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.....

Waiting for my Hair to Dry...

Since I just dyed my hair the other day, and then tonight decided to take a shower at 10:30 at night, I can't really go to sleep with wet hair without some dye getting on my sheets, so I am waiting for my hair to dry before I go to sleep, and being an environmentalist, I don't really use a hair dryer often, so I am staying up...and that means I have time to kill, instead of doing a whole list of other things that I have to do, I am going to blog! Since I just uploaded a bunch of pictures from my camera anyways.

Having recently lost my camera in the picnics of Vappu, then being depressed about it for a week and then being the happiest exchange student in the world when I found out that someone had turned it in, I now realize that I need to take a lot more pictures, though I think I would have started taking a bunch more pictures lately, even if I hadn't lost my camera for a week, because this is my last full month in Finland, so I need to take pictures of every place that I go, in case it is among the last times that I see said places and things. So here are some pictures from my life lately....

Finnish pride...

Exchange Students

We are spelling out "Finland" I am part of the "N"

Go Finland!

At School

My street...Summer is coming! It looks a lot more green than it did when I arrived!

My computer

My desk..a bit messy...but I finally cleaned it today! But the main thing is that I still have my gift bag from Fazer

In my room, my computer again, an important part of life!

My school, unfortunately ALL of my classes are on the top floor...

During art class

My boyfriend is Karl Fazer...

Trying to journal...but the internet distracts me..

And so does this chocolate....

You know where my priorities are...

Turku Symphony Orchestra building

Finnkino..the only movie theater in Turku

Good news! My hair is dry now! Which means I can go to sleep!

Stay tuned for next post! 

Seuraava posti tulee pian! 

Lately....

Hyvää Päivää!!

It has been forever since I last blogged!!!!! I know! But in my defense, I have been busy, like really busy! But I know I have to blog, so I am just going to go through some things that are going on. 

It is May! Which is awful! Because that means that I only have two and a half months left of exchange, which is a thought that is looming over me like crazy! It sucks that I am leaving soon. I really don’t want to go back, though some times I find myself thinking that it isn’t all that bad, but most of the time I think that going back is bad. School is ending soon, which is terrible! Especially because usually May is one of my favorite months of the year because school is wrapping up, and now I hate it for exactly that reason! But oh well, Eurotour is coming! Which starts exactly the day after school ends, but I will tell you more about that later on! 

This was a actually from a while ago, I haven't imported all my May photos yet, this one is from April sometime

On the first of May it was a holiday in Finland, so people got off of work and school. It is international labor day, and Finland is one of the many countries that celebrates it. But Finland's tradition on May Day is very different from other countries. It is called Vappu in finnish. On the 30 of April, every one goes to the city center, and there were many people there when we went. There was at least 30, 000 people there. They completely covered the square and the hill next to the square, and then at exactly 6:00 in the evening, everyone who has every graduated from High School puts on their graduation hats (it is very traditional to keep your graduation hat here) and the graduation hats are different from american hats. They almost resemble sailor hats. So they are all white. It is really cool to see all those people with white hats in the center, wearing them. And it is tradition for you to wear your graduation hats for the rest of the night on the 30 of April and all of the first of May. So then after everyone puts their hats on in the center, people make their way to parties and party hard for the rest of the night, and late into the night. Many many people get drunk, and everyone always has a glass of champagne at all times. I have come to the conclusion that Vappu in Finland is by far the greatest day in the world's champagne industry. 

So then the next day, people spend the day in the parks, in picnics, and the parks were crowded! I went with some of my finnish friends and one of my exchange friends from a small town outside Turku, who came for the day. After the picnics my exchange friend and I went to the carnival that was in town and that was exciting. 

This doesn't even begin to show how many people were in that park! But my camera disappeared before I could take any more pictures..

Unfortunately I lost my camera in the picnics of Vappu, putting a damper on what would otherwise be a perfect day, but thankfully a week later we checked with the police and someone had turned it in!!! Which was just incredible and I was so thankful! I still find myself staring at it, thinking "is this real? Did I lose my camera there and someone actually turned it in??" Now I am taking a lot of pictures! Though this leads to tons and tons of eye rolls of my finnish friends, and even some of my exchange friends, I understand the most importance of the taking pictures, now that I have been without my camera for a week 

Lately I have been baking Pulla, which is a very finnish bread. I now am baking it every friday, as to prepare myself for when I bake it in the states, and everyone will be at awe of the amazing finnish foods! 

