The Last Week!!

Well last Sunday I met Lauri in Lappeenranta for the afternoon. We headed down to the harbour where we sat by Lake Saimaa for a while before going to get some icecream. It's amazing that within a couple of weeks all the snow melts from the side of the roads and from all the lakes.

Lappeenranta harbour once the snow and ice has melted!!'

And again!!

And again!!

Well as you guys know I have now moved in with my second host family. They are really cool and just let me come and go. The next pictures are off my new room. It's a bit smaller than my last room and my bed is alot smaller but it is still really cool and i have made it very homely already.

Well this week at school it has been test week so I only had one day of school and then the rest of the week off. I decided since I had nothing else to do that I would go get my hair cut again and once again I decided to go shorted. I really like it this time as I can change my fringe to create a whole new look.

Fringe #1

Fringe #2

Well what else has happened this week. Well Wednesday night I went out clubbing with some friends in Lappeenranta. I went to a club I had never been to before which was really cool. The night ended up going longer than expected and we didn't ended up getting back to her house until 5 am so when I finally got back to my host families house on Thursday.

This Saturday Lauri is coming out to my host families house and him and me are going to there summer cottage so we can go canoeing in the lake. Should be a really good day so I will update my blog afterwards and let you know how it all goes.

Also, it is now only 9 days(i think) till EuroTour beings to I am so excited about that. The day before on Saturday is the 3rd graders (or our year 12's) graduation where Sara (the American exchange student) and me are doing a speech in Finnish to about 2000 people. I am really really scared about it cause there are heaps of words i cant pronounce but oh well, I will give it my best shot. Well time for me to go and do some stuff round the house. Missing you guys all heaps. Love you guys always. Love em xoxo

Quick Update!!

Just thought I would quickly update everyone with how everything is going over this side of the world, although it is pretty boring. I moved to my second host families house last Sunday. They are really nice and let me just come and go as I want although they seem like they are going to stick to the Rotary rules alot aswell which suck a bit.

On Thursday it was Lauri and my three month. Can't believe we've been together that long because it seriously feels like only a month. On Wednesday this week I have been in Finland for 4 months, I also can not believe it has been that long yet. I'm going to be half way through my exchange before I know it :-(. I have found out aswell that there will be 3 or 4 new exchange students coming to my school after the Summer. There's a girl and a guy from Canada, a girl from Macedonia, and possibly a girl from Brazil. So that's all pretty exciting although I really don't want my oldies to leave.

Today I attended my first host grandfathers funeral. It was a really nice ceremony although I understood pretty much nothing of what was being said. The funerals here are quite different to how they are in Australia but no need to go into details. The whole funeral(iincluding the wake afterwards) ended up going for about 4 hours. So it was quite a long day. Time for me to go and get nessled on the couch for a cosy night in watching Euro Vision and doing Sudoku. Missing everyone heaps.

My last night with my Host Family!!

Well tonight is the last night with the Karhu's and as you can probably only imagine, I am really really sad about leaving them. I made Australian spaghetti for the family today which was really really yummy. I also gave them there present at lunch and they all were saying how beautiful it was which was really nice. As I was leaving there family they also gave me a present. They found this little suitcase which as you can see has Australian Airways on it. I have no idea where they found it but it is soooo cute. I fell in love with it the minute I saw it. They also put some of my favourite things from Finland inside of it.

The suitcase they gave me as a leaving present!

Another view of the suitcase!

The contents of the suitcase!! The Ruispalat is my favourite bread in Finland (i practically live of it), Some lollies which I absolutely love and a little Karhu (bear) teddy.

My Trip to Sweden!!

Well on the 1st of May my wonderful host family took me on a two night trip to Sweden. The minute our bus pulled up outside the boat, my mouth fell open and heart began to raise at what lay ahead. Although the finns tell me how small the ferry was that I went on, but to me it was massive. My host parents organised a room for Annu and me that looked over the main entrance way, where most of the shops and restaurants were.

The side of the boat

The view from our room

Another boat that was similar size to the one we were on!!

Our first night on the boat we went to the all-you-can-eat buffet, and believe me Annu and me took full advantage of this restaurant. By the end my host parents, Annu and me were hardly able to move because we had stuffed so much food inside of ourselves. After enjoying the buffet, it was finally time to hit the shops and boy did we (or at least boy did I).

Me trying to hold the moon in my hand!!

Once again, a Foster's sign

My host dad

Well when we awoke Tuesday morning, we went down to the breakfast buffet before preparing ourselves for our arrival in Stockholm. Once arrived, we departed the boat and headed for a Toy Museum. Lots of the things there didn't really interest me so I didn't end up taking any photos. After the toy museum, we headed to the main shopping area to have a look at what Sweden had to offer. My host mum bought me a really cool shirt which she choose for me and I bought myself a few things.

The corner of a building!

Just a random picture of some buildings!

A nice looking arch way!

Well on our way back to the boat Tuesday afternoon the nice Swedish weather which we had all day decided it was time to rain. I wasn't very happy but luckily my host mum was prepared with an umbrella. Once back on the boat, I made my way round the shops to find a Mother's Day present for my mum in Australia. And luckily I was successful. Tuesday night Annu and me decided to have a look round the bars that were on board the ship. The first one we went to had Karaoke. It was so funny to watch everyone get up and try sing. After the karaoke finished, we headed back downstairs to watch a special show that was put on consisting of singers, daners and breakdancers. The breakdancers were awesome, I tried to get some photos but they were to quick for me.

