Guten Tag!

My first German family is the Hambruch family in Bad Fallingbostel. The family is made up of:

Ewald-Father
Sigrid-Mother
Stephan-Brother
Thorsten-Brother
Pia-Thorsten's Girlfriend
Marten-Brother
Wilke-Farm Apprentice

They own a mid-sized dairy and grow various crops, mostly for feed for the cows. The cows and ground are spread out quite a bit so sometimes there is a drive to get to somewhere.
It is common for children to take over the family farm and the parents to move out when this happens. Ewald and Sigrid have recently built a new house less than a kilometer away and now only the kids live at the farm full-time. I say full-time because everybody works here during the day.

I met with the former coordinater, Edith Schroder, and we started the paperwork for my visa. After the work was done, she took me on a tour of some of the town. The Heather gardens they have here have over 50 different colors of Heather growing in them. We also went and watched a shepherd bring in his flock of over 400 sheep from the field. He had to bring them in because of the wolves - I can't seem to get away from the wolves can I?

Marten was an IFYE last year to the USA, staying in Montana and Michigan. He and his brother Stephan both speak English very well, although I have to say they all speak more English than I do German so I can't complain! They are an extremely nice family and I think I will have a wonderful time here!

A Worthy Ending

Our last day was spent on a beach about an hour west of Rome. We took a train that cost a whole 4 euro. We wandered down to the warm, uncrowded beach and swam in the ocean and tanned to our heart's content.

At home I am considered the white one in my family, but in Finland I am dark. I was asked repeatedly if I was part Spanish, this was super annoying. I am also dark compared to my three travel mates who were quite crispy after our day in the sun.

Being on a beach in Italy was kind of surreal, when I really thought about it it just made me giddy. I walked up and down the shoreline and found pretty shells and a hermit crab. We laughed and played and got covered in the caramel colored sand. Eventually we washed off, got some gelato and headed back to our little square for our final dinner.

Dinner was good as always, with free bread and complementary champagne. We toasted to our amazing adventure before buying some wine and toasting some more in the apartment. In the morning we all left for our new countries at different times, Adam at 2:00 am (he didn't pay attention when booking that ticket either), Elizabeth at 6:00 am, me at 8:30 am and Natasha later that evening.
We all look forward to meeting again at the debriefing in December back on American soil!

Just a Little Stroll

We had originally worried that we would have a hard time seeing everything that we wanted to in Rome in the four days that we are here, but that wasn't such an issue. We ended up being in walking distance to nearly everything. We walked to the Parthenon, Coliseum, the Forums, the Vatican and the Treve Fountain during the first two days that we were there.

One of the coolest things about Rome is that it is so clear that there is an ancient city amongst you. There was about a square block of ruins just 100 meters from our hostel that had been unearthed and fenced off and given to the cats. Seriously, it was like a cat zone with about 50 cats just roaming around the walls and caves in it. 

We did our fair share of walking, but we also did more than our fair share of eating. I love Gelato, with a deep burning passion. I usually had it twice a day and we ate three real Italian meals a day. The lasagna was magical, the parmisan cheese they put on everything, the real Italian pizza... I could go on and on. I decided though that if I only get four days in this place I wanted to do it right.

Caio Italia!

I LOVE ROME

I could of built up a story and then exploded with that line but I just can't contain it. I love it here. Instead of being in a hostel we are staying an an apartment in the city near the burrow of Campo Dei Fiero. It is magical. We are on the third floor in a full sized apartment and outside our door is a square full of restraunts and shops. In the morning a massive market moves in and they sell everything Italian, fruits, vegetables, clothes, spices, souviners. And at night artists, musicions, street performers, and peddlers come out to try to make money. The atmosphere is electric with the warm breeze and night life all around.

Not to mention the wine in Italy is decent even when it is only 2 euro a bottle! I think heaven is probably a lot like Rome.

A Great City? That's Debateable

I have never thought that I was hard to please on this trip, I ate wierd food in Finland happily, I hang out at airports for hours on end with a smile on my face and a coffee in my hand, I sleep on a hard twin size bed for weeks at a time, I sit in the back of a crampt car content to stair out the window at the forign landscape, but I will say I am not a fan of Paris. To me the town felt dirty and crampt and cheap. I do not know if I just missed all the good areas or what but I do not belong to the group of people that dream of returning to Paris.

