Villikelkka

Outside the weather is fantastic. Well, currently the sky is blue and everything is melting, but it still looks wonderful and snowy. In order to celebrate this fact, Reetta had her birthday a few weeks ago. So Stella, Iida, and I decided to go over to her house and have a party. While at her birthday, besides sledding on the river and tromping around in snow (or eating cake), we did this really cool spinning chair thing, called villikelkka (wild sled) or vipukelkka (lever sled). Either way, it's fantastic, and one of the better uses for a river. Hopefully these show you what I mean.  

Trivia: Here in Finland, turning 16 isn't actually that big of a deal. Since you gain no new rights (no driver's license until 18, along with drinking) it isn't that important. Of course, this varies person to person, but in comparison to the USA, it's nothing much. 

On another note, fellow (Canadian) exchange student Peter lives in the same part of Finland as I do, and if you are into reading blogs, his is an excellent one to read. He updates weekly and talks in-depth about tons of subjects! Also, he has a bright red jacket! His Finnish is terrific, and he's a nice guy. 

http://acrossthefinnishline.blogspot.com/ 

I plan on doing lots of short blogs for the time being, to make up for my lack of activity recently. 

The Winter's Harvest

Right now, I can feel change in the air. While the nights are still cold, the days grow warmer - and longer. It's a nice feeling, something I'd like to keep with me. I've changed host families yet again ( I have four, which is a bit more than average, but means I change families every three months) and I've also met my fourth (almost for sure) family. The third years (seniors) left at the end of fourth period, and have the rest of the school year to study for their final exams. I had a formal dance with the second class (juniors), had a week long ski holiday, and am now in my fifth period. Lots of everything, coming all at once! It's a bit intimidating, but exciting, and I'm loving it here!

That sums up what I've been doing in the past few weeks. February was a bit of a stressful month. I've already started to fill up all my free time until July, when I leave, so I'm feeling lots of emotions at the moment. I've been hanging out lots with my friends here, making the most of the time I have with them. Of course, there's still plenty of time left, but I might as well be with them as much as I can.

So, as a way to leave all of those who read this unsatisfied, I'm going to post a few pictures of my friend at a cafe we went to last weekend.

Cake, tea, and cocoa mustaches. With help from Reetta.