A very busy week

At the summer cottage
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Last week,  as depicted by the title of this entry,  was a very busy week.  This is the reason why I did not write last week.

School is going relatively well.  Its a little boring and long but I made some friends there so its ok.  I reallt appreciate what they're doing because I know how hard it is to speak in a language that you're not comfortable with.  Yet they include me in everything and they teach me Finnish.   I'm  starting to pick up a little on some Finnish and I'm studying it every day at school.  I can now understand the general idea of a conversation most of the time.

Kenkävero
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Also,  my school is planning a trip to Estonia for four days and I've already  made sure that  I'm allowed to go.   All of my friends from school are also going so it'll be a blast.  Not to mention that we'll see a musical by Andrew lloyd Webber while we're in Tallinn.  I'm really excited to see if Estonia is very different from Finland because,  although they're close geographically,  they're political history is significantly different.

I presented my Canada power point twice already.  To the ninth grade english classes.  My rotary club wants me to present a little later to see how I've improved in my Finnish.  The meetings are quite comfortable.  I expected to be in a club that is very strict and where only men are allowed but,  they're pretty layed back and they've all spoken to me,  an the club president is a woman.  Whereas my club in Calgary had whole meals,  we only have coffe,  tea,  and cake.  I've met most of the rotarians and they're all interested in what I'm doing and how I'm doing.  I think that if it was a club in a bigger city,  it might be different.  Iis also interesting to know what their outbound student is doing because she is in Lethbridge right now and she is the daughter in one of my host families. This Tuesday we're visiting the fire department in Mikkeli.

handmade shoes in kenkävero
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Last weekend was especially busy.  On Firday afternoon,  I went to the summer cottage with my oldest host sister,  Marjanna,  her friend Heli,  and her cousin who left to study in Helsinki on Sunday.  It was sort of a goodbye party for her and a welcome party for me.  We ate some makkara ( a special Finnish sausage),  some salad,  and some potatoes which we had taken from our garden.  We then had some coffe and went to sauna.  There is no feeling more relaxing than jumping from sauna to lake to sauna.  Its just like coming back from an especially satisfying run.  After that,  we watched a movie and went to bed.  The next morning we had to leave quite abruptly (though not early,  it was 12.00 at least).  It so happens that Marjanna brought her dog Rody to the cottage.  Harri,  my host father,  hates dogs.  Harri arrived at the summer cottage on saturday morning to do some renovating and the first thing he saw was that Rody had eaten some flowers.  Marjanna decided that it was a good time to leave.  So we went to Mikkeli,  to the Kenkävero which means "shoetax".  Apparently,  when people's sunday shoes were broken or too used,  had to come to this place near Mikkeli and pay a shoe tax.  Nowadays,  its a beautiful,  old little village where they grow amazing flowers, and where there is an expensive restaurant.  There is also a marketplace there where they sell handmade Finnish crafts.  I'm pretty sure I found the place where I'll buy all of my Christmas as birthday presents.

A wooden USB
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After that,  we went to see Mikkeli Park where there are lots of different gardens.  It sort of reminded me of Buchard Gardens but much smaller and without as many exotic plants.  We also ate some typical Finnish candy.  I spend the night at Marjanna's apartment because we had to get up early in the morning for a dog training competition.  So we watched "Lupaus" and "Matti" which are finnish movies with English subtitles.  I found that it really helped me with the language though.  I even found out that they had made mistakes in the subtitles.  Both movies were very good.  Lupaus was about the second world war in Finland and Matti was about the olympic athlete.

Kenkävero
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The dog training went well too although Sara,  Marjanna's other dog,  didn't do so well.  Finally,  to put a nice finish (get it hahaha...bad joke) on my weekend,  I visited the Partio's sheep which live on another farm now.

Then,  monday came with more rain.  My religion calss and i went to visit an Orthodox monestary.  It was very interesting and we participated in the whole service which lasted an hour and a half. The monks an priests were a little intimidating though,  they wore long black veils and sort of made me think of the lord of the rings or the grim reaper.  They were singing in Finnish the whole time although it sounded more like gregorian chant to me.  We were also standing so and I hadn't eaten,  by the time the priest came out with the inscence,  I was about ready to faint.  I didn't of course.  It was really cool to see what they were doing and what the orthodox people were doing too.  They were always bowing and doing to the sign of the cross although they touched their right shoulder first.  I think the priest had to say the kirie fourty times,  twice during the ceremony.  The people also kneeled and bowed.  It was moving to see them,  the women all had shalls wrapped around their heads and everyone was dressed modestly.  I have to admit that I was very tired at the end though.  Especially since this monestary is about two hours away from Ristiina, in Heinavesi.

flowers at kenkävero
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On Tuesday,  I had a rather pleasant day since pretty much all my classes were canceled.  This is because my social teacher is also the principal of the school and therefore was too busy to teach,  and my phys ed teacher had a very important meeting that she couldn't miss.  I then went to the rotary meeting and one of the rotarians gave me some history books in english about Finland.  I think I might be able to take kantele lessons too.

Finally,  yesterday,  I learned to develop film in photography class and I went to see Batman:  The Dark Knight in theaters with meliina and some friends.

Olga and Una
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Like I said,  very busy week and its not about to end (thankfully)

See you next time!