Ovalish shaped life-organ

Oh goodness gorilla gracious it's been a while. I apologize from the bottom of my ovalish-shaped organ that pumps blood and life fuel to my body.

How are you?

A little while ago, ( a few days, months, who's keeping track? ) I went to Sweden, Stockholm, via party-cruise ship with my class.

It was quite cold and dark back then. Although I feel deep down in my ovalish shaped life-organ, that I handled the thick blackness of Helmikuu quite admirably, I realized this weekend I'm just waking up from a sort-of hibernation .

Let me explain,

For Christmas I received a polar-bear hat , I am no longer wearing that hat, thus my analogy.

Who wore it better? Lappa oli (jk) We all know Mette is the cutest jääkarhu, like, ever. 

I went to Lapland ! The reindeer pictured above is literally the most famous "person" I have ever met. Go youtube " Aatu the reindeer who watches tv" He even posed for my picture ! 

So these pictures uploaded in all the wrong order, but I've decided to, being the talented writer  that I am, work with it. Can I get  Girl scout promise of best wishes? 

(If you got that you are both a hunger games fan and were a girl scout, and on your honor you will try to serve God and be a mocking Jay)

Moving on... 

This picture was taken in March, it was "warm" for a few days and then we had what the Finns (and me when I'm feeling Finerican)  call "Taka talvi". The snow returned and everyone and your mom besides myself was grumpy for a few weeks. He was the only snowman on the block.

 Someone stole his nose. 

Sometimes my life is truly extraordinary and I feel more cultured then a panda bear in antarctica , but sometimes I stay home and contemplate how baby bananas are made. 

Here I am (the one who forgot sunglasses ) On a boat to one of my favorite places in Helsinki and the world, Suomenlinna .Once I saw an old lady with a hat made of leaves there . I wanted to take a picture, but my friend told me that would be creepy. That's Last time I conform ever , leaf-lady is my idol. 

So refering back to a previous post about Kamppi being awesome and so on, sometimes they give free ice cream. Who cares if it's only +1degree. There are so many perks :

1. It's free

2. The icecream won't melt and make your hands all sticky 

3. the beach theme makes you feel warmer 

4. The third one was a lie 

5. But, like, Free Icecream 

I made the frozen Characters out of clay for art class. If you're curious what I'm up to, I'm Anna from Frozen, go watch it.

My russianaphobic host grandpa told me a very elaborate story about this cake, O'boy! . It went something like, a nice old lady baked this cake and everyone loved it, so she made a lot of money.  Stockman wanted to also make money, so they obtained the recipe and started making it and selling it . They were stealing her customers, so, americanstyle she sued. She won the case, costing stockman a lot of money. Stockman was pretty upset. It could longer call the cake by her name, but since they still had the receipt they continued making it. The lady went out of business. Stockman rechristened the name "Revenge".

Revenge is a dish best served with a lot of sugar? 

This is the most recent picture for this post, taken only a few days ago (really this time ).

In Finland they have this easter tradition that, if you're super curious about , the internets a thing. But Basically,  A week before Easter, children dress like cute old-fashioned woods-peoples, or trolls, or not-scary witches, and find sticks to decorate. Then they ring their neighbors doorbells, and say a poem, which demands chocolate in return for one of their sticks. 

This teaches them a valuable lesson in economics, supply+demand+ the advantages of dressing occasion- appropriately .

Or maybe, just that being cute wins you chocolate...

A lesson well learned.. Do I have any callers ;)? 

Back to lapland. There I enjoyed, reindeer -riding, International-boys cross-dressing , giant snowmen, meeting santa claus, nightmares about creepy stuffed-bears, and generally, it was just a great time. I even found a cool purple rock.

I really Like Finnish foods. 

My friends are sexy and they know it. 

Blogger has decided that after the above pictures mark a good place for me to shut up, so Here it goes. 

When Finnish students graduate from Lukio ( High school) . They get to decorate and then ride in trucks all around their home city/town/village . They then trow chocolate at hopeful children, 

and sometimes unsuspecting japanese tourist. This is a great metaphor for the life one lives as an exchange student. 

The life is dropped on you from a high altitude at great speed. It may hit you in the eye, but next time you'll duck. 

And at least it's sweet. 

A much overdue New Years Post

I spent New Years in the magical land of Turku with my lovely friend.

A brief review of Turku :

"Hey look a mini Helsinki"
"aww the river is so pretty!"
"what's with the demonic baby statues?"
and of course , the Finnish specialty,

"LOOK!!! another tree. "

The Great Wall of Turku

ja Arvaa Mitä ?! Mä puhun suomea nyt ;) 

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!!