Long time no see... sorry O:-)
Hei!
I'm so sorry that it has been so long since I've written! But seriously, I have been WAY busy. So, I'm going to try to sum it all up for you... and try really hard to update more these last weeks that I'm here... And it really is basically just weeks until I come home! But yeah... enough of that talk now because it makes me sad..
So, my mom arrived in Finland March 31...!!!! We had a blast!!! We did so much.. I really wore her out.. hehe. But... I'm sorry to say that I'm going to write about that later... when I have the pictures! We had a little scare because when my mom went to look at all the pictures we took with her camera on her way home, they were all gone! But, she took the memory card to the Camera Shop and the guy there got ALL the pictures back! She's sending me a CD of them all, and then I'll have a wonderful update all about our fabulous time together :-).
She left of Tuesday and then my week basically consisted of me just worrying about the big Finnish test I had on Saturday. And... it was basically as bad as I thought it would be. The reading comprehension part was difficult for me... Even the reading comprehensions in English are hard for me. I don't know, the questions that are asked aren't questions that I think they will ask. I think they look for different things here than in they do in America on those kinds of things... but anyways. The vocabulary and grammar was basically what I expected, and that went fine. The vocab was ok, there were like, 5 or 6 that I didn't know at all, but quite I few that I knew for sure. And the grammar was great, it was kind of fun lol. So at least that went well... because the writing was well... hard. I didn't really understand exactly what they wanted me to write, but whatever. And the listening comprehension... OH MY GOD!!! It was TOTALLY NOT FAIR! It was normal speech spead and almost spoken language. And the spoken Finnish is tons different from the written Finnish, and I've been learning the written Finnish because it isn't as confusing for me.. .however, I'm starting to understand and speak a little more spoken language now... but not enough to understand the test! And they didn't give enough time at all to answer the questions... oh my gosh, it was horrible. Molly even had a hard time with it and she's amazing with Finnish. And then when I had to speak... I couldn't think of anything to say and I couldn't remember any words. I don't know, I'm afraid that taking this test was a waste of my time and stress... but we'll see in 2 months when I get my results back...
But after the test... I went to Helsinki for my district conference on Suomenlinna!!!!! It was SUCH a beautiful day so the island was gorgeous. Suomenlinna is like, and old military island with a military fortress and stuff. It kind of reminded me of Mackinac Island... but older. And we stayed in a student hostel right on the island. And, oh my gosh, was it fun! I love these things because I love being with all of my Rotary friends. And everyone comes from Estonia and that's really great. So, we just walked around the island a bit and hung out till the wee hours of the morning... as always lol. It was John from Canada's birthday too, and everyone loves John, so we celebrated that a bit lol. And, we basically just hung out all night, nothing really special. Then the next morning we got up, had breakfast, and rode the ferry back to Helsinki. Then we had to go to Pasila (real close to Helsinki) for this big district conference with all the presidents from the Rotary clubs in district 1420. And we had to stand up and say who were were, where we came from, where we live now, and what we like about Finland, Estonia, or Sweden respectivly.... IN Finnish, Estonia, or Swedish (respecitvly)... so that was kind of scary... but if was fine because all the Rotarians were so great. I love Rotarians :-). And I think they really appreciated us being there and speaking in our new language. And everyone of us could say everything in our new language, so that was really great. Then lunch was good... and then we had to say goodbye... but for most of us, we're seeing eachother in St. Petersburg in a week (AHHHH! I'm going to RUSSIA in a week!!!!!), but then, some people aren't going to Russia or on Eurotour so we said goodbye for the last time :-(. And that was sad. But, I'm going to start doing that a lot now because I leave here for home in 2 1/2 months already... its so scary that I have to leave already so soon. But again... no talk of that yet!
So, here are some pictures from the conference! YAY!
Helsinki from the island
Crazy boys... lol. Paolo (Brazil), Arik (USA), and Gustavo (Mexico) and the Baltic Sea :-)
Me and one of the many "hobbit holes" (as we called them) on the island
Gustavo, Arik, and Me :-D
Helsinki... Ahh.. so beautiful :-D
Me, Elizabeth (Canada), and Katy (USA) - They live in Estonia right now - In our awesome jackets!!
