1 Month Already!

Wow!
It feels like it went by so quickly!

The past couple of days have been really fun and interesting, so I'll talk about those!

Yesterday was the start of end-of-term exams, so after I took one of the English ones, I could go home. But I didn't! I ended up going into Pori on a shopping trip! (with permission, of course). The bus dropped me a little ways from the mall I was going to, but while I was walking there I found an electronics store with Sonic the Hedgehog outside of it! I also had to cross the bridge that spans the Kokemäenjoki (River)!

It was a grey day yesterday.

Primarily, I was looking for a new backpack and earbuds (my previous ones wanted to keep riding the bus after I got off), but I was also sort of looking for a new jacket. Unfortunately, I didn't find any good earbuds and the backpack I was thinking about was almost 80 euros, but I did find a nice new jacket! It even has zipper pockets so my phone won't fall out! Also, I got more school supplies. Because you can never have enough notebooks and folders.

And then there was today! There was a sort of gathering at the new sports center for the club Isä's a part of, and my host sister and I went to help out! We kind of wandered around for a bit because no one needed any help at first, but we ended up selling a bunch of raffle tickets! I couldn't buy any because I left my wallet at home, but she ended up winning three things, so that was cool! There was also a lot of food there, I had a waffle, pulla, a little cinnamon roll, and a small slice of a cake with some kind of berries. Not all at once, though.

So far I think tomorrow's going to be fairly quiet, I'm thinking of drawing some and writing and mailing a couple more postcards. My school schedule is going to change after this week, though, so that'll be kinda weird!

Oh, but I'm thinking of maybe answering the same few questions at the end of each month, just to kinda see what I'm thinking at the moment. So here we go!


What's been your favorite experience so far?: It's kinda dumb, but one night after church youth group, I finally got a chance to look up at the stars, and there's so many! I think it's both because there's less light pollution and the air is cleaner, but you can see a lot more than you can in Washington D.C. It's so pretty!!
What's challenging at the moment?: I'm a little homesick, but other than that it's making friends. I'm an introvert, so it's a little difficult for me to be outgoing, but I really do wanna talk to a lot of people at school, so I'll try my best, even if it's a little awkward in the beginning!
What's a new sentence you've learned in Finnish?: Minä puhun Englantia ja vähän Suomea! Also, mun lempiväri on sininen.

AFS Arrival Orientation

Oops, I got a bit caught up in other things and didn't get to write until now. Sorry!

Anyways, the Arrival Orientation was last week, and it was lots of fun! Everyone that went was in the Turku region for AFS Finland, so it wasn't all the kids staying here, but there were still a good 22-23 of us. I left Friday afternoon to get to Turku, and we stayed in a nice sized cabin until Sunday!

From Pomarkku, the bus ride to Turku is about 2 or 3 hours? I'm wasn't really keeping track, but it took a while. Once I got there, I hung out at the little bus station store with a girl from Turkey and a guy from Italy until one of the volunteers showed up and we went outside to wait for the rest. People arrived pretty quickly after that, and we then got on the bus to Rymättylä, which is where the campsite was.
We had a nice hike up to the cabin, it was a pretty good distance from the parking lot, so everyone was glad once we were finally there. We didn't have the keys, though, so we played a couple group games until the volunteer that had the keys got there to unlock it for us. Everyone put their things in their rooms, and after that we went back out to have dinner and do more icebreaker type games.
Finally, around 9 or 10, we had free time and were just able to hang out, it was really fun! There was a piano-sized keyboard (meaning it had all the keys a regular piano has) and me and a few others messed around on it, and a few groups split off to just hang out in our rooms and talk about stuff.

I think we were talking about politics here?

Mostly we talked about differences between our countries, like food, weather, holidays, politics, and a bunch of other smaller stuff. I also had my first Kinder egg! The chocolate part was really sweet, and I'm kind of glad it's only a thin shell, but my toy ended up being a minion. Eventually, conversation died down and a volunteer came by and told us to go to bed, so we ended up going to sleep around 1 in the morning.

The next day, we woke up and had a little time to hang out before we had to hike back down to the parking lot where the main building was for breakfast, since most of it was a cafeteria. There was a pretty good spread of food out, and I ended up with porridge. Once everyone had eaten, we hiked back up and went over to the dock by the cabin, just to look around a bit.

