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Published: September 1st 2007
Vaasa Town Square
This is the town square. There is usually a market here during the day and lots of people around. It's only about a block from my school, and it's where the malls and all the shopping are.I can't believe it's been a whole week since I last updated. Time has been flying. It seems like I've barely rolled out of bed on Monday morning and the next thing I know it's Friday afternoon. I can't believe I've almost been in Finland a month. That's right, a whole month! It will be official on Wednesday. Anyway, I have lots of interesting stuff to tell you all so I better get down to it!
I believe I last left you on Thursday eagerly anticipating my Japanese class the next day. So, on Friday I went to my first Japanese class. Well, let me explain to you first about the school I'm taking the class at. It's a Folkhögskola, which means it's a school for anyone who wants to go. Some people might go there for a year after finishing their compulsory education and before going to Gymnasium (sort of the equivalent of our high school, but not really), while others might have chosen not to go to Gymnasium and take classes there instead. It's sort of like an adult school for people who have decided that they want further education. Anyway, I didn't know exactly where the class
was so I met the teacher beforehand and went to the class with him. And let me just say one thing about my teacher because he cracks me up. He wears the same outfit every day. But not like he's wearing the same clothes every day, it's just the same outfit. Every day he wears a blue and white striped shirt, black pants, and a black belt. But he's not wearing the same blue shirt every day. I can tell because sometimes the stripes are different or it's a different shade of blue, but it's essentially the same shirt. And it just makes me laugh to think that he probably has this closet at home containing only blue striped shirts and black pants. Anyway, so I went to the classroom with him and when I walked in I found 14 people all staring at me. And these weren't just your everyday, average people, almost all of them had some sort of neon colored dyed hair, multiple piercings, and looked as if their closet may be a Hot Topic store. It was actually a little scary. There were only a few open chairs so I sat next to the most normal
Summerhouse
This is the summerhouse from the outside. looking person I could find; his hair wasn't died and he didn't have any piercings that I could see. Besides the fact that the people scared me a little, the class went really well. The teacher spoke in Japanese about 70% of the time and I could usually understand about 80%-90% of what he was saying. So, that made me really happy. Also, for my benefit, when he was explaining something, he almost always would explain it in English, as well as Swedish and Finnish. Which, by the way, I think it is totally amazing that he can think in four languages at once. That's pretty cool.
Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you about my favorite part of the Folkhögskola, Elvis goes there! So, in the middle of every class we have a coffee break where we have coffee or juice, eat snacks, etc. And when I was leaving I ran into a very interesting looking boy. He had jet black, slicked back hair that looked exactly like Zac Efron's in Hairspray. He was wearing a black muscle shirt with jeans that were rolled up at the bottom, and I think the only reason he didn't have
a pack of cigarettes rolled up in his shirt sleeve was that he didn't have any sleeves. But to top it all off, he had a black belt with a big buckle that said "Elvis" in sparkly letters. I struggled to keep myself from laughing. It was just so funny! I mean, it was as if he had just walked straight out of 1955 USA and into modern day Finland. I mean he could have been an extra from Grease or The Outsiders or something, it was ridiculous. And ever since that day I keep seeing him everywhere! I mean at the mall, in the town square, waiting for the bus, and he's always dressed the same way. And now I even see him wearing this black leather jacket which has a patch that says "Elvis Lives!", and every time I see him I just chuckle and think "There's Elvis again."
Anyway, after my Japanese class on Friday I went back to my regular school. My last class ended up being canceled so I went to the library and I checked out the first Harry Potter book, in Swedish. I've been reading it for the past week, and I've
finished 4 chapters already! At first it was really hard, but I'm getting alot better. I'm learning lots of new words, and it's really fun. It can get kind of irritating sometimes though because I'm used to reading so fast in English, and in Swedish it takes me about 15 minutes to finish one page. However, I'm to the point where I can often understand whole sentences and paragraphs, so that's exciting. After that I went shopping with my friend Emilia. She was looking for "baggy jeans" which I thought was funny. Baggy jeans here are, I guess, a popular style of girls jeans, but they're not really like baggy jeans that you would think of in America. It's really kind of hard to explain. Maybe I'll take a picture of them sometime.
Saturday was the big day, the end of summerhouse season! After waking up and eating breakfast, we spent the rest of the afternoon packing everything and making preparations for the evening. Our supplies included candles, alot of alcohol, breads, cheeses, and other sorts of snacks, warm clothes, since it was supposed to be quite windy, and of course, the mandatory stash of fireworks. Before we left
Doing Some Grilling
From left, Juha, my host dad, and Hannah, doing some grilling. we ate our lunch which I was quite skeptical about. I don't remember what it was called, but it was some kind of potato porridge. Earlier that morning my mother had showed me the box with the little dried potato things and it seriously looked like a box of styrofoam packing material, but it ended up being quite good. Anyway, at about 5:00 we went to the summerhouse. My host parents and I rushed to set everything up before our guests, one of my dad's friends and his daughter, arrived a little later. My host dad and I put candles and lanterns all over the shoreline, to be lighted later in the evening, while my host mom was busy making food and cleaning the cabin. A little later, Jani and his friend Oskar arrived by boat from Oskar's summerhouse which is on an island. They immediately began lighting fireworks, the kind that basically just make a bunch of noise. It was interesting because they were throwing them in the water and the fireworks would explode underwater. I didn't realize that was possible, but it was kind of cool. After awhile, Jari's friend Juha and his daughter Hannah arrived. While Jari
The Boys
Here's Oskar and Jani with their fireworks. and Juha fired up the grill Jani, Oskar, and I began saunaing and swimming. Hannah didn't want to swim because she had a cold and the water was very cold. It was really fun, but the water was VERY cold! We finally ate at about 7:30 or 8. I was starving. Dinner was really good though. We had steak, corn, makkara (a Finnish sausage, which I think is just sort of a glorified hot dog), potato salad, and of course bread. After dinner Jani and Oskar left again on their boat. I was absolutely stuffed, but, of course, about half an hour later we had "coffee". Coffee was essentially our second dinner full of candy, sweet breads, cheeses, cookies, and other scrumptious foods. I ate so much I thought I was going to throw up! After awhile it was time to light the candles, but the wind was blowing so hard that they wouldn't stay lit. After almost an hour of unsuccessful candle lighting, my host dad finally gave up and did fireworks instead. The fireworks were fun, and after that it was almost midnight so we decided to pack up and go home.
