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Published: November 5th 2007
Outdoor Firepit
This is the outdoor firepit place. I thought it was really nice looking and everything for being open to anyone who wants to use it. One of these would probably be burned down the first day in America.Since it's been about 3 weeks since I last updated this entry is going to be kind of long. Sorry.
So on Monday the 15th, the day after I got back from Oulu, I woke up at 7:50, which is the time that my bus comes. Well, crap! So, I had to get ready really fast and take the next bus which comes at 8:25. I got to school and there was only about 15 minutes left in my first class so I just sat with some of my friends who had gotten to school early. Then I went to my only class, and then I had lunch and went home. Then I pretty much just sat around the rest of the day. I went to basketball practice. After practice I talked to my friend Erica who is an American exchange student in Seinäjoki, a town about an hour from Vaasa. Her host mother was planning on taking her to Kokkola, another town about an hour from Vaasa, and she invited me to come with. However, I was supposed to have Japanese on Thursday, but I thought the school that my Japanese class is at might have fall break too.
So we decided that if I didn't have my Japanese class I would go.
So on Tuesday I went to school as usual. In biology we were dissecting pig organs. It was pretty cool. It was really funny though because some of my friends are really squeamish and they were like freaking out. After school I did a little shopping. I bought a new winter coat. Yes, I know that I already have a winter coat, but that one is for like really, really cold weather, and if I wear it when it's like warmer than 0°F it will be too hot. So yeah, I got a really cool new winter coat. I'm wearing it in one of the pictures on here so you can see it there. On Tuesday night I experienced Finnish mämmi. Mämmi is the traditional Finnish Easter dessert. Usually it is only eaten at Easter time, but we were having it now because I guess my host mom had found some in the freezer from last Easter and she wanted us to Finnish it off. So, anyway, I guess there are lots of jokes about mämmi in Finland because, well, it basically looks like poop.
Yay, fire making!
Erica is excited about making this fire. It's like this dark brown goo, but it's really good. You take the goo and put lots of sugar and whipped cream on top and eat it. I thought it was really good, but apparently foreigners don't usually like it or something because my host parents were really surprised that I did. Also, on Tuesday, I talked to my Rotary counselor and she told me that she would be going to Turku next weekend and wanted me to come with her. I was really excited because I had really been wanting to go to Turku, but I hadn't gotten the chance yet. I also talked to my Japanese teacher and he said that he was very sick and that we probably wouldn't have class on Thursday. That meant that I could probably go to Kokkola with Erica. Yay!!
On Wednesday I didn't have school until 1:00 so I got to sleep in!!!! That sleep was MUCH needed. I talked to Ros-Mari about going to Kokkola, and she told me I should take the bus there because it would be cheaper and probably easier than taking the train. So, I decided that that is what I would do if I
Mmmmmm Smores
The first bite of the first smore. Yum! ended up going to Kokkola. Then I went to school. I got there at about 11:15 because that's the only bus I could take that would get me there before 1:00, so I mostly just talked with my friends while I waited for class to start. I was asking everyone what they would be doing over fall break (Our fall break was October 18-21, which was pretty crappy considering that every other school gets a whole week). I found out that almost everyone I knew was going to be gone and that the like two people who weren't going to be gone were going to be working the whole time. So, I was really hoping I would be able to go to Kokkola the next day. Then I had my one and only class of Wednesday, biology. We were dissecting cows' eyes. It was pretty cool. I was in a group with my friends Jenna and Ia and Ia was really, really squeamish so it was kind of funny. After school I went home. I talked to my friend Susu online. She was in Thailand for fall break. I was sooooo jealous!!
