Hauska tavata!

My 12 things to do in 2012 list are, obviously, things I'd like to do this year. Some of them are more easily done than others, like sending postcards to friends is something I do regularly, be watching those mailboxes! (Send me your address if you'd like a French postcard!)

For my birthday last year, my sister-in-law, Kristina, gave me a pocket phrase book that contains useful phrases in French, German and Italian. It was a handy thing to have on my Germany trip, because I could look things up when I needed to. Then for Christmas I received a Spanish phrase book. So, I made #3- learn 12 phrases in a new language, planning on using those books and learning phrases in Italian or Spanish. As it turns out, however, the phrases I've been learning belong to a language I'd never thought about: Finnish.

I met Loviisa during our French placement test on our 5th or 6th day in France. She heard Larissa and I speaking English and came up to us and said "hey, I heard you speaking English. Is it okay if I talk to you guys because I'm sick of speaking French." Who knew we'd make great friends with her? Anyway, she speaks English better than we do and knows most of our American TV shows and movies and celebrities so we basically consider her one of us. But we decided that it would be good to learn more about her culture as well, so she's been teaching us a little bit of Finnish. It's great fun!

When I meet her parents in April I can say, "hauska tavata" (nice to meet you) and when she says "terveydeski" after I sneeze I can thank her by saying "kiitti." Of course she's taught us Finnish swear words too because it's a necessity in Finland to be able to curse like a native.

She is a great girl and I can't wait for her to spend the summer in America and for us to visit her in Finland!

Nahdaan! (See you later)