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Published: March 24th 2008
So, I guess it's been a while since I've updated. Sorry, I've been busy. And sorry that there are no pictures this time, but I just got kind of lazy. So, anyway, where was I.....
The weekend after I last wrote was incredibly tiring. On Friday, February, 15th was the Äldstes Dans at my school. This is a tradition in every high school in Finland to celebrate that the third years are leaving school and the second years are taking their place as the oldest in the school. Therefore, the dance is primarily for the second years. I would say it is basically their version of Prom. However, it's not like a regular dance. The students have to learn traditional dances and then they perform them while people, like their parents, watch. I didn't do it because, well, I didn't really want to. However, after the dance there was a huge afterparty which I of course went to. I had fun partying with all my friends from school. I stayed out pretty late. The next day I had to go with my basketball team to play a game in Rauma. We had to leave from Vaasa at 6:30 am. I had to wake up at about 5 am and I was so tired. However, I had to ride my bike to the city in the freezing cold, so that helped wake me up! We ended up losing our game, although in my opinion we should have won. We were alot better than them. The next day, Sunday, we had another basketball game, this time in Nokia. We only had 5 players so I ended up playing the whole game. We didn't end up getting back to Vaasa until about midnight. I was so exhausted I think I just collapsed into bed. Luckily, I didn't have any school the next day.
On Wednesday I was sick. Everyone in my family had had the stomach flu and I guess it was my turn. I basically laid on the couch watching MTV all day. Finnish tv is REALLY boring. My host family was even nice enough to buy me 7-Up. That made me feel much better. I was totally better the next day, so I guess it wasn't so bad.
The next week I had a week off of school. It was the sport holiday. Alot of families go to Lapland skiing during the break. However, my family just stayed in Vaasa. It wasn't too boring though and it was really nice to have a week off school. On Monday I went swimming in the ocean with one of my friends. It was cold. You see in Finland, in the winter, it's like some old tradition that you cut a big hole in the ice and then go in the sauna and then jump in the hole in the ice. Since I had not yet done this, one of my friends decided that we should. The original plan was that we were going to this place called the Penguin Club and do it. However, we found out that to use the sauna at the Penguin club you have to be a member, which costs alot of money. But, we didn't have to pay anything to use the hole in the ice. So, we decided to just do it without the sauna. It was cold! But really not that bad. I think it would be much better with the sauna though. On Thursday I spent my entire day packing because I would be moving to my new host family on Sunday and I was going to Helsinki for the weekend, so I had to pack on Thursday. I have so much crap! I don't know how I'm going to get it all home in a few months.
On Friday I took the train to Helsinki. My friend Jose's band was playing in a battle of the bands sort of thing there on Friday night and I had promised to go see it. I stayed with Jari's sister's family again. The show was really good. Jose's band played really well and they got second place. I had to leave Helsinki on Saturday because I was moving on Sunday. I spent the morning playing with Roope, Jari's sister's son. He's 5 and super adorable. He either didn't know or didn't really understand that I can't really speak Finnish because he just kept talking and taking and talking to me in Finnish and I had absolutely no idea what he was saying about half the time. It was really cute though. Simo, the husband, took me to the city around the middle of the day and he took me to this store that imports American food. It was like walking into heaven. I mean, seriously, when I walked in I was just absolutely amazed. The shelves were lined with Butterfingers, 3 Musketeers, M&Ms of all varieties, Reese's, Laffy Taffy, peanut butter, jelly, syrup, Pop Tarts, Betty Crocker cake mixes, root beer, and the list just goes on and on. It was amazing. I think I could have bought the whole store if everything wasn't so darn expensive! I bought a Butterfinger and a 3 Musketeers bar and they were approximately $3 each! I think it was worth it though. After that I went and met Jose until my train left. We went to Pizza Hut so I could satisfy my craving for American pizza. It was so yummy! Again really expensive though. Then I went home.
On Sunday I moved to my new host family. The family consists of a husband and wife and two boys ages 10 and 11. I had never met them before Sunday because they had only decided to be my host family like the week before. However, they were really nice and I really like them alot. Also, they speak Finnish, which is great. I've been trying to only speak Finnish with them so that I can learn better. The only thing I don't like is that I'm living really far from the city again, about 9km. That means I'm going to have to start riding the bus all the time again, and I'm going to have to ask my host family for rides all the time. Oh well.
This weekend, March 8th and 9th, was very tiring again. We had a basketball game on Saturday and then two on Sunday. On Sunday we went to play in Jyväskylä. We only had six people and we had to play two games. That wasn't that great. We won our first game 53-31, but then we lost the second one 67-54. We played really well though. I played the entire game of both games. I was so exhausted afterwards. We got home really late and I saunad and then went straight to bed.
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Shena
non-member comment
Host Family
How many host family's are you going to have? Did the other one kick you out because you were too "American"? Talk about rude. Sounds like you are doing well. Next time you need pictures because we can't tell for sure if this is you writing or if someone kidnapped you and is writing just like you talk. Pics, Pics, Pics