Hei Kaikille!
Finally, I have some free time to write a report.  I am sorry I didn't
write in October, but I think what happened was that I was quite busy
and things kept happening that I wanted to wait to write about, but
they just kept coming and coming.  Well, ok, here we are.  I'll tell
you guys about October and November.  Well, October started out with
Marsin the sky.  It was a pretty nice way to bring in the new month.
One night I had nothing to do, so I decided to go to the local soccer
field where there aren't too many lights and just watch the stars.  It
was a good thing it was a cloudless night because Mars, all of the
constellations, and the milky way were in perfect vision.  It only
stayed for a few days, but it was still pretty cool getting to see it
so well.  The next day, my second family's host sister, friend, and I
visited Kuopio about 95 kms away.  On our way there, we stopped at a
gorge and yet another lake.  It was really pretty, but we were off to
Kuopio pretty soon.  We met up with our friend's grandmother and
traveled back to her house so I could try on a dress for the Old Days'
Dance.  The Old Days' Dance is pretty much a planned dance where all us
students perform the old dances like the waltz, tango, riverdance, etc.
  

Anyways, the next day, we changed classes.  My new classes were Math,
Finnish, English, Psychology, Creative Writing, and the dance class for
the Old Day's Dance.  The next day was Friday.  My host mom, host
brother and I went to Helsinki.  Well, not really.  We went to Espoo
and ended up only going to Helsinki for a couple of hours, seeing the
sights and famous places.  It seemed to pass really quickly and I don't
really think I got the real feel for the city that I would have got if
I were exploring the more lesser known places and streets like I wanted
to.  But I did get to see some pretty cool sites.  I think the two best
things I saw were the Big White Church and the statue of Aleksis Kivi. 
Seriously, we actually had to go on a quest to find Aleksis Kivi.  No
one I talked to before we left for Helsinki knew where the statue was. 
The day we did go to Helsinki just happened to be Helsinki Day.  A lot
of old wooden boats had just been in a race and were resting and
playing music in the harbor when we got there.  When we were back in
Espoo, one day we went to a christening.  I knew there was going to be
a christening sometime, but I wasn't aware that it was going to be in
Espoo.  So I didn't really bring any dressy clothes with me.  It was a
good thing I had a somewhat dressy black shirt with me or I would have
been going in a star wars t-shirt, converse, and ripped jeans.  Now, I
pretty much bring a dress shirt with me whenever I travel with someone.
  

I usually don't know what's going on half the time so I have to be
prepared for anything.  A week after we left for Helsinki, I stayed
with my friend Moni, from Ecuador, in Imatra for three days.  It was
nice getting to see her and meeting her friends and family.  She taught
me some really ecuadorian card games which no one but us knows here and
her mom even took us to the border of Russia since it's only about 7kms
from her city.  So, I got to see Russia.  We couldn't go in though
because you need a passport AND a visa, but it was cool just being able
to see it.  I left on Sunday the 16th.  Then on Wednesday the 19th, my
host mom, host brother, and three other people took a van to Tampere. 
Well, not really again.  We went to Nokia, which is near Tampere.  We
stayed with a family again and the pretty much the second we got there,
I met up with some of my exchange student friends.  They were from the
US, Canada, and Mexico, but two of them were rotex.  We sat in a coffee
house, but had no coffee, went to a bowling alley, but didn't bowl
because all the lanes were full and no one really had the money
anyways, and went to Kim Long's.  When I tell you they have the best
Chinese food in Tampere, I mean it.  It was insanely good.  I'm
definitely planning on going back there again.  One day during the
trip, my host mom dropped my host brother and I off at this hotel where
we went swimming in an indoor water park sort of place.  It wasn't
really a water park though because it was very small.  It was quite
strange.  It snowed the morning after the day we got back.  The first
snowfall was October 23rd.  So, what do I do when it snows?  Follow the
train tracks till I see the old abandoned train of course.  That became
routine.  I always followed the train tracks.  It was really different
in the snow, though.  I didn't really like it as much.  Wednesday the
26th, I packed my stuff.  Thursday, I switched host families. 
Honestly, I think it was for the best.  I am so much happier in my new
family.  Now I have a host mom, a host dad, and 3 host sisters, but one
lives in Imatra.  Now I have a lot more company.  It's great.  Then
there was Halloween.  We dressed up.sort of.  My host sister's friends
came over and we watched this crazy movie called The Faculty and made
smores.  The next day was actually Finland's Halloween.  My host
sister, host mom, and I made like a million buns and rolls and visited
the cemetery during the evening.  Anyways, November came.  It brought
more snow.  I went to a concert that came to our town, Kumpurock.  It
was pretty bad.  I didn't have too much fun there, but it was only ?5
so I guess I didn't lose much.  The next day my host sister Katssku and
I went to this factory, well, I'm not sure if it was a factory or not. 
Actually, everyone I talk to tells me it's something different.  So,
I'll just call it a factory.  We also went to a cliff near the factory.
 

Later on in the month, we went to Music Night.  Music Night was held
at the middle school and it was basically a bunch of middle school kids
singing and dancing.  I won't lie, it wasn't good.  So that was another
?5 down the drain.  One really neat day this month was when they put
the christmas lights up in town.  Katssku and I went into the center of
town where I met one Santa in the meat isle of the supermarket.  He
gave me chocolate.  Santa's pretty cool.  I tried Glögi, a highly held
finnish drink.  We bought sparklers and lit them with the cans of
flames lining the street.  But really, what could be better than seeing
the christmas tree all decorated, eating Makkara, sipping coffee, and
watching the Christmas Light Day fireworks?  Maybe that it would snow. 
It did.  I loved that night.  Then we got a pizza.  Ok, so now tomorrow
is December.  My host sister is having a HUGE graduation party on
December 2nd, the same day I leave for the rotary trip to Lapland. 
That day should be tiring.  The party and festivities are all day long,
then I have to catch an 1150pm bus in Varkaus where I'll be travelling
to Lapland, the part of Finland above the arctic circle, for over 12
hours.  Yes, 12 hours ON the bus.  Insane.  But that's all I have to
tell you for now.  I'll surely write about the Lapland trip in my next
report!

Moi Moi,
Jillian Flon in Finland