This week's mail

This post is only about letters and stamps, enjoy! Personally, I'm in love with the stamps that I received this week! :)

Letters were sent to:
- Silvina, Argentina
- Sabrina, Italy
- Paola, Mexico
- Mari-Liis, Estonia

and arrived from:
- Emma, Australia
- Inga-Siv, Sweden
- Catarina, Portugal

And a lovely Easter card from Sweden! :)

Enjoy the weekend, as always! 

When my Hungarian pen pal took a bus to Hämeenlinna

Some time last year (2013) I got to know that my pen pal from Hungary is applying for an Erasmus exchange for the spring semester to Finland. It was nice to hear because obviously it would mean meeting her. She was accepted to come to Finland, which was just awesome! As the time went on we were planning to meet each other even though it took a bit longer to find a weekend that would suit us both, in the end we found time that was good for us both. We spent 10-12th of April together. It was the first time for me to meet a pen pal, who would stay over night, so obviously it was partly learning how things should go and so. When I was younger, I used to have many sleepovers and so, but my friends were always Finns and I had known them for a longer time before they stayed at my place over night, or I at their home. 

Of course, I was excited for the idea of meeting someone with whom I had exchanged letters with for a long time, for about three years, to be exact. Naturally, I was a bit worried of needing to speak English for three days as it's not same as using English at school. I do think that my spoken English is understandable even though I know it still needs some work, but using the language is the best to learn it, huh? Of course, forgetting some words was a problem, but not something that couldn't be overcome.  

At 20:05 her bus was due to arrive at the bus station of Hämeenlinna. The whole day I had been very busy due to unimportant reasons, so I hadn't had time to get nervous over something. When she stepped out from the bus, I wasn't nervous at all - it was like meeting any friend, except the language that we used was English. I don't think it got awkward many times, at least I don't remember it being awkward. Of course, there's always some silence when meeting someone for the first time, as you need to let things sink in first. Straight from the bus station we went to Iittala, where my father lives, as we spent the first night there. We just talked during the first evening, as I had to take an exam (business law) the next morning in Valkeakoski. And she also acted as my personal postwoman, as she delivered her letter that was written in Hungary, to me by herself (I mentioned about this a few posts earlier).

On Friday (11th) I had the business law exam like mentioned earlier. That day I was thinking we could stop by at the beautiful place called Sääksmäen silta. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't very good - we did stop there, but it was raining, so it wasn't as beautiful as I knew it could be. The rain made me sad, as it kept on raining for the whole day. Don't get me wrong; I like rain, but not when it would be nice to do touristic stuff outside. 

Later the same day we saw what there is to see in Iittala. So basically, we stopped by at the church and at the Glass Center. :) They had some lovely decorations outside of the Glass Center, which looked nice. And as I like taking pictures, I sure took a lot of them, however, I won't show all of them here, otherwise this post would be packed with pictures. 

On Friday she also cooked some Hungarian food, which name is way too difficult for me to remember. The food was good even though she said it didn't turn out as it was supposed to turn out. However, later that day, when my dad was eating it, the food wasn't as soupy as it was earlier - it wasn't supposed to be a soup. After having lunch, we watched a movie called 'Oceans 13', which was better than I thought. Later in the evening we moved to Hämeenlinna, at my mother's place. As it was still raining we ended up playing cards and watching another movie called 'Geisha'. This movie I liked a lot! We have had the DVD for ages, and I wonder why we haven't watched it before. Thank you for deciding to watch this movie, now we saw it, too. 

On Saturday morning (12th) the weather was a bit better, which was nice. It still wasn't the kind of weather that I was hoping it to be. Still it was good enough to go outside, as it wasn't raining. We ended up in Aulanko, where we walked a bit and saw different places, such as Aulanko spa, some ruins and a sight-seeing tower.

Thank you for the pic!

This lovely woman took this pic for us, which I'm thankful for even though she didn't know how to use my camera. 

Overall, we had a nice time together and I hope to meet her soon again. The last picture is of something that she brought for me from Hungary. Thank you very much, it was delicious! :)

DAY 1. Next summer

I decided to start doing this 30 Days Challenge today as the first step is to tell my plans for the next summer and as the summer is just around the corner, I though this would be the perfect time for it. :)

Just to let you know, this year I define summer starting from Easter (April 17th) and ending somewhere between August and September. :)

summer 2013

This summer I want...

Travel somewhere, outside of Finland
- I'm going to Poland, 27.4.-2.5.2014.

Write as many letters as possible
- You probably already know what a snail mail addict I am.

Spend as much time as possible on summer cottages
- Just spent the day at our summer cottage today.

Meet friends that I haven't seen for a long time

Read at least one book

- I haven't read any non-school related books for years

Watch all my favourite movies

- Already started by watching 'Tyttö sinä olet tähti' yesterday

Earn some money 

- Luckily, I have a summer job

Wake up early enough to see the beautiful summer mornings 

- No problem with doing this as my summer job days start at 7 am. 

