Month 5

There's finally snow on the ground and it stayed. It's gone from kinda warm to very cold here so it is kinda hard to get used to a huge change so fast but I like the cold. The Australians are very close to leaving. It's pretty sad because I've made really good friends with them but I know I'll see most of them again. We had the Rotary Christmas party this past weekend. It was fun and I got a present. I'm not sure what it is yet but I know it does something. For now its purpose is to take up space on my desk until I find some use for it. At the party we went to the big cathedral for a celebration of Lucia. Lucia is a girl chosen by the city to be a symbol of light for the Christmas season. This is a really important thing for Finnish people. There is a new girl chosen each year. My rotary club each year hosts a Christmas event also held at the cathedral. I helped them this year by collecting money gifts. Though I was pretty bored throughout the thing, as it was all in Finnish and I understood little, I did find that the music was very similar to the American Christmas music that we sing every year. This was a nice reminder that the celebration of Christmas, no matter where you are, is for the same purpose : getting presents and eating good food. But seriously, Christmas is a great time of the year for everyone. I bought a ukulele. Ever sense i knew this thing existed, I've wanted to play it. I didn't get a really nice really expensive one because i dont have the money for something like that. I just wanted one i could learn to play on. I really do love the sound it makes. I've started taking the songs that I've written on guitar and transferred them to uke. It's really cool the sounds I'm getting. Hopefully I will be able to record some stuff with the Uke and guitar. That would be awesome. I finally learned how to ice skate. I have done it before but that was when I was 6 and I don't really remember that much. It was a lot of fun. I went with all my exchange student friends and we had a great time. Though our feet were sore from the skates and our elbows/butts/hands were sore from falling we still had a great time. So Christmas has come and past. It was nothing special for me but I had a good time at least. It was a little different than Christmas in America. We had my host uncle dress up as Joulupukki (Santa) and he made everyone laugh a lot and I got to sit on his lap which everyone thought was really funny. But I understood only one of the jokes he said and that was "People in the USA nowadays are so picky. I mean I might have to get lawyers just to say that I gave them the gift they really wanted" I thought it was very funny and true because a lot of people in the US are coming to the point were they sue just so they can get money. Back 30 years ago everything was solved with fist fights and mouth offs. Now if someone says something they can be charged with "verbal assault." I mean come on, what kind of idiot actually takes something like "verbal assault" and sues for it? Someone who has no life and nothign better to do. If someone punches me in the face, I'd probably just punch him back. And whoever wins the fight wins the dispute. End of conversation. I'm not going to sue him for "Physical and emotional damages." Those don't really exist. But back to Christmas, we had a lot of different foods here. There were a lot of different smoked fishes and mustard covered hams. it was a much different experience having all these new foods on Christmas. My favorite gift would have been the Finnish Sauna book because I want to build a sauna when I get home. I also got some candy, a jar of peanut butter from my amerikan parents, and a cd. But really i didnt want much so i got more than i expected. I also played guitar and ukulele with my host cousin who went to Australia a couple years ago. She was a really cool person to meet and hopefully i will see her again. its nice to have a host cousin you can hang with and talk to. and before you the reader gets any ideas she's 23ish and engaged and lives in Sweden and is about to become a doctor, i f you get what im going at. Anyways... The next day we couldn't go to Christmas Mass because we had to drive several hours to my host dad's side of the family to have dinner there. Same deal, smoked ham and fish, lots of potatoes, my host grandma dressing up as Joulupukki. It was funny having her dress up as Joulupukki cause she kissed her boyfriend and everyone thought it was funny. Then we watched some of the Harry Potter movie with my other host cousins and I had a good talk with my host uncle who went to Cincinatti on exchange many years ago. It was fun to be able to talk to someone about sports and teams again. And when we drove back home my host bro and i nolifed on Xbox until 2 am playing through Halo 1,2 and 3. Though we only got halfway through 1 and called it quits. I got to skype my family which was nice cause they said it was weird not having me there at Christmas. I guess it will be weird next year not having my sister there as she is also going on exchange but to where we dont know. I went and saw the 3D movie AVATAR which was probably the most graphically amazing movies I've ever seen. Currently my favorite movie and you should definately go see it. It was my first New Years outside of the country today. I must say, probably one of the best times I've had. I went to visit my friend Ashley in Nokia which is close to the big city Tampere. For New Years, her host dad gave us like 5 fireworks (which are LEGAL) and we went into Tampere and joined 3 other exchange students for the New Years. Most of the night we hung out in this coffee house kinda place and just chilled and talked about things. Then when it was close to midnight we went to this lake and we had a hung yelling count-down to midnight and when it was midnight we lite our fireworks and watched them fly. It was a great time. Afterwards, two of the exchangies had to catch their busses so the 3 of us went back to the coffee house and hung out there. We met these Finns there who were really interested in us cause we were foreigners. It's cool how many people like you because you're not from the country. Then we went back to Ashley's house and had a bunch of fries and amazing cake that her host fam made us and went to bed. Goodbye 09 and hello 10. Hope you enjoyed reading this.

Month 4

It snowed today. Though it didn't last a day, it still snowed. Which means fall is over and winter is officially moving on in. It will be a great winter here getting to see Santa and Lappland and just having a good time experiencing the year here. This past week I've taken a course in school which focuses on recording music. I've never had so much fun with music before. I spent all of 8 hours in the studio just messing around with recordings with my friends. It might be something I will look at when I think about a possible career. This weekend was the district meeting of district 1410, the best district in Finland. I had a great time and got to go to sauna and jump into the below freezing lake after. The lake wasn't frozen but it likely could have cause it was really really cold. I am excited to jump in when it is totally frozen over. The snow is all gone now. It got really warm. They say it won't snow again until January which sucks cause its not christmas without snow. It's called White Christmas for a reason. I got to go to Tampere, a city up north from Turku, to visit my friend who came to America as an exchange student last year. We played pool and hung out with a bunch of her friends and it was a really fun time. Her sister gave me some music pieces for me to teach myself how to play the piano. I am trying to be able to read notes this year sense it is a skill I have forgotten. Hopefully I will be able to record some of my original songs in the school this year and maybe make a cd. That would be really cool. We are going to Lappland now so we can go skiing and see the real Santa and his house. This will be a ton of fun I can't wait. I got to see my first reindeer in the ciy today. it was a lot like a regular deer except it had fuzzy antlers and was a lot bigger. So we went to Lappland. It was without a doubt my favorite part of Finland so far. It was a really long bus ride there but it was definately worth it. I was really happy that there was snow because my city doesn't have any yet. Hopefully we will soon. When we got there we got to go snowboarding at this local mountain. It wasn't very big but it was still a lot of fun. I met heaps of cool people there. The Australians have gotten me saying some of the Aussie words like heaps, cheers, no worries, and fair dinkum. I got to see my first reindeer. They were really cool. I got to go on a dog sled ride which was great. Definately heap loads of fun. We also did a reindeer ride but that wasn't as much funn. After the reindeer ride we took snow shoes back home. That was fun. We got to listen to a traditional Saame person sing songs which was super mad. It was really peaceful and something I would like to hear again someday. We then have the gift giving which was great and sad at the same time cause now the oldies are less than 2 months until they leave. I was given a guitar by Ashley Bujeya from Australia. I will keep it safe and play it everyday. Hopefully I'll see her along with all the other oldies when I visit Australia which I plan to do for senior spring break and after I graduate. We then packed up our things and headed off to Santa's house. We had to buy a picture of us with Santa but none of us wanted to do that. So after when we were watching a video of us going into Santa's room, I took a picture of us with Santa on the tv screen. Sneaky me. We then went to a nice restaurant and had our last meal. We said our many tearful goodbyes and headed home. It was definately the best weekend of my exchange so far. I had my first traditional Finnish ballroom dance lesson today. That waws fun and interesting at the same time. It should be fun to see how I do. Christmas is coming soon. My next post will be after New Years. Hope you enjoyed this.

cold. that about sums up what its like here. no snow, just rain. and cold. LOTS of it. but i like the cold so thats fine. at the request of my host dad, i have started to try and teach my host siblings how to speak english. it is going ok. my 4 year old brother has a speech problem and cant pronounce S's and some other letters so it is not as easy for him as my 6 year old host sister. we took 2nd at the rugby tournament. that was really cool. then after the tournament we got to see Finland play Bulgaria in the first professional rugby game I've ever seen. Though Finland lost, it was still cool to see the game. Exams were this last week though I didn't have to take any besides english. I got to see the best drummer in Finland do an expo at a local place. He was advertising a new drum pedal but we just went to watch him play. It was really cool to see someone with that kind of talent play. It snowed for the first time today. It's not going to stay but I think that there will be lots more to come soon so that will be good. I've lately been getting a lot into The Doors as my choice of music. I'm not sure why cause no one here listens to them but I really like their stuff. My host mom really likes to make food from the things she grows in her garden. Today, we had rubarb pie and ice cream (ice cream not home made) which was really good. I think I should write down some of these recipies to take back to america with me. I have taken to going to sauna almost every night. I really enjoy it and it gives me a good feeling of peace during and after. I live it so much in fact that for my 18th birthday, I have asked my parents to buy me the supplies to build my own sauna back in America. I've done some research on them and they are a lot easier to build than one might think. I really hope I can build one. This last weekend I was at the summer cottage with my host brother Jolle and the rest of the family. We went fishing and caught one fish which was a pretty good sized fish I'd say. We spent the rest of the night playing Halo and eating chips and candy. It was quite a fun weekend. I made American pancakes for breakfast the next day and they all really liked them. I only wish I had made more because they were all gone very fast. It has been quite a quick month. It seems like just last week I arrived here and now I'm 3 months into this. It's been quite an adventure so far.

Month 2

So, where to begin. I have become a part of a band here and we are starting to get things together. We had our first practice this week and it went pretty well seeing as two of the members could not make it. but we have song ideas going to thats good. My football team here took a hard fall last game losing 33-6 but in the end we all had fun during the game and thats really all that matters. We have our last game this coming weekend and hopefully we will end on a good note. I have become what is know here as "kahvi addikti" but its more commonly known as "coffee addict." I think just the other day I had almost the whole pot by myself which is a ton of coffee. But I don't really care that its a lot cause the quality of the coffee here far surpasses that of Starbucks coffee. I will definately have to send some of that home to the family and friends. Also, I've noticed that candy here is a lot better. It's tasty and not just sugar and is soooooo addicting. I have also become part of the largest youth rugby team here in Finland. Though we are not very good we will see if we can try and play some games with people in other cities around Finland. I went to see something very strange the other day. My friend Jaakko sings in an opera and he had a free ticket so i decided to go. I got all dressed up for it which was, I thought, kinda fun. But when the show starts, I find out that the opera is Italian with Swedish and Finnish subtitles. So, I saw a Finnish opera in Italian with swedish subtitles. Weird, but definately entertaining. So we won the football game at the end of the year to win the bronze medal of Finland. This is something really cool to me because instead of going into the game with a must win attitude we went in with a lets make this the best game we've ever played and have fun doing it. I ran the opening kickoff back 80 yards for a touchdown. Needless to say, things just got better from there. I ran a career high (and probly life high) 400+ yards, 3 touchdowns, and had 20 tackles with 1 interception. That was the most fun game I've ever been a part of. Not because that we won, not because we got the bronze medal, but because I learned the most important lesson to learn in life, its not whether you win or lose, but whether or not you had fun doing it. I got to go and see the Turku Castle which was really cool. I've never been to a castle before so that was quite an experience for me. It was a lot bigger than I thought if would be. It took 2 hours just to go through all the available rooms we could and we didnt even get to see half of the castle cause a lot of it was closed off. Really cool experience though. I am going to be playing in a rugby tournament on saturday in Helsinki which will be really fun and a great experience for me in my rubgy playing. Things are going great here. Hope you enjoyed reading this.

End of First Month

So as you know i will be updating this blog once a month now instead of every two weeks. Well this past month I've gotten involved in a lot of things around my area. I've become a member of the Turku Trojans American Football Team. We play in the national semi-finals this coming weekend to see if we can play for the national championship. My team has never done this well in football so i am very happy and excited to be a part of that. If we do win the national championship, I will be able to say something about football that no other american will. At least for this year! I have also been going to rugby practices. They are fun and i do enjoy the good workout they give. Sense it is an adult team, all i can do is practice with them because I am not old enough to play in a real game yet. But my friend Jaakko and I are trying to start a junior team here so we can play in real games. If we get this team together, hopefully we will be able to play other teams around Finland. I have found that here in Finland, I will spend most of my money on the great food they have to offer here. My favorite new food here is called kebab. It is a foot long taco shaped giant roll of goodness. Its generally filled with cheese, lettuce, cucumbers (yuck), a special sause, and tons and tons of meat. I think it is either lamb meat or cow but either way it is really good. It really fills you up! School for me has been a lot different than that in the states. Here, the classes are different each day and so is the time that you have to get up. I get to sleep in a lot so that is a very nice change. Because I can not speak Finnish right now, I usually just sit in the classes and do nothing. Some classes though such as music and english I am able to participate in which is nice because a whole day of just sitting and listening to gibberish is not a fun day. I've not bought anything here besides food which is very surprising for me. I've not bought a single piece of clothing. Just food. I hope it doesn't show too much when I go home. I am playing this weekend in the semi-final game with my team, The Turku Trojans, and it will be a dogfight of a game. If you are reading this, pray for us and wish us the best of luck we will need it. End of Month 1. On to Month 2.

First Two Weeks

So for the first week I was at a language camp located in the city of Karkku. This camp was to help all of us exchange students become more accustomed to the culture and language of Finland. I had a lot of fun at this camp. We had Finnish lessons everyday which taught us the very unusual language. We got to go into a sauna and then jump into the lake right after we got out. I must say i had to have done this about 4 times before I stopped it was such a nice experience. I learned the difference between a normal Finn an unnormal one and that simply is the amount they talk to you. Finns need a reason to talk to people. So if someone comes up to me and just talks I know they are not a normal Finn. If someone just looks at me and never talks then this is what is know s a "normal" Finn. It's quite different and strange but I don't think it'll be bad in any way. We also had a lesson on how to make friends and they said the honestly the best way to make friends was to wait until they are drunk and then talk to them. Just don't be sad when at school two days later they "have no idea who you are." We were taught that if we meet a bear, all we have to do is talk to it and walk away and the bear should leave. We learned that Santa Claus lives in Finland and that he does not come through the chiminey. Instead he comes through the front door. We visited Tampere which is a lot like the city I'm currently living in. We also got to go to and old old church and have a traditional Lutherin Mass to learn more about the Finnish religion. We eat 5 times a day here so I'm getting plenty of food while I'm here. I have become accustomed with my first host family. They had a summer cottage which they go to a lot. It's really nice there but I can see myself getting very bored because they visit the cottage every weekend and there's no one to hang out with. My host dad took me to see a professional Finnish hockey game and because he knows the coach I have been given the opportunity to hang out with and train with the team for a day which is something that almost no know has ever gotten the chance to do. I'd met a ton of people and school had not yet even started. I have started playing rubgy with the local team and Jaakko and I are the coaches of a junior team here so hopefully we can get some games with other teams from around the country. I also was at a birthday party for a girl in my school. Though i still do not like parties I had some fun while I was there just talking to all the new people. I also became a part of the Turku Trojans football team and we are playing a game on sunday. School is very different here but none the less funn. I am taking History, English, Spanish, German, Music 1, Music 2, and Gym. I will try to get pictures up soon.