The Baltic Sea!

We played a few more group game kind of things before the volunteers let us have outside free time, and we wandered around the woods for a bit before we found a nice little place by the water where we sat for a while. Most of us just sat and enjoyed the view of the sea, some skipped stones, and then this also happened.

After we'd had lunch, we had the actual sort of orientation stuff, going over rules, what to do in certain scenarios, who to contact if you have problems, etc. To be honest, it was kind of boring, but I understand why we had to go over everything. All the different orientation stuff took about 2 or 3 hours, so by the time we were finished, it was time for supper!

Finally, after dinner we had a bit more orientation, and then we got to go to the sauna! It was a separate building a little ways away from the cabin, but it was really close to the shore, so a lot of us also ran to go swimming after getting out of the sauna. I didn't because the water was really cold, but I did stand in it for a bit!

Since the girls went first, we had to get out after a while so the guys could have a turn, and in the meantime we started the fire going in the outside fireplace. Someone had also brought one of the portable speakers, so people were taking turns playing music while we waited for the guys to get back.

Fire!

Once all the guys finally did get back, though, it was getting dark, and most of us danced to the music and a volunteer brought out sausages, corn on the cob, and marshmallows for us to roast. There was also limbo and the kind of reverse version where you have to jump over the string/pole and it gets higher each time. It was lots of fun, but my feet were sore by the end since I was only wearing socks and the patio was made of stone.

I can't really remember what time we all got to bed on Saturday, but it was probably earlier than the previous night, so that was nice.

Finally, there was Sunday! We had breakfast (porridge again), and a little more free time and orientation, then lunch, and then we started packing up! We also had to clean the whole cabin, so we also took out the trash, vacuumed, and put everything back where it was supposed to be. Once the park guy came by to inspect the place and make sure we'd done everything, we hiked back down to the parking lot to wait for the bus.

And then we were on our way home! Once we were back in Turku we all exchanged long goodbyes and promises of talking later on facebook and such, and then the few of us who were going to Pori broke off to wait at the bus station. Our bus wasn't scheduled to come for a half hour, so we stopped at Hesburger for some food, and then got to the bus right on time!

Most of our small group got off the bus before we got to Pori, so I was the only one actually getting off there, but I didn't mind. And finally, I made it back and Äiti met me at the Pori bus station and drove me back home!

So yeah, that was the Orientation! Yay!

Two Weeks - Lukio!

Now that I've spent a couple weeks here, I'll talk about school! It's already a lot better than American school, so that's something. Each day's schedule is different, and you only have three or four classes in a day. Most of the time, school starts at 8:30 am for me, but on Wednesdays it starts at 10. And school days also end at different times for each student! Usually, school ends around 2 pm for me, but there's one day where it ends at 3:30 and another where I can go home at 1! It's really cool, and makes things less repetitive, which is nice.

I'm really happy with my classes, too! I have psychology (mon), all three grades of english throughout the week, art (mon, wed, thurs, fri), finnish history (tues, wed, thurs), sports (tue), geography (tue, thurs), and music (fri)! Most days it's a nice little group of classes, but Monday has two different english classes one after the other and Wednesday has the same art class for two blocks straight.

Oh, but there are also little differences that I think make it better than American school! The very first thing I noticed was that like in homes, you take off your shoes once you're inside, so you go through the school day in socks! It's really nice and surprisingly way more comfortable! It's also a fairly small school, so I think I've met all of the students already, though I don't really know too many people's names. Lunches are free, too! And a lot better than American school lunches, it's kind of like a buffet!

I didn't take a lot on my first day out of caution, but it was really good!

I also have Finnish lessons on Mondays and Thursdays, but they're in Pori and they start at 3 pm, so I have to miss art on Mondays and history on Thursdays to make it on time. My Finnish class only has 4 other girls, though! We're all exchange students, but only three of us are AFSers. One of them was at the orientation over the weekend, too, but all that'll be in the next post.

Notes from Finnish class! Also I got a cute pencil sharpener at Tiger.

Today started my third week of school! Lunch was mashed potatoes, salad, and sausages. My favorites are on Thursdays, though, sometime's there's pannukakku! It's different from American pancakes, but it's still really good!

I'll probably do my next blog post tomorrow, since a lot has happened, and it's gonna be about the AFS arrival orientation! Woo!

Moikka!