Stamping Pidgeons

This weekend I stayed with my second host family, the Kaikkonens, to get to know them better before moving in with them in January. They have four children: Antti is two years younger than I, Martti (currently on exchange in South Africa) is six months older, Saara is nineteen, and Laura twenty-one and currently living and studying in Joensuu. On Saturday I went with them to Turku (2.5 hour car ride) to see a horse racing (harness racing) competition. There were contestants from Sweden and Norway as well as Finland. My host father (my second, that is), Pekka, is the chairmain of the leadership board of the company that sponsors these races, so we got VIP tickets for free. There were many famous Finns, Swedes, and Norweigans in the VIP box, or so I was told. I bet on which horses would win, and I even won some money from it.

Lack of English is beginning to take its toll on me...I have already forgotton the words "pidgeon" and "stamp".

Time be flyin'

More business. A while ago I went to Helsinki by bus (somewhat expensive: 15 - 20 euros roundtrip) and met up with some other exchange students and Rotex. We grouped up and headed off to the site of the 1952 Olympics. We climbed a tower near the track and field stadium to get a view of the city. Soon thereafter we picked up some food and went to a park behind the Helsinki Opera house to play some games and visit (these were many of the same people that I got to know in Karkku).

The other weekend I went to Turku with my host father, brother, and my host brother's floorball team, as they had a tournament there. They competed against teams from all across Finland, and ended up getting second place. For those of you who don't know floorball: it's a sport played indoors, much like hockey but on a normal gym floor. (Obviously, the players wear tennis shoes, not skates.) The "puck" is actually a whiffle ball, and the floorball sticks have a scoop at the end to better control the ball. Floorball is popular over much of Europe, especially in Sweden, but it is only common in Finland in the Swedish-speaking areas (the south and west coasts).
When in Turku, I also met up with my friend Juuso, who was an exchange student in Soldotna last year. He gave me a bit of a tour of the city; we saw some old castles, churches, and historical museums. I got to see in one museum the oldest houses in Finland (they built the museum around these houses). They were cramped, one-roomed brick houses with a narrow arched doorway. We then walked about the city some more, got a bite to eat, and then looked at ships that had pulled upriver right into the middle of Turku. There were many warships from all over Europe...Germany and Denmark especially. I don't remember the exact occasion, but they were there in Turku to be enjoyed by people: you could even walk aboard them and have a look around (we didn't, as we didn't have enough time).
Turku is to be the European capital of Culture in 2011, so a lot of the city was under construction...they were fixing roads, re-painting apartments, and trying to make the whole city more aesthetically pleasing.

I was a bit homesick last week, but it has gone away, it seems. I'm quite thankful it has...not an experience I'd like to repeat.
I've been sick for about 10 days now with a sinus infection. I didn't go into the doctor's office until about three days ago, thinking it was just a flu or something that would go away soon. Anyway, the doctor put me on antibiotics and a mild steroid to keep my sinuses open, and while I haven't noticed any improvement yet, I should soon. Anyhow, the sickness is manageable, and I'm still enjoying everything here quite a lot.
This weekend I'm going to visit my second host family to get to know them a bit better. My first host family, the Kettunens, invited my second, the Kaikkonens, to their house already, so I have met the Kaikkonens before. I hope that wasn't too confusing.

I went to a hockey game last night - Jokerit (the Jokers) vs. Lokku (the Lock). I went with my host brother as well a friend, Roope. Roope lived in Shanghai last year with his family and attended an international school there. His family and my host family are quite good friends, it seems. Roope lives here in Porvoo, quite near to me, but is going to school now in Helsinki at a performing arts school.

So, next week I'm off to Estonia with other exchange students in my district- should be a blast! We're going to travel all over Estonia, have guided tours of famous places, and stay in fancy hotels - not to mention we get to travel to and from Estonia on a classy passenger boat: the Viking Line.

Recent Doings

Two weekends ago, I went with my host brother, Rasmus, to Jyväskylä, a city in the middle of southern Finland. There, we stayed with Ukki (grandfather), my host father's father. In Jyväskylä we did quite much indeed. We went on a boat and cruised around Päijänne, Finland's longest lake, which stretches 180 km from Lahti to Jyväskylä. It was a nice calming ride...and it was really nice to see some of the Finnish wilderness (I've really only been in cities since I've been here). We then went to the Finnish Airforce Museum, Keski-Suomen Ilmailumuseo. There was much to see: models of planes, cross sections of cockpits, full sized jets, missiles, and more. Most of the planes had been built during WWII and had blue swastikas painted on them - a testament of the brief time when the Nazi forces controlled, and operated from within, Finland.

This past weekend I got my green card from the golf course here in Porvoo, although I still have no idea how to play golf. I went for two days to the Porvoo Golf course, and we were instucted (in Finnish, though, naturally) how to play. We also practiced putting and driving and other such things.
This weekend I also watched my first pesäpallo (Finnish baseball) game in Kouvola. Pesäpallo is quite a lot like American baseball, but there are four main differences. The first is that the pitcher stands just next to the batter, and throws the ball straight up in the air. Second, there is an "out" line that the batter cannot hit the ball past - so there are no "home runs". Third, the bases are in a zig-zag shape, not a diamond. And fourth, there are two (sometimes three, if the score is tied after two) groups of three innings, rather than nine back to back.
Other stuffs:
Yesterday I went shopping in Vantaa (just north of Helsinki) with some newfound friends of mine, a very usual for pasttime for Finns, apparently (even the boys).
Today was Rasmus's birthday, so before school we gave gifts, ate cake, blew out candles, etc. The birthday celebration was identical to that in America, it seems.