Санкт-Петербург

On Sunday, I made cookies and brownies in the morning and celebrated my birthday in the afternoon. We ate lots of great cake and I got lots of presents including four chocolate bars, some shirts and shoes and more. It was nice to see everyone.

Syntämäpäivänäni I received "lots of luck" in school because it was my birthday. In other words, they don't usually say happy birthday in Finland, but rather, lots of luck. Then in the evening I quickly said goodbye to my Finnish teacher who said it was nice having me in her class and how it was fun for her to see how quickly I learned Finnish. Then I headed to my hockey game. I tried to score a goal throughout the entire game, as it was our last game of the season. I played as a wing because of that. We took a timeout with three minutes left in the game and my teammates asked why. My coach said because it was time to get Emma a goal. I was close a lot of times, but I didn't get a goal before the buzzer went off. The puck may not have ended up in the net, but I did. Earlier in the game, I almost got a goal as I took the puck away from a defender coming out from behind the net and I kept poking the goalie to try and get it in. They pushed me into the net and my teammates all said I did a good job when I did that.

After the game, I said I had an announcement to make and I held up my backpack which that hadn't really noticed I had since I hid it under the bench. They saw that and they got quite pretty fast. I told them although I didn't get a goal, I had had a great time playing on JPK, so I made them some cookies. They each took one and decided they had to sing. They sang "Paljon Onnea" to me before they took some more cookies and brownies. Overall, it had been a pretty awesome birthday.

The Hermitage

The throne room

On Tuesday, I tried mämmi with vanilla sauce and I thought it was pretty good. In the afternoon, I had my hockey class and some women from the for fun women's team came by. It was fun to talk to them, and it especially fun when they realized I wasn't Finnish (well, we kind of told them). They said they didn't realize I wasn't Finnish because of my accent and said that I spoke better Finnish than some Finnish people do. After that, I got some nail polish, lipstick and hair binders from my host aunt and some muumi measuring spoons and a cooking scraper from my neighbor/hockey teammate since I am known for baking cookies and they will help me bake more. :)

Statue of Peter the Great

Keskiviikkona, I had a pretty normal school day. Then, in the evening, we headed to Seinäjoki. There, I stayed the night with one of my newbies and another exchange student from the district. It was really funny because in my newbies host family, there are two boys in elementary school and the youngest was really confused because he thought I was a Finnish person and not the second American girl he heard was coming. After I finally convinced him, he ended up asking a few hours later if I was an American because he just couldn't believe it with my great Finnish accent.


On Thursday, we left from Seinäjoki by bus at 4:30 am and we headed to Tampere. There, many of my friends got on and it was fun to talk with them about what has happened since we last met. I even spoke Finnish with my friend from Wisconsin as he spoke it pretty well, although he had a pretty strong American accent. It took us five more hours before we reached the border and we picked up lots of people along the way, including a few newbies. A newbie from Australia spoke Japanese which was cool. Then we had lunch and met up with the other bus at the border Crossing the border went smoothly and then we took the long drive to the hotel.

St. Isaac's Cathedral

Perjantaina, we stopped by the Hermitage where we were given a guided tour through some of the rooms. Because the tour was in English, I helped translate into Finnish what was being said for a Japanese girl who doesn't speak much English.

It was very interesting to see all of the different things that were on display at the museum such as paintings by famous artists and a vase that was so big and weighed so much that they built the room around it. The architecture and designs of the different rooms and the throne room were very beautiful.

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

In the afternoon, we stopped by the Kunstkamera. The Kunstkamera was the first museum completed in Russia and now holds the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography. It was fun to learn about all of the ancient civilizations from around the world. Again, I was a translator for the Japanese girl, but it was fun, especially when we got to the Japanese ancient dolls and she said they still have dolls like that at her house. We also saw collections of body parts and dead human siamese twins preserved in fluid and on display, as Peter the Great wanted people to learn more about humans.

The inside of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood

Then on Saturday we had a city tour where we visited many great sites, such as the statue of Peter the Great, St. Isaac's Cathedral, a church during service and the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood.

We had a few hours in the city on our own, so we went shopping on the streets and my newbie managed to bargain for the first time without knowing it and it was really funny to watch her. We ate in an Russian restaurant and visited the inside of Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, which was very beautiful.

In short: a pretty fantastic week. :)