Dum de dum dum dum! We’ll start at the beginning (a very good place to start). School broke up on Saturday the 6th of June, which was great. My class went on a trip to Helsinki on Friday the 5th, which was awesome. We went to Suomenlinna, or Castle of Finland, which was built by the Swedish crown, in defence of Russian expansionism. So, in a nutshell, like many Finnish buildings, it was built to keep The Russians out :D I found it to be a very beautiful place, with a lot of history, however, it was kind of boring for our class, and especially me, as the tour guide spoke for about an hour and a half without pause (in Finnish, of course). After we finished our tour, we explored the city and went shopping for a while, which was nice.
On the Sunday after school broke up, I left for Eurotour, which was simply indescribable. It was such a great trip. I will never forget the fun times I had with such incredible people. Not only did I have the opportunity to see some of the most wonderful sights Europe has to offer, but I was able to enjoy the company of so many amazing friends. I don’t really know what to say about the trip, except for that it was one of the greatest times of my life and I now have so many fantastic memories to look back on and impress my grandkids with when I’m older. I guess some of the highlights of the trip were:
Sisterone, France. The little town in the French Alps was so beautiful. When we came the sun was shining and the place was just so green and perfect for exploring.
Lido de Jesolo, Italy. A little beach town where we had a free day to relax and hang out at the beach. I went to the arcade in the afternoon with my guy friends and we played street drag racer (at which I was epically horrendous, but equally amusing) and Dance Dance Revolution, which was fun.
Paris, France. We had a whole day to spend to ourselves and I had such a great time. We saw so many beautiful places and had so much fun. It was just a really perfect day.
Brussels,Belgium. We ate waffles and wandered around in the light drizzle and a beggar verbally abused us after we refused her money to pay for expenses associated with the death of her brother, the treatment of her son’s leukaemia and her uncle’s brain tumour.
Playing mafia in every hotel. I had fun hanging out with the other exchange students and, in times of complete boredom, playing 694 questions, signs, and, more importantly, mafia (the most popular card game of all).
My sister turned sixteen while I was away on Eurotour, so when I got back, I sent her a big birthday package with little presents from each country that I visited on the trip. It’s kind of horribly sad to think that your little sister is growing up, so it was a little hard to be away from home for her sixteenth, but I think it will make it all the more special when I return to Australia. By living away from home for a year, I know some of my relationships with people back home have certainly altered. I haven’t even spoken to many of my formerly close friends for months, and I can feel that certain friendships are very strained. I guess it’s also strange, too, because, there are some people that I didn’t even know that well, and maybe met on occasion at parties, but was never really close to, that have maintained interest in my life, which means a lot to me. My best friend has really made the effort to keep me in her life, for which I am very thankful. Although at times, communication is difficult, we always manage to post a comment on facebook, or send a quick e-mail just to let each other know what’s going on, and then talk later, when the time is more convenient. I am so lucky to have such a wonderful person in my life and I know that we are going to be friends for a very long time. My relationship with my family has changed, too. I get along with the oldest of my younger sisters even better than when we lived under the same roof. She has matured a lot in the time that I have been away from home and not being around each other constantly has made our connection stronger. I have had some great conversations with her since I have been away and I am so proud of who she has become and is becoming. I touch bases with my older brother pretty sporadically and I guess I miss the continuity of his presence in my life, but, when we do talk, we speak quite openly and freely, because we never really know when the opportunity to talk will arise next. My youngest sister is a very different person than when I last saw her. She has entered the realm of adolescence without trepidation and is persistently ageing my parents and causing general mayhem by wearing mascara to school and straightening her hair regularly. This has been a struggle for me to accept and I guess I wish I still had some influence in her life. As the oldest sister, I feel as though I have let my parents down in some way. My parents are very good to me and I really respect them both for all of the support they have given me this year. When I talk to my Dad it seems as though we are two adults speaking to one another rationally and I love that he listens to me and values my opinions and decisions. I can tell that some days it’s really difficult for my Mum to be away from me. As the oldest daughter, I felt like we had a really close bond. I’m not one of those annoying teenage daughters that treat their mother as the ultimate confidante and recount wild tales of adolescent parties, so that middle-aged women eye people suspiciously in the supermarket after hearing that they hooked up with their brother’s ex-girlfriend’s cousin, or puked in the fishbowl, or impregnated an eleven year old. I think my Mum and I have a good relationship, which matures from our ability to be honest with each other, which has propagated a mutual respect for one another.
Enough of family stuff, though. Ka-pow! Back to fun Finnishness! Okay so, after Eurotour I bonded with my host family for a while, who genuinely seemed to like having me back (which made it feel like coming home), just water skiing on the lake at their mökki (summer cottage) and eating makkara. A few days later, I went to Helsinki to hang out with my friends, Adrian, an Australian exchange student, and Sonya, a South African exchange student. I had a great time. We went opp-shopping and we explored a store that stocks treats from all over the world. We also went to the library, which was fun. I listened to some Finnish artists on the listening deck there, which was great. After I came back from Helsinki (after catching the non-express bus, unintentionally, and sitting in the bus for 4.45 hours), I said goodbye to my exchange friends, my oldies, Mariana and Jonas. It was so sad to say goodbye to them after having had such an amazing time with them, but I guess that they are ready to go home. Jonas weally needed to be reunited with his motorbike and Mariana’s family were calling. I want to travel a lot in the future and I’ve always wanted to go to South America, so who knows, maybe one day, I’ll see Mari again. I have an aunty that lives in Germany, so I’m planning on visiting her one year, so maybe I’ll get to see Jonas and his motorbike, too.
Other than saying goodbye to too many good people, I have been spending time with my host family and hanging out at home. I went to Lahti, to visit my friends, Steph (from Australia), Nick (from Australia) and Jun (from Japan). We explored the city a little, had ice cream, went ten pin bowling and went to a playground.
On the weekend I managed to go to a music festival, which was incredibly fun. I saw Belle and Sebastian (Stuart Murdoch has the most incredible voice live *swoon*), Ginger Ninja (very cool indie-electro band from Denmark), Regina Spektor, Florence and the Machine (Florence has such a raw, powerful voice live) and so many other cool Finnish artists. We also saw The Baseballs, who are a German band that cover popular songs with 1950s style crooning, which are so huge in Finland. We danced so much and had fun. During the day, we just sat in the park in the shade and had a picnic, or went to sleep, or read. I had a great time with all of the other exchange students that came. On the Sunday, it was Nicole’s (one of my friends that came) birthday, so we had a cake for her and shouted her giant ice creams and made sure she was well looked-after. On the last night, all of the Finns at our camping ground, in their drunken state, decided that rubbish bin drumming and tribal dancing was in order, so between the hours of 1 and 4am, not much sleep was had. I still had fun, though.
My friend, Adrian came back from Ruis Rock with me, which was fun. Although we were so tired that we slept most of the time, we managed to squeeze in enough time to make Aussie hamburgers for dinner one night and pavlova, too. Adrian is a really great guy and we get along well, so it was nice for me to have a friend stay with me and meet me family and see a little bit of what my life is like.
I really can’t think of what more to write about, really. I have just been having an amazing time here, appreciating every single day for all that it’s worth. I hope you can do the same.
Kiitos ja hei hei!
Dammit ... I thought I'd posted my thing and clicked to leave, but apparently it needs a captcha thing.
ReplyDeleteANYWHO! I loved reading about your Eurotour :-D
Can't wait to see you in Heathrow in a few months and travel home together!
<3 <3 <3