time flies when you're having fun

such a cliche, but it's definitely true.

I don't have anything in particular I want to talk about today, so let's just start.

I went to Sweden a few weeks ago for a day with my host family. That was really cool, and we did a lot of shopping, but unfortunately the weather was crappy.

I moved back to my first family last Sunday. And then I will be here for 6 weeks until I move back to my 2nd family again. People think it's weird and ask why I didn't just stay in my 2nd family longer so I only have to switch once, which is a good question, but I also have a good answer. Moving from my 1st family made me realize how much I appreciate them and everything they did for me. Not that my 2nd family was bad or anything, it was far from it! But all families are different, and it helped me to appreciate just the little things about them, and my relationships that I made with each member. I liked the fact that after gaining the appreciation for my 1st family that I got to move back in with them and show them how much I appreciated everything, and I wanted the same thing to happen with my 2nd. And it will. It hasn't even been a week yet and I miss them.

It's a weird thing. How you can live so close to your other family (literally like 2 blocks away), yet actually miss them. I could go see them whenever I want, but it's not the same as actually living with them and doing everything together. It seems that no matter who I'm living with, I will miss the other. But knowing that the other is so close gives me comfort, and really makes me wonder how I will be feeling when I'm on an entirely different continent than both of them.

Vappu (May Day, I guess?) is in a few days, and I am incredibly excited! It's a really big deal here, and we get the day off of school and there's a lot of things going on in the center of Turku. But since I really don't know what to expect, I guess I won't tell you much more about it until it happens.

Today is a "flag day", meaning that there are Finnish flags flying everywhere! I absolutely LOVE these days. It only happens on National Holidays or celebrations I think (the days important enough to be marked in my planner), and other days there are never any flags to be seen. So when the flags are flying, it hits me again that I am really in Finland, and it hits me with a great sense of pride to be able to live in this country and participate in everything Finnish and to be able to call this country my home.

The days are going by so quickly, and in no time I will be getting on a plane going back to America. It's crazy how close it feels, yet also like it will never actually happen. But, today I bought tickets to a music festival that I will be going to just 2 days before I leave. If I'm already planning that far ahead, then I guess it isn't really as far as it feels. Only about 70 days left for me in my fantastic year in Finland, but I never want it to end.