Horse Competition

Today I went to Isa (My 9 year old host sister)'s horse/pony jump competition. It was short but fun to see. Her pony is adorable!
Then after, I went with my host dad, my host sister, and her friend to "Chico's", an All American chain restaurant in Finland.
Now I'm home and I'm going to a party with my friends later.

FINALLY AN UPDATE!

Well, I've had a lot going on lately, I should fill in about the last month and a half though

so I hung out with my friends and 'boyfriend' who I'm no longer with
I changed families and I love my new family, (I loved my old one too) but I'm learning Finnish more now.
I went to mid-year orientation with the exchange students and it was nice, it was worth going. (Not like I had a choice)
I got a sickness kind of thing, so I couldn't go to Lapland.
I saw the Swedish speaking school's Gammeldans, which is where they dress up really nicely and everyone dances together doing things like the waltz and such.
I cooked some more with Hanna (while I was still there), but I don't see her enough :(
I babysat Millie today, she's a cutie!
Right now I have this pain in my abdomen that's maybe a little above my appendix but below my rip cage, and I've had it since yesterday and it's scaring me.

hmm, here's a picture or two

This is new year's eve, we found a room without people! Woo hoo


This is Mimi, one of my new dogs on my bed


This is a picture I took from the European Figure Skating Championships that I went to (4th row seats for free!)


This was another picture from New Years, we threw a party with over 200 people, it was crazy


and this was my makeup two days ago :) haha

Christmas!

So, Christmas was celebrated on the 24th mainly, we opened presents that night and Santa came to our house!

Water

We don't have any water until tomorrow, so we can't flush the toilets! Yay for peeing in the wilderness.

This Morning

This morning I was woken up by my host mom, sister, and littlest brother singing "Sankta Lucia" or some other spelling. It was cute, they dress up in white gowns and carry candles and sing a song :)

School

I really like going to school here, especially because I get to sleep in a LOT more than in the US, but my alarm clock is broken and I keep missing school! So, today I came to terms with the fact that it won't magically fix itself and I'm going to use my cell phone as an alarm clock so that I can start going to school again. ( I missed last Thursday from the same problem)

Hanna has started finding Finnish music for me to listen to. Finnish music usually isn't that much fun but there's one song that I really like, it's called Tytöt Tykkää and it has a beat, finally!

I'm slowly learning more Finnish, it's really fun to be able to understand more and more!

Reindeer!

In Lapland, I saw wild reindeer that were pure white, it was so amazing! Of course, I didn't get to pet them, but I did get to pet one of Santa's reindeer the other day! He was really soft :) I also tried Glögi (glog maybe in English) for the first time, it was really good! I went to a Pikkujoulu party and I had fun, I love christmas clothes. I did a few other things recently but I don't really feel like writing right now.

:)