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Published: December 7th 2007
Arctic Circle
Max Stephanie and Ellen at the Arctic Circle on the way to LaplandSo, I just got back from the Rotary Lapland tour, and I'm ready to tell you all about it!
However, I'm going to start from the last time I updated. So, on Monday I was absolutely exhausted and I practically slept through my first class. I went to my Finnish class with Christine but again there was no one there. We were both really pissed because that was the second time in a row that had happened. So, since we didn't have class we went shopping. At night Jari's aunt and uncle came from Helsinki. We had a really big dinner and his aunt had brought homemade bread. It was REALLY good. Since they had come so late I had to miss basketball practice, but it was ok.
On Tuesday night after dinner Ros-Mari, Jani, and I went to Ros-Mari's cousin's house to have coffee with her and her son. While Ros-Mari talked to her cousin, Jani and I hung out with her son who is about 10. He had just gotten a new drum set so Jani and I were playing that. I hadn't played the drums in so long and I had forgotten alot of what I
used to know. It was fun though.
On Wednesday, on my way home from school, these two little girls on the bus started talking to me. They kept staring at me and I was wondering why they kept staring at me and finally one of them said, "Speak you English?" It was soooooo adorable. I told them that yes I spoke English, but I could speak Swedish as well. Then I talked to them for the rest of the bus ride. I thought it was so funny. In the evening I translated Christmas cards for my hostmom. It was really difficult. Not because I couldn't understand the Swedish but because I'm an awful letter writer. I think I managed though.
On Thursday I woke up at 8:45 and my Japanese class started at 9:00. However, I couldn't take the bus until 9:25 so I resigned myself to being late for class. It was good though because while I was on the bus I got to see the sun rise. It was cool because it made all the trees turn orange and stuff. I wished I had had my camera.
On Friday I had a Finnish test in
my class at the Swedish school. I actually thought it went pretty well. Especially considering the fact that all the other kids in the class have been learning Finnish for like 6 years. In the afternoon I had biology and we had a surprise. We dissected minks! I thought it was actually kind of fun, but it smelled horrible! After class I went into the hall and sat next to one of my friends and she gave me this really weird look and I asked her, "What? Do I smell really bad?" and she said, "Yeah". So, I had to go outside and like air myself out a little. It seriously stunk. On Firday night I came home and discovered that I had received my birthday package from Mom, John, and Grandma Donna. However, I'm not letting myself open the presents until my birthday. I also got my Christmas cds from Mom which I immediately put on my iPod. I was really excited. I love Christmas music. I spent the rest of the night packing for Lapland. My host family loaned me all my skiing equipment which was really awesome because then I didn't have to pay to rent it.
Reindeer Skin
A reindeer skin seat cover at the wooden lodge place. Then at about midnight I left to catch the bus from the Vaasa Bus Station.
Saturday and Friday were really like one big day for me. I only got about 1 hour of sleep on the bus to Lapland. Alot of my friends were on my bus so we stayed up and talked and stuff most of the night. At about 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning the bus stopped at the Arctic Circle and we all ran outside to take pictures. We arrived in Muonio, the city where we were staying, at about 10:30. We all went to our rooms and then ate lunch. After lunch it was time for skiing! As most of you know, I have never skied before. So, I was really excited. We got to the ski place and it took me FOREVER to get my skis on. It's really hard when you've never done it before. Then I started going on the bunny hills with my friends Max and Rick. Max is a pretty good skier, but neither Rick nor I had ever done it before, so Max was sort of teaching us. I did pretty well. I fell down quite a few
times, but that was to be expected. After a few hours of skiing we went back to the hotel. For dinner we went to this cool wooden lodge place and people, dressed in traditional Sami (people from Lapland) clothes, served us food. It was really neat! For the rest of the night I hung out with my friends until I collapsed into my bed at 11:00.
Sunday was another day of skiing. I went down the bunny hill a couple times to warm-up and then for the rest of the day I went down the big hill. I never went from the top of the big hill though. That would be too scary. However, Max and Ellen did convince me at one point to go to the lift stop right before the top of the hill. That was definitely a mistake. I seriously ended up falling down like half of the hill. It was really scary. I also went on some powder trails with Max and Elyssa. Those were really fun, but it's a little scary when your skis disappear under the snow. In the afternoon we all came back to the hotel and saunad. It was really fun.
Instead of running into the water, this time we ran into the snow. It was soooooo cold. After the sauna we had dinner and then we went to this show put on by this local school.
On Monday we learned alot about traditional Lapland stuff. In the morning we went to this Lapland museum place which was actually pretty boring. Then we went to a reindeer farm. First this Sami lady gave us this big talk on lots of Sami traditions. Then we got to feed the reindeer. It was so cool! There were so many of them and they were so cute. After that we drove to the border of Sweden and Finland (approximately 2km from our hotel). There was a bridge separating the two and they just let us run onto the bridge and take pictures. It was kind of bizarre because anyone of us could have just ran all the way into Sweden if we wanted. There was nothing stopping us. Apparently in Lapland they just don't really care.Then we went back to the hotel to have lunch. After lunch we visited a dog sled place. We got to pet the dogs and ride on a
real dog sled. It was neat. Then we went snowshoeing. I didn't really think that was all that special. I didn't really see how the snow shoes made much difference. Then we got to ride on a reindeer sled. That was quite the experience. I went with my friends Stephanie and Max. We assumed that it would be like the dog sleds where we had some sort of guide or something on the back steering us. However, after we got in the sled the guy just hit the reindeer in the butt and then threw the rope at us. We had no clue what to do. Our reindeer was slowing down and we weren't sure if we should hit it with the rope or something to make it keep going. At one point this other sled came right up behind us really fast and the reindeer came up so close to us that Max and I had to lean forward so it wouldn't hit us in the head. In the evening we got to hear traditional Sami singing. It was really cool. It reminded me of Native American singing. After that we all just basically hung out for the rest
of the night.
On Sunday we left Muonio at about 9:30. It was time to head back home, although we would be making a stop in Rovaniemi to see Santa Claus land on the way. We got to Rovaniemi at about 1:00. But because we were running late, we only got to stay there for about 40 minutes. It was way too short of a time and I didn't even get to meet Santa. Then we were on our way again. On the bus we watched movies and I talked with my friends. We arrived in Vaasa at about 11:30 at night. When I got off the bus I was horrified to find that my skis were missing. Well, I guess I should say, my host brother's skis were missing. Someone at one of the stops before me had apparently mistaken them for theirs. I felt really bad because I had lost them, even though it wasn't really my fault. Luckily when I got home Jari called all the people who had gotten off before me and we found them. I was really worried for awhile though.
Well, that's all for now. I hope you guys enjoy the
pictures. Also, I put up a video of the Sami guy singing. I don't know if it's really worth watching, but you guys might enjoy it.
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Alexandra
non-member comment
wha!
REINDEER!!! ...I bet you ate his cousin. :)