We've Come Full Circle

We spent our last full day together being us. I ate my last bowl of Anne's delicious porridge and poured in the right amount of milk and mixed the perfect of jam. I'm really going to miss my morning breakfasts. In the afternoon, we drove over to an outdoor marketplace and flea market  that I've never been to before. We walked around looking at the unique crafts then headed over to the grocers to buy a huge box of fresh strawberries and a bag of the delicious new potatoes that I've grown fond of! There was a big playground right next to the marketplace and Lassi was itching to play so he grabbed me as his play-buddy! I had no shame and I climbed on the play structure with him and led him around with my broken Finnish. It was one of the few moments I really fell in love with Lassi and that the language barrier didn't get in our way. Playing with him made me realize how much I would miss him. Even though he can be really crazy sometimes, I've seen how sweet and cute he can be. I really hope he remembers me when I'm gone because I'm never going to forget this adorable kid. 

Featuring a girl who helped swing Lassi. 

We played for a looong time. After a few protests, we finally managed to get Lassi off the playground and into the car to head back home. Lassi and I had so much fun together and I teared up a little when I remembered that it was my last day with my family. But I contained myself. Back at home, Nina and I started to cut the strawberries. Even Lassi helped a bit! And by "helping" I mean eating most of his strawberries. Anne and Mikko cooked fish and potatoes behind us and I was so happy that we were making a meal as a family! We ate outside in the perfect weather and my big brother Jesse even came back from work in the middle of our meal! I asked Jesse all my curious questions - like how to say bad words in Finnish. I learned a lot! Everyone laughed at my stupid questions but it was good, good times. 

In the evening, Anne, Nina, and I drove to the stable that Nina used to practice. There were two cats and two dogs who were the most cuddly and cute animals on the planet! But the two sheep that quietly stared into my soul were pretty nice too. But the moment I walked in the stable, I knew I would never work in a farm because the smell destroyed me. Some of the horses were huge and they kind of scared me with their gigantic heads moving around. So no countryside future for me. It was a great time though! Nina got to see her old buddies and Lassi got to pet horses! 

That evening, I said my farewells to my lovely American neighbors and the quiet but cool Jesse. I "said" goodbye, but it didn't feel like my last day. I fell asleep thinking that I'd wake up tomorrow to Anne's porridge and spend the day with my fun family.

Twinning!

My family was going to drop me off at the bus station so I could catch a ride to the Helsinki airport, but before that, we had to eat a great breakfast. So my family took me to the breakfast of my beginnings - the same place where we had our first breakfast together! We came around a full circle, but it still didn't feel like my last Finnish breakfast. It was delicious, as always, and I'll remember it forever. At the end of our meal, my family surprised me with great farewell gifts! They gave me a box of delicious Fazer chocolate, Muumi chocolate, an Niiskuneiti Muumi doll, and oh my - there was that Muumi mug that I've always wanted! Their thoughtfulness really hit home. My nose started running and my throat closed up a bit. I knew that I would cry at one point this day and it was going to happen real soon.

So the bus station. We waited for the bus and had little broken conversations. It was a little surreal. It just felt like another day. Even as we were walking up to the bus and loading my luggage inside, I didn't think I was leaving. When I hugged Lassi goodbye, he gave me a goodbye kiss on the cheek! I hugged Nina and Mikko goodbye and told them I would miss them so much. Anne hugged me warmly and said "I'm going to miss you! I love you!" Oh man. She really got the feels going. Finnish people speak sincerely, so when they say "I love you", they mean it with all their heart. I had so much to say to my family but I couldn't speak with my throat closing and the tears welling up. I wanted to say how much I would miss them and how much they meant to me. I wanted to say that I wanted them to meet my parents and sisters after telling them funny stories about them. I wanted to spend more time with them, but I couldn't say anything. I could only hug and nod. I climbed on the bus and instantly broke down. I quietly sobbed and finally realized how attached I've gotten to my host family over just a few weeks. And now that I was alone and they were going back to their home without me, I instantly regretted not appreciating my time with them more. The bus started driving away, and I looked out the window one last time and saw my host family smiling and waving goodbye to me. That killed me. There was nothing I wanted more than to run out and hug them again. But instead, I sobbed for a half hour with the crushing realization that my last moment of being a part of my host family had passed. The chances of us meeting up together again are good - I know that. But what made me cry so hard was the fact that I'll never be as immersed in something as special as being in their family again. My time with them was so invaluable and unique that I already know that I'll never have an experience like that ever again. But I can leave Finland knowing that we all had a great summer filled with laughs and smiles.

