6.

vittu. i have been in finland for exactly 6 months today.
i am such a mix of emotions.
i've been crying on and off like all day today. pretty much whenever i think about having to leave.
i don't want to leave all of the people i have met here. especially my families.
it kills me to think that when i go back, it could be a long time before i see them again.

Puoli

First off, sorry for the sentimental, motivational... whatever this is. I've just been thinking about things a lot lately, and I feel like I should share.

In only three days, I will be exactly halfway through my exchange....

This year is going by quicker than I could ever have imagined. And I've learned so much already: about myself, about the world, about everything! I've been learning some very important things: like not to worry so much. Things will happen however they're meant to happen, and you can only do so much to influence some things, that it's not worth wasting your time worrying about it- just live in the moment, because you might miss something great if you're worried about something beyond your control.
Never judge anyone until you get to know them. I am friends with some of the greatest people ever, and before, I probably never would've gotten to know them, and just sort of classified them in my mind by how I saw them acting or some things I'd heard them say. But until you truly spend time and talk and get to know people, you really don't know anything about them. So stop judging, and just sit down and talk, you never know what great friendships it could lead to.
Speaking about exchange (but it can also deal with pretty much everything in life) whether you have good experiences or bad experiences, it's still experience-try not to place it in either category of good or bad. Take it all to grow as a person and learn about yourself. That's what I've done, and boy have I learned a lot about myself!

While everyone always seems to be worried about what they're going to do with their life, and where they will be in 20 years, blah blah blah,....I thought of something yesterday on the bus (usually where I do ALL of my thinking....), that I don't want to plan out my life, because if I do, I'm not living in the moment, and most likely, things wouldn't even work out as planned. So instead, my life plan is to live life without a plan. All I know is that I want to experience the world and all that it has to offer, and I am going to do that however it comes to me, whatever way that is.

I've been inspired recently... by the guy on this website: http://www.wanderingearl.com/
His experiences with people in the world, and his REASON for doing so is inspirational, and I would love to try to have some similar experiences, but we all know I'm not going to plan it all out or anything.
But trust me, if I had the money to travel, I would skip taking out all the student loans to go to school and just go experience the world. In just these short 6 months so far, I have learned far much more than I ever did in my entire four years of high school.

However, the rest of my time in Finland is quite planned out. I have so much to do and see, and experience, and being so busy will really make the time go by quickly. But if I'm doing things like what I have planned, then it will be time well spent!
Here's a look at my schedule for pretty much the rest of my time (things I have planned anyways)
January 25-go to Tampere to meet the new exchange students coming to Finland!
February 3-5- Oda  and her mom will be coming to Turku! :DDD
February 16- Wanhojen Tanssit (Old Dances)... where I will be giving my speech... IN FINNISH.
Febarury 17-March 3- Aunt Gail and Uncle Doug will be in Finland! (we will be going to Lapland, and Helsinki while they are here)
March 10- Cruise to Sweden with all of the people in my grade here
March 22-25- Go to St. Petersburg with Rotary
March 31-Finnish language test (6 hours... EEK)
April is pretty chill... nothing planned really
Same with May.... not much. (hopefully these months I will just be having fun, totally immersed in the culture, not even thinking about going home at all)
June 3-21- EUROTOUR!
Then only 3 weeks, and I will be coming home. :(

But speaking of home, when I'm on the bus (doing all my thinking), and I keep having these thoughts about going back home and what it will be like. And that I won't fit in because I'll be doing things like they're done in Finland, and the things I've grown up with won't seem "right" anymore. I'll give you some examples:
1) I go to pay for a candy bar or something at the gas station, and use a dollar bill, and start crying because it's not a coin like the 1 euro I would be handing over in Finland.
2) I go to flush the toilet, and put my hand on the back of the toilet where the button/lever would be, and it's not there, so I start crying in the bathroom, and my mom comes in, and I just tell her it's not right. I can't flush the toilet.
3) I go to the grocery store, and say "moi"(hi) and "kiitos"(thanks), and everyone just looks at me like I'm crazy.
4) Talk my dogs for a walk as soon as I get home (because I miss them like crazyyy) and speak to them in Finnish, and then they just look at me all confused.
And whenever I think about this kinda stuff, reality sets in that I will actually have to go back eventually, and these things most likely WILL happen. But I guess we will just see how things are going in 6 months....

