My family part 1

Hello,

I think it's high time I introduced my family to you. I'll begin with my boyfriend, who I've been dating for over a year. We met at a church camp in the summer 2015 after I had returned home from the U.S. 

Well, I'll let him introduce himself...

And hello from me, too. My name is Joonas and I'm an 18-year old beginning of a man. The American equivalent to my name would be Jonas (even though the Finnish version is pronounced differently). I live in a fancy house by lake in the middle of nowhere. I live in the same town as Anette, though,  just 32 miles from her. I go to a different school than Anette, This year is my senior year, too.

With my family

My hobbies are hunting and ice swimming, so I'm a crazy guy (at least Anette thinks so). Basically ice swimming means that I go swimming in a frozen lake in a freezing cold water, usually after sauna. I have also taught Anette to like it a bit.

I'm a science nerd and I'm into IT, technology and good movies, such as superhero movies.

I work at a company that produces and sells 3D printers.

Besides all this nerdy stuff, I also like to work out. I like to go to gym.

In Finland it's mandatory to join army forces and I'm starting my service next summer. It'll last for a year. After that I'm going to study IT and computer science in the University of  Technology.

This is my home

We both wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

Anette and Joonas

EYP - what is it?

Hello my lovely American lads (influenced by this Irish girl),

I apologize the lack of posts on my blog. This fall has been super busy in terms of schoolwork. 

Luckily, this week I have a fall break. Last ten days I've spent in Laax, Switzerland, in the 83rd International session of EYP. I want to tell you something about these 10 amazing days.

EYP - European Youth Parliament is an NGO that has members in 40 countries throughout Europe (there are 50 countries in Europe overall). EYP is not related to the European Union. EYP has no political power and therefore it is not politically committed.

There are 3 types of sessions held each year: regional, national and international. Regionals and nationals are for the members of the corresponding country. International sessions are for members that have been selected from the other two sessions. 

In each sessions the delegates are split into different committees. Each committee has one issue, usually concerning events going on in Europe. Their task is to solve the issue by identifying problems and coming up with a plan on how to solve them. Each resolution is presented in General Assembly where all the delegates can discuss and debate on the issue. 

Sounds like politics, huh? Well, I bet this is easier and much more fun. EYP is actually more about problem solving, debating, interacting, discussing and thinking about current issues. Being an active citizen of Europe. Meeting people from all over Europe.

This was a brief introduction of EYP.

The map of Europe - just in case you wanted to see where Switzerland is.

I was selected to this Laax International session (IS) last February. When October finally came and I had finished my marticulation exams, I was definitely ready for Laax. 

Laax is a small village surrounded by the Alps. Nature was beautiful and yet so green. The landscape was breathtaking. 

One day I had an opportunity to go hiking. It was a four-hour hike but it was totally worth it. 

The 10-day session included lots of events where you were able to try foods from different European countries. The picture is from the Eurovillage, where the delegates from all the 40 countries had brought some traditional food. We brought salty liquorice, rye bread, cranberries, cloudberries, reindeer meat and of course Finnish chocolate!

Irish, Finnish, German, Czech Republican and Bosnian girls

There were 15 delegates on my committee. Our 

topic was about the ageing society in Europe, meaning there are more old people than young people in the society. On the picture above you see my roommates who were also on my committee.

We also rode the ski lift up to the mountain. We were above the clouds, 7200 ft above the sea level.

 Me and my three friends from Finland decided to spend a couple of hours exploring Zurich before going to the airport. We didn't have much time to walk around but Zurich seemed to be a nice and beautiful town. I will definitely visit it one day again.

This session was one of the best things in my life. I learned a lot about different cultures in Europe. Even though Europe is coherent, there is a huge diversity of cultures and traditions. As I learned more about differences within Europe, I became more open-minded. I made friends with people from Eastern Europe. I've never known anyone from Eastern Europe before the session. Having friends and connections everywhere in Europe is precious. 

