Hello Again, remember me :) ?

Since we last spoke 4 major events have taken place, and circa 9,000 smaller ones.

We have some catching up to do.

For this post I'm going to cover three major events :


-Firstly: Thanks-Giving

-Secondly: My New Host Family

-Thirdly: Christmas

- Fourthly: (is that a real word? ) AHA! Were you reading carefully? I said three, let's not be greedy.

I won't have any of my own pictures in this post, but rather the following one, because pictures have caused problems in uploading and blah blah yaddah yaddah wouldn't you just rather hear me talk? Or rather, ramble, because I have no intention of proof reading this ;).

Thanksgiving

The gigantic colorful leaves that covered Helsinki this October had flown to Africa (or where ever they go) and this Thanksgiving was a rather dark day - filled with bright smiles and unfathomably large amounts of delectable food. ( No Turkey though) I wrote on the Facebook:

"Today I'm thankful for my Finnish and American friends and family, and for an unforgettably unique Thanksgiving. My day began with meeting (my cousin) at central station, meeting (a friend of my cousin), and together adventuring around my beautiful Stadis (my use of Finnish slang is a recent thing and you should be really impressed). Among other exciting endeavors, we went skating in front of the train-station, saw some pretty churches, and ate A LOT of good foods (including Fazer ) cousin has promised to post pictures

And words can not describe how thankful I am for the most unconventional Thanksgiving dinners that followed. Filled with laughter and me trying to explain traditions (and laughter at me trying to go about them) My lovely international friends and my host parents all enjoyed our first Finnish-style Thanksgiving Celebration in an Italian restaurant.

I am so blessed."

What I didn't tell in that post was how we went first to fazer then to a Chinese buffet (Happy Food Garden if you're a local) and then I proceeded to go stuff myself with Italian, and chocolate cake, and like. I love food.

I'm officially a moomin.

<--- Me

Okay so you get one picture, but this is the only one! For those of you who don't know Moomins are White Hippos that are kind of like Mickey & Minnie Mouse are to American children, except Finnish. And also they live with this ghoulish-girl-thing called Little My.

I think it's a girl anyway, she gives me the creeps with an emphasis on the eeeeeeps-sound .

Somedays, actually nearly everyday, I'm just so happy I think to myself "is this a dream?" if you (yes you) the reader are considering going on exchange, do it. Don't give me any excuses (or rather yourself)
If you have the opportunity, go.


I digress....

New Host Family

It's been a big shift from living in the center of the center (kartinkaupunki) to living on the outskirts of Helsinki, and generally civilization (gotta bus card, it's pink!), but I'm really happy with the decision.

I now get to live with my host parents, my stylish older host sister (18), my adorable little host sister (8), and sweet host brother (14).

Oh! and our pupu Muu of course! Can't forget her!
*pupu means bunny 

Miila and I share the basement with our own laundry, bathroom, and living space. I only have to journey above ground for like, Food. And also Muu, because she inhabits the penthouse.

I felt at home here almost immediately, and I really love my comfy yellow chair and big wooden desk for doodling... I mean homework.

Around our green house, and under its red roof, we've been watching movies,walking, ice-skating, pullaing, and CHRISTMASING :D

(^ I have awesome transition skills, my English teacher would be proud. It almost makes up for the myriad of made-up words and grammatical errors. Yes? No? I think so)

Joulu

Joulu, which of course means Christmas in Finnish, is not 100% the same as an American Christmas , and to give you  a more to-date recollection  I will again steal from the Facebook:

"Merry Christmas everyone from beautiful Finland! Here we celebrate Christmas on the 24th, because Finland is Santa's home turf! In case you didn't know, he visits every home in Finland in person before making his trip around the world! He's in a lot better shape than I expected :) "

So of course the biggest difference was celebrating a day earlier, and, Santa coming through the front door - that is, instead of magically squeezing himself, the toys, and not to mention his plus-sized-belly through the chimney .

There were also some different foods, including rice-porridge, 10 different pullas (one made with chocolate) , and a array of unique casseroles.

Older sister, äiti, sister's friend, and I remained dolled-up until after 1 am, because we attended the midnight mass at this church named Kannelmäen kirkko with a tall-pointy, witch-like hat for a roof. I enjoyed the service, and even though this was the blackest Christmas I've ever seen, the light that smiled through the cold windows made me forget my dreams of a white Christmas.
*äiti  means mom

This Kirkko speaks for herself. 

