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