Weeks 41, 42, 43, & 44: Family, Friends, and Goodbye

My year abroad has come to an end. I've already come back to the States and have been here for nearly two weeks. The first week back I was really, really busy and that is what I used as my excuse for not posting this then. This past week hasn't been quite as busy and I realize now that I may have just been putting off posting this because it makes me a bit sad. This is probably my last post on this blog*. And that sort of symbolizes the end of my year studying abroad. Anyhoo more on that and other emotions later.

The first two weeks in May were relatively uneventful in terms of what was going on at school. I had classes as usual and we finished up with the children's concerts so we even went back to have regular music classes during the school days as well. My last day of classes was in the third week covered by this post. I had a shorter week than anticipated as I went to visit out of town on Wednesday to visit extended family and missed the Thursday which was the official last day of classes. I had only two exams the last period and chose to take them on the same day, the Monday of the exam week. 

The first weekend that this blog is about, my third-to-last weekend in Finland, I had a very eventful two days. On Saturday I met up with some friends in a small city closer to where we lived than Helsinki. Though it was slightly awkward at first as my one exchange student friend didn't know that well my two school friends, we had a great time together going shopping and had lunch. On Sunday I met for the last time with my area rep. We went with the two other exchange students she was in charge of to Porvoo, a historic town on the Southern coast about 50 km from Helsinki. It was a really nice day. The weather was pleasant, at times nice enough even to not wear any jacket. The city was really pretty. There was the old historic part to one side and a very modern area along the river front in the opposite direction. That day was difficult because it was when I had to say some of my first goodbyes to one of my exchange student friends and to our area rep. 

The following weekend I went on a slightly longer trip than I had ever before to visit extended family. On Thursday I went and visited my host aunt's school once again. This time I spoke to two sixth grade classes and a fifth grade class. They had been studying English for a little longer than the classes I spoke with on my last visit so they could understand what I was talking about better. On Friday I visited the school where my host granny worked as a teaching assistant. One of the little kids in the first grade couldn't quite pronounce my name and called me "äidinkieli" instead which means "mother tongue". One of the little girls gave me a bouquet of dandelions which I of course turned into a flower crown. In the afternoon on Friday we went to an amusement park nearby. It was really fun and I think I rode most of the rides that I could. Some had height limits and that I was too tall for.

On Saturday there was a big party to celebrate my host grandfather's 50th birthday. I met a lot of people including someone who had visited my home town more recently than I had. It was sort of odd to be sitting half way around the world and talking to someone I had just met about my favorite coffee shop and the restaurants in the town I grew up in. There was live music and people danced. Afterwards we went back so the little ones could get to sleep at an hour that wasn't entirely too late. Sunday the weather was really nice. We spent a lot of time outside and enjoyed time with our extended family and some neighbors that were invited over.

Monday was a very busy day for me. In the morning I took both my math and English exams which is not typical, taking two exams in one day. After taking my exams I took the train into Helsinki to go and sell my text books back to the store as I would probably never need them again and didn't think I needed to carry all of that extra weight back in my suite cases. I knew very basically where the store was, but I had never been to it before. I had a map and some basic directions on my phone. I easily found the street it was on but accidentally turned the wrong way at first and ended up walking four or five blocks in the wrong direction before realizing it. After getting the books settled, I went to pick up something for lunch and to get a snack in case my mom would be hungry when I picked her up from the airport.

I had never used public transportation to get to the Helsinki airport before but I did all of my research beforehand and got there without much trouble. I waited by the doors for a rather long time but her flight ended up getting in slightly later than I had thought it would. Once I found her we took the bus to the train and took the train home. Once we got there, my host family and my mom met each other and we had a nice dinner of salad and grilled chicken and sausages.

Tuesday my mom and I went to Helsinki for the day. I showed her around to the places I often visited with my friends and also to some of the places I figured she would want to see. We went to the harbour and saw the outdoor market there. We went to the Cathedral which I had always meant to go and visit but hadn't gotten around to until then. It was really beautiful inside and the acoustics must have been awesome. We were recommended a place to go for lunch, but when we found it it was closed, only open for dinner on weekdays. We found another restaurant along one of the main streets that was pretty reasonably priced and had really good food. Later in the day we met one of my exchange student friends who lived in Helsinki for coffee. It was a nice day and I think my mom got an authentic "Abigail" day in Helsinki.

