Universal Studios Mega Disco !!!!

At the end of the day all the EF students gathered in front of a theatre where the disco and dinner was held. The security check was kinda strict again ´cos we weren´t allowed  to take any bags inside and so on and that´s really good but also annoying at the same time. Good ´cos, you know, there are all kinds of people out there, who might be up to no good, and you never know what´s going to happen. But if you are just an ordinary person who forgets something in your bag and you want to get it ´cos you need it.... Damn that´s gonna be hard.

When we got inside first things we saw were the tables full of food. We ate dinner and after the dinner we had desserts. I´m a slow eater so basically everyone else were already dancing on the floor while I was stuffing food in my face. Oh God I´m crying if I even start to think about all those delicious cupcakes I couldn´t eat ´cos I was so full. 

The disco itself was awesome even though the DJ was playing a bit random songs from times to times... Like songs that were familiar only to Spaniards etc. ...  Still it was great fun!!
AND OMG!!!!!!!!! I´LL NEVER FORGET THE BEST THING THAT HAPPENED IN THERE!!! Antti (my leader) a.k.a THE PARTY ANIMAL showed us his  A M A Z  I N G  dance moves AND Pierre joined him on the dance floor and that was just  F A B U L O U S, I tell ya !!!!!!!!!!! 

#NeverForget
#EFMoment

Universal Studs ... *STUDIOS | dos

TALKING ´BOUT SPECIAL EFFECTS! A few times the train drove into a kind of a cave where had they had built sort of interactive sets of different situations like a catastrophe in a metro station. Imagine a metro station which is empty ´cos there has been an accident. Suddenly on a left side platform a petrol truck (God knows how it got inside) catches fire and on the other side water flushing to the other platform from corridors. That is scary as hell even though you know perfectly well that it´s not real.

Universal Stud

Several times during the ride we were told to be quiet ´cos there was a filming going on somewhere and obviously they don´t want a group of tourists screaming random things in the background of a movie... But I kind of think that the silence thing might also have been fake so that the ride would be even more exciting, 

Unfortunately Hogwards wasnt open.

After the ride everyone left and walked to wherever they wanted to go. I stayed with (if I remember right) Sini, Siiri, Bertille, Elisa and Lou and some other French girls. They had all  kinds of rides there like The Simpsons ride and Jurassic Park ride. If I´m honest I gotta say that I liked Disneyland more cause in Universal the rides were mostly interactive 3D/4D experiences and not like real roller-coasters.

                           

Universal Studs ... *STUDIOS | uno

Okay I guess I´ve told you guys about almost every organised trip we´ve had and this one is gonna be the last of ´em all. Universal Studios a.k.a Universal Studs (as I accidentally wrote at first but didn´t want to correct it ´cos it gave me a good laugh!)

Once again we dragged our asses to the beloved yellow buses and off we went. After ages spent in a traffic-jam we finally saw the gates of the promised land! The long wait was rewarded almost immediately as we headed to Universal Studios studio tour! It was truly exciting and amazing to get a peek inside the scenery and set of different movies.

For instance I got to see the Town Hall from the movie "Back to the Future" and some streets from London and a rural town from Latin America. They also showed how some special effects work there. For example while passing that little town it just started to rain suddenly and thunder and volumes of water were billowing towards us splashing everywhere.

The Day When a Fan Abused Me :(

This most unpleasant yet expected event took place on a dark and rainy day in my bedroom. The heading may give you a completely wrong kind of picture what actually happened so please don´t start imagining any funny business going on in my bedroom.

The thing is that I woke up and tried to get out of the upper bed but didn´t quite succeed. You see, the ceiling fan hit my head... Or well maybe I hit it with my head but anyways I won´t recommend to star your morning like that.

The odd thing was that it was actually raining. It was a very  dry season and it hadn´t rained at all during our stay there. Rain was really refreshing after all and we just stayed inside and listened to the rain and played Xbox and listened to Spotify.

Eating Out With My Wintershoes

Ludo was enjoying the hot tub with other boys. Then he looked at me and Jossu and winked his eye and asked if I wanna come to swim. I laughed and said the truth that I hate water so I wouldn´t come. Jossu had a sunburn so she couldn´t swim either + she had no swimming suit with her.... Tho I guess the French wouldn´t have minded... 

