Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Tidbits from my visit to Düsseldorf this past weekend.
I tried to keep the pictures in order this time. The daytime photos were taken Saturday and the night time photos...Saturday night/Sunday in the wee hours of the morning. The big party was for our family friends who celebrated their 50th birthdays and 30 year wedding anniversary this weekend.
Tidbits from my parents' visit to Tampere!
There is absolutely no order here so don't worry if you think you're missing the point on some cryptic comic-book plot.
Tuesday morning...
GAH! I just worked up the courage to call this company I've been meaning to apply to for the past week. I finally called and was told that Finnish would, basically, be required for the position. The position, in case you're interested, is as a Romanian interpreter... so... yeah, I'm not sure how many dozens of other Finnish and Romanian-speaking candidates I'll be up against. But it won't hurt to apply.
And now, off to write a cover letter.
And tonight, Firefly party!
And now, off to write a cover letter.
And tonight, Firefly party!
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Saksassa.
There's always something disconcerting about flying with a discount airline. This is probably due to the fact that I grew up flying transatlantic, most often, and I'm used to the treatment offered by what I would call a "real" airline. What does this mean? Well... you check in at a regular airport, with lots of armed security guards and serious security measures. The airport is huge and you get a sense that you can connect to anywhere from that one place. You check your baggage, as per usual, at no extra fee and are allowed to carry 1 or 2 suitcases weighing 23kg each. You are obviously fed on the plane and your flight lasts over 6 hours. This is how most frequent-flyer North Americans travel. Now even though we complain about airline prices, we still yearn for a discount airline to fly us across the ocean or to the other side of the continent for $20. That would just be heavenly. But what we don't consider, are the perks we have to give up for the small price you pay.
Having recently moved (back) to Europe (again), I still haven't quite rapped my head around these short-haul flights. Especially not with an airline like Ryanair. As some of you may know, I took a little trip to Germany this weekend (I'm writing this from Dusseldorf right now) and I flew here with Ryanair...thus the disconcerting remarks.
I get to the tiny Tampere airport to check in and see a long like before me. There are no electronic signs flashing which line you should be standing in because it's very obvious: there is only one plane leaving the terminal and everyone in the airport will be on that plane. Check in is very unofficial. Instead of showing your passport so they can find you in the system, you show them a piece of paper you have to have printed ahead of time, otherwise you face a 40e fine for your lack of preparation. The woman checks my paperwork and I'm free to head towards security... does she even have a computer back there? I can swear it's just a keyboard without a monitor so it sounds like she did something. How does the system even work? IS there a system or would that set the airline back a couple thousand euros too far?
I "head" towards security, which is basically a continuation of the same line. The employees there seem to be more concerned about baggage restrictions rather than checking for bombs or forbidden items. The man standing in front of me was traveling with his wive and baby, who had stepped out of line to go PURCHASE a zip-lock bag for the affordable price of 3e (I knew to bring my own.). The security woman instantly attacked him "Sir. Yes, you. You have TWO bags. You are only permitted ONE bag." He looked at her... (confused as to why she was speaking English when he spoke Finnish, although of visible minority she assumed him to be English-speaking) and answered in Finnish that he's with his family. She eventually laid off him but I was asked to step in front of him to pass through security. I went through peacefully since none of my possessions seemed to arouse any suspicions.
The waiting area is a mess... there is one place to wait, but the room morphs into two sections and the seating area is movable, since it consists of chairs instead of seats that are screwed into the ground. This doesn't seem like a big deal, and it really isn't if you think about it, but the airport just gives you a sense of ... cheap... and cheap usually comes with some sort of assumptions on quality... and a cheap plane is the last thing you want. Anyway, I fought my way to get a decent seat and ended up with a window seat, my preferred option. Thank God for Juha and his noise-canceling headphones. I had charged and re-synced my iPod for the first time in 4 months before getting on the plane and realized that it had only loaded songs by artists A and B... so every artist starting with C to Z didn't make it. Nevertheless, I enjoyed Badly Drawn Boy for the entire flight and managed to drown out the loud talking and plane engine noise.
Now there's a weird phenomenon that takes place on these discount flights... somehow, people act less civilized because they pay less for their ticket. I'm not sure what it is but the air stewardess with a thick slavic accent had to ask us to quiet down and listen to the security video two times... repeating that "It's important and for your own safety!" Poor woman, we didn't really quiet down but the tape was played anyway. Then throughout the flight, you're constantly harassed by advertisements for smokeless cigarettes and deliciously-smelling pizza (nothing is free).
So here's the disconcerting part. As we began our decent, or what I supposed was the decent since no one said I couldn't wear my noise-canceling headphones and thus, I drowned out all the announcements, the turbulence started. It was a really cloudy and rainy day and we were jolted quite a bit. It wasn't too bad but enough to make you think, even if very briefly, that you hope nothing goes wrong. At one point, a girl even screamed, although I found that to be rather unnecessary. As we neared the ground, I noticed something seemed to be coming out of the wing... it looked like a stream of something... smoke, water, cloud...? I couldn't tell but was a little afraid. Still, I thought it must be normal since it seemed strangely familiar to me. (I later realized it was water because it was raining but not directly on the plane... just that the water was coming off the wing in a steady, small stream across the sky alongside us.) I busied myself by staring out the window the whole time and drowning out my surroundings. It was surprisingly helpful to picture myself on any other flight: Lufthansa, Air Canada... etc. Anything other than Ryanair, even if that seemed a little difficult since Ryanair is proudly scrawled into the plane's wing.
Now I've been on a hell of a lot of planes in my life, and I'm no pilot. I don't think I'd have the nerve to ever get in the pilot's seat for a lesson, or even do it professionally but I do have a keen sense of when the plane should take off the run-way and approximately what a smooth landing is going to look like. Nearing the ground and descending much faster than most landings I'd experienced before, I realized we were coming down pretty hard. Instead of a smooth landing, the pilot somehow slammed us down on the strip and people gasped a little. Nothing drastic, just that the whole discount image didn't make me feel as safe as usual. A few seconds later, that moronic trumpet goes off and everyone laughs. (There's a trumpet that welcomes you to whatever city and congratulated you on being on one of the 90% of Ryanair flights that arrive on time...because they inflate exaggerate their ETA to boost their ratings. No large feat.)
Now I may be sounding pretty bitter at this point but I really don't mean to. The flight was fine, I got from point A to point B without any problems and I paid much less than I would've on another airline (mostly because I knew the ins and outs... otherwise my ticket would've been an extra 40e if not printed, plastic bags are 3e and you need one, luggage is 10-15e/kg if not purchased ahead of time...etc). Still, being North American by pure habit, I can't deny that these trips don't make me a bit uneasy. Sure, we whine about high prices but for those prices, you get your perks too. No pesky announcements and NO trumpets. (That trumpet gets on my nerves every time... and what's worse is EVERYONE laughs. That will only encourage the trumpet further.)
But point being, when you fly with one of these airlines, people seem to consider their lives, hanging in the balance, much less seriously, while security and aircraft quality remain much the same. From a rough landing to laughing at a silly trumpet, it's purely a matter of perception and what each of us are used to. Still, I look forward to my transatlantic flight in late May with included meals, minimal announcements and my very own TV screen.
Having recently moved (back) to Europe (again), I still haven't quite rapped my head around these short-haul flights. Especially not with an airline like Ryanair. As some of you may know, I took a little trip to Germany this weekend (I'm writing this from Dusseldorf right now) and I flew here with Ryanair...thus the disconcerting remarks.
I get to the tiny Tampere airport to check in and see a long like before me. There are no electronic signs flashing which line you should be standing in because it's very obvious: there is only one plane leaving the terminal and everyone in the airport will be on that plane. Check in is very unofficial. Instead of showing your passport so they can find you in the system, you show them a piece of paper you have to have printed ahead of time, otherwise you face a 40e fine for your lack of preparation. The woman checks my paperwork and I'm free to head towards security... does she even have a computer back there? I can swear it's just a keyboard without a monitor so it sounds like she did something. How does the system even work? IS there a system or would that set the airline back a couple thousand euros too far?
I "head" towards security, which is basically a continuation of the same line. The employees there seem to be more concerned about baggage restrictions rather than checking for bombs or forbidden items. The man standing in front of me was traveling with his wive and baby, who had stepped out of line to go PURCHASE a zip-lock bag for the affordable price of 3e (I knew to bring my own.). The security woman instantly attacked him "Sir. Yes, you. You have TWO bags. You are only permitted ONE bag." He looked at her... (confused as to why she was speaking English when he spoke Finnish, although of visible minority she assumed him to be English-speaking) and answered in Finnish that he's with his family. She eventually laid off him but I was asked to step in front of him to pass through security. I went through peacefully since none of my possessions seemed to arouse any suspicions.
The waiting area is a mess... there is one place to wait, but the room morphs into two sections and the seating area is movable, since it consists of chairs instead of seats that are screwed into the ground. This doesn't seem like a big deal, and it really isn't if you think about it, but the airport just gives you a sense of ... cheap... and cheap usually comes with some sort of assumptions on quality... and a cheap plane is the last thing you want. Anyway, I fought my way to get a decent seat and ended up with a window seat, my preferred option. Thank God for Juha and his noise-canceling headphones. I had charged and re-synced my iPod for the first time in 4 months before getting on the plane and realized that it had only loaded songs by artists A and B... so every artist starting with C to Z didn't make it. Nevertheless, I enjoyed Badly Drawn Boy for the entire flight and managed to drown out the loud talking and plane engine noise.
Now there's a weird phenomenon that takes place on these discount flights... somehow, people act less civilized because they pay less for their ticket. I'm not sure what it is but the air stewardess with a thick slavic accent had to ask us to quiet down and listen to the security video two times... repeating that "It's important and for your own safety!" Poor woman, we didn't really quiet down but the tape was played anyway. Then throughout the flight, you're constantly harassed by advertisements for smokeless cigarettes and deliciously-smelling pizza (nothing is free).
So here's the disconcerting part. As we began our decent, or what I supposed was the decent since no one said I couldn't wear my noise-canceling headphones and thus, I drowned out all the announcements, the turbulence started. It was a really cloudy and rainy day and we were jolted quite a bit. It wasn't too bad but enough to make you think, even if very briefly, that you hope nothing goes wrong. At one point, a girl even screamed, although I found that to be rather unnecessary. As we neared the ground, I noticed something seemed to be coming out of the wing... it looked like a stream of something... smoke, water, cloud...? I couldn't tell but was a little afraid. Still, I thought it must be normal since it seemed strangely familiar to me. (I later realized it was water because it was raining but not directly on the plane... just that the water was coming off the wing in a steady, small stream across the sky alongside us.) I busied myself by staring out the window the whole time and drowning out my surroundings. It was surprisingly helpful to picture myself on any other flight: Lufthansa, Air Canada... etc. Anything other than Ryanair, even if that seemed a little difficult since Ryanair is proudly scrawled into the plane's wing.
Now I've been on a hell of a lot of planes in my life, and I'm no pilot. I don't think I'd have the nerve to ever get in the pilot's seat for a lesson, or even do it professionally but I do have a keen sense of when the plane should take off the run-way and approximately what a smooth landing is going to look like. Nearing the ground and descending much faster than most landings I'd experienced before, I realized we were coming down pretty hard. Instead of a smooth landing, the pilot somehow slammed us down on the strip and people gasped a little. Nothing drastic, just that the whole discount image didn't make me feel as safe as usual. A few seconds later, that moronic trumpet goes off and everyone laughs. (There's a trumpet that welcomes you to whatever city and congratulated you on being on one of the 90% of Ryanair flights that arrive on time...because they inflate exaggerate their ETA to boost their ratings. No large feat.)
Now I may be sounding pretty bitter at this point but I really don't mean to. The flight was fine, I got from point A to point B without any problems and I paid much less than I would've on another airline (mostly because I knew the ins and outs... otherwise my ticket would've been an extra 40e if not printed, plastic bags are 3e and you need one, luggage is 10-15e/kg if not purchased ahead of time...etc). Still, being North American by pure habit, I can't deny that these trips don't make me a bit uneasy. Sure, we whine about high prices but for those prices, you get your perks too. No pesky announcements and NO trumpets. (That trumpet gets on my nerves every time... and what's worse is EVERYONE laughs. That will only encourage the trumpet further.)
But point being, when you fly with one of these airlines, people seem to consider their lives, hanging in the balance, much less seriously, while security and aircraft quality remain much the same. From a rough landing to laughing at a silly trumpet, it's purely a matter of perception and what each of us are used to. Still, I look forward to my transatlantic flight in late May with included meals, minimal announcements and my very own TV screen.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Best.Week.Ever.
ZOMG. Best. Week. Ever.
So after my parents left, I decided to live my life in the now... and suddenly was overwhelmed with things to do! So many things, in fact, that I can't even remember what I did on Tuesday.
Monday. Felt sick. Went pre-antibiotic treatment shopping. Felt better! Met Juha for lunch. Met Antti at uni to discuss summer course. Ran home to prepare Spanish Paella (magnificent)! Ate. Went to bed.
Tuesday. I can't really remember... Woke up around 11am. Very unlike me. Went to Allermiina. Cleaned up a bit. Did some Finnish studying. Went to Sale, or Ruohonjuuri? I forget. Hung out with Juha at home. Made the bean thing everyone loves... I can't remember the rest of the day so well....
Wednesday. Woke up early-ish. Watched some quality TV and read. Went to Sale. Made homemade salsa! Was supposed to meet Juha at the uni at 2pm but he had to leave early because they ran out of Subs after doing a promotional thing with Subway. Went to the post office. Went to Akateeminen Kirjakauppa to read children's books (to kill time) then ran over to Stockman to buy A banana and AN avocado. Then went to Juha's dad's before walking over to Gopal! I love that place. Then went home and went for a run/walk. After 11 months of not running and 3 months of eating no carbs, it's a little hard for me to run but I basically ran half-way with 2 walking breaks then took a detour home with lots of stairs to run up and down... but walking in between. It was really fun and relaxing actually. Lots of thinking time. When I got home, I started making MEXI burgers and when Juha got home, he made Guacamole... the resulting meal with warm homemade salsa, fresh guacamole and right-out-of-the-over mexiburgers was DIVINE!
Sadly, we had to eat quick! We ran over to O'Connell's to see Barca play Inter on home turf. Exactly one year ago, Barca beat Chelsea. This year, we weren't so lucky and went home disappointed. Now Inter will face Bayern in the final and Barcelona will miss the momentous occasion to play the final in Madrid.
Thursday. Woke up early again! Ate breakfast and started doing WORK. Juha's work is looking for new drivers and they got about 90 applications. Since he saw me applying to places and not getting replies all year, he decided he wants to contact everyone to thank them for their application. So he wrote up a blurb and I went through those 85 applications that didn't make the cut (unemployment is high right now... the lucky 5 got interviews but there's only one spot) and thanked them graciously. It was really nice to feel productive again! I had to meet the WokWok crew at 1pm but I had so much food at home and wanted to finish my task before going that I ended up being an hour late. But fed, nonetheless. I then went over to Anne's after for TEA. It looks like she wants to get rid of a couch because she's going on exchange but wait for it... it's a pull-out couch! So I basically just found my Helsinki bed! It should be compact enough to fit into a tiny, cheap-as-possible room!
Friday. I have no plans for the day other than clean and pack but in the evening I'm headed off to Germany to visit my parents and family friends in light of their 30 year anniversary and 50 year birthday party! It's a huge milestone!!
I think I have that covered for now.
So after my parents left, I decided to live my life in the now... and suddenly was overwhelmed with things to do! So many things, in fact, that I can't even remember what I did on Tuesday.
Monday. Felt sick. Went pre-antibiotic treatment shopping. Felt better! Met Juha for lunch. Met Antti at uni to discuss summer course. Ran home to prepare Spanish Paella (magnificent)! Ate. Went to bed.
Tuesday. I can't really remember... Woke up around 11am. Very unlike me. Went to Allermiina. Cleaned up a bit. Did some Finnish studying. Went to Sale, or Ruohonjuuri? I forget. Hung out with Juha at home. Made the bean thing everyone loves... I can't remember the rest of the day so well....
Wednesday. Woke up early-ish. Watched some quality TV and read. Went to Sale. Made homemade salsa! Was supposed to meet Juha at the uni at 2pm but he had to leave early because they ran out of Subs after doing a promotional thing with Subway. Went to the post office. Went to Akateeminen Kirjakauppa to read children's books (to kill time) then ran over to Stockman to buy A banana and AN avocado. Then went to Juha's dad's before walking over to Gopal! I love that place. Then went home and went for a run/walk. After 11 months of not running and 3 months of eating no carbs, it's a little hard for me to run but I basically ran half-way with 2 walking breaks then took a detour home with lots of stairs to run up and down... but walking in between. It was really fun and relaxing actually. Lots of thinking time. When I got home, I started making MEXI burgers and when Juha got home, he made Guacamole... the resulting meal with warm homemade salsa, fresh guacamole and right-out-of-the-over mexiburgers was DIVINE!
Sadly, we had to eat quick! We ran over to O'Connell's to see Barca play Inter on home turf. Exactly one year ago, Barca beat Chelsea. This year, we weren't so lucky and went home disappointed. Now Inter will face Bayern in the final and Barcelona will miss the momentous occasion to play the final in Madrid.Thursday. Woke up early again! Ate breakfast and started doing WORK. Juha's work is looking for new drivers and they got about 90 applications. Since he saw me applying to places and not getting replies all year, he decided he wants to contact everyone to thank them for their application. So he wrote up a blurb and I went through those 85 applications that didn't make the cut (unemployment is high right now... the lucky 5 got interviews but there's only one spot) and thanked them graciously. It was really nice to feel productive again! I had to meet the WokWok crew at 1pm but I had so much food at home and wanted to finish my task before going that I ended up being an hour late. But fed, nonetheless. I then went over to Anne's after for TEA. It looks like she wants to get rid of a couch because she's going on exchange but wait for it... it's a pull-out couch! So I basically just found my Helsinki bed! It should be compact enough to fit into a tiny, cheap-as-possible room!
Friday. I have no plans for the day other than clean and pack but in the evening I'm headed off to Germany to visit my parents and family friends in light of their 30 year anniversary and 50 year birthday party! It's a huge milestone!!
I think I have that covered for now.
Jyväskylä!
I can't remember if I mentioned that we went to Jyväskylä when Andy and Steffy were here and I'm too lazy to check BUT what I'm not too lazy to do is upload this picture that sums up our trip.
<3.
P.S. This was in a fake sauna at a Toilet bar...
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Wonderful weekend and week!
Last weekend my parents came to visit!
I didn't get too excited about it the week before because airlines were still canceling flights and I think no one wanted to be disappointed. But when Friday rolled around the the flight was still scheduled, I let myself get excited. Sadly, they were only here for Saturday afternoon, Sunday and Monday morning BUT I am really happy they got to see Tampere and meet some of the people I spend my time with.
On Saturday we went for a drive throughout the city, ate at a Nepalese restaurant (which was delicious btw) and hung around our place for awhile. My parents were pretty tired after their transatlantic flight so they turned in around 10pm. The fact that there was light up until past 9pm and then some helped them stay awake a little while longer.
Sunday morning we had breakfast at our place. Nina came over for tea shortly after my parents arrived and sat around and chatted for a bit! My mom really wanted to see some stored in Tampere so we took her to Stockman on the way to Paivi's. Paivi prepared a delicious elk with potatoes, carrot salad, some amazing soup, mushroom sauce, lingonberry and "bread cheese" (leipäjuusto) dessert... among other yummy things. We then went out for a walk through the neighbourhood, near the lake, toward the former horse stables and even a random art exhibit that was taking place nearby. Once we got back, we had a peppermint chocolate cake (made by Anna!), which I allowed myself 3 bites of. I would've eaten the whole thing had I been able to haha. We also played a round of "Promise," a card game I learned while Andy and Steffy were here. I wish I could play that card game every day but you need at least 4 people to play. Still, my parents knew a similar game that could be played with only 2 people.. so I'll have to make sure I understand the rules. Maybe we should start playing cards for often... maybe with the WokWok crew haha.
After leaving Paivi's that evening, we went for a walk near the city center and 'place where the boats hang out' (where the fish market is... what is that called?). Then we drove around a pretty neighbourhood before heading to WokWok to meet up with Donna. Donna had just run at 10k, mostly uphill in 65 minutes and she still managed to meet us. As far as I'm concerned, that's pretty stunning. I walked uphill yesterday and it was hard. :)
Monday morning my parents came over for breakfast again before taking off to Helsinki for their flight. It was hard to say good bye but I'm really happy I'm headed off to Germany this weekend to see them again. Still, I felt a bit of regret because, although they got to meet a handful of people, we only spent a few hours together and I would've liked everyone to get to know one another better. I guess we'll just have to wait for the next visit.
After their departure on Monday, I felt a little under the weather but I had a fair bit of running around to do. I met Juha for lunch at 2pm, after which I went to pick up some necessary provisions before starting another antibiotic treatment next week. I had some huge bottles to carry so thank God for my new (bike) BASKET! My parents bought it for me on Saturday and I've been carrying groceries and the like in it ever since. I ran home with all that stuff (on my bike haha), sat down for 2 minutes, then ran back to uni (on my bike) to meet up with Antti. Antti is going to teach my Finnish class this summer and I had to show him everything we'd studied up to date. I left him all my notes and the textbook we used. We ended up chatting for about an hour and a half before heading home so it was really nice. I'm really looking forward to getting back in the classroom again and learning Finnish on a weekly basis. The original plan, pending approval from the majority of the class' participants, is to have 3 classes a week: 2 lesson-oriented classes and one discussion class. This way, we get to learn AND practice what we learn. I've emailed everyone and I'm still waiting for feedback. Also, we need a place to do this and that's a little bit harder to organize. The uni has some study rooms but they don't have blackboards so that might limit us a bit. I'm sure we'll figure this out though. And we still have a bit of time before we're due to start.
I got a new book from Canada that my mom brought me called "Complete Candida Yeast Guidebook" by Jeanne Marie Martin and Zoltan P. Rona, M.D. Now this book is absolutely amazing... and I would recommend it to anyone. Admittedly though, it also scares the shit out of me. I started reading it Saturday night and I'm sooo happy that I've already been on the diet for 3 months. There are so many little details you have to be aware of that if I hadn't been living without them for 3 months and still doing fine, I'd be too scared to eat anything for fear of dropping dead. Evidently, that's not a real issue, but I'm slowly incorporating some of the stuff into my life and diet. While other things will either be looked at later, or not at all. For example, I'm not going to replace all my cutting boards and cooking tools immediately because I spend wayyy too much money on food as it is. I bought Arrowroot Powder yesterday. Do you know what that is? I don't either but I need it to make special pancake breakfasts and I can even make flatbreads with it. Anyway, it was 16e... and it's a pretty big bottle so I'm hoping to make it last.
The book is really great though because it has recipes. Tons and tons of recipes! I've made a salad and a dressing so far (I just started!) and an AMAZING Spanish Paella with the ingredients provided. It wasn't hard at all... yet it was sooo tasty. But sadly, I didn't take any pictures.
Tonight I'm planning on making Mexi-Burgers with Homemade Salsa and Guacamole. Speaking of which, I have to stock up on some ingredients so I'm going to go grocery shopping right now.
I think I got everything covered. I'm planning another entry for very soon though!
I didn't get too excited about it the week before because airlines were still canceling flights and I think no one wanted to be disappointed. But when Friday rolled around the the flight was still scheduled, I let myself get excited. Sadly, they were only here for Saturday afternoon, Sunday and Monday morning BUT I am really happy they got to see Tampere and meet some of the people I spend my time with.
On Saturday we went for a drive throughout the city, ate at a Nepalese restaurant (which was delicious btw) and hung around our place for awhile. My parents were pretty tired after their transatlantic flight so they turned in around 10pm. The fact that there was light up until past 9pm and then some helped them stay awake a little while longer.
Sunday morning we had breakfast at our place. Nina came over for tea shortly after my parents arrived and sat around and chatted for a bit! My mom really wanted to see some stored in Tampere so we took her to Stockman on the way to Paivi's. Paivi prepared a delicious elk with potatoes, carrot salad, some amazing soup, mushroom sauce, lingonberry and "bread cheese" (leipäjuusto) dessert... among other yummy things. We then went out for a walk through the neighbourhood, near the lake, toward the former horse stables and even a random art exhibit that was taking place nearby. Once we got back, we had a peppermint chocolate cake (made by Anna!), which I allowed myself 3 bites of. I would've eaten the whole thing had I been able to haha. We also played a round of "Promise," a card game I learned while Andy and Steffy were here. I wish I could play that card game every day but you need at least 4 people to play. Still, my parents knew a similar game that could be played with only 2 people.. so I'll have to make sure I understand the rules. Maybe we should start playing cards for often... maybe with the WokWok crew haha.
After leaving Paivi's that evening, we went for a walk near the city center and 'place where the boats hang out' (where the fish market is... what is that called?). Then we drove around a pretty neighbourhood before heading to WokWok to meet up with Donna. Donna had just run at 10k, mostly uphill in 65 minutes and she still managed to meet us. As far as I'm concerned, that's pretty stunning. I walked uphill yesterday and it was hard. :)
Monday morning my parents came over for breakfast again before taking off to Helsinki for their flight. It was hard to say good bye but I'm really happy I'm headed off to Germany this weekend to see them again. Still, I felt a bit of regret because, although they got to meet a handful of people, we only spent a few hours together and I would've liked everyone to get to know one another better. I guess we'll just have to wait for the next visit.
After their departure on Monday, I felt a little under the weather but I had a fair bit of running around to do. I met Juha for lunch at 2pm, after which I went to pick up some necessary provisions before starting another antibiotic treatment next week. I had some huge bottles to carry so thank God for my new (bike) BASKET! My parents bought it for me on Saturday and I've been carrying groceries and the like in it ever since. I ran home with all that stuff (on my bike haha), sat down for 2 minutes, then ran back to uni (on my bike) to meet up with Antti. Antti is going to teach my Finnish class this summer and I had to show him everything we'd studied up to date. I left him all my notes and the textbook we used. We ended up chatting for about an hour and a half before heading home so it was really nice. I'm really looking forward to getting back in the classroom again and learning Finnish on a weekly basis. The original plan, pending approval from the majority of the class' participants, is to have 3 classes a week: 2 lesson-oriented classes and one discussion class. This way, we get to learn AND practice what we learn. I've emailed everyone and I'm still waiting for feedback. Also, we need a place to do this and that's a little bit harder to organize. The uni has some study rooms but they don't have blackboards so that might limit us a bit. I'm sure we'll figure this out though. And we still have a bit of time before we're due to start.
I got a new book from Canada that my mom brought me called "Complete Candida Yeast Guidebook" by Jeanne Marie Martin and Zoltan P. Rona, M.D. Now this book is absolutely amazing... and I would recommend it to anyone. Admittedly though, it also scares the shit out of me. I started reading it Saturday night and I'm sooo happy that I've already been on the diet for 3 months. There are so many little details you have to be aware of that if I hadn't been living without them for 3 months and still doing fine, I'd be too scared to eat anything for fear of dropping dead. Evidently, that's not a real issue, but I'm slowly incorporating some of the stuff into my life and diet. While other things will either be looked at later, or not at all. For example, I'm not going to replace all my cutting boards and cooking tools immediately because I spend wayyy too much money on food as it is. I bought Arrowroot Powder yesterday. Do you know what that is? I don't either but I need it to make special pancake breakfasts and I can even make flatbreads with it. Anyway, it was 16e... and it's a pretty big bottle so I'm hoping to make it last.
The book is really great though because it has recipes. Tons and tons of recipes! I've made a salad and a dressing so far (I just started!) and an AMAZING Spanish Paella with the ingredients provided. It wasn't hard at all... yet it was sooo tasty. But sadly, I didn't take any pictures.
Tonight