Starbucks !

So rather than writing one- or two long posts a month, I'm going to try, no promises, to update with shorter posts, more often.

I still have a lot more to tell you about October, but while it's still fresh in my mind I wanted to go ahead and tell you, what everyone in this nation as been squealing about for months, the first Starbucks in Finland (outside of the airport ) opened in Helsinki!!
 I've never seen so many ugg-wearing, mac-book-using, "hipsters"  in such a small place before!

Now this may not be a big deal to you if you're from the U.S. or a country where Starbucks exist in great quantities, but today was a "flag day" in Helsinki and I'm convinced it's in tribute to the Grand Opening. (No one has told me otherwise)

 If you search #starbuckshelsinki (quite a long hashtag) on the Instagram there are currently 75 posts, and  nearly everyone I saw after receiving their beverage snapped a photo of it -  to the displeasure of those trying to squeeze around them.

Two of my friends and I ventured there during our lunch break (11am ) and the line wasn't so bad (only because the entire staff was on duty) but when I walked by Esplanadin Puisto going home after school the line appeared infinite!

So Good Morning, Evening, Night, Where-ever-you-are and What-ever-time-it-is, Wake up! and smell the coffee.

Denmark Aventure !

My Nordic October was absolutely amazing!!

Over the fall break I had to opportunity to travel to my gorgeous American friend Rachel's host family's- house. It was so cool to spend 4 days with a host family so different from my own. 

My friend is living in a small town (though she denies that it's small- but then again she's from a town of less than 3,000 people ) called Fredrikssund, which is 45 kilometers from Copenhagen. 

And yes, AFS gave me permission to travel to Denmark alone :D

The adventure started with mild panic - as I was alone in a country I had never set foot in and I couldn't find Rachel - but that lasted approximately 5 minutes because we bumped into each other just by chance :D

We then took a metro, a train, one bus (maybe two) and then walked more than a kilometer through wood-lined streets before arriving at her host families picturesque orange-roofed home. 

🚇🚝🚌🚶💼 🏡

Her dog "Woody" greeted me with kisses and later I met her kind host parents and host siblings :) 

That day we went on an adventure to the beautiful woods a short distance from her house. I'm still shocked by her new found athleticism! Back in the States we'd both admit to having been being too lazy to walk from our bed to the refrigerator -which was the only reason we weren't fat. But while I've been enjoying excessive amounts of pulla and enjoying having my new bedroom right off the kitchen, Rachel has been eating (BROWN) bread and biking the distance to Paris to school everyday. :D

Pulla is Finnish sweet bread. It's also proof that God loves us and wants us to be Happy : 

Pulla: 

But Back to Denmark...

The park was so beautiful and fortunately for me, majorly flat - all except for this one "Tarzan's hill". We saw lots of swans, which I learned are their national bird (no surprise!) Everything's lovey-dovey there! Even the coins are covered in hearts! 

We both got new profile pictures there so all and all I would say it was a successful trip.

Voyaging through a hundred acre woods 

Training for the flight to Helsinki 

Got that Danish state of mind

ööö pretty trees 

From the top of Tarzan's Hill 

After a few hours of sleep we took more of our second favorite thing: public transportation! We fortunately managed to arrive in beautiful Copenhagen at around 10 am.

We were greeted by what became our favorite thing (or at least it must be our favorite because we traveled thousands of kilometers to do them) Stairs !! 

Which leads me to my next point: despite how much we are fond of each other,  Rachel and I have nearly opposite personality types. We were standing in front of this gorgeous super tall church, and she was frowning over the map say "this isn't the round building". 

It works though, because I have literally zero patience for maps, and without her commitment to them we would have ended up taking pictures in Christiana 

( if you don't know why that's not good, here's a link explaining what it is :) )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania

It's a good thing we ended up going inside, because on top of murdering calories we got a spectacular view of Copenhagen: 

Next on the list was seeing the changing of the Gaurd, which was quite interesting, though I confess I spent the majority of the time wondering a) how heavy those foot high bear skin hats are and b) wondering what would happen if someone would trip.

When we arrived one of the flags was up at the royal's houses which means someone royal was home. However when we were leaving the courtyard it was down! Those Danish police are sneaky! Maybe they know all the tourists congregate to watch the changing of the Gaurd - perfect time for the prince (or who ever it was) to make an exit.

