How we were almost arrested

In every summer with my friend’s family we take a car and drive somewhere we’ve never been before. A couple of years ago we went to Paris and something happened during our way there.

By jas_gd from Fickr CC

It was dark outside, we had been driving all day long. Everybody was really tired. Only a couple of hours more and we could sleep in a lovely, comfortable hotel bed! Anyway, we continued our travel and suddenly we saw a huge truck in the middle of the road and a police car next to it. When we were a little closer we could see a policeman waving some kind of stick with a bright light on (I couldn’t see well enough, it was dark!). Of course we knew that the police officer wanted us to do something, so we just passed the truck on the other side of it. We thought that everything was ok, but suddenly we heard a loud noise behind us. It was a police siren! We were all extremely scared; we didn’t know what we had done wrong anyway. We stopped the car and the officer came to talk to us. Well, he didn’t speak any English (what a good luck we had!). We tried to say something in French, but it sounded really bad and it was quite difficult to understand what the officer was saying and he didn’t speak English so… Finally we figured out that we had driven too fast, and we had to pay a fine. But luckily we weren’t arrested or anything worse…

Anna V.

Actually this was a made-up story based on what happened in my friend’s trip;D

Chinese Zodiac

The Chinese year is changing. There are many myths and stories about the Chinese zodiac, and I want to tell one of them.

Photo by nopkin from Flicker CC

One of the stories goes like this: God organized a party and invited all the animals there. Rat and cat had a fight, so the rat told the cat that the party was actually on the next day, but that was a lie. So, all the animals went to the party, except the cat, who thought that the party was the following day. Actually this party, that God had organized, was really a competition to select the animals for the horoscope. The competition was about running, everybody simply had to reach the other side of the line before the other animals did. But the rat cheated this time too. It knew that it wasn't a very good runner, so the rat secretly rode on ox's back. Just before the ox got to the goal, the rat jumped off the ox's back to the other side of the line, so it was the first to finish. That's why the rat is the first animal in the zodiac. The ox was the second one, so God made it the second animal to the zodiac, then it was tiger, rabbit, dragon...just like in the zodiac. And this is why cat isn't in the zodiac - rat cheated it.

Photo by chooyutshing from Flicker CC

This story has many versions, I've heard one where rat pushes cat to the water in a swimming competition.

Bailando por el mundo = Dancing for the world

This post is about my hobbies, and in the beginning I must say that I absolutely love dancing. Here is a link for the headline.

Photo by anujraj from Flickr CC

Three years ago I went to my first zumba class. In the beginning I wasn't going to go there, but my friend dragged me with her, so there I was. The hall was full of people; there were at least one hundred of us. First I thought that this was crazy. Everybody was dancing and doing weird movements but at the end of the class I was really happy. The class was so much fun, it even didn’t feel like exercising. But it certainly was that. So that’s how I got interested in zumba. And big “thank you” for my friend who dragged me there!;D

Now I have a huge interest in reggaeton and salsa. They both are Latin dances and really popular in South- and Central-America (= Latin-America). Especially in Cuba, people dance a lot, usually salsa. One of my friends from the dance classes was in Cuba for one month, and she said that basically everybody dance in there, but there are only a few people who actually know how to dance. And they are very good. But still, the “dance spirit” is really good in Cuba, so everybody does that.

Photo by Jan Zalud (योहन) from Flickr CC  

Shoulders, hips and stomach are used a lot in reggaeton, it’s quite a masculine dance, similar to hip hop. I started it in the fall, and I completely fell in love with it. Spanish music in the background and like all the dances, you have to think what you are doing, otherwise you will mess up the choreography and the steps. I think it’s relaxing because you have to think “in the dance way”, all the stress and worries disappear from your mind, at least for a moment.

