It's Friday. I'm sitting in our classroom, on our sofa that was bought with a pack of coffee and some chocolate. Others are having either physics or psychology, I'm having a skip and just hanging here. School's laptop is okay, music is great and I'm just too lazy to start doing something useful instead of writing this post.

This week has been really cold one, today it was -24 degrees when I left home after nine o'clock. Yesterday friend of mine happened to come to school and back by car and I got a lift. Today I came by bike and it wasn't as bad as I thought! But still I think I'm gonna spend afternoon in school instead of biking back home around three and coming back around six (when the bus arrives) to meet my cousin's daughter who's visiting us over the weekend. 

Next week is gonna be hopefully a bit warmer - the third test week of the year is starting on Monday as well. If I counted correctly, I have only three tests - English, Finnish and chemistry. Seems to be easy, but I have only one day off as for example in biology we're doing labs and three afternoons are booked for G4 project - the group work done with other science students. 

Other ways the life is as normal as always - my boyfriend has been exchanging emails with the place we're going to go to work next summer. I'm so excited about this, flights booked and it's sure that there's a job. The returning flight should still be bought, but it can wait until the working weeks and days are decided conclusively. So nothing else for this time, just a short "how life is going"-post today!

As I've been visiting England several times, I've seen more than just London. One of the best places I've been, is New Forest. (Actually I've visited there three times!) It's an area in southern England, that is known as well as a National Park. For me as a horse girl it's been worth for visiting, as there's the population of freely living new forest ponies. 

The place is great, as it differs from other parts of England I've seen. It's an awesome mixture of old, beautiful buildings, expensive lifestyle (as there's loads of houses, that are definitely owned by wealthier people, and nice cars as well) and nature. Besides ponies, there are also cows, donkeys and pigs (even though I've never seen pigs myself)  wandering around by themselves. And all of those animals are totally okay with cars, people respect them and everything seems to work well.

And for someone, who's not so interested into horses, there's lot to see and do also. Small, nice villages are beautiful. One of my favourites is Burley, even if it's not really tiny one. They have a certain theme going on there - witches and witchcraft everywhere and it's adorable! And in Burley, there's a pub called The Queen's Head - the best fish and chips that I've ever had. 

If you decide to go to New Forest, you should plan in at least a one whole day for your visit. It takes a couple of hours to get there by car (if there's no huge traffic jams in your way...)  from the London area and as it's located on the southern side of England, it's really easy to continue your journey to the coast.  

I've had mainly positive experiences of New Forest and I would suggest it to anyone, who wants to see something else than London! Great and unique place to visit for sure. 

I have to admit, that I've never been really interested in Asian countries or cultures over all. It just isn't the part of the world for me that I want to get know better - but lately I've "been forced" to take a look to that direction too. Of course I've always thought that I'd like to visit Japan and China and stuff at the some point of my life, but it's never been a dream. Until now. It's still not a dream or something that I admire - my heart belongs in the Europe (or at least I think so) - but it's started to interest me somehow.

This change started, when I started IB. I have one Chinese classmate and small pieces of the culture have reached me. Couple of months ago I started changing emails with a guy from China and it's been a really fruitful conversation so far - hopefully our pen-pal friendship is gonna last. And not so long ago, once we were having some kind of night out with my awesome classmates and we happened to meet a Japanese guy. Who happened to be an exchange teacher from Japan, teaching here and exploring Finnish school-system during this year. (By the way. When I met him, I realized again how small the world actually is and how weird life sometimes might be, as when we started chatting, we quickly found out that we have common friends - including one guy from America!) And now I'm taking part in his Japanese classes once a week.

So far I've learned some basic, useful basic stuff as "konnichiwa" (hello) and "arigato" (thank you). We've also studied very basic things related to grammar and how to make sentences - it's not that hard language in the end! Of course those Japanese and Chinese characters are really difficult and the pronunciation for a Finn is hard, but the simplicity of making sentences like "I am Fiia", "You're nice" and "Is she beautiful?"  surprised me as they all can formed using same formula.

Besides studying the language, we've been getting to know the culture a bit more. As I know pretty much nothing about Japan - only things like there's a lot of people and a lot of crazy inventions and many place names are familiar for me - I've learned many new things. Such as KitKat is available in two hundred different flavors and everything is cheaper than here. We also made origami one lesson and it was such a great fun.

In January I still had red hair (and I'm missing it so much!), we had snow and cold. I studied somehow and spent time in horse stables - just ordinary everyday-life. The climax of the month was most probably the day, when we bought our flights to Oslo, from there to London and back to Helsinki with my best friend. And those three flights were under 150 euros, not bad at all!

