THANK YOU

As you may know, I always to try to post stuff on a day that has some meaning to me. Well, today's my and my mothers and my mother's mother's name day, so what a better day to post than today. This post has a few updates on my life, and I don't have a lot of pictures to show you, but I tried my best. Also because I'm tired and want to go to sleep, I may add some things here later... I feel like I always say that, but never do. Oh well.

h a l l o w e e n :

In stead of Halloween being just one night of the year, here it was the whole month of October. I trick-or-treated for three times, and I didn't even go on the 31st! The first time that I recall was when we went to this nursing home my host dad's mom is in, and the little kids got to go trick-or-treating. The second time we had a Ward Halloween party, which was super fun, especially singing songs from Hamilton with my friends. Good times, man! And last but not least we all went to my host dad's office's halloween thing, and there I got the most candy I've probably ever had in my life.

On the actual Halloween night we went to a Haunted House with a bunch of my friends, and let me just tell you... That was legitimately one of the most terrifying experiences of my entire life. Even though I was aware they can't touch me and I'm perfectly safe, and there's nothing to worry about, I still screamed when a clown with a chainsaw ran up to me. Shout out to Tiani for being my teddy bear to hold on to, and sorry I made your hand hurt.

m u s i c m a n :

We started practicing in the middle of September(?) and our closing night was on the 21st of November. This was an amazing production, and I'm so glad I got to be a part of it. I had the most fun, and I'm really going to miss seeing all my friends after school pretty much every day. I still have all the songs stuck in my head, and I'll probably remember some lyrics for the rest of my life. I want to thank everyone who made this possible. I'm so thankful for Mrs. McGuire for not losing her faith in us when we didn't know how to shut our cakeholes off-stage, and didn't remember the notes she gave us. I'm so thankful for the pit and the tech and my fellow cast members, I had a blast.

The performaces were so much fun; I had forgotten how much I loved performing to people. The little performances I've had in theatre have been fun, but because there will be a grade to it, I've been more anxious about it. Now I didn't have to worry about grades or any other meaningless things like that.

t h a n k s g i v i n g :

I'd say my first Thanksgiving was a success. I can definitely say I overate, and I heard someone say that Thanksgiving is, in fact, a celebration of overeating. I know this isn't the truth, but for me it pretty much was. I didn't hear a word about the actual reason Americans (and Canadians) celebrate Thanksgiving. It kind of surprised me when I realized that Thanksgiving isn't really that big of a deal we were told it was. My host mum even said that Thanksgiving is often overlooked when people get so excited for Christmas. Now, I remember that we were told in school that Thanksgiving is the biggest celebration of the year for Americans, and that it's even more important than Christmas. That statement is now debunked, for sure. Everybody's crazy for Christmas. Well, everybody in our school is crazy for Silver Rush, but only some people were crazy for Thanksgiving. I sure liked it, though. The food was good, and I was lucky enough to get three feasts. I ate more mashed potatoes and turkey that I've eaten in my whole life. And gravy, and stuffing, peas, corn, and yams. And pie! Pumpkin pie, apple pie, peach pie, pumpkin cake, cheese cake, and I made Finnish apple pie. Everything was so yummy, I need to make that stuff next year for my Finnish peeps.

On Friday it was officially time for Christmas; Christmas trees, Christmas decorations, Christmas songs, and we even watched the Elf that night. Man, I love that movie. Now I just want to quote it all the time. The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear!

f r i e n d s :

I fall in love with my friends even more every single day. I am so grateful that I happened to move here in Utah, and go to Riverton High School; it has been amazing. I've had a couple of movie nights, and I'm hoping more to come, because it's so much fun. We watched a scary movie at Grace's, and played a murder game called Body, body, and I've got scars on my knees to prove it.

