life lately.

Well... life lately has been good! It is exam week (started last week actually... but continues into this week too), and so one of my exchange friends, also from Michigan, came to stay with me for a few days. We did a lot of shopping (well... mostly she did. I hardly bought anything) and just hung out around Turku most of the days she was here. I'm pretty much in love with that city.

And then one of the days she was here we stayed in Masku and biked to the store to get stuff to make our American dinner that we made! We had cheeseburgers, potato wedges, corn on the cob, brussel sprouts (like Uncle Mark makes), and ambrosia. OH, and don't forget the lemonade!

It was so much food, but SO good!

One day when we were in Turku, we just walked around by the river and took some pictures. It was probably the best day it has been in Finland since I've gotten here. Super sunny and actually really warm, which was a nice surprise. This is one of my favorite pictures from that day:

So... this man is living the life. A beautiful day in Finland, and he's just sitting on a bench on the bridge, reading a newspaper (actually... it was a map. but for the sake of making it sound like his life is perfect at the moment... let's just say it's a newspaper). But, we also were living the life, just on the bench opposite of this man. Except instead of a 'newspaper', we had candy and our cameras.

Second favorite picture of the day. Not sure what this building is... but I just love it! 

After talking some lovely pictures... we decided to go eat. At an actual restaurant. It was my first time at an actual restaurant (unless we count a pizza place... I wouldn't), but all we could afford was appetizers. So... we got ourselves some salads and foccacia bread, and ate at an actual restaurant. All for like 6 euros each. Score. 

Following our lovely 'dinner', we went to the center. Where, we saw this:

That would be naked men standing on a balcony. But you can only see their top half. This wasn't the first time I've seen this either. Probably like the 4th or 5th, and I laugh every single time. 

That day Emily went back home, and I didn't do much that weekend, because everyone was studying for exams. But, I did go mushroom picking with my host mom. It didn't take too long before we had 2 buckets full though. This was what we found in about 20 minutes. 

The bottom picture would be a zucchini that we found my first week here in the garden at the summer cottage. It is HUGE. I made zucchini bread out of it... but it didn't use much of that. 

Today was an exciting day! So I guess the rest of this blog will be just about today. 

It started off with me going with my youngest host sister, Venla, who is 11, to her school. I met with her teacher, and talked to Venla's class, along with 3 other classes (I think) that came in to join. It was most definitely the biggest group of people that I had ever talked in front of, but it was a lot of fun! I was nervous at first, but they were all so attentive and asked a lot of questions (which I totally wasn't expecting), and it turned out really well. In Venla's class is one of my next host sisters, so I got to meet her as well. 

After that class, I went to another class, but the teacher didn't have me talk about myself first like last time, so they didn't know anything and were expected to ask questions, and nobody knew what to ask. The only questions I got asked were if I had a dog, and the follow up questions about my dog. The teacher did tell me they were probably just in shock that I was there, which I can understand. The other class had had a few days to know I was coming and they all wrote down questions, where the second class only knew like 5 minutes beforehand. 

So then I went home and made myself an American lunch! It only consisted of Kraft mac & cheese and an A&W root beer, but it was good. However, afterwards I just kind of felt sick. It's how I feel after I eat most of the American food I bought at the store the other day. But that's a good thing... it means I will no longer be wasting my money on overpriced foods that I can get anytime I want back home. 

After that, I caught the bus to Turku to meet up with the exchange students at our weekly cafe day. I didn't stay there long though, before 3 of my friends decided they wanted to walk to the cathedral. I was all for that, because it was such a nice day. So we went there and walked around and took a lot of pictures. 

That picture was taken from where the organ is, which leads to a funny story. Since my host dad is the organist at the cathedral, I kept saying "I wonder if he's left work yet, maybe we'll see him". Then, he walked by and we talked to him and he offered to take us up to see the organ. All three of my friends eyes lit up, so of course we went! They all loved it and Sam kept saying it was like one of the best things that has happened to him in a while, or something like that. There are pins for sale at the Cathedral, so we each bought one for our Rotary blazers in honor of that day. 

After the cathedral, we took a bus to the castle. However, there were some exciting happenings on the way to the castle. First of all, at the bus stop, I was almost knocked out by a homeless man because he was fighting with another man. It was quite the fight... and I was almost in the middle of it. But thankfully, I made it on the bus safely. 

Trying to get off the bus was another story. The two other exchange students I was with and I were the only ones on the bus when we were getting off. Sam and I got off just fine, but Christina got stuck. The bus driver was messing with her. As soon as she'd get to the door, he'd close it, and then open the other one, so she'd walk to the other side of the bus. That happened a few times, until finally he opens the door she was in front of and shouts "THAT JUST HAPPENED... NEXT TIME I'M KEEPING YOU!" and then laughed creepily as he drove away. I could not stop laughing... but at the same time was pretty terrified about what just happened. 

But, we finally made it to the castle. We couldn't go in today, but I got some pictures (of course), and it was so pretty! 

Another picture that I just LOVE, but Marley(my sister) says looks like where I'm from: 

Might look like Northern Michigan, but on the side of the street I was standing on... there was a castle. We don't have those back home. 

That's about it for my exciting day I believe. Tomorrow I am going to a department store that is having a big sale like all week, called "Hullut Päivät", aka, crazy days, to buy some maple syrup, which is on sale about half the price from what it is at the store in Masku. I have been meaning to buy some so I can make my family french toast... and now I have no excuse! 

Tomorrow I'm also going to my friends house with some other exchange students to watch Star Wars (since I've never seen it), and we are preparing to go to a Star Wars event thing on Saturday if I don't have anything else going on with my host family. 

That's it for now! If you want to see more pictures, I just put a bunch up on Facebook, so go check them out!