On Sunday we all slept
Host Dad
Jari, my host dad. quite late and then mostly sat around the house. Everyone was so tired from the night before. I looked at some old pictures of my host family with my parents. That was pretty amusing. I also bought my basketball license. For the league I'm playing in everyone must buy a license. It's sort of a way to put money into the league. However, they are very expensive. It cost me €137!! I was like holy crap! But if I wanted to play, I had to have one.
Monday was the start of a new school week, and nothing too exciting happened. I found out that I should be starting my Finnish lessons soon. I think I will be taking them at Vaasa Polytechnic. The German exchange student is also taking them there, so it will be nice to have someone I know in the class.
Tuesday was pretty interesting. In my music class we started this thing where we had to break up into small groups and learn a song. Eventually we will have to play it for the class. The girl I ended up with, although very nice, knows absolutely nothing about music. I mean nothing! But
Corn!
Doesn't it look yummy?! it's ok, I don't mind. I like my music class because I'm actually learning how to play the guitar and the piano and stuff. I went to another Rotary meeting on Tuesday, and afterward my Rotary counselor and I went to the bank to set up a bank account for me so I can get my monthly allowance from the Rotary club. It was ridiculously hard for me to get a bank account! We had tried to go the week before thinking that just my passport would be enough, but they said that I had to have a letter from my school also stating that I really was an exchange student. I would have thought that my visa in my passport stating that I would be living in Finland for a year would be good enough, but I guess not. So, when we went on Tuesday they were trying to tell us that I also needed a Finnish identification number. Which was completely ridiculous. I mean I'm not a Finnish citizen. How could I possibly have a Finnish identification number?! So Arja, my counselor, started arguing with them about how last week they said the passport and the letter would
See ya tomorrow!
Jani and Oskar leaving on the boat. be fine and finally they gave in. Then they tried to tell us that I would have to come back in a few days to get an ATM card because the account had to be activated or something first. Arja started getting mad and saying that was stupid and that if they didn't give it to us now we were going to go to another bank, so they finally gave in. We finally got that done. I couldn't believe it was so hard though. After that I went back to school and had my art class. It was really cool because we were finally printing our linoleum prints. It was really fun and quite messy.
On Wednesday afternoon I went shopping with my friends and I found a nice pair of black pants for only €20, quite the bargain. I really needed some too because everyone here wears these black pants all the time. However, I didn't buy them right then because I wasn't sure. When I got home from school I found out that my package from mom had come, but I have to go to the post office to pick it up because I have to pay
Coffee
This was our after dinner meal. customs on it or something. I don't really understand why. I think it's because there are clothes in the package, and they think they are new clothes.However, they are really old clothes so I might not have to pay any customs on it. I don't know, my host mom tried to explain it, but I didn't really understand. Anyway, I will have to wait until Monday to go with Jari and get everything sorted out.
On Thursday I had another Japanese class. It was good. After school I went back and bought the black pants I had found the day before. I was kind of in between sizes, so I bought the bigger ones since it's more likely that I'll be gaining weight than losing it. I think I've already gained a little. After that I went to my school basketball practice. That was interesting. There were 11 girls there and I think me and the two girls that were running it were the only ones who had ever played before. It was kind of fun though, and it's always nice to be one of the best players! After that I went home and my mom, Jani, and I
watched a tv show about David Beckham. It was partly in Swedish and partly in English so I got to practice my Swedish a bit.
Friday was pretty good. I had a test in my English class. It was actually pretty hard! I felt kind of bad for the Finnish kids who were taking it for real. After dinner I went to my friend Mira's house. We watched a very interesting Korean movie and played Wii.
This morning we had a very interesting breakfast. It included chocolate chip cookies. I told them that I had never seen anyone eat chocolate chip cookies for breakfast before. My host dad told me that really we had already eaten breakfast and we were simply still at the table drinking coffee and having a snack. So, it wasn't really breakfast anymore. The chocolate chip cookies were kind of hard so I dunked them in my milk. My host family thought that was really weird. I explained to them that that is what you are supposed to do with chocolate chip cookies, but they still thought it was weird. I'll probably mostly just sit around the house today. Tomorrow I'm going to go
to my friend Emilia's soccer game. Not too much exciting going on that I know of. In a couple of weeks one of the other districts is going on an Estonia trip and I have heard that we are allowed to participate. I've been trying to find out more about it. I think it would be really cool.
Anyway, sorry this entry was so long. I'll try to keep them shorter from now on. Also, I've included a few pictures of my room and stuff because I'm sure everyone has been wondering about where I am living. Hope everyone is doing well!
P.S. Happy Birthday to Aunt Karen, Uncle Craig, and Uncle Scott!
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Mallory
non-member comment
hostcat
I don't know why I found the word "hostcat" so funny, but I did! It sounds like you are having a fantastic time over there!! They sound like my kind of people having all those snacks and stuff! Your room looks pretty cool... I hope you are enjoying your time there! I love the pics! I miss you and I love you! Mallory