I saw the first Star Wars (episode 4) for the first time at Lilly's house, but the only thing I remember is Pancho, Han Solo's luscious chest hair, and Lilly and Faith making Chewbacca noises throughout the film. Austenland was pretty good, too. But the best thing about that night was that I got to pet a real-life cat for the first time in three months, and I'm not going to lie, I almost cried when I first saw Lilly's cat. I didn't tell her this, but I really had to convince myself that it is not appropriate to go to someone's house for the first time and start crying over a cat. Yes, I had tears in my eyes, Lilly. Happy tears. Baby kitty is beautiful, and so is Momma kitty. It really bugs me that I'm not able to be with the three little kitties my mum, stepdad, and little sister got. I just love cats so much. Also dogs; don't even get me started on how much I love and miss my doggy.

t h o u g h t s :

I AM SO FULL OF LOVE I FEEL LIKE I'M GOING TO BURST. I don't know where to direct all this. I don't mean that I have a special someone that I fancy, because I don't. I just love everyone that's in my life right now. Everyone is just so beautiful and nice and urgh what is life? Surrounding yourself with loving, kind-hearted people that radiate positivity will make you happier than anything else in this world will ever be able to. At least that's how I feel. I'm so grateful for all of you people. I just want to bake everyone a pie to congratulate you for doing an amazing job of being a human. Nicely done.

Fun fact: I just went to see Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them with Aspen and Lilly, and I'm like dying of awe. It was everything I ever needed and more. Thank you J.K. Rowling and David Yates and Eddie Redmayne and everyone who was part of that masterpiece.

Nyt on Amerikkalainen Halloween ja kiitospäivä koettu. Eikä oo kyl mitään valittamista. Enemmänki et haluisin ens vuon Suomeen samoi fiiliksii ku tääl oli, eikä ketään varmaan haittais jos marraskuun neljännen torstain illalliseks tehtäiski perunamuussii ja kalkkunaa sun muuta. Jo ennen tänne tuloa ajattelin et "Amerikassa kaikki on isompaa", enkä voi sanoo et tä ajatus olis muuttunu millään tasolla. Nyt oon kans huomannut et amerikkalaiset pitää paljon enemmän hauskaa ku suomalaiset. Ainakin noin yleisellä tasolla, mun mielestä. Tästä esimerkkinä kun olin kerran tällases yliopistoinfotilaisuudes, 80% ajasta nä kaks esitteljää puhus vaan kaikist hauskoist aktiviteeteist ja loput ajast ite siit opiskelust. Täytyy kyl sanoo et jos amerikkalaisen opiskelijan elämä on tollast ni vähä tekis kyl mieli tulla tänne yliopistoo. Mut, käytännös maksuton opetus kyl pistää paremmaks noitten hintojen kanssa. Yh, dollarit vaan vilisee silmissä. Ainii ja toinen esimerkki: nää seurakunnan aktiviteetit on superhauskoja! On ollu elokuvailtaa ja kaikennäkösii paardei ja kerran käytiin ampumas toisiamme lasereilla (?!). Elämäni parhaimpia iltoja just tossa.

Tääl on nyt kiitospäivän jälkeen joulu ihan loistossaan, ja mäkin oon sortunu kuuntelemaan joitakin mun lempparijoululauluja (Varpunen jouluaamuna, En etsi valtaa, loistoa, That's Christmas to me, ah), vaikka lupasin itelleni odottavani joulukuun alkuun. Hankalaa se on, kun talossa on neljä joulukuusta, joulukoristeita on joka kulmassa ja jouluvalot hohtaa ulkona, joululaulut soi yläkerrassa ja perheleffaks valittiin the Elf. En malta odottaa! Oon kans suunnitellu itsenäisyyspäivän kunniaks pukeutuu tyyliin suomenlippuun koulus ja kirjottaa tänne pikku suomipostauksen, joten sitä odotellessa!

ST. GEORGE

Oh my heck, this was amazing. Uh-mazing. Over the past couple of days I have seen and experienced so many incredible things I feel almost selfish. Almost. I'm too happy for that. But still, I do wish others had a great fall break, too.

My body was a nervous wreck on Wednesday (10/19/16), for I had to perform a poem in theatre, and I signed up to be the first. As said, I'm not really stressed about school, but I still have to remind my body about that. I knew it wasn't a big deal, but my guts disagreed. Anyway, I did it, it went super well, and the rest of the day I was basically just smiling. I carpooled home with a bunch of my amazing friends and told them to see them on Monday. I was going to go to St. George that day.

