Farewell

I had my Australian-themed farewell party last night.  The people invited were mainly from my year in school, so it was nice and everyone knew each other. So the whole night was really good, though at times I got really sad when I realized that I only have seven whole days before leaving this country and all the friends I've made.  

But about my costume, I was so proud of myself!  :D  When thinking of Australia, I can not exclude the thought of Vegemite.  For non-Australians: it's concentrated yeast extract, smells bad, tastes gross when on toast and even worse when drinking with warm water (I got the "privilege" to try this amazing drink earlier this week as my school friends wanted me to get the whole Australian experience...oh gosh) 

So this is how it looks like...

From here

...and this is my costume.  Pretty good effort, right!

By Bec Muller

Thank you for everyone for coming, thank you for the pressies, thank you for always being there for me during the year.  Thank you for accepting me as to a part of your group, I wouldn't change you to any other bunch of people.  You'll always have a special place in my heart! Lots of love. X

7 days left in Aus,

Liisa

Last times

Today is my last day in school, and this is my last free period here.  Last time in the school library, last time opening a school computer.  Started my morning by getting ready for the last day of school, followed by cycling to the school for the last time.  Last mathematics, last PE, last English, last Biology.  I'm wearing my school uniform for the last time, and today's the last time for me to enter this building as a student.  I just had my last school lunch, last ever lunch order.  Today's the last time to see some people, the last time in my whole entire life.  Last time this and last time that.  Last, last, LAST, sounds so final.

Can you see why this is getting a bit sad,

Liisa

P.S.  Ten days and I'll be in Finland.  Unbelievable.

Opera House

We went on a tour to the Opera House, and this is a bit more detailed post about it.  It was just the basic tour, but it ended up being better than I ever imagined.  We went to three of the different venues they have; the Playhouse, the Concert Hall and the Opera Theatre.  I didn't know much about the Opera House to start with, so it was great to get to see the different venues and learn about the history a bit better.  The best part of the entire tour and my whole day actually, was definitely the visit to the Cencert Hall, because the Sydney Symphony Orchestra was rehearsing and we were allowed to listen for them to play for a while.  The acoustics are just amazing, unlike anywhere I've been before.  The tour was amazing, and the only down side was that it just made me more sad in front of the fact that I won't get to see a performance there.  

Couple of photos from inside.  We weren't allowed to photograph during most of the tour, so I only have couple of shots, and therefore added those links to different venues so you could take a better look.  (:

After that we walked to the Hyde Park.

And then drove to the Northern Beaches, here's the Palm Beach.

Busy, busy day,

Liisa

Sydney once again

Today we went to Sydney too see the Opera House and couple of other things.  We left early from Singleton so we would have a lot of time when we got there.  I will be making another post just about, the Opera House later, as it is late already and I have to be going to school tomorrow.  Three more days to go!!! :/

And our views during lunch, not bad aye! 

Wait for the next post to see more of the Opera House,

Liisa

Club opening

Last night there was a new Rotary club opening not too far from where I live, and therefore I was asked to go.  Good that I did, it was a really nice night, and also a good chance to catch up with Rebecca, not too many chances left!  :/ 

Lazy day today and Sydney tomorrow,

Liisa

Midsummer

Midsummer during winter.  That's how logical my life is at the moment. This time of the year everyone is celebrating midsummer, the longest day during the whole year.  That's when the sun doesn't go down at all, and it's warm the whole day round.  

But obviously not in Australia.

The day has been rainy and windy and cold, and I was so freezing in school that I thought 'what a perfect day to get a hot bath'.  That was a great idea, and I had a nice and warm, relaxing afternoon.  :P  The forecast for tonight is -1, so unlike all the rest of the Finnish people, I'll go to bed...  

Happy "midsummer"

Liisa

PS. F-I-F-T-E-E-N-! days left :O

Second life

I'm still not quite sure if I've realized that I will soon be leaving this country to go to home. 

Lately I've come to notice that I seriously have two homes now.  I was talking to my friends in Facebook, and half of the people can't wait for the 8th of July, while the other half hopes that THE day would be further away.  That's why it feels bad to leave, though on the other hand I can't wait to get home. 

Mixed feelings, that's what this is.  It's actually worse than when I was leaving home; then I didn't know where I was going to, but I knew I would be back in a year.  Now I know what I'm leaving behind, and also the fact that I don't know when I get to come back.

