There's a Chill in the Air...

On Sunday, we baked a bunch of awesome Finnish desserts. They were awesome. The temperature has started to get cooler here, so it's time for the jackets to come out.

On Monday, I had to go to school at the normal time since my half math class and the half Swedish class switched places this week (but that meant I got to come to school later on Friday, so I was okay with it). The third year students were doing testing this week, so we had to be quiet during break. I had the usual classes before I headed to my Finnish lessons after school. (One note: we learned about indefinite pronouns in English. To any non-English speakers that want to learn English: indefinite pronouns are hard.)

At my Finnish lesson, the Tunisian student showed up again and two Thai women also showed up and we went over some more Finnish. Then I went to hockey practice. The next day I had school again and I had Finnish lessons. I had been studying my book and I asked a lot of grammar questions. I think my teacher learned more Finnish from me. After school, my host mom, Raisa (one of my host sisters) and I went to a spinning lesson. It was fun.

Wednesday was the very fun day. In music class, we went over how to read rhythms. In America, we read them like this:
A whole note: 1-2-3-4
Two half notes: 1-2 3-4
Four quarter notes: 1 2 3 4
Four eighth notes: 1& 2& 3& 4&
Four sixteenth notes; 1E&A 2E&A 3E&A 4E&A

In Finland, they read rhythms like this:
A whole note: ta-a-a-a
Two half notes: ta-a ta-a
Four quarter notes: ta ta ta ta
Four eighth notes: ti-ti ti-ti ti-ti ti-ti
Four sixteenth notes; ta-ka-ta-ka ta-ka-ta-ka ta-ka-ta-ka ta-ka-ta-ka

(A note: also, in Finland, they use the letter H instead of the letter B when it come to note reading, For example: A H C D E F G. However, B is used as H♭)

After school I had hockey practice. We practiced on the ice for a while before we took off only our skates, put some shoes on and went out to the soccer field. Wearing full gear, we played American football-with a soccer ball. I got to teach them how to play and it was very fun (and very funny). We ended up with a tie game.

The rest of my week consisted of school, hockey and tongue twisters. On Friday, during a free period I sat with my friends and we talked about different tongue twisters. One of them was able to say "How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" by the end of the day.

Today my host dad is working on the dog house (as pictured to the left) while I study for next week because next week is exam week. In other words, starting on Tuesday and going until next Tuesday, we have one exam everyday. Each day is for one class. After the exam, we study for the next test in the afternoon. After exam week is over, our classes change.

Exam week here I come! :)