Christmas Cooking Class!

I got out of exams today and now I have about four hours till I have my prep class. This is why there will be so many posts. Bear with me loves.

Saturday! I woke up to Saturday breakfast. We have a sit down breakfast every day here but what makes the weekends special is the fact that the coffee is not Instant coffee. Its heck's. 

We all just sit and read the news. Drink Coffee. Eat Porridge.

cooking class here we go

minun paras ystäväni 

Our baking turned out half way decent.. except for the Truffles. But in all respect the Hungarian and Me were doing those by our selves. And we had to translate the recipe and I am pretty sure we translated it wrong due to the fact they were horrible. We told everyone in the class that they were an American/Hungarian take on the finnish Truffles. They laughed... still unsure if they found it funny or if there was pity... 

mhhh so much finnish 

Camilla and me! 

During the evening, well at four in the afternoon. Its pitch black by then. I went exploring. I wanted some time alone but I wanted a hug too.  My äiti gave me one when I got home.

The evening ended in tea and a skype date with my best friend. Each day there are struggles but each day you have to push your self to find something beautiful. It's there. You just sometime need to look in a different way.

Concert and Isäpäivä

Saturday was spent at my High School here. There was a debate work shop, and if you know me I can argue and well speak English fluently. Therefore, I was asked to attend. It went well and I was the official "bell ringer" during the final debate. The debate was just really awesome because I was able to hang with some fins.

Afterwards I rushed home, changed, and went and met up with Kirsi. Her and her husband treated me to a lovely dinner and then the Live Final of a famous Finnish TV show, "We want more." It is about all the old bands which broke up and this show was suppose to bring them back together. I was at the final concert.

It was such an amazing experience (sadly my phone died.. resulting in no pictures.) But the immensity of the event still stuns me. The concert was feeding live to TVs all over finland and I was there. I was treated to some finnish licorice. I came home to have a small snack of food from the care package.

Sunday was Father's Day here. My family and I went to this expo things about farm animals. I was not expecting to be so excited, because well, I lived on a farm my whole life. But when we  walked in, it smelled like the Fair Grounds. It brought back memories of 2 dollar snow cones and late nights in the barn. I thought of the dreaded hay days and of how I use to ride my horses till it was dark. The horses. Walking in I saw a horse trailer and I got the biggest grin. We went to see the horses first! My family takes such good care of me here. There were cows and chickens. Things which I took for granted back home, and sometimes even hated, I was getting excited over and taking pictures of! 

Brittney! these things kept us awake so many nights

they are watching a cow show, just like the ones at the fair

sheep herding 

my favorite lady and some mushroom soup

turn around and you see laplanders

We came home to enjoy some finnish pizza. Mhh pineapple!

Hyvää Isäpäivää

I am hiking and hiking.

Sunday, I woke to a lovely drizzle and the grey sky of Finland. It was time to hike. The family took me for a morning hike (intense hike) in the nearby national park in Sipoo. It was gorgeous and cold. But what caught me off guard was how when you went into the forest it became somewhat warm. There wasn't a great amount of light in account of the weather but the rain didn't make it a bad experience. If anything it added to it.

The beauty of Finland is indescribable. Its untouched. Its harmless. It is pure.
The trees are so thick but are pine so the floor of the forest is clean looking. And sometimes the ground is rocks. It is never flat.

We just walked into this place with a map and my woodsy father.

having your jeans coated in mud and your braid torn to shreds is a good sign that the hike was pretty awesome

the trees were hella tall 

we climbed this really tall hill thingy and there was this beautiful rock place which overlooked a lake. We sat and talked for awhile. 

running into old farms (really really really old farms) is normal here

we stopped for a quick lunch of tea and sandwiches.

 That evening since it was my host father's birthday, we had a small get-together of the family. It was nice the table was all fancy and there was yummy cake and stuff. Also my house has a tree in it. Fun fact- nature is everywhere here and I love it.

pö- finnish for tree... i think