Oulu

chitchat
On Sunday we headed to Oulu with my boyfriend and his family. We saw some relatives of his and stayed over night in a cottage in Nallikari. It was a nice little trip and Oulu is a city that I like.
Monday I spent mostly in shops with Mattis' little sister - we wandered around for couple of hours and sat down for a hot chocolate in Puistokahvila. The ring above I bought from H&M, the silver version of that one is now hers. And how cute they are!
This fox sweater I bought as well from H&M. I wasn't really searching for anything to buy, but as this was only seven euros I gave it a home (after-Xmas sales are great as I'm the worst person to buy anything - everything is too expensive or I don't like it other ways. Sales are pretty much the only option for me to find something besides secondhand stores. Or England, where clothing is mostly cheaper than in Finland.) 
And as the sweater is cute, it's warm as well and I don't really own sweaters so I'm quite happy with my purchase. Now I'm gonna dress up and walk to the town centre to meet one of my friends I haven't seen for ages! More shopping and more sitting in a cafe coming!

Boxing Day

Christmas
Heya!
Last days I've spent almost without electronics, playing board games, eating, knitting and by getting some fresh air. It's been such a great Christmas - the greatest thing was that my cousin and her husband were able to spend these five days with us! 
When saying good byes we noticed that I have no plans to go England next year (and I've been visiting there for last three years, and before those visits already twice). Then we started making them immediately - let's see if I am gonna place my feet again on the ground of Britain sooner than I thought! 
Then to these pics. Yesterday our dog had his 10th birthday. We sang to the very confused dog, gave him "cake" and took these pics. Pyry is quite cute, when he wants to, isn't he?  
... and this is how not to take pics of your dog.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Oulu with my boyfriend and his family. I have something to do pretty much on every day now on for the rest of the year - so let's see when I have a second to post something!

Xmassy

OOTD
Friday was the last school day - weird that I'm not gonna see those awesome  people in over two weeks. But anyway it's great to have holiday, even if I have a lot to do for school. But for now I'm just gonna relax and enjoy for a couple of days.
On Saturday I had a training (which went nicely - I'm getting familiar with the horse I'm riding at the moment and can't wait to see where do we get during the spring!) and after that I went to visit my boyfriend. Sleeping long and spending lazy days, couldn't be better. 
Shirt - Lindex, Jeans - Seppälä
Shoes - ParkWest, Beanie - Primark
Mittens - knitted by my sis, Necklace - from Tallinn 
Yesterday I came home and now it's been all about doing the last preparations for Christmas. Today I spent baking, shopping the last presents and in the afternoon we had time to take these pics with my sis. Even if it was daytime pics came out to be quite dark - please don't mind about the sad quality. And what comes to the darkness, the worst is over now and we're getting towards the light days, yey!
Also today my cousin came to us from England with her husband, and my aunt as well, and they're gonna spend these Christmas days over here. So everything is better than well at the moment! It's great to be happy. 

So, merry Christmas to all of you! 

ps. As you see, we got a snowy winter ♥ (..and besides it -20 degrees)

English, English, English.

languages
As you probably know, or have noticed, English isn't my mother tongue. However, in some sense, I could be counted in to the group of bilingual people. I can manage with English - I'm able to study in English, I'm able to interact in English and I'm pretty fluent with it (at least sometimes). Even though I make awful grammar mistakes way too often (especially when I'm speaking out loud) and have a really strong and stupid-sounding Finnish accent.
English has been part of my life for a long long time, if not always. I was something around six years, when I first decided that I want to learn to speak English and my mother taught me some simple words. Of course I've also seen lots of movies and heard many songs in English. But English really became a part of my life when I was nine, as in Finland children usually start studying English at that age.

For seven years I studied English in primary school and then decided to apply for the IB. And for now I've studied in English for a year and half. In another one and half a years I'm supposed to become so good with English, that I pass my final exams and am able and skilled enough to get a billinguality certificate. Then I don't have to prove to the foreign universities my ability to speak English, And that's great, really.
I've always liked English. And not only English, but languages in general. Nowadays English has a strong part in my every-day life. I use it in school, I listen to music mostly in English and approximately about half of the internet I browse is in English. And I think I'm learning all the time. I'd like to speak perfect (or at least as perfect as possible) English at some point of my life. The biggest problems are the limitations I've made by myself. I don't know about you, or anyone else, but for me it's a huge deal to open my mouth and start speaking. I'm not shy and I'm pretty loud, but still speaking a foreign language needs extra courage. I know, that no-one would say that I sound totally awful and every time I've tried to explain something I've got it clear, but still it really is hard. I could, but I can't.

It's kinda complicated to explain - I understand English, especially familiar topics really easily without any problems. Accents are not confusing me, I enjoy reading in both languages. Sometimes my thoughts are in English and I may not know how to explain something school-related in Finnish. My vocabulary is quite wide already and it's expanding all the time. But still, the speaking part. And it's not only with English. I know pieces of other languages too, with Swedish I could actually manage. But speaking is even more frightening for example in that language.
As I've noticed this problem of mine, I've tried actively get rid of that one. For example one day I volunteered to speak to the ninth graders who were getting to know our high-school. And it was terrifying and depressing as I felt like I can't speak at all.  But if I take a look to the positive side - I tried and I have one more experience. Probably next year I'm able to go and speak much more fluently and without having a breakdown..