After our very busy Tuesday, we didn't do much on Wednesday. We had a very restful day at home and spent time with my host family. Pretty much every day of the last week we stayed up talking entirely too late with my host family and my mom getting to know one another in the short time they had together. Thursday we went to Lahti, a smaller city in Southern Finland. We walked around a lot and went to the Sibelius Hall. We walked around down by the harbour. It was really pretty and there were a lot of boats on the water. Last time I was down at the harbour in Lahti it was very cold and possibly a bit snowy. That time we were pretty much the only people we saw when we were walking. There is a nice park near the harbour that we walked around for a little while and sat on a park bench and watched eight little ducklings wander about.

For lunch on Friday we went to one of the restaurants in town where I had chicken with this really really great sauce made of the Finnish blue cheese. After lunch, though, we had to hurry and get to school because I had rehearsal for the last day of school activities the following day. We got there just in time and the rehearsal went smoothly. After we got home I did a lot of packing and wrote a few letters**.

Saturday was once again a busy day. First we went to my little brother's school for their end of year ceremony. There were performances and singing. Unfortunately I had to leave before their's was finished to get to my school in time for ours. Because I was performing I had to get there an hour before to get ready and do some final rehearsals. For the school ceremony my friend and I were singing a duet and in rehearsal it went really well. During the actual performance though we were both crying and so the singing wasn't as great. Apparently both of my moms who were in the audience were crying too while we were singing. My two best friends sang a duet as well which they dedicated to the exchange students which made me cry a lot. It was really sweet and immediately following it I had to go up and sing another song which I'm sure sounded so great because of how much I cried.

We had a party on Saturday afternoon as a sort of graduation/going away party for me. A lot of family friends came and my school friends and extended family. It was really fun and we had lots of yummy food and cakes. The weather was really nice that day so I spent a lot of time outside. I really enjoyed having time to spend with my family and friends and just be in one another's company but towards the end of the party it wasn't as enjoyable because I had to say a lot of goodbyes. Sunday was very relaxed in the morning, no one getting up until rather late after the previous day's activities. We went out to dinner in the afternoon with my mom and host family and after dinner we drove around to a couple of lakes near where we lived to show my mom because she hadn't really seen much of the area other than what was walkable from the house. My little brothers, despite how cold it was, got in the water, one of them more than half way in.

My flight left really early in the morning so we were planning to leave for the airport around 3:00am. Sunday night I said goodbye to my little brothers. The older one understood more what me leaving meant I'm pretty sure. He was crying and hugging me a lot whereas the littler one was just kind of looking confusedly at everyone who was crying. It was really emotional and hard to say goodbye. After they went to bed, the rest of us stayed up talking for a while longer. Going to bed a little after midnight, I got probably less than two hours of sleep before waking up around two to get ready for the airport. After packing all of our stuff into the car, my host dad said goodbye to to me and my mom. Though it was very very early in the morning, the first of the sun's rays could be seen as we made our way to the airport. At the airport, after getting our bags checked in and finding which part our gate was in, it was time to say goodbye to my host mom. It was very emotional and we all cried a lot but eventually we had to part ways.

To my host family: Kiitos paljon. Minulla oli tosi hyvää vuosi teidän kanssa. Rakastan teitä <3

*There's a slight chance when I go back and visit Finland I will come back to this blog and write about my adventures then, but I am not sure. Or maybe for some other reason.

**That was the first day of emotions. I may or may not have cried because of leaving when I was writing my letters. 

Weeks 38, 39, & 40:

Over the past couple of weeks, the realization that my year in Finland is just about finished has really struck me hard. There was one week where, for about three days, I was really sad and not interacting much with the people around me. I had already started missing the people I hadn't yet left. I realized that it was stupid to be all sad now so I stopped sulking around and have tried to spend a lot of time with my family and friends, just enjoying one another's company. Thinking about leaving is bittersweet. I am, of course, excited to see my friends, family, and dog back in the states again, but seeing them again means I am leaving everyone here. So feeling excited about going back makes me feel a bit guilty because it is kind of like being excited about leaving. I have family and friends here too now and thinking about leaving and not knowing when I will see them again makes me sad. Anyhoo that's enough discussion of emotions for right now. I can deal with those later. 