The singers/dancers at the start of the show!!

Vappu (May Day)

Well after a long 3 nights in St. Petersburg, Sarah (the American Exhcange Student) and me headed out to celebrate Vappu with Lauri and his group of friends. We didn't end up getting out until about 11 pm but it was all worth the wait when we finally did manage to get out. After going down to the Lappeenranta Harbour for a bit, we walked back to Lauri's friends, Eki's house we're the partying continued.

Sarah looking sleepy (we had been awake for nearly 24 hours by this stage)

Eki and Ville

Eki (and Lauri's cool pink shirt in the background....sorry Lauri but I had to say it :-)

Day 4-Time to go Home

Although I had an awesome time in Russia, the last day really wrecked it for me. I know, I shouldn't let one day wreck the whole trip but god are the Russian Customs people slow. We raced the other buses to the boarder crossing so we (fingers crossed) didn't have to wait long but oh no, we ended up having to wait 4 hours before we could cross. There were about 8 buses in front of us and it takes about 30 minutes per bus. I have no idea what takes so long, I think its more the Russian's are lazy and like watching us wait because they know we'll spend more money in the little cafe's positioned right where all the buses wait. Although it was alright to hang out with all the other exchage students, theres only so much you can do to waste 4 hours before you really want to go home (and in my case get home so you can see your boyfriend....lol).

A normal picture of how much alcohol there is in the local shops!! For about 1L it costs about AUS$16. So so cheap, although of course we bought none.

A variety of passports!!

Russian money!! Awesome exchange rate!

Group of us sunbaking.....trying to waste time. Although it was only about +15-20 degrees it now feels warm enough to us to pull up the pants and soke up the sun.

Sunbaking again!!! (I'm in the red shirt)

Just a random photo of a McDonalds sign in St. Petersburg

Well there's a brief run down of my time spent in Russia. Hope that was enough information for everyone and if not RING me and I'll tell you what you want to know. I will write about Vappu and Sweden in the next few days. Missing everyone so so much. Love you all. xoxo

Day 3- Saturday

Well Saturday was another fun filled day. Saturday morning we drove to the outskirts of St. Petersburg to reach a palace called 'Pavlovsk Palace.' This is the sort of place that every girl dreams of living in when she grows up and finds her prince to marry.

Entrance way in the palace!!

One of the dining rooms!!

An awesome roof!!

One of the many rooms!!

Saturday afternoon we were given a few free hours to go around and have a look at the local shops because we were told that they were really cheap but unfortunately for us (and fortunately for our parents9 we didn't find them and ended up spending the afternoon in one of the little market places. It was so much fun haggling to get the prices down to what you wanted to pay, even though the prices they were offering were really cheap as it was.

Jen, Me, Jodi and Brooke (all Australian's)

Jodi and Me!!

Saturday night was the best night we had in Russia (at least I think so). We went to the circus and boy did the Russia's live up to everything that we heard about them. Although we were told that the circus would be really out there, it blew all the expectations I had way out of the water. Some moves they did, I didn't even think were humanly possibly to do. I felt sore just sitting watching them do some things.

Tight Roper!!

Young Boy with Show Dogs!! ouch

Very very flexible women (this was only a basic move compared to some other ones they did)

Magic trick!!!

A scary looking snake!!

A bear!! So cute

Some seals!!

A scary looking crocodile although harmless because its mouth was tied up the whole time!!

One of the rotarians in charge of us!! Interesting!!

Just a random picture of the front of our hotel!!

Day 2- Friday

Well on Friday we had a city tour in the morning where we got driven round on the bus and had a Russian tour guide telling us all about the city. Although a bit boring at times, we were able to see heaps of different places and boy were some of them awesome. The sort of place I think Joy would fall in love with. All the buildings are really old although they still look in the best condition. They are all decorated with really fine detail and painted in really cool colours.

Crazy exchange students!! Emilie(french), me(fat bum australian), Moni( Ecuador) and Hannah (German)

Exhcange students with two Russian Army guys!! Usually they don't like photos but these two guys were really nice and stood there for about 10 minutes while everyone got photos with them!! lol

A really awesome temple (one of the best things we saw)

Russian traffic!! Worst I have ever seen, I really doubt that they have road rules.

The temple again!! It really took your breath away when you saw it!!

A cool building we stopped to look at (don't know what it is though)

Weird Russian writing!

Another cool building!!

Peter the Great Banana (St Petersburg was named after Peter The Great, an exchange student joke about the banana)

Jodi looking sexy as always!!

Our tour guide, Sophia!!

Everytime we got off the bus to go look at different buildings, these men would run up to you trying to sell different souveniers for really cheap. You could buy 3 of the Babushca (I have no idea how to spell them) for about $15 when in the shops they were trying to sell them for about $20 each. While talking and haggling with these men though, you had to be really careful because they are quite sneaky and can easily steal something from your pocket without you knowing until its to late.

After the city tour, we visited a place called the Hermitage. This place is sooooo big that to look at every exhibition for one minute, it would take approximately 9 years to go round. And we were only there for 3 hours. Although the place was awesome, you can only view so many pieces of art work before they all begin to look the same and being to become quite boring.

One of the rooms (they only got better from here!!)

A tomb that might possibly hold some important guys body, but no one knows if its still in there or not!! Pretty creepy hey??


One of the first rooms we saw!! Our house could fit in it about 2 times and its only one of the
many rooms in the building.

A russian dancer who performed for us on the Friday night