Oh MAN.

Well, it's been almost a month since I last posted something, and SO much has happened. I'll spare the details this time, but here's a bit of what I've been up to lately.

Christmas happened. Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve, and you open presents in the evening, after Joulupukki (Santa Claus) has come to pass them out. It was hard for me at first for it to feel like Christmas without running downstairs and opening presents right away, but after family got here and we had dinner, it got much better. Christmas food is.... different. Rice porridge with cinnamon and sugar for breakfast was definitely my favorite thing I ate that day. And some of the most interesting were probably the carrot casserole, and the liver casserole. But, I did try everything that was offered, and the next day I went for dinner at my first host family's house, and ate a lot more there! Our first course was all sorts of fish... and I think everyone back home would be proud to know that I TRIED ALL OF IT. And.......... I actually LIKED most of it. Crazy, I know.
Oh, but about first day, Joulupukki was 45 minutes late. He went to the wrong house in another town. Walked in and asked where "the American" was, and found out there wasn't one. But, he still came, and it was great! After all.... Santa Claus does LIVE in Finland :)

On Christmas Day night, we lost power for about 4 days. That was interesting. I had some cool lamp thingy in my room, but it got pretty boring since the sun sets at 4. So, I slept a lot. Nothing wrong with that I didn't think.


Then, there was New Years, went out with exchange students after plans got changed, but still had a good night! One thing scary about New Years here though.... everyone is drunk.... and everyone has fireworks. In the middle of the city. I was a bit frightened, but luckily made it out unharmed. :)

For the rest of break, I hung out with exchange students a lot, and even had some plans with Finnish friends, which is always nice. I went out to lunch and played laser tag with some friends one day, went to the movies one day with another (saw Girl with the Dragon Tattoo... HIGHLY recommend it).

Then, somehow, it was back to school already. School started again on the 9th, and not much has happened. Everyone in Finland is getting hyped up about the Presidential debate happening soon. We even had a mock election at our school today. I also joined a basketball team, I think. I went to practice today, and it was so tough! I'm definitely out of shape, so it's a good thing I'm going to start playing again I think. I'm going again tomorrow (my host sister goes too). It was fun to play again, and I hope to stick with it for a while this year. Until springtime and Finnish baseball starts, that is.

Some exchange students "oldies" (they've been here since January, and so, they leave in January) have been leaving. One left already, and it was terribly sad. The other two leave on Friday. Having them leave really means that this year in Finland is almost halfway over, and it's scary how quickly it's going. I'm going to make the most out of the rest of my time here! 

OH, I also agreed to do a speech at the "old dances" in about a month.... in Finnish. I'm a bit worried, because I feel like my Finnish isn't good enough yet, but hopefully this will just help make it even better, and I know that once I do it, I will be much more confident with my Finnish.

Also.... my Norwegian sister (exchange student that lived with me last year) is coming to visit me in 23 days! Her mom is coming too, and I am so excited to meet her and see Oda again! It's going to be a wonderful weekend. I'm SO looking forward to it!

Hope all is well back home! Love you all!

Joulukuu!

Well... since I'm a procrastinator who hates blogging (not a good mix, by the way), I have a LOT that I have done since the last time I blogged. I believe last time, I was complaining about having the November Blues. But now, I am happy to inform you that that only lasted about a week, and left pretty much as quickly as it came.

Since then, my exchange friend Elisha and I have made Thanksgiving dinner for our families:

And yes, that means we even cooked a turkey! (Two, actually. Because the biggest they could find was like 7 pounds, for 9 people) The stuffing was made from scratch, and we also had sweet potato apple crisp, cranberry sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole. And for dessert, there was pecan and pumpkin pie. For the pumpkin, there's no canned pumpkin in Finland, so we actually had to cut up a pumpkin and boil it and what not. Thankfully, everything turned out good! And the turkey could not have been better! I think from now on, I should be in charge of turkey for Thanksgiving.... 

After that, I went to Lapland with all of the exchange students in Finland with Rotary (about 150 people), and we were there for 4 days, after our 16 hour bus ride. We went on a reindeer sleigh ride, a dog sled ride, made ice sculptures (well, tried to), went snowshoeing, downhill skiing, sledding, went to the local high school, and they had some entertainment for the night, ran across a bridge to Sweden, went to Rovaniemi (Santa's hometown) and other stuff that I can't remember at the moment. We also went to a reindeer farm and learned some facts about reindeer.

