Marie "the titanic friend" comes to Finland!

Adios amigos or something like that!

After the Canada trip I was almost depressed to wait for my boring spring here in Finland to start. All of a sudden it has changed completely from boring to almost awesome! I can't wait for my spring (sure I would change it for a spring in Athens of course..). Well, first, my Erasmus friend Marie from France asked me the other day what am I doing in the beginning of Feb. I answered: just the basic stuff, work and ringette. She asked me if I wanted her to visit me here in my home city?! HELL YEA.

So she is coming exactly next Monday! I have some plans for us what to do here. I had to use google tho to help me out a bit what is here really to see and do... I'm so happy and excited to see her. She comes all the way here to see me and explore yet and other city for her! So happy!!

After she leaves it's only couple of weeks before my greek friend Dafni moves here to do her Erasmus period! For the next three months I can speak (read: try to) Greek and have at least something little greek in my life! :)

The spring is also exciting in other ways too. I'm gonna graduate from school in April, finally I'm done with it.. Then I'm gonna study some more to get a certification for gym instructor and personal trainer license also. Then I'm hoping to be able to do some job that includes that kinda of things. Not so excited to find a job as a physiotherapist yet..

Also in ringette wise it's interesting spring going on since my team has a great chance to make it to the play offs! Of course not to forget the national teams camps, games and all the other stuff to make it to the final them in September..!

What comes to my travels, well.. As you can imagine I'd have a lot of ideas and dreams what to do, where to go and how long to travel. I just gotta stay honest to myself what can I do and how long to travel what comes to ringette and my dreams. BUT I'm planning to visit my friends in Athens for a week or so in June. Then I'm also planning to go to Barcelona for a week or so. :) I also have some ideas about a long weekend somewhere in Europe at some point of the summer. :P IF I can allow a break for myself from training.. Tho I have a bad habit of changing my plans as fast as they come to my head since I always come up with new ideas and dreams! 

Next text is gonna be from my week with Marie, exploring Helsinki! ;) So long! 

Final games and the Niagara Falls

On Wednesday it was freezing cold! Again. The wind was terrible. We ate breakfast in the morning and then headed to the White Oaks mall to buy a new winter jacket for my dad. We just hang around and tried to get the time to past before the semifinal game. 

The semifinal game against team Canada West was ready to begin with a crowd cheering and the cameras rolling. :P The crowd was full of Canadians and we were maybe around 15 Finnish there.. Still at some points we were much louder than them. Four older people sitting in front of us changed their seats because we cheered so loud for the girls. Exciting game ended for our girls 11-3 win! What a feeling to silence the whole Canadian crowd! 

Things that caught my eye:

•  LOTS of churches
• low buildings expect the hotels 
• beer could only be purchased from the beer stores
• train track through the "city" center
• most of the cars where pick-up cars
• people were reaaallyy friendly there

On Thursday morning I was excited to wake up: it was the day of the final. As my friend said to me: the last day of us holding the title of U19 Champs. We left for the near by city plaza to make the last shoppings done since I surprisingly still had some money left. 

The bronze game ended 7-1 when the Canada West won the Russian team. I was excited for the gold game to start having water and throat pastilles with me since after the semifinal game I didn't have that much voice left.. I really don't know how to write about the game since our girls lost it 6-2 and the gold went back to the Canadians after 10-years! The last time, in any category, when Canada had won was in 2002 Champ games. Though though place for our girls, not only to loose but then to watch all the long ceremonies after the game. :( I'm still proud of the girls since they played really well and didn't give up. I lost my voice for good after shouting and cheering the entire game like a maniac. 

On Friday, on our last day, we packed our luggage and left the hotel around 9 am and headed towards the Niagara Falls. The trip there went fast and being lazy I'll let the pictures talk for themselves. :P 

Some HUGE bridge 

BIG casino where I got in after showing my ID. Old people with rollators and pints..

Toronto

Yes, I drank coffee?! 

Toronto Pearson Airport

Somewhere above

Back to home

The first day of 2013!

The first day of the year was full of exciting ringette games! We started our morning by having breakfast and after going for a walk to the Victoria park. It wasn't the "magical" as it had looked the previous night on tv when it was full of people and all the trees there had christmas lighting on. Now the lights weren't on so it looked, well, just like a normal park.. It was so cold outside!! The wind was ice cold! 

