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.

#TB Brighton Moments

So here are some throwback Brighton moments that I can never forget. Enjoy!

1. Accidentally stealing the window seat on a plain. The seat was meant to be Ville´s but apparently I didn´t have a clue how to read my boarding pass so I just sat there... Awkward enough? No! I even told Ville how lucky I was to get the window seat! Way to go Jaakko!

2. Meeting my roommate Hugo. I misunderstood what my hostdad said to me so I thought Hugo was also from Finland. That´s why I greeted him in Finnish with cheery "Moikka! Mä oon Jaakko" and after that he tells me he is from Sweden....

3. Desperately trying to find Anna who I had talked to on Kik and My EF... Found her in the end of the 2nd day even though she was sitting almost next to me in the airplane and we even looked at each other for several seconds there.

4. Getting to know to my teacher. He´s name was (well I think still is) Asim and while I was thinking about the name I tried to pronounce it aloud and said loudly and clearly "ASS-IM". I guess he hated me after that.

5. Getting a total score of -50 points on quiz for pressing the buttons too many times which annoyed the teacher.

6. Playing football on EF Arena! As I hate foorball but I was kinda forced to play I kicked the ball into a rosebush. For some reason I didn´t have to play anymore...

7. Partying by the pool! I was joking that maybe Im going to fall into a pool during the pool party in Lewis. After the pool party my clothes, money and phone had visited the pool. Damn those wild Italians!

8. Trying to help somebody with their phone at the beach but instead breaking it completely. Poor woman but for my defence Im not an IT wizard.

9. Escaping from the EF Megadisco. I was too tired and wanted to leave but we couldn´t. So we told that our last bus was leaving and we had to get to it. Our leader wanted to make sure that we are really going to the bus but we escaped from him.

10. The last day. This Swedish guy bit my shoulder at the airport "so I would always remember him". Im surely never be able to forget him though and it´s not only due to that bite.

++ Eating cake in Royal Pavillion park with my mates <3

Brighton Accommodation

Nowadays I haven´t even thought about going to live on a campus kind of thing. So I´ve contacted my former host family and asked if it would be possible to live with them during my 3-week-stay. I also contacted my local EF office in Helsinki and I have a strong feeling thatthings are gonna work out just perfectly! 

I´m a bit scared though cos going back there won´t be same as in 2014. Even though it´s the same city and possibly the same host family the other people there will be different and I´ll be 2 years older than last time I visited the place. The influence that others, like teachers, leaders and EF students, have on the trip is huge! 

If I get to stay with my last host family I´ll probably stay there alone cause they weren´t supposed to take  any students this year. That will also be really different from my last experiences.

Brighton Calling !!!!

Hey yall! 

Today I ain´t gonna write about California. Today I´m gonna tell about stuff that the future is gonna bring. So I had already decided that I´m not gonna book another language trip  but eventually I ended up booking a 3-week-course to Hastings with my sis. Unfortunately the coolest part of it got cancelled, a trip to Paris.

Cos we really wanted to get to Paris, we had only two options left; Brighton and Oxford. I thought about Oxford but then with my sis we decided that Brighton it is. As you might know I was in Brighton in summer 2014 and it was truly amazing! Now I´m really happy to show the hometown of Adele to my little sister.  

Back2School

Since I skipped that one school day I had no idea what the others had done in school that day. I´m deeply saddened to inform you that my mates took advantage of my state of ignorance as they convinced me what they had planned for the FarWell party.

So I was told that the Finnish crew had decided to connect the "traditional" side of Finland with something a bit courageous and naughty. According to that plan I was supposed to play Santa Claus and the others would be elves and we would dance and sing a Finnish Christmas song called "Tonttujen Jouluyö" (english lyrics: here). But the girls would be like "dirty" elves and the song would be sang in a really sexual-sounding way especially the "Tip  Tap" part.  And of course the dance wouldn´t be completely innocent either.

I don´t know why but I gullibly bought all that. For my defense I´ll say that I had my doubts about that but Siiri and Sini were just too convicing.


RIP