Two and a half hours later, I arrived in Helsinki airport and once again, it was like the American students haven't been apart. But this time, it wasn't all smiles. Some of the families said their goodbyes at the airport and tears were shed. All of us understood the feeling and most of us had just wiped away our tears. We walked through the airport while catching up and talking about how strange it was to finally be heading back to the US. Once we were on the plane, we got comfortable and talked the hours away. We wrote farewell notes to each other, signing our names with heartfelt messages to some of the best friends we've had. It's amazing how close all of us have gotten to each other over this short amount of time. Before I knew it, we landed in Washington D.C. After baggage claim and customs, we separated between those who had another flight ahead of them and the others who were staying overnight for their flight tomorrow. I said goodbye to some of my really good friends and almost cried. But we're way too close to say our final goodbyes yet.

The others who were staying overnight waited by the arrivals and we passed the time by watching families being reunited. I was looking through my iPod and I wanted to change my background picture, so I found this really great picture of my host family and thought it'd be a great idea to use that as my background. But when I looked at the picture for a while, I started sobbing and Ivy comforted me and became a shoulder to cry on. Just looking at their picture overwhelmed me with emotion and I might as well had jumped on the flight to the Feelippines.

The culprit. Why is my host family so precious.

After a long night, a late pizza, and a groggy morning, Will and I were on the plane to Detroit. When we were walking towards the baggage claim, we reminisced about our first flight together and arriving in Washington D.C. with a mix of emotions. Before we left for Finland six weeks ago, we thought that this trip wouldn't affect us that much. We didn't think we'd become so attached to our host family in such a short period of time. But boy, we were wrong. Now with out last flight together, we had a huge mix of emotions. It all comes full circle.

Now that I'm back at home, I finding the American accent a little strange from being around Finnish accents for so long. The roads have so many lanes and there are so much more cars. And most importantly, I miss the trees. In the suburbs, the nature is cookie-cutter plain compared to the diverse colorful forest-like environment in the Finnish neighborhoods. However, different country, different looks. Coming back home felt natural with my instincts, but my mind was still in "Finnish home" mode. My family and friends were so happy to hear that I was back home and we have so much to catch up on. Over these six weeks, I've learned so much about Finland, its people, and myself. As soon as I get a normal sleep cycle, I plan to search for study abroad opportunities in universities in Finland. At the very least, I hope I can visit Finland at least one more time and maybe tour around Europe. I'm confident that my host family and I will see each other once more. I'm so excited to talk to Lassi when he's older so I can tell him all about his four year old days! I really hope that the American students plan a meet-up sometime in the near future because I'm missing them already. It's been a long six weeks and there's so many funny stories and adventures to remember. I'm so glad that I've kept up a blog to look back on and knowing that I've had a great audience throughout my journey gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. Thank you for checking on my travels because it really means a lot to me! I've been saying so many goodbyes in the past few days, but I'm ready to say hello to the new opportunities that are ahead of me. Kittos, moi!

Tallinn With Friends, Sweden With Family

The YFU Finland summer trip to Tallinn in Estonia was a blast! Most of the FUSYE students came plus Meredith who came on a different program. My dad saw me off on my first train ride to Helsinki and we took off with no problem. The seats were comfortable, the train was so smooth. I didn't even know we started to move. The two hour ride was surreal and when I saw the students at the Helsinki train station, it was like we hadn't even been apart. Everyone was bubbling about what they've done, what their host families were like, and the places they've been. One thing that everyone said was "I don't want to go back home." We've all had such a great time here in Finland and it's become our home. The idea of going back to the plain ol' US from the unique and colorful Finland was a far-away dream until we all realized that we could count the days until we left on with our fingers. The ride to Tallinn was much better than on the small boat to Porvoo on that cold and rainy nightmare. It was like a two hour cruise, but we just ran around the ship then sat to play Finnish card games. We had just met up again, so we spent most of our time talking about everything under the sun.

We spent most of our day walking around the old city of Tallinn and learning its history and culture with a tour guide. We stopped by beautiful scenic spots, historic sites, and climbed up the Kirk de Kök tower.

Yeah, we climbed up that...

But it was worth it since we got this beautiful view!

Before dinner, we had some time to run around, so we shopped around the flea market at the city square. We saw unique crafts and listened to some lovely traditional music! And after dinner, we had even more free time, so Claire, Carrie, Meredith, and I split off on our own and explored the old city. We stopped by in a few shops and really got a feel for the Estonian culture. It was getting close to the time to meet back at the hotel, so we headed back to the city and ran into Ana and Fabian who were a little lost. We half walked half ran the loong long way to the hotel in a race against time. We were almost there..! But found out we we took a wrong turn. We ran for our lives after asking a homeless man for directions only to be greeted by Rikka's disapproving stare... After we dropped off all of our stuff, most of the students piled in Ana's and my room to watch the Germany-Netherlands game. We were awake the whole night to catch up while sharing pictures of our lovely host families.