In February I spent even more time with horses and found my hiding courage and self-confidence inside me and flew over 100cm obstacle with Vinha and after that whole season has been uphill and I have mostly positive memories. I dyed my hair back to darker, our relationship with my boyfriend became official and I really found Amaranthe among other great music.

In March I visited Oulu and Kuopio, and succeed in show jumping competitions. I think this month was really dull except horse-stuff, at least I don't really find pics, facebook statues or anything. 

In April I had my 17th birthday and we celebrated it with couple of my friends. The first warm days and the first flowers of the year, the first training outside. Our dog got bitten by another dog, met a vet and was just sleeping and getting better for couple of days. 

June. Holiday. Babysitting my cousins two girls for a week, my sister's confirmation party. Visit to Rovaniemi with my family. Countdown to the journey of the year, finally packing and getting ready to leave Finland for over three weeks. 

THE July. Absolutely the high point of my year. Norway 1.-13.7 and England 13.-23.7, back in Finland on 24th even if the train-trip was awful - I could actually share it.

We started our way back home in the afternoon of 23rd when we left the house of my cousins and her husbands. To the airport, flight to Finland and around the midnight in Finland. Couple of hours of sleep on the seats of Helsinki-Vantaa. To the train-station by bus, waiting train that should have left around five AM. It was late. Some problems with the railway in somewhere - waiting over an hour to get moving again. Missing our next train in Kuopio, so we were told to get off in Pieksämäki - there's absolutely nothing. Waiting the next train, late as well. Getting in and finally going home - the last part of the railway was damaged by thunderstorm, again more minutes spent than should have been spent.  Finally our stop - over four hours late, almost 24 hours on the road, hungry, tired and angry. But home.

Swimming, a lot of sun (and I burned myself for the first time in my life!), quality time with my best friend. Visiting Oslo and London, seeing relatives, eating well (and a lot). Over all experiencing the world and the life as its best.

In August I was forced to go back to school again. Starting the real IB, meeting my awesome class mates again. The "starting school"- party with them.  Seeing one of my dearest friends for the first time for ages. 

In September we got the first snow, that melted away quickly. The first and the last snowman of the year and this winter (so far). Spending time with my sister, as our parents left to England for almost two weeks. 

Baking, taking a lot of pictures as the colours of autumn were great. The prize for the hard work as we really succeed in our horse club's championships with Vinha. The autumn holiday.  

In November we really got snow. Making some good food with my sis, getting roses from the one. A test-week and other ways taking easy with school because of many cancelled lessons. 

December. Starting preparations for Christmas, the independence day and feeling like a real Finn more than before during the year. Taking part to the first Japanese lesson, pushing through the last weeks in school without any motivation. Baking gingerbread and visiting in Rovaniemi. Finally Christmas, relatives from England and many great days with them.

So that's my year 2014. I think now it's time to start the next chapter and the new year. Let's hope that it's gonna be as epic as the previous one was. I want to find a beautiful place to get lost, find myself again somewhere I didn't expected, study, make new friends and live. 

 From my parents I got this toothbrush, my old one has been broken since... I don't even remember, but months already. Something I really needed even though I didn't expect to get it!

 Some kitchen stuff - I fell in love with that garlic crusher last summer and now my cousin had bought it for me! The apple slicer is something that I have admired for a long time as well and my boyfriend bought it for me. The nut cracker was as well from my parents and came with a bag of  walnuts. 

 ...and with the garlic crusher I got a cute storage jar for garlic. The bowl is from my aunt and there's some candy inside - Lumi Pantteris are one of my favourites!

 Then some chocolate from England, the second Raskasta joulua-album from my sister (the first one I got last year from her, sometimes my sis is the greatest ever) and leisurewear from my godmother. It's cute, really soft and fits perfectly. And the hedgehog from my boyfriend, probably the best thing I got ♥ Just look at it. It's awesome. 

So, I think people know me quite well, as all I got fits totally for me. That's all for this time, I think I should take a look to my books as the school starts on Wednesday. But first I'm gonna go eat, read some blogs and write another post ready. 

I studied, even if the motivation was on the level zero. I also made pancakes - the first few failed totally, but they tasted good and the last ones were pretty much nothing but perfect!

I run but when the weathers got cold, my routine got lost and I should probably start it again... I studied a bit more and actually understood something about biology - for some reason DNA stuff is easy for me. We also watched the independence day's show from TV.  

I drunk latte and hot chocolate, ate a delicious brownie and baked cheesecake-muffins.