The End of my Finnish School Experience

I realize that I haven't posted in a long time, but here I am again, I have been meaning to post since I have been back in the US but I have been busy (I am also a member of the world wide Procrastination club!). After being back in the states for so long my english is most definitely better than it was when I last posted, but alas my finnish has dwindled! Which makes me sad to the end of the Earth. 

I will start with where I left off. 

The last several weeks of my time at Luostarivuoren Lukio were some of the greatest in my life. But these great weeks were draped in sadness of the knowledge in the back of my mind that I would soon have to leave all that I knew behind and return to that place I "lived" in before I truly lived. 

There is nothing worse than a goodbye. 

The last weeks of school I spent a lot of time by the river with my friends, enjoying the spring/summer, and admiring how green everything had suddenly become. I also became OBSESSED with Eurovision...To this day I am still disappointed that Sweden won...

I had to do a couple short speeches in finnish for my school and for Rotary. The speech for Rotary was long, but I wrote it all myself, and surely enough I had many grammatical errors, but I didn't want anyone to correct me, because I wanted Rotary to know that it was MY finnish that I was speaking and nobody else wrote my speech for me (because I know a lot of exchange students who did that in the past). I wore my beautiful (and heavy) Rotary blazer while I presented and I talked about everything from my trip to Estonia to how I though the rain was exciting when I first arrived. I was so depressed when I walked out of that door afterwards, because I knew it was my last Rotary meeting, and I was so sad at the thought of no longer being that club's exchange student. And of course I would miss the delicious food every Tuesday. 

My speech for my school was a little different. Different in that I cried many times during the writing process. It was late at night and my emotions were high and I couldn't bare the thought of leaving behind all these wonderful people that I have met! I would miss everything about it like to the smiles I have gotten from people I barely know and the waves on the street from friends I talked to six months ago, but we still wave whenever we see each other. It hurts me to think about the idea of no longer being the center of attention as the strange and shiny toy from another country that everybody asks questions and is so friendly to. 

Thankfully I managed to not cry during my speech, because that would have been a bit embarrassing...I actually made a lot of people in the room laugh with a couple of the jokes I made, which was a great moment because finnish audiences are the hardest to present in front of. 

A bit grainy photo of the three exchange students in Luostis 2011-2012

Ykis paras asia tapahtuu minulle koulun viime viikkossa. Robin, Suomen Justin Bieber, mene luostarivuori ennen lukio (middle school) ja lounsassa yks päivä mä nähdän hän ja minä juoksin hänelle  ja kysyäin englaneksi "Can I have your augograph??" ja hän sano "Mitä?" ja mä selitän että mä olin vaihto-oppilas, ja hän antoi mä hänen allekirjoitus! Best moment of my exchange right there...I set out from the beginning of my exchange saying to my friends "I am going to get his autograph or else I am not going back to the US". It was kind of symbolic that it happened in the last couple weeks of school. 

One of my last finnish school lunches...My friends were embarrassed that day that I was taking pictures of my lunch..but that's what they get for being friends with the exchange student 

I should also note how obsessed I was with the Finnish hockey when the world cup was in Helsinki. It was amazing watching Finland play, I loved it so much, and I died a little inside when they lost and Russia won...that seriously killed me a little. It was a bit scary when Sam and I were in town on the day of the USA-Finland game and we were wearing our american flags and everything, just to be trolls. But then USA lost and everything went as planned. My host father did threaten that I would sleep outside if US won that game...Was he serious? We will never know....

My host parents gave me the job of baker for my host brother's graduation party, which was the day after school got out. That meant 200 pulla. All before 12:00. Being the cook that I was, I demanded of myself they be fresh, so I would make them the same day. On top of that, it was the day I left for Eurotour, so I invited several of my friends from all over finland to come to my host brother's party (since we left in the evening) They came over and it was all a good time. Although it was one of the most busiest mornings, I really enjoyed making 200 pulla because in the end, I can say that I made 200 pulla in just four hours. 

That was the day I had to say goodbye to my very good friend Winnie from Taiwan, who would be leaving for Taiwan when I was on Eurotour. It made me very sad to say goodbye, but I plan on making a trip to Taiwan in the not-so-distant-future, so who knows when I will see her again! 

That evening I left for my Eurotour, which was, as I expected, the greatest two and a half weeks of my entire life.....

more on that soon.....

You Know You Are From Colorado When

Today I had a presentation on Colorado and USA for my Geography. My last presentation was for my Rotary club, which is basically just old men. So this presentation was a bit different because it was going to be for teenagers, and when people say that the audience matters for a presentation, they don't lie. So I decided to have some fun with it. I talked about a whole bunch of things. I also taught them how to live in Colorado and fit in. And I really had fun making it, because I really wanted to make a presentation that talked about stuff that they may not have known about the USA from television. So I went and presented and it was nice. Finnish people are known to not be interested, not laugh and not ask questions during presentations, which was kinda exactly like what my Rotary Club had been like when I presented. But my class was a very good audience. So that made me a lot less nervous. I actually didn't think of being nervous the entire time. So it was all very good. And I got lots of compliments on my presentation. 

But anyways, the point of this post is that when I was looking up some random facts and such on the internet. I found a long list of "You Know You're From Colorado When.." and I loved them all. So here they are for the enjoyment of anyone from Colorado (or anyone that isn't from Colorado, but you probably won't understand them in the same way):

1. You switch from "Heat" to "A/C" in one day

2. Your sense of direction is: towards the mountains and away from the mountains.

3. You're able to drive 65 miles per hour through 13 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without even flinching.