The next day, we toured around some more and walked through a boat museum and a real boat! The most invaluable place, however, was being with the other students. They're some of the best people I know and I could talk to them for days on end. So we headed back on the boat feeling just like the good old days. We talked and played bananagrams (scrabble) inside. Then we headed out on the deck and straying playing a singing/clapping game that Claire taught us. It was called "Big Booty" and I loved it. We all loudly sang the big booty song with pride and the entire deck instantly knew that we were Americans! This drunk Russian guy who couldn't speak English walked over and sat with us, clapping along with no idea what we were doing. Best boat ride ever.

We had lunch at the museum! I had salmon in a pot and Brita cake. Saying that I loved it would be an understatement.

A Titanic reenactment was inevitable.

Big Booty with friends from all over the world!

We said our goodbyes and had mixed feelings about seeing each other on Saturday - our last day in Finland. It still hasn't hit me yet. I caught the train home from Helsinki sat quickly chose a seat to look like I knew what I was doing. And of course, I choose the worst seat with three drunk guys sitting in the row across from me. I didn't think it'd be a problem since Finnish people are quiet, right? Wrong. They were loud, crazy, and it turns out they didn't even have tickets so thankfully they were kicked off the train mid-way. I was bubbling with stories when I came back to my home sweet home and it was a relief to see my host family again! I missed them so much over the weekend. I don't know what I'll do when I go back to the US...

Now my last week here begins. We've gone to dinner with our neighbors at the best pizza place in Tampere - but I wasn't looking for some boring pizza. I got the one and only ostrich pizza! It tasted just like reindeer! The neighbors and us spent the night walking around Tampere's sparkling river.

We were leaving for a mini cruise to Stockholm, Sweden for a few days so we needed to do some last minute shopping. We went to Stockmann (Finnish version of Macy's) and just happened to run into Nina, Anne's daughter who's been away studying English in the UK! She's coming with us to Sweden and she's so nice and her accent is very unique! I can hear the English and Finnish accent at the same time! The next day we said good bye to our lovely house and left for the 2.5 hour drive to Helsinki. 

We stopped by a cafe mid-way and Lassi bought ice cream all by himself! They grow up so fast!

The terminal was crowded and I was not expecting such a big boat! The ship was like a giant building on water and there was a great tax-free shop where I bought the last of my souvenirs. Breakfast on the ship was a crazy rush, but we finally arrived in Stockholm! We took a bus to the city center then walked around, taking in the sites and sounds of Sweden. We met our cousins and their family in the lively market hall. I met Olivia and Max again and I was actually very sad that they couldn't take us around Stockholm because of our short time in Sweden. However, we ate lunch at a hidden restaurant on top of the old theatre, so we had a beautiful view of the streets along the harbor of Stockholm.

Lassi loved the mascot of the ship!

We didn't have a chance to walk inside, but this is the Royal Palace of Stockholm!

Even the sewers here are beautiful!

They even have 7-11 with slushies!!

The market hall is just like the one in Tampere. Some things don't change!

The view from the restaurant!

We talked with the family for a while, then we split off while the others went shopping, Jauri, Mikko, Max, and I walked around the streets to take in the views. We stopped by a "Very Swede Things" gift shop and Jauri suggested taking home a very traditional Dalähast horse, which represents the Dalarna province. It's just a small souvenir, but Jauri told me Dalähast horses are "very Swedish and iconic!"

The one I bought is wrapped up now, but this is close to what it looks like.

We passed by this military museum on our walk, and Mikko started to go crazy with history.

Before I knew it, we were boarding back on the boat back to Helsinki. We had barely six hours in Stockholm, so this trip wasn't enough to fully appreciate the city's culture. Hopefully I can come back to explore Stockholm for a longer time when I'm older!

Back at home, I had a great time laying in my bed without thinking of the rocking of the ship. We made pulla, which are mildly sweet Finnish cinnamon rolls. They're not that hard to make and Anne, Lassi, and I had a lot of fun mixing the ingredients and rolling them into their iconic shape! They look and taste great!

So I have two and a half days left in Finland. It still hasn't hit me yet. It'll feel strange to wake up in the morning without Lassi shouting and running around. I'll miss Mikko's history quizzes and Anne's motherly advice. But at the same time I'm excited to go back and see my parents and sisters. I'll miss Finland so much, but it isn't good-bye yet. Let's make the most of it!

Rauma Day and Cabin Week

Not as many of the American students came to Rauma day as I thought, but that's okay! I caught up with Fabian during the boat ride to one of the islands around Rauma. We talked all about our host families, what we've been doing during our three weeks in Finland. We met Meredith, another YFU student living in Finland for the summer. Together with our families, we walked through the island and climbed its lighthouse to see how beautiful Rauma can be!