The church next to the park

Victoria Park

Angel Tree

People had decorated the tree in memory of children who had died young. The tree had  pictures, poems, stories etc. about the children and told about their life. :/ 

Another church on the other side of the park..

Then we hopped into our car and drove to the rink to watch team Finland's morning practice. After that it was one of the Canada's  team's turn and we were kicked out because it was a closed practise?!  We headed to Subway to eat and after took a nap. I slept for 3 hours! I can't understand why I was so tired all the time there! Loved my big bed though. :P I was planning on going to gym to put my sneakers to use which I took with me from Finland but instead I decided to sleep..

Then it was time for Finland - Russia game. Not much to tell about the game, only that Finland won by 9-0 and in my opinion this was the first game were they actually played and scored as a team not as individuals. It was a really nice game to watch. :) BUT THEN the Canada West- East game! It was by far the most fastest, even and exciting game I've seen. I can't even describe it but it was really fast, both teams played well, all the scores were really well played and finished accurately. The game ended in a tie 3-3 which meant that Finland actually didn't win the division instead East won it by the made-goal-difference against Finland and team West.. And this meant that Finland would have to play the semifinal game against the tough Canada West team.. 

What ringette used to look like..

Link to an article about ringette: Not your grannys ringette any more

As you read ringette is celebrating its 50 year anniversary so at the arena there were lots of things put up about the sports history and they also sold lots different anniversary stuff like t-shirts, keychains, pencils etc.. 

Ringette Hall of Fame

The next day the girls were about to play for the spot in the FINAL!! 

"the GIRL" (IRF=internationl ringette federation)

Jet lag, shopping and ringette

On Sunday morning I already woke up at 7 am to check my whats app messages since it was already a day in Finland.. Also I couldn't sleep no more. Must have been jet lag or something. For our surprise the breakfast at the hotel was buffet and I a really nice one! They even had porridge there! :) Later on we went to drive around the city and it's small streets which most of them looked identical. We easily found one of the  shopping malls called Masonville but, as we had forgotten that it was Sunday, it was still closed. We also visited my sister's hotel which was really nice from outside and inside also. 

My sister's hotel: Delta Armouries hotel

After 12 o'clock we drove back to Masonville to shop.. It had really nice stores like Victoria Secret, Carson Crew, Roots, Foot locker etc.. :) We ate there some nice wok food. Then it was time for the third game! 

Before the game we posted our cheering sheets on the walls! :) 

The game was against the other Canadian team West. As the previous game the day before this was an even game also! Team Finland didn't play their best but fought the game to an even score again, 6-6. Right at the end of the game West made the final  score and both ended up getting one point from the game. When the game ended we watched one period of the game France - Canada East.

In the evening we went out to eat to this nice sports bar kinda place where all the waitress and waiter people had KILTS on! Then it was time to sleep! I was exhausted! 

During the day we also talked about going to Detroit, but we ended up deciding not to go. :( We didn't have any good day to do that since on 31st we figured that there would be so many people coming and going between the borders and that day was basically the only option for us. And on the other hand we didn't wanna miss team Finland's games. :) :/ 

On Monday it was New Year's Eve!! :) Last day of the year! My dad didn't feel so well so only me and mom headed to breakfast and straight to watch game France - Finland. The beginning wasn't that good but then the girls started to play and it ended 7-1 for us! :)  From there we left for shopppppiinggg and my mom was co-driver with a map and we got lost quite a few times at first... This time we went to the other mall, White Oaks, it was also big with many stores. :) Then I dropped mom off at the hotel and headed alone to Masonville since team Finland was going there to shop for a few hours. :) I spent the time mostly following my sister as she went crazy and shopped around..

First time I ate was at 5.30pm! I was so hungry and tired! From the lobby I asked things to do and places where to go in the evening, I was so excited! Well, my enthusiasm ended really fast since I fell asleep for over two hours when I was supposed to take a short nap before getting ready for heading to Victoria Park to watch the live show and the fireworks. After I was supposed to hit some bar or club for a while. So I woke up around 10 pm and I was sooo tired I just couldn't get up from my lovely big bed. I watched the New Year's Eve show from the park from tv.. Lame, I know. I didn't recover from the nap. At least I stayed awake until the year changed. Next year another try, hopefully also in Canada then! 

Taken from our living room

Finland - France

From one of the center streets