Last Days

   Yesterday was my last full day with the Salminens. Most of the day was spent packing all my stuff up. In the evening Anna, Aada, Venla and I went swimming at a hotel. The pool had 3 slides but I only did 2. The hot tub was really more of a "almost warm" tub. Outside was a pool of water that was only about 50 degrees F. Inside was a water exercise class. They were listening to some 80's music. Barf. The swimming place had 3 saunas. I went into two of them. One of the saunas smelt really weird so I didn't stay more than 30 seconds in there.
    Today is my last full day in Finland. This afternoon I'm taking a 2 hour bus ride to Helsinki. The last time I'll see the Salminens is at the bus stop where they picked me up in June. 6 weeks have gone by so fast! I'll be spending the night with a YFU volunteer's family. Outi-Leena is the mother's name. They are currently hosting a German exchange student for the year. Outi--Leena will drive me to the airport at 3 or 4 am tomorrow. My flight to Munich leaves at 6:30 am. SO EARLYYYYY. My Saturday will be spent on airplanes. My flight from Munich to DC is 9 hours long, so I'll probably die of boredom.
   
Well I gotta go do stuff now.

Potatoe Fail and Friends

   Yesterday Jarno and Anna had to work so I was in charge of lunch. Mostly it was just leftovers. But I had to make the potatoes. Turns out I can't make potatoes to save my life. I boiled them like Anna showed me but they came out so hard and nasty.
    Later that afternoon I went to hang out with my friends Anna,Emmi and Eveliina. We went over to Anna's house and played SingStar! We did the "Greatest Hits Of The 80's" and "ABBA". I rocked "Fight For Your Right To Party" but did pretty terrible at "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". The other girls knew all the ABBA songs but I only knew two. We then took Anna's dog on a walk. We talked about the differences between US and Finland. Eveliina didn't understand why we put jam on bread. It was a pretty fun afternoon.
    This morning I spent most of my time packing. Packing to go home is less fun than packing to go somewhere exciting. Now it is down poring. I think that the rain is supposed to continue until Friday night. Sanni is having her birthday party this afternoon so that should be fun!

Shopaholic

   I'm updating from my phone because my computer has gone to the dark side. Literally,the screen is black. Yesterday was mostly a relaxing day after 5 days of family time. For Lunch I made an awesome beef dish. It required 2-4 handfuls of scrambled beef,a can of tomato product,2 carrots and a cute little onion. I cooked it all in the same pan and it was DELICIOUS. I will be making that again. Yesterday afternoon I went on a long run. I was thirsty so I decided to run into the woods to get some blueberries to eat. They were all dried up but I saw Sanni and Sara. I did a run through the woods andSara was running after me.
    Later that evening we all saunaed. I picked at a little scab and it started bleeding. And it didn't stop for a long time. The sauna helps to thin blood I think.


    This afternoon Sanni and I went to Turku with Aino and Hilda who are family friends. We took a bus into town. I bought some interesting things; a rhino eraser,lip earrings and a muffin. Many girls at the malls wear super revealing outfits. For a country with such shy people, they have no problem with showing butt cheeks.
    Now I'm going to take Sara for a quick walk.

Ruka part 2

  Thursday morning we didn't do all that much. I read a lot on my kindle. I am now on book 4 of the "Song of Ice and Fire" series (game of thrones).In the afternoon we went on a long hike in a national park. There were lots of waterfalls and a really scary rope bridge over a river that I crossed. I thought for sure I was going down. We hiked over 8 km that afternoon. Blueberries were everywhere! We also saw a few reindeer.
   Friday morning we went white water rafting! This was probably the funnest thing we did in Ruka. We went over 6 sets of rapids that were class 1 through 3. I thought the class 3 one was the funnest  but everybody else thought it was scary. Our skipper got injured the last time he went on it because the group hit  the part where you drop 2 meters at one moment. He didn't tell us this story until AFTER we got down the rapids. I almost fell out of the boat a lot. I did fall into the boat twice because my seat was so slippery. It was very hard to paddle while bouncing around so much. Sanni and I were joking about who we wanted to fall out of the boat. I was betting on Jarno because he was in the very front of the boat.
   After rafting we went on a tiny (1.6 km) hike to a fire pit in another part of the national forest. There was a reindeer only 30 feet from us watching us eat. When we were heading back to the car Anna showed me a map of where we were. Russia was only 12 km away! I joked about running there quick but Anna said that there were cameras all along the boarder and many people tried to get over there and they got arrested. Bummer. Finns are not big fans of Russians and I see why.
    Friday night I went in the sauna again. When I converted the temp from celcius to farrenheit I was amazed. The litter room was over 170 degrees farrenheit! This morning we just drove home for 12 hours. Pretty boring but I read quite a it.

