In the District Conference

This is the last weekend and the culmination of the trip. Yesterday we attended the flag seremony, Finnish flag was carried by our Finnish exchange student. She reminded me of the saying "youth is wasted on the young", this amazingly beautiful girl was so annyed to see her own picture on the slides shown to the big audience in the room. How come it goes so that you are never satisfied with yourself, when you are young, you still feel insecure and then when you get older, you hope you would still have the enrgy you had when you were young. Energy is something I would need right now, the last days have been just trying to stay awake through the program and the blogwriting has suffered as well.

Yesterday night we spent with the team, and now we seem to realize that in a short time, we will not see these people, we have grown accustomed to spend our days with. Even though everybody is happy to get home to their families, we still want to enjoy these few days.

I hope people will write to this blog also after the trip to reflect the learnings, when we have had time to think about what we learned...

now have to run to our presentation

Good morning from Leyla as well

Denver really is a nice city, just the right size, not too big, but also plenty to see. We have met so many people, and funnily enough we have also run into our new friends in the city, and that is fun!
It seems that the schedule is loosening up a little towards the end, and I have to say it suits me at least. But, on the other hand, when we have more time, we also have more time to feel homesick and miss the people waiting for us at home. Everybody has been asking what are the biggest differences between our homecountries and U.S. Somehow everything is very similar but yet somehow different. The clothes people have, houses, cars they are basically the same but still you can recognize we're not home. hope someone else in our team can pinpoint it better.

Few peculiar differences:
-the sound of the highway when you're driving on it. We call it the American road sound. it seems that highways are made from pieces so you get this funny dudum sound when driving on it.
-the way to make a bed. I don't know have other's found it as difficult, but I feel I have to fight my way to bed every evening. The sheets are wrapped so tight, there bis many layers of blankets, and on the top the bed is covered half-way with pillows... So you have to dig the bed out first before you can find your way to the dreamland...

just to mention a few. we have to recommend the girls who are coming to Finland and Estonia to start a blog as well, maybe they can describe the differences better!

My last minutes - Lauri

Two weks have passed very fast with many interesting events and visits in Boulder, Broomfield, F.Morgan, Evergreen, Conifer and Keystone. All the days have been full of activities and no time for sleeping or shopping. The days usualy begin from 6-7 in the morgning consist at least two-three visits so for the evening we have been tired like after hard day in office. We have made a lot of new friends and have discovered that the people even this small area of Colorade differ very much from eachother. And the nature - just fantastic.
We have had great team with a lot of fun, singing, joking etc. and it is somewhat sad to leave them behind here in the middle of snow and forests. There are many things that I will not see, but I am very satisfied with all the days I have spent here and wish to all of my teamfriends that the following two weeks would be as intresting as the ones we had.

Lauri

Having a break

Today we got up to Keystone, there's still snow in here, but only some. This is the break with the team only, and the team seems to enjoy it!

We spent last few days in Evergreen/Conifer/Baily area, had excellent vocational days on Friday, and some free time yesterday. My wonderful hosts, Nancy and Jim, took me up to Estes Park, we stayed in a beautiful house and really did rest. And this morning I got to ride! In this altitude it is really hard work, I was exhausted after few minutes of trot. First I treid a western pleasure horse, she was a bit annoyed to me, I kept too close contact and couldn't stop, turn or make her go forward. Then I got up on a swedish horse, and felt like home!

Yesterday I got first pictures out from my computer and hopefully will be able to add some here.

In Fort Morgan

Now we are in Fort Morgan ,little town between fields. Here you cannot see the mountains anymore, but the view is flat, and currently dry. Yesterday we went to see where Pizza Hut cheese is made and then on the evening we had a reception, where boys finally found Fat Tire beer, and enjoyed it... We exampled Estonian and Finnish singing tradition. This morning we went to see the local airport, and now we are heading for a Rotary meeting.


It is +25C here so freeze in Finland! Well, next we are off to Mountains and I think it's then colder again.

Leaving Broomfield

Yesterday we went to see Broomfield police office and jail. It was really interesting, and the jail was far more serious than the ones in Finland (officer was bit surprised to hear our inmates get vacation outside the jail...). Then we had Thai food for lunch (the food here is great, I just weight myself this morning it seems I've gained about 1/2kg already), and then went for Derda recreation center. There we had opportunity to lose some of the weight, I tried wall climbing, which was a thing for me, being afraid of hights and all... Lauri did great there, he just climbed all the walls, even the difficult ones.

Evening was spent with host families, my hosts Cathy and Bob had organised a dinner party and invited their friends. The food was best I've had here (even though the restaurants are not bad either) and company and discussion was so interesting. Spending time with people is definitely best way to learn about a culture and I'm glad I had the opportunity.

First feelings after few days

The time just flies. We have had a busy schedule and full program, but so far everything has been great. The altitude has tired some of us a little bit (including myself) but we are getting used to it. The views are magnificent. We have been to two Rotary meetings, and did our presentation there about Finland and Estonia. People seemed really interested and all comments were positive! Of course we can find reasons for improvements ourselves, but that is how it goes. We also visited Boulder centrum, and National Atmosphere Recearch Center, and today Western Art museum Leaning Trees and local tea factory Cellestial. I go crazy in these museum shops so I've spend few days' budget today.

Now I have to run, host family (wonderful people, really lovely couple) is taking me out for dinner. No question, we are getting fat during this trip!