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!!!

The Christmas Moon

(For English, scroll down) 

Tämä blogikirjoitus on minun ensimmäinen kerta kiroittaa suomeksi. En ole kirjoittaa paljon, mutta haluan kokeilla...Myös mul on Google Translate, sitten, jos et ymmärrä, tuo on miksi...ja en ole hyvin suomi kanssa...

No, niin, on Joulu tänään. On minun ensimmäinen joulu pois kotista. Ja oli hyvä. Ei on kuin minun normaali Joulu, ja tuo on miksi oli hyvä. Alkaa marraskuussa. Mä kuulen joulu laulut. Ja mä lauluin joulu laulut lapsille ja vanha ihmiset. Oli kiva, mä menein yliopisto vaihto-oppilas kanssa, ja me laulumme paljon erilainen kielissä. Me laulumme Petteri Punakuono japaniksi. Meidän oli vain yksi japanilainen oppilas, niin me olimme oikea huono japani kieli kanssa. 

Myös, menein Joulu puoluet. Ja olivät kiva. Puoluessat me vaihtomme lahjat. Saain teeta, ja suomen elokuva niminsa “Napapiirin Sankarit” En katso ennen, mut kaikki sanoi että on paras elokuva. Olen jännittynyt katsoa se! Myös katsoin joulu elokuvat, paljon on amerikalainen elokuva, mutta katsoin yksi joulu elokuva suomeksi! Ei kanssa englanti sanat! Kastoin elokuva “Rare Exports” on tosi erilainen...en ymmärrä paljon koska paljon oli suomeksi, mutta katsoin se, niin ymmärrän jotain! 

Saaimme joulupuu kaksi päivä sitten, tuo on toinen asia miksi ei näytta silta kuin joulu, koska, USA:ssa, me saamme meidän joulupuu alku joulukuu, ja meidän puu talossa kaikki joulukuu. On ihana, mutta on kiva saada puu nyt myös, mutta se tunte lisää joulu puu kanssa kaikki kuukauta. 

No niin, kun kijoittan suomeksi, saan paljon aika, tämä oli lähellä kaks tuntea....haha mutta olin myös katsoin Leijonakuningas (suomeksi) sitten olin katsoin tuo ja kirjoittaa. Tiedän paljon suomen ystäväni lue tämä, niin nyt tiedät että ymmärrän jotain! Haha! 

Ja nyt...on to english...

Apologies to all those who do not speak finnish, that last part was merely me trying to see if I could do a blog post in finnish...haha, and I hope that it isn’t as bad as I know that it is! Writing in english is sooo much easier!!! Mostly because of a much wider range of vocabulary!!! Even though nowadays I cannot speak english worth crap! Every time I open my mouth I stutter, can’t express myself, and utterly end up looking so incredibly stupid! For my all my readers who have not experienced their native language deteriorating before their eyes, it is like having a “brain fart” every 5 seconds, every single day of your life. It is quite an unpleasant feeling. In my own head I can not express myself, so it starts to get seriously painful sometimes..

But anyways...

This blog post’s name is a reference to the finnish word for December, which literally translates to Christmas Moon. So, as you guessed it, this post is about Christmas, and all the christmas things that I have been doing lately. 

So, in the US, the Christmas season starts after right after thanksgiving, and here it starts at about the same time. Mostly it officially starts the last weekend in November. In The Us, we have thanksgiving, and that is a point that marks when you can start decorating for christmas, and nobody dares decorating before then, but here they don’t have thanksgiving so they don’t really have a point that people can decorate for christmas and still be socially excepted, so you could notice christmas trees springing up mid november, but still nobody really decorates until December. And their “decorating is really nothing is comparison to the american version of decorating. In the US we always go around the neighborhoods looking at different christmas lights that the neighbors have, and then there is always a couple houses that don’t really put out a whole bunch, maybe one bush decorated, well that is probably the average here, many people don’t really have a lot of lights at all, and I haven’t seen anyone who really lights up their yard like an american. 

Another thing that is really different is that here they get their christmas tree really close to Christmas, which I don’t like as much because it is really nice to have the christmas tree in the house much earlier. It really makes Christmas a lot longer. 

