Eurovision Competition 2011

Eurovision is a song competition held every year between European countries.

This year Finland's finalist was Paradise Oskar with his song 'Da Da Dum'

'Da Da Dum' - Paradise Oskar

and this was his performance in the finals

Unfortunately Finland didn't win this year, it was beaten by Azerbaijan with this song 

'Running Scared' - Eldar and Nigar

There's always next year :)

Easter

Hyvää Pääsiäistä (Happy Easter!)

For the first time I am having Easter in Spring instead of Autumn, the snow is almost all gone except for certain areas around the city such as areas in constant shade, it is like I have begun my exchange all over again, in another place where there is no snow, new things keep popping out of the snow even in areas I thought I knew quite well. It is amazing to see how everything changes without snow.

what is left of the snow in my back yard

Finnish Easter traditions:

·         ‘Rairuoho’ – special grass grown in pots for approx. 2 weeks before Easter. On Easter morning these are then decorated with Easter eggs and fake baby chickens.



·         The Easter rooster – on Easter morning it is the rooster who lays the eggs and these eggs are made of chocolate, they are laid in a hat under your bed, or in our case, this year, on the kitchen table. I must say he has extraordinary taste in hats [a cork hat from Australia ;).

Easter Rooster

Easter hat

·         Painting eggs – with breakfast was boiled eggs, you decorate these eggs with either paint or textas and once you’ve finished you can smash it open and eat it as per usual breakfast... I was too attached to mine to eat them though haha

egg number 1: Finnish flag & 'hyvää pääsiaistä'

my portrait of the easter roooster

We had a large lunch with some of my extended host family, I made some hot cross buns the day before Easter as my contribution to the meal (also ‘Australian’ salad... exactly the same as Finnish salad but the lettuce leaves are left bigger, not shredded as much as Finnish, turns out this somehow affects the taste, who knew?) Along with the hot cross buns (not even heard of in Finland, gasp!) we had  makkara (Finnish sausage) and corn cooked in ‘grillikota’ - a separate little hut from the main house in which is a fireplace (centre) and benches around the walls to grill from – also salmon, other types of bread, salad and a little poro (reindeer) it actually didn’t taste that bad! Then for desert we had cheesecake.

my beautiful hot cross buns

My creativity in decorating the cheesecake with strawberries

Easter in Finland is such an amazing experience, so many different traditions and activities to Easter in Australia, I had an amazing day :)

''Just popping over to Sweden''

On Wednesday 20th of April I left with my host family and host sister's friend (Roosa) for Helsinki to go by cruise ship to Stockholm, Sweden. Yes, I still get excited over the fact that 'I'm going to another country!!' it still feels wierd being so close to neighnouring coutries haha.

As our ship (Silja Serenade) pulled out of Helsinki Port I sat with Hellu, Olli, Sara and Roosa in the lounge area for all the cabins in the same area as us and watched through the window as Finland disappeared behind us. A quite interersting conversation accompanied this moment, there was a Celine Dion song playing and I said it should be bad luck to play her songs on cruise ships especially after what happened to the Titanic, also something about the seagulls flying around the front of the ship actually being Russian robot spies listening to our conversation and when the time comes the seagull's beak will open and out will pop James Bond (pronounced 'Ya - mes Bond' in Finnish :P) like the crocodile in one of his other movies, also as we were at the front of the ship we kept debating as to whether we would make it through each narrower section on the way out of the port, good times good times :P

Our ship "Silja Serenade' in Helsinki Port

View of taken on way back aboard in Stockholm

Kareoke on the boat - ''Can't fight the moonlight' Leanne Rhymes

Spot the statue

In an alleyway

MArket Square - many people sitting outside enjoying the 18 degree heat and drinking coffee

cool old telephone booth

you rang?

inside the cathedral - where the Swedish Royal Wedding took place last Summer (last winter in Australia) - the awkward moment when I didnt know there was a Swedish Royal Wedding until this moment.

