It has been ages since my last post...

I don’t think I have updated this thing in well over two months, which I must apologize for all you who have interest in what I’ve been up to. Please go to my Facebook and look at all my pictures, which I’ve been a bit better at updating. Maybe that will keep you a bit more updated. Anyways I feel like lately I’ve been really busy and that’s why I haven’t bothered to update my blog, but that’s a bit of a lame excuse.

Anyways, I’ll go back to were I can remember and one of the coolest thing’s I’ve done since in Finland, over autumn break. My host family took me to the canary Islands for one week with Juha’s parents and his sisters family. In all there was 12 of us. Mostly it was a lot of laying by the pool (which was a hugeeee public salt water pool) enjoying the sun and warmth (It was about 25C, which is WAYYYY warm compared to the normal 5C I’ve been used to). We also drove one day to see the biggest mountain in all of spain, which is also a volcano, I forgot the name but it was really cool to see, especially because one thing I’ve really been missing is the mountains, and it’s not even snowboard season yet! While in the canary islands we celebrated my birthday with the family, we also celebrated the grandmothers 80^th birthday which was the big reason that we all went, as well as the cousin Mari’s birthday. Both of the cousins Mari and Ville, who are mid 20’s were really nice and they had both bee exchange students in the U.S. Also one day all of the kids went to an outdoor water park which was good fun, not exactly something I expected to do while on my Finland exchange! It was a really good trip and enjoyed spending time with my host family, and the nice tan I got was also not too bad.

Another thing I did was a Rail Jam a bit out of town center. It was put on by the local skate shop I think with two street style rails they had built, One down and one with a kink. I was the only girl and wasn’t entirely sure what was going on with the compitition until they figured out that I didn’t speak Finnish. I wasn’t very good, just managed a few times to get on the down rail but I didn’t expect much, I just was ready to use my snowboard I got sent out for my birthday! But it was also a really relaxed jam, more like a session and it was fun just to snowboard and see what it’s like in Finland, and talk to other snowboarders. The rails are still up and I plan to go back with a friend as soon as my knee is better…..which brings me to my next adventure in Finland.

I went on a cruise with some IB classmates called Theory of Knowledge cruise which is a class we have and there was about 200 or so other IB students from around Finland. The cruise didn’t really have much of a schedule , after driving all night to Tuurku Harbor we boarded the ship and then at something like 8 some of us were in a debate compitition, myself included. My team didn’t make it past the first round but it was interesting to see how into it some people got. After that it was basically free time that we spent talking to other students, hanging out with each other , exploring the ships, and napping (to save up energy for the night). At the night time we went to the disco on the ship, and thankfully there was no sort of age restriction, and it was nice because it was mostly IB students. So we were dancing for a few hours (YES!!!!) when I slipped dancing, fell and twisted my knee. So I had to have some help getting back to our cabin. Now it's been around 2 months and a month or so on crutches, it's better. My knee still hurts on occasion like when i slip on the snow or snowboard.

What else have I been up to....lot's I guess but it's so much to remember or write about! I really need to be better about keeping this updated! Some highlights these past months have been going to two Finnish Rap concerts, and of course Lapland trip! I have also switched to my second host family by now, the Snaf family. They are Swedish speaking with a mom, dad, and two girls 10 and 15 and one boy who is my age and in the US. I will have to write more about my life recently later, the Lapland trip, oh, and Christmas! Which is today. In Finland they celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve. Hope everyone has a good Christmas! God Jul! I will try to update this again soon.