Salsa is also really popular; I think it is known all over the world. The basic step in salsa is quite easy, but when you have to add the spins and other more difficult movements to the choreography, you need to concentrate. But I think it’s still not difficult, you just need to practice. And when you have danced more you don’t need to count anymore, you can hear everything from the music. It’s wonderful when you can see that you have developed. Salsa is usually categorized in three levels in dance schools. I’m really proud of myself, I jumped straight to the second course in salsa, I skipped the first one, I was already familiar with the basic steps, because of zumba.

I have never tried salsa with a couple but maybe some day I'll...
Photo by dekay from Flickr CC

I think I’m going to keep on dancing at least couple years, right now I can’t even think of quitting. I feel like it’s a kind of a “lifestyle” for me.

Anna V.               

To Be Young

“To be young it’s attractive, explosion of hormones, sexy and healthy”. We went through a video in the class http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ_0EhqIPko. It’s about teenagers and teen generations from the 60s to the time now. I found the video very inspiring so I decided to write about it and I picked some phrases that I think are interesting.

Teenagers have been classified in three different groups. First are the “Baby Boomers”, who were born in the 40s and 50s. They were the first ones when people started to see that you don’t jump straight from being a kid to an adult - that there actually is adolescence between childhood and adulthood. People started to notice that there were certain things that kind of “belonged” to teenagers, like for example rock’n’roll music. It’s been said that Baby Boomers went through a lot of different changes and they invented the famous “Youth Life Style”. That’s why they were called the “Liberated Youth”.

After Baby Boomers was “Generation X”. Born in the 60s and 70s, they enjoyed the rights of Baby Boomers. They took control of their own individualities – they were the bosses of their bedrooms. Generation X has been called also the “Competitive Youth”. In part of the video there was a guy who said: “If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” I think this phrase is really good too. Sometimes you just have to stop and simply think what you are doing. Otherwise you can see yourself wishing your time away. And later, you will regret it.

Today’s teenagers are called “Millenials”. So, it basically means us. It’s been said that Millenials have taken control of the world through the internet, that’s why they are also called “Global Youth”, “Generation Y/G/WE” or “Digital Youth”. Because the internet connects people all round the world, it’s one big thing in everybody’s life. Nowadays you just can’t run away from the world. It’s just not possible. Information spreads in a few seconds from one side of the world to the other. If something happens it’s usually in the news in the same day that it came up. In the video they said that it’s typical for Millenials to use “hyperbolic languages to express themselves” and then they showed a clip of a really crazy teen in his bedroom jumping around, and I think it is a little bit exaggeration. Anyone who I know really doesn’t do that. But I don’t know maybe in America…:D Nowadays young people are much more realistic and tolerant. And it’s natural for them to start up with something and end up doing something else.

My friends and I

We had some Singaporean students visiting our school for one week. It’s great to meet other people of our age from another side of the world. And they are not so different than us. They go to school as well, do sports, have hobbies, listen to music, see friends and just do this “teenage stuff” that I guess all youth does. Well of course life on the other side of the world is different too, the climate and the culture for example. In Singapore, they aren’t allowed to have jewelry (only small earrings and a watch) or make up. Unlike in Finland, they have school uniforms, long hair has to be tied and they have to pay for school food. And it’s a little more expensive in Finland than in Singapore. Singapore is one big city itself and the population is the same as in whole Finland but it’s only the same size as Helsinki.  I think the language seems funny because the official language in Singapore is English, but some people put Chinese words in the end of the sentences like “How are you cha?” (or something like that). That is called Singlish. But everybody doesn’t talk like that. In Singapore many people are from the neighboring countries and keep up their own traditions. That’s why there are so many languages spoken in Singapore and people have roots from many other countries. The most spoken languages in Singapore are Chinese, Malay and Indian, but there are people from Europe too (Asian people call Europeans Caucasian).

Hema and I

I think it’s awesome to be a teen. You’re so free to do anything. It feels like everything is possible and the world is open to new ideas. “If you want to understand the world, you have to understand the teenagers.” Well, it’s been said that we teenagers make the world; we’re the upcoming adults who are going to decide about the future. And “Young people represent new languages and behaviors.” I think this is true too, the world is globalizing all the time.