The drive there was pretty much how you would expect it to be with a 4-year-old in a car for nearly five hours. Not the best part of the trip, for sure. At least it made us all extra happy to arrive to our condo. Which, by the way, was very nice. There even were palm trees, which I love. I was to sleep on one of the beds, but I felt like my host sister needed it more, so I was happy to sleep on the couch.

For our first day in St. George, we went to Zion National Park. And let me just tell you,, I can't tell you. That's how cool it was. We only had time to see a few of the many things there were, but for me, it was plenty. The Temple of Sinawava, the Weeping Rock, and the Zion Lodge, from which I probably liked the Weeping Rock the most. We also saw some insane rock climbers, deer, wild turkeys and real-life cacti!

Friday might had been my favorite day of the trip. We started the day by hiking in a desert-like place, and there were huge rocks with drawings by Native Americans in them. Good thing we didn't run into rattlesnakes, because I heard that was a possibility, eeks. It's also worth mentioning that the sun was burning my Nordic skin real good the whole time; it was crazy hot. In October. On our way back to the condo, we visited the house of a pioneer Jacob Hamblin, and learned about his story, which was quite fascinating. And, we got smoothies from Kneader's, and my no dairy berry was perhaps the best smoothie I've ever had.

Before leaving for our highlight of the day, we went shopping for a little bit with my host mom and sister, but, *surprisingly, I didn't find anything. What was the highlight of the day, you ask? Well, you know it's THRILLER (thriller night). It was absolutely incredible, I loved every second of it. Now, what was this? It was a dance show by the Odyssey Dance Theatre, and we saw it at Tuacahn Amphitheatre. Here you can see a little sneak peek from nine years ago, since it has been going on for strong 20 years already. My personal favorite was all of it. Ok maybe the Curse of the Mummy, Dem Bones, and Children of the Corn. And the Finale, obviously. Ugh, I wouldn't mind seeing it again, if anyone wants to go some year.

The last day was pretty chill, because we were all somewhat tired, so after a short hike to Snow Canyon to see Pioneer names (in the arch of a red rock, written with axle grease that date back to 1881), and climbing to another big rock (I saw a small dust devil there!), we just hung out at our condo, went swimming, ate at the pizza factory, and visited the St. George Temple. The Temple was beautiful, and the people in the visitors' center were all super friendly, and interested about my Finnishness. We got to see this thing they had made about God's plan for His children, which was basically just videos in different "rooms", and it really made me think. About life, about my family, about God, and love. It was beautiful. I really loved it, and it made me feel good. (I tried so hard not to cry, by the way)

Oh boy, was this a good trip. I was tired afterwards, for sure. But it was so worth it.

*not surprising

Sanoin ettei täs kestäis niin kauaa kirjottaa ku viime postaukses, mut melkeen olin väärässä. En ihan kuitenkaan. Tääl on vaan niin paljon tehtävää, ja mul on nyt jo ollu enemmän häppeninngii ku mul on ollu moneen vuoteen. Okei, ehkä toi ei oo totta, mut siltä se ainaki tuntuu. Syyslomalla mä ja mun host-perhe matkattiin vähän etelämpään Utahiin, St. Georgeen, ja mulle oltiin luvattu paljon punasia kiviä ja lämpimämpää ilmaa, ja sain ne x10.

Käytiin joka päivä vähä vaeltamassa, ja näköalat oli upeet. Herranjösses, en ollu ajatellu mitään tällasta sillon ku eka tulin Utahiin, mut en kyl oo pettyny. Se oli niinku ois eri planeetal ollu ain ajoittai. Tai ehkä vaan eri aikakaudel, luonto ja vanhat rakennukset muistutti villii länttä, mitä se vähä olikin. Oli lehmäfarmeja, ja jossain näin strutsinki, kalkkunoi ja peuroi, paljon kaktuksia, joka must ehkä oli kaikkein siistein juttu. Kaktuksia! Kasvaa maasta eikä kukkaruukusta! En ollu tienny et se ois mun ämpärilistalla mennä paikkaan jossa kasvaa omavaraisesti kaktuksia, mut nyt se on jo listattu pois.

