Paula

2005-06 Inbound from Finland

Date of Birth: December 8, 1988

Hometown: Helsinki, Finland

Sponsor: Helsinki International Rotary Club, District 1420, Finland

Host: Ocala Sunset Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida USA

School: Belleview High School

Bio

Paula's Bio

So, I’m Paula, an inbound student from Finland who came to Ocala, Florida last Wednesday full of excitement and hopes. I had never been in the USA and I didn’t know what to expect. My hopes were to learn the language, have new friends, and have a good time.

My host family is very nice, with two small kids. That’s an experience for me too because in my family in Finland, we have never had smaller kids. So, I could say about everything is different, people, environment, culture and school. I will start new hobbies here, probably tennis and horseback riding. I really look forward to all the trips we are going to do with Rotary, and all the things we will see. That’s why I’m here -- to get new experiences.

September 15 Journal

Hi y’all!

It took me couple of days to understand what that means, but now I know (a bit slow, have to admit). I’ve had many laughs for American phrases, but the Americans have laughed at me tooJ. But it’s always nice make someone’s day a bit more cheerful!

So, it has been something like a month and two weeks here, and I have never felt so many feelings, experienced and seen so much in a short period of time.

Above: with our pilot, Walt, for our trip to Miami Below: in a South Beach restaurant with host dad & friend

I’m still so excited about today, so I have to tell you about it first. I got the invitation yesterday from this excellent Rotary-guy Walter Driggers to go to Miami! (I started to dance, I was so happy). We flew there by an airplane that can carry the aviator and three passengers. For Walt it was a business trip, but we had time to see the South Miami Beach and ten minutes to shop. It’s amazing what you can do in ten minutes… I definitely lost my heart to Miami, and I want to go there again some day!

On Labor Day weekend I went to Ichetucknee Springs State Park with my host family and one Japanese girl, who was an exchange student five years ago here in Florida. It was so beautiful, like most of the places here. We went with tubes, so we had time to admire the beautiful views and animals (snakes too, and I was so crazy that I swam there). During the same weekend, I went to Daytona Beach with my friends. There were very few people there; it felt like you had your own beach. I was a bit too eager to get a tan, so I looked like a lobster afterwards. Luckily I was not the only one…

I have gone to two “parties” here. The first party turned out to be a muddin’ party, but it still was something I had to see. Now I saw it, and the next party was more “normal”. I haven’t had a single boring day here in Florida when I wouldn’t have anything to do, so I could say that my exchange year has started very well! I have to thank my friends and especially my fantastic host family, who have made this time so fun! And of course the Helsinki International Rotary Club who sent me and Rotary Club of Ocala Sunset, which includes young and nice people, and surprising, it’s always fun to go to the club meetings.

I’m taking American history, French, English, Chemistry, Algebra and Psychology in Belleview High School and all the courses are honors courses. That makes it pretty hard, but I take it as a challenge. At least I’m going to learn something new. I have made some good friends here, but like somebody already said, the schools are so full of people, that it’s pretty hard. The next family I’ll live with is one of my best friend’s family, so that will be a lot of fun! I’m adjusting here well, especially to the food (maybe a bit too much). I’ve tried mountain biking and spinning, but I’m still waiting for tennis and horseback riding to start. In school, I’m in Interact and French club.

Unfortunately, I’m not coming to the meeting in October, because we have homecoming dance in school. I hope you will all have a good time! I’m anxiously waiting for December and our trip to Disney World!

I hope you are all having a good time,

Paula

January 2 Journal and Pictures

Hi everybody!

It has been a while since I wrote last time and so many new experiences have happened! I never even imagined that I could feel the way I feel right now about being here. The right word to describe this is probably excited! Since I got friends from here my life hasn’t been boring once!

Just normal life here is pretty interesting, meeting a lot of people and starting to get really good friends. It has gone so fast, just about half of it is left. But I really don’t even want to think about that. It feels like I have really adjusted here and I’m having fun.

At the beginning of November I went to Orlando to a HIM concert, which is internationally known Finnish love metal band. I had one friend who is a huge fan, and after a concert I have a couple more.

I spent my Thanksgiving week with a Rotary family at Boca Grand. They wanted to take me to a vacation there with their kids and I had the best time fooling around with them, lying on the beach and at the pool and of course eating! It was so relaxing!