It's always a struggle to get Lassi to smile for a picture.

We rode back into the old city, where we saw Claire again. It was so nice to catch up with her and with her and Fabian,it started to feel like the good old days. We spent the day walking through the colorful old city on cobblestone roads while listening to Rikka's tour speeches. 

Claire wanted to show us her "golden sausage" dog!

At the end of the day, we headed to Fabian's house to eat lettus. However, we got a bit too occupied with the board game Kimble, the Finnish version of Sorry! The probability gods did not favor me that day and I had no chance of winning. We spent a solid hour yelling and laughing at the game before we sat down to eat mämmi. It's made out of rye bread, but it looks like something else, so trying it out for the first time was a little tough...

It looks like paska.

We were the first to leave since we had a long four hour drive ahead of us. It was cabin round two! We headed back to my mom's parents's cabin for the weekend. I finally went swimming in the lake since it wasn't freezing like during mid-summer! The main reason we stopped by our grandparents's was to help paint and clean up their cabin. So Mikko and I spent most of the weekend painting the walls of the sauna and kitchen house while talking the day away. I also took another shot at fishing but still couldn't bring the courage to stab the worm around the hook. However, with some time, I caught my first fish! It was small and cute, but not big enough to eat. Later, I caught another fish but when I was reeling it in, it fell off of the hook and back into the lake! I also caught a huge stick that got stuck on my line... However, I finally succeeded in catching another fish! It was just as small and cute, but it made me love fishing so much! I'd love to do it again in the US with my dad!

The real cabin time started this week when we drove to Ruovesi and moved into our rental cabin in a camping ground on a beautiful island on the north part of Näsijärvi. We've spent our week here with playing tennis in the mornings, rowing our small boat across the lake, and grilling in the evenings. This place got ten times better ever since we found out that alpacas and sheep are living here. Then this placed maxed out the greatness scale when we saw the alpacas swimming in the lake! 

I found out that I'm horrible at rowing and great at getting blisters from it. One day, we rowed to the harbor and I smelled the delicious scent of sausages a kilometer away! I loved the smell of them, so of course I had to get one. But the girl taking our order gave me a funny smile when my dad said that the sausage was for me. He explained that these kind of höyrymakkara (steamed sausages) are only eaten by big fat truck drivers... Well I guess after dreaming about PB&J sandwiches instead of my future husband, this isn't really a surprise...

On Wednesday, we went for a hiking trip in the national park Helvetinkolu, which translates to "pass to Hell". It was actually a beautiful and lush forest, but the mosquitoes made it feel like Hell. I was bitten too many times and I was slapping my legs every five seconds to keep the bugs off. The reason why the park has such an ominous name is because there's a deep rock valley where if you look from it above, it looks like one long fall to Hell. We climbed the rocks up the valley and Lassi beat us all to the top!

Thursday was a bit cold for swimming and rowing, so Anne had a great idea of going to a big zoo in Ähtäri! Coming from the Detroit Zoo, I was expecting a stuffy and cramped concrete jungle, but Ähtäri was the exact opposite. The animals lived in a beautiful green forest far away from the city and the zoo itself was very spread out, so it felt like a repeat of our hiking trip (but without the mosquitoes). We walked on the trails into the forest, passing by snow leopards, owls, foxes, reindeer, and brown bears! The animals all looked satisfied with their living conditions so it was easy to see that the zoo was doing a great job maintaining their animals!

Today we rowed to one of the many islands in Näsijärvi - but it wasn't just any old island. Lierransaari island is where the last witch in Finland, Antti Lieroinen, was burned alive in the 17th century. My dad kept teasing me about curses and horrible deaths while we rowed to the island, so I was expecting some ominous dark place. However, the island was exactly the opposite and there was no creepy atmosphere. We chose a spot next to the water and my parents relaxed in the sun while Lassi and I hunted for cool looking rocks for me to take as a souvenir. It was a beautiful day to explore the island and we stayed there for a good two hours.

We rowed back to our cabin and met our neighbors once again! They're staying over for the weekend so we started the evening with a delicious meal with salmon, sausages, and chicken wings. After a good talk, we gave them a little tour of the camping ground. We took them through the amazing playground, the mini golf course, the trampoline, and of course, the animals staying here! Lassi showed their kids the alpacas, and we all went to see the sheep, goats, and dogs play around the camp. We ended the day with the true American camping experience - making s'mores! My dad, the health nut, hated the abundance of sugar in it. What a party pooper. I thought they were delicious! 

A lot has happened this week but next week will be busy busy busy!