Tää matka oli yks parhaimmista mis oon ollu, rakastin joka hetkeä, mut hassu juttu on, miten kova ikävä mul tuli mun kavereita täällä jo viides päivässä, vaik tosii en oo nähny pariin kolmeen kuukauteen. Toivottavasti tää on vaa alkuinnostusta, koska muuten se tulee sattuu ku perkule jos täytyy näil fiiliksil lähtee Suomeen seittemän kuukauden pääst. Aika menee niin nopeesti!

BUSY TIMES

Time flies, as they say. I haven't really had time to write anything here, for I haven't even had time to skype with my family! (now I have. priorities.) My life has been real excitement while I've been here, and I'm enjoying it every day. It's crazy to think that I've been here for two months already!

The only time I was sort of terrified was when I had to fly all on my own from Houston to Salt Lake City (I had always had the company of other exchange students on my former flights), but it was all good. The only thing that went wrong was that I wandered off to the wrong terminal in SLC, so it was a bit awkward for me to meet my host family like that. But that's just me. It would've been a miracle if something like that hadn't happened.

My host family is great. I'm afraid I'm not good at showing it to them, but I really like it here. Naturally it can get a little tiring with six younger siblings, so I do enjoy my hours alone as well. They're all amazing, though. While being here, I have realized how much I like cooking, and I'm always happy to cook or bake something Finnish for them (and for myself obvs).

SCHOOL

Our school's theme this year is "wake up", and it means that we should all start living life the fullest, and involve in as many things as possible. And that's exactly what I aim to do. I'm already in the school musical Music Man, and I auditioned for our school's improv team, sort of. I only did it for the credit, but it sure was fun.

My classes for this half of the year are psychology, a cappella choir, theatre, US history, math, team sports, foods, and language arts. I love every single one of them. The teachers are so much nicer than my high school teachers back in Finland. Also, I've recently formed a conscious love for pscyhology, which is great. I've always found it fascinating, but now I'm just all about it. This may be attributed to the awesomeness of my teacher, and that I got 100% on both of my tests so far. And a ton of extra credit for being a know-it-all. I just love it, okay?

It is incredible to be part of such wonderful choir as the A'capella choir. Thank you all so much for donating money for us. I couldn't be more grateful. If everything goes smoothly, I may be singing in Disneyland California and going to Universal Studios Hollywood in April. Eeks!

MOUNTAINS

I've already been to two hikes, although they were pretty much the beginner level kinds, I think. It was fun, and they made me realize how much I love the mountains. Even the view from our house is gorgeous because of them, not to mention what it's like when you go a little higher up. Me and my friends are planning on going on a hike sometime, and I'm super duper excited to take pictures of the beautiful nature. The company wouldn't be bad, either. I love you, guys!

CHURCH

The church is quite different from our church in Finland. The first hour of it is not, but what we don't have are the lessons and Young Women's afterwards. It's great, though. It's a good chance to spend time with your friends on Sundays, as the rest of the day should be spent with the family. Honestly, I like it. Especially the youth activity on Wednesdays is great, it reminds me of our church activity back in Finland. Of course life in a religious family differs from what I'm used to, but my host family is lovely and understanding, they don't make me do anything if I don't feel like it, or try to change my beliefs, it's all good. I agree with most of the things I've heard and learned about this religion, but I'm just EVL and not LDS.

FOOD

I wasn't planning for this to be one of my subheads, but I just gotta. Luckily, I get to stay with a fairly healthy family, so I won't come back to Finland weighing 400 pounds (hopefully). The school lunch doesn't look too appealing to me, so I've been bringing my own lunch every day, which I'm kind of getting tired of. Not that I have to bring it myself, because it's awesome, but that it's almost the same every single day. The only difference is basically if I will have grapes or an apple that day. If anyone has any easy lunch ideas that I could possibly make the day before, please speak. I guess I'm just picky. I don't really like cold food, unless it's salad or something like that. And salad gets gross very quickly. Oh, what am I saying, I just need to go to Walmart, and I'm sure I will find something new.

