I had no idea what to expect! During my stay here in Finland I am going to be staying with three different host family's throughout the year. My first host family consists of Mika & Elina Liinanotko and their 4 children: Vilma, 3 years; Linnea, 10 years; Lauri, 13 years, and Milja, 16 years (who is currently on her exchange in MN, USA) The family is absolutely wonderful and I'm so blessed to have such a nice family! 

My first impressions and meeting was not what I had expected but it couldn't have gone any better way. My host parents came and picked me up at camp in Karkku and once we sat through an orientation and I said my goodbye's to all my dear exchange friends we left to make our way towards my new home in Turku. We stopped for lunch on the way and continued to talk throughout the whole trip, getting to know when another. 

Once we got to the house I got to look around and unpack my bags to get a bit settled in and then we took the bikes and made our way into the city (about an 8 kilometer ride.) They showed me around the market square and we got to site see a bit and I also was able to get my sim card for the phone that I'll be using this next year. Check out this beauty:      August 11th, 2012.

Yes, of course it's a Nokia!

 The next day we all had breakfast together as a family and my host mom took me and Vilma to go see the mesä (forest) near by the house. It was beautiful! I love how much forest is here in Finland.

Later on Sunday my host mom & dad had a concert to go to in Helsinki and the grandparents of the kids came over to watch Vilma. We all had dinner together and got to visit for awhile, which was very interesting but it was very good! Just imagine, two grandparents you don't know who speak little English and one teenager who speaks very little Finnish. Challenge? Yes. A fun challenge? Definitely. I also had time to catch up on some emails and check my facebook and such since internet was very limited at camp. I then decided to go on a bike ride by myself and I found this neat little spot close by the house where I parked my bike and sat with a great view and caught up on some journaling from the week. :) 

The next few days I had the opportunity to explore the city a bit on my own. Both of my host parents work full time jobs Mon-Fri and that gives me a lot of independence to create my schedule. Since I didn't have to start school until Thursday, I had quite a lot of free time. I went to the city nearly every day either by bike, walking, or bus and have explored all around the area. I also got my own Finnish bank account, library card, and bus card.    August 12th, 2012.

My bike!

And then the start of my first week-day here in Turku I had the chance to make my way towards the city by myself! I took the bus and met up with some oldies (Australian exchange students who do their exchange from January-December due to their different school year at their home country) they showed me some of the hot spots in the city and we all just talked and got to know one another, things were really chill. 

August 13th, 2012

2 of the 3 people I met. 

Later in the evening I came home and my host family and I drove out to the other side of the island to Ruissalo. It was also such a beautiful sight! Finland is such a beautiful country, even photo's don't always do justice capturing what it actually looks like. But since that's all I have, I'll make sure to share them. ;)

My host dad Mika and host sister Vilma.

Finnish juice box ;)

And of course, grilling Makkara (Finnish sausage) over the fire.