A MONTH?!?

Its kind of scary that I've been here almost a whole month. It feels like I just got here, but at the same time I can't even imagine living in America anymore.

Everything is still amazing, other than the fact that I was devastated for about a day or two over the fact that Sophia went home to Germany. I was so used to having someone to always talk to in school and be able to rely on, it was really hard when she left Wednesday. Now I am the only exchange student in my town. But there is no point in being sad at all and I am just so happy we met!

    

 Anyways, school gets better all the time. Computer class is super boring, because my class is third year and all in Finnish so I am just given essays about the United States to do. But the kids in that class aren't so shy since they are older which is good. I feel kinda stupid in math class, because it is stuff I did in the eighth grade, but I am so bad at it because A.) I haven't used it in forever, B.) I don't know the metric system well and C.) It takes me five minutes just to type the question into google translate. But I have friends who help with my homework. And I managed to get a 75% on a test that was completely in Finnish (proudest I have been of a C).

Gym class is the best class for sure. Everyone in that class is so friendly and nice to me. A girl even translated the whole schedule for me, so I know what games we are playing ahead of time. Also, my art teacher is the nicest man on this planet, I'm telling you. 

Something I've started going to after school, is an art school with Minna. Most of the kids are a couple years younger than me and wayyyy more talented. But the teacher insists my "giraffe made of clay" is just fine. 

Also I go to something else after school now. No one is sure of what it is in English, but I think it is similar to Girl Scouts? I have never been a Girl Scout, but here they go camping and do stuff in the nature, so I think that's what it is. It's different.

Friday, after school, I took a bus to the city of Turku to spend the night and then go see my exchange friends on Saturday. I stayed with my host sister and her boyfriend at their apartment. Saturday morning I met one of my closest exchange friends, Ella, at the bus station so that we could run a 5k together! I was SOOO happy to see her again. And this race incredibly fun! There were a bunch of obstacles, bubbles, and colored powder being thrown in our face. Here are some pictures of us and also pictures of the race:

    Before..

   

    After.

  

  This one is from the internet, but I just had to point out that this was a SKETCHY obstacle. I think everyone was just happy they were still alive when they got to the other side of this thing.

So after the race, us and the group of exchange students who came to watch, headed to the centrum of Turku.

    This was right after the race :)

  

A few Brazilians had to leave, so about nine of us were together. Turku is the most beautiful city. The pictures I took don't do it any justice, because we were walking and they came out kind of blurry.

    2 frenchies, 2 Italians, 2 Mexicans, 2 Americans, 1 Brazilian. ❤️

So we just explored the city then sat for a really long time and talked about life and all the problems that only exchange students can really understand. It was a really good day. 

Then today I went to Helsinki and watched the Sweden Vs. Finland track and field competition (I have no idea what this event is officially called). Sweden won :( but it was really close. 

    At the Olympic stadium in Helsinki

Then we drove through Helsinki, but unfortunately didn't really get to see much of the city. I will have to come back and explore..

That's all for now :)

 

Three weeks in Finland: Market, School, Pori,

I have now been in Finland for three weeks. :) I have also completed two weeks of school! Sometime last week I met a German exchange student, Sophia, who is just on a one month exchange. It was soo nice to talk to someone who isn't shy and speaks good English. She comes to all of my classes with me since she is only here until Thursday and it was pointless to give her a real schedule. 

I've played finnish baseball now a couple of times in gym class. There are so many confusing rules that my class usually just has to yell, "Run now, Lauren!!!". But I've been told I'm not as bad as previous exchange students...If you want to know more about pesäpallo, just ask. Its a wild game.

My town has this thing every year called Eurajoki Market. It's basically like a fair, but with lots of stands you can buy random things from. Here's some pictures from that: 

    Sophia, Annariikka, and I

   German tea

    

Then on the Sunday, I went kayaking with my host sister, Jenni, her boyfriend Joonus, my host parents, and my Rotary counselor's family. Here are some pictures from that:

So, then my second week of school begins. This week was much better than the first. People are starting to actually talk to me now, haha! I love all the girls in my gym class, they're so nice. My art class is really good too, the teacher is super nice. Another weird thing about Finland is that you call the teacher by their first names. I told the boy next to me in my computer class that in America we say, "Mr. or Mrs. Whatever" and he looked so startled. Something else I wanted to mention is that I really like all of the food here except for one evil candy that everyone is always trying to force me to eat...SALMIAKKI. Its salted black licorice. The first time I had it was in the airport the first day I got here and I had to spit it out. Its disgusting. Some of my exchange friends like it, but I don't know what is wrong with them! Anywaaaays here are pictures from school.

   In my math class

   Emin likes to take pictures of "cool exchange students"

    Art class :)

   This is me explaining something about America. The look of a shocked Finn..

   Kahvi break

   A lot of times after school I go on bike rides around town..

Then today I took the bus for the first time to Pori! Pori is a city about 30-40 minutes from Eurajoki. I met a good friend of mine, Corentin from France, there at the bus station. At some point during the day we got so incredibly lost and walked soo far from the city. It took forever to figure out how to get back (I missed the bus I was originally gonna take home), but we figured it out. But it was a really good day :D!! consisting of looking for bathrooms that don't cost money, trying to fit under one tiny umbrella, and exploring all of pori (literally I think we walked around the entire city)

   Corentin loves his chocolate...

   

    I have no idea what that is he ate..we found it on a bush somewhere

  

    This is me on the bus wondering if I missed my stop (I did)

   

   Angry birds playground..(angry birds is a huge finnish thing)

Tonight was really funny trying to get Joonus to speak English (he's too shy). 

We ate makkara (a sort of sausage) and sang Robin songs (FINNISH JUSTIN BIEBER..but actually I like Robin..and he goes to one of the other exchange students school :O)

Never a dull moment living with the Jalonens..haha :)

Hyvää yötä