Finnish Fancies

Okey-dokey, since I haven't updated in...*ahem* a while, I thought I would show you the world that I've been living in. :D Ready?

<-- Merinda pretending to do her homework.

Our mailbox. :)Me getting the mail. :D

Me on one of our balconies, with the "berry" tree in the background. :D

The swing that belongs to the apartment building.

Me on the swing, looking thoughtful.

...and the SANDBOX!!!!!! :D

Other than that, I've just been going to school everyday, trying to understand what people are saying at me, and then I come home, occasionally do my homework, play floor hockey on Tuesdays, watch tv, and sleep.... Oh! and I eat....every now and then. ;)

Let me know how you guys are doing!! Miss you all! :D

Super Saturday

Friday:

On Friday I finished my first week of school. That same day, the young women had a picnic. It was so much fun!! Annu, Pihla, and I practiced batting a bit. Then Annu, Erika, Kerttu, and I went to play on the playground. It's kind of hilarious to go down slides when they are the same length as your legs. :) Anyways, we ate some yummies, talked, laughed, and had a great time. :)

Saturday:

Then yesterday was the stake activity. First we went to a school soccer field, and some guys played soccer, while my mom, Pihla, and I (and all the other girls) sat on a railing. hehe. When I sat next to my mom, she freaked because the railing sank a bit. When Pihla came next to us, she gasped again. Mom showed us how fragile it was by bouncing once on it. It didn't break, just bounce with her, so we continued watching the game. Then Mia came over next to us, and sat down, and ...*CRACK* I was in the middle, right where it split, and we all fell to the ground. .....well, that was fun. ...We didn't trust ourselves to sit on the rails again, so we sat on the steps. ..they were made of concrete. :)

Following the game, everyone went to a cottage by the sea (haha, that sounds poetic, and it really was: there were apple trees, and it was by the ocean.... beautiful!!) There was swimming, sauna, volleyball, darts, and places to chill. We ate soup, then had a seminary talk, sort of, then we listened to two more lessons.

After all of that greatness, we ended the day with a 2 and 1/2 hour dance. =) haha. what more is to be said?! :) Let's see, okay, no one asked my friends or me to dance the first couple of slow songs, so when the fast songs came up, I grabbed my friends, and a few other girls sitting on a bench, and made them dance. What were we missing? guys. Problem easily solved. I went back and grabbed a guy from our ward, and some guy that was standing next to him. Then I grabbed my cousin, Jusa.

Since the floor seemed to clear out soon after, the guys had to put their shoes in the middle, and girls took a shoe to find a partner. I was partnered with a quiet guy. I felt kind of bad. He was terrified. He wouldn't look at me other than a few quick glances when he was asking me questions.

After the first dance, he asked me to dance for the next song, so we ended up dancing for two songs, and then he escorted me off the floor.

My next dance was with a guy that my mom and aunt had been talking about all night, about how gorgeous he was. And, yeah, I guess he was pretty good-looking, so I told Mom and auntie that I was going to ask him to dance. Silly me. I actually did ask him. We danced for the rest of the first song that was playing, then the next one, and then he suggested we dance the next song too. ...yeah. I was tired. :) (he escorted me off the dance floor too...)

By then, the dance hall was really hot, so I went outside and played darts with Pihla. A couple of guys came over and threw darts with us too, and of course, I won. (well, sort of)

I heard a good song come on, so I ran back to dance with Jonathan.

That was when they announced that the final two songs were going to be played. I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't get to dance the last two, but relieved that I could sit with my friends. Annu then wanted to go sit on the benches by the dance floor, so we did. And then, this guy from our ward asked me to dance, and I did get to dance the last two dances!! :)

The activity was then over, and I had a three-hour drive to look forward to.

I tried to sleep on the way back, the result, terrible neck pain. We got back at 1:30 this morning, and went to church at 9:50 a.m.

School With a Pants-full of Sauce

Today was my first day at Normaalikoulu.

I woke up at 6:30 a.m. to take a shower, get dressed, eat, and brush my teeth. When it was finally time, my mom wanted to walk with me. So, of course, I let her come so that she wouldn't feel so bad. You know... :)

We got to the school, said our goodbyes as inconspicuously as possible, and I met my friends, Suvi-Sofia and Pihla. We went to the gym, and were divided into classes. All three of us ended up in different classes.

When I walked into my new homeroom class, I took a seat in the second row, next to a girl who looked friendly. My teacher seems really nice. She talked for about 40 minutes, then we went to a different gym to get our pictures taken. Yay.

After that, the teacher talked for another two hours, at least, I think it was two hours.

