Having a great time in the States

Hey everyone! I finally got some time to write again. I have been super busy with basketball and all so I also forgot to write. First I will tell something about school. First semester is finally over, and I think I did pretty good. I got three B's and four A's. I'm pretty happy about that. Also, I started a new semester this week, and only new class I have is athletic weights. Two of last semesters classes ended for me, photography and lifetime sports. Other than that, all my classes are the same, except now I have AP physics in two periods, which means I have it every day.

Basketball is going good, even though our team is not doing that well. We have practice or game every day but Sunday and it's pretty tough. My small team got second in that fundraiser that I told about earlier, so we got a limo ride to a Denver Nuggets game on January 1st. We also got to sit courtside for a while and we met two of their centers early on. We we're supposed to get post game passes too and meet more players but it was too late to get them. Anyway, it was super awesome and I had a blast. Nuggets played against LA Clippers, and Nuggets stopped their 17 game win streak. Besides basketball, one of my favorite sports to follow is football. I like watching those games and especially Denver Broncos. They we're doing really good, but tonight they lost in the playoffs.

Christmas here was pretty much the same, except here people start decorating their houses super early and first Christmas tree I saw was before Thanksgiving. We had a little over two week Christmas break from school, and it was nice. Also, Brian came home from college and he has just been goofing around here. We agreed to climb a fourteener in the summer. That means a 14,000 feet high mountain, which in meters is little over 4,000 meters. I spent a week with a friend because my host family went to Florida, and it was at the same time I had that Nuggets game, where I really, really wanted to go. Spending time with Luke was great. On new year's eve we went bowling with Erik and then we came back and set off some fire works. Later that week we went to ski in Keystone ski resort with some other friends and it was amazing. Everybody should see those views up there, it's unbelievable. I borrowed one guy's go pro video camera and got some footage of those runs. It's pretty cool. It has gotten cold, but not nearly as cold as in Finland. Sometimes it gets warm though. One day I wore shorts outside and I was just fine. I love Colorado weather.

See ya after few months!
Jaakko

Basketball finally started

Hi guys! I'm glad Basketball has finally started. We had a week long mini-camp where we had try outs, and I made it to the varsity team, which is the number one team. We have a lot of practices and sometimes we have mandatory 6am shootarounds and I have to wake up at 5am. I get a little tired in the week because of that. Our team has had couple of scrimmages against other schools, and I think we have a good chance to do well. We have this fund raiser thing in our basketball team where we raise money in teams of four. Prize for two teams with most average money raised per person is to get a limo ride to the Denver Nuggets game and back. They also get in early to talk to players and sit courtside. I have raised a lot of money, and I think I'm in one of the winning teams. At least I hope so.

The other thing I wanted to write about is Thanksgiving. We had a Thanksgiving break from school this week, and Thanksgiving was on November 22nd. It was my first and probably only Thanksgiving. It was fun, we had some guests over and we ate a big fat Thanksgiving dinner. It was actually lunch but we called it dinner anyway. Before eating, we all said something that we are thankful for. I am thankful for getting the opportunity to have an exchange year with a super awesome family here in Colorado. After the Thanksgiving dinner we had a little touch football game in our backyard. It was pretty great.

I had a lot of fun during this break. Brian had a break from college too, and we went to eat at Cane's chicken. It is a restaurant with only four items in the menu and they all are different sizes of fried chicken and fries. It was the best chicken I've ever had. We also went to see Skyfall in the movie theater. It was good but not the best. People are starting to decorate their houses with Christmas stuff already. I saw first Christmas decorations two weeks ago. It's just so weird how they start Christmas so early. Sometimes it's still warm enough to wear shorts and a t-shirt. It's nice considering it's almost December. In Finland I probably would've worn winter coat for a month already.

Take care,
Jaakko

First quarter over

Hello everybody! I have had awesome time in my first quarter here in Berthoud. I actually like school here. Even though I have some hard classes, it has been pretty easy but I'm not complaining. Although sometimes I have too much homework or assignments. I have made lots of new friends and that's why I have fun at school. Two weeks ago there was this thing called Homecoming. It included a football game which our school lost but unfortunately that is nothing new. Homecoming dance was the main event where everybody dressed up and it was super fun.

