Gotta love California

What a dream my life is! My host family gave me a choice of going anywhere in the U.S for spring break. It didn’t take me a long time to choose California, since I’ve always dreamt about going there. So last week I got to fulfil my dreams and check things off from my bucket list. First we were 4 days just the six of us in Los Angeles and then we drove down to San Diego and met with Grammy and Papa. I’m blessed to be part of this family and it was awesome to see how the Connollys spend their vacations. 

Cali here we come! 
 
"We love each other"  
Seeing this sign made me go crazy!  
Joe's Italian Ice was phenomenal!  

In LA we hiked (not all the way) to the Hollywood sign, walked on the Star’s Walk, visited downtown Disney, experienced Venice & Huntington State beach and had fun in the Universal Studios. 

Hello Hollywood!  
We are loving it!  
Beautiful Heather  
Not a bad place for a family picture  
Gotta have the American flag!  
Hollywood star's walk was great! 
Classic Queen. 
Meow! Kisses from these cat ladies! 
Bring it on, Arnold Schwarzenegger!  
Venice Beach, California. 
 Loving life! 
 
 My american family. 
Afternoon chat with Marilyn Monroe. 
Hollywood studio tour. Drove trough Wisteria Lane from the Desperate Housewives!
 
 VIP. Very. Important. Person.
 
Hi Simpsons! 
 
Found Sea Lions from the Huntington Beach!  
My favorite thing is to go where I've never been.  
Life is so good.  
It's time for some shopping!  
The cute one is tired after a long day.     

In San Diego we went to the famous zoo, checked out the Chargers Stadium, took a cruise in San Diego Bay & enjoyed a city tour of San Diego. 

San Diego Zoo  
Papa was my buddy! Teaching him to take selfies in the rain forest area. He's natural. 
 
We saw a polar bear! 
Chargers Stadium! 
 
Trolley ride around the city! 
 
Beautiful view of the San Diego city.  
Ladies day :) Eating in Coronado.  
"My future husband is going to have..." 
 
Let's go cruisin'!  
 California girl 
 
3 months left in America!  
 She's such a sweetheart. 
 
San Diego Bay  
I hope I'll be back someday. 
 
 Sisters for life <3

Love me some Alyssa!
 
"The shadows in our life depend on how we are standing in the sun."


 I had the most awesome spring break with this family. This monday morning I woke up to a text that said "School is cancelled for today" meaning it's a snow day. So I got to sleep in and relax all day. Tomorrow I'll have my first soccer practice and I'm so excited! Life really is good. 

 - Heini

Winter fun in Wisconsin

My winter has been full of activities and I feel like time is just flying. I have only four more months to go and lots of fun things planned for the rest of my time here. I have really mixed feelings about coming home, which I’m sure is normal. Thinking about leaving my American school, friends and family makes me extremely sad since I don’t know (yet) when I will be back. Day by day I start to appreciate this experience more and I am trying to make the most out of every day. Sometimes it does get hard to always try to live life to the fullest and I’ve understood that staying home on a Friday night might not be a bad thing after all. I’ve always been a busy person but now I realize that cuddling with your little sister on a family movie night can also be living life to the fullest. I can’t even imagine how much I am going to miss my American family. But let’s not think about it now, okay? 

Alyssa and I 
 
Girls movie time  
Said goodbye to the Italian exchange student Giorgio 
 
American style skiing 
 PE lessons are fun! 
 
My Fashion Careers class  

I would say that the real winter started after Christmas, when we actually got some snow. Many people here seem to dislike that cold and white stuff but I was always excited about it. I have to admit that my excitement about the snow had something to do with the snowdays too. On snowdays the school is cancelled for the day. The cars don’t have winter tires here at all, so it’s hard to drive when it’s icy and snowy. Usually it’s too dangerous for the schoolbus to go on the small country roads, so they just call school off. The same thing can happen because of ice or cold weather too. We can also have two-hour delays, when the school starts two hours later that day. I wish we would have days like that in Finland too!

Early in the morning (unfortunately no delays)
 Presenting Finland with Veera
 First time snowboarding 
 
 Felt like home 

 Ryan was a good teacher 

About seven weeks ago we had Heather’s co-workers from England visiting us. They were staying at our house and we had a lot of fun! I enjoyed hearing British English a lot too. The city where I live, Platteville, is very close to the neighboring states Iowa and Illinois, so we visited both of them. 

TJ and the Cheerleaders  
Walking on the Mississippi River  
Next level: Soccer on the Mississippi  
Yayy for the happy days!  
My precious and I  
Watching football. Go Green Bay Packers!  

Then about two weeks ago we had a weekend full of water fun in the Wisconsin Dells. It is America’s largest waterpark resort. We went there with another family, the Aciernos, and soon we figured that we would just call the group ”the Connernos” (Connollys+Aciernos). They didn’t have any saunas in the waterpark, which surprised me. I guess I am so used to have saunas everywhere. Instead of saunas, they had many hot tubs to warm up in. We have a hot tub at home too, which has been great, since there are no saunas around.  

Goofing around with Connernos  
The Black Hole was good  

About a week ago my mom came here for a visit!! It was really exciting for everyone because many people wanted to meet my real mom. The feeling was unreal when we picked her up from the airport. There my mom was, after six months I could finally hug her and talk to her. It was beyond great. We had five days together and I basically showed her everything. We had dinner with my host family, I took her to school and to the school’s basketball game. She met my coordinator and my friends. We visited the capital of Wisconsin, Madison, and also a cute little small town, Galena. She brought me a lot of rye bread and chocolate, so I should be good for four months. Saying goodbye to her made me realize, I’ll see her again soon. What makes me sad is that the next time I’ll see the airport it will be me who’s leaving. 

Reunion after six months  
The best breakfast date  
Exploring Galena  

Today we were packing food for kids who are starving all over the U.S and the world. I had never done anything like that and it made me feel good about myself. Because I packed food today for two hours, somebody isn’t going to starve anymore. That small amount of work could change somebody’s life. I am so glad I got a chance to help those kids. 

Team work
 

Even though the winter has gone fast, I couldn’t be happier to take off to California with my host family in six days. I don’t think there's any better way to spend my one and only spring break. I am so excited to fulfill my dreams of seeing the Hollywood sign. Take care you all!

- Heini