Instead of staying by the pool we asked if Tim could drop us to a nearby shopping mall. It wasn´t that big but it was something. We decided to go and fins a place to eat. It was really warm day and for some stupid reason I had decide to wear my Converse shoes which I bought from Camarillo. Unfortunately after a while of walking and searching for the place where to eat my feet were sweating like pigs and the shoes also abraded a lot. We walked around the shopping area maybe twice and found nothing. Eventually we found ourselves in a pizzeria and yeah the pizza was good but there were maybe slightly too much cheese in them.

When we got back home the French boys were inside playing GTA. Me and Jossu were so tired after walking under the burning sun that swimming sounded like a dream now, We jumped to the refreshing water and enjoyed it not feeling like pigs anymore. You should have seen Pierre´s friends´ faces when they looked at us swimming there when while ago we had assured that we wouldn´t be swimming in any occasions. They joined us and we had fun playing in the pool. After that we went to the living room and watched a movie.

Pierre´s Poolparty

My roommate Pierre wanted to have a pool-party at our backyard. He invited all the French guys (I guess) and I was supposed to invite Finnish girls. For some reason Finnish squad wasn´t too keen on coming to this party... I wonder why.

It was weekend so I woke up late and when I finally go out of the bed I got to find out that all the guests had already arrived. I dragged myself to kitchen in my pajamas and brewed some coffee while truing to realize what is happening. Saying good morning to people was awkward cos my voice was so harsh after sleep.

I wanted to have a friend with me too ´cos I don´t understand French and it´s kinda hard to join a group if you can´t speak the language. Fortunately Jossu had nothing to do so she came to hang out with me. Me and Jossu sat down by the pool and watched while the French guys played basketball or something in the pool. I took a video while they tried a cool trick where they passed the ball to one another and the last one would jump from the waterfall-cliff and shoot the hoop.

Who needs money anyway... rip

So today was the "try not to buy anything... I'm just trying it on... sold" -day. In other words we went to Camarillo Outlets. We were given these maps about the outlet area but I didn´t realize that it was so  H U G E !

When the buses arrived tot the parking are we were told to stay inside and wait for instructions. Basically the "instructions" were just about a spending competition between the bus groups (red yellow green etc). Me and Sini and Siiri went to the very other end of the shopping are ´cos all the others started shopping near the buses. Our plan worked really well because we saw almost nobody we knew during the whole shopping afternoon. Our first target was Converse store. I found a really amazing pair of Converses but the didn´t have my size... That´s why ended up buying a pair of winter converses with kind of thumbtacks in the sides. They are really useful here during the early winter.

Next  we checked out some "brand stores" like Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. It´s not about bragging when I mention these names. They had just unbelievable cheap stuff there! Sales up to -70% if I remember correctly! I was in heaven.

Mum had sent me a message that I have to buy something for my sister too ´cos she was waiting for souvenirs. I bought her really nice clothes in my opinion and they were all well know brands BUT she didn´t like almost anything ´cos she only wears black :)))))))))))) . Never gonna buy u anything no more. <3

In the end of the day me and Oona and Iida went to buy froyo and  IT WAS SO GOOOD!!!!!!!!

A-levels

So I´m going to do my A-levels on English next autumn (2016) and if you ask me the best way to learn the language is through living in a country where the language is spoken. Think about it! Even just listening to English for 3 weeks improves your skills for listening comprehension test. I decided to set me 3 goals for Brighton.

1. Practice small-talk and pronunciation of hard words
    - Finland doesn´t do small-talk. Actually we do not speak to strangers... It´s a kind of taboo to do so. Have you ever heard anybody saying "oh that cute Finnish accent"? Me neither! I wanna get as far from Finnish accent as possible!


2. Learn different kinds of idioms and new phrases 
     - So when I´m doing my English essay during the finals I can amaze the teachers with all kinds of cool phrases (for example: Break a leg)

3. Learn about the culture and learn to write words correctly.
    - Sometimes it´s really useful in multiple choice -exercises to know about culture. It has saved me a few times when I haven´t heard the answer from the tape but I´ve known the answer because it was culture-related.

BEACH DAY | B

Finally we got to the walk around the beach! We walked to the very end of the beach and passed some true EF-beefcake-adonis-leaders lying under the sun!

