RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS' CONCERT

Sorry, this is my VERY VERY LATE February Report... Things have been unbelievably hectic! First of all!!! I saw the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS in concert here in Turku!! How awesome is that??!! And I have some really cool pictures too! The concert was incredible.

THIRD HOST FAMILY

Well, as for my new family--they're perfect. Literally, they're the Brady Bunch type! Mom and Dad with a son and daughter, a cat and a dog; the Mom's a doctor and the Dad's a lawyer. He built their 3 story house and they've lived there all their lives. The Grandparents are all alive, and they've been everywhere in the world! There are some funny rocks in the Living Room--I reckon it's from the pyramids, because they just came back from Egypt!! Or hey, it could just as well be from the MOON! I wouldn't put it past them!

HEALTH ISSUES

Now, to the bad things. I live in the middle of NOWHERE!!! There are only 4 buses a day on the weekends and the latest bus is at 6pm. NO life for me from now on. The bus stop nearest to my house is a 20 minute walk and for some reason it's ALWAYS windy--I'm talking Category 4½ Hurricane winds! (I doubt 4½ even exists, but you understand) Last week I had one of those 24-hour bugs...That was NOT fun! I was sick as a dog, vomiting, fever, the works! I ate some really icky Chinese food the day before and it was a lot nicer going down than coming up! X-p I was bleeding internally and my esophagus was bruised, I'm sure. I slept for 20 hours the following day.

MY WEEKEND

Rotary hosted a District Meeting at "Caribia" (A Spa & Hotel) for the weekend. We were all thinking that we would be sleeping in the hotel, but they told us to bring sleeping bags--HINT: Not good!! They drove us into the middle of the forest to sleep there and all the Rotarians got to stay at the hotel. >:-( The place we stayed at had terrible heating and no running water with outdoor toilets. Try using the john (Hole in the ground with wood around it) in -7 degrees with the wind. Need I say more...I didn't bother! I waited until we got to the hotel the next morning. Our bedroom was so cold (even with the fireplace going and all the heaters up to the max) that 6 of us slept in two beds pushed together . We were packed like sardines and of course none of us even got any sleep becasue we spent most of the night cold, scared, and very uncomfortable! That place was so spooky! The doors didn't have proper locks so they kept opening through the night and some dipstick kept reminding us about that horror movie "The Ring" and had us all paranoid and spooked out of our minds. I got less than 3 hours of sleep. The following day we returned to the Spa and I went to Sauna and the Turkish steam room and then I went crazy on the water slides.......they were so incredible! One is pitch black so you don't know which way it's going to turn next! GUESS WHAT I DID?? I finally gave into the Finnish tradition of running through the snow after sauna and even had a dip in the ice-cold water outside! I didn't like the ice water though, your body goes into shock, but the snow after sauna felt nice! I had a great time, but after noon we had a ceremony with all the Rotarians and some guy from Scotland (The Int'l President, I think) spoke and I was trying my hardest to stop 'diving fa conch'. I was falling asleep every 3rd minute. I thought it would never end! Finally, it did, and my day wasn't over yet, I had to go to church and try not to fall asleep there as well. I didn't even sing--that's how effortless I felt! Then I had to go to dinner with my host grandparents and family. Next, I had to wake up at 6:30am bright and early for school on Monday morning. They had an entire day for us exchange students, and I've been working on paintings at home all week for school because they're celebrating 50 years or something like that and are having all these special happenings. So it's been non-stop and next week I'll be in Russia! It never ends!

WEATHER REPORT

The weather STILL sucks! Even though we're half way into April and SPRING is 'supposed' to be here, it's still SNOWING as I'm typing this. It's still below 0 and the sun still is nowhere to be found. But all in all, life is fine. I'm thankful. I keep my head up and stay smiling by always saying, "Hey, things could be worse, and they're not, so thank God." Until next time...God bless.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             -Olivia.

SEE Olivia's paintings HERE