Month number two.

Well, well. It has been awhile since my last blog. I have to admit that i actually forgot that i had a blog. But i will try to remember to keep it better updated from now on. So, as you can imagine, alot has happened in two months. It is exactly four months today actually since i left Australia, and i can't believe how fast everything is going. It's unreal.
Since my last blog, one thing which has changed incredibly are the seasons. There is well and truely no more snow to be seen. Everything is so green! I actually stopped and looked around the other day and hadn't realised how green and fresh everything had become so fast. It's very pretty. So all the squirrels, birds and rabbits have emerged and i can now say this is my first real Spring.
In other news, a while back there was a celebration called, Vappu. It is meant to be the day which marks the beginning of "summer" and everyone just celebrates all day and night. I went down to the harbour with some friends that night, and the amount of people everywhere was crazy. But it was alot of fun!
Carefully planned, the day after Vappu was of course our trip to St Petersberg, Russia! I was so excited for this trip, getting to meet all the other exchangers and see everyone again. It was going to be a fun four days
After the 9 hours or so spent at boarder check points and driving in the bus, we eventually arrived in St Petersberg. As soon as we crossed the boarder into Russia, there was already an obvious difference. The outskirts of St Petersberg was quite shocking with the amount of poverty and how bad quailty the roads were. However, when we finally arrived, it was a much more nicer city than i had expected. There were so many massive and amazing old buildings on every street. The city itself was so huge, hence why we had to spend our whole time in the one place. Almost everyday we went of bus tours around the city, but still i don't think we got to see everything. We went to amazing old museums and into this one palace which the emperor used to live in. I decided that will be my new home. It was the nicest "house" i'd ever seen. There were big marble stairs, with golden handrailings and red velvet carpets running down them. It is pretty much impossible to try and explain so it sounds good.
The palace had been partially turned into a museum too, so some of the rooms were filled with famous paintings such as Picasso and Claude Monet. That was cool to be able to see those.
So soon enough the trip came to an end, and sadly we all had to part our ways, some of us never to see each other again.
Since Russia, just the usual things have been happening in Lappeenranta. I have finally made alot of amazing friends, who i'm already so sad about having to leave behind. In school and out of school. I spend my free time hanging out with them, going to cafe's, playing soccer, basketball or tennis, or even trying to teach the guys how to throw a boomerang. Which wasn't a complete success, and as expected, someone ended up injured. It was hilarious though. But now since sping has come, the sun isn't out and shinging EVERY day just yet. The rain tends to come a few times a week, but i've decided to use this to our advantage and tomorrow am organising with some friends to go sliding with some tarps up at the hills. So that should be fun! The 18ths are still rolling in, last weekend three of my good friends from school had their birthdays on the same day (two of them are twins, the other just a coincidence) so i went to my friend Liina's house with the girls, it was really good to get to know them all better. They are such a great bunch of girls. Not that long now until it will be my turn!

So basically this is what has been happening in a nutshell. I am off to Europe next week with all the other exchange students in Finland, until the 18th of June. That, is going to be the best fun ever! We are all so excited! I think there is like 80 of us, so fun times ahead! I'll be sure to take millions of photos. But, i think that is it for now, i should be moving host families very soon too.
Until my next blog!

Well, all i can say is that i can't believe that i have been out of the country for officially two months today.
I decided it was time to start up a blog, so it's a bit easier to keep up with.
The first week in Finland was spent up at Karrku, for an orientation camp. More or less to get over the jet lag and excitement of snow. I was with a whole group of other exchange students from around the world, majority Australian's though. But we started off with learning the basics of Finnish, and were taught that Finnish isn't difficult, "it's just different".
Soon enough though the week was over and we all parted ways to finally meet our host families.
So now i have been living here in Lappeenranta for almost two months, and so far i've loved it. I've tried so many new things in such a short space of time! I've been in Finnish sauna, frozen lakes, downhill skiing, been to (now many) ice hockey matches, skated on the frozen lake, cross country skiied, been ice fishing, watched a floorball match, played ice hockey for the first time with some friends, been sleding, made snowmen.. ah and the list goes on.
It was a little weird 'going back to school' again, but schooling here is different so everyone is my age or older still. And, i do literally nothing, except in art where i like to.
Everyone said that Finnish people were generally really shy and kept to themselves, but it wasn't until i started school that i actually understood what they meant. It was kind of hard getting to know people at first, but i had the other exchangers at my school to help me.
Now though, things are finally starting to settle down, i really like my host family, and i have some really nice close friends. I never really run out of things to do here, especially on the weekends! I thought i would be missing all the 18ths back at home, but i have already been invited to my fair share i have to say, so it's been good getting to meet more new people whenever i can!
Well, that is pretty much what has been happening in my life in a nutshell for the past two months.
Trying new things, meeting new people.. it has all been alot of fun, and the year is already flying by. I will blog again later, next chance i get! xo