Skip to main content

Riikka joins our family

Riikka Uusamaki from Finland has come to stay with us for a few months. We are delighted to host her as part of the Rotary Youth Exchange Program and will try to ensure that Riikka has an enjoyable year in Australia. I am particularly happy to host a Finnish student as I had such a wonderful time in the south west of Finland in 2001, as a Rotary Group Study Exchange leader, and have such great memories of everything Finnish. We have also had such positive experiences from hosting students from other cultures in the past and love having such special young people as part of our family even for a little while.

We met Riikka when she came to Australia last July, and have taken her on a whale watching cruise from Nelson Bay (only one whale sighted that day) and spent time with her at various Rotary functions and meetings. Many thanks to our friend, Pam, who was Riikka's first "host mother ' for organising so many things like school, bank accounts, health card etc for Riikka in her first few months here. Riikka moved to us last Monday, and on the first night, we went to the Rotary Club of Myall Coast (Tea Gardens) for their annual debate - Rotarians vs Tea Gardens Primary School. On Thursday, Riikka joined other exchange students on the Warren Wander - four days of sightseeing and experiencing rural life in the western NSW.

It's a busy life for exchange students!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Christmas Countdown #25envelopes/9 : Holly

  9 December Christmas Countdown #25envelopes : Holly . The Druids of ancient Britain believed holly leaves had great powers of fertility and longevity . Nowadays, Holly has become a symbol of a Christian Christmas. It is also said that the sharp holly represents the crown of thorns that Jesus wore, and the red berries the blood he shed, so it has quite a religious significance. Today’s envelope is a simple collage with paper and fabric. I couched (stitched) Holly ribbon and embroidered French knots for the berries. The Holly theme is inspired by one of my favourite Australian Christmas stamps, depicting an angel with holly leaf wings . Today, I was stitching the holly ribbon onto the envelope at the Wednesday group and had planned to glue on some paper berries but a friend convinced me that embroidered ones would look much better and I think she is right!

#SeptTextileLove26 … Introduction.

  A last minute decision to join #septtextilelove26 … so here I am #stl26day1 … Wilma from Newcastle, NSW , Australia , stitching in my garden - my favourite way to spend the day.  I love working with textiles and found objects and as I get older, I enjoy and appreciate the gentle calm of stitching even more . #septtextilelove #empresswu seam collective #SeptTextileLove — 2026 edition! What began back in September 2017 has grown into something truly special — a welcoming textile community that comes together every single year! What makes #SeptTextileLove truly stand out? It’s the connection! Every day, we at seam go through all your wonderful posts and choose three to highlight and celebrate. It’s the conversation between participants, t— and it all comes together in our final prompt on Day 30: “Your favourite post from another participant” — a beautiful way to lift each other up and wrap up the month together. All of September: one textile prompt a day. Respond to as many o...

Christmas Firsts #18 : Where in the World?

Where in the world will FIRST  experience Christmas Day? Because of the time zones and daylight saving , the first places will be   Samoa,    Tonga  and Kiritimati (Christmas Island) . They   are the first places to welcome Christmas. New Zealand and Australia see in Christmas Day soon after,  while American Samoa and Baker Island in the United States of America are among the last. These statistics are more often quoted in relation to New Year's Eve, but I think it seems appropriate that Christmas Island is one of the first to celebrate Christmas in the world.  Kiritimati,    or Christmas Island, is a Pacific Ocean raised coral atoll in the northern Line Islands. It is part of the Republic of Kiribati. The name "Kiritimati" is a respelling of the English word "Christmas" in the  Kiribati language   The island has the greatest land area of any  coral atoll  in the w...