Disney World was of course a nice trip, everybody knows that. Seeing all the friends and spending four days in a row at Disney World with them couldn’t be anything else than super fun!

I found out a while ago that one of my host dad's customers is half Finnish and she wanted to meet me. She even spoke Finnish, which was great after speaking English for so long. First she came to visit me with her husband here and later they wanted to organize a party for me where they invited some people who have Finnish relatives and have visited Finland. They were all so nice and I felt like a guest of honor! Then I had another Finnish experience a couple weeks ago when a Finnish family invited me to Gainesville. At night we went caroling with their friends (singing Christmas songs from door to door). It was funny!

If there isn’t a Rotary thing or some other special kind of thing going on during the weekends, I hang out with my friends. For some reason I’m never bored when I’m with them, everything still feels kind of interesting and new.

Thank you for everyone for New Year's Eve! It was nice too see you all again. Luckily the next meeting is not far away, so we will meet again soon.

I just moved to a new host family yesterday. I have a host sister a now, who was already my friend before I moved here. She is as old as I am, so it’s a change too after the two little host brothers that I had in the first host family. Luckily they live close, so I’ll see them too.

Seriously, this is one of the best choices I have made in my life and I’m sure that we can all agree on that!

Life is fun so let’s all enjoy it,

Paula

Some of my friends

The Rotary parade

Me and my best friend

February 15 Journal and Pictures

Hello everybody!

Another month or so has passed by again and with some new experiences too.

In January, I went to Busch Gardens, a theme park in Tampa, with my host sister Carey. The roller coasters here are somewhat different than in Finland… One of them was the worst in my entire life. I was so scared when it went to 200 feet and straight down from there. I bought a pass for the whole year…

Couple days before Seacamp I went to Camilla’s house in Orange Park and went to her school with her. My school is such a country school compared to hers. People were really nice there I think, and so were Camilla’s parents too, of course. They were Swedish so it was nice to hear some Swedish for change. Still I just wanted to listen when they spoke but answered in English.

Anyways, from there we went to Seacamp to the Keys. It was fun, but cold when we were snorkeling and wet. It was nice to see everybody and the American students were a nice surprise too. The instructors were awesome! The times that we are going to get together are running short. I’m really going to miss that.

Couple weeks ago I sent some pictures to a modeling contest to Ocala Magazine called “Do you want to be Ocala’s next top model”. I got chosen to top twenty and went to an interview. I didn’t get chosen to the top five, but it was still a good experience.

Ready for the 80's party

I had really nice time one Friday when I went to an 80’s party with my friends. It was hilarious! Americans seem to have a lot of house parties, at least here where I live. I was nice to have a special theme for change. I was happily surprised how many people were up to it…

Last weekend Camilla finally came to Ocala to visit me for couple day sand to come to my school. We had fun time hanging out together and seeing my friends on the weekend.

I am in my school’s tennis team now, so I have practice everyday and on Saturdays I take a class from a teacher in country club. I hope I will know how t play ok by the time I go back. At least I finally found a sport that I’m interested in and want to focus on.

So basically the life has pretty much calmed down to normal. To be honest, sometimes there are moments when I wish I could go home, but on the other hand I can’t really imagine leaving this place. I am waiting for spring and spring break so much. We will go to New York then with my host family.

Hugs and kisses to all of you. I miss you!

Paula

At Seacamp

Camilla and I last weekend

My host sister and I at Busch Gardens

March 18 Journal and Pictures

What’s up y’all!

Probably the best thing about the month that passed by is the warmth and the sun! Suddenly I remembered why I wanted here for... This month I have also had a couple chances to get out from Ocala, so that has been great.

About a month ago I went to Sarasota to watch my host sister play volleyball. We left at six o’clock in the morning and came back at eleven at night, so it was a long day. I thought it was interesting to watch though, and we also got a chance to go to the mall in between the games.

The next day I went to see Viola in Gainesville and stayed over in her house; the next day we went to Saint Augustine with her host family and some of her host sister’s friends. I like old cities like that, it was really pretty. It reminded me of Tallinn in Estonia, where we go almost every year with my family just for fun.