The past few weeks have been rather relaxed. We went to visit extended family for the weekend a few weeks ago and it was a nice, little trip. We didn't have anything to do and so we just spent time with family. One major thing of note from that trip is that I tried this type of candy that I hadn't ever before. In Finland, a lot of the candy are licorice or salmiakki. I have never been someone who eats or likes to eat licorice. But this specific candy, which was a sort of licorice, was very good. And since then I've tried a few others and apparently...I like licorice now? Not all of it and not too much, but I don't find it as repulsive as I once did. 

Two weeks ago we had a spring concert at school. I was supposed to be singing with two of my friends, but unfortunately one got sick and couldn't come so if was just the two of us singing. And surprisingly it didn't go that horribly. 

In Finland, the first of May is a holiday called Vappu. It celebrated beginning the evening before and continuing into the first. Traditional food and drink of Vappu are sime, a drink made from honey and lemon, and munkki, which are sort of like donuts but made from a different type of dough. My host mom made many in a few flavored. Some of them were filled with canola crime or apple sauce, which I helped with, though I am apparently not that great at estimating how much of the filling should have gone into them and several spilled out or slightly burst through the side. They were really yummy. Other foods that are usually eaten include a potato salad and sausages. On the next morning, we ate vappu brunssi. Our table was filled with delicious things ranging from karjalanpiiraka to chocolate chip pancakes, leftovers salads from the previous evening to fresh fruit. It was all very good and I was very full after eating that brunch. Later that day there was a Finland vs. U.S. hockey game which the U.S. apparently won, though I didn't watch. 

The next day there was a gathering in Helsinki for the exchange student. One of my friends and I decided to meet for coffee or brunch beforehand. We had a coffee place that we were trying to find but couldn't quite and didn't fancy walking around in the cold rain for any longer so we decided to go for a traditional American meal of McDonald's. After hanging out for a few hours and shopping a bit, we met up with the rest of the exchange students. For lunch we went for Italian and I had my Italian friend order for me. I had pasta which was really good, though it wasn't as cooked as I would have liked it to be. With our group we went to this place where we could see all around the city and then went again to suomenlinna. We had coffee and hug out with the other students for a little while before the two of us who weren't planning on spending the night headed back to the main land. 

The next day I had my spring dance performance. It went well and I didn't fall and hurt myself badly immediately before going on like I did at Christmas which was a plus. The next day was our last ballet class. Only half of our class showed up but it was a really good and fun last class here. 

For our music class, we put together a short concert for children and have been traveling sound to local preschools to perform. The concert includes kids song that they are interactive in and a few Disney songs. Even though we haven't sang all that great at many of them, the children seem to have had a fun time. 

Weeks 33, 34, 35, 36 & 37: Norja, Lappi, and Springtime

I have been so busy recently! I have been traveling, working on assignments for both my home and host schools, and getting over some sort of illness. Also one St. Patrick's Day I saw the Northern Lights for the first time--right in from my front yard! Unfortunately my camera would focus on them, so I don't have any great pictures of them. I just sort of stood on the front lawn at 10:00pm staring in awe at the night sky being lit up in green. A few weeks ago I went to Norway with exchange students studying in Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark and was only home for a night before traveling to Lapland with my host family. As each of those are going to be somewhat long winded, so without further ado: my last five weeks.