4. You think your major food groups are granola bars, tofu and Fat Tire beer.

5. You design your kid's Halloween costumes to fit over a snowsuit.

6. You think that sexy lingerie is wool socks and flannel PJs.

7. You know all 4 seasons "almost winter, winter, still winter and spring blizzards

8. You can never figure out why your out-of-town guests faint from altitude sickness on a picnic to the mountains.

9. You can drive over a 12,000-foot pass in 4 feet of snow

10. You know the 'correct' pronunciation of Buena Vista.

11. When you visit friends at sea level, you can drink a case of beer and not get a buzz.

12. Your car insurance costs more than your car.

13. April showers bring May blizzards.

14. 'Timberline' is someplace you have actually been.

15. You know what a "fourteener" is.

16. A bear on your front porch doesn't bother you 

17. SPF 90 is not out of the question.

18. People from out of state breathe 5 times as often as you do.

19. Thunder has set off your car alarm.

20. A full moon has never kept you awake at night.

21. You have an $800 stereo in your $300 truck.

22. A sudden loss of cabin pressure is not a big deal.

23. You think a red light means 3 more cars can go.

24. Where we're going, we don't need roads!!

25. You know where Buffalo Bill's grave is.

26. You know where the real "South Park" is.

27. You can recognize the license plates of all 50 states on sight

28. Driving directions usually include 'Go over _________ Pass.'

29. You've dressed in shorts, sandals, and a parka with a hood.

30. You've urinated on the Continental Divide just so it could 'run into both oceans'

31. And most important: You get a certain satisfaction knowing that California and Texas are both downstream.

32. You know what a down slope and an up slope weather pattern is

33. You have absolutely no recognizable accent.

34. If the humidity gets above 25%, you consider it "muggy".

35. You only go to Central City when friends are in from out of town.

36. You think only stupid people get lost in your town.

37. When giving directions, you never say "Turn left, turn right", it's always go West, then South.

38. If it rains more than 2 days straight you compare the weather to being in Seattle.

39. You have a broken windshield.

40. You see no reason to travel to Aurora.

41. The only RTD bus you've been on is the 16th Street shuttle.

42. You carry your $3,000 mountain bike on top of your $500 car.

43. You have a business degree and are frying burgers at a McDonald's in Vail.

44. You have a flat tire in your refrigerator and your garage.

45. You've never seen the tourist attractions in your own city.

46. You think a pass does not involve a football or a woman.

47. You are 82 years old and take up snowboarding.

48. Your real Y2K fear was running out of Celestial Seasonings tea and trail mix.

49. You get depressed after one day of foggy weather.

50. You think that formal wear is ironed denim.

51. You go anywhere else on the planet and the air feels "sticky" and you notice the sky is no longer blue.

52. You can run up 10 flights of stairs without huffing and puffing.

53. You've stood on solid ground and looked down on an airplane in flight.

54. Your car insurance costs more than your car.

55. You've gone skiing in July. You've gone sunbathing in January. They were both in the same year.

56. You know the elevation of a town, but not its population.

57. You never pack away your coat and sweaters.

58. You can name only two people you know who were actually born in Colorado.

59. You or someone you know plays golf 12 months of the year.

60. You don't have AC in your home, but you use it in your car all winter long.

61. If it snows in the morning you expect it to be gone by lunchtime.

62. You can name the states that make up the Four Corners.

63. You know what and where the Continental Divide is.

64. You've made naked snow angels.

65. You still call it "Elitches".

67. You scoff at the "five-day forecast".

68. You know what I'm talking about when I say, "You don't need an airplane to be in the mile-high club in Denver".

69. You've grown up with the most beautiful sunsets in the world, and didn't miss them until you left.

70. You’ll eat ice cream in the winter.

71. When the weather report says it’s going to be 65 degrees, you shave 72. your legs and wear a skirt.

73. It snows 5 inches and you don’t expect school to be canceled.

74. You’ll wear flip flops every day of the year, regardless of temperature.

75. You say ‘the interstate’ and everybody knows which one.

76. You think that May is a totally normal month for a blizzard.

77. You don’t think Coors beer is that big a deal.

78. You’ve gone off-roading in a vehicle that was never intended for such activities.

79. You always know the elevation of where you are.

80. You wake up to a beautiful, 80 degree day and you wonder if it’s going to snow tomorrow.

81.When people out East tell you they have mountains in their state too, you just laugh.

82. You get really ticked off when people confuse Colorado with Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, or any of "those other big square states out west."

83. You never pack away your coat and sweaters.

84. Several times a summer you hear your kids talking about going to Red Rocks for the concert.

85. You bought a car from a Super Bowl MVP.

86. You've enjoyed the most beautiful sunsets and most thrilling thunder clouds ever seen from a baseball stadium.

87. You've convinced your out-of-state cousins whom you're taking on a mountain picnic to watch out for starving coyotes, crazy cave dwellers, and stampeding herds of jackalopes.

88. You know the tragic legend of "The Face on the Barroom Floor."

89. You Understand all of these 

Yay for Colorado! Anyways, I am switching Host Families in a week! Three months have gone by so freaking fast! 

And don't send mail to my current address, because I will be gone by the time it gets here! I will post my new address soon!

And another thing I found while looking up stuff for my presentation: