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.