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 :)