First week of school and Weekend at the summer cottage (August 20)

Hello Again! I have been extremely busy since my last post! I finished my first week of school last friday on the 17th, then I headed up to the summer cottage with my host mother and father for a relaxing Finish weekend.

On Friday at school though something interesting happened, there was a fire drill! However it was unlike fire drills that I am used to back home. While I was in the restroom I heard an announcement in finish and so I listened for any words I recognized and only heard a few, not enough to figure out what was being said. As I was walking back to class I ran into the principal of the school and he said to me "Gunnar right now is a fire drill so get out of the building now!" Without hesitation I found the nearest door and walked out of it to find the entire school watching that one door. As soon as I stepped out of the school I noticed a teacher press a stop watch then look at me. So I was the last student to leave the building. I just looked at her and said "Sorry I am an exchange student" and gave her a big American smile and walked into the group and tried to find someone I recognized.

After that day of school was over I headed home on the bus and then packed for the weekend at the summer cottage! packed everything except I forgot T-shirts so the whole weekend I had to borrow some from my host dad, turned out to not be a problem because he bought 45 of the same T-shirts last time he was in Thai Land and they are all at the cottage. We spent the weekend relaxing in the wood heated hot tub, going swimming in the frigid lake and sitting in the sauna! We did make a trip to IKEA though to pick up a chair for the cottage on saturday and that took half the day. Who knew IKEA was a day trip, I guess thats how they do it over here, we even ate lunch there. On our way back we stopped at an old car museum and that was really interesting. There were some similarities between the evolution of cars in Finland and America as well as some differences that I noticed. I was able to sleep until 12 every day and I enjoyed that a lot!

Tomorrow is my first rotary meeting so I need to polish my presentation tonight. I am very excited to meet all the people who are responsible for giving me this unbelievable opportunity here in Finland so I can show them how greatly thankful I am to be here!

Be safe and enjoy today