synttarit

that means birthday. mine was two weeks ago.

photo thanks to saara :)

 it was meant to be a toga party, but by some tacit agreement, or maybe just finnish shyness, everyone's sheets stayed in their bags.
the party gathered in the kitchen, a lighter flashed and then they were all singing "paljon onnea vaan, paljon onnea vaan, paljon onneeeaaaa Sonja-Clare-ja-Kirsikka, paljon onnea vaan!" a toast to our collective 54 years of life. the three of us blew out the candles in a single breath. everyone laughed and danced til late.



on the day of my birthday, sonja and i ate cake with raspberries and cream and talked about being grown-ups. my host family's relatives and i also ate cake. they presented me with far too many chocolate eggs for my own good. then kaitlyn came over. surprise - we ate cake.

in the eyes of Finnish law, I'm now an adult. I'm still perpetually late and apparently don't know how to vaccuum (my host parents' lectures on technique have done nothing for me), so I think maturity will be a while yet. thank god for that.