I assure you this will be the last post of its kind expressing how fast everything's going -as it's not the happiest thing to write about - but it's not an exaggeration to say I blinked, and whoops August slipped from my fingers! Now I'm clinging to September like a prized china doll.
But at the same time so much has happened it feels like I've lived here a life time!
My Second Week of School...
Is now just a blur, but I do remember on Tuesday we had student elections for class government, and I had no idea what was going on because as one of the candidates phrased it: " I'm here to represent everyone who can't understand what the hell is going on, because it's all in F$&@ing Finnish "
Needless to say , Suomia on vaikeaa.
(Finnish is difficult)
I was still feeling like a tourist then, so I didn't feel too awkward about taking some sneaky pictures :)
We received these cute little Snoopy papers to vote for people on
Yay! Finnish! And paintings!
More Finnish! Maybe someday I can translate for you ... (this will transition to my next update but first ... )
The hour or so election process ended with some creepy grandma singing happy birthday to us, what??
Like. What??
-Exchange Students probs -
My Finnish Progress
Right now I'm in Geography class and I don't feel the least bit guilty for blogging in class because the teacher lectures the whole time in Finnish, and I notice things like:
-Finnish words are really, really long . Like. Really long.
- When words have a lot of vowels (they always do) it looks like they're kissing the air when they talk.
- The only words you really need to know to speak Finnish are " niin" and " Oi"
Oi - when you bump into someone
Niin- to say everything else
I also really like the word Jaksaa ( Yahk- saa)
Which doesn't translate exactly but it's kind of like, " I don't care to do something"
It's really fun to say, say it a few times and then you'll understand :)
🎶Jaksaa, Jaksaa , Jaksaa 🎶
After School
One of the great things about living in the center of Helsinki is literally, if you can not see Jäätelo (ice-cream), just walk two blocks any direction and I personally guarantee you will find some, it's everywhere !
It's really good but it doesn't taste like American ice-cream at all ... Actually nothing tastes quite the same as in America, except maybe Bananas.
For example one day after school my friend Johannes and I baked...
American Cookies
With Finnish ingredients
They were yummy, but didn't taste like they do when I make them in America. I'm actually starting to forget what some American foods taste like!! Just that they're different!
My friends and I ate them before I could take a picture of the final product, but this is what they looked like just before going in the oven:
Kamppi
(and I don't remember if it has two mm's or two p's so I apologize if I've failed at spelling)
Kamppi is sort of like a shopping mall, where my friends and I like to hang out. I say "sort of a shopping mall" because it also has a subway station, and a bus station, and there's always something interesting going on!
One day there was a really good band playing in the middle of the mall!
And on different days I've received a free smurf cookie and a balloon!
And just recently there were giant inflatable hockey players in the middle of the courtyard. I don't know why. There just were.
(Although to be honest, I rarely know exactly what's going on - sometimes I just appear at museums, or people's houses, or movie theaters.. )
Some days after school I go to a park with a friend or friends. There is always a performer of some kind, and some are more eccentric than others. I've seen a tight rope walker, a glass-jug-music-maker, really-good-piano-players, and some random guy who just stood there in a creepy wolf costume -- just to name a few.
Here are some pretty boats...
Last Friday night I went to the Helsinki zoo (which is on an island) with my host family. It was open really late for a special "night of the cats" thing.
There were tigers, leopards, lions, and much more! It was a really lovely zoo and I purchased my own tiikeri (tiger) to take home :)
I'll just touch on a few things from school
One of these things is not like the other...Moomins (white hippos) are everywhere!!
For art class the teacher made me the model and everyone had 5 minutes to draw me, the drawings were all really good - here's just one of the better ones :)
Class ends in 4 minutes so I'll tell you about orientation later - and probably elaborate on this post but .. Above is my lovely roommate Hermanni <3
