The last week of school

Before the last week of my high school career started, I got to go to Mario's birthday and graduation party! It was also the last time to see Tuaha and Faysal, who now are heading back to their home countries. We had a lot of fun, exchange student parties are never boring!

We got our yearbooks! I pre-ordered one online, so I got it on the first day they were available to pick up. It includes pictures from this school year, for example everybody's school pictures, and pictures of all the clubs. We foreign exchange students even got our own pages in it!

I bought this really cheap flag thinking that people could sing it at the end of the year. So I carried it around with me and now it is pretty much full already! This was not my idea, I know a lot of exchange student who have done it. I think it's a really nice memory of this year! (I should probably iron it though...)

Yes, we had to go and see the Fault in Our Stars. It was so good!

Practising the senior song

Art class selfie!

Tuesday was the last full day of school for me! My art teacher has his little tradition where everybody can print their handprint to the wall. And there's mine :)

Tuesday was the last full day of school for me! My art teacher has his little tradition where everybody can print their handprint to the wall. And there's mine :) Someone asked me to take more pictures of school lunches, so here is my last school lunch :D

On Wednesday senior did not have regular school because of the graduation practices. I'll do an another post about the graduation, I've got a lot of nice pictures from there. But basically on the practices we just practiced, what else can I say :D Julia, Nora, and I had a little problem in the beginning because we didn't have senior homerooms, so we had to find out which homeroom should we join. We also got our gap and gowns on that day! Then on Thursday we had another practice. It was hold at Calvary Church, where the actual graduation was.

I had to make collage of these misspelled things, since them all happened in one day :D My name Pinja has switched into Pinza or Pinga many times before, but Pijna was a new one! Americans usually spell Tuomainen as Toumainen but now I got one where it was Toumaines :D My last name was also spelled wrong in the certificate of attendance in graduation ceremony, Tuomanien. Here is an advice to new exchange students: learn how to spell out your name. You will need to know how to do it many, many times. 

Mr. Cifuni, the greatest art teacher ever.

My Spanish teacher Mrs. Poletti!

Civics and government teacher Mrs. Mousetis!

I did decide to go to school after the graduation on Friday to say final goodbyes to my teachers and some friends. I can't believe my year in Warwick High School is now over! I could not have had any better school than Warwick, my year was amazing because of it. I hope we exchange students gave a good picture of exchange students, so they will keep taking new ones in the future.

Washington D.C. and Color Run

On the last day of May Sabina's host dad had arranged a trip to Washington D.C. for us. I was more than happy to go there with them, because I hadn't been there before. It's great to live in Pennsylvania, only couple hours away from the amazing cities of East coast. We drove from Lancaster to a parking lot of a university and then took a metro to the Mall.

Our first stop was the National Air and Space Museum. The museum was free to go in. I can proudly say that now I have touched a rock from the moon :D

Our group!

Eat ice cream, it nutritional.

After going around in the museum it was time for a lunch break. Varpu, Dan, and I went to downtown since we had some time left after eating. We went in to the International Spy Museum store, saw the Verizon Center where Washington Capitols hockey team plays, and just wandered around. 

Then we headed back towards the Capitol building to meet with the others and take tourist pictures. 

From the Capitol we walked down to the National Museum of Natural History, which was also free to visit. 

Since we were in Washington we had to visit the White House. From there we walked to the World War II Memorial. I have to say that the distances at the Mall are really long. We wanted to visit to the Lincoln Memorial, but after walking the entire day in really warm weather, we all ended up to be too tired to do that. Overall, it was a really good day!

On the next day my host sisters and I did the Color Run in Hershey! We were supposed to go there with the whole family, but my host parents were in Texas at Alex's graduation from the Air Force bootcamp. It's seriously the happiest 5K on the planet! During the run you run through color stations where they throw color on you. After finishing the race you'll be covered in all different colors. It was so much fun, and I would absolutely do it again if I'll ever get a chance to!

Choir Banquet

On the Tuesday night after the Memorial Day they had arranged the yearly Warblers Banquet for the Concert Choir and Orchestra. I was so looking forward to go there and spend an evening with all of the friends from the choir. It's a thing in American schools that most of the groups have some kind of banquet after their season to kind of wrap everything up. Our event was hold at the Eden Resort in Lancaster. That place was amazing! 

After the dinner they started to hand out awards to the students. Everybody was remembered and awarded somehow. Then they said the senior wills and played a video of everything that happened during this school year. The video also included seniors' baby and senior pictures.

Look how much stuff they gave me! First I was called to get a gift card to the movie theater with the seniors who were in the musical. Then I got the senior pin to the choir rope with juniors. Later I was called again as a senior to get the senior medal to wear at the graduation. Then Luisa, Mikkel, and I got a special foreign exchange student shout out from Mrs. Kline-Smith when she gave as the Moravian Manor stars. Later everybody in the Production Companies got red bags with a scarf and  hat in it. The sparkling cider was given to everybody in the Glitter Girls! 

Taking the choir to my schedule was seriously my best decision in the beginning of the school year. I can't even think about how much different my year would have been without choir! I have got so many great new friends who I will miss so much when I go back to Finland. And not forgetting all the concerts and the musical that I got a chance to be part of! What am I even going to do with my life without all the music in school everyday? Going back to my music class in Finland will probably make me miss choir even more...

Memorial Day

Last Monday we had off from school because it was the Memorial Day. It's a day when Americans celebrate and remember all the people who have served or are serving in the military. In the morning I walked downtown to see the parade. My friends from marching band and color guard were marching there, so I had a good reason to go there!

The parade ended to the cemetery next to our house. Yes, our house is just two houses away from a cemetery. It is kinda creepy. There they had a service, what included couple of prayers, songs, and speeches. 

Later on we had a family hang out. Good food was of course involved. Memorial Day weekend is usually the weekend that the pools open. My host parents had made our the pool all ready for swimming, so we got to spend the hot summer night there! 

I have a lot of new blog posts coming up, for example about Lititz, choir banquet, and Washington D.C trip. So keep up checking my blog weekly!