Viimes kuukaudet Suomessa/ Last Month in Finland

What can I say, everything is just perfect. The weather has improved a lot since the last post almost 3 months ago and everything is just fine. I'm sorry that I abandoned this blog for the most part, but that was because I would rather be living my life than telling about my life. Honestly, I have no idea how incredible the Finnish Spring and Summer have been. At Midsummer/Juhanus, the sunset was at 11:30pm and the sunrise was at 3am, with constant light inbetween for the dark hours. Below is a picture of the archipelago in Southern Finland at midnight. As you can see, it never gets dark in Finland in the middle of Summer, even if the sun is gone.

School ended on June 2nd, Saturday and I am now officially an abi/senior! Below is a picture of me and the exchange students from Colorado, USA and Japan giving our final goodbye speeches

The day after the last day of school, on June 3rd, I left with about 90 other exchange students in Finland and Estonia for a Eurotrip! We traveled through Sweden, Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Monaco, Italy, and Austria in 2 and a half weeks. Eurotour was fantastic, and below are a few photos.

My friends and I made human pyramids in almost all of the countries that we visited. Here is our pyramid in Copenhagen

This is me on the 30km dike in the Netherlands

Inside the Palace of Versaille

At the Arc de Triumphe

My friends and I were just eating French baguettes under the Eiffel Tower when a crazy Frenchman, dressed as Captain America came by. I ran to him with my American flag, and then we all took photos by the Eiffel Tower. Incredible story!

Me in Sisterone, France

Monaco!!!

Venice

At our hotel near Venice. I apparently camouflauge into the beach!

Hiking in the Italian Alps

Hanging in Innsbruck, Austria

Heading back home to Finland: Right are some of the many islands on the Finnish Coast

This is not a very long post, but just letting everyone know that everything is great!

March Already

My last post was over 100 days ago and I have no idea how to catch up on every amazing thing that has happened. I have been to Lapland (land above Arctic Circle) twice; once with Rotary of Finland and Estonia and once with my host family for Christmas and New Years. Up there, I have eaten reindeer, downhill skied, reindeer and husky sled rides, 9 minutes of daylight each day, quick trip to Sweden, learning to lasso reindeer, and enjoyed the land that looks like Narnia.

Then in January, I switched host families. Rotary Organization gives every student 2-3 host families, that way we get to experience multiple perspectives of life in our home country. It was sad to leave my first family, but I love my new one a lot, so everything is fine. It has just been a lot of fun getting to know my new family and doing family activities with them. This is me walking the dog across the frozen lake with my brother.

February was a great month, and started out great with my birthday on the 1st and my brothers on the 2nd. We had a small celebration at home with cake that looked like American Poptarts and relatives coming over. One big event was the Wanjoen Tanssi, the large formal dance in Finland. I danced with my partner and it was a great time! Many practices and time looking for a suit, but everything turned out well and it was a great evening. We also had a week off of school so that the country could have a skiing holiday. We went to central Finland to Grandma's and skiied and skiied and skiied. I was even able to go down all of the black levels and do jumps and land them! Not bad for my 3-7th days ever skiing! I also did some cross country skiing across the lake by our house.There are no pictures of me skiing on this trip, but I have plenty from other trips. To get there we had to pass over a lot of lakes and bridges.

March so far has been fantastic. I have started up a new hobby: Ice Swimming. Yep, every Tuesday and Thursday I go ice swimming (and sometimes bring along friends) in the lake with my host father. I was the kid who swore to my parents I would never do something so 'dangerous' as that, but who would have thought it would be so relaxing? Swim for a bit ( 5-15 seconds) and then go to sauna to warm up, and repeat. One evening was fantastic and great, because as we swam a herd of swans flew onto the lake and were swimming in part of the whole with us. Then they got out onto ice and i saw them run across the runway, the icy lake and then take off, just like an airplane. Its also so quiet and tranquil and that is another reason why I like it. We also had a Rotary ski trip, which my brother was also able to go to. It was a fantastic day. Also I went to a great TPS-Pelicans game with the Turku Exchange Students. Everyone thought that the highly ranked Pelicans would beat TPS, but we came through with a 4-2 win! It was incredible!

There have been so many other fantastic things that have happened; classy movie nights, sledding days, great days at school, rotary presentations, snow snow snow and -25ºC weather, but there is no way I can explain it all on a post. Stay tuned for my next post!