And what comes to this blog, I've been blogging couple of years in Finnish, then I got bored and stopped. Then I decided to establish a new blog and this is the result. First I wrote both in Finnish and in English, but then I decided to choose only one language and you can see which one I decided to stick with. One main reason to write in English, is the fact that I'll be able to go back in time to see how my language skills have improved. Actually I can see the difference already compared to my oldest posts, but hopefully at some day I'll read this through and think "oh gosh how simple language I used and thought I was good!".
So, nothing else today. This was just a short, simplified post about my thoughts related into English at the moment. Hopefully you found it somehow interesting :) And hey, if some of you on the other side of the screen happens to know English well and spotted some awful grammar mistakes - let me know. The best way to learn is to make mistakes!

White isn't my color, or is it?

OOTD
Last Friday we jumped into the car and headed to Rovaniemi. We spent a comfy weekend over there, it's always as nice place to visit!
Rovaniemi has been one of my favourite places for years already. My father is from there and so we have a few relatives in the area. This time we visited only my grandparents and my cousin who just got a baby a month ago with his wife. And as you know, babies are overly cute! And if that's not enough cuteness, they had also a puppy - cute as well. But that about babies!
On Sunday we drove back home and before leaving we took couple of pics of my "outfit of the day". Those pants - I loved them when I bought them, but did never really use them (luckily my sister has been wearing them diligently, so they weren't a totally useless purchase). 
Then one day I decided to try them on again and now I love them! Unfortunately I didn't realize that they match with the snowy landscape that well. But that's the situation now, probably I'm gonna put them on  at some another day again and take pictures with different background... :D

Jacket - TK Maxx, Jeans - Gina Tricot
Shoes - Primark, Shirt - H&M


Nothing else today - only two days of school left and then two and half weeks of holiday! Awesome. 

Happy independence day!

chitchat
As I mentioned over here (and as most of the people who are reading this are Finns and already knew) it was Finland's independence day on Saturday. As my family has always had certain traditions for that day, this one didn't differ from previous ones too much.
Pretty much after the breakfast we baked first... okay, let's just say joulutorttu of the year.
From six o'clock to eight o'clock in the evening we had two blue-and-white candles at the window. The evening we spent by watching the telecast from the "Presidential palace" and admiring (judging) the dresses.
So as a summary - a pleasant day without rush. And additionally, my aunt came here on Friday first time for a long long time. Couldn't be better! ..if we don't take school on account. I'm totally lost with a chemistry lab report and tomorrows English group oral. 

11/14

from phone
During the November I've..
..cut my hair.
..studied and ran.
..enjoyed sofa-time with my dog 
..eaten loads of veggies and fruits and drunk coffee.
..painted my room.
.. played piano, found my ring and walked several times through a sad and grey town centre.

And by the way - it's Finland's independence day! So happy birthday Finland, 97 years!

almost winter

OOTD
All pics © Mattis

Jacket - TK Maxx, Jeans - Primark

One day (when we still had some snow over here) we took couple of pics with my boyfriend. I really like the colours in these shots and I love the jacket of mine. Definitely one of the best purchases ever! Have been in use for two winters already, it's warm and it cost about nothing to be made out of wool and so on. And it looks nice :) 

Other story then is my hair. It just looks.. I don't even know. The growth from the roots is so visible (as I haven't dyed my hair since July) and it's just not only the colour but also the model. I really don't know what's going on there, but hopefully I find some patience to wait them to grow so I'll be able to do something totally new! And I'd really like to get rid of that dyed part, but it's gonna be sooo long process.. 

Throwback Thursday; British Museum

England
As I've been visiting in London several times in my life, and the latest one of those was aimed at the British Museum, I decided to concentrate only for that one.
So. We arrived to Waterloo, took a tube and headed to the underground near by the museum. (My apologizes, I just can't remember the name of the station even if I tried to check maps and everything!)
The museum itself is enormous. It is big - not just big but huge. We didn't went inside through the front doors, but came out from those and I have to say the facade is impressive. As the museum is so big, I'd like to advise anyone who's going there to find out what parts interest you the most and go straight there. There's no sense trying to see everything at once.
We headed to see the mummies. And it was worth it. As we all are interested into the history and there were lots of interesting things to read, we spent quite a long time over there. Then we just went trough some other interesting sections faster and headed out. As we were visiting on Thursday there weren't so many visitors in London scale and it was kinda smooth to move around and there wasn't too much waiting.
And one thing I have to mention is the hotness. It was surely around 50 Celsius inside as it was around 30 Celsius outside. (But 30 felt nice and cool after sweating in the museum..) Air conditioning (if there even is one) helped nothing and at least I was pretty much nothing but dead after we left.. So, if you anyhow can decide - don't go to the British Museum during weekend or during the hottest day of your London visit. I bet that you'll enjoy your tour a lot more, if it's bit cooler and the place is not so crowded. When we had seen enough, we walked all the way to the Waterloo and it actually isn't so long walk! And who doesn't enjoy a walk in London anyway?
So as a conclusion, I recommend the British Museum if you like history and travel with a small budget as I do (as visiting is totally free). If you're able to avoid the most popular visiting times as weekend, and also boiling weathers it's even better :)