After this I was starving so we went to dine on Nyhavn . After my delicious pasta dish we went to get "soft-ice " something I've never had, nor heard of before! It was so tasty - but maybe not the best choice as it was quite chilly outside already! 

We walked down the longest walking street in northern Europe. Despite being extremely crowded, it smells and sounds so good. The street-musicians were quite talented, and I began to wish I had a second stomach for the foods from the many vendors.

We finally stumbled across Rachel's current fixation -the Round Tower (Rundetaarn). And I must say, it -was- lovely. Sure got dizzy running down it though!! 

We jumped in and out of the national museum, before heading to my favorite part of the trip, Tivoli. 

Word's cannot describe the beauty that is our world's oldest amusement park. (Actually they probably can, I'm just not so talented) 

However, Rachel has a talent for pictures I do not possess, and I will include them :) 

We then took a metro, a train, a bus, and another bus home, and ate dinner food there before getting some much needed sleep. 

The next day we slept in a little later, before taking a bus, a train, another train, and then a bus before arriving at the most beautiful man-made structure I have ever seen - a real castle! Like the kind kings and queens lived in, and not the Disney Princess kind! 

This thing was HUGE, and after seeing what seemed like hundreds of elaborately decorated rooms we realized we needed to leave (leaving a good portion of the castle unseen) if we wanted to get home intime for dinner.
Frederiksborg Slot.

A bus, and two trains took us to Fredrikssund where we waited for the next bus to come.

It was pouring rain and after waiting for 20 minutes we realized that the bus pulling away from the station was the one  needed to be on. But it was okay.  We sang everything from the National Anthem to Potter Puppet Pals to Imagine by John Lennon, and by then the time until the next bus (another 20 minutes) passed easily,

and yummy Danish foods awaited us.

The final day, another rainy one, we spent in Fredrikssund's cute little down town. It was nice to see, and I thoroughly enjoyed our pizza dinner there. That night Rachel I and her host brother and sister competed in one of my personal favorites, Mario Kart! A great game,  and I still smile remembering how competitive we got -- and how much Rachel loves rainbow road!! 

FinlandSwedenNorway

So for the last 3 posts I've been swerving around weekends because so much happens in such a short time frame  that I can barely process what happened -- let alone summarize it!

However I think it's only fair I tell you about my trip to FinlandSwedenNorway!! For those of you who don't know - when you go really, super, far North there is a place where Finland, Sweden, and Norway squeeze next to each other.
But as you may also know, this place couldn't be very big because then wars might break out  (or something) and I actually didn't go there. (But I got within 10 Kilometers ) The problem is, you have to park your car, and hike to it, and because we were traveling with three children under the age of four that wasn't going to happen. But I did get really close that counts at least 50% :D which in Finland is still a passing grade :D

(Fun fact about grades in Finland to "pass" you just need to get more than a 4, and to get a 4 you basically have to do nothing-- so if you do more than nothing you pass :D! this is very different from the North Carolina system, where if you score less than 70% you fail)

Annyyyy-way this is the trip we made to Norway

Actually it started with my flight from Helsinki to Rovaniemi , and then it was 7 hours in the car to lovely Tromsø ! 

I was so happy when I saw reindeer for the first time ! I jumped and screamed a little in my seat, they are so, so cute ! 

The first night we stopped in a town called Levi, the hotel was gorgeous- and even thought it was a few weeks ago I still remember exactly how good the food tasted.

The Car-ride was pretty long but I was okay with it because I had view's like this 

and this .
(stolen from the internet, but we drove by this exact place)

When we finally arrived in Tromsø I was greeted by this polar bears. Not so many polar bears live in Tromsø (no live ones ;) ) but they're just a short  boat ride away 

The view from my hotel room. The mountains are beautiful despite being barren. 

Downtown Tromsø is quite lively despite it's arctic temperatures.

We came here for Dinner, I loved the international flags- but an hour wait for okay pizza isn't so much fun 

Pretty Norwegian Church 

Please take note of how far North I am and appreciate the fact that I'm still smiling. Also, I have bought  mittens since this picture was taken :D

Stopping at a gast station in Sweden 

As we headed southeast into Sweden suddenly there weren't tree's anymore. We were above the "treeline" where there's too shot a growing season for even the toughest sort of tree's .

Kiruna Sweden

Fall came in the beginning of September

An eerily quiet town (no wind, animals, few people) It was a relief seeing a language that resembled my mother tongue.

....Though don't get me wrong Minä Rakastan Suomea <3