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Published: February 14th 2008
Kent
I think this is the coolest oneSo, 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 3 people between me and the stage. The band that opened up for Kent was called Familjen and well, I didn't think the music was that good. However, I must say that I think they set a record for time setting up the stage. We only had to wait approximately 7 minutes between when Familjen ended and Kent began. Usuálly it's like 30. Anyway,
Kent
I really liked the lights. Kent did really well and the concert was awesome! They played 2 encores. At the end the drummer threw his sticks into the crowd. I almost caught one. This other girl and I like both had it, but I ended up giving it to her because, well, she looked like Kent was like her life, so I thought she'd appreciate it a bit more than me.
On Sunday I met my friends Mikko and Susu for coffee. After awhile we decided to go ice skating. Apparently here in Vaasa there are lots of free outdoor ice rinks. The catch is that you have to have your own skates. But apparently, here in Finland, everyone has their own skates. So, we went to Susu's house first where we dug through her garage and found about 15 pairs of ice skates. I found some that fit and we were off to the ice rink. Skating was pretty fun, although the skates I picked were rather old and a bit difficult to skate in. That coupled with the fact that I haven't ice skated in like 10 years made things pretty interesting. Mikko and Susu were like flying around the ice doing
spins and stuff and I was struggling not to fall down. Haha, it was fun though.
On Monday and Tuesday I was in Helsinki with my school basketball team. We had a tournament there on Tuesday, but we left on Monday because it took us so long to get there. It took us 7 hours!!! The bus ride was soooooo long. There were four teams at the tournament. It was actually like the final round since we had already played the preliminary matches in Vaasa. So, there weren't only four teams in the whole thing. Anyway, we played our first match against a team called Brändö. They were so sure that they were going to beat us that only 5 of their players showed up. However, we ended up beating them by 10 points! Later, when they played in the bronze match, they had 7 players. Haha, suckers! Anyway, then we played in the final match against a team called Mattliden. We lost.....by alot, but we kind of expected to. However, we got the silver medal, so that was pretty cool. Apparently it was the first time in many years that the final match wasn't between two Helsinki area
teams. So, that was good. Then we rode the 7 hours back to Vaasa. So tiring.
On Thursday I bought new basketball shoes. I was in desperate need of them. I hadn't really thought that my shoes were so bad, but I had been showing them to my friend Ella when we were in Helsinki and she was totally shocked that I could even still use them. Now, when I think about it, I am surprised that I still used them. Pieces of the shoes were actually falling off. Anyway, so Ella had told me that this place called Vasa Sportia was having a huge sale and she was right. Now, this is the one time in my life where having really big feet has actually paid off. They only had guys basketball shoes there, and since it was a sale, only the smallest sizes were left. However, the smaller sizes for guys are the bigger sizes for girls so they had quite a few pairs left in my size. So, I ended up buying some shoes for 47.50 € and they were originally 120€. I thought that was quite a deal. After my shoe shopping I went and
hung out with my friend Cecilia. We got Chinese food and watched the movie Chicago at her house. I had never seen it before. It's really good.
One of my friends coaches a young girls basketball team and on Sunday I went with her to help coach. There's been several times when she has asked me to coach for her when she can't go, but I've never actually done it because every time they end up not having practice. Now I'm a bit glad that it never happened. Because even though the players claimed that they could understand English, that wasn't really true. And I really don't think there's much I could have done with the little Finnish that I know. It was kind of fun anyway though. And it could be kind of fun to coach them sometime on my own, just to see what happens.
Here is where the explanation of the title comes in. On Sunday evening my friend Erica, who lives in Seinäjoki, came to Vaasa. Apparently, way back in the beginning of the year, I had told her about eating banana pizza. So, Erica really, really wanted to try this banana pizza. However,
Kent
The guitarist who was never in the other pictures because he was always on the other side of the stage. the only place that has it is an hour and a half walk from the train station. I told her it was only an hour, but it ended up being a little longer. Anyway, after an hour and a half we finally got there and sat down to order. I asked the waitress for two banana pizzas, and what does she tell me, they don't have any bananas. Oh no!!!! We were so mad. We had walked all that way and been so ready to have some banana pizza, and they didn't have any bananas!!!! It was very, very disappointing. So, we got some other pizza and then took the bus back to the city. We spent the night at my German friend Chrissy's house.
On Monday, Chrissy, Erica, and I woke up early to go to Tampere. Tampere is a fairly big city about 2 and a half hours from Vaasa by train. We had decided to go there because Chrissy and I were tired of Vaasa and wanted to go somewhere else. However, we figured that Helsinki and Turku were too far away and too expensive for a day trip. So, we settled on Tampere instead. We
Basketball
Preparing for the first game. arrived there at about 12:00 and met our friend Dan at the American Diner. This was a place where Erica had been before, and I must say, it really did look like an American diner. They even had a picture of Steak 'n' Shake on the wall. I was so happy!! Haha, after eating there we went shopping for the rest of the afternoon. We must have went into a billion different stores, but we didn't find much. We went to Spice Ice and I tried salmiakki ice cream for the first time. I was a bit nervous because I like salmiakki, but I wasn't sure how the ice cream would taste. I had been meaning to try it for a long time, but I was too afraid because I thought it'd be a total waste of ice cream if I didn't like it. But anyway, it ended up being really, really good and I'm glad I got it.
On Wednesday I planned my courses for the next period. I'm going to be taking Finnish, history, samhällslära (I don't really know what it would be called in English, maybe civics or government), religion, and IB biology. I'm excited about
Basketball
Look I'm running! the history class because it's specifically about Finland's history. Also, the samhällslära is basically learning about how the Finnish government works. So, I guess I'll be learning alot about Finland this period. After my course planning, Chrissy and I went to this restaurant called Chili Lime. It's a Chinese buffet restaurant and it was quite good. Also, it was the first Chinese restaurant I've been to here where you can actually eat with chopsticks. What fun! Chrissy tried eating with them too, but she gave up after a few minutes declaring, "I'm hungry!"
Thursday was Penkkis. Penkkis is this sort of end-of-the-year celebration that the third year students (ABIs) have before they leave the school for good. It's also a chance for them to do a little underclassmen hazing. Of course I had to go, being an exchange student, since it's part of experiencing the culture and all. It wasn't too bad. The worst that happened was getting covered in bad makeup and hair dye and getting pretty wet. It was actually kind of fun. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take any pictures because the signs advertising the event said that the ABIs were not responsible for any ruined
I Sure Hope I Made This One
.....or else I would feel pretty bad. This picture makes us look like we're really good. clothing or valuable items, so I didn't want to bring my camera. However, there were lots of people there taking pictures and I'm guessing they will be put up on the Vasa Övningsskola Gymnasium website within the next few days. So, if anyone really wants to see pictures I'm guessing there will be some there. After the hazing, all the ABIs got into two large flatbed trucks and rode around the center of the town throwing out candy. This is tradition and all the schools in town did it. There were probably about 6 of these trucks circling the town square at one time. Also, I forgot to mention that all the ABIs dressed up in crazy costumes. There were really some very good ones. Some of my favorites were Edward Scissorhands, a giant
working traffic light, and Guns n Roses. Everyone had obviously put alot of thought into their costumes. It was really pretty cool.
Well, that's all for now. I hope everyone is doing well. Enjoy the pictures!
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Aunt Sue
non-member comment
Pizza
IV, Were you seriously disappointed about the Banana pizza? Sounds disgusting! Glad you are having a great time. I take it that you must have figured out the problem with your laptop! TTFN! Love, II