This morning we just drove home for 12 hours

Ruka part 1

   I am currently in Ruka which is in Lapland. I'm about 200 km from the Artic Circle. I'm writing this on an iPad that auto-corrects to Finnish. So bear with me.
   Yesterday we left at 7 am for the 12 hour drive. The drive itself is only 10 hours long But we stopped at Ikea for lunch. The drive Was pretty Boring But i slept alot. My sistern Aada had a temper tantrum for over an hour. My ears hurt so bad And i had a headache from all the screaming.
   We Saw about 5 reindeer on the drive And Jarno almost hit one. When we got to the cabin i Was happy to Find out that I had my own room. Then we decided to Go for a little walk. I thought that the walk would be like 10 minutes. Turns out we were going to hike the freaking Ruka ski hill. It Was so steep But all the sweat paid off when I got to the top And Saw reindeer at the top of the ski lift! The walk down Was quick. Then we got back to the cabins (they rented out a second one right next to theirs) And i did the sauna the Finnish way. Look it up.
    This morning we all went shopping at Some Finnish Gift shops. I bought a key chain for myself And a few gifts for my family. I wanted to Buy a really Cool knife But i would probably end up stabbing myself.
     After lunch we went mountain biking. Lots of hills And amazing scenery. We took a break to hike down to a crystal Clear lake. My sisters went skinny dipping But i declined. Aparently the lake has Some gold from the mining days But i didnt see any. Dang it.
     Back onto the bikes we Came to a tunnel with reindeer in it. We had to Go through the tunnel so we chased the reindeer out. After a really steep hill i managed to get to the front of out family And out of no where 7 reindeer ran out in front of me!  Crazy. Then we had Another tunnel And this Timo one of the reindeer in it didn't move.
    Well now i'm tired from all this craziness. Also i made crepes

Vacation

   Tomorrow morning we're all going to cram into the car and drive 10 hours to Ruka! I'm already thankful for my noise canceling headphones.

   Yesterday we went to a confirmation and confirmation party where some super talented kids played classical music. There is something about a 8 year old playing classical music that makes me question my life decisions.

   I can't believe that I only have 11/12 days left here!

The Downsides

   Not everything has been what I have expected so far while staying here. I was warned of all of these things before I left but I really didn't expect them to happen

1. Gaining weight - At first when I got to Finland I was actually losing weight. I'm not sure why I was but I had lost about 3 pounds within the first week and a half. I'm not used to eating as much as I do here. We have breakfast, lunch, dinner and desert. Also we have been going to so many parties and It is rude not to try something that someone spent a lot of time making. I have been working out every day in my room and walking so much but I have still gained about 5-10 pounds. Hopefully I'll be able to run when we're in Ruka next week because I am the "Fat American". Also, being sad from a rough breakup has not helped with my self confidence.

2. Sleep issues - I have always been good at sleeping. I can sleep almost anywhere. But for some reason it takes me almost 30 minutes to fall asleep every night.I also have to wake up early a lot so that doesn't help.

3. Homesickness - I don't think Im homesickness in the traditional sense. I miss my home and my family but I still like being here. I just miss my old routine of waking up when I want, going to tennis and being able to have time by myself.

   I hope my host family doesn't think that I don't want to spend time with them when I go into my room sometimes. I just want some alone time where no one screams or sings loudly.

ugh

Åland Islands

   Thursday and Friday of this week were spent at the Åland Islands. Here are some facts about these islands.

•  autonomous, demilitarised,monolingually Swedish-speaking region of Finland 
• Åland comprises Fasta Åland ("Main Island", on which 90% of the population resides)^[5] and a further 6,500 skerries and islands to its east
• Åland has its own flag, has issued its own postage stamps since 1984, runs its own police force, and is a member of the Nordic Council. Since 2005 the Åland Islands also have had their own airline, Air Åland.   

I think the best way to talk about the trip is by pictures. 

Homes and Helsinki

    Yesterday morning we drove 2 hours to a model home event near Helsinki. It was 31 new homes that people could walk through and see all the new Finnish house technology or something like that. It was cloudy, cold and windy and I was wearing a dress. At first I thought this thing would be cool but then I realized that Finnish homes all kind of look the same. 

Just incase you ever get lost in your house

Sauna of course

    After those two hours, the fun began. We drove a half hour until we were in downtown Helsinki. I was able to buy come really cool gifts. Here are pictures of the afternoon.