 Obviously, that means I have to tell you them:

A baby reindeer has 3,000 hairs per square centimeter, while an adult reindeer has 1,600. Each herder has a special mark that they put on each of their reindeer's ears. It's pretty official, and they have government documents claiming which mark is theirs and whatnot. Uhm, they used to castrate the reindeer by biting the vein behind the testicles. Yes, that means an actual person would BITE it. But, that's illegal now, and they use a clamp type thing to cut it. During October is "baby starting" (as the woman knowing VERY little English told us... she had to have everything else translated for her... but she told us that!) and the male reindeer lose about 20 kilos in that month... hard work for them! Oh, and last year, the herder we talked to lost 3,000 reindeer because the herd was on the thought-to-be frozen river, and the ice collapsed and they drowned. That's all the facts I can remember. 

^that's my favorite picture I took from the entire trip

OH, and in Lapland.... I TURNED 18!!!!!

Which means that when I got back, my family had a party for me with some of the families I had met while living with them. It was really fun and nice to have everyone together. There was lots of good food, which my host mom had thought out, and each had a meaning. Either something about Finland and a certain area I had been to, or just something that she knew I really liked. 

The next day... was moving day. I didn't even start packing until 11 that morning, and was in the car to the next family by 11:37.... with 4 bags more than I came with (and that I'm allowed to take on the plane with me at the end of the year).

Anyways, I'm here in my new family now. I do miss my old family (I cried when I left... and for about 3 straight days before I even had to leave at random times whenever I thought about it), but I am really liking my new family. I speak a lot more Finnish, and although it is tiring and I feel like sleeping all the time, I am liking the challenge. I think I will learn pretty quickly if I keep it up.

But that's about it for now. Merry Christmas everyone! Knowing me, I probably won't post before then! 

In Finnish (because I know you're all DYING to say this to each other at Christmas): Hyvää Joulua! 

I almost forgot! I changed the settings, so anyone can leave a comment now! SO, comment away! :)

It happened.

Well, I guess it couldn't be avoided forever....

I'm suffering from a bad case of the November Blues. 


Unfortunately... I'm told this will last until after Christmas. But I guess I did pretty good not falling victim to the November Blues until the END of November.

It seems like I was the first one to get it, and it seems to be contagious. Now two other exchange students that I'm really close to got it the day after me. So it's good that we can all talk about it and realize we aren't alone. But that doesn't change the fact that it still sucks. A LOT.

There's no particular reason why we feel this way, but we all just seem to be kind of depressed. No one has any motivation to do anything, we don't feel like trying with the language because English is just so easy, and we're always so tired. We don't have any really close Finnish friends that we can talk to about everything, and it's getting really difficult for us.

We all want to make strong connections like that, but we just don't know how. We have friends... just not really close friends. I know stuff like that takes time, but we're only here for a year. Time isn't exactly on our side here.

I don't think it's anything to worry about, because most exchange students go through this about this time, and we are all told that yeah, November and the holidays pretty much suck, but in the end the rest of your year will make up for it all. So just stick it out, and things will get better. So that's exactly what I'm going to do. I will anxiously be awaiting for the time when things get better.

Everyone says that when you get like this, to go out and do things with friends- and I do. And when I'm staying busy I am fine and have a good time with other people, but as soon as I am alone, I just feel really down and want to cry.

I'm sorry for this pretty depressing post, but I think everyone should know what's going on and why I may not be acting quite like myself. It's nothing to worry about, just something apparently all exchange students go through. I'm hoping it passes quickly.

P.S. Hugs seem to help... a LOT. Hung out with other exchange students today and we all got a lot of hugs. They were needed.

Olen onnellinen täällä

.... "I am happy here". Which is an understatement. I absolutely love it here. This is the part of my exchange where I, and every other exchange student, is told that we will start settling into everything and start to get depressed and miss home. But that couldn't have been more wrong! Yes, I am settling into everything, but that's what makes it better! I have friends, and I have plans every weekend and things to do during the week, and I'm staying busy and learning the language and haven't been happier since I've been here! Things are going GREAT.

