Blogs from Southwest Finland, Finland, Europe - page 10

So this morning I was planning on having the usual lazy Sunday that is so normal in Finland, when Emma picked up the Helsingin Sanomat (newspaper) and said “It’s Turku Paivä!”. I asked her right away what she was talking about and she said it was Turku Day which means every shop in Turku is opened even though its Sunday, there are bands playing and the market is packed with different booths! (kind of like the growers market x 20!) Of course I was interested instantly and asked her for all the specifics! I was definitely going, no matter what. I txted all my Finnish friends but everyone was busy, sick or broke :( so I txted some other exchange students in our district! Danie (the Aussi) txted me back immediately saying “call me” so I ... read more

up at 2.45am and an €18 cab ride to the bus station. They add €5 as we had prebooked our cab the night before to pick us up at 3.30am. bus left at 4am. 2.5 hrs later we are at the airport. We checked in and waited for our flight. There´s not alot of people travelling to the ukraine so we only had a small plane and were ferried to our plane by bus. Short stroll over the tarmac to board our flight. Less than 2 hrs later we are touching down in kiev. Airport staff are complete wankers. There was a guy just behind us, from melbourne no less and he travels to the ukraine on business alot. He wanted to apologise there and then, in advance, for the poor service we were going to ... read more

This morning at school I gave a few presentations to an English class in the Junior High. On my way to meet some friends in the media room I almost slipped on this big red carpet someone had layed down the middle of the hall. I pulled myself together then looked around. Almost everyone I saw was wearing a costume. There was royalty and pirates everywhere. Everyone was wearing crowns! The first person I recognized was Niko so I asked him what was going on; he told me it was TJ 100 Day. (of course I had no idea what that was) I was about to ask him what that meant but I was pulled in to a group of kids to get a picture taken. I got myself out of the mob near the door ... read more

We woke up at 10 this morning! SO EARLY! (gosh, coming from someone who is usually up at the break of dawn…what is Finland doing to me?) We made breakfast and showered then spent half an hour searching the house for all of Max’s belongings! Oh! And he ended up leaving a pair of socks, a pair of pants, the “M” key off his laptop, and his sweatshirt. Goodness! Max caught the bus back to Turku and I came home to continue reading on Finland! Emma and Tapio came and picked me up around 4 to go visit my host Ukki and Mummi! (grandpa and grandma Erkki!). They were both very nice people! We had kahvi and some kind of fish on bread and pieni omena cakes (small apple cakes). It was really good stuff! It’s ... read more

Mom and Dad. I love you. You are both so amazing! Yesterday I had an early Christmas. I got home from school and Erkki said my package was here! He told me it was at customs because Mom had put gummy vites in it and I needed to go down to the harbor and declare them! I waited until Leena got home from work, we ate dinner and then Leena and I drove to the harbor. After getting lost in the harbor building and taking a SCARY lift up to the 4th floor we found the customs office. The lady laughed when I showed her what kind of vitamins were inside my package; she said they were fine! I could barely carry the package down the lift to the car it was so big! I almost ... read more