Indian Representative's House

Russian Orthodox Church

Candles  

"Raise the Roof"

Helsinki Cathedral

Organ

Jazzzzz 

I dropped a few thousand euros here.  I wish

Baby Birthday Party

    Monday evening the whole family got in the car and drove to another random island. We went to a birthday party for Anna's sister's baby. I'm not sure what the baby's name was because everybody just called her "Baby". She was turning one year old and was a really tall baby.
    Of course we had to sauna at the party. The sauna was the hottest one I've been in yet. It was so hot that we couldn't touch the handle of the door so we had to use the water ladle to push it open. After 3 minutes in the sauna we decided to jump into the sea. The past few days have been stormy around this island and the water had a gotten a bit colder, I was told. What I didn't know was that the water was only 53 degrees F. I could only jump in, scream bloody murder because my blood was turning to ice and climb out as fast as possible. I only went into the water 3 times and each time lasted about 25 seconds.
    This area of water is different than the other areas of the sea I've been in. The water was crystal clear.  And deep. There was a giant drop off under the dock and the water was at least 60 feet deep. Luckily I know how to swim.
     After that experience it was time to eat some grub. I mostly ate salad and chicken because that was the only meat that I knew what animal it came from. Then it was baby time!
     Baby and I played for such a long time. She liked to bump heads and bite people's noses. We played so much that when it was time to sing happy birthday she was asleep in my arms. Everybody laughed and took pictures.

Baby and I

Sleeping Baby

Crazy Roope.

Swimming area

Dead poisonous snake

Week in Kulho

    Jarno picked me up at the bus station last Sunday after my exciting weekend in Tallinn. We drove straight from the bus station to a boat ramp on the island of Satava. We got in a sketchy boat and drove to the summer cottage the Salminens had rented for the week. Kulho island is right by Kuusisto, in fact we could see the island when we took the boat to the grocery store. Kulho has no roads and is only reached by boat (you could swim if you were a fool).

Kulho is to the left of Kuusisto

Here you can see our cabin to the right and the dock and sauna by the water .

   I didn't have wifi but was able to use Jarno's ipad one night to show their friends where Minnesota was. We had guests over almost every day. Sanni's birthday was on Friday and her grandparents and aunt came for strawberry shortcake. On Saturday a family with 5 kids (one was at camp) came to our cottage for some swimming and sauna. Both parents had been exchange students in the US. The mother was in Kansas but came to MN for a week and the father was in Texas. His English has a southern accent to it. The parents were really nice and invited Sanni and I to go waterskiing with them this week.
    The cottage itself wasn't very fancy. The bathroom was a outhouse and had no shower. Luckily the sauna had a hot water heater so I could wash my hair with that. I slept on the couch that was actually more comfortable than my bed here. There was a tv which was used to watch trashy American tv and a stupid French show. Sanni and I watched Dance Moms, The Real housewives of OC and Tough Love.  The French show was called "Foudre". I'm not sure what the show was about but there was a boy "Alex" who kept trying to put the moves on "Alice" but she kept saying no. There were dramatic flash backs of Alice making out with a blonde guy in the river and Alex going after whaling ships in Antartica. His little boat hit the whaling boat and the sea became dramatically red. Another show we watched was "Uusi Päivä" which is a Finnish show. Uusi Päivä is Degrassi + Love Actually + Days of Our Lives + Finnish Language. It's a favorite show of the girls but makes even less sense to me than Foudre. The only thing I like about the show is the character Tomi because he is so dang cute. Like a puppy. I watched an episode of That 70's Show but no one else got the jokes.
   On Wednesday we all (including Sara of course) rode back to the car to take a drive back home to water the plants and go to the big super market. At the super market I showed Jarno the American section. We bought "Minnesotan Syrup" and "Fluff (marshamallow). He loved the syrup so much he put it on all over our ice creams. That was a first.
     Every day consisted of sauna and swimming. Not much to report about that except the sauna took 4-evvvveeerrrr to heat up. I still have not done naked sauna.
     On the island of Kulho is a old reform school. The school isn't very big but is visible from the sea. Anna told me that it was a very abusive home. A movie was made about a boy who went to the school called "The Home Of Dark Butterflies". The movie was actually filmed at the school as far as I can tell. I must find a free version online with subtitles. Anna says that it might be true, some things are for sure like the abuse and that a family opperated it.

The School.

  Here are some pics from my week .... 

Sanni,Jarno,Aada,Sara,Venla,Anna

Aada and Sara both wear lifejackets

View from the dock

Jarno doing something manly.Probably.

The cabin. The sauna partly cut off.