Christmas!

Yes it's finally Christmas time! I really have to admit I like Christmas because of the feeling that it gives me. I see all the beautiful lights, the decorations, usually the snow (not this year though haha) and I just feel really happy. You get to buy presents for the people you love and care about and you get to wrap them up which is the best part of my day because I love wrapping! I don't know why I feel like that but it's just me.

Anyway my Christmas was a bit different this year. We didn't have any decorations or a tree home and we went to my host mom's son's house to celebrate Christmas. Here in England they have a tradition to spend Xmas on the 25th unlike in Finland we spend it on the 24th. In Finland we also get the presents in the evening and we dont have to wake up early in the morning to see what the Santa has brought. But now I'll tell you a bit more about my Christmas in England.

7.00am - I woke up. We were suppose to leave a bit before 8am and I had to get ready and I'm usually the one who everyone's waiting for. We didn't eat breakfast home so a bit after 8am we left home and we went by car because we still had some presents to take with us.

About 8.40am - We had arrived to the house and all the presents were next to the tree. The children were really impatient with the presents so we opened them before we had breakfast. It wa so nice to see everyone's faces especially when they opened the presents that I bought them and they liked the presents.

About 9.30am - We had breakfast. The family that I'm staying with are Jamaican so they made some kind of Jamaican porridge and then there was white Jamaican bread with it. I'm not usually the kind of person who is pretty picky about food but I can say that during this half a year I've tasted so many new foods I'm impressed haha. After the breakfast we just watched tv and talked with each other while the kids were playing with their toys.

12.30am - We had a family dinner so everyone was around a big table and the table was full of Jamaican foods and a lot of chicken which I love haha. We took our time eating the food and when everyone was finished we cleared the table. After a while we also ate dessert which made my day haha. Cheesecake, mice pies, ice cream waffles.. What could be better!

The rest of the day - After dessert we just continued watching tv and just chilling in the house. I left around 3pm because I was suppose to be with my friends but they cancelled so I spent the rest of the day home haha. I didn't really mind after all I'm more of a home person than going out person.

I had a nice Christmas even though it was totally different to what I am used to and I loved to experience that but I have to admit that I did miss Finnish Christmas, my family and all the things that we use to do during Christmas. All the Finnish food, sauna and the fact that we don't have to wake up early to open up the presents haha. I do also miss white Christmas which has pretty much been a part of my every Christmas but I'm not complaining because this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm really glad that I got to spend it with these amazing people. Merry Christmas everyone!

-Hanna xx

Nottingham

Heyyaa! Long time no see. Again.. Oh well anyway I'm here to tell you about the county match trip to Nottingham 13.-14.12. which was my first 1st team match in England. So let's get started.

For me county matches are a new thing. In Finland we don't really have those kind of things but I think it's a great thing! You get to pay more matches, get more experience and you get to travel around your country with you club which includes amazing people. Even if you wouldn't play your best you still have the whole team supporting you at the back of the court. So basically county matches are kind of like club matches so we play against other counties and we get points from every match that we play. I have usually played for the second team but first team asked me to play for them this time and I'm glad I did.

The trip started on Saturday morning when my friend Til and her mom came and picked me up from home. It takes about an hour to get to Nottingham so it wasn't that bad. To be honest I was really nervous because that was my first time playing with the first team and I didn't want to disappoint them. I also knew that there would be good players playing against us and me so that didn't help me haha. We drove straight to the hall and we were one of the first one's to come in. The hall looked pretty normal, 8 courts 4 on the other side of the curtain and 4 on the other side. Usuaaly here in England they don't have any mats like we do in most halls in Finland and the same was with this hall.

We played against 2 different counties on Saturday and against one on Sunday. Even though we could've gone home for the night we had a hotel booked in Nottingham and I really didn't mind because I love to travel and stay at hotels haha. So for me the matches didn't go that well. I mean there were times when I played really well and I was winning and everything seemed going well but the it just cracked and no idea what happened but the game wasn't the same anymore. That's pretty much my biggest reason why I lose matches. So I really need to work on that. I lost 2 singles both in three sets.. It was so close so it kind of annoyed me but luckily we won most of ur matches so everything was good.

