A Postcard from Lohitie

All of these blog posts could be called "A little catching up to do..."

But hello there! Welcome back to the saga of my year here in Finland! Im pretty sure I left you guys with the stories about my wonderful stay in Kauhava... Dang, I really do suck at blogging, much has happened since then! I'll just dive in then...

Second Host Family
When I got off the train from Kauhava, I got in the car with my first host mom and went over the events of my lovely week, then, at the end of my stories she said that she had some bad news. Naturally, I had a mini heart-attack, thinking that I must have unknowingly broken some rule and that my butt would be on a plane back to Alaska sooner than originally planned. She went on to tell me that the house had a bad water leak, and that there was a good chance that I would have to change host families a month earlier than planned. This calmed my dreadful musings about an early return, but new worries about packing and leaving this wonderful family set in. I knew my second family, and was comfortable with them, but moving after only two months? That made me nervous.
I had about a week to pack my things (meaning I waited until 3 hours before leaving), and when the day came, Annica and Fred helped me get my luggage upstairs and out the door, and together we walked down the street to my new home. It was about a 5 minute walk, and when I reached the house my new host brother was there to help me get my MASSIVE suitcase up the sea foam green spiral staircase to my new room. I gave my wonderful family a final hug, and then the door shut, opening a new chapter in my Finnish life.
Skipping ahead in the story, I have now been in this house for about 3 weeks, and I am completely happy and comfortable! I get along with my host mother and brother, and I think that they like me too! Or at least I hope so haha :)

Random, but good, memories I haven't yet written down.

One day, a few weeks ago, my good friend Tuomas from Kauhava came to Helsinki, so I went to meet him for coffee. We ended up sightseeing around Helsinki and then meeting up with other friends that were in town. This group was very diverse, and the conversations we had that night left me laughing for hours afterward. Our coffee group included Angela from Italy, Dylan and Rae from Canada, Tuomas, Sara, and Hanna from Finland, and myself. We stayed out talking until about 8 pm, and then all went our separate ways. This is a classic example of the get togethers that normally occur, coffee, taking, and lots of laughter.

Rotex, the ex-exchange students, threw a Halloween party for all of the students in the 1420 district. I went with a huge group of people from the Helsinki area, dressed as a witch. My good friend Rae and i scrambled to find costumes that same day, so she went as Waldo, and I found a black dress and a witches hat and called it good. We had lots of food and talked and laughed, some people went to the jacuzzi and sauna, and over all we had a really nice time!

I think this is a long enough post, I will write more when my big plans for the future are in action! But before I go...

GO OBAMA!