Our Christmas Tree

Turku is the Christmas capital of Finland. Though many residents of Turku say that it really isn’t anything special. As much as I love this city,  I must take the side of the many residents. The lights that they do have are really beautiful, but they don’t have very much at all, in my opinion. But they do have this Christmas market that starts in the last weekend in November and then is every weekend of December up until Christmas. I went three times. It is a really nice market, in the old town square right next to the big cathedral. Many people with hand-made crafts come there and sell their stuff. Much of it is not something that I would buy, but it is still nice to go and see. 

The first time I went to the christmas market was in the end of november and I went for the lighting of the town’s christmas tree. Which actually a very huge tree, but they put it right in front of the cathedral, which is the tallest building in Turku, so it looks pretty pathetic. But it is still very nice. When we went we looked around in the market and we saw these people dressed as presents and some tent with a troll/elf head on it, do some weird dance. It was among the weirdest things that I have ever been seen performed.....

Another Christmas tradition that the finns have is to make Joulutortu and drink Glögi. This is a very scandinavian thing, though I have never seen it before, so I have come to the conclusion that it isn’t common in Norway or it is just something that my norwegian family has never had for tradition. 

Joulutortu are flakey pastries shaped like stars with plum jam in the middle. They are very good, but are had to eat without getting flakes everywhere. Glögi is a Christmas drink that you buy in cartons and then heat up on the stove. Then you pour it in cups and some people put almond slices and raisins in, but I think that they are just annoying, particularly the almond slices because they don’t sink so you might accidentally swallow one when you are drinking and that is never good. 

Making JouluTortu

End results 

Something else that I did was go Christmas caroling with some University exchange students and we sang in many different languages. It was really fun, but those languages which I haven’t studied before, so I don’t know how to pronounce anything, like German and Japanese, it was hard to sing in. They were only a couple of us, three exchange students and then a couple finns. We went to a local primary school where we saw the children, who were so cute, and then we went to and Retirement home and sang to them. It was really fun. We sang in English, Finnish, French, Spanish, Swedish, German, Japanese, and one that I don’t know what it was... I think the most weird part of the experience was singing Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer in Japanese...

Christmas Caroling group 

I was expecting to get and love all the christmas carols in finnish, but honestly have found that even though it is nice to hear them in another language, I have grown up with them in english and when it is something from your childhood, you like to be able to sing along and have it the same as it always has been. So it is nice to hear them in finnish, but for me christmas carols will always be best in english. 

I usually always go to church on Christmas eve, and so I thought that I was going to miss that this year. But I did get two chances to go to church. Back in mid december, when it was Santa Lucia day, a swedish holiday that finland has taken up because of it’s Swedish speaking population where girls get voted to be Lucia and then walk through schools,churches, ect. singing. And I went to church last Thursday morning for the school, we all were able to go to our school’s christmas church service, which was in the main cathedral in town. It was nice. It was a classic christmas church service, except it was student’s from the school singing. And many of the people in the church were from the school. 

Santa Lucia day 

The Cathedral after our school's service 

Anyways, In Finland they celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve, so yesterday was all the excitement and today is just a relaxing day. But that is a bit annoying because always when I was little, after opening all my presents, I knew that there was 365 days until the next christmas, and that always made me sad, but celebrating it a day earlier is just a rip off, because now for the first time ever, I have 366 days until the next christmas.... -.-....But later today I will skype with my family, and online a lot of people have been saying that skyping with their family’s on Christmas brings on the tears....great.....

Christmas food was definitely different 

Vad jag varit gjöde

I think that title may be correct swedish....but I have no idea.....For all those who don't speak broken up swedish, it means "What I have been doing"


So when did I last write? A while ago...it is so hard to keep up because everything goes by so fast and so much happens! And I could be a professional free time waster.

Let's start where I left off.....

This time of the year appears to be the sales season...because every store and mall appears to have their own big sale, I mean these sales are nothing compared to sales in the US, but they are a big deal here, apparently the prices are supposed to be a lot better, but they really aren't. But it was fun because it was test week and all the other exchange students and I had free time so we spent it shopping and hanging out. It was quite fun! The biggest sale was the department store, Stockman's Hullut Päivät, which means crazy days. It lasted almost a week and it was nice. But what wasn't nice was there was so much candy on sale so I wasted a ton of money on chocolate and now I can't sit in the same room with it without getting fat.

Can you see why I am getting fat?

And just to comment on the whole getting fat situation....I don't like it. I know it is no big deal when you are on exchange to gain a couple pounds and that you will lose it all when you go back, but I don't like to be fat! It is annoying!

