Blogs from Vaasa, Ostrobothnia, Finland, Europe
April 8th 2008
I've finally gotten around to writing this entry. Now that I'm sick and all I have plenty of time. So, on Tuesday, April 8, I made the 5 hour train journey to Helsinki. I got there and met Mom at the train station. It took me awhile to find her (being by the "big brown doors" is not very descriptive when there are about 12 sets of big brown doors). She was very happy to see me and of course I was very happy to see her too. We lugged all of her luggage, mostly crap for me, to the Omena Hotelli a few blocks away. The weather wasn't very nice, rainy and fairly cold. She unpacked one of her suitcases and showed me all of the stuff that she brought me including, drum roll please..........THIN ... read more
Easter Basket, Boat Trip, and District Conference
Published: April 27th 2008Europe » Finland » Ostrobothnia » VaasaApril 6th 2008
Hey everyone. Wow, it's really been awhile. Sorry, I guess I've just been busy. It's really hard to find time to write in here these days. Between school, basketball, and hanging out with my friends I feel like I'm always busy. Anyway, here it goes. On March 11th I went to the theater and saw a really cool show. It was called "Kvinna på halvtid" (Part-Time Woman). It was what is known as physical theater which is where there is more movement and sort of dancing type of stuff than talking. At first I thought it was going to be really boring, but it ended up being really great! It was nice because I totally understood everything they said. Usually when we go to the theater I can understand what happens and stuff, but I don't ... read more
March 27th 2008
It's cold. Very cold. Too cold. It's windy. And it makes it even more cold. To make things worse, one of the biggest snow storms of the year, supposedly, hits the country. Yippee! So it's cold here in Finland. And everybody is saying to us, it's been the so warm! And the sad thing about it is that they're right. I read in the Finnish weather forecast's webpage that it has been the warmest winter ever. The thing is, March, is supposed to be the beginning of Spring. Not the beginning of late winter... Oh well. One has to cope with whatever weather and this is what we've got now. Snow, cold winds and a very grey sky. The problem is, we got too used to the sunshine! Otherwise everythings fine! We had a hectic 2 ... read more
Basketball and Another Trip to Helsinki
Published: March 24th 2008Europe » Finland » Ostrobothnia » VaasaMarch 10th 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 ... read more
February 14th 2008
So, the last couple weeks have been really great. I've been super busy. I feel like I always have something going on! Anyway, to begin where I last left off...... On Friday, February 1st I went to see a rock concert with some of my friends. We saw the band Kent. They are from Sweden and they are very, very famous in Scandinavia. However, they sing in Swedish, so outside of Scandinavia no one really knows them. The concert started at 8:30 and the doors opened at 7:00, so my friends and I got there at 6:00 to stand in line. It was very cold and standing in line for an hour sucked, but we ended up getting a really good standing spot. We were so close to the stage. I think there were only maybe ... read more
January 27th 2008
New family. New year. New school term. Everything is starting again. Hey everyone, sorry it's taken me so long to update again. I've moved to my new host family and I can't use my own computer here, so it's hard to find the time to update my blog. So, where to start? On Thursday, January 3rd, I moved to my new host family. They are a husband and wife who are in their sixties and all their children are grown up and have moved out. They live much closer to the city than my previous host family. When I lived in Sundom I was about 11 kilometers from downtown and now it's only about 3. This means that I'm able to ride my bike to both school and basketball practice, which is really nice. I don't ... read more
January 1st 2008
Hey everyone. It's been awhile since I updated, sorry. I just got busy with my birthday weekend and then school, and then with every day that passed it became more and more that I had to write about. So, I'm finally doing it now. I'll try not to write a novel. So, I last left you after my trip to Lapland. After I returned I basically had the whole rest of the week off because that Wednesday, the 5th, I only had one class and then the 6th was Independence Day so we didn't have school the 6th or the 7th and then of course came the weekend. So, that was all very relaxing. On Independence Day they don't really do anything special in Finland. Everyone gets the day off so I was at home and ... read more
Do They Even Have Turkeys in Finland?
Published: November 27th 2007Europe » Finland » Ostrobothnia » Vaasa
November 25th 2007
Hey everyone! It's been a couple of weeks since my last entry, so here it goes! I believe I left you all at November 4th. So, on Monday November 5th I only had my Finnish class since my normal school was having test week. I hadn't told you all this, but during my test week my family and I had been planning to go to their winter cabin in Lapland to go skiing for a week. However, since it hadn't snowed by Monday and it didn't look like it was going to snow for the rest of the week, we decided on Monday that we wouldn't go. I was really bummed because I had been really excited to go. On Tuesday I didn't have class at all, so I rolled out of bed at about 11:00. ... read more
November 4th 2007
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 ... read more
October 7th 2007
Hey everyone! Wow! it's already October and I've officially been in Finland for over two months. Isn't that crazy?! It's been about a week since I last updated and I want to be sure to update before I leave for Germany and Poland. So, what's been going on? Well, on Monday I woke up at 7:00 and it was pitch black outside. I thought, "It can't really be 7:00, it's not usually this dark." It really was 7:00, though, and it really is getting dark here. However, we have daylight savings time in a few weeks, so that will make it a bit better. During the day I went to the bank and got some Polish money, zlotys, for my trip this week. I got 100 zlotys for about € 30. I always like exchanging money. ... read more
