free time

I have been scrapbooking alot lately in my free time, which i have alot of!! This is what my floor looks like when I start scrapbooking, one big mess!! But I like to have everything out so I can see what Im doing with all the pages! But I am so happy I brought all this stuff with my, I finally get to catch up on my scrapbooking!! and I got another package in the mail!! yay! this package had a lot of goodies in it! thank you thank you! I had to go pick this one up at customs and they made me open it and everything and apparently they thought i was a drug dealer because they wouldnt let me take my 2 bottles of ibuprofin with me. Then I had a bag of Skittles in there and they were questioning that too, they asked me if I was going to sell them..and I told them no way!! the whole bag is for me!!!

m.e.

Im just a bit excited about my hair being long! My hair does not grow fast at all so it has taken awhile to get this long. It hasnt been this long since high school! I usually do my hair maybe 3 times a month so it was nice to see how long it was when I actually spent time on my hair! :)

Here is Finland for each game they award points to the players that stand out that game. They give 3 points, 2 points and 1 point and with those points you get prizes! Here I am sporting the prizes. For one point I got a red beanie, 2 points i got that bright crosswalking guard vest and for 3 points i got the flashlight head thing, which I actually have used to read in bed at night! :)

Hameelinna

ok so it has begun. the freezing weather. the snow. walking carefully so you dont slip and fall from ice or slush. here are a few pics of the snowy town!

this is a view from my apartment window.

i took this as i was walking to practice...

i took this as i was walking home from practice...this is my apartment complex on the corner there.

Birthday Day!

Happy 26th Birthday to me! o man 26 years old. crazy. But it was a good birthday! Woke up and went to practice where my team sang happy birthday to me in Finnish. Then came home and baked a birthday cake for my team for after our night practice, which everyone devoured after practice! My cake says happy birthday in Finnish, hyvaa syntymapaivaa. In the bottom left corner you can see a lil piece missing, I had to try my cake first before I let the team eat it! But everyone loved it and it was delicious!

In the afternoon my coach brought over a washing machine for my apartment! yay! Now I can do my laundry at my place instead of walking to the gym to do my laundry. double yay!

Then I went to night practice where they sang to me again but this time in English, but the girls also had a present for me. They got me a candle and candle holder for my apartment, a magazine in english and some yummy Finnish candy.

After practice I went over to the place next to my apartment,Birger, where some friends of mine work and like to hang out. I also got a great present from them too. There is a store in Helsinki, Behnfords,that sells American foods so one of my friends bought me some oreos, mac and cheese,marshmellows,pop tarts and peanut butter! A lil taste of America here in Finland. It was an awesome gift!
I also had my birthday package from home and that had a bunch of goodies in it also! It was a great birthday considering Im away from home, but thank you for everyone who wished me a happy birthday! You made my day! :)

love getting mail!!

Yay!! So I got a birthday package in the mail today from home!! yay! i love getting packages in the mail when Im away from home!! But I am going to be patient and be a good girl and wait to open it on my birthday! It will kinda make it feel more like my birthday if I have presents to open!! Yay!!

HPK ~ first home game

Here in Finland there is the Finnish Cup and then the Championship. The Finnish Cup is a tournament that goes on during the beginning of the championship season, where we play the Cup games every few weeks. If you lose in the Finnish Cup you are done and do not play anymore games, so you play till you lose, just like in regular tournaments. The Championship is just like a regular volleyball season. We had our first regular season home game last night against the team that won the championship last year. Unfortunately we lost in 3 :( but we had a huge huge crowd. After the game someone told us that there was probably 1000 people at the game, which is alot for a volleyball game. But the crowd was awesome and really into the game! There was one section of guys, all ages, wearing bright orange shirts right behind our bench cheering for us and heckling the other team. It is fun to play when you have a crowd that is into the game, and they promised us they would be back for more games.

Our team name is HPK and our team colors are black and orange. I really like playing in our gym, its not to big but not to small. Here are a few pictures from the game last night. Here we are waiting for them to introduce us by name. The next picture is my friend translating everything for me during the opening ceremony of the new club team because this was our first home game with this new club.

the team getting together and cheering before we start the game, you can see the guys in the orange shirts right behind our bench, they were loud and i have no idea what they were saying!

here are a few during the game and of me hitting the ball.

more randomness

OK so I have to cook for myself everyday now which I am not used to because last season I was living in a hotel and they had my meals prepared for breakfeast, lunch and dinner, but this year is a little different. Like I have said before it is hard to go to the grocery store and find exactly what you need because I do not know what the labels are saying. I guess alot and have had a few hits and a few misses. Milk -hit. Mayonaise -miss. So I decided to have the "Tuna Test". ( I love tuna and eat it all the time at home. ) I bought tuna a few weeks ago and I just did not like it, so I decided to buy a few different kinds of tuna and test them out to see which one I liked and would buy from now on. Ill let you know the winner when I complete the test.

I also have added a few more months onto my scrapbooking calendar, October, November and December. My wall is slowly but surely becoming more decorative

As many of you know my all time favorite candy is Skittles. I love love Skittles. But unfortunately they do not have Skittles here in Finland, none that I have found anyway, and plus they never taste as good in other countries. But many of you may or may not know that I have a weird OCD when it comes to my Skittles. I have to, have to eat them in pairs and when I come to the end of the bag I have to have the same amount of each color and then I eat one of each color so they all still have the same amount. Weird, yes I know. But I was talking to my friend Trey on skype and he was making fun of my OCD with Skittles and then I had to show him what I have done with the Skittles that I have left from what I have brought from home. He got a good laugh about it!The sad thing is I would probably have done this if I was in California too! :)