Week 18 & 19

Let's start with wishing all of you all the best for 2011, and I hope you had a wonderful time around Christmas and New Year's eve!

Soo, I decided to update only once every 2 weeks, because it's starting to get more normal and there aren't a 1000 things to tell every week anymore :P

19 december 2010 - 1 january 2011

So, sunday the 19th we went to the church in the evening to sing Christmas songs, it was nice and interesting, I think about half of the songs were Finnish versions of songs I know, and the other half completely new.

Monday the 20th was exactly 4 months since I arrived here! Time flies. First school, last lessons before the holiday, and after school I bought the Christmas presents. Chocolate for everyone, and for Anniina the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time DVD, for Seppo a Keeping up Appearences DVD and for Tuula a little sign with a picture of a cat and in Finnish "The more people I meet, the more I like my cat" or something like that.

On tuesday the 21st we went to school to get our grades for the 2nd period, I have a 6+ for German!! And a 4 for maths, again, but I expected that :P The teacher wrote above it "I know you'd do better in Dutch :(" and I think it's cool that he did that.

Also we sang with the choir, it was fun, but it didn't go very great.. Everyone was nervous so most had quite some trouble singing :P But it was nice, and next time better :)

So, wednesday the 22nd my holiday started! Didn't do much special, only we went cross-country skiing, it was nice.

Thursday was not very special either, but I made a nice walk to the center to bring in empty bottles.

Friday the 24th we baked cookies, then put up the Christmas tree, and at 16.00 we went to the graveyard to light candles. At 17.00 Markus and Outi came over and we had Christmas dinner, and then we opened the presents. I got a bathrobe, 2 pairs of mittens, 2 boxes of chocolate, hair-towel and slippers for after showering, a mug with Santa Claus, salmiakki mix and a pair of socks that Anniina made! Great day.

Saturday, didn't really notice it was Christmas, but it was a good day. Same goes for sunday, only we went cross-country skiing too that day.

At monday we went to check out Vihti Ski, nice place. Apart from that nothing special. Also at tuesday I didn't do much, we went to the stables and the store, and that's about it.

When I woke up at wednesday Anniina told me "Don't eat breakfast, we're going to the pizzaria". Good way to start the day, pizza!

Thursday started off normal, and in the evening I went SNOWBOARDING 8D It's fantastic, very very hard tho, especially standing up :P I still have some muscle pain in my shoulders from it now, but it was great. Can't wait till next time. Markus teaches me.

And then December 31st, last day of 2010.. A bit strange, the year went so fast and it brought me very good things, many fantastic new friends, a new home, Finland, so many new experiences and I learned so much!

In the evening we went to Helsinki to watch a little concert with 2 big Finnish singers, and at 12 professional fireworks, it was great!

And yesterday we went to Nummela, Anniina, Tuula and Seppo went cross-country skiing and I went to check if the stores were open, still had a lot of muscle pain :P Apart from that nothing special.

So, music for this update!

First, Shalott by Emily Autumn. The lyrics are also in the video, it's a wonderful song!

Second, Hero by Skillet. I just heard it for the first time this week, but it's a really nice song!

See you all next time!

'Anouk