I’ve been doing my favorite thing a lot, staying in the sun. There have been quite many days off from school because of FCAT and some other holidays, so I stayed home at the pool during the days. Last weekend, on Saturday and Sunday, my friends and I went to Lake Weir, to a place called Gator Joe’s (I had to taste gator’s tail there) and on Monday we went to Daytona. That was the funniest part. I could so live on the beach, it was awesome!

Even though I usually hang out with my best friends here, it’s always nice to meet new people. I hear this a lot: “Hey aren’t you the girl from Fineland? “Yes I am if you are talking about Finland.” They also have the funniest questions sometimes, like: “What part of US is Finland at?” or “How many polar bears have you seen in your life in Finland?” One guy said something nice last weekend though after a short discussion: “Weren’t you supposed to be from Finland?” When I said I am, he said: “Oh, I couldn’t hear the accent.” I thought that was awesome.

Next Friday I’m leaving to New York with my host family for spring break. I can’t wait! We are going to see Hairspray and The Producers on Broadway and do some shopping. It’s gonna be awesome!

I hope you are all enjoying your year as much as I am. And thanks again to Rotary for every day here in US! I miss you guys!

Paula

May 12 Journal and Pictures

Hello you fellows!

So, the time has flown amazingly fast and it’s almost the end of the school year now! What have I done since last January? Here are some highlights.

Spring break started on March 24th, and my host family and I left to New York for five days. It was a change from hot sunny Florida to cold New York City, which actually made me feel a little bit like I was at home. I was so excited about this trip, I had always wanted to see this city and it totally met my expectations. We went to see three Broadway shows (The Producers, The Hairspray and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), went to see Ground Zero (which made everybody absolutely silent), Empire State Building, Battery park, China town and of course we went shopping all over the city. Five days went by so fast, but I’m definitely going back some day. The rest of the spring break we laid out with my friends and went to Lake Weir, Gator Joe’s.

The next week we had our first and last tennis match, with Lake Weir high school and we won. That was our only game, because as a JV we weren’t taken too seriously and a lot of schools only had varsity. Well, the tennis season was still fun as long as it lasted, and it was fun spending time with the girls. We will have our tennis banquet this Friday.

The same week I went to see my host sister play in Peter Pan. I thought she was really good. She had her birthday that day, so she had a party the next day and I finally got to see her friends.

And then to the best part; On April 22nd I had prom and the best weekend I’ve had during my stay here! We started on Saturday by going to my friend Jordan’s house, all 20 of us, 10 couples. Everybody’s parents came there too, so we took like hundreds of pictures. I felt so surreal for some reason, like I was in the middle of some American dream or something. From there a Hummer limo picked us up to take us to Tony’s sushi to eat dinner. There was this one man who nobody knew, who absolutely insisted paying the dinner for all of us, so we didn’t try to resist. From there we went to Jumbolair where the prom was held, and we danced two hours straight. We had so much fun and everybody looked so amazing! From there we went back to my friend’s house where the limo dropped us off and had our own party. Everybody was in amazing mood, and we had a lot of laughs. I will never forget that weekend.

The next day we all went to Rainbow River with the same group to go floating. It took about five hours to float the trip, but we stopped to jump Tarzan jumps from the trees by the river. At the end we saw two alligators, I freaked out. It was 8 o’clock when we got up, all freezing but it was still fun.

The next weekend we just hang out and decided to have a surprise birthday party at my friend Jen’s house for our friend Brittni, who turned 17 on that Monday. She was totally surprised and didn’t have a clue what we were up to.

This has really nothing to do with anything, but I thought it was a funny experience when last week one of my host family’s cows got loose. I was talking to my host mom in the kitchen, and all of a sudden we heard a cow almost right next to us outside of the window. My host dad took a tractor and after a while he could force the cow inside of the fence. They said that this happens pretty often. They don’t do anything with the cows, they are just there to make the taxes lower, so it sounds funny when they are like: “Hey, it looks like we got couple new baby cows last week”.

I took all my final exams this week, so that I can leave to Jacksonville to see Camilla before the last camp. I’m looking forward to that and to see everybody once again, for the last time. Oh, I’m probably gonna cry…

See you all next week, Paula

Lady Liberty and me	Ground Zero	Wall Street
The cow got loose	My host sisters and me	During lunch break
At Gator Joe's	Could it be prom night?