The houses near the beach were A M A Z I N G ! Like from movies! The whole beach being your backyard. Next thing that happened was Oona kinda sinking in the sand. In the end me and Iida a.k.a Lida were laughing around her cause she was knee-deep in the sand. The next very reasonable thing to do  was of course to put your head in water... I mean that´s something we all would do if we got stuck in waterfront right? Well I can say that Oona´s head was not long in the water cause some couple near us shouted "OMG Look!!! 2 sharks in the water!!!!!" We saw the sharks so yeah they were real and we quickly pulled Oona outta the sand. This really belongs to the group "Once in a lifetime experiences". 

CRABS! So many crabs running around the outcrop! Iida wanted to be a part of crab-family and danced a crab dance to those little animals but sadly she wasn´t accepted to live with them under rocks...

After a few minutes me and Oona went to find a pizza place cause why not! Iida was supposed to come with us but she disappeared... probably to dance with crabs. We were feeling lazy and didn´t wear any shoes which was a mistake cause the pavement was like a grill. We walked ages through streets and across a railway and all the time behind a farting man and his son. Getting really into that lunch mood :)))))! We finally arrived to the pizzeria only to notice that it was closed that day. Tears. We walked back to a supermarket we saw on our way to pizzeria and got some cherry coke and something else. Okay Oona bought drinks for me and her cause I was broke.

BLUE ICE CREAM FINALLY! I mean a holiday ain´t no holiday without blue ice cream! And that is what I bought. The shop clerk refused to understand what I mean´t when I said "2 balls of blue ice cream" so I gave her no tip. We walked happily back to beach again after the farting man eating blue ice cream and drinking kerry. While we were entering the beach area we talked in Finnish about how weird and disgusting that fating man was. Then suddenly some guy stops as and asks what language we are speaking and says that it sounds really beautiful. It was hard not laugh I mean the subject that we talked about couldn´t be described with a word "beautiful".

We also invented some code names to French people like "Aurinkokuningas - apparently Mandarin king in English, Pärre/Pertsa and Jartsa.

BEACH DAY | A

"let's go to the beach each let's go get away" 

Today we headed towards Carpinteria beach! The weather was perfect! Everybody´s mood was perfect! Bus drivers were happy! Seemed like an amazing day-to-be! And I can tell you now that nothing bad or catastrophical (?) happened it really was a perfect day!

When we arrived to our destination sun was shining delightfully and I´ll stop trying to act like Dostoyevsky with these adjectives.... Anyway those who had booked a surfing lesson started right away and those who hadn´t done that just spread around the beach to sunbath or something.

I was carrying a huge red cooler-box with me which had mine and Pierre´s lunch inside. For some reason I was carrying the box all the time during the school day and after it... Pierre where was your sense of responsibility of our lunch ???? Oh now I remember! It was when the lunch suddenly disappeared somewhere... But I´ve almost forgotten that!

I wanted to go wander around the beach but people didn´t want to get their lazy asses up from that hot sand so I waited for ages for Oona to arrive from photo-shooting of one certain ´Tyylilyyli´ and after that and the surfing lesson

Eating Wrong

Okay so in the afternoon we went to eat out in a Mexican restaurant! The daughter of my HF, Lily, had came back from Australia and we celebrated her homecoming.

I was pleased as Punch when I heard that we were about to go to a restaurant ´cause I had been hungry the whole day. Okay I´m sorry! Nobody says ´pleased as Punch´ I just found it and had to use it!!! Anyways I was happy.

The only problem was that it was my first time in a Mexican restaurant (don´t judge me now!) and I had no idea what o order... I desperately tried to google the names of the foods so I could see how they look like and at the same time I really ried to hide that I had o idea what Im doing.. It didn´t work so I let Josh, my host brother, to order for me.

The problem number dos! Once I got the delicious looking meal in front of me I didn´t know how to eat it. I know I know! I´m hopeless! The result was a mess that I tried so hard to control! And the the portions were so huge that it is hard to eat everything no matter how hungry you are!

In the evening we tested the swimming pool! it is smply awesome with the waterfall and hot tub and lights with different colors.