On the 2 hour bus ride to Urjala last weekend, I was thinking about how time is going by so fast (I've been here 101 days now), and that I'd eventually have to leave this wonderful, beautiful country and all of the people here that I've met already, and I started to cry. I don't want to ever have to leave. This is my home, and right now I can't imagine being back in America again.

I know I will eventually have to face the fact that I have to go back sometime (notice I don't say "go home", I don't really know if Michigan is home anymore. I don't think that it is), but for now, I'm just going to enjoy what little time I have here, and live so I have no regrets once I leave. I say yes to everything, even if it doesn't sound like that much fun, because I try to stay optimistic and have as many opportunities as possible... you never know when something great could happen. Also, sitting at home alone is never fun.

So don't worry about me at all. I'm having a great time and living with a great host family! I move families the weekend right after my birthday (which is December 7th!), and am looking forward to seeing how life is in a different family and getting to know them, but I know I will miss the family I am in now... but I know I can come back and visit anytime! :)

Moose Hunting!

Ok, so I went to Urjala last weekend to stay with my friend Emily (from Michigan too...) and go moose hunting with her and her host dad!

Let me start off by saying moose hunting is one of the strangest things I have ever done in my life.
Here's how it works: There are about 10 men on one side of the forest spread out that sit there with guns, waiting for the moose. Then, the other 10 or more people go on the other side of the forest and spread out so they can't see each other, and run through the forest (yes, pretty much run, which is impossible in a Finnish forest), making as much noise as possible (some have like giant kazoos, and other have these wooden paddles with a golf ball attached that you swing back and forth) to scare the moose out of the woods towards the gunmen. Each woods is at least 1 km long.... and they go through about 5 forests a day. And they go both Saturday and Sunday. These are some dedicated men.

So I was one of the people running through the woods.. but four of us were together. Emily's host dad, her 12 year old host brother, Emily, and me. Emily and I had a bit of a hard time keeping up. Let me explain Finnish forests. I'm not quite sure how anything grows, because there are giant rocks EVERYWHERE. Major ankle breakers. And to make it even worse, there is moss growing like crazy all over everything, so you can't tell where the rocks are. And when moss is on rocks and you have to go down a little hill, it gets a bit slippery... and you fall. At least Emily and I did.

Our group ended up getting just one moose that day. Normally they get a few. We had seen more, but they were in the woods and the gunmen couldn't get a clear shot. So we ended the day with one. We had wanted to see them gut it, but by the time we told them through the radio to wait for us to get there... they had already finished. But, we did get to see a pile of guts!

And then we sat on it! It was jiggly and kind of gross. 

After we got that one we went through two more forests with no luck. So we took it to the building where they skin it and chop up the meat and everything. They started off skinning its legs, and then they put it in this machine type thing where they hang it up by its feet, and the machine holds on to the skin from legs, and then they pull the moose up and it rips off all of the skin! Then once it gets to the head, they chop the head off. I helped skin part of it! I cut a little bit off the leg... but then I hit a vein and got creeped out when the blood started squirting out... so I stopped. 

I'm not entirely sure what happened next, because next time I looked, they cut the feet off with an electric saw, and then I was watching the head because Emily's host dad was taking the tongue out so we could have it to eat, and then next I knew there was no more moose hanging in the barn.

They had cut the antlers off... which were pretty deformed, and they gave them to Emily and I! I was so happy! Even though they're really small and mine is bumpy and weird, it's still awesome! (And my dog is VERY interested in it)

With the skin, they salt it and fold it up and put it in a pile with the others, because someone comes and picks them all up in February, and the hunters get some money for it.

But the next day... I ate some tongue. It was boiled, and then the skin was peeled off.

And then about a minute later... I ate some. 

It was terrible! I ate the smallest piece... but all I could think was "is this how my tongue would be if I cooked it?", so it was not enjoyed by me. But I'm sure it would've been good if I wasn't thinking about what I was eating. But I just couldn't get over that. I was jumping up and down running around the house while trying to swallow it. Those of you that know me can probably totally picture that and know exactly what I did. Others.... well it's up to your imagination. 

BUT, now I can say I have eaten moose tongue. 

I forgot to post this before, but, I know I said you can e-mail me if you have any questions or just want to comment on something, but I didn't post my e-mail. So, it's hannah_34_21@hotmail.com

I look forward to hearing from you guys!