Week 5-Perjantai

Since alot of people are asking for specifics about my daily life and such, I'll just describe an average day and an average weekend.
   So, on an average day I wake up at about 8:30-9ish. On some days I don't have class until noon, and other days I have class at 8, but I'll get into that later. After I wake up, I take a shower and get ready. The showers here are so different-at first I couldn't even figure out how to turn the water on! And there aren't any walls on the shower, so after you get done you have to push all the water into the drain with this squigie thing. My family doesn't really care when I take showers, so I just try and take one when people are still asleep in the morning or at night. At school there isn't a uniform, and I have discovered that Finns are extremely expressive people (style wise) so no one cares at all what you wear. Since Finns don't have small talk, they kind of tell you who they are with how they dress and that way they don't have to talk about themselves.
     After I am all ready for school, I go downstairs and have breakfast. For me this is normally just a slice of rye bread and some coffee and juice, but sometimes Erja or Vesa will make me porridge. Mmm...Porridge with just a bit of ligonberry jam is the BEST. When I'm done I don't like to hang around at home for long, so even if I don't have class for a while, I'll just go and ride my bike around town. The city of Kouvola is very beautiful and I like meandering through the streets just enjoying the sunshine and the breeze.
    Once I am at school, I hang up my coat and scarf (everyone wears scarves here) in the coat rack assigned to my class(11B) and I just chill on the benches with the rest of my class and wait for the next period to start.
     Each class lasts about 50minutes, and sometimes we have double periods :( The classrooms are always locked inbetween classes, so we usually just sit outside the door and wait for the teacher to show up. My schedule has completely changed now because it is the end of the period, and I don't even have classes this week because all the other students are taking the final exams...Which all my teachers said they didn't really care if I went to because I wouldn't understand anything anyway. Although, I did go to my religion exam(because it was in English) and on Wednesday I am going to the Fysics exam.(Also in English).
    When I asked the Headmaster (who also teaches Fysics) if I had to go to the exams, he kind of laughed and said I could if I wanted to, but that there wasn't really a point if it was in finnish. He's pretty awesome. He thinks that me and the other exchange students are just adorable when we speak finnish, and he doesn't even care when I start doing other start in class when he speaks Finnish.
       All in all, Finnish school is pretty awesome. The food is free, and is much better then the school food in America but of course all the Finnish students think its awful. And of course I love it :) The only downside is that I have to buy all my school book, or rather, Rotary has to buy them :D And they are all about 30 euros. My Finnish book was 40. It's really annoying.
      Now that I have been here for a while, people are starting to not be so shy and I am actually making lots of friends. My class is pretty small, about 25 people, so I know almost everyone's names. Which in itself is a challenge because I can never tell if a person's name is a name, or just a word in finnish. And they all sound the same!
    I am also finding more ways to keep busy. Since all my classmates have been busy studying, I have had to find other ways to keep myself entertained. I go to Zumba and other fitness classes almost everyday after school, I run alot, and on Wednesdays I have my Suomen kieli kurssi. I mostly use the class as a practice time, because I already know most of what the teacher is talking about. But I like it. My main problem right now, is that I am too scared to use Finnish in everyday conversations, because I am afraid of being misunderstood. It sucks. But hopefully this class will change that.
     On weekends I usually just lay around reading. I go to Zumba or run like usual, and sometimes I clean my room or go to the library. Which actually has a pretty decent English section...So really, it's just like at home. I've gotten into the really bad habit of not getting up until about 9.30 though, because last period I didn't have class until 10 most days, or not until 12. So now I have trouble sleeping at night, because I sleep so late...DX