Swedes everywhere -.-

Chill Day | kaksi

I was right.
The walk was not short. But getting inside the air-conditioned Teen Center was surely great! But there wasn´t much to do inside... I mean there were computer games and games like billiard and a basketball court... But I didn´t really feel like doing sports that day (hah! Like I´d ever feel like that! Bullshit!). So as creative Finns we made an escape plan! Though the success wasn´t nearly as good as in Brighton. The fact is that we were hungry and A) I didn´t want to eat some healthy cornbars and B) I had no coins left to buy them (no I wasn´t broke yet... Got only paper-money left).

Our plan was this:
1. Ask Antti if we can go for a walk to the park and get the permission to do that
2. escape through the bushes to nearest Starbucks a.k.a "Tähtidollari" in our code language
3. get back quickly and nobody would notice anything

Fly Fan in Swedish:  FUCKING ESCAPE !

I don´t even know how we thought we actually could just quickly drop by a Starbucks and get back without anybody suspecting anything! I mean this was no Europe! You don´t just quickly drop by something without a car.

Anyways we got out the Teen C Carol (the US leader) just arrived to the parking area while we were walking out the place where we were supposed to be playing games and being social. She was shocked and we had a little chat but we got to park and sat there and watched ducks swimming in a pond. After we decided to stay in a park even though I was complaining my hunger all the time.. Sorry about that. 

dream car <3

enter without any1 suspecting but then....

Our hostparents came to pic us up from teen-center and already a lot of  people had been picked up. I was chatting wit Sini inside who wasn´t sure whether her hostmum had come or not. I was already wondering when my hostmum is gonna come and then somebody came to say to me I guess Pierre or Sini or some member of staff like "Your host mum has been sitting outside the building in the car about 20 minutes :)!"

Chill Day

The day was good but it started badly. I found myself standing outside the classroom with the teacher because apparently he suddenly felt that I wasn´t respecting him and his work and apparently I was the only one not respecting him. I actually liked and respected him BEFORE he "wanted to have a word with me in privet". I admit that I was talking during the class but I can only blame the teachers for that. They were talking all the time during the class and we didn´t get to say much anything compared to the amount of their speech producing. I was so pissed but stayed calm. But inside I was transforming into Maleficent or something.

Anyway enough of that. There must be bad things on a good trip too! I mean nobody believes a story about a complete paradise. After school our plan was to go to Thousand Oaks Teen Center.  It sounded really cool until I realized we were going to walk there. From the first day in the States I remembered that a "short walk" was everything else except a short walk.  To be continued....

LACitytour | five

"And in a pipe she flies to the Motherland
Or sells love to another man
It's too cold outside
For angels to fly
Angels to fly" 
-Ed Sheeran

Angels Fly was our next destination (not really I´ve just completely messed the order). If I remember right it was almost right opposite the Grand Market. Angels Fly is the world´s shortest railway in the world. It´s kinda weird cause it goes uphill. It wasn´t in use that moment so  we had to walk the stairs. There we met our  always happy leader Antti who possibly had already visited nearest Starbucks.

LACitytour | four

After our interesting trip to COLA we headed towards a market place which was marked on our map. Okay I´m not completely sure if we actually did everything in this very order but anyways that´s not the point.

It was actually pretty hard to find the market place but then we realized to follow the guide signs  and found the place. Now imagine the stereotypical Asian marketplace where you will most likely be robbed. It looked just like that!

The Grand Central market was located indoors and it was basically a huge room with a lot of people selling food and other things under big colorful neon-lighted signs. People were crowded on small aisles pushing each other out of their way while trying to make sure that their recently-bought blackberries (nope not the phones) won´t get squeezed.

Talking about blackberries! Me, Oona and Iida bought some of them from some old man/woman (can´t remember). At first we were thinking  that how hygienic the berries would be and would we be sick the entire trip after eating those berries... But you know, these are one of those YOLO moments so we ate the berries which tasted delicious and didn´t get sick at all.. At least I didn´t.

LAcitytour | three

After Disney Concert Hall we headed towards the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Pretty long name huh? That´s why I´m just gonna shorten it into ´COLA´ and pray for forgiveness for making up such an unholy nickname... MOVING ON NOW!

