The Third Week’s a Charm (Well, really they have all been “charms”...)



My street "Lincolnberry Alley", and
that is my house behind.

Last Wednesday for lunch I saw a strange Jell-o looking food on the counter so I asked my friend what it was and she said, “Kisali!” So I responded with “Is it anything like Jell-o?” So she grabbed my dictionary up and looked it up: Fruit soup!?! It was really like jell-o but made with local berries and it doesn’t hold its own shape.

Bottle return: put your bottle
in, and the change comes out.

That night we went over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house. Well… Grandmother and Grandfather’s house and we passed some fields on the way too. We arrived and I was presented with, get this, another nice pair of knit socks. These ones are purple and green striped. My host grandma is so artsy, not unlike my grandma at home. She has painted almost ever piece of china in the house; she made stained glass windows and trinkets all around the house, and her newest hobby is making tableaus of nate scenes using very intricately cut pieces of fabric.

On Thursday I forgot about Rotary meeting until hours after it had finished… and to top that off, I got a call telling me the scout meeting was happening when I thought it started next week…



I had a very good Saturday. A schoolmate asked me if I wanted to play squash, which I have never tried before. I jumped on the opportunity and went to learn. Our school is the recreation centre also and has a squash court. There was no wait so we got right into it. I am okay at keeping a rally going, but I need to practice my serves. I enjoyed the game and learned about my new friends, this new game, and some info about Finland. After squash he invited me to his house for a cleansing sauna. In the afternoon, someone had invited me to go Go-Karting at PowerPark, which is a short drive from my town. We drove to the park and

The Author's House (see below)

 arrived ten minutes too late for the last ride. So we went to another friend’s house for movie night. We  watched “Signs” which is an alien movie staring Mel Gibson (English with subtitles of course). As I left the house after the movie, the mother said “Say hi to Jaana [my host mom] from me!”…I had no idea what her name was, but apparently everyone knows who I am and where I’m staying.

The cool bridge.

On Sunday my host parents decided to take me site seeing around Ostrobothnia, which is the region I live in. Along the very flat drive we passed fields and forests, and fields and forests and a barn…you get the point; it is like the Finnish version of Saskatchewan except there are a few more trees here. Somewhere along the way we crossed the Swedish-speaking-Finnish-line. We stopped at the childhood home of a famous Swedish speaking Finnish Author, Zachris Topelius. After that stop we went to a very interest bridge just outside Vaasa, the largest city in the area, to meet with some friends of my host family. On the drive home I am sure that I dozed off, all of the ‘sites’ were too much for me.