On Saturday evening after our matches we went to hotel, showered, dressed up and went to have a nice team dinner. After the dinner most of us were so tired so we went back to hotel and almost straight to bed.

On Sunday we had our match and again the same. I had my moments and then it just changed completely. I lost my single in 3 sets again.. Well at least I did play 3 matches to 3 sets so I wasn't as bad as I could've been. After our matches we showered and watched the rest of the matches and said goodbye. I got a lift from Til and her mom again so I was home in an hour. I really liked the trip even though my matches didnt go that well. At least I hav something to improve.

-Hanna xx

London

On Sunday 23.11. I woke up at 7.30am and started to get ready to leave to city centre and from there 3h journey by bus to London. That was about to be my first time in London ever so I was really excited and even though it was suppose to rain all day I didn't mind. The bus picked us up at 9.25am and then started the journey. We stopped in Coventry too to take some more passengers in and then we went straight to London. It was more like 3,5-4h because of the traffic in London but anyway it wasn't that bad.

After we'd arrived to the Victoria Coach Station we had to go and charge Troy's phone because I didn't have a phone so we needed to use Troy's phone all the time. While waiting for it to charge we went to Subway to have something to eat and then just walked around for a bit. After the phone was charged enough we took a taxi and headed to the Finnish Church which is in London. We had the best taxi driver ever! He was really funny, he chatted with us during the whole way and he even gave us a bit discount. Apparently not every taxi driver is like that in London but we were lucky to have him. He also told us a bit about the sights that we passed.

We finally got to the Finnish church and it just really felt like Christmas for me! So yea there was a Finnish market thing at the church and the had all kinds of Finnish foods and some handmade things like jewerly etc. It was really expensive there though... One 200g chocolate bar was like £6 and in Finland it would about maybe £2-£3 so I didn't really buy much from there. I think it was still nice to go there because it really felt like Christmas and it was nice to taste some Finnish foods again.

After that we had to buy bus tickets but because they don't sell single tickets you have to buy a daily one which means it's a bit more expensive. It was about £8-£9 but if you go to London it's better to buy a daily bus ticket than to travel by taxi unless you are really rich. In London busses can pretty much take you anywhere in the central London so I really recommend that you buy the daily bus ticket.

So after that we took a bus back to Victoria Coach Station and because we were a bit tired we relaxed a bit at the station before we did anything else. After we had rested for a bit we decided to go to see the London Eye. And again one bus took us straight there and the view was really nice! They had Christmas lights everywhere and it kind of felt magical too haha. We decided that we wanted to go to London Eye and even though it was expensive (£20 per one person) it was really beautiful when you saw the whole London from up there but there was one minus side.. I'm scared of hights so I couldn't really move to the edge like everyone else did but at least I did face my fears haha.

After that we decided that we would go back to the Station because it was quite late and dark and we were tired. We had to wait for our bus for an hour and the bus left at 10.00pm from London. The journey back wasn't that long. It was about 2h 45min and everyone was really tired so you didn't really hear much speaking. We didn't really do much in London but it was nice anyway. Yes, I'll go there again just for shopping because I just have to and I'm here for a year.

We finally arrived to Birmingham and because it was 15 to 1am which is really late in this case so no one was in town. It was really nice contrast  because I'm used to seeing the town packed with people and it's pretty loud in there but now it was really quiet. I kind of liked it tbh. We tried to look if there were any busses that would go at that time but there weren't any so we had to take a taxi.

Finally I made it to my house and I was really tired and I had college the next day so I pretty much fell asleep straight away. I had a really fun day and it was definitely something different if you compare to my days over here in Birmingham. In my opinion London isn't like really amazing but I don't think it was bad either.

-Hanna xx