Wanhojen Tanssit

This post was due way long ago but as always it seems as though life takes it's toll and I find myself staying busy and keeping more and more distance away from the computer -- which results with delayed blog posts. I'm happy to say that life is moving along though and I don't think I would choose to have it any other way.

Now! Time to actually get what this post is about: viimeisen kuussa ollut minun wanhojen tanssit ja se oli tossi mahtavaa! Okay, that was probably a horribly written Finnish sentence... Not like many of you native English speakers understand, anyways. In a basic translation: I had this dance last month called Wanhat Tanssit (translated to Old Dances) Which I suppose would be the equivalent to our Prom but is much more like a traditional ball. We had begun practices many times a week nearly 2-3 months ago and have been preparing ourselves for this dance up until the performance, which was the day after Penkkarit on February 15th. The traditions of this dance is to celebrate the kicking out of the "seniors" known us the 3rd years and now having the 2nd years be the oldest in the school. By doing so, they perform this dance. Also, when comparing Wanhat Tanssit vs. Prom there's many similarity's... but also, many things which are different. In both, girls and guys are spending lots of time (& $$) on dresses/attire, hair, make-up, etc. I was extremely blessed by having a friend who offered her dress to me at a very affordable cost & with lots of time and patience I was able to pull myself together and style my own hair and make up. As for the dances themselves, we performed two in the same day. At first, we performed in our school gym for all of the students and teachers who weren't participating. Although everyone was already dressed and ready for this dance it was still considered to be more of a "dress rehearsal" as we would be having our second dance later at the evening, which was a much more formal event. 

Amanda and I - Amanda is an exchange student in my school from Japan,
 and she's incredibly beautiful both inside & out!

In the evening, we performed once again at an event hall building called Logomo where our friends and family were all able to come and see us dance! Not only one, but two of my host families came (my third was in Lapland for holiday so they weren't able to make it) and it was so nice to have all of them there! Overall, I had such a great time with the dance! I had an awesome partner who was great to dance with and made sure to have a lot of fun, a beautiful dress, great friends with lots of laughter.. never taking anything too seriously. And without having any prior expectations I don't think I would've chosen to have it any other way. (: 

// results of having younger host sisters, haha.