A few weeks I got to go to Norway! It was a really fun trip--there were students studying in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark from Italy, Brazil, Australia, and the USA, among others. I flew out early on a Friday morning, arriving in Oslo with a few other of the Finland students around 8:00 in the morning. That day we were touring around Oslo. First we met for lunch and to get to know one another and the STS Norway people. After that we went by train to go and see the ski museum and the ski jump tower. It was a short train ride and just a few minutes in, I lost my voice. Earlier in the week my throat hurt quite a bit and I couldn't talk for about half a day, but this was different. My throat didn't hurt and hasn't since then. The ski museum was really cool! It had skis form all throughout the years and we got to go to the top of the ski jump tower, which was really cool, despite my slight fear of heights. There was a short elevator ride, which was the worst part. It was on a sort of diagonal incline and right as we started moving one of my new friends said "what if-", but no one got to hear the rest of her thought as I, calmly and rationally, asked her not to. The view was breathtaking. We took so many pictures. It was a bit of an overcast day and we were tall enough to practically touch the clouds. After that we walked to the Vigeland Park and observed the many statues. There is one particular statue of a child getting upset that apparently it is tradition for everyone to imitate and take a picture with, so as a group we did that. We sat for a little while and they gave us a treat of Kvikk Lunsj, a Norwegian candy bar that is a little bit like a Kit Kat, but with less of a crunch and creamier chocolate. It was really good. We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant where we met with another of the STS people who was American. I may have mentioned it in another post, but hearing an American accent is a bit unsettling now because I am so used to hearing other accents and only Americans on my computer or the occasional tv show. I've heard a few briefly in Helsinki on days I've gone, but not held a full conversation with anyone in person in quite some time*. After dinner we went to laser tag. We split in to two teams: red and blue and played two rounds. If I remember correctly, my team, Red, won both. As we were walking to the hostel for the night, my voice once again did weird things: this time being really deep and manly sounding, which was really odd, but I found rather entertaining to sing in. After the fact, singing with a hoarse voice probably worsened it. Oops.

In the morning we got breakfast at a little cafe and headed to the train station. We would meet the rest of the students on the train when it stopped at the airport. The train ride was about two hours from Oslo to Lillehammer and the views out the windows were beautiful. When we got to the hostel we had a brief meeting before getting to our rooms. I got to room with three of the other girls who went to the Oslo day and the room we were in was really cute! It was decorated in a manner that was reminiscent of a storybook. There was a little alcove in one corner with a bed that was most likely intended for a child and a shelf with a bunch of picture books, including a Moomin story book! We went for pizza for dinner and I met the other American student who was on the trip. After dinner we were planning to go to see a movie, but after walking around for about thirty minutes we couldn't exactly find the movie theatre, so we decided to head back to the hostel. There was a common room that we all gathered in most evenings to play games and hang out. One game we played quite a bit was Heads Up. It was really funny to see everyone trying to act out or sing whatever the cue was and we found that one of the girls on the trip was really, really good at imitating animal noises.

The next day we went to rent our snowboards and skis. I decided to try snowboarding for the first time. In our group there were five people snowboarding, only one of whom had tried it before, but only once. There wasn't a lesson available the until the second day we were there so we just went out and attempted to learn how ourselves. We took the gondola to the top of the slope and found a very short, blue hill. Unfortunately it had a really difficult ski lift to get up. It wasn't one you sat on like usually but it just sort of pulled you up. I fell off of it many times and ended up getting a bad bruise on my leg which hurt really bad but had no discoloration for the first couple of days but turned really icky colors as the pain decreased. It was kind of weird. Once I finally got to the top with the lift I tried going down the slope. I got really good at falling and then good at getting up. By my third attempt I made it down without falling at all, even if I was going really slow and "braking" the whole time. The next day the weather got warmer and sunnier, so it wasn't as nice, in my opinion, for snowboarding because it got a bit wet and icy. We were going down longer slopes, one with a lot of switchbacks that pretty much from the top of the mountain to the bottom. It went well a few times and each time I tried to brake/fall less and go straighter and faster. On our last descent I fell pretty bad--forward rather than backward and hit my head. I wasn't feeling well later and I went to the doctor where we determined I had gotten a minor concussion. On our last day on the slopes, myself along with a few others didn't ski or snowboard and hung out in the cafe at the top of the mountain enjoying the beautiful view. The trip was really fun and i met some really awesome people. The train ride and airport on the last day were sad because we had to say goodbye and part. The airplane ride is relatively short and once I got home I unpacked my suitcase so I could pack it the next day for our trip to Lapland

