Winter!

It's snowing!!! And though it was wet and dark yesterday, it's now light and snowy today! I'm not really sure how the recent turn of events came about but I guess after we went out walking last night, it began to snow... and it didn't stop so much.

Let me shoot for a quick update...

Last week I spent 2 days in Helsinki and hung out with Anne [from Germany]. She made me dinner at her place, we ate there and then went to go see the Social Network. I really liked the movie and later was trying to figure out why I liked it so much and basically, I think it was just really well made...also, it was informative.

It's been slow at work so I haven't had too many hours... by which I mean, none. I did, however, get called in for 3 hours last week so that was better than no work at all! I taught a little English in the meantime before Sam arrived in Tampere on Thursday!

**Sam is from Canada. We met in first year residence and have kept in touch since. Last year he moved to Stockholm and we've been trying to visit when the occasion arose.

Thursday night was the opening night of Jazz Happening so we went to check that out. Two bands were playing, one of which was a little boring but the second of which was... ... well, I was a little speechless. It was basically jazz but with influences of hip hop... or ... let's call it a jazzy-urban sound! We then hung out at Passion before heading home for the night.

Friday morning was a little slow but we managed to make it out in the early afternoon. We met up with Juha and Maria at the rock museum [I have been waiting months to go- seriously] and then checked it out! Everything was really pretty and all for only 1e! Seriously.. you should go. I knew Sam wouldn't mind going because he'd studied geology for his undergrad. We proceeded to have dinner at WokWok and then head to our place for some card games! We eventually made it to Ruma that night to meet up with the girls and show Same some Tampere night-life.

Saturday morning was a little slow again. [haha] We headed to the duck park, after consuming the amazingness that is the Irina/Juha-club-sandwich! We had some extra break so we thought we'd feed the ducks. There must've been at least 70 ducks there and we got them to follow us a quarter of the way around the lake. It was actually a lot of fun :)
I then took Sam to Tuomiokirkko and showed him some surrounding neighbourhoods that I really like. We ended up walking past Vapriikki - The Tampere Art Museum - and scoping out the exhibits there. We went to the Finnish Hockey exhibit and there was a spot to try to score against a fake goalie. I got it straight between his legs - it was a beautiful shot... though sadly, not reproducible at will.

The day took a random turn of events after we decided to go to another event of the Jazz happening that night. We went for dinner at Shanghai restaurant and later agreed to meet Ninnu and Pauliina at Europa Cafe. Between those two social events, we ran over to Pakkahuone to check if there were any jazz tickets left but the place had sold out... sadly, we headed back to town empty-handed. We met up with the girls and hung out at Europa Cafe for a while, conversing and trying to make plans for the evening, before deciding to chill in Lempäälä at Ninnu's boyfriend's place: Daniel. We picked up some food and drinks, got Juha and drove over. We spent the night eating, drinking and playing cards. In between, Sam dazzled us with an amazing piano piece and we all sat in silence by the fire.
It was a really great way to spend a Saturday. :)

We got home late and Sam left before 6am. We're hoping to get to Stockholm before Christmas and pay him a visit.

In the meantime, I'm flying out to London today to see Jevgenija for the first time since June 2009! So yeah, I'm really excited :D! I spent all of yesterday writing an 8 page assignment which is due today and then I'm free for the week.

Can't wait to have more to tell you!
And I need to capture this snow situation on camera to share...