I will finish with an apt line from the video: “If you already think that you know enough and your place in the world, well congratulations, you are officially dead.”

Anna V.

The Place I'll Remember My Whole Life

The place I'll remember my whole life. The first thing that came into my mind was Kaarina, my homecity.

We moved here from Salo when I was something about two years old. I remember only a bit from our first house in Kaarina. It was a rowhouse. Red one. I remember that in our neighbour lived a boy, who seemed so big to me. But later my mom told me that the kid was only six years old. But he seemd big to me because the difference between our ages was more than few years.

Kaarina is a pretty large city. So basically here is much space but not that many people. There are at least four schools (I'm not quite sure, because now Piikkiö is a part of Kaarina), but only one high school. There is a library, but it is not as good as Turku's. And there isn't a movie theater. I think it would be better if we had one because there are smaller cities than Kaarina with a cinema. But this is a nice city. Kaarina is pretty beautiful. It's next to the sea. There are parks and forests, places to do sports, a health center and a lot of other necessary things.


Picture from http://www.kaarina.fi/

I remember when me were building our own house. It's pretty close to the beach.  I wanted the house to be pink. Well, of course we didn't paint our house pink, it became yellow (thank God). Now later I think it was really good that my parents didn't listen to my advices in house painting. The house would have been awful. But, hey, I was something like six years old. And my favourite color was pink. So, I guess I can forgive myself.

Our house

Kaarina is the city where I have grown. I went my kindergarten here, I started my school here, I got my first friends here and I'm going highschool in Kaarina too. And of course I'm living here. So I think that Kaarina is worth of a place that I can call home. Of course some day I'll move away from Kaarina, but I can always call this place my home. I believe that people can have two homes or even more. Sometimes one of them is more important than the others or sometimes they are egual. But the most important thing that everybody has a home. Or a place to return.

Anna V.

Vocabulary

Define= "määritellä" -> mark out, limit, describe, explain, decide, detail

-describe the nature

 The hills were defined to the sky.

-define something as something

 70% of the workers can be defined as low-paid.

-to explain the exactly meaning of a word

 Define sadness.

adj.  definable

adv. definably

n.     definer

My English Learning History

  It all started when I began my school in first grade. I was six years old.

  There were butterflys on the class wall with colors. (One butterfly was red, one blue...etc). Next to each butterfly, was a text with the name of the color in English. The teacher taught us colors in English with these pictures. She also taught us how to introduce ourselves in English. (My name is...). Every time I didn't have anything to do in the class, I studied the colors. Then I taught English is easy.

  My English classes began when I was in third grade. The first classes were easy, we learned how to introduce ourselves in English - which I already knew how to - and to say "hello" and so on. Then we got our English textbooks. I didn't understand anything about it. And then we had to learn more and study more words. Then I started to think that english was difficult. I wasn't good at it anymore. And that's why I began to hate English. Because I wasn't good at it.
  In fifth grade we had a vocabulary exam. This time I thought the words were easy. I knew every word and I got a top grade. I was so happy. The teacher smiled at me. I was really proud of my myself. After that exam, I started to like English again. I studied hard and I got good grades. I felt that I was good at it, which made me study even more. English became one of my favourite subjects.

   I have read few English books. (Percy Jackson And The Olympians -series). I didn't understand all the words, but I did understand what the book said. And it's really awesome to read an English book.  
   I have also watched anime and movies with English subtitles or just with the English soundtrack. English books and movies - and of course music - have helped to improve my English a lot.

  English is a very important language, it's a word language. You have to learn how to speak English, for your future. You can't travel abroad without knowing English, nobody understands you. In university many of the books are in English.
  We have exchange students in our school, and I'm talking in English with them.
  So, this all proves that English is very important, for everybody.

   Anna