That being said the attractions that make Paris famous are pretty awesome. One cannot understand just how massive and glorious the Eiffel Tower is unless your are under it, on the top and seeing it at night, it blew my mind. The Louvre Museam was on my must see list of things to do while abroad, I am glad I went even though everyone said it was overrated. It is a life changing expierence to be around that much art and cluture even if you arent particularly into art and culture. I loved the paintings and antiques and displays that I saw, I even saw Marie Antwonette's dinner set (perhaps she ate cake off of it? :P) and of course the Mona Lisa, the painting was by itself on an entire wall with a sea of people surrounding it. Being the somewhat aggresive person I am I elbowed my way right in and got some good photos, and a selfie with her.

The architecture in the city is amazing and it has countless gardens and sculptures and fountains but when you are being constantly heckeled to buy trinkets or worried about getting mugged is it really worth it?

I am glad I went, and even more glad it was for only 3 days. It was an expierence of a lifetime that I only need to expierence once.

On the plus side Adam got the right ticket from Paris to Rome and my good travel luck trumped his bad luck and we made it to Rome just fine.

Bonjour Paris!

After the wonderful week in Scotland I headed East to Paris... alone. My Travel buddy Adam failed to book the same flight so I was alone for another flight, this one worried me a bit since I wasn't being met by anyone, just finding my way to the Hostel Woodstock.
I did get some directional help from a nice girl at the airport who gave me a crash course on using the Paris Metro and eventually made it to my destination.

Lucky for me the other two Americans I am traveling with were already there getting checked in, Elizabeth (you should remember her from the Rovaneimi adventure) and Natasha. We settled in and went out to see a church nearby. We walked around for a while and eventually had dinner at this little restaraunt that offered traditional French food. I am all about trying the wierd and crazy stuff so I ordered the Steak Tartar, seasoned raw meat. It was good, too many onions for my liking but decent enough. Looking back I do realize how dumb it was to order raw meat from a cheap french street restraunt but I got lucky and didn't get sick. Adam showed up around 11:00 pm, minus his luggage, he has the worst luck when traveling.

Scotland Part Two

The second half of our time in Scotland will be spent with Robert and Ross who live near Dumfries in Southern Scotland. Being boys they are also a little less plan oriented. We looked around the town of Dumfries, which had great old buildings full of history, including the building where the book Peter Pan was written! Also the poet Robert Burns is from Dumfries, they were dissapointed when I said that I had not heard of him, he is kind of a big deal here. Another fun fact is that the singer Calvin Harris is from Dumfries, Ross used to buy sandwiches from him, that made me laugh. 

In the evenings we went to the bars, which was to be expected when staying with two scottish boys for the weekend, don't worry we always took a cab home.

Being the daughter of a romance writer I was told to visit Gretna Green since we were so close. Gretna Green is the first town you get to when crossing the border from England and back in the day you had to be 18 to get married in England and only 16 in Scotland so many couples eloped in Gretna. It was a bit awkward going with two boys but I do like to keep my mommy happy :).

Anyone who knows me knows that I really don't like most American sports. We went to a rugby game and I was really worried it was going to be like watching American Football at home (which I find outright painful) but it wasn't! It was quick and more athletic and just all around better. We also stopped by a "Proper Village Cricket" game, I'll be honest I wasn't paying that great of attention but it still seemed better than US Football!

I have to mention the vote that was going on during our stay. Since I don't have extensive knowledge of the British Government system I can't get too indepth but the idea is that Scotland wasn't getting enough of a say when it came to the decisions made by the UK so they decided to vote on becoming an indipendent nation. People were really getting into the campaining, there were "YES" and "NO" written on pretty much everything; signs, buildings, livestock, haybales, hill sides etc. The vote happened on the 18th (after we left) and it was a no, which pleased our hosts :)

All of Scotland was great and it was wonderful to see some friends and have a more relaxing stay for a bit. I think a visit back is certainly in the future!