The session also reminded me of how much I love traveling and exploring the world. There's so much to see and experience. So many people I haven't met yet.

I'm still thinking about studying abroad...

Want to see more pictures of Laax? 

Click this!

Happy Halloween (ik I am a little bit early...)

Lots of love,

Anette 

Easter break

A five-day Easter break gave me a great opportunity to relax (and do homework) at my winter house. This is the best time of the year to ski in Lapland. The sun is shining and it's not too cold. This means the temperature is something around 30F.

I've visited my winter house since the year I was born. The entire family (my grandparents and cousins) used to gather together and spend a week at the winter house. Nowadays it's only my family and my cousin, Sanni's family who come all 1280 miles to Lapland in order to ski.

The Northern part of Finland is called Lapland. It's not a city or anything-kinda like a county or something. The Santa Claus lives in Lapland, on the Arctic Circle. It's only two hours away from my winter house!!! Many tourists from all over the world visit Lapland (and you should, too!)

This pic has been taken years ago, this year there was so much more snow!

My ex and I visited Santa Claus last summer

Our winter house was re-decorated a year ago.

Lisää kuvateksti

Thursday was a great day for skiing! The tracks were just damped down! I enjoyed the warm weather and sunshine! The sun doesn't really shine in the winter and it's really dark, so the sunshine it's a sign of spring.

This picture has been takes a couple years ago. My cousin, Sanni (on the left) is a skier and competes frequently. I skied about 80 miles. Saturday Sanni and I went snowboarding. There's a whole lot of snow here; I bet the snow banks are more than 2 feet tall!!

 We both have been snowboarding for years. We usually snowboard about three days in the winter. It's not a lot, because in Southern Finland there's too little snow for skiing.

I also wanna tell you something about Finnish Easter traditions. It's a religious holiday after all, but we also have some weird traditions. On Palm Sunday children dress up as witches and wizards and go from door to door doing a trick or treat kind of a thing. They give a pussy willow and get easter eggs for treat. I will make sure I audiotape the poem they say😂😂😂

Unlike in English, the Good Friday is Long Friday in Finnish. And hat comes to the name, Good Friday is really nonsense, just saying. It wasn't good at all as we all know. 

Anyway, we also have some traditional foods we eat on Easter. This includes lamb, rye porridge, limppu (bread) and Easter eggs. Rye porridge is made of rye flour, water and syrup. I find it really disgusting, though. Limppu is a Finnish bread and I'm not aware of the equivalent English word for it. It's usually soft rye bread with some syrup added.  Actually, I did eat that bread once in America at the Finnish Christmas dinner.
Including a small (and really unnecessary) toy, the Easter eggs differ from the American ones. But then again, the most popular Easter eggs come from German. I've heard you've tried Kinder chocolate, too. Ain't that good, though?

Some Finns grow a little piece of grass in a jar. Apparently that's called ryegrass(?). It's a signifies new life. 

 With warm and sunny regards,

Anette

My princess day

In Finland, prom is a tradition. The seniors get out of school in February and the juniors go to prom in order to celebrate the fact that they are the oldest ones at the school. So in Finland, prom is only for juniors, but many freshman and senior guys go to prom since there's not enough boys for all the girls (this is a huge problem at my school. Most of the guys go to prom three times. Dang, poor guys.)

The other thing, which is kinda funny, is that we have to learn certain dances in advance.This year we learned then dances. We take a dance class  before prom. As the prom day goes, we perform the dances to freshmen and teachers and our families. It is a lot of fun!

My prom day started at 6a.m. as I walked into the hair saloon. I did my own make-up and wore the same dress as I did last year in the U.S. 

We performed the dances at school, in the shopping center and the sport center. The dances weren't over until 8 p.m. so the day was super long! And my feet hurt so bad!! We aslo went to eat lunch at a buffet. The food was delicious!

My hair. It's a real flower. 

My date was my friend's boyfriend and he goes to a different school.

My returnee friend

My best friends

Hope you have a sunny spring!

Love,

Anette