And while I had some time off I spent it with the other exchange students a ton. One day, which I think was one of the most fun days, we went to the cathedral and there we ran into one of the other exchange student's host dad, who is the organist for the cathedral, and he gave us a private show of the organs, so we got to go up to the top where the organist sits, which has a great view of the whole cathedral, and I do have to say that seeing an organist play is quite cool. I could never play one, it is way to complicated looking, I mean I can't even play the piano. We also went to the Turku Castle, but we didn't go inside or anything, and we went to the terminal where the boats from Sweden come, and it was pretty fun.

Me with my "crazy days" bag 

Inside the Cathedral

The organs 

The organist 

Turku Castle 

The ferry terminal 

But anyways. Something cool that happened also was that there was this showing in a theater of Star Wars: Uncut! Which was a version of Star Wars Episode 4 that was made up of 15 second fan made clips. It was AWESOME! A bit hard to follow at times...but it was really cool! I loved it! They also showed a movie about copyright infringement and how it is suppressing new types of art that focus on a lot of remixing. I thought it brought up a very valid point, and it was a very good movie. Overall the day was very good. I went with a couple other exchange students and on the website it said "We are only letting the first 1000 people in" and of course being from the US, we assumed that it meant that there were going to be well over 1000 people there, unfortunately we were wrong and got two hours early. But it was fine, we hung out in the free exhibition that they had in the same building that was focused on soccer and it was quite fun.

The Place where The Star Wars was shown 

For the european culture of capital 

Inside the soccer exhibition 

Hanging out because we were the stupid americans and got there 2 hours before it started 

I have had all new classes in the past week. It is nice. I can get used to them quickly. The thing that is most different about this new period is that I am starting to actually try harder. I mean in some of my classes, I plan on getting grades, taking tests and getting credit for three of my classes this period. Geography, Art and Spanish. So I am focusing a lot more in my classes and trying harder. I actually did my swedish homework the other day! Which is more than I ever did in the states.....sadly...But I think that it kinda fun to try and pay attention, probably because I enjoy the classes that I have a lot. But I think that the hardest part of this is the fact that it is so incredibly easy to just let go of my mind and let it wander in class. Because I don't understand anything that the teacher is saying, I have to really try to catch words and guess what she is saying, So that means paying utmost attention...not the easiest. But I am trying!

So another thing that has happened it that today I went to Turku Art Museum. It is a quite small museum, especially compared to Denver Art museum which takes a week to really see everything...and that is not just an exaggeration...it was literally designed so that it would take 5 days to see the entire permanent collection. But the Turku museum is my favorite art museum that I have been to. For one thing, it is an incredibly beautiful building that looks like a castle. The city square, along with the river, is in between two big hills, that the road of Aurakatu goes up and down. One hill is called Luostarimäki and the other is called Puolalamäki. My school is at the top of Luostarimäki and the art museum is on top of Puolalamäki. So it is on top of the hill, and you can see it from all of Aurakatu until you reach the top of Luostarimäki. <-----this may have been an irrelevant fact about the art museum, but I felt like I needed to tell you that. So I have been wanting to go to the art museum because I have been seeing advertisements for the Carl Larsson collection that they have there now and he is a Swedish artist so I have been wanting to see the art. And I was not dissapointed. I went with my art class so the teacher talked about much of the art in finnish, and I didn't understand a lot of what she was saying but I still appreciated the art. Plus there were signs with text in english, so I could read those. I really liked Carl Larsson. A lot of him art depicted Scandinavia, and they reminded me so much of Norway and a lot of my childhood, and it was very nice. It was just sooo scandinavian, and there is nothing that I love more than Scandinavia! And also the other art that was in the permeant section of the museum was also very scandinavian and I absolutely loved all of it. So that is why Turku Art museum is my favorite art museum that I have ever been to, because it is the only one that I have seen that had scandinavian art, which I adore!


I wish I had pictures of this but I will probably have in the future

This is by my school. As you can see, fall is definatly here, which is a nice change, because it summit county, there is no fall, just summer and winter

I should probably go to bed seeing as it is 12:36 am and I doubt that tomorrow I will be going to bed very early...as I am going to see Britney Spears in Helsinki! Ahhh! I am excited! Seriously excited!


So...stay tuned because this staurday I plan on posting about Les Miserables in Swedish, Helsinki and Britney Spears!


And I apologize for any typos that you may see, it is very late!