Lapland, the northern most part of Finland, is about a ten or so hour drive from where I live. We left the day after I got back from Norway in the afternoon and arrived to the family friends' we were staying with around midnight I believe. I think I was sleeping for at least a little bit of the trip. Due to how late it was I went to bed not too long after we got there, but it was still pretty late. I slept well until a little after 6am the next morning when I was abruptly woken when my littlest brother apparently confused me for a trampoline and jumped on me. That day we went to an Angry Birds themed playground that my little brothers were really excited about and spent time with the family friends who had two really cute dogs. In the evening we went to sauna. Their sauna was outdoor and had a wood burning stove and was really cool. The next day we went and made sausages at a fire outdoors in the snow around lunch and in the afternoon we went to Santa Clause Village. It was really Christmassy with Christmas carols playing and reindeer and snow and everything. We met Santa and didn't have to wait in line too long. There was a live video feed online from the meeting Santa. I sent my mom a link to it so she got to see us meeting Santa. Santa even spoke with me in English and my Brazilian friend told me that he spoke with her in Portuguese. He seems to be very multilingual. The next day was Easter. In Finland, the children leave their hats under their beds the night before Easter and at night the kukko leaves chocolate eggs in their hats. We woke up to several Kinder and other chocolate eggs of that sort in our hats on Easter morning. We said our goodbyes and began the many hours' trip back South. The sun was really bright and I felt rather car sick almost immediately, the two of those making it almost impossible for me to get a decent nap. It was a really fun trip and I'm really glad I got to go to Lapland. And I met Santa!!

After traveling, I got settled into the routine of my new school schedule. For the first time this year I start each day at the same time and I've been pretty good at waking up and getting to school in a timely manner. A few times I have walked with my little brother to school as well. The cooking class that he and I were taking has now ended. For the last class we cooked Finnish food. It was really cool because they chose foods that are typical from different parts of Finland so when we finished cooking they situated them all around a map of Finland, the dishes next to where they came from. We were cooking a dish from Western Finland that was a sort of sweet but also kind of sour buttermilk soup that I have very mixed feelings towards. Reindeer was also made and was, once again delicious. This past week my voice has been getting better which is good because I had an event for my Senior project that I spoke at via Skype on Thursday. Also this week the weather has been...odd. It has snowed a couple of times and rained and been really sunny with clear skies all in the same day. Today was just overcast and was really relaxed which has been nice, a chance to just breathe and not stress about anything.

*this may be an indicator of how greatly "reverse culture shock" may affect me...

Weeks 30, 31, and 32: Meeting the Aussies, Cooking, and Turku

The past three weeks seem to have flown by. I can't believe it has almost been a month since we went on cruise to Stockholm! The first week or two we were back were really relaxed. Unfortunately most of us were feeling a bit under the weather throughout that time, but it was a good time to relax. One evening my host mom and I went to see a movie at the movie theater. It was a newly released Finnish comedy. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could follow what was happening for the most part, though there were times everyone in the theatre abound me was laughing out loud and I was just sitting quietly in my seat, having missed the punch line. Recently it has been snowing quite much where I am from and so school has been cancelled several days. When talking to Finns about this, many of them have laughed as it seems ridiculous to them to cancel school for snow...especially how little snow that they have there!

The first weekend in March some of the other exchange students and myself met up in Helsinki for the day, this time with the two Australian students who came to Finland at the beginning of 2015. It was really fun for everyone to meet each other. While together, we happened to eat at many American restaurants including Starbucks, Ben & Jerry's, and McDonald's. At both Starbucks and Ben & Jerry's I introduced one of the Australian students to the chains as a whole and advised them to order my favorites, particularly the Phish food ice cream at Ben & Jerry's. We shopped and chatted about lots of things. Apparently both of the Australians had been asked the same questions about stereotypes believed about their country (such as: do they really have the world map upside down so that they are on top? are drop bears real? can all of the flora and fauna in your country kill you?). It was also really interesting to hear their opinions on the weather as they had come from the middle of Australian summer with temperatures like +40°C to Finnish winter with most days still starting around -5°C or colder.