Finally, we were allowed to go get some lunch. Just outside of the door to the cafeteria, I saw Pihla. So we waited for Suvi-Sofia, then we all went to lunch.

Now, school lunches in Finland are different than school lunches in America. First of all, they are free, and the cooks actually make them, not reheat.

Today lunch consisted of potatoes and a meat sauce. We found a place to seat, and we began to eat. Before I could get the first bite into my mouth, it fell into my lap, staining my kaki pants. Way to go me.

And so went my first day at the lukio (like a high school).

All Girls are Princesses

Assumption: All little girls want to be princesses. FALSE.

The assumption may be false, but only because some female infants are brainwashed to think they want to be something else, such as: spies, policemen, mailmen, or dolphins....

Fortunately for you, not only did I want to be a princess, I am.

So, like what any fifteen-year-old princess would do when trapped in a city of foreigners, I took refuge in what princesses love most: clothes. =)

I went to the shopping center today with my two new friends, Pihla, and Annu. We spent four hours going store-to-store, making fun of ridiculous clothing, finding some wow outfits, and ultimately buying a grill flipper, but leaving the lobster hat to be claimed by someone whose need was even greater. How kind. =)

....So the next time you hear a little girl say that she doesn't want to be a princess, you know something is wrong, and you should begin looking for the jar (the one they're keeping her brain in....) for every girl wants to be a princess.

Confession: I googled.

Rainy Day Tellings

The last couple of days we were invited to members' houses for lunch! =) Thursday, we went blueberry picking with the family too. Yesterday, with the other family, we had root beer floats! =)

Last night, I was the last one (in my room of Merinda, mikaela, and our little cousin) to go to sleep. I noticed that the window wasn't open, and it gets really hot in our room, so I opened the door to the balcony. During the night, it started raining, not like sprinkling either. RAINING. So I had to get out of bed and close the balcony door because of the noisy rain.

This morning, my dad, grandmother, mom, and sister went to a bakery and got us munkki (s), a sort of doughnut pastry, with jam inside, and covered in sugar! =)

After eating these yummies, I tried to write some more, but I got distracted, talking to Tirosh... No, actually, I was looking at the pictures on our computer, and I found this cute one....well, it is kind of hard to be cute at midnight, but still. =)

...So, we were supposed to go to Lehtisaari (an island) today, but because of the weather, I'm not so sure that we're going.

Hope you guys are having a sunny summer.

Oh, so the school that I'm going to go to is Lyseon Lukio. Well, that's the one that I'm thinking I'm going to, at the moment.

Hey, it's yellow. Who wouldn't want to go there? =)

Copper-Haired and Harry

Copper-haired me:

My dear, loving, kind mother, graciously cut and dyed my hair for the fourth time.

...and then when I took these pictures for my blog, Jonathan, oh-so-lovingly made fun of me.

In Black and White
And my favorite B&W picture

Yesterday, Jonathan and I went to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

It was fantastic! ...though I don't know why it was only rated PG. ..?

Anyways, my favorite part was just before the above picture, when Harry has just taken the "liquid luck." =) Love it!!!

If you haven't seen it, see it ASAP!!

Missing you guys bunches!

p.s. mom, no more correcting my blogs: you're the foreigner, remember?

Hannah's Final Finnish Photos

Greetings from Finland! Sorry I haven't been writing much, but in a house of six people, it's kind of hard to find a time when the computer is free. =)

So, these are the pictures that I haven't been able to put on my blog yet.

The beginning of the Finland adventure.

Myrskykallio-- =)

It's sort of like the beach, if the beach were made out of boulders, and were on an island.

Hannah and I walked the grounds of the temple while my mom and her friend were in a session. The temple is beautiful!!

Our new ward had a crepe party. The crepes were delicious, the weather was a bit rainy, and the bugs were all over us!!

So, Hannah and I had the crazy idea to cover our faces, but we only had our scarves...

When we finally arrived in Jyväskylä, we found a park a block or two away from the apartment. Mikaela named it the "train park", for obvious enough reasons.

Hannah left yesterday, the 17th.

Harry Potter came out yesterday. I haven't seen it yet.

My grandmother and aunt from the U.S. arrive in Finland today.

They come to Jyväskylä next Wednesday.

Today is karkkipäivä, or "candy day."

I haven't been to a bookstore yet.

I'm not sure why.

I have a library card! =)

Last summer, I read 14 books all the way through.

This summer, I have read one whole book, My Sister's Keeper.

I'm slipping.

I'm missing my home,

my friends,

my Kimmi,

my room,

the library,

the movie theater,

the church building,

and all my church friends.

The youth in this ward sort of keep to themselves,

so of course I feel great.

Hope you all are having a fantastic summer.

Missing you all,

Matilda