Thursday was, well, pretty awful. I woke
Marshmallow Roasting
Erica making more smores. up, ate, and got ready to go to Japanese, in case I had it. The plan was that I would get to Japanese and if we didn't have it I would run to the bus station and take the bus to Kokkola. So, anyway, I was walking to my normal bus stop when I suddenly realized that since today was a school holiday the bus I normally took wouldn't be coming and I had just missed the other bus by like 2 minutes. Both my host parents had already left and were at work. Crap!! Then I realized that, because of the weird route the bus takes, that in about 10 minutes the bus would be at another stop about 3 km from my house. So, I ran the 3 km to try to make it to that bus stop. However, I missed the bus by about 2 minutes. So, then I had to wait another hour until the next bus would come. So, I waited for about twenty minutes, but then I was getting really cold. Then I realized that if I waited on the other side of the street the bus would pick me up on it's way
Marshmallow Roasting 2
Me making some smores. back from town and it would cut about 20 minutes off of my hour wait. So, I decided to do that. Then I waited, and waited, and waited some more, but the bus never came. I was about to give up and started walking back to my house when the bus finally came. I ran to the bus stop as fast as I could and made it just in time. When I finally got to town it was about 10:00, an hour after my Japanese class was supposed to start. I went to Japanese, but of course it had been canceled. It was too late for me to take the bus to Kokkola. So, I just decided to go home. However, I had to wait another hour for the bus to go back home. When I finally got back home I basically just sat around the rest of the day. I thought about calling my few friends who were still in town. I thought maybe I could meet them in the city or something. However, when I looked at the bus schedule, I realized that the next bus to the city was not until 4:30 and by then it was
pretty much worthless to go to the city. I also saw that the first bus from the city after 11:00 was not until 5:10. That meant that the next day, if I had Japanese, I would have to stick around in the city until 5:10. What was I going to do in the city for 5 hours!! Anyway, so when Ros-Mari came home from work she brought with her some Finsk Gris. Literally that translates to Finnish pig. I was a little confused because when she gave me one it kind of looked like a donut to me and I was a little concerned about eating a donut that was filled with meat. I thought that sounded kind of disgusting. However, she explained that they actually don't have pig meat inside and she didn't know why they were called Finnish pig. So, I was quite relieved.
On Friday Ros-Mari drove me to my Japanese class, however, it was again canceled. So, I took the bus home. I tried calling my few friends who were in town, but I couldn't get a hold of any of them. So, I basically just sat around all day. It was sooooooo boring. I
had basketball practice at night, but that was about it.
On Saturday I woke up at about 10:45. It had frosted overnight, and when I looked at the thermometer that showed the temperature outside it was -1.8°C!! So cold! In the afternoon I had a basketball game. We got killed. I mean it was really bad. However, it was nice because the basketball game at least gave me something to do. After the game Jani and I made crepes. I had never made crepes before, but it was really pretty easy. After that I played ping-pong with Jani. He was alot better than me, but he plays it all the time. After that everyone saunaed and we pretty much sat around the rest of the night. I had tried calling some of my friends, but the few that were in town were busy. Also, on Saturday night, my favorite big sissy called me! We only talked for about 30 seconds, but it was still fun.
Sunday was pretty boring as well. I basically just sat around all day. At about 5:00 we all went to Jari's parents' house. Minna, Jari's sister (the one I stayed with when I
went to Helsinki), and Roope were there. We had coffee and talked with them. I played with Roope a little. He is soooooooooo cute. I wish I had a really little host brother like him. He is just so adorable. Anyway, we stayed there until about 6:30 when Jari suddenly announced that we were leaving. I didn't really understand why we were leaving since everyone was still talking and having a good time. Jari was practically pushing us out the door though, he really wanted to leave. I didn't understand why he was in such a hurry to leave. However, I found out when we got home that the final Formula 1 race of the season started at 7:00 and that's why we had to get home. Kimi Raikkonen, the Finnish driver for Ferrari, had a chance to win the championship so almost everyone in Finland was watching. I actually watched part of the race and it was kind of exciting. You see, for Kimi to win everything had to go right, and it did. So, he won and it was all very exciting.
On Monday I went to school as usual. In my history class I got my
essay test back. I got a 3.5 out of 6. However, I thought that wasn't too bad considering I basically made the whole thing up. After history I had a break so I went with my friends Annastina and Ia to a coffeeshop. Then I went back to school and had biology, and then I went home. I had basketball practice at night and then straight from basketball I had to go to Ros-Mari's brother's birthday party. There was alot of good food there! It was so yummy! At the party it was basically all of Ros-Mari's relatives, who are her age, and then Oskar and Jani and I. So, there wasn't much to do. However, I talked to Oskar's dad for awhile, completely in Swedish. Yay! Anyway, he is a teacher at one of the elementary schools and he suggested that I could come to his school sometime and talk to the students about America. I thought that sounded like fun so I think I'm going to do that sometime next month.