Last Tuesday the older of my two little host brothers and I started a cooking class at our town's church. The class has the theme of internationality so each week we will be cooking foods from a different culture. This week we made Mexican food. My little brother and I were in charge of making a chocolate cake and chili con carne. We ended up cooking the cake for a bit too long, so it was somewhat dry and slightly burnt, but that was okay. In the beginning of the class the people in charge asked me if I spoke Finnish and I told them that I understood a lot more than I can speak, though recently I have been making more of an effort to speak. They also asked my little brother if he spoke any English and he replied that he spoke a little. After finishing the dishes we were in charge of, we began assisting with the making of tortillas. I ended up cooking all of the tortillas which was fun, even though there was a bit of corn flour in the bottom of the pan that started burning a bit and we had to open the windows so that the smell would go away and the smoke alarm wouldn't sound. For the last thirty minutes or so of the class we all sat down and ate the food we made. It was really good! I had fun and am looking forward to going back for next week's class!

This past weekend we went to Turku, a city in western Finland. At one point, Turku was the capital of Finland and the main church of the church of Finland is located there. The first day I met my host family's good friends who we were staying with and talked with them for a while. Surprisingly, their 16-year-old son was the most confident at first with speaking with me in English. The next day my host family took me to see Turku city. We walked along the river and went to the Turku Cathedral. It was really interesting architecturally inside and out. Since it was built in the fourteenth century, it has been through a lot and there have been lots of repairs made to it structurally. From the front facade one can see all of the different styles of architecture that were used when making repairs and I think it is really cool to be able to see that. Inside, the church is spacious and has seemingly great acoustics which made me really want to sign, though I resisted the urge until I'd gotten outside. After visiting historic sites in the city, we went shopping for a bit as we didn't realize the 18th birthday party we were attending that evening had a dress code until that morning. They were requesting that everyone wear black or white, so I got a simple black dress to wear. At the party there were several youths around my age, but for a while I wasn't talking with them because I and they were both very shy. Eventually we did talk and I had fun chatting with them. We came back home today and spent time with the family before trying to go to bed early to get enough sleep before my early school day tomorrow.

***I tried to post this nearly three weeks ago, but I took it down after about an hour because I wasn't pleased with it. I have been meaning to edit it, but just haven't had enough time. I apologize if it was difficult to read or anything like that.***

Weeks 27, 28, and 29: Birthday, Dancing, and a Big Boat

Over the past few weeks many things have happened, some things I had been anticipating for years, some for months, and one that I didn't anticipate at all. At the beginning of February, I started my seventh month in Finland, we began new classes for our fourth grading period of the school year, and I celebrated my birthday! On my birthday, my host family and I went bowling and we had a great time. I really enjoy bowling, but I'm not all that good at it, thus all three of the "children" in our family used the bumpers so as to avoid our balls rolling into the gutter. I ended up tying with my host mom, both of us with final scores of 94 (though hers may have been a bit more solid a win as she didn't use the bumpers). That weekend we had a small party for family and friends for which we made three or so cakes, all of which were super yummy! I'm glad that I got to spend time with my family and friends at my birthday. It was fun.

A week later was the evening we had all been waiting and rehearsing for for months. We had our Vanhojen Tanssi. I may have mentioned some of the details in a previous post, but I would like to have all of the details right here near each other. We started learning the dances at the end of November. It was really fun to see where everyone was with dancing; very few people in our class had had much if any prior experience with ballroom. I remember one of the first practices all of the girls were talking about their dresses during a break and one girl in my class asked me if I had gotten my dress yet, to which I responded "no" as, at that point, I didn't have my dress, nor had I even started shopping for one. She responded by gasping and clutching her heart dramatically. At least that's how I remember it. I did finally get my dress and I love it so much. On Thursday night, everyone was finally all dressed up, hair and makeup done, with the boys in their penguin suits and the girls in their ball gowns. Some people were nervous, but in the end our dancing went really well! It is tradition for the students to choreograph their own dance as well. With our theme of internationality, we chose songs from many different countries. In planning, it was really interesting to see how everyone worked together to come up with choreography for our dance. Our theme was also reflected in our decorations. We painted French, Finnish, and American flags which we hung on the walls and decorated in red, white, and blue, the three colors conveniently being those which made up the flags of all the countries we were trying to represent. On Friday, we had two more performances, one for the kindergarten and elementary schoolers and one for the younger students at our school. The last few dances of the performances we were to go and choose someone from the audience to dance with. For the first performance on Friday, I asked one of my little brothers to dance with me, but he adamantly refused. Once we had finished our performances on Friday, we were free to go home and begin our holiday week. 

