it stayed on the ground at all and stopped by the time I had finished with my exam. 

The Saturday following the exam week there was another meeting for the exchange students in Helsinki and a Beach Party (vlog). Now the concept of a beach party in Finland in late September was a bit perplexing to me as 'beach' implies warmth and outside isn't warm. It was at an indoor 'beach' which was essentially a large room whose floor was covered in a lot of sand and whose temperature was raised to what I was told to be 26°C. Before the beach party, however, we did other things in Helsinki. I went exploring, ultimately searching for the Starbucks*. I walked around for a while and looked in a few shops, bought myself two headbands as my hair is now at that somewhat unmanageable point where it is too long to just wear it down as it covers my eyes and my nose, but is yet too short to put in any sort of ponytail that would be acceptable for someone of my age to wear. I knew, generally where the Starbucks was, but wasn't entirely sure and so I asked a few people for directions. I followed them and found a Ben and Jerry's, where I got myself a cone of Phish Food (which has always been one of my favorite flavors) and again asked for directions to the Starbucks.

I was informed, from the Ben and Jerry's, that the Starbucks was only just down the street from there, probably less than a block. I thanked the lady for the directions, ate my ice cream, and headed to the coffee shop, which was now very easily within my reach. I got into the Starbucks and found myself at the end of a very long line. I waited in line for maybe fifteen minutes, before ordering my venti Pumpkin Spice Latte. I was somewhat surprised that the barista spelled my name right as that usually doesn't happen, even in the US.

After getting my Pumpkin Spice Latte, I made my way back to the train station, where I was to meet the other students shortly. It was fun to see everyone again and to meet the students who had arrived in Finland since our first meeting at the end of August. We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant that was pretty yummy and then went to the beach party. At the beach party, there were a lot of people who were, presumably, alumna from other programs within the organization. There were some organized games, which the six of us played as a team, our team name being 'The Princesses', which, if I remember correctly, happened at my suggestion. I'm not sure if we won any of the games, but I do know that we beat the record at the limbo, the prior being at 80cm, and us getting it down to 65cm.

Last Saturday I made dinner. I decided to get back to my Southern roots and make fried chicken and buttermilk biscuits. I realized partially through the meal that I should have made sweet iced tea to accompany the meal, but it was too late. Next time, I suppose. Another thing that I realized while making dinner that evening was that I'm not sure if I have ever even made fried chicken before. I followed a recipe and, at least in my opinion, it turned out pretty good.

A small revelation I have had in these first few months is that the lunches are rather different from what I remember from when I went to public school in the US, and it isn't just the food.  I remember one day when I was at school, I had a disposable, plastic knife in my lunch with which I intended to put hummus on crackers to eat for lunch and I got in trouble for having the aforementioned plastic knife. Here, we have lunch provided (for free) from school. We have glasses that are actually made out of glass and utensils that are actually made out of metal, including knives. The first time I was given a metal knife with school lunch, I was slightly surprised, but by now it has sort of become normal, the initial shock having worn off. Another thing that has become somewhat normal to me is it being just about freezing when I wake up and seeing the thermometer reading right around 0°.

*The Thursday before this I was talking to one of my friends about my slight despair at not being able to have any Pumpkin Spice Lattes this year as I was under the impression that there were no Starbucks in Finland and she informed me that there was (at least) one in Helsinki, which made me extremely excited and happy because I thoroughly enjoy my delicious, over-priced, seasonal coffee. 

Weeks 5 and 6: Chilly Weather, Crafts, and a Tragic Event

I've read some articles on various websites on how to blog effectively and one thing that a few of the articles suggested was to treat blog posts similar to journal entries. I thought this may be good advice as journals are written in mostly on a daily basis and I am very bad at posting on my blog regularly, so this may encourage me to post more frequently. However, if I did treat my blog similar to a journal, it may look something like this:

August 30, 2014

Dear Diary Blog,

Today I decided I wanted to knit. I am now knitting a sock. I am using gray wool. 

-Abigail

August 31, 2014

Dear Diary Blog,

Today I have realized that I do not know how to knit a sock. It is actually a gray square.

-Abigail

September 1, 2014

Dear Diary Blog,

I still don't know how to knit a sock. It is now a slightly longer gray square. I suppose that would make it a rectangle now. 

-Abigail

September 4, 2014

Dear Diary Blog,

Today I bought a crochet hook. I am now crocheting a hat. That is something I do know how to do. 