On Tuesday I had to wake up at 6:45. I was so tired. I went to my first class which was biology. We were in the auditorium and it was dark and the seats were comfy and I kind of fell asleep. Oops! After that I had history. I was talking to this girl in my history class and apparently there was going to be a big Halloween party that practically everyone was going to go to on Friday night. However, I was supposed to go to Turku on Friday so I wouldn't be able to go. It really stunk because I had been really excited that I was finally going to Turku and now I would have to miss the party. 😞 After history I went to the Rotary meeting and then I went to my textiles class. In textiles we were doing this project where we have to make something old from something new. I was supposed to be making a pair of mittens and a hat from an old sweater. However, apparently I inherited about zero sewing genes from Grandma Dee and Grandma Donna because it was pretty awful. In the two hours I was there I managed to finish one mitten and it was quite horrible. Oh well. After school I went home. I got there at about 5:00, and noone else was home. At first I didn't think it was very weird, but by about 5:30 I started wondering where everyone was. Finally everyone came home and then I just basically laid around the house the rest of the night.
On Wednesday morning I had Finnish lessons starting at 8:15. They lasted until about 10:45. Then I went to Christine's house for the rest of the afternoon. We had lunch and watched Office Space and some episodes of Friends. Then I went home and had dinner and went to basketball practice.
On Thursday morning I had Finnish again at 8:15. I left that early so I could go to my Japanese class. After Japanese I went back to my regular school and had history class. Then I had to wait around at school for an hour and a half for school basketball practice. I did some of my Finnish homework and talked to some of the other people who were hanging around for various reasons. Finally I had basketball and then I went home. I called my Rotary counselor because she hadn't said anything more to me about going to Turku since last week so I was kind of wondering if we were still going. It turned out that she wasn't going to go to Turku anymore so I could go to the big Halloween party. Yay! Then I did my Japanese homework and went to bed a little early.
On Friday I went to school as usual. Then on Friday night I went to the big Halloween party. It was soooooo much fun. All my friends were dressed up in costumes. It was so funny. Two of my friends were gangsters. I thought their costumes were really funny. There were also these two guys there who were dressed up as Mario and Luigi. There costumes were REALLY good. I didn't dress up as anything because I didn't even know I would be going until the night before so I didn't really have time to think of anything. However, I did at least where orange to go with the Halloween theme. Anyway, it was really fun. There was a DJ and I had alot of fun dancing with my friends.
On Saturday I didn't do too much. My friend Mira came over and we played chess and ping-pong. Sunday was about the same. I hung out with Mira and Sandra at Sandra's house and we watched the movie Gremlins. I don't know if any of you have seen that movie, but well, I'd just say it's your typical 80s movie. Also, the movie is set at Christmas time and afterwards we were all like "Ahhhhhh, we want it to snow and we want it to be Christmas!!"
On Monday I had my Finnish class. Afterwards I hung out with Christine for a bit. We went to Rewell Center and I bought marshmallows and chocolate because I was thinking I might go to Seinäjoki for the weekend and visit my exchange student friend Erica and if I did we were going to make smores. So, anyway, Christine said that she had never had a marshmallow before, which I thought was kind of ridiculous. I mean, who's never eaten a marshmallow before? So, I let her try one. She then proceeded to tell me about her English neighbors in Germany who, of all things, put marshmallows on sticks and cook them over an open fire. How bizarre! I was like "We do that too" and then I explained smores to her and promised that we would make them some time. Then we went back to Christine's school and had lunch and then we went back to Rewell Center and had hot chocolate. Then I came home. For dinner we ate soup that came out of a box, which I thought was really bizarre. Like the soup is frozen in a box and you just open the box and throw it in a pan and cook it. It's pretty cool.
On Tuesday I finished school at 11:00 because my textiles class was canceled. However, I had to stay in town and go to the Rotary meeting. After the Rotary meeting I was walking around and I saw some of my friends in a cafe so I went and drank with them. Then I went to the library. Then I went shopping. I was in search of some black boots because, well, I just really wanted some black boots. While I was shopping I saw Christine. She was on her way to meet her friend from Mexico and wanted me to come and meet him too. So I did. However, I only stayed for a few minutes because I wanted to catch the next bus and there was one more store I wanted to go to. At that store I found some boots that I liked, but I needed a second opinion so I called Christine and her and her friend came. I ended up buying the boots and by that time I had to wait for the next bus which came at 5:10. I didn't have anything to do so I hung out with Christine and her friend. We went to a coffee shop. I wasn't paying attention to the time and I accidentally missed the 5:10 bus. So, then I had to wait until 6:10 to go home. I finally got home and ate dinner. Jani and his friend made coconut balls which I tried. They were really good but are basically a clogged artery waiting to happen.
