perheeni

well today was a magical day, during which magical things took place and were documented by my magical camera in magical pictures. but I'm not going to write about that now because I don't have a laptop yet (the school will give me one on Monday) and am writing on my ipod, and said photos have no access to the internet. I also have yet to post about the orientation in New York for the same reason.

instead, let me describe my beautiful host family.

after getting my passport stamped at Helsinki airport (when the officer heard that I was going to Savitaipale he shook his head with a small Finnish laugh and said deadpanly that I may want to run away when winter comes--I restrained from delivering a sisu lecture) I went downstairs with Megan, Alexa, Lena, and Samuel (the other American exchange students in Finland) to where we were to meet the AFS volunteers and sign in.

my äiti (Finnish mother) had written before that she would meet me at the airport with a sign with my name on it, but in all honesty I can't remember what the sign looked like at all, though I suppose it was probably there. I mostly just remember recognizing äiti's face and seeing that she recognized mine and running to hug her and her saying "I'm crying already!" because she was. I then hugged each of the others in turn--isä (Finnish father), Tuuli (sister, 16), and Tiina (sister, 12). Tommi (brother, 18) wasn't there and I really haven't met him yet (other than for about 30 seconds the first night) because he hasn't been home.


I was in a daze as we got to the car (isä insisted on taking my suitcase even though he couldn't get it into the trunk by himself because of a back injury he's recovering from). then they took me to a mall in Helsinki for dinner. It felt... very American, actually, but cleaner and with interactive display maps and umlauts and the beautiful sounds of Finnish tongues. when I told isä how magical Finnish is to me, he told me "you're crazy" and I was one of the nicest things I have ever heard. Tiina said it to me again today when I insisted on lingonberry- and mushroom-picking barefoot (oops, I leaked a little of the magic). they say it with such love!

they took me to a place at the mall called Chico's--a tex-mex restaurant. I was a little worried, I gotta say. American food? mall-food?!?! äiti asked for a menu in English for me (though I was having fun wading through the Finnish one) and I was surprised to see a note at the bottom saying that any burger could be replaced with a veggie burger an any bread with gluten-free bread. I ended up ordering the vegetarian steak (one of two things on the menu that was vegetarian by default). all of the food turned out to be very good quality and fresh. the kind I would expect from a "traditional american food made healthy" type of restaurant in the states, which would probably be called "basil oven" or "the dancing frying pan" and would be heinously overpriced. not, that is to say, from a mall-food joint. I told Antti (isä) that American food was better here han in America and he told me that I was hungry. I was (a day and a half of airplane food can do that to you) but that wasn't the reason.

it's getting late an my thumbs dislike this convolution called typing on a n iPod so let me just say a fe things about my his family. they all speak very good English and are eager to practice (except for Tiina who speaks better than I do Finnish, but is very shy about speaking English unless I address her in Finnish). it has only been one full day now, and I already feel so at home with them. everyone says Finns are shy and reserved but these people are some of the kindest, openest people I have had the pleasure to meet.

on the 2.5 hour drive home from Helsinki, while drifting in and out o reluctant sleep, my eyes were fed to the brim with birch tree forests (flying over Finland was looking down at forests upon forests broken by lake-shaped clearings lined with villages). as we neared Savitaipale, the roads got narrower and the fields became more frequent and--they were hugged by fog that glowed white against the now-black trees an residual light of the grey sky.

oh, while the food was being made at the restaurant, I took a picture (with the iPod, so y'all can see) of these wonderful people whom I will now follow in going to sleep.