koiranpentu

my host family got a puppy today!!! excessive exclamation points cannot capture my excitement.

his name is Eddie (heh) and he is a Gordon setter!! eeee!!!

(the picture my host sister posted on facebook from the car-ride home with him)

nelkytkaks

is short for neljäkymmentäkaksi, which means forty two, which is the number of days until I am in Finland.

porot

today I got an email from AFS asking me to sign a waiver form to say that I am willing to do all of the Finland-specific activities that they will have at orientations. I was looking down the list of activities (skiing; snowshoeing; snowboarding; ice-fishing &c) and then I got to one that made me stop and read it over a few more times:

obtaining a reindeer driving license

at that moment I became intensely glad that I had chosen to go to Finland.