First week in Turku = Complete

This past week here in Turku I've mainly just been exploring my city, getting to know the area's, and meeting many people. The city is absolutely beautiful! If you don't know much about Turku, here's a quick description:

Turku is located on on the southwest part of Finland at the mouth of the Auro River. It is the oldest city here in Finland and once used to be the Capital of Finland, until after the Russian Empire which then Helsinki became the capitol. It's now the 5th largest city here in Finland with a population of roughly 178,000 people.

To say the least - Turku is a much different city compared to the small town that I'm used to back home in the USA. I've been enjoying seeing new places, learning new ways of transportation (the bus is your best friend here) and really just learning a new way of life.

A wood "sculpture" in downtown Turku.
If you don't know already, Finland is huge into design & the arts. (:

LOVE these cars. <3
I swear one day I'll own one myself!

On Thursday night the city of Turku had a Night of the Arts throughout all of downtown. Basically, anybody who wanted to either set up an art booth, perform, or show their artwork were able to. It was so interesting to see! I met up with two friends and we just explored all that went down. Haha, some crazy things were happening but it was fun to see anyways :) For instance, when we went to the library we decided to go check out the music section with all of the CD's. Only, when we got there we heard some music.. only to find out there was a band playing in the library! Not to mention, they were a very interesting band. Imagine this: Screamo, mixed with fiddle, oh... and tap dancing! Haha, apparently this isn't normal for Finland but we kept joking around that if I thought Finland was weird, well now I must be frightened. Welcome to Suomi.

And then just a few random photo's

 with their own story's behind them. :)

My host grandparents came over one night and brought a basket full of some fresh treats for the family. We all had khavi and afternoon snack together, which consisted of some delicious homemade sweets. And then they also brought this home-made Meju (juice) for the family as well. Mmm, so good!

And of course, last but not least: My adorable little host sister Vilma and my host dad Mika at dinner time.
They're both just a bundle of joy and I'm so blessed to have them as part of my host family!!