This past week we have been off school for what's known as the "ski holiday". On Sunday, one of my friends and I went to Disney on Ice and we had a great time. The entire script and all of the songs were in Finnish, as the target audience were presumably an age who hadn't even started learning English yet, but I understood quite much of it. On Monday morning I made pancakes for breakfast using a pancake form that was intended to make them look like pigs, though I hadn't quite mastered the art of making pancakes with it and the first few came out rather scary looking. At the end of breakfast, my host mom told me I needed my passport and to pack for two nights. Apparently we were going on a trip somewhere. Immediately I was rather anxious as I had no clue as to where we were going, but I decided not to worry about it as I'm sure my host family has my best interest at heart. 

We left a few hours later and drove to Helsinki, the part where the boats are. I then realized that we were going on cruise to Stockholm! When we got to the place where we would get on the boat, my little brother found out that one of his friends and his family were coming as well! As I have a tendency to get sea sick, my host mom (under direction of my mother apparently) thankfully brought seasickness medicine to make it better. The first night I didn't sleep very well. I kept feeling the boat moving and hearing ice crunching. We spent Tuesday in Stockholm. We met up with some friends of my host mom and went to Junibacken, a children's museum with lots of interactive exhibits for the kids based on storybooks. Junibacken is currently celebrating Moomin's 70th birthday with a special Moomin's exhibit that was really fun to visit. After the museum we got a bit of street food, everyone but myself getting hot dogs while I had fish & chips. After the museum we visited with the family friends. On the way back to the ship, we drove around the city and saw many of the sights. We also saw the church that we sang at on choir tour a few years back which brought back nice memories of that trip. The second night I slept much better, only waking a few times during the night. 

In the last bit of the week, we have all been feeling poorly with rather unfortunate colds. The weather these past couple of weeks has been a bit warmer and the snow has been melting a lot, which I find somewhat ironic as my school back home has had several days off this past week due to inclement weather. 

Weeks 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26: Holidays, Fireworks, and Travels

Hey. It has been quite a while since we've spoken. How are y'all doing? How have you been? I hope you’ve had a nice holiday season. I've been rather busy since I last posted, what with all of the excitement surrounding the holidays and then getting back on schedule with school after a relatively long holiday break. Christmas was fun. I really enjoyed spending time with my host family and experiencing all of their traditions (which I described in my last blog post). On the morning of December 24, we woke and ate the Christmas rice porridge--and I got the almond! We then went to sauna and readied ourselves for the day. We ate Christmas dinner and everything was delicious! The table was filled with various sorts of fish and casseroles and the Christmas ham, which I didn't partake of, but everyone else seemed to enjoy. The smoked salmon we had was delicious. Throughout the day it was snowing and for the first time in a long time I had a truly white Christmas. We went out to play in the snow and to do the snow work and my host mom told me I was acting like the four- and nine-year olds with how I was playing in the snow. In my defense, snow is still a thing of wonder to me and I'm pretty sure that was the most snow I had ever seen. I went in for a minute to get my camera and take pictures of everyone and of the snow. Just a few minutes after I got back outside, we heard sleigh bells jingling and moments later, Joulupukki came on a horse-pulled sleigh. In Finland, something that is very different from the traditions in the United States is that Santa brings the present and the children see him. And the presents come on December 24 and are opened that evening, rather than on the morning of the 25th.

