The end of my first year

Today I have been living in the castle for ten months. When I came here I had no idea what was waiting and how I'd be able to survive being on my own for the first time in my life. I quickly figured I was far from alone. I made friends for life, and we quickly became each others surrogate families. We've had so many amazing experiences together and it will be weird not living door to door with them any longer.
 Even if I will be returning in approximately 10 weeks it won't be the same as a majority of the people will be moving away. As of the moment I cannot be anything than grateful for all the time spent here.  A castle full of amazing people and personalities is what I got. You don't know what you're missing, having some of your best friends around you all the time is the best.
  I wouldn't say I'm the only one who will miss the castle like a home. A week ago I was freaking out as I realised I might not meet these people ever again, but we've made promises to visit each other as soon as we can. I've been playing a playlist called "vemodig", which translates to melancholy, all week long. But now I feel ready to go home and see all my friends and family again after a long time.
 Many evenings have been spent sitting in Lisas and Olivias room, talking. And now I will go there one last time before we all go home for the summer and have a recap of our favourite memories of the year.
 Thank you all for making this year a memory I will never forget!

Sjung om studentens lyckliga dar!

Last Friday the IB2 and Gym 3 students graduated. The Swedish style graduation is celebrated very different from the Finnish one. First of all the graduates ran out on the porch outside the main doors of the castle. Then they sang different Swedish graduate song and finished with running to their families and friends who stood and waited for them with posters with baby pictures on them. The families then congratulated the graduates by putting ribbon necklaces with toys or champagne around their necks.
A double decker bus had been decorated earlier on and the graduates drove away with the bus to celebrate the end of school. After the celebration the graduates had parties for their families and friends at their places. Congratulations to all of you!

Versailles

As a person who is very interested in history Versailles has always been a dream destination for me. Yesterday the boarding made a day trip to the Versailles. We took the bus from our castle here in Waterloo to the slightly larger castle in France. We walked around the castle and the park all day as there was so much to see. It's fascinating how much detail has been put into everything in the castle.

    I got to see the hall of mirrors I've heard about since I was a kid and my mom told me about her trip to Versailles when she was young. I saw the queens chambers with the lovelies tapestries on the walls, roses and flowers everywhere. I saw the huge symmetric Versailles garden and the fountain concert. 

   We did get lost in the garden once, as it is so huge and the maps don't seem to be drawn correctly, but we did get to see more of the garden than we had planned. 

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