Week Eleven: School Break, Estonia, and Mikkeli

School break started strong, I spent the night at my friend’s house and watched scary movies. On Saturday, I met Sebastian, from Mexico, at the train station by my house before we were to go to Laisha’s birthday party together. We made brownies and hung out at my house until it was time to go. When we first arrived it was just Laisha, Paola (Mexico), Cata (Argentina), Sebastian, and I. Later some Finnish girls from school showed up. The evening was absolutely amazing, I became closer with everyone there. We all started making plans to hang out in the future. Paola spent a good portion of the evening trying to teach me to cartwheel and…it ended up being SUCCESSFUL! They also tried to teach me how to dance which was very…unsuccessful. The night was absolutely amazing and one of my favorite ones I have had since I have been here. On Sunday I met up with Cata, Laisha, Sebastian, and two boys from France, we walked around Helsinki and talked for a few hours. Both Sunday and Monday evening I went to the light festival in the amusement park in Helsinki. On Sunday I went with my neighbor and Monday I went with my friend from Ecuador. The light festival is a pretty big deal since it’s the last time the park is open before it closes for winter. The lights were beautiful and I had an amazing time each night.

Tuesday my host family took me to Seurasaari (an outdoor museum sort of like Cade’s Cove in Tennessee). The park was beautiful especially since the leaves were turning colors. On the island were Seurassri is located there was actually an area blocked off for a naked beach in the summer.

When we didn’t have plans over break I spent a lot of time with Laisha outside because of the really nice weather we have had for the past week and a half.

On Thursday my host family went on a day trip to Estonia. We had Essi, Elina, my host aunt’s two kids, and a family friend’s kids, that meant five kids all under the age of nine, it was kind of crazy. Despite the moments where everything was crazy, the trip was really nice. The old town of Tallinn was beautiful, and Reija did everything she could to make the trip enjoyable for me. We went to a KGB jail in the basement of a building, went to a look out place over the Old Town, had lunch in the market square, walked around the city, and I met up with one of my friends who is on exchange in Estonia. I loved Tallinn and the day trip gave us just enough time to see what we were hoping to.

Friday I left for Mikkeli to visit my friend Jacobo, from Spain, and Tanja, from Germany. I went to my first hockey game with them and one Rotarian (our team won), which was a lot of fun. The next day we went to and orienteering party with their host dad and then had an hour to walk around Mikkeli. That weekend I went to church for the first time since I have been here, and of course the whole service was in Finnish. After the service everyone started taking pictures of us because we are exchange students (it was quite strange but really funny). I had a great time in Mikkeli visiting my friends and I can’t wait for them to come visit me.

When I arrived home Sunday night I dropped my stuff at home and headed out to the amusement park for the last time until next summer. I was meeting my friend Jasmine to see the firework show, that was the closing ceremony of the festival. I was truly amazed by the work that went into the show and the lights. The night was an amazing way to bring the end of school break.

Laisha’s Birthday Party