The first ones from our exchange group have already left to fly home, but still, as weird as it sounds, I feel like it won't be my destiny.  But it will.  It's just unbelievably hard to think of leaving.  I mean if you decide to move and start life somewhere else, you move your life there.  Simple.  But what if you moved and left your first life, then went and created another one.  That equals two lives, the point when it all gets complicated.  Oh, I so wish one morning I wake up and Australia has moved next to Finland.  Would seriously make my life so much easier!

Waiting for that morning,

Liisa

Lists

About a year ago, I made lists about all the things I needed to do before I left the country.  History's repeting itself, I'm doing the same now.

In Rotary, they have a rule that as you arrive to a country they'll take your passport, and when it's time for you to leave you'll get it back.  I can't say that's the right way to function in my opinion, but I can see the reasons behind it so fare enough.  I asked to get my passport back already because I thought there might have been some problems with it.  That's because the person who took it from me was my first councellor who passed away during the year.  Luckily it was all pretty well organized, and I got my passport back the beginning of this week.  At the same time I also got all my important papers: visa, banking papers and the first flying tickets. 

I thought I'd organize all of this now, and therefore went to the bank to make some changes to my accounts.  That's because another rule Rotary has, is that when you arrive to the country, you have to open a bank account with $400 in it.  It's supposed to be an emergency account, meaning if something goes wrong that's the first place the money will be used from.  Luckily enough that account has been untouched, so now I'll get my money back.  I wanted to get it a bit earlier as well, partly because of the same problems as described above, but also because now I can do my last purchases with that money, and also use it in case I have something I need to send home separately (very likely option).

We also organized a day for me to have a dinner with my second host family, because I thought would be nice to catch up with everyone before I go.  Many exchange students have big BBQs for all the families, but as I've had so many of them it's easier to meet everyone separately.  Try to go and find a day that would be fine for five different groups of people, especially when some of them are reallly busy.  As easy as it sounds, didn't work.  :P  I will hopefully see my first family couple of times before I go, but the third one is hard (the one I moved out from early) as they are not in Singleton anymore.  And the fourth one I'll see a lot too, actually we'll be going to Sydney next week! (:

I should start thinking of what to buy to take home.  I haven't even given it a thought yet, though would be incredible useful as my time is running out... :/

There is no hurry with it yet, but I should also print my ticket back.

And what else, should do a test packing.  Easy as...

It has started to feel like there's not much time left.  But I'm not stressing too much yet, still quite a few days before I'll have to say good-byes!

Planning, thinking, listing,

Liisa

11 / 12

As unbelievable as it is, I've spend 11 months away from home today. Eleven.  Sounds crazy.  Haven't seen my friends, haven't been at home, haven't slept in my bed, haven't gotten Finnish food and haven't been to sauna in 11 months.

But oh so many things I HAVE done!

Eleven months is such a long time, but it has gone quickly.  I thinks it's partly because back home days, weeks and months wouldn't matter so much.  I would just go to school come home, go to school, come home and go to school again.  Here my life has been full of interesting things to experience one after another.  And another main thing is the fact that I have just one year. Sounds long, but it's still a limited time.  So managing time has definitely become a big part of my life.

Time flies.  Extremely fast.  Sometimes faster than I wish it did.  Less than three weeks and I'll be home, I'll be in Finland.  Crazy thought.

Time passes by,

Liisa

Snail mail

Just like many people these days,  I wouldn't normally send letters, not even to the people who are most important to me.  Surprisingly enough, this year I've found myself from the post office quite a few times, with always many things to be sent.  I've started feeling that a nice post card or a well-thought letter is worth so much more than a "hi, how you going" in Facebook. 

So for probably the last time, I sent letters to home today.  It's actually not as expensive as you might think, and if there's a possibility that it'll make someone's day it's definitely worth it.  (:

Being so old school,

Liisa

Lunch

Today we had a really nice lunch in the vineyards with the lady who's currently hosting me.  In Singleton there aren't really nice places to eat at, so that's why I've gotten to go to the vineyards so many times.  It's always pretty there, and not once has the food been bad yet.  (:

Enjoying my last three weeks,

Liisa

Presentation

As I was already telling earlier, last night was the night for my Rotary presentation.  I spoke about my year in Australia; what I expected it to be, what it ended up being, what I've gotten up to, where did I got to go, and how has this year change me.  

I'm not a big fan of public speaking, but I was quite well prepared and therefore not too nervous.  The whole night was a success, and now there shouldn't be anything big coming in Rotary anymore.  Kind of sad though.  

Oh, and everyone liked the little Finnish treats I baked, and for the many of you who were asking for a recipe, you'll find it from here!

Just one photo from the night: my club's past president and I exchanging the Rotary club banners.  So now they have the one from Finland, and I have one to take back to the club that sent me.

Will actually miss going to the meetings,

Liisa

Finnish baking

I'm going to give my Rotary club a presentation tonight, and I thought would be nice to bake something small for everyone to have with the coffee. So I ended up picking a Finnish recipe, and I seriously can't think of a translation for it, sorry!  :D  It's quite traditional, so if you want to try something different but pretty easy and really nice for sure, check this out!  Also works in gluten free with rice flour.  (:

I made it double, so don't freak out that yours is only half the size.  The original recipe says you'll get 20-25 serves, so I thought to make it double as I knew there were going to be 46 Rotarians.  But somehow I ended up getting about 75 serves, even though they weren't smaller or anything.  I think it's because I let the dough stay for a bit before baking (because that's what you usually do), even though the recipe didn't ask to do so.  :P

And for everyone who knows the recipe, it might not be exactly the same as yours.  Mainly because I'm on the other side of the world where the measurements and ingredients differ from what we get back home.  But same or slightly different, the result was something yummy, and for me that's enough!  (:

So lets get started!

Dough:

150 g of butter

300 g (about 400 ml) of flour

2 tbsp of sugar

½ tsp of salt

2 eggs

50 g of normal yeast (keep in mind 7g of dry yeast = 15g normal)

100 ml of milk or cream

Filling:

100 g of butter

100 g (about 200ml) of icing sugar

2 tsp of cardamom

On top:

1 egg to brush them with, pearl sugar or almond flakes

+ couple of bowls, a mixing spoon, a rolling pin, a brush, paper cups, (a strainer)

- Firstly put the dry ingredients (flour, sugar and salt) into a bowl.  Add soft butter in chunks.  

- Mix till it looks something like this.  It's the easiest to mix with your hands even though it's a bit messy. 

- Take another bowl and pour the milk or cream in it.  Warm it up in microwave till it's about the body temperature.  

- Count the amount of yeast you'll need.  7 grams of dry yeast is equal to 15 grams of the normal one, so you only need to use half the amount if you use dry yeast.  So three and a half 7g packets equal 50 g.  Don't get confused with it or you'll get yeast flavored treats.  Not nice.

- Add the yeast in the warm milk.

- Mix till there is no yeast in clumps.  If unsure you can use a strainer before pouring into the dough.  Mix it all together, this time you can use a big spoon etc.

- Add the eggs and mix them in as well.  What you end up with should look something like this.  Sprinkle some flour on the table before putting the dough there.

- Knead the dough till it gets a different texture.  It should form a rubbery ball which doesn't crack.  When ready, put it back in the mixing bowl.

- Place somewhere warm (note: not too hot so you won't burn the yeast!) and cover up with a kitchen towel and leave for a while.  You can also use warm water; just fill up the sink and put the bowl there, just be careful so that the sink is not too full and the water get into the dough.

- While waiting for the dough to expand you can make the filling.  Melt the butter in a smaller bowl, when done, add icing sugar and cardamom.

- Mix fairly vigorously, and it'll end up looking like this.  It might seem like the melted butter doesn't really mix, but just keep doing what you're doing and it'll be great.

- Check the dough; after a while the it should have expanded.

- Sprinkle some flour on the table before the dough.

- Use a rolling pin to flatten it out to a quadrangle.  If you did the kneading right, the dough will try to pull back, just be patient.  Something like half a centimeter is a good thickness, doesn't really matter though so long you're able to roll it, see below.

- Spread the filling all over.

- Roll.  My quadrangle was a good size for making two rolls. 

- Cut from between the rolls so you'll get two long, separate ones.

- Cut the roll into about 2,5 cm pieces.

- Get your paper cups ready.  Not the tiniest ones, but not as big as for cupcakes.

- The little, 2,5 centimeter rolls should fit well.  There will be a bit of space around, but that's fine because these will expand in the oven as well.

- Get a tray-full of them ready. 

- Brush with egg to make them shiny and to stick any decorations.

- The Finnish way is to put pearl sugar on top of them, but as it's hard to get in Australia you can use almond flakes or just let your imagination go wild!

- Bake in 200-210°C oven for about ten minutes.  The baking time varies depending on your oven, but when they are golden brown and look baked, it's time to take them out.

TADAA!  Ready for yourself and friends or family to enjoy! (:

Enjoy,

Liisa