One week later we celebrated New Years Eve. We were with some family friends and had a nice evening. We had Finnish potato salad and sausage, mine being soy and everyone eating the more traditional pork sausage. On New Years Eve in Finland, it is legal from a certain time in the evening to some point in the morning on New Years Day to set off fireworks. Where I am from the only fireworks are ones that are done by cities. Here, there were fireworks being set off all the time by people all around.

I would like to take a moment here to write about something I don't like talking about: homesickness. I don't like the concept of homesickness. I think it a bit silly to spend my time thinking about and missing a place (and people) I know I am definitely going to see again, especially when the time I have here is relatively short. I don't want to not fully experience everything here because I am thinking about where I am from, so usually I completely push thoughts of homesickness from my mind. Holidays can be a bit difficult and I think I may have been homesick over them, but my problem is that I didn't want to label it as "homesickness". I was being more quiet and reserved than usual and spending too much time by myself in my room, which is exactly the opposite of what one is supposed to do when homesick, I've been told. One evening I sat down with my host parents and we had a talk that made me realize that maybe, just maybe I was homesick. Maybe. And since then Its been better, for the most part.

Having a "real" winter has many advantages and many opportunities for me to try various winter sports. Over Christmas, we went sledding, which I didn't particularly enjoy, but everyone else seemed to enjoy thoroughly. I don't think I've ever much enjoyed sledding. When I was really little, I would fall asleep in the sled as my parents were pulling me around in it. Growing up, my favorite part about going sledding was that my mom would usually make yummy hot chocolate to drink and I think the excitement of snow, as it was a rare occurrence, outweighed my not really liking sledding. Also, it was -25 out when we went sledding, so it was a bit chilly for me. We also went kicksledding, which is something I had never done before. It was fun, but a bit taxing as I was not used to any level of activity out in such cold weather. Recently we went iceskating. As long as I can remember, I have only been iceskating indoors, mostly because it is much too warm where I come from for there to be ice outside usually. Here we went outside. It was different in that the ice wasn't entirely even in all places and that it was snowing, so there was snow on the ice as well. It was super fun and I hope we go again!

Since Christmas break, I have been busy with a lot of school-related things. I had a few projects for various classes, including a group presentation for religion class and a portfolio for English class. I also went to the two of the eighth grade English classes at my school to talk to them about the US and where I am from. They were a bit shy, but eventually asked me questions. One of the things they seemed very interested in was my thoughts on Finnish food, particularly the rye bread and salmiakki. I also had final deadlines for college applications in mid January. I was very stressed about them, but it was very satisfying to submit the final one.

Last weekend we had a dinner for all of the international students at my school and our host families, as there are now three of us. Each of the students made a dish from their country to bring for dinner. I made fried chicken, once again embracing the Southerner I am, and one of my favorite appetizers--spinach dip! The boy from Australia, who has been here for about two weeks now, made a beer and beef casserole with rice. The boy from France made crêpes for dessert and brought a few jams, both from Finland and from France. Everything was very good and we had great conversation throughout the evening about many different things.

On Sunday last, I went to visit my host granny and their family. I enjoyed my visit with them very much! In the afternoon on Sunday, we went shopping as I needed to get shoes for dancing. In December, my host mom and I went and found the perfect dress for me, which I got earlier this month as it had needed some tailoring to fit me right. Two weeks ago I went shopping with a friend of mine and one of her friends, trying to find shoes that would go with our dresses. She found a pair, but I did not. I found a pair that I really liked, but at two different stores, I could not find my size. Last Sunday when shopping with my host granny I found the shoes I adored once again and this time I (finally) found them in my size! On Monday, I visited my host mom's little sister's class and talked to them about my country, similar to how I talked with the eighth graders at my school. Unlike the eighth graders, though they were much younger, they were not too shy to ask me questions. They asked about my hobbies, pets, favorite foods, and about where I had travelled before. I had to get back to my school on Monday for dance practice, where I learned I could, in fact, dance in the shoes I had gotten, which is fantastic.

I may try something new in the coming weeks in an attempt to update my blog more regularly...we will see how that works. Until next time!

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!!