Christmas, New Year, and afterwards

Hi everyone,
just got back to Gero and thought better write this post immidiately before i forget everything;)
Just warning it will be a long one and in english coz i really feel like writing in english at the moment. Sorry guys.

So i've been away since 21st of dec which is not very long now whn you think about it but i've done lots. First i just stayed in perth, didnt do too much (sunbathing, sunbathing, sunbathing).
Though, we went to carols by candlelight which was heaps cool even though i only reckognize couple of the songs. So australia is not famous for traditions but this was one of them. What it is, basically people just gather in order to sing christmas carols.

On christmas eve i got little upset coz it wasnt even public holiday! I just went to the beach and later on when rest of the family came down we played some scrabble and spent more time together.
On christmas day which is the "big day" we all went to my host mom's brother's place. Beautiful house in south perth, which was crowded by different aunties, uncles, nephews and grandparents. It was so hot, that even i didnt care about my tan and just stayed in shade or inside :D After all, the day was better what i expected but couldnt beat the finnish one though. So good on ya finland again.

On boxing day we went to my host dad's sister's place. The house was full of relatives again, and apparently the owners were rotarians so we had finnish, danish and brazilian flags on ou xmas table. Wtf :D Anyway, we jut chattered around and enjoyed ourselves. Later on we went to outdoor cinema to watch an irish movie. I was just one question mark after the show. The accent was just weird and storyline confusing. Plus it was dark and the place was full of all kind of insects. So as wonderful as it sounds, virtually we dont miss much by not having them in finland.

27th was my seventeenth birthday. The day was wicked coz i got to do all my favourite things in perth. On the morning we went to the city to spend some money. We had a lunch in ikea and then we went to cottesloe beach. At the end, we went to fremantle (freo, mom:p) to eat some fish and chips. And i have to say i looove freo, it's a bit like naantali. Extremely stunning and cozy old town right on the coast :) So dearest eighteenth bday, you've been warned. This day was just greaat.

28th, finally! Was the day what every inbound in wa has been looking forward to. Sydney trip! So at the airport there were 16 of us and 3 rotarians. Flight was allright and by the time when we got to sydney it was dinner time alrwsdy. (its 3hrs difference) We went to markets to buy some cheap crap and ate in a food court. Then we had some spare time and did whatever. Apparently some of us went to starbucks and after a while i went to the hard rock cafe. Isnt that funny that everyone gets always so excited about starsbucks and hard rock cafes no matter where you are :D The reason why went to eat again just after dinner was because of the f* australian policy which closes all the shops by 6pm or earlier. So yeh thats why we are all fat, blame the government!

Saturday was the tourist day when we first went to the opera house and harbour bridge. So yes i have about a million photos of the opera house, all from different angles and zoomings. We ate lunch down there, and then had some spare time again in the city. Our hotel wasnt actually too far from the city, but because i only wore my thongs my feet were absolutely killing me by the time we got back to the hotel. We should've take one of those trains i reckon, which goes above our heads (and which btw had an advert of heureka-science centre in helsinki O.o) back to the hotel. We ate dinner in chinatown and went to luna park. Luna park is an amusement park close to the bridge. Cant say was it good or not coz i actually didnt take any of the rides. But at least the view was really pretty at nigh time and weather wasnt too bad. Which means for us, it wasnt too hot xD

On sunday we took the ferry to the manly beach. Quite nice day, jut chilling on the beach and lunch from macca's. On the evening we went to see the night life in sydney. Obviously we weren't allowed to go in any of the clubs with rotarians but just had a little tour around. Oh yeh and it was eric's 18th birthday. He's taiwanese and still  believes in santa which is super cute. So he asked me all questions like does he really comes from finland and how old is he exactly. And im not joking! :D

Monday seemed to last forever. We got down to the opera house about 9am and stayed there all day until midnight. It was hot, about 39 degrees and we had our chairs in the sun. My skin colour was like one of those brazilians after the day. And yeh the reason why did we get there so early was coz they closed the gates after 12am. So you only got good spot if you came early enough, it was so crowded. Anyway, the fireworks were amazing indeed and the atmosphere was in the roof. It was so much fun to walk back to the hotel when everyone was just cheering and partying on the streets. Unfortunately my camera just said flat battery in a minute when the fireworks started so i dont have any evidences of them. But you can only imagine when i say they spend 6,3 million dollars for them. Which is actually, when you think about it, nothing but ridiculous :D

Tuesday morning was a bt tricky to wake up then so it was pleasant to hear that we're only heading to bondi beach. And wow, it was huge and full of people! If i'd stay in sydney i'd be there every single day. On the afternoon we headed back to hotel and after dinner went to starbucks again and walked into the city one more time. Very good ending for the trip :)

On wednesday we came back and i went to stay with host nanny again. Not a real excitement, i basically just slept the whole day. On thursday we went to the cinema to see life of pi. Really good clip, i truly recommend! On friday alison and jane came down and i was supposed to go one brazilian girl's farewells but couldnt make it so instead of that we went to eat a dinner at crown, which is one really flash hotel in perth. It was certainly the best buffet where i've been and i dont even dare to tell what it cost. hahhaa.

On saturday me, ali and jane went to kojonup, which is a small town about 300km from perth to inland. Jane's parents has a farm there, 8000acres. So once again i found myself wondering how an earth they manage to do that in australia :D Like another thing which popped into my mind was the fact that my next hosts have 7 cars? Like, what..why..lol. Well, on sunday we went to play tennis which kojonup people, we played about 7hrs and it was really fun coz i havent got to play in australia that much yet. On monday we went down albany. It's about same size as geraldton, but the nature is fair different. So albay was really pretty and its nice in the summer anyway. But winter time i suppose its a bit like england,  rainy and cold but the houses r not heated so im not too jealous for the exchange students who suffers down there over winter :D After a good day in albany i had my last day in kojonup which contained horse riding early on the morning. I even did little jumps and almost fell off few timess, gosh me.
Then we just drove back to perth and today back to gero.

So yeeh, now im settled down okay. Alison goes to finland on 19th which means i'll get to go to perth soon again and after that i probably change my host family. Tomorrow night alison has sleepover as a farewell party and on saturday my ex hosts will come here 4 bbq.

Apologies my laptop does not work properly so i have to do another post with all the photos!