I went to the Karl Fazer chocolate factory the other day. For those of you who aren’t finnish, Karl Fazer is a finnish chocolate, sweets, bread, and other delicious food company. The most famous of all their food is their milk chocolate, which I know I have mentioned in this blog as being something I spend a lot of my money on...and it is safely said the greatest chocolate in the history of the world. Period. No question. So it was amazing to go to the factory and see where the headquarters are. We were able to eat as much chocolate as our stomachs could hold, and that was amazing! Though, I was expecting more of a Willy Wonka thing, I learned that it is indeed just a factory...nothing all that magical about it..though when you taste the chocolate you think otherwise...

Om nom nom..chocolate...and even better, all you can eat chocolate! 

The World championships of Ice Hockey is happening right now, and since Finland won last year, the games are in Finland. Finnish flags are everywhere and there is so much advertising and crazy Finland things around. It is very exciting! And Finland is very good! Hopefully they will win again this year! 

Nähdän mun paras ystävä Coloradosta huomenna. Hän on Monica Weller, sä voit nähdä hänen bloggi täällä. Olen onnelinen että nähdän hän, koska viime aika nähdäin hän oli Tammikuu! Hän on kuin mun sisko! :D Myös Eurotour:lle me olemme ydessä huonessa ja emme nukua koska me puhu niin paljon! 

Pian mul on esitys Rotarylla! On suomeksi....ja mul on pelkää! 

See you all soon!!!!

Nähdään!!!

Koeviikko Update

It has been a while...I realize....

But I will try to post more, or at least some....

Lately I have been pretty busy. A lot has happened since last post. I have switched host families, which is great. I am now in my third and last family. It makes me quite sad that I am in my last part of exchange, but there is also a part of me that is quite relieved that I won't have to stress over moving again. Not that it is an incredibly stressful process, but packing is a pain, and there is always the fact that you are moving in with complete strangers. Though I have to say that it is quite an amazing thing that exchange students do, and that is move in with complete strangers, and most of the time, feel quite at home within a couple days.  When you think about it, it is a bit strange. Now I have the shortest bus ride that I have had in all my host families. It is only 15 min, and 10 min by car, so very close to the city, which is nice. 

Moving

Spring appears to be coming. I have stopped wearing my thick winter jacket, and I am now wearing my converse again. The snow is all melted, and it is starting to be warm again. I just started my last jakso (semester) in school. Which is incredibly depressing for me, and everyone else in school just loves it. 

I just had test week, and I took two tests, and slept the rest of the week. The first test I took was spanish, which naturally I aced. The second test was biology, which took a bit more studying. But when I got to the test, the questions were a lot easier than I thought they would be, though I still don't know what I got, but I think that I passed. Both tests were in english, but the study material was in finnish....

This weekend was Easter, which was nice because in Finland they get off school Friday and Monday, and since I had only two tests during the test week, I had several more days of break than everyone else. On Monday we went and had a late lunch on one of the restaurant boats that float on the river in town. Eating on one of those was on my bucket list of things to do in Finland, so I am happy we went there. Also a finnish easter tradition is to eat Mämmi. Mämmi is one of the most finnish foods in the world, and most people hate it and think it is disgusting. Most finns even hate it. Everyone has told me that I have to try it, and I did try it (with tons and tons of sugar, at their instruction) and I didn't think it was all that bad...I was expecting it to taste really strong of crap, from everyone's descriptions. But it wasn't really that strong of a taste (though that maybe because of how much sugar I put on it). It is not my favorite food in the world, but it isn't really that bad at all. 

Also on Monday, my host family and some of their friends and I, went to a movie called Iron Sky, which is a new finnish made movie. It was about Nazis from the moon, which sounds a bit stupid, but it was actually good. The actors spoke English and German, of course though, they had swedish and finnish subtitles, which got me through the german, alright. I thought that the movie's perception of americans really put it into perspective how americans are viewed by the rest of the world. Perspective that you cannot get from any Hollywood movie. 

Iron Sky Trailer