North Scotland Adventures

Kim is quite the planner. During the four days that we were there we saw so many things.

There was the day trip to Inverness, home of the Loch-Ness Monster! Where we saw a wool mill, various churches, castles and the Ness river, but sadly, we didn't see any signs of Nessie. Lunch at Johnny Foxes (we were told that it is one of the best bars ever). We did this on a day that Kim had to work, so the hour and a half train ride there and back and the touring the town covered the time she had to do that. 

That evening we went to a Young Farmers meeting with Kim. At home young farmers is mostly adults and they do adult things, although I have heard that they throw a good party. In Scotland Young Farmers is actually a group of young farmers (crazy, eh?) and they organize events and activities for the club and the comunity that really do sound like fun. I am truely jealous of the program that they have. It is also the organization that sent people into the IFYE program that we met at the orientation, like Kim. 

One morning we toured  one of the only carrot factories in Scotland that happened to be located close to where we were staying. Kim's brother Mark is a welder for the building so we got a private tour! 

I think we saved the best for our last day though, a distillary tour where we learned all about Scotish whisky making. At the end there was a tasting, after not drinking harly at all in Finland for three months the "tastes" had me quite giggly. Afetr that we came back to Kim's, packed, said our goodbyes to her family and headed down the road (with Kim) to meet with our other scottish hosts, Ross and Robert, for dinner. 

A long long trip to Kim

My two week free time period has started! My travels went as planned for the most part, except in Latvia where the border control looked my passport over for an unreasonably long time because I am about to run out of time before I need the visa. Made me REALLY nervous.

Kim met me at the airport and we set off on a tour of Aberdeen! We ate fish and chips and then ice cream (all of which was out of this world amazing) then we started looking at sights. There is a large set of castle ruins called Dunnottar Castle that are on an island on the coast. It was a bit of a walk, but the castle was worth it. Then we drove to the top of a hill for a great view of Northern Scotland. 

Eventually we made our way back to Kim's house and met her Mom, Dad and brother. Even though we had both had a long day and were tired we had one more task for this day, to pick up Adam. Adam is my fellow Colorado IFYE traveler and he is coming on my travels for the two weeks. He just happened to get in on the 10:00 pm flight, not the 10:00 am, so off we went for another 3 hours in the car.

By the time we got home we were all ready for bed!

The Calm Before the Travel

Today is my last day here at family Vahattitto and in Finland.

I have had a great last couple of days, full of everything Finnish. Yesterday we made apple juice and apple sauce and Olga and her family came to visit. She and her husband are 21 and they have a little boy named Tobias, oh my was he a cutie. The only way to describe Olga is bright and shiny, she dances around the room smiling and laughing, cleaning and playing. She is one of the most enjoyable people I think I have ever met, it is no surprise that Tobias is such a happy baby!.

After they left and everyone was showered and the kitchen was clean it was 10:30 already and instead of going to bed I put my coat on and set out to watch the Northern Lights. I waited outside until 12:30 and and still no luck. Jorma says that they are usually out around 11:30 pm. At least I know I tried. It gives me a reason to come back to Finland one day!

I'm going to add a deep thought that came to me while waiting for the lights last night. When I got here it was hard because it was different and new and I didn't understand many things about the culture, now that I am leaving I'm sad because I know what I'm leaving and how much I liked it. Beginnings are hard and endings are sad, you have to try realize when your in the middle of something and appreciate it before its gone.

Today I catch a train to Juviskula at 18:00, transfer trains and go to Tikkurilla (near airport) which I will arrive at around 23:30. I will then wait at the airport until my flight leaves at 7:40 to Latvia where I will get on another flight to Aberdeen and arrive at 10:00 (after a 2 hour time change). About 18 hours travel time.
I am going to be one worn out kid, but don't worry my host mom is packing me snacks :)

There are so many pictures that I want to post but there isn't a good place for them in the written blog, I am thinking about adding a page just for pictures, I hope it works!
Also soon I will be writing on the Scotland page, keep an eye out!