Wednesday was great because I didn't have class until 1:00! I slept in and Ros-Mari took me to school. At school I made my schedule for the next period. I'm taking biology, theory of knowledge, cooking, music 2 (maybe), and Finnish taught in Swedish. I'm really excited about my Finnish class. It's going to be alot more advanced than the one I'm in now and of course it's in Swedish.
On Thursday I talked to my friend Erica in Seinäjoki and she said that I could definitely come and stay with her for the weekend. On Thursday night I was going to go to the theater with this lady from Rotary and her granddaughter who is my age. First they picked me up and we went out to dinner. We went to this Chinese restaurant. It was kind of bizarre to be eating Chinese food in Finland. I thought the menu was really weird. When you get Chinese food in America everything has weird names like General Tao's chicken and Mongolian beef, but in Finland they don't have that so it kind of threw me off. The food was pretty good though. Then we went to the theater. We saw Little Shop of Horrors in Finnish. It was pretty good, although I couldn't really understand everything.
On Friday I went to Japanese class as usual. Then, after Japanese, I got on the train and went to Seinäjoki. Seinäjoki is about an hour from Vaasa and is basically a mini-Vaasa in my opinion. So, anyway, when I got to Seinäjoki I met my friend Erica, who is from Buffalo, New York, and 3 of her friends. Our plan for the day was to go to this public open firepit place and make smores. However, first we had to go get more smore stuff. Erica had invited alot of people and we didn't want to run out of food. After that we went and had lunch and then we walked to the firepit place. The first one we went to was closed, but we eventually found another one that was open. We were a little worried at first if we would even be able to make a fire since I seemed to be the only one there who had ever built a fire before. However, it worked out and we spent the afternoon/evening making smores, playing games, telling ghost stories, and just sitting around the campfire. It was really fun, but very cold. At around 8:00 we headed back to the city. On our way back we stopped at this big hill, which is apparently Seinäjoki's skiing hill. From the top of the hill you could see the whole city lit up. It was pretty cool. Then we said goodbye to Erica's friends, and Erica and I walked back to her house. When we got back to Erica's house we found that Erica had received a package from her mom that was full of Halloween candy!! It was awesome. Then we went around giving candy to her host brothers and sisters (she has 5). Her oldest host brother was home and he had a bunch of his friends over some of which had recently been to the United States. So, we talked to them for awhile and then we just hung out eating candy and stuff for the rest of the night.
On Saturday I woke up and looked out the window. Overnight it had snowed!!! I was so excited. I started yelling to Erica that it had snowed and we both immediately got up and went outside. It was really great. Then we ate breakfast and just sort of hung around all afternoon. At about 3:00 we walked into town to meet some of her friends. When we got there we all decided that we would rent some movies for the night and hang out at Erica's house. Saturday was the Day of the Dead which is a real holiday in Finland so all of the stores and everything were closed. So, there wasn't much else to do. So, we went and rented the movies and went back to Erica's house where we sat around, ate Halloween candy, and watched movies all night. After we were done watching movies it was around midnight and Erica's friends really wanted to go outside. They said they wanted some fresh air. So, we went outside. It was really cold but also refreshing. We somehow got to talking about how it was the Day of the Dead and then someone remembered that on that day all the cemeteries are filled with candles and stuff and it's really neat to see. There was a cemetery near Erica's house, so we walked there. It really was really neat to see in the dark with all the candles around and everything. Then we went back to Erica's house and went to sleep.
On Sunday we all woke up and at around noon Erica and I caught a ride into town with Erica's friends when they were leaving her house. My train didn't leave for another 4 hours, but Erica didn't want to have to walk into town. So, we sat in town for about 4 hours just talking and eating Subway. Then I took my train home. When I got home I ate some dinner. Ros-Mari had me try this special bread which I believe she said is made in the town of Malax which is really close to here. She said that that was the only place from which you could get this special type of bread. It was really good. It was really dark and I thought it kind of tasted like the Finnish mämmi. Then on Sunday night I watched Mean Girls with my family on tv.
Well, I'm sorry it took me so long to update again. I hope everyone is doing well.
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Mallory
non-member comment
hey Kenny!!
Glad to hear from you!! It sounds like you're having a wonderful time!! I like your new jacket and boots! Very cute!!! I've noticed that your English is slacking a bit.... better work on that!! I love you and I miss you :-)