Because it has been a while...

Hey everyone, it has been almost a month since I last updated, and I know that I shouldn't go so long in between posts, so here is a new one for you.

Not all that much big and noteworthy things have happened to me lately. It is really really hard to believe that it is almost the end of january! It really seems like January just started. This means that I am halfway through my exchange! I already have my departure date for when I go back! Which depresses me beyond compare. I think about going back to my life in Colorado, and as much as I like home, I am such a different person here than I was there. I have changed so much, that going back to my high school seems like a nightmare. I have moved on from that part of my life, and now I know the day where I go back to it. It is really scary. But I still have a while before I go back, and I am told that as fast as this half goes, it is the better half, so I am looking forward to that. For all of you at home, Mark your calendars, I return to Summit County on the 27th of July.

And the end of January means....my birthday is coming up! I have been looking forward to this day, because finally I will be able to tell people my age without getting weird looks from everyone. That is because I am technically not even old enough to be in finnish high school. And it seems like half the people who go on exchange to Finland are 18. Sadly I will only be turning 16, and therefore still won't be able to do the same stuff as all the other exchange students, but at least I am older...And it is my sweet sixteen, which is not a very big deal in Finland, 18 is the big deal in Finland because everything becomes legal so that is when you party. I find it a little sad that I will be celebrating my sixteenth in a country that it isn't a big deal, and then when I celebrate my eighteenth, I will also be in a country that it doesn't matter...so I get no big birthday bashes....but I may celebrate big on my seventeenth and make it a big deal. Just for the party....and of course I know that the summer after I turn 18 I will be abroad, so then I will party.

So anyways, January, what has happened? Well for starters I went to my first presidential debate. No, not american...finnish. Which is something that I never though would happen..my first live presidential debate and it is in a foreign country in a language that I don't understand...you could say that I never saw that coming. Finnish elections are tomorrow, so there are lot of politics going around in Finland. I haven't kept up with them really at all. I feel like I want to start understanding american politics before I take up another country's, and if I ever do pick up another country's politics, it will be Norway, since that is another country where I have citizenship. But it was seriously cool to go to. I didn't even plan on going to it, either. My best friend from Colorado, Monica, who I have mentioned in this blog before, was visiting me from her host city, Kauhajoki, and I was showing her the sights of Turku, and then we were going into the main mall, Hansa, and then we stumbled upon the debate, just as it started, and with my amazing crowd pushing techniques, I managed to get us in the second row. The debate itself wasn't all that impressive, like any other presidential debate, in finnish, but it was cool just being there. One of my favorite parts of living in Turku is the fact that you can randomly stumble on random, awesome things like a presidential debate.

The bridges across the river have pictures of all the candidates

(Also the flag in the corner is of Turku's coat of arms)

They have popped up all over town

In the mall, there were paintings/drawings of all the candidates

My favoriet portrait of Finland's president...

All eight candidates in debate

I have to say, even though I know that Hansa is like the god of all malls and anything that is anything happens there, I was quite amused that they were having a big, televised presidential debate right next to H&M, a bit different from american presidential debates I guess....

I also got presidential pins for free, and they are on my blazer now :D 

Now the Oldies have left (Oldies are exchange students that came to Finland last January and stayed a year, most from Australia) and now it is time to get Newbies! The arrive in Finland tomorrow, and then they have a language camp, like we did. Many of us, now Oldies (feels so strange to call myself an oldie...) will go to Tampere, and meet the Newbies when they visit Tampere during their language camp week, like we did. And I am looking forward to that so much because I get to see other exchange students who live all over Finland. And that will be great to see them again. I think that I will get much closer to the Newbies than our Oldies, because with most of our oldies, we only got to spend Lapland Tour together, but with the newbies, most of them will go on Euro tour, which will be a much better bonding experience since it is so much longer. But I still miss the oldies that I had in Turku..

My neighborhood

The snow has finally arrived here to stay. The city is nice without snow, but it is much nicer in the winter when there is snow. I also have to say that there is A LOT of ice! So much, I am surprise that I haven't fallen and killed myself already! Particularly the stairs that I use to get from my bus stop to my school every morning, they are the most dangerous stairs that I have ever seen! And I have to use them every day! It is terrible, but I haven't killed myself yet, so there is hope that I may last the whole year without dying...but if I do die on exchange, my money is that it will be those stairs...or the crazy drivers in this city...either one is incredibly dangerous...

Believe it or not this is a walking path....

Ice Skating anyone?

I finally got my Christmas package! After 5 weeks in the mail....haha, postal service sucks, but I am really happy to have it!

School has started up again and it is nice. I like all of my classes, and am hoping to get credit for several. It has been good so far. I have been continuing with my dancing classes. They are good, though a lot of the time I feel a bit helpless, but I am catching up fast. We learned the Tango, which is awesome to say that I know the Tango now, and we also learned a dance to the song Party Rock Anthem, which was awesome, and I think it is my favorite dance.

I got some clothing from my school now. Some of the senior clothes, because they don't have any other clothes really for the school. I have a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie. The sweatpants are awesome, and they have the school name, and Turku written around the coat of arms for the city. The sweatshirt is also awesome, with "Luostarivuoren Lukio 2012" written on one side. The only thing I find actually a bit amusing, is that I will not be able to wear my hoodie to my school back home, because on the back it has a picture of Captain Morgan and it says "cABItain Morgan" (ABI being the finnish word for high school senior) and that is technically a reference to alcohol, and against the school dress code at home...haha, I find that a little funny, and a bit annoying...i think that I will probably just wear the hoodie anyways and whenever some teacher asks me about it I will say, no it doesn't say "Captain Morgan" it says "cABItain Morgan" and I don't know and alcoholic drinks called that....


Anyways, I'll have more updates later :D Moikka!