One Month !? What ??

I looked at my calendar to realize that on Friday I will have lived in lovely Helsinki for ...wait for it ... One month!? How did this happen??

 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

My First Week

I wish I hadn't waited so long to update ya'll, but the reason I waited so long, is the same as I why I haven't updated -- I've been so busy  :D !

Consequently, there are a lot of pictures in this post- because the saying goes, "A picture says a thousand words..."

And also I figure I can't be a tourist much longer - I'm living here now after all!

School 

I didn't find out what school I was going to until a week before I went left for New York, but it was worth the wait ! I love my new school! I'm going to a school called Ressun Lukio , or Ressu. Ressu's mascot is Snoopy, because in Finland they call Snoopy Ressun :) it's super cute - little Snoopys are everywhere !

This is my School from the outside. It's really old - built in the 1800s- and I pretend it's Hogwarts  :) 

I stole this picture and the previous one from Google images because I feel awkward taking pictures in class, and also I couldn't get a good picture of the school because all the pretty trees are in the way.

At Ressu there are two , lets call them houses ;)  IB and Iippari. I am sort of a double agent because I take classes from both IB and Iippari, but fortunately no one seems to hate me for it. Above is a picture of my and some of my IB friends' attractive shoes (my shoe is the black flat) if you know what IB is, skip to Washington the Wiggler  (the dancing American poodle)! 

Okay, so I don't actually know that much about it, so this will be brief. IB stands for International Baccalaureate. There are IB schools all over the world (including North Carolina!). All the classes are college level and taught in English. And all IB kids are really cool (okay that might be considered an opinion ;-) ). Also I'm pretty sure there are two years of IB, and people here take pre-IB during their first year of high-school (in Finland there are 3 years of high-school) 

For the first 5 weeks of school on the IB side I'm taking:

Math and Finnish for Foreigners 

Iippari I don't really know anything about - except that all my classes are in Finnish .  Actually, I asked the girl sitting next to me what it was called ;). And singing in Finnish sounds super cool.

 On the Iippari side I'm taking :

Music, Art, Geography, and English ( I rock at English )

Trotting around the City 

Outside of school I get to enjoy this beautiful city with my new Finnish, and international, friends. All pictures were taken within a kilometer of my apartment :). Please note that my pictures do not even begin to capture the beauty that is Helsinki . 

^View of Swedish Embassy from the boat. On my first Sunday here my host parents and my host dad's twin took a boat ride around Helsinki. It was really lovely :) and only a little cold ;) 

     ^This roof reminds me of something from Dr. Seuss.

^ Stockman aka Finnish "Walmart "  

I say Walmart because its an "everything store" - but not in any other way like Walmart :) 

     ^My neighbors - primary colors are popular here  

I laughed so hard when I noticed every mannequin in this store was blonde, and it's true! 

Very many people are blonde here. 

     ^This is the 4th prettiest church I've seen Helsinki. It feels like a crime for me take pictures of the others. 

     My photography skill level is not high enough, however ..

     ^This one is my favorite. 

^Trolly for tourists! I'm shocked by how many tourists I see everyday - though I guess I shouldn't be! 

The word about Finland's immeasurable beauty is getting out!! 

(Please don't tell anyone else - it can be our secret ;) ) 

^I took this picture to show one of my friends where I was when I was a tad bit lost

(only 4 blocks from my apartment , whoops ;) ) 

    ^Another pretty-roofed-primary-colore building (sorry for the street light photo -bomb ) 

   ^My ihana (lovely) Finnish Backyard ☺

Rovaniemi 

My first true weekend in Finland we (my host parents and I) flew to the wonderland that is Rovaniemi!
I was quite tired when we finally arrived at their grand-kids house - but that didn't stop me from appreciating this view from their back-yard:

In the morning the 3.5-year-old pointed out to me this^ "pupu" (bunny)-- Good thing too!

I wouldn't have been able to identify it a such if she hasn't.  That is to say, the "bunny" was as big as my dog!
And had longer legs for sure!! 

The squirrels are funny looking too. They're crazy fast, chestnut brown, and wear cat's ears!

On Saturday (August 24th) we took my first trip to my host parents apartment in Rovaniemi, which in the front you find a river, and from the back you see this gorgeous natural lake:

I even dipped my foot in! In this lake! On the arctic circle! :D 

I couldn't decide which picture was better, so here are both. 

Santa's Village 

We also briefly visited Santa's village, which was super cute in the summer, and I can only imagine how stunning it is in the winter.

In Rovaniemi it was shockingly-cold in the nights (it got down to 4 C) but during the day (like when the following picture was taken) it got up to 70 F !!

I'm on the top of the world 

The Voyage and Arrival

So as you may already know, I arrived in Helsinki yesterday. I'm typing this at 4:90 am because I went to bed at 7:30 pm after not sleeping for nearly two days :D

This is what my bed looks like :

                    

It's super comfy! 

The Voyage                

At around 10 am on the 14th, I left Apex to fly to New York for the orientation, where I stayed in a hotel over night.

When I arrived at the orientation I was really confused because I walked into a conference room half full with puffy-eyed teenagers. I later learned this was because many had arrived as early as 9 am, and we weren't to get our room-keys until 3pm (though we actually received them around 4 pm). And I mean, being between the ages of 16-18 meant it can only be expected that the majority of us waited until midnight to pack.

I vaguely remember the events that took place during the orientation. Just that I met an overwhelming number of super cool people and something about a guy named Matt who dances around the world -- The 14th feels like a long time ago, or a dream at the very least. 

At the orientation there were 6 Americans Sweden-bound, 7 Finland-bound, 10 Norway, and Switzerland dominated with 17.  

Around 1 pm (NY time, which if you don't know is the same as Apex time)  the students going to Norway, Sweden, and Finland said Good-Bye to the Swiss kids (whose flight wouldn't leave NY until 9pm) and headed to the airport to fly Air-Berlin to - Berlin of course!

We were met by the line pictured above :D It was actually a lot longer then it appears, and when I met the lady at the front she made me do several scrambled dances to get the weight down on my carry-on

So of course I handled it by taking a selfie 

 My new friend humored me because she's super nice :D 

When we finally got on the plane, a very kind dude switched places with my other new friend so that the three of us could practice Finnish together, which we of course did the entire flight, and didn't once watch a movie, or discuss our lives in English, or our dialects, or cute animals. No not once. :D

I think we were on that plane for 8 hours, but because of time difference, I believe it was technically 14, and it felt like it .

Berlin

When we finally stepped foot on European soil (/concrete, same difference) we were greeted by this friendly looking bus who felt his purpose in life was to get us better acquainted with our neighbors, or at least me, it was very jerky. 

I took the time to turn around and take this picture just for you. You're welcome. 

When I got inside I proceeded to take more selfies in front of German signs and magazines, because, 

why not?

Also we had this line.

Finland-bound Americans (minus one whom has duel citizenship and got to skip our line, not that I was jealous or anything ;) ) 

I was surprised that the people gave us stamps at the front of the line, because that meant we could leave the airport, and wanting to be rebellious - of course we did.

The french fries were really yummy, but I was eating them at 9 am German time, so 2 am.

(we later learned that this act was in fact not rebellious because we had to journey quite some ways outside to our gate) 

After this relatively short flight I took this picture of the Helsinki skyline, and it was love at second sight, and first sight, and still love :D 

There was more trouble at the airport because the airline lost the luggage of two from our group. But I eventually met my host mom, and got to see my room where I am now!! 

 The chair is invisible. :D

The ceiling is really high and the light is really nice to look at  :D 

The stars around my window light up, and my room is quiet because it looks onto a courtyard 

And I can watch Finnish television from my bed!

And I already am starting to feel more at home <3

In short, I love my beautiful Finland.