More golf

So the rest of the school week went pretty good. I had to change around a lot of my schedule, so now I have English, Music, Art, Gym, and Math, plus the Counselor lesson that's only on Tuesdays.

Its pretty easy actually :) I just need to get some friends other than Aino and hers :P

Today I went to watch the rest of my host family play golf, because I've decided it definitely isn't my calling. We spent 5 hours on the course. It was long. But, it was super nice out :) And I took pictures! I met Beverly too, an exchange student from South Africa that's living in Tornio. We're going to hang out again soon :3

This is the family, preparing for the next 5 hours. Left to right: Aino, Arto, Antti, and Arja.

The golf course we were at was divided between Finland(Suomi) and Sweden. So there's this post marking the border :)

That owl-head thing is one of Aino's club covers, or whatever you call them. I thought it was cool. I don't like my face in that picture, haha.

First Day of School

School today was a breeze. I didn't have to go until 11:30, and all it was was a sort of orientation. So that was nice :) Tomorrow I have to actually wake up though ): But that's okay. Besides not understanding anything the teacher was saying, it wasn't that bad. And hopefully I'll learn more Finnish as time passes.

The kids at the school were just like at any other high school, but like everyone said none of them came and introduced themselves to me. But Aino is in my home class and a lot of others, and her and her friends sit with me at lunch, so I think I'm going to be fine. I went to Sweden today! And shopped in a mall that's half Swedish and half Finnish :) It was pretty sweet.

Oh, and here's a picture of part of 35 pounds of blueberries that a friend of my host parents brought over.

School Schedule

So, I start school tomorrow. I'm kind of really scared. Here's what my schedule looks like.

1 - Counselor Lesson
2 - Math
3 - Gym
4 - English
5 - German
6 - Art
7 - Drama

Wish me luck!

Went to Arja and Arto's summer cottage last night :) It was fun, and I got to experience a real Finnish sauna. And a swim in the Gulf of Bothnia, which was a little cold. It was so pretty out there, so I took pictures. Yay.

Pics

Now that I have my camera cord, here are some pictures I took in Tampere:

That's a really old church, and the paintings on the inside were really cool, but kind of weird. There's a pink church in Kemi that Arja's family goes to, I'll put up a picture of it later.

And from the cockpit on my first flight. The other Lauren's dad, George, and me.

First Host Family

So, I made it through the camp. It was pretty sweet, and I met a lot of friends. Kind of a bummer I had to leave them so soon :/ But, I got to meet two of the families I'll be living with yesterday. My second host family drove me all the way from Karkku to Kemi, which took about 10 hours, but the car ride was fun. We talked a lot, and me at my host sister Vilma watched Twilight :P

I'm at my first host family's house now, it's nice. My bed is so comfortable :D And the room is clean, which is a change. Yay :P We went to the supermarket today, Arja (host mom) and Aino (host sister) quizzed me on Finnish food names. I think I have most of the fruit down. The language is definitely not easy though. I found out that in the winter, the only meat they eat is reindeer. So that'll be an experience. The food here so far has been pretty good though, nothing really bad. It's all pretty healthy too. Lots of fruits and veggies :3 Besides the ice cream :P

School starts next monday, I'm sort of nervous about that. Aino is going to be a sort of tutor to me though, so I might actually learn something, instead of just staring at the teachers. I'll most likely be taking easier classes this term, like art and music, so that will be nice. Tonight a member of Rotex is going to be visiting me, she seems really nice.

I'll update again in a couple days :3

I'm here!

I arrived around 6 (Finland time) yesterday at my language camp. Pretty awesome :) Both my flights went well, and I got to fly first class from Minneapolis to Amsterdam thanks to my friend Lauren's dad!

There are a lot of cool people here, mainly from the U.S. and Canada. So, basically everybody speaks fluent english. No problem communicating :3

I'm learning Swedish (currently) because I'm going to a Swedish speaking school, but I've emailed my host mom to see if Finnish would be better.

Food here is pretty good. Lots of bread and potatoes.

And now its time for my next lesson :P