Tossed Salad

Ah, well it's 1:09 am right now, and it's not tomorrow that I'm leaving anymore--it's today. It's a strange feeling; I've been looking outside all day, thinking, "wow. I'm not going to be seeing that tree for another two months. Bye, tree. Wow. When I get back, all the roses will probably be gone. So long, roses."

I meant to have all of my packing done yesterday, so I could just relax today. Ha! The queen of procrastination strikes again. In fact, I'm still not entirely packed--I have some buttons to sew onto some sweaters and I've been avoiding it since noon. Want to see? Here's what my room looked like for the majority of the day:

And that's only half of it. See the little space in the middle? That's where I sit and groan.

Well, at least I had one suitcase packed already. As you can see, I had one 45lb suitcase filled ENTIRELY with gifts and summer reading books.

I didn't even set this blog up until late afternoon. I was putting it off becuase I didn't have any idea what to call it. I was trying to think of something innovative. So I ended up using an Aima Joke. (oh, stop laughing.) Here were some of my mom's suggestions:

"Oh! Oh! I know! How about...AimaJapFinn? How's that? That's good!"

"No? Mmm...ok. Then what about AimaFinnToBe? Use that one!"

~sigh~"Ok ok. Aima...Aima...Aima...oh, I don't know."

Thanks, mom. :)

I still need to go and print out some Finnish phrases and things, with the intention of studying on the plane. We'll see if that happens or not. I'll tell you.

It really hasn't sunk into my head yet. In fact, I'm still not entirely sure what it was that made me do this in the first place. I basically just resubmitted my application from last year on a whim. And here I am, on my way to Finland, a country I hardly know anything about.

Well, here's a list. I'm good a making lists.

What Finland Is to Me:

-Santa's birthplace

-Saunas (which I am still a bit confused and nervous about)

-Gallons and gallons of coffee

-Where Moomin Troll lives (you probably won't know Moomin unless you're Japanese. Or Finnish.)

-Reindeer territory

-Where the Hakalas are!

That's it. That's all I know. And now, you know just as much about where I'm going as I do.

MY HOST FAMILY

Well. I've been emailing my sister, Kaisla, since May 7th. (I just went back and checked my email ^^) Here, another list.

This is my family:

sister, Kaisla (18)-- A lover of photography, horses, and Spain.

brother, Joona (16)--A skier/jumper. He jumps with skiis.

sister, Unna (14)-- One who dances. A ballerina of 11 years.

mother, Marita--A Pastor.

father, Kari--An actor and director of theater.

pet, Litu--a friend in general, I guess. As all dogs are.

Well, I ran over to Megan's to say my goodbyes. That was hard to do.

And then Chris, my senpai (sorry, Japanese insert here. Senpai is a term for someone who experienced something before you did. In this case, Chris went to Finland two years ago as a YFU student) and fellow night owl, came over around 11 to say bye. He's leaving for Germany, so I won't see him for a whole year...

Oh, and why is this entry called Tossed Salad? Because that's what I feel like right now: I'm happy and sleepy and frazzled and excited and nervous and scared and confident energetic. And also, this entire post has just been one, gigantic, tossed salad. Just scattered. If you could follow this, you are one talented indivudual.

I'm still getting used to this whole blog-making thing. It's really crazy looking right now. I'm sorry. I'll try to be a bit more organized in the future. For your sake and mine. :)