I want to start by apologizing profusely for having not written in 3 weeks. I finally have my camera back now! : )

Finland:

2 weeks ago, 2 Rotary counsellors took 13 exchange students on a 2 night cruise which stopped in Finland for one day. The trip started off with a THREE hour bus ride from Eskilstuna to the ferry terminal in Stockholm... we (Steele, Marianne, Rachel, and I) thought that taking the bus directly to the terminal would have been faster than the one hr train ride into the city... unfortunately we were wrong!

When we finally reached the ferry, we met up with the other exchangers and headed onto the boat where we found our cabins conveniently located right above the car deck... We had 4 people bunking in each room. As you can see from the photo, there weren't any windows so it felt a little tight to say the least but we had fun with it!

The boat had a bunch of restaurnts and 2 dancing clubs and some stores where we spent all our time. The best part of the first evening by far was dancing in the club aimed at the older clientele. We were the youngest people in the room by at least 40 years! hehe but it was a great night and we danced for a good 2 hours : )

Upon arriving in Helsinki the next morning, 4 of us took a bus tour and left the rest to wander town. This picture is of the Royal Palace in Helsinki. It's definitely a very reserved looking building. No one would have knwon it was the palace if the tour guide hadn't pointed it out! I'm really happy I went on the tour because I got to see a lot more of the city than the others, and as we only had one day, it was important to cram everything in. The next 2 pictures are from the underground church which is literally a church made from tunnelling into a rocky hill. It was a truly beautiful building! After the bus tour, Grace, Rachel, Julien, and I joined some of the others and did some shopping and more touring around. Unfortunately we soon learned that tourists don't usually pick Helsinki as a top destination, and there weren't any souvenir stores... such a shame... Anyways, onto the rest of the trip. We spent the rest of the day wandering around Helsinki. It was really interesting to see how different Finns are from Swedes. You could tell just from their appearance; less make-up, less blonde hair, less extremely fashionable people!


This picture is of the group of exchangers who went on the trip. 3 Aussie boys decided to sleep in... so they aren't there!

On the way back to Stockhom, the boat was mostly full of Finns. We ended up making friends with a whole group of them and by the end of the night, we were known as "The Canadians". Finns are actually much more friendly in general than Swedes (or at least that was my impression on the boat). Normally in Sweden it would be very out-of-place to talk to someone you havn't been introduced to, yet the Finnish people were coming up and saying "hi" the entire evening! Other than that, we spent the evening dancing, joking around, meeting people, and just having fun in general. It was a wonderful trip!

Back home again:

Last week I was sick again : ( and had to go to the doctor's and to the emergency room. I can't say it was a good experience to see a Swedish emergency room, but now I can say I've been there! (for almost 7 HOURS). I am now better so no worries : )

This weekend I went and saw the new James Bond and just kinda lazed around. I had to get rested up for Friday when I leave for France with my French class!!! YAY : )

I had sewing class today which was very exciting (because it's been cancelled the last 4 weeks in a row)! I'm making a snazzy vest which hopefully will turn out well : ) It's nice to have fun classes like that where I don't have to sit and just watch/listen to what the others are doing because I can't do the classwork/homework in Swedish yet.

A girl from Australia (who worked at a camp near Canmore for 4 months this summer and now is touring Europe) is here this week. She's a friend of a Swedish girl who went on exchange. Her name is Claire too which I think is pretty cool. Hopefully I'll get some time to show her around before Friday!

That's all for today! I'll write another entry when I'm back from France next week. Hej då (bye)