I'm sure many people are wondering why I am changing host families so soon, and I would like to clear some things up. I LOVED my first host family SO much. They were seriously wonderful people that taught me so much. I am not moving because we had a problem. I am moving so soon because I love living in Old Naantali. Old Naantali is the part of Naantlai near the harbor, with the beautiful old houses, near the city center and my favorite dock. My next family after the Ahti's (Leena and Erkki) was sapposed to be in a part [View Full Entry]

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Today Dorothee and I woke up early and we BOTH got ready for school...yes school, on Saturday. In Finland each school is sapposed to have 190 days and this year the school board at Naantali Lukio messed up and only scheduled 189 days so we have to come to school on Saturday. I had to dress up in a nice outfit with my Rotary blazer because I was scheduled to give 5 foreign exchange presentations to my peers and the public. I was also scheduled to perform in the school play at the same time, 5 performances. AHH! Leena drove us [View Full Entry]

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It is Friday, Finally. So its been test week this past week and everyone has been so stressed. I didn't get to see ANY of my friends the ENTIRE test week because they were all home reading and studying the entire week! They would go into school for one test in the morning, then come home and read the entire text book for the next test! So finally the week is over and everyone is excited and happy and care free! Oh, and thank goodness it is over! I couldn't stand another week without all my friends!!!! So now we have [View Full Entry]

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YOU KNOW YOU HAVE BEEN IN FINLAND TOO LONG, WHEN…… 1. You rummage through your plastic bag collection to see which ones you should keep to take to the store and which can be sacrificed to garbage 2. As you walk past the Parliament Building in Helsinki, and see the statue is titled "Svinhufvud" you no longer read it as "Swinehead"… instead you think "What a good Swedish name!" 3. When a stranger on the street smiles at you: a. you assume he's drunk b. he is insane c. he's an American 4. You don't think twice about putting the wet [View Full Entry]

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This past week was "Test Week" at school, which means the 6 week period is over and all students are taking their exams. It started on Thursday. Each day there were a couple different tests, so somedays the students had off, if they weren't taking the test for that day. I had the entire week off because this period I wasn't taking any tests. The other two exchange students, Jana and Sylvia, also had the week off, so our "counslor" at school, Laila, arranged for us to work at Taimo Elementary school, teaching English to youngsers! We arrived on Thursday [View Full Entry]

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I got off the train with Eddie today in Turku and he walked me to the bus stop. I got on but 42 and rode 5 minutes to the city center, where I met Ellen and Max. Ellen's host parents in Kaankaapaa were having a lot of family over so they sugested she stay with some friends this weekend. It was late notice and I was already expected in Loimaa, but i told her she could stay over Saturday night. Max had her over in Paimio Friday night, so it worked out great, meeting them in Turku! Ellen and I headed [View Full Entry]

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I caught the Train to Loimaa today at 12:47. Emma drove me to the train station, we bought some chicken wraps for lunch, then I boarded the train. It was a nice, short 45 minute ride to Loimaa. I got off the train and met Danni and Eddie (eddie had come from Turku the day before). Danni had his bike but he walked with us to the "town center" (which barely exists...its a VERY small town, only 7000 people). We walked through a beautiful little park and headed toward Danni's house. It was around a 3km walk so it took us [View Full Entry]

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Well this journal entry is a little late but i didnt want to write about my first Rotary meeting until the pictures were sent to me! So a few Wednesday's ago Eija (my counsler) and her husband picked me up and drove me down to the harbor to a restaurant called WHAT? I was sporting a nice gray skirt and my lovely, pin covered, navy blue Rotary blazer. I had my laptop case over my arm and a stack of business cards in my pocket; i was ready to go. I walked into the restaurant and was greeted by at least [View Full Entry]

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Yes. The Finns party hard. I went to a rave tonight. It was what I call a "kid rave". It was a special night at this club called Kilta; they were allowing sixteen year olds in, and they were not selling alcohol! It was just like the normal club, minus the usual drunk suspects. They had smoke machines and stobe lights, disco balls and dance podiums. It was a lot of fun. I took the bus to Turku at 9pm and met Eddie and his 15 year old host brother Alex. We walked together down "people street" to the club. They [View Full Entry]

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What a day. I woke up today at 6am. Early in know! I quickly showered, ate breakfast and stuffed all my Helsinki guides and maps into my bag. Leena, dressed in her business attire, and I left the house at 7:20 and drove to Turku in pursuit of the train station! We arrived at the train station around 7:45 and bought tickets for the 8:00 train. We boarded the huge red train and went up stairs (yes!!! It had two stories) to find our seats. A woman came to stamp our tickets then sold us some “train food”…aka muffin and pineapple [View Full Entry]

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