The time comes again...

Unfortunately the time came for mne to pack my things and move on to my next family, unfortunate as I had to move from my current family who I have gotten to know so well and have many memories with but then also excitement as to what my life in a new family will bring.

My last day included a 2 hour early mark from school so that I could go ice-skating with my host dad as it was something we had planned to do for a while, then my host mum and sister came to watch when they finished work/school.

being Australian I don't have the ability to go ice skating so often but I am getting the hang of it...

until I get sin binned ahaha!

TIme seved it was time to get back on the ice

and score the winning goal!!!

... in my head I am a professional ;)

We then had sauna and relaxing time (a lot of candles lit everywhere vs lights) before a dinner of mexican food (yum!), we then sat and talked around the dinner table for about and hour and finished the night with a good ol' Aussie film - Crocodile Dundee.

A great last night.

Educating

The other Australian in my town and I spent one day at a primary school about 15 mins by car from Kotka. The room was already filled with Australian themed things including flags and a kangaroo skin on the floor as one of the teachers at the school had been to Australia on exchange.

We started with a powerpoint on life in Australia and answering questions.

Book on Western Australia and our mascot: Bruce the kookaburra

then we cooked ANZAC biscuits...

and taught them to play AFL

they all said they'd love to visit Australia one day, to Australian tourism: your welcome! 

Understanding

It's funny when something like graffitti can make your day, this one was on the back of a bus seat and did make me grin. That's because it took me by surprise that when I read it I understood it said 'my mum'

Kotka exchange students and the quest for the giant xylophone

One weekend we proposed the idea of searching for a so called 'giant xylophone' somewhere along the edge of Kotka and the sea. Only 3 out of 10 of us could make it on the day.

here's roughly how the day went:

We set out from our meeting plance and had made it all of 2 blocks when it started to pour rain.. we ran for cover of the Maritarium cafe (the nearest shelter) and sat down for some obviously well desrved (due to how much we had done... hmmm) hot chocolate/coffee whilst waiting for the weather to clear up.

view of the harbour from Maritarium cafe 

seals: they make you think they are sooo cute... then they steal your bike

the waterfall in Kotka

Santalahti (beach in Kotka)

the undescribable need to play on play equipment even when over the age of 10

Santalahti again

...and again

It started to rain again so we took cover in a changing shed which was also the foundation for this spider's web, I bet he wasn't happy about the rain sticking to his web.

After about 15 mins we continued on our way again, we did in fact find the 'giant xylophone', though this was the perfect example of 'it's not the destination it's the journey' I was expecting a xylophone so big you have to jump on each seperate note, when in fact it was really just 1/3 of a size bigger than a normal one, however I will admit it sounded amazing with the notes floating out over the Baltic sea.

It was a quite enjoyable day, with the horrible weather etc just adding to the memories and I saw parts of Kotka and different perspectives that I hadn't seen before.

Suomenlinna and Korkeasaari

I went for an afternoon trip to Helsinki with my host family to see Suomenlinna (Castle of Finland) and Finland's national zoo. I have just included photos so that I can get more blog more quickly up to date but it was an amazing afternoon full of experiences I hadn't yet had and am glad that I was able to.

(I knew we were in good hands if there happened to be an emergency)

The sandwich I bought was 2 different types of bread aha!

We then headed to the zoo...

...Naughty corner?

The most fearsome creature I layed my eyes on all day...

This guy was nowhere to be seen and then I whistled and he walked from the opposite end of the enclosure to stand in front of us, I then decided to name him Lauri... don't question it, it just worked :P

All in all it was a great day :)