TRIPS AND EVENTS

There are so many things that I've done, it feels exhausting to even think about writing all that here, but I'll do my best. I would've posted this like a month ago, but this was the one stopping me. I procrastinate, even though I know it's bad and I shouldn't. Honestly, I'm just going to word-vomit all I can think about this subject or I will never get to write on my blog again. If you want to know more specific information about something, please don't hesitate to leave a comment here or just text me or something.

The things that stand out the most are obviously the things out of the ordinary. Some of those amazing things have been our trip to Idaho, and Bear lake, Utah State Fair, a BYU football game, and our school's homecoming game.  A welcome dinner for exchange students, a walk for children's cancer, a Finnish reunion, plenty of barbecues, our drives to the mountains, a visit to Downtown Salt Lake, our school's assemblies, a drama club social, our musical rehearsals, free cookie fridays, and ugh, just everything. I don't think I even have anything ordinary to compare to, not yet at least. It feels like there's always something going on. For example, we have our first choir concert tomorrow, and on wednesday we're leaving for our trip to St. George (super excited!!).

But now, I'm tired. First I had rehearsal till 5:30, came home to eat, and then we went to a pumpkin patch to get us some pumpkins. It sure has been another fun day today, and I'm excited for tomorrow. + I don't know if it's just me, but I feel like this whole text is lame and full of grammar mistakes and I will probably have edit this later, but we'll see. Next update will be about St. George, so be prepared! (it should take less time to write than this!)

Noniin kiitos nam suomea. Tä koko teksti mitä kirjotin enkuks oi jotenki mulle hirveetä väkisintyöntämistä, enkä tiiä mistä se johtuu. Ehkä ei oo ollu vaan mun kielipäivä tänään, ken tietää. Luulis nyt kun on käyttänyt kaks kuukautta englantia jokapäiväisenä kielenä, et olis suht helppo kirjottaa jotain niin yksinkertasta kun et mitä on tehny. Mut sit oon kans huomannu et moni tääl ei oikeen välitä kielioppiasioista, ja tietyt tavat sanoa asioita on tarttunut muhunki. Esim. ei täällä kukaan sano "there are" vaikka oliski kyse monikosta, vaan sanotaan vaan there is /there's. Pikkujuttuja, mut silti.

Kaks kuukautta!! Mun piti tehä sellanen postaus et "kuukaus täällä jeejee" mut, kyl te tiiätte mut. Niinku mä mitään tekisin ajallaan. Mut se on ihan okei. Oon pystyny keskittymään tärkeempiin asioihin, enkä jaksa stressata tästä bloginpitämisestä.  Tä on vähän niinku päiväkirja mulle, jonka vaan jaan mulle tärkeille ihmisille. Ja se on ihan ok, jos ei joka päivä (viikko, kuukausi...) tänne kirjottaiskaan. Stressistä vielä, mul ei sitä oikeen oo? Pitkästä aikaa mun elämässä tuntuu ettei oikeestaan tarviikkaan stressata joka asiasta, ja et on ihan okei jos ei tee kaikkea täydellisesti. Ja tiiättekö mitä. Se tuntuu hyvältä. Mun mielenterveys kokonaisuudessaan on paljon parempi kun mitä se oli ennen kun lähdin, ja moni asia tuntuu paljon selkeemmältä mulle. Tykkään.

Tykkään kans tosi paljon näist ihmisistä keiden kans saan olla, en olis osannut toivoa parempaa host-perhettä tai kaveriporukkaa. Ollaan niin samanhenkisiä mun kavereiden kans, ettei uskonnol siin kohtaa oo mitään merkitystä. Täs al kuva yhest ihanast kikkarapääst ku heiteltiin väriliitupulveria toisiamme päi.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

To be fair, we did stay at a hotel which was in New Jersey, but still. Most of our time spent at the Soft landing camp was in New York.

How do I even begin to describe New York? It was amazing, I loved it. It didn't quite become my favorite place in the world, but still, pretty neat. I learned some pretty cool stuff from our super cool tourguide of eight hours total. Our orientation classes weren't for waste either. Did you know that if you have ten dollars in your pocket and no debts, you're wealthier than 25% of Americans? Yeah, pretty rough, huh. It broke my heart to see so many homeless people in the streets.