-Abigail

And that, my friends, is why I shouldn't keep my blog like a journal. Also, as I mentioned before, I have never kept up a blog for more than a post or two, I have also never kept a journal or diary for longer than a month. Probably not even for longer than two weeks. Long story short, I am going to continue to post somewhat longer posts about once every week as well as posting on my vlog channel whenever I want to.

These past two weeks, the weather has gotten even chillier. And I've forgotten about Celsius again once or twice, causing brief moments of panic when I wake up and my phone tells me that it is currently 10° outside. It hasn't rained so much, but several mornings this week have been very foggy. Along with the change in the weather, there is also coming the change in the school grading periods. The first period of school is coming to a close and so my first set of exams in Finland are starting on Friday. This also means that I am deciding which classes I will take next period. Rather than trimesters with rather similar classes, my school here is broken into five grading periods in which different sets of classes are taken.

Many people who know me know that I really like frozen yogurt. Because frozen yogurt is amazing and delicious and is yogurt so it gives you the illusion that you are being healthy even though when it is weighed you know that there are probably more gummy bears than yogurt in the cup but whatever. Last Thursday, I went to the mall. I was planning on going to the same brand of cafe as I had before (see Week One!), but when I got there, I was informed that their frozen yogurt machine was broken. And that was a very tragic event. I ended up getting a donut (is it donut or doughnut? who knows...)* which was pretty yummy...enough about food. 

As you may have gleaned from the above Dear Diary Blog entries, I have been doing some crafts recently. At first, I attempted to knit a sock. It is still a slightly long square, or what some might call a rectangle. I have also been crocheting a hat. It is purple and soft and nearly half finished! I also decorated the piñatas for my brother's birthday this weekend. One is supposed to be a Lego person's head and the other has pictures of Legos on it.

*Apparently doughnut was first used in the early nineteenth century while donut was first used in the early twentieth century. Donut is considered a more American spelling, though in recent years it has also been used in New Zealand and the UK. Here is a Times article about this discussion.

Helsinki!

On Saturday, I took a trip into Helsinki to go to orientation for the students who are studying abroad...and I vlogged throughout the day; check it out if you want to!

Weeks 2 and 3!

I am quite bad, I've realized, at posting on this blog once a week. I have now been in Finland for three weeks. Maybe I will try posting smaller posts more often...

Anyway, these past weeks have been a bit colder than my first week here. It has rained a lot as well. Last Saturday, I went to my first wedding ever! You see, I, for seventeen years, I had never been to a wedding. And now I have been to a wedding. It would be really interesting to compare the Finnish wedding to an American wedding, but alas, I have no experience with which to compare the Finnish wedding to. The wedding was a really cool experience. It was in a quaint church and the reception was in the couple's family farmhouse. The decorations at the reception were very nice and they were elegantly natural. The cake at the wedding was a very traditional Finnish wedding cake with berries.

Throughout the weekend, I met a lot of people. A lot of my host family's extended family, both at the wedding and in the town where the wedding was. I met my host mom's mom and her partner, and my host mom's little sister. At the wedding, I met a lot of my host mom's cousins, one of whom lives in Germany and speaks English with a very British accent. The day after the wedding, I met my host mom's little brother and his dog, Milo. Milo reminded me of my puppy Lucy, except he was a little bit smaller. On the way back home, we stopped to eat at a traditional American restaurant, McDonald's. The menu here differs slightly from the menu in the US. Apparently they have a veggie burger on the menu. And a salad with pesto. I got a McFlurry but, rather than m&m's, which one would expect in an American McFlurry, it has Smarties--the chocolate ones, not the American ones. And I was reunited with my one true love: French Fries (even if they were McDonald's and not parmesan-truffle fries).

As I mentioned above, it has been raining quite a bit. This week, I realized a very stark difference between commuting to school by car and by bicycle. And that is commuting in the rain. When riding a bike, the rain touches you. And it makes you get a bit wet.

In my English classes, I haven't know the correct answer a few times on tests, class exercises, etc. because I am not British. I am American. And there are a few differences in the English that is spoken in the States and the English that is spoken in England--and Australia, where our text book is from.

This morning, I made an 'American' breakfast. I made pancakes and scrambled eggs with cheese and bacon, even though I do not eat bacon. My host mom and brothers made apple juice with the apples from the tree in the back yard. It was really yummy. For dinner, we made pizzas which were also very good! It is getting to be nighttime now and we are watching ice hockey. I don't quite understand the game, though this is the first game I've seen. I don't understand football either, and I've been watching that for several years.