Me, my jacket, and the water.. haha
The kids living in Estonia being.. well.. themselves :-D haha
I'm so sorry that it has been so long since I've written! But seriously, I have been WAY busy. So, I'm going to try to sum it all up for you... and try really hard to update more these last weeks that I'm here... And it really is basically just weeks until I come home! But yeah... enough of that talk now because it makes me sad..
So, my mom arrived in Finland March 31...!!!! We had a blast!!! We did so much.. I really wore her out.. hehe. But... I'm sorry to say that I'm going to write about that later... when I have the pictures! We had a little scare because when my mom went to look at all the pictures we took with her camera on her way home, they were all gone! But, she took the memory card to the Camera Shop and the guy there got ALL the pictures back! She's sending me a CD of them all, and then I'll have a wonderful update all about our fabulous time together :-).
She left of Tuesday and then my week basically consisted of me just worrying about the big Finnish test I had on Saturday. And... it was basically as bad as I thought it would be. The reading comprehension part was difficult for me... Even the reading comprehensions in English are hard for me. I don't know, the questions that are asked aren't questions that I think they will ask. I think they look for different things here than in they do in America on those kinds of things... but anyways. The vocabulary and grammar was basically what I expected, and that went fine. The vocab was ok, there were like, 5 or 6 that I didn't know at all, but quite I few that I knew for sure. And the grammar was great, it was kind of fun lol. So at least that went well... because the writing was well... hard. I didn't really understand exactly what they wanted me to write, but whatever. And the listening comprehension... OH MY GOD!!! It was TOTALLY NOT FAIR! It was normal speech spead and almost spoken language. And the spoken Finnish is tons different from the written Finnish, and I've been learning the written Finnish because it isn't as confusing for me.. .however, I'm starting to understand and speak a little more spoken language now... but not enough to understand the test! And they didn't give enough time at all to answer the questions... oh my gosh, it was horrible. Molly even had a hard time with it and she's amazing with Finnish. And then when I had to speak... I couldn't think of anything to say and I couldn't remember any words. I don't know, I'm afraid that taking this test was a waste of my time and stress... but we'll see in 2 months when I get my results back...
But after the test... I went to Helsinki for my district conference on Suomenlinna!!!!! It was SUCH a beautiful day so the island was gorgeous. Suomenlinna is like, and old military island with a military fortress and stuff. It kind of reminded me of Mackinac Island... but older. And we stayed in a student hostel right on the island. And, oh my gosh, was it fun! I love these things because I love being with all of my Rotary friends. And everyone comes from Estonia and that's really great. So, we just walked around the island a bit and hung out till the wee hours of the morning... as always lol. It was John from Canada's birthday too, and everyone loves John, so we celebrated that a bit lol. And, we basically just hung out all night, nothing really special. Then the next morning we got up, had breakfast, and rode the ferry back to Helsinki. Then we had to go to Pasila (real close to Helsinki) for this big district conference with all the presidents from the Rotary clubs in district 1420. And we had to stand up and say who were were, where we came from, where we live now, and what we like about Finland, Estonia, or Sweden respectivly.... IN Finnish, Estonia, or Swedish (respecitvly)... so that was kind of scary... but if was fine because all the Rotarians were so great. I love Rotarians :-). And I think they really appreciated us being there and speaking in our new language. And everyone of us could say everything in our new language, so that was really great. Then lunch was good... and then we had to say goodbye... but for most of us, we're seeing eachother in St. Petersburg in a week (AHHHH! I'm going to RUSSIA in a week!!!!!), but then, some people aren't going to Russia or on Eurotour so we said goodbye for the last time :-(. And that was sad. But, I'm going to start doing that a lot now because I leave here for home in 2 1/2 months already... its so scary that I have to leave already so soon. But again... no talk of that yet!
So, here are some pictures from the conference! YAY!
Helsinki from the island
Crazy boys... lol. Paolo (Brazil), Arik (USA), and Gustavo (Mexico) and the Baltic Sea :-)
Me and one of the many "hobbit holes" (as we called them) on the island
Gustavo, Arik, and Me :-D
Helsinki... Ahh.. so beautiful :-D
Me, Elizabeth (Canada), and Katy (USA) - They live in Estonia right now - In our awesome jackets!!
Me, my jacket, and the water.. haha
The kids living in Estonia being.. well.. themselves :-D haha