Berry Picking and Meeting Family

Lately we have been cramming as many traditional Finnish activities into my last couple of days

here. Yesterday was forest berry picking. I have been strawberry picking and even roadside berry picking but forest berry picking is a sport in itself. You start by putting on your normal outfit with a couple of additions. Rubber boots so that nothing falls into you shoes and you can walk on rocks and sticks and such, and a hair net to prevent these lovely flying tick things from crawling up into your hair. Then you wander through the forest staring at the ground until you see a good berry patch, we were hunting lingonberries. Then you take this odd berry picker contraption and use it to pluck the berries from the stems and collect them in the bottom of its little box. I enjoyed the adventure of it but I think if I did it all the time my back would be so very sore...



This is the fly, it is resilient and so gross.




We went by bike, I love that everyone uses bikes here, its not like at home where usually people riding bikes are a pain in the butt, people here are just like, "hey its a great day and were not going that far away, lets go by bike!".













                                  This is the berry picker.

The forest is all Fall-ish! When I went into the forest in June it was so dark, its amazing how different it is this time of year.

Another goal has been to introduce me to as many of their children as possible before I leave. In the last two days I have met three. Oola and her husband stopped by with their four kids, they are 27, Errki and his girlfriend Julia are here for the weekend, they are both still in high school but don't live at home since they are studying specific things, Errki wants to be an EMT and studies in Kokola and Julia studies music in Oulu. And last I met Tiina, the oldest of the original family, we went to her house for a birthday party where I met her 8 children (all 15 or younger). She was an IFYE in Hungary in 1997 so we chatted about that, she said the biggest difference was the food and how it made her gain 7 kilograms in 2 months, I commiserated. I think its wanting to try everything that you can to experience all you can (even Fish Loaf). The only solution is to just buy bigger pants and worry about it when you get home ;)

Motorcycle Rides and Bad Fish

I made breakfast this morning. A simple task yes, but figure in cleaning the kitchen, doing the dishes, setting the table, making the porridge, making the tea, and cleaning up it is really quite a task, AND i had to run to the store to pick up Makkara for breakfast (we ran out last night and it was a near disaster).
I went a little heavy on the salt in the porridge but it was still edible and we had leftovers. I know what your thinking, "you had leftovers because it was too salty dummy!". No we had leftovers because Hannu wasn't here for breakfast. So I try to make Sämpylä rolls with the porridge, forget them in the oven and they get a little browner than desired, not a banner day for my cooking skills.
After breakfast Jorma asked if I wanted to go for a ride on his motorcycle, I say yes even though I really have no desire to do that, but I am so glad I said yes!!
It was like a movie director designed this ride, there was a light breeze and yellow trees slowly losing their leaves as we went by. The sun was shining and fall was in the air I loved every moment of that ride. I wish I could of taken pictures as we went but it wouldn't of been the same. So now in addition to the sauna, bicycle, and berry patch I would like a motorcycle, Santa sure is going to be busy with my list, but it's alright I know him personally now ;).
I went with Tarja to the grocery store and we came across this thing at the fish section (forgive me I forget the name) and she asked me if I had eaten it before, I say no and she acts surprised. She then says so good this is so good you try when your here, I was sure you would of had it before! So we get it.
Once home she cuts it up and gives me a large piece. I am pretty open to cultural foods, I mean I've been eating canned herring and fried street fish but this was bad. Bad bad bad.

It was some sort of fish (whole fish and layered fillets) inside this baked rye bread shell. The bad part was how much fight the bones had, i was worried about choking after a bone stabbed my tongue and I needed my fingers to pull it out. What was worse was the amount of it on my plate.
Maybe she meant it was so good that I was trying it, not that IT was so good. Who knows. It would of been almost unfair for me to make it out of a country as different as Finland and not have experienced at least one food that I thought was horrible.

Later on Tarja and Jorma's daughter Oola and her family stopped by to visit, they were very kind and had four crazy kids on their hands, Did I mention my host parents already have 28 grand kids? It is hard to imagine until you are here seeing it.

I listened while they talked Finnish and between hand gestures, words that I recognize, and familiar stories I was able to keep up pretty well! It only took three months :)