My life in Finland, the land of thousand lakes.

Hi everybody over there in America!

Just thought of you guys and I wanted to tell you how I am doing :)

Well I got back in Finland over 2 months ago. My flight was Colorado Springs - Washington Dulles - Frankfurt, Germany- and finally - Helsinki, Finland. In Helsinki airport it was weird to hear ppl speaking in Finnish.. Also, in the airport there were my family and some friends of mine waiting for me. It was weird and lovely at the same time to see them after 11 months. At that night I had a surprise party and ppl stopped by my house. It was so awesome to see everybody I've missed during my year in America. The following day when I woke up in Finland, it felt like my exchange year did not happen.

The first week in Finland I thought in English and replied to everybody in English or ASL. But I got used to speak in Finnish again, ha. It was hard to adjust back to the time difference because it's 9 hours of time difference between Colorado and Finland. We also got our dog a week after when I arrived to Finland. Her name is Bella and she is a redwhite irishsetter. She is almost 5 months old now.

The finnish summer was so much fun and I loved to being back, though I missed America everyday. Now when I am back, I know how to apprreciate my homecountry, family and friends. Also, I have a different perspective of things. My English and ASL has been improved lots. I am trying to read some books in English so I won't forget English only because of I'm not using English everyday anymore.

In Rovaniemi which is in the northern of Finland. It was 11 pm.

I turned 18 about a month ago and I love being 18. I celebrated it with my friends. My school started in the beginning of August and since that I've been very busy with school. The school is challening because I am the only deaf at my school but I like my Finnish school. I have two interpreters everyday.

I have 2 months off next February to March and I'm planning on travelling to somewhere. So far I'm planning on graduating from High School in the next fall. Most of people they normally graduate in the spring like you do in America but I decided to cut my school by a half year. I have a matriculation exam (= American final test) in the next spring. The exams are Finnish and Health Studies. In the next fall I have Swedish, English, Psychology and maybe Geography..

the exhange students!

I miss some American things. Of course I miss my American friends and family. But I've noticed that I miss stuffs like Reeses, STARBUCKS!! (I'm addicted to Starbucks and unfortunately NOOOOOOOOO, we don't have one in Finland!!!!!!! But we are going to get one in the next February!!! Really looking forward to that!! ::))) ) chipotle, chick-fil-a.. American tv-programmes ha. We don't have Switch at Birth, for example.. :(

Me and Unnur from Iceland

I have a blog and unfortunately for you, it's in Finnish, so now it's time for you to start learn Finnish, right? :D It's a good reason for you to learn Finnish, isn't it? ;)

So my tips to you are that if you want to understand what I am talking about in Finnish, use the google translation..

My friend's 20th bday

I really hope that you will keep me informed how you have been since I left America and it would be nice to keep in touch. You can for example send me a message in FB inbox, email me (if you have my email) or comment this post! (click kommentoi)

And of course Finnish ppl or other ppl than Americans can comment on this post, too!

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COMMENT :)))

Looooove you xoxooxoxoxoo

'till the next time,

Veera

At Rihanna Concert, it was raining all the day..