Anyways, the day we got there was still the 13th, and it was  h o t. We were all pretty tired of traveling for over twelve hours, and when we finally got out of the Newark airport, we got a full clothed sauna experience in the humidity and heat of the East Coast. Luckily, the air conditioning in our bus saved us from melting.  Our hotel was neat, we got a lil information what we were going to do, and our staff ordered us food. Me, trying to be healthy and ethical chose to get the vegan salad, but unfortunately it was disgusting, so I barely ate any. That much for the ethicality. Also, may I add that our group was probably the biggest of all groups of exchange students that year or any year of Explorius, with 156 students from all over Europe.

The second day started with a slightly healthier version of American breakfast and a lesson of Adapting to American culture. Next stop was Downtown New York. Bare in mind that this was my first time going there, so I was hyped, to say the least. We had lunch in Grand Central Terminal, you know, the place where Marty sneaks out in Madagascar and Melman sticks his head in the cool clock. Yeah, that. Riding a tour bus through Manhattan, we stopped at one specific flower pot to take an optimal picture of the Empire State Building and in another place the same with a landscape of Manhattan. We could also see the tiny Statue of Liberty from there. The rest of the day was spent wandering in Downtown, Chinatown, various stores and Chipotle. An actual mention that we visited the World Trade Center memorial as well. 15 years have went by, but the topic is still sensitive for Americans. May the victims rest in peace and their loved ones live smiling.

The beginning of the third day was pretty much identical to the second one, so after eating lunch we headed to Broadway, Times Square, Rockefeller center, and all that cool stuff. We even got to see the Friends house, so that's pretty cool. I think my pictures here speak better than me, so just check them out. It was awesome.

The last day was basically just about Central Park and Jersey Garden's mall. We got our picnic lunch from Whole Foods, and I immediately fell in love with that annoyingly pricey store. Bought myself a backbag for school and a lotion from VS, and they were freakishly cheap, even for an outlet mall. But, the day went by quickly, as they tend to do, and back at the hotel I had to pack everything ready for an early leave the next morning. Utah's calling, bébé!

Nyt on New York koettu, Vapaudenpatsas, Empire State Building, Central Park ja Times Square nähty. Oli kyl ihan mahtava kokemus. Ei olis haitannu jos oltais oltu muutama päivä pidempään. Olisin halunnut päästä Rockefeller centerin huipulle napsimaan esteettisiä kuvia, mut jonottaminen sinne olis vienyt vähintään puolet meidän vapaa-ajasta + kaikki mun käteisvarat, joten päätettiin skipata se kokemus.

Noin kaiken kaikkiaan New York on mulle vähän sellanen epäilyttävä ja hieman epämielyttävä paikka sen suuruudessaan ja ihmispaljoudessaan. En haluu kuulostaa sellaselta ihmiseltä joka ottaa kaikesta vaan negatiiviset puolet esille ja valivali, koska sitä en oo. Sanonpahan vaan, että jos menet New Yorkiin ja oletat postikorttimaisemia ja pilvenpiirtäjiä, niin niitä saat, mutta saat myös kämäsiä katuja, roskapusseja ja kodittomia ihmisiä joka kulmassa, ja puolialastomia ihmisiä jotka huutaa sulle ja sun kavereille jostain tuntemattomasta syystä. Mikään tästä ei kuitenkaan tarkota, etteikö sulle tulis ikimuistoisia ja sydäntä lämmittäviä muistoja, upeita kokemuksia ja kuvia tulevaisuudelle. Ja kuten sanottu, olis siellä voinu olla pidempäänkin, enkä valittais jos pitäis sinne uudestaan mennä. Vaikka paikka ei ihan ollut satarosenttinen, niin kyllä se kokemus oli.

p.s. Tänään on kulunut tasan 15 vuotta WTC-iskusta, ja halusin saada tän julkaistua tänään, ihan vaan sen vuoks, että siellä muistomerkeillä käytiin ja musta oli kaunista miten jokasen siellä henkensä menettäneen syntymäpäivänä heidän nimelle asetetaan valkoinen ruusu.