The big '13'

Friday night was Selma's 13th birthday party. At 6 o'clock, 12 excited girls arrived. It was a makeover party and Selma's cousins, girlfriends came over to help. The guys completly evacuated the house for the night. Although make-up and all that aren't my favourite things in the world, I had a really good time :)

As soon as they arrived Selma went straight to opening the presents :)

There was lots of really good food too

One of Selma's favourite cakes is pavlova, so I made one for her :)

The 'nail salon'

All of us :)

Model shots after the party :)

Mr. Snowman

Last night was Selma's birthday and since there was lots of snow and it wasn't too cold outside, we made a huge snowman! It was my first ever snowman. 
At first I was trying to make a ball by pushing all the snow together and moulding it with my hands. It didn't work all that well and the ball kept breaking. Selma laughed and said "what are you doing?". She showed me how you make a small ball and then roll it through the snow and it gets bigger. I actually thought that they just did that in the movies, but turns out, its actually how you make a real snowman. 

I managed to fall more than once. By the end I was covered in snow and dripping wet. 

 The snowman in progress...

The finished snowman :)

Me and my bud, Mr. Snowman...

He got lots of kisses.

When we finished the next door neighbours came outside and we had a big snowball fight across the fence. It was really fun. They also tried to make a snowman but it turned out to be 30cm high and the dog ate it. The next morning our snowman was still standing strong even though most of the other snow had melted away. 

Tampere Skating Trip

Last Friday Elli arrived back in Finland!! Her family picked me up and we went to the airport to eagerly await for her. It was so exciting to see her again. We then went back to her house so she could have a shower and then we were off to Tampere for her skating trip. I don't know how she had the energy after a 30 hour flight but she seemed more awake than me! We caught the train there. That night I met all her friends in her skating team and we went out for coffee with a few of them. 

The next morning we headed to some markets as Olli and Elli were eager for me to try the famous 'black sausage'. It is one of their favourite foods. To be honest, it was edible but I didn't really like it at all. It was also freezing cold but it meant there was lots of snow around :)

The three of us then went on a shopping spree :)

We came across some christmas markets! They were gorgeous and the snow made it feel really festive. There was lots of little handicrafts and sweets. 

We even found santa. I made Elli get a photo with me :) He didn't speak much english but the one word he kept saying to me was "real" while he pointed to himself. 

Behind the markets was a giant, REAL christmas tree. I think it is pretty famous. 

We also found this famous church which looked really lovely against the snow. 

It was then time to go see the synchronised sakting! Saturday was the short program. This is a rountine that has to include certain skills/elements. There were 3 sections. The novices, the juniors and the seniors. Elli's team is in the juniors but we watched all three. It was so amazing! I can bearly stand up on ice so I thought they were all very talented. The teams I thought performed really well though got not very high scores so i officially know nothing about ice skating. On saturday we watched around 7 hours of skating... although i loved it, towards the end they all started to look the same. 

This is the noive team from the same club as Elli's team.

 This is Elli's team performing their short program. 

On sunday, it was the long program. This is a longer rountine (around 4 to 5 minutes) and they have more freedom so there is fewer skills/elements which have to be in the routine. I liked watching this a lot more as it was way cooler and there were even lifts! The novices don't have a long program so it was just the juniors and seniors. Since I know nothing about skating, I resorted to commenting on if I like their costumes or not... I think this annoyed Elli. 
This is Elli's team performing their long program.

Overall Elli's team came 6th from around 12 teams. I think this is extremerly good :)

Since there was a lot of 'watching skating', Olli, Elli and I went on a macca's run to get a break. It was freezing outside but since it was snowing we got some cool photos with the flash :)

It was such a good trip and it was so lovely to see Elli again <3 

Suomenliina 'happenings'

This weekend my host family took me to Suomenlinna, which is an island just off Helsinki to see some christmas 'happenings'. We drove into Helsinki and from there we caught a ferry over to Suomenlinna. The sun was even out for a bit that morning. 

On the ferry...

When we stepped off the ferry we were greeted with the strongest wind I have ever experienced in my life. It suddenly got a whole lot colder. The temperature was 0 degrees but my host family reckoned the wind made it nearly as cold as -15. We first walked to this beautiful church and met a cool chap on the way. He was dressed how they used to dress back in the old days. 

After the church we found this statue. My host sister and I had a great time pretending we lived back in the days. My host dad told me all about the history of the statue and the island but the wind must of blown most of it out of me cause I don't remember much. 

We then came across a huge, beautiful castle wall. At this point we were entering the castle grounds. We then walked to a huge building and found christmas handicraft markets inside. It was nice to get out of the wind for a bit. 

My host dad took me up a hill to a lookout type place. Here we found a magnificent view but it was so windy, I actually found it hard to stand in the one spot. 

We went down to this dungeon type building. It had a window with a picturesque view. The lake outside the window was actually frozen. 

This was the theatre. 

This was the best room as the lady was making/shaping glass, which meant she had a huge furnace that was burning hot, which meant it was so warm inside! 

We then went to a cafe on the island for some nice, hot Glögi (a finnish christmas drink which tastes like spiced hot red cordial haha). The weather then turned horrible and it started to rain so we caught the ferry back. 
When we got home it was straight to sauna to warm up! It was a really lovely day :)