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.

:)

Finally, some pictures!

I'm sitting in my host sister's bedroom with her laughing about the things some exchange students say. I'm really happy here and happy that I had the opportunity to come, and some other people we know only have complaints! (Sucks for them hahaha)

So, I was thinking about Lapland and how I am really excited that I'm going again, this time with just my AMAZING sister and some friends :) Hopefully we'll stop in Oulu again, that was so much fun! (You guys know what I mean ;)) We're going to Levi, which is even further north than Äkäslompolo, the place I went last time! It's still kind of long until we go, (February) but I am so exited for it still :)

So today, Sofia came over and Hanna, Sofia, and I baked a trial batch of joulutorttuja (a finnish christmas pastery) to see if they would be good enough to bring to Mona's party. They're kind of nice for a party, but it's Pikkujoulu (Little Christmas) so we need good Christmas food!

This new paragraph is being typed a half hour after the last one because we went to walk the dog and run through the woods :) I wish the pictures showed how beautiful it is in the woods with so much snow, but they don't do it justice AT ALL! Here are some pictures anyways:

These are from the first snow, about a centimeter I think!









These are from cooking:










and these are from the snow now!
























Mormor's (Swedish for grandma) birthday was last week, and here are some pictures from it. She was in the hospital and ditched that place for her birthday and then against the hospital's wishes she spent the night at home, in her comfy bed! (What a rebel :)) But hei, you only turn 86 once!

SNOW AGAIN!

I'm SO happy! We have half a foot of snow! My host brother and I went for a couple hour walk through the woods and town and it was gorgeous :) It's so incredible, I can't even explain it.

I had a great weekend too! I wish I was more of a writer so that I explained things, but I'm not.

Mark Vincelette

I can not figure out how to comment your blog! I clicked on the comments button like 10 times and it doesn't work! OF COURSE I remember you, I was just thinking the other day about how I have to come visit when I get home :) I love your poetry, it's so inspiring. I hope everything is going well at home, are you a senior this year or have you graduated already?

Sataa lunta!

I woke up to snow this morning! It was so exciting :) There was only like an inch, if that, but still! Hanna and I got dressed up in our snow gear to take pictures and make it look really fun, but she has the camera now, so I can't upload them yet.

Then, I had a math test to take, which I failed because I couldn't really understand the class. Now I'm in the middle of studying for my bio test tomorrow which I think I'll do a lot better on.

I forgot to take pictures daily too, I'll remember someday soon!

So, tomorrow I'm going to Kamppi at 12 (a mall type thing in Helsinki) with the Australian exchange student at my school and a couple other people after I take my test.

I'm really curious to see if I'm going to get homesick anytime soon! I don't really think I will, but who knows?

Sauna

So, at first I didn't like going in the sauna because I felt like I was going to suffocate, but I actually really like it now! I just did it with Hanna (NAKED!) and it's really fun. Hanna is the best host sister EVER and I don't want a host sister in my second family because she's the best one and no one could be better!

I'm so bad at keeping this updated.

I love being a vegan now because Hanna and I cook our amazing vegan food together and it's fabulous :) Test week starts tomorrow, and I love test week because I have even less school than normal! I don't leave for school tomorrow till 12:10 and I don't have school monday!

I wish I took more pictures so that I could post them, maybe I'll make it a goal to take a picture a day!

So, last week I went to Sweden by ship and it was SO MUCH FUN! It was Marianne, Hanna, Ruut, Sofia, and Me who went and let's just say we're great dancers :) I'm going to post pictures of Sweden once I get them on my computer.

My mood right now is really happy and I'm listening to "No Ordinary Love" by Sade which I just found in my iTunes yesterday and realized that I love it! I'm so glad I decided to come to Finland, it's weird how much you learn from leaving home for a while. Hanna and I cooked dinner last night and it was fantastic. We are definitely the best sisters ever, we're always laughing when we're together :)

So here's my facial progress, my face has gotten skinnier!


Now I'm listening to Segertåget by Maskinen which you should go listen to it because it's great.

Here are pictures from Estonia:

This first one is the best restaurant ever! It was darker in there than the picture looks and the colors were brighter in person. The picture is taken from our AMAZING booth with tons of pillows, we made ourselves at home :)

(We had this whole section of the restaurant to ourselves even though the other side was packed!)