Most of us will think about a large, old, monumental building with high towers and beautiful ornaments when talking about a cathedral, and well that was something I was trying to find. Thank God (badam tsss) we had the map because even though we were literally standing next to the COLA´s back wall we didn´t recognize it. Seriously we were so close that we were actually able to touch the COLA. We  almost started to cross some bridge so we could find what we were looking for but then after having a few doubts we took the first turning to left and walked downwards the street.

And that was when we saw the cathedral! It just looked completely different that I had imagined. it was really modern... no towers were seen but it still impressed me. We had a small conversation if we should go in or not but eventually we found ourselves inside sitting on one bench and listening to cantor who was playing the organs... It made me feel a kinda good person for a while. Me Oona and Iida also dipped our fingers into the Holy Water and made the cross signs. The water burned none of us so I gotta say that there ain´t  no sinners in my squad!

After the visit in COLA we had a picnic in the church´s park which was located next to the COLA´s parking hall... guess Our Lady was a kinda car-geek. There were all kind´s animal statues in the park... a statue of a lion, snake, fish, zebra or smthng and so on. We sat on a bench and started to unpack our lunch... Then one particular statue, a fine piece of art, got our full attention. It was right in front of us and I guess it was supposed to be a beehive with bees walking on it. To us it looked like a huge pile of crap with flies all around of it. Holy shit indeed!! Otherwise the picnic was nice... eating our sandwiches and wondering who left the pile of shite in front of us. I guess you can say that this  is one of those ´Once In a Lifetime´ -experiences.

-Take Me to Church - Hozier

LAcitytour | two

random homes in LA

After getting out of the parking hall and finding our way to Iida we decided to follow the map and find these sights marked on it.

We were´t really sure about where we should head and cause we didn´t want to follow the others we turned to wrong direction a couple of times. Iida´s faith for mine and Oona´s map reading skills began to falter and at one point she announced that she´ll leave us and go follow the others. Luckily the traffic lights were red so Oona had time to think where we had to go and Iida happily followed us.

The first thing on our list was the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It was a hot day and we had to walk uphill so once we saw the building we really wanted to go inside where it was a lot fresher. Of course we would have went inside anyway! I mean it must have been really finely designed from the inside by the astounding architecture of the exterior. Well what we saw inside was a kinda cramped hall with an empty front desk. Maybe the biggest disappointment of the LA city tour cause I waited to see a bit more...

Okay I remembered that the uphill climb was bigger

And this is what we saw :)

Finally there!!! 

PS. If u travel with EF once you´ll
always recognize the pink color
wherever you go!
Spotted this in Barcelona

LAcitytour | one

El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciúncula, The Big Orange, La-La Land, Shaky Town, The City of Angles

All these names for only one city. The Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels - LA!

Anyways let´s get on with this... Today was the day for LA City Tour. At first we were driven near Stables Center. Some American women´s soccer team had won some big championship and people were celebrating there. I didn´t really get why we went there cause we didn´t go inside the center. We just chilled outside and watched people lame-partying. All free cokes were already given away which was disappointing. 

The next stop was a hotel. When we got off the buss the leaders gave us maps printed from GoogleMaps (imagine the quality)  and we were told to walk from the place A to place B. There were certain sights on the way that were were supposed to visit and check out like Walt Disney Concert Hall and catholic cathedral: Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. We could have walked with the leaders but you know it´s more fun to walk with ur friends. Oona and Iida were my sightseeing buddies. In the beginning of that walk we were like a huge group of tourists.... which we technically were (?????). Anyway me and Oona didn´t want to walk in a huge herd of EF students so we tried our best to lag... to fall behind. There was this old man in a wheelchair who desperately tried to get in the buss and we stopped to help him.Well actually it was Oona who helped to push the wheelchair into the buss. Unbelievable that everybody, including the leaders, just walked past him and didn´t help. But we still weren´t enough left behind.

That´s why when we saw a quite long escalator going up to somewhere I decided that I want to try it. Oona came with me but Iida stayed on the pavement and looked us like "Are you fucking serious now?!". When we came to the other end of that escalator we realized that we would have to walk down (I know horrible right?) So that´s why we went to a random elevator and tried to get down with it... Instead of getting back to Iida we found ourselves from a parking hall. And up we went again deciding to walk back ´cause Parking Halls are scary and we didn´t want to get lost.