No stress about anything, please 

Learn how to use a chainsaw 

- This is a real question mark. 

Attend running events and get over the finish line 

- Helsinki City Run, May 10th 

- Military Run, June 7th 

Pick up berries and mushrooms 

- Hopefully, we get as many as last year 

Stay up for a whole night 

- Probably happening during Midsummer 

Midsummer 2013

Swim in a lake and sea 

- Already swam in a lake today, but sea is a bit more challenging 

Eat a lot of ice cream 

- Tho I don't need a summer for eating ice cream 

Laugh a lot 

- Shouldn't be to difficult 

Go outside when it's raining 

Look through all the photo albums that we have and take many new pictures 

Change the wallpapers in my room 

- Already on planning stage

Get an acceptance to be an exchange student during the fall semester 

- Hoping and waiting 

Try out new recipes 

- I have plenty of cook books to go through 

Not to get sunburned 

- I usually end up being red at some point of the summer 

Meet my relatives

Celebrate my birthday in a nice way 

- Any suggestions? 

Start doing biking trips with my new bicycle 

- I got a new bike a year ago.

TO BE HAPPY

What do you expect from the next summer? (:

30 days challenge!

30 DAYS

1. Next summer...

2. A photo of yourself and description of how your day was

3. Your favourite books 

4. Your favourite photo of your best friend 

5. Your room 

6. A photo of an animal you would love to keep as a pet

7. Your dream wedding 

8. A song to match your mood 

9. What's in your bag? 

10. Inspiring pictures

11. What's in your makeup bag? 

12. A photograph of the town you live in

13. Your favourite musician

14. Life story 

15. An old photo of yourself

16. A photo of you and someone of your family
17. Your celebrity crush
18. My future
19. Another picture of yourself
20. The meaning behind your blog's name
21. A photo that makes you happy
22. How has your school life been throughout the years
23. 20 facts about you
24. Your religious beliefs
25. Something that you miss
26. Think back to how you were 5 years ago. How have you changed since that?
27. Put your iPod on shuffle and list the first 10 songs
28. Movies that make you cry
29. Five places you'd like to live
30. A photograph of yourself today and three good things that have happened in the past 30 days

I found this challenge when reading through some other blogs. I find it interesting, tho I know I won't be able to accomplish this in the next 30 days, but I guess the timing doesn't matter so much. I may need to leave out some parts, but I will try my best to do this completely. 

If you end up doing the same challenge, please let me know! I'd love to read what you answered to these 'questions'. 

Palm Sunday + mail

Last Sunday (13th) was a Palm Sunday, which is a religious day. As I have mentioned before I'm not that much of a religious person, so I'm not going to go to this topic very deeply. When I was younger I was fond of this day because it was just so fun! 

The tradition for this day, which we call as 'Palmusunnuntai', is that children decorate willow branches with feathers and other decorations. They are supposed to represent the palms thrown under Jesus's legs when he entered Jerusalem, tho I've never thought much about it. 

After decorating the branches, children dress up as witches or however they wish (you are allowed to use your imagination!) and go from house to house. They give people the willow branches and say this special poem. There are many versions of this poem, but I will write down the one that I used when I was younger. 

Virvon, varvon,
tuoreeks, terveeks,
tulevaks vuodeks.

Vitsa sulle, palkka mulle.

In return children normally receive chocolate eggs or money. At my home only two girls rang the doorbell, but there were more at dad's, so this picture is from dad's place. 

And also a pic of my dad's beautiful flowers!!

And now to the mail update... As I have been so busy with school, I haven't really been able to write any letters, but I did receive two letters this week. They arrived from: 

- Amit, Israel

- Emilia, Finland 

Happy Easter everyone! And for those, who don't celebrate Easter, just enjoy the weekend!!!

Exams are over!!

Hello everyone!

Finally all the exams are over!! I couldn't be much happier even though there are still a few reports to write, but who cares. The summer holiday is just around the corner! And Easter is almost hereee. I hope you are all having fantastic days also!

Some pics that I took when coming back home today. :)

And at home:

Tomorrow I will make a mail post as there won't be any mail delivered on Friday due to Easter. :)

Mail for week 15

Hello everyone!

For this week I had great plans of writing letters, but unfortunately I wasn't able to write any.. I'm a bit disappointed by that fact, so maybe next week would be better! Soon all of my exams will be over, so I can concentrate on the letters! ;)

Received:
- Paola, Mexico (My first-ever letter from this country!)
- Dora, Hungary (The letter was delivered by a very special postwoman! - More about this later on...)

Two postcards arrived as well. This first one arrived from Hong Kong. :)

And the other one came from Hungary, showing Russia!

Have a great Saturday everyone!! 

Mail for week 14 '13

Just a quick post!

This week I received one letter:
- Ilona, Latvia

Letters were sent to: 

- Emilia, Finland 

- Li Xin, China 

- Xiaomin, China 

- Ayaka, Japan 

- Dora, Hungary (currently Finland)

Have a great weekend! (: