100th post!

This is my 100th post and though I started this blog a few days before moving to Finland, I consider it a milestone to mark my time here. Also, I'm not really sure how I managed to keep on babbling for 8 months about my time here but somehow I always had something to say, even if there were not dry spells.

I decided to blog today because I feel like I've been sitting around and waiting for almost an entire day now. We're doing a group project for one of my courses and my friend and I have paired up with two first year girls. The girls were supposed to do questions a) and c) of the assignment and we were supposed to take care of b). But we need part a) to start b) and we're still waiting for it (the deadline is tomorrow at 10am.) Well if it's any proof of how I'm trying to relax about life and school, this has to be a step in the right direction. Because no matter what, I'm pretty sure we're not gonna fail... so there's no real reason to panic. I sort of did the same thing with an assignment which was due on Tuesday... I don't think I did a great job, but I finished it on time and handed it in. I really have to fight against my instinct to do everything 100%. When it really matters, that's where all my effort will be... and this way, I don't spread myself thin... but I do have to spread myself over something! So I'm thinking of writing, photographing or doing layouts for the school paper. I just haven't decided yet. I also need a sport to stay active... I'm just not sure where gymnasts get their fix in Helsinki... I'm gonna look into that right now.

What do we do in Tampere on a Sunday night?

Yesterday was another lazy day. I hung out at home, baked coconut flour raspberry muffins and made Green Lentil Soup with Coconut Milk. I wasn't too excited about how the muffins turned out, although Juha was... and I guess I warmed up to them later. But the soup was hands down, delicious.

Speaking of delicious, my mom told me about this site, through Yahoo, with which you can save all your bookmarks, tag them and it organizes them for you. You can make an account or use your Yahoo account and access it from anywhere. Especially since getting into cooking, I have 1000000 recipes saved all over the place and it's getting kind of confusing. I started using it yesterday and I think it will really simply life. Of course, it's also useful for many other purposes - not just cooking. Check it out, www.delicious.com.

So anyway, getting to the point. Last night Heikki asked a bunch of people if we wanted to go tobogganing after everyone was done with work. So around 10pm 6 of us [me, Juha, Heikki, Mia, Pena and Eeva] all ventured out to a ski slope about 10km away. We brought little sleds with us and little butt things to slide on.

[That someone's random Finnish, frozen baby on a 'Pulkka.' I just thought this post needed a picture.]
I can't remember how many times we climbed the hill and went down but it was a lot of fun :D. We tried going in pairs too and at the end, the boys all went in one toboggan. It was pretty impressive! I couldn't believe they all stayed on.

After that, Eeva and I went with Pena and Juha to suck some hose... [because one of the company cars had the wrong kind of gas in it and they had to get it out...] The girls stayed in the car. But the whole sucking thing didn't work out so the car was towed this morning. Luckily, no one had to get gasoline in their mouthes. I've seen it happen and it's rather unpleasant. The taste sticks around for at least 24 hours.]

So today! I have to head to the post office and send off a bunch of things, after which, I'm free for the day. Tomorrow, we hit up the bowling alley!

So many thoughts in my head!

Who needs the gym when you can go walking around Tampere for 2 hours every day?
Okay... so every day is a gross exaggeration, especially since this is my 9th day here, but you get the idea.
So when I don't want to stay in the flat all day or I need a little inspiration for my motivation letters (I have 6 of them to do, but luckily only 1 is due in the next month.), I go for a walk, explore and think. Today I learned the word "tilaa." It means space (as in, there are free parking spots). On my walk back, I learned the word for full: täynnä. I tried to learn both in one go a few days ago and failed, so this time, I did them one at a time.
I noticed today that the sky isn't actually grey. I would call it off-white...because it almost blends in exactly with the snow. It was just a random thought.
Also, I went to buy highlighters today and noticed that the woman was really chatty with the customer before me (although it seemed like she was business chatty- informing her about sales and such.) The woman in front of me said: ei, kiitos. So I knew she turned down whatever offer it was. When I got to the front of the cash, she looked at me and I thought MAYBE I would be able to understand something but, nope! It was my usual "deer-caught-in-headlights-whenever-anyone-speaks-Finnish-to-me" look. I can't really explain why this happens, but I'm sure I'm not the first person this has ever happened to. It would be so easy to smile and say apologetically: I'm sorry, I don't speak Finnish (I can even say that IN Finnish for God's sake!). But instead I completely freeze up and have to FORCE myself to mutter a few words of English. It might be the desire to want to badly to understand that I don't want to give away that I'm foreign. Let's go with that for now because I have no idea explanations.

In other news, our DNA (internet company) man has informed us that he has ordered our modem. Although there is no word on how long it will take to arrive, Juha and I take comfort in the hope that it will arrive soon enough... especially since every day we have AT LEAST one breakdown EACH, over how shit our internet is. Cind iti e lumea mai draga... (Romanian expression meaning: "When the world is dearest to you..." implying that something unfavourable happens then aka our internet stops working.) So if you're working why I haven't called you yet, chances are I've been thinking about you WISHING I could call you. If that's any comfort to you... and at least we have Facebook. Or you have Facebook. I sometimes have Facebook!

Also, my two packages finally arrived today and I just have to pick them up from the post office! I would've gone on my walk but since I had no desire to lug 24kg in 2 packages for over 1km, I haven't gone yet. I'll go when I can get a ride.

Funny story, I went to buy nail polish remover today and figured it would be "meh... like... 1€." I get to Sokos and I can't seem to find anything under 4.90€!! I found nail polish removed that cost up to 10€ (boys, this crap is usually 1$ and you can get it anywhere in Canada). So since there was no way I was paying almost 10 bucks for it, I looked a little closer. Of course the brand that had no English translation on it was the cheapest. The actual funny part of the story (well there isn't really one but I like the word for nail polish remover): Kynsilakanpoistoaine. The only reason I recognized it was because of the Swedish translation: Nagellacksborttagningsmedel.
Although I have to say, these words only look scary because they're stuck together but they're usually only long because they're compound words. Otherwise, it's not like dog is: eläinkoirapyrstönkanssa! (That probably doesn't make much sense but you get the idea...) Dog is just koira. (Okay, enough of Google Translate for now.)

And now, lunch!

P.S. I took a ton of pictures of the area but the internet is too slow to upload them onto Blogger. They're coming soon.