Surprise! Surprise!

For the past two weeks we have been planning this. This, Operation Wild Card, as we refer to it, is our surprise party for Milly. Milly is my best friend here and she is from Sydney, Australia. She is pretty cool and a while back I decided I wanted to do something for her.

The plan was this.

Get Sam here.
Get her to be surprised.
Cook Mac and Cheese.

All happened really well.


I spend a lot of time at the Kerava Lukio, where milly goes to school, because I have my night school there. This resulted in me befriending all of her friends and they were in will doing this. It would not have happened with out them I am pretty sure.

Part one: Get Sam here. 

I contacted sam at the beginning of this. He made it down here. I met him after school in the city and we went to find costumes. We wanted to dress up like Russians... long story. Anyway! He was here and we then met the Finnish Friend gang at the Kerava Rail Station. We ran into Milly in the city center so sam and I had to run and hide while the Finnish friends were all normal. Milly would have known if sam and I were there.

part one- accomplished

Part Two: get her to be surprised

It was called operation wild card for a reason. Milly is a wild card. She has her ways to find out. And at one point, she was very upset with me for making "plans with her friends with out her" When in all reality we were planning for her. It was really really hilarious. Anyways, when she walked in she had no clue. 

part two- success!

Part Three: Cook Mac and Cheese

Milly never had it. Neither did anyone else. This meant I went to this Finnish kid's kitchen and just started cooking. Thank goodness he was okay with it... I wasn't planning on stopping

part three- tasty!

we won with the costumes.

It was a good  night of cards and laughing and well of course Mac and Cheese. Milly is my closest here and of course she is insane and has now got me saying words like "moll" and "sloshed" and "mate" in my day to day language. Thats okay. I wouldn't have it any other way. She is a huge part of what this year is and well she is now a huge part of me. I can't wait to visit Australia one day. 

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

Hey! I am 17!!

Hey! I am 17! My birthday was Monday! Yeah!

I woke up on Monday totally unaware it was my birthday. It shocks me that I forgot about something that big, my own birthday, but it happened. I feel that is due to the thousands of other things I have to focus on. I was on my morning run when I received a text from a friend wishing me well for my birthday. It took me back. It was actually my birthday.

View from when I received the message. I felt the feeling and the place needed to be documented. Very movie like, it was drizzling rain. Erie...

When I went home, I showered and fell back asleep (I still had a few hours till school began, since I start at noon on Mondays.) I was awoken by Salla singing to me. Best wake up ever! I took the train to school where there was more singing and laughter. You all should go and listen to the Finnish happy birthday song, it kinda sounds a warm angry I guess. But you can still feel the warmth from the voices. It is a strange experience.  I have many friends here. They show me classes and explain everything, even the little things. I am very well taken care of here. 

Watching my English teacher explain American humor was interesting...

Michael was very excited to show me his "American" sweatshirt. He is hilarious. 

After school, Ollie rode the train with me to this different train station (do not ask me to spell the name, Finnish is the worst to say) He waited until my consular showed up. I rode with her to my first Rotary Club meeting for the Northern Helsinki Rotary Club. I am now shared by two clubs- Northern Helsinki and Kerava. It works out well! I was taken to this very fancy restaurant where they have all of their meetings. I was asked to sit at the head table, to say the least it was very terrifying. 

My presentation went well. It started off with candy and ended in questions! So thank goodness for that! I was given gifts for my birthday afterwards. They gave me flowers and books about Finland. It was so fun to see them all stand and sing.  It ended a bit late so when I arrived home, I sat with my family and watched re-runs of Park and Rec.

Today we celebrated my birthday. Ollie and Norrah came over and celebrated with us. It was Sade's birthday earlier this month so we celebrated that also. There was all of her little nugget friends here. It was a blast. Ollie, Norrah, and I went for walks and just had a blast. I am so thankful they are in my life.  

This is what happened when I introduced them to American candy

they found pretzels

Umbrella! and Mumi!

I came with only one suitcase and a carry on, so I don't have much to my name. You really do not need that much stuff at all I have seen. But I now get excited over the littlest things now (I found a bead which I kept. A bead. I am excited over a bead.)! I got a pencil pouch! my own! And to be honest, none of the things really matter it is the thought which went behind all of it. That sounds really cheesy but I understand it now. My family knew that I loved flowers and since it already is fall here, all the flowers are gone. I walked into my room to find a potted plant. It is the thought. It is still summer here at home, my home in finland. I have two homes now. 

Wow. I am 17 now. 

This is actually happening.