My cross country season is finally over. It ended last Thursday when girls' team qualified for state championship tournament, but boys' team unfortunately didn't. They were 6th and top 5 qualified. Cross country was fun while it lasted, but I'm glad it's over. Now I have couple of weeks before basketball season starts. Lately I haven't been going to open gyms, but I will be going soon again. I'm looking forward to NBA season and Denver Nuggets. One guy at YFU-party in August told me that he gets some Nuggets tickets from work and he thought about giving them to exchange students. That would be so cool going to a Nuggets game. I've heard they are seriously awesome.

Little something about weather: it's weird. Few weeks ago there was snow on the ground when earlier that week it was about 25 degrees Celsius. It has been freezing on other days too, but last week it was super warm again. It's quite funny experiencing this kind of weather here. That would never happen in Finland.

That's all this time, have fun!
Jake

Yay, school!

Alright, so school has started, and it's pretty cool even though it's school. Berthoud High School is awesome. There are 4 other exchange students and they're from Norway, Denmark, Italy and Germany. Everybody is interested about Finland and what is different there. I have hard and easy classes. Definitely hardest is human anatomy & physiology because there's so much hard terms and a lot of memorizing. Easiest are life time sports of course and photography. School lunches are way better than in Finland, but still everybody here hates it. There is a teacher in our school who has studied in Finland. I was happy to hear that and it has been great to talk to her. I've been super busy with school and cross country so I haven't really had time to write this blog. Weather is still warm and dry. It's awesome when it's September already and still about 25 degrees Celsius.

Like I said, I'm still doing cross country, and I've had a few meets already. My best time is 22 something minutes in 5k, and I'm pretty satisfied. After all I'm running at mile high. Before every meet, we have this "pasta party" where we as a team are spending time together and prepare for a meet, it's awesome. There is an open gym at our school on Mondays and Wednesdays and I have been there playing basketball little bit and I'm doing good even though I didn't play that serious last year. I found out that there are also morning practices at 6 a.m on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I started going there too. I have to be in good shape when the season starts.

I have been pretty busy with school and sports so that's about all I've done for the past three weeks.
Have a great day everybody!
Jake

Experiencing Colorado

Like everybody who reads this blog knows, I am spending an exchange year in Colorado. Flying here wasn't nice. It was horrible: nine hours with almost no space for feet at all. It was so unpleasant I'm not going to write about that anymore. At the airport there was waiting the nicest family imaginable with the coolest welcome sign I have ever seen. There I got my first true American experience when I was asked do I want a hamburger pizza. Nobody puts hamburger in pizza, that's ridiculous.

I was positively surprised that I didn't have jet lag at all. I also didn't notice the 5,000 ft. altitude difference in first few days, but I will get back to that. The second day we went to little town called Buena Vista in the Rocky Mountains and visited older brother, Brian, who worked at the Deer Valley Ranch. We had so much fun there doing stuff with other kids. One day we hiked 7 miles in a 9,000' mountain which name I can't remember. At the end of the hike there was a waterfall definitely worth walking so far to see.

When we got back to Berthoud, I started to do cross country, and after a half a mile I noticed the altitude difference, and it felt horrible. Now I know how it feels to be in very bad shape. Despite hating running here, I kinda like how it feels after that, so I kept going and attended a cross country camp. It was my second trip to the mountains within a week. It was even harder to run in 7,000-9,000 ft, but I got through and got to know a lot of people there. Last day of the camp we hiked to 12,000 ft. high mountain, and I am quite proud of myself, especially running down part of that mountain. 

The day after I got back from the camp, which is today, Brian visited here and we helped him move to college. I got my phone working today, and I like that I can use my phone here. I have already became a fan of a football team, Denver Broncos, and basketball team, Denver Nuggets. I like how they both have had superstars join them this season.

I have had a pretty busy and exiting 10 days, and busy days keep coming when school starts on August 24th with all those activities. Unlike in Finland, I'm actually looking forward to school. I won't be adding any pictures here, but on facebook instead.

Best wishes for everyone reading this,

Jake