guard post near Palace



Im heading off on Eurotour today, I know I havent posted in ages but I just havent had a spare second, after Eurotour it is summer holidays so I will dedicate a whole day to updating my blog :) be talking to you soon Ana xox

*>COMING SOON<*

1) SWEDEN
2) EASTER
3) Eurovision
4) Ice hockey world championships

Since Russia

After getting back from Russia:

•  I have had exam week - the only exam I had to do was English (1 hour listening, 3 hour written) and I was also graded on the work I did in art. Got 10 in English and 9 in Art (grading scale goes from 4 to 10, 10 being the highest mark)
• Visited Porvoo (city 1/2 way between Kotka and Helsinki) and walked around the old part of the city, very beautiful, then we visited the breeder of my host family's dogs (they are Hovawarts - there aren't any in Australia) as there was a new litter of puppies

 


• Went to my 1st women's basketball game - Peli-Karhut (Kotka) vs. Catz (Lappeenranta). Kotka won 77-65, then they won their next game as well therefore winning the entire competition. So in other words, my host town is awesome!! :D and Iäm also pretty much pro at the rules of basketball too =) And just randomly, I met my 3rd host mother at 1/2 time, she asked if I was Anastasia and then said 'I'm going to be your host mother!' it was really unexpected but really good.
• Got the top mark in the English exam... surprising?
• Went to see Red Riding Hood with friends, was seeing a lot of parallels with Twilight unfortunately but it was still enjoyable.
• Saw a rocking moose!! (as in similar to a rocking horse... but a moose!! I hope every Finnish kid grows up with a rocking moose not horse, hope this dream wont be crushed haha)
• Went to a Rotary meeting at the Orthodox Monestary and the guest speaker was a priest who talked about Easter and what it means.

Russia - St. Petersburg 02/04/2011

In the morning of the 3rd day we went on a sightseeing tour of the city:

• Saw the street and exact spot where Rasputin was murdered, he was invited to a party and whilst he was there he was poisoned - but he had gradually consumed larger and larger amounts of poisons to gain immunity so the poison had little effect on him, then he was also shot but he managed to drag himself outside and crawl down the street where the people trying to kill him picked him up and threw him off a bridge - his cause of death was drowning despite all the other things done to him - felt creepy being on the spot and being told what had happened there.
• Got a closer look at Peter and Paul's cathedral - resting place of the Romanov family, including Anastasia - Disney lied to me!!!
• visited a Russian Orthodox church - we had to cover our heads with scarves to be allowed inside.
• Had a photo with our tour guide because we had nearly the same outfit

• Saw a/the? Flying Dutchman

The first palace to exist in St. Petersburg, it's so little and cute!

After the tour we had a free 4 hours on Nevski Prospekt (main street of St. Petersburg) and surrounding areas

pretty sure I was meant to be part of this ad

found a chocolate museum

A bit concerning when you find a bullet imprint in glass, and the fact that the bullet didn't go all the way through suggests bullet proof glass, wwhy does a pizzeria need bulletproof glass??

Apparently people are very welcome here, welcome enough to be welcomed  in at least 24 languages!

I can't remember names but one ruler of Russia was assasinated on this spot and then when his son gained power he built this Cathedral in memory of the place his father was assassinated - some people just put a wreath or cross...

Chocolate monkey!

In the evening we went to the ballet to see Swan Lake, it was the first time I'd seen ballet live and it was really good, I enjoyed it a lot although I did need the program to really understand each scene, it was strange seeing a performance were there was no dialogue. There was a part with Spanish dancing which I would have to say was my favourite bit, the costumes in that part were amazing as well, although we weren't allowed to take photos during the performance so can't show you.

Maygen, myself and Kim outside the theatre

Inside the theatre

must get tiring holding up the whole building all the time

'The bad guy'

Full company

After the performance we went back to the hotel were we had free time, went to McDonald's only to find out its doors shut 15 mins before we arrived, oh well Hesburger is better anyway :P

Felt strange realising that I was leaving the city the next day so enjoyed every last second I had left there.