Week One!

I have now been in Finland for a little over a week. During the past week, I have done many things and had several new experiences. Last Thursday, I left the United States and flew across the Atlantic Ocean to Finland. On Friday evening, my host family met me at the airport and brought me home. For dinner, we had delicious salad with fruits and smoked salmon. On Saturday, we went to dinner at a Tex-Mex restaurant a few towns over with some of my host family's friends. It was really fun! At dinner, I ordered grilled chicken with cheese fries--a very 'Abigail' choice. Sunday was a very fun and very full day. My host mom baked buns with the help of myself, Lennu, and Max. They were very yummy! 

Later that day, a girl from my school came over to hangout and we had tea and chatted about school and things and it made it easier for me to start school on Thursday, already having met one of my new classmates. Later, my host family and I met with a person from the exchange program to discuss my first few days in Finland. On Monday, we didn't do much other than stay at home and have a very chill day. I worked on my college apps for a bit and then went outside to enjoy the beautiful sunshine. Tuesday evening, my host mom and I went shopping and I got a dress for the wedding that we are going to this weekend (I have never been to a wedding before...this may be one of the last times I can truthfully say that). While we were shopping, we also got frozen yogurt. It tasted...healthier...than the frozen yogurt than I am used to. It didn't have any unnatural dyes in it and it tasted like actual yogurt. But it was very good! And it has a mango sauce on it!

After the frozen yogurt and shopping, we went to the grocery store. And there I saw something that I thought was hilarious:

It is bacon. But it isn't just regular bacon. It is 'American'. The bacon is apparently part of the American flag. I'll just leave that there...

Anyway, the forests in Finland are filled with berries. Wednesday, my host mom and I went to pick blueberries. Unfortunately for us, it seemed someone had recently come through and picked most of the berries, so we didn't end up with very many. In the evening, I baked banana bread. But not just any banana bread. I made peanut butter banana bread. And it was super delicious. I was using a recipe from an American cookbook online, so I had to convert all of the measurements from the American customary system into metric. While I was making the bread, my host mom was a bit surprised by the amount of sugar the recipe said to use in this bread. It took a really long time baking but in the end it tasted very good. I liked it very much and I'm pretty sure my host family did too. 

Thursday was my first day of school. I was a lot more excited than nervous. I really wasn't nervous. Except for a little bit because of the language. I met some of the teachers and the principal before heading to the gym for the whole school assembly. I saw the girl I met for coffee and she sat by me in the assembly and introduced me to her friends. After the assembly, our class had a meeting with the English teacher where everyone introduced themselves (in English) and did some school work. For lunch, there was a fish soup that had dill in it. I thought it was pretty good. After lunch I met to decide on my schedule for the first period (and I think that my class schedule is now finalized after today). On Friday, I met the rest of my teachers and participated in my classes as best I could. 

Friday evening was very fun. I Skyped with my parents and sister for a little while and then after I signed off with them, my host family and I went to the river to go swimming. The water was a bit chilly, but I suppose it was very refreshing after the sauna. The sauna was a very unique experience. It was very hot. And then the water in the river felt very cold. 

Throughout this past week, one fact about myself has shocked many people. I am an American who doesn't like bacon (except for turkey bacon and vegetarian bacon, which, Emma, my host mom agrees looks like dog food). I don't like bacon. Or eat any pork. But I do, apparently, eat reindeer. And it was very good. For dinner on Saturday, we had mashed potatoes with reindeer stew and lingonberry jam. It was a very nice meal to have after a long day of working on college applications. 

Hello!

Hello! And welcome to my blog! On this blog you will find posts about my year abroad in Finland. Please note: I have never kept a blog for longer than one or two posts before because I think I am very bad at writing things the way they are typically written on blogs. Anyway I will be updating this blog once a week, though I don't plan on making a schedule for when I post (I am not planning on posting, for example, every Sunday at 11:00 EST; I will be posting whenever I feel like posting). Sometimes, there may be more than one post in a week. Like this week. I am making this post now (probably a post that will either be deleted on heavily edited later on) and then I am planning on posting a longer post on Friday about what I have done my first week here. You can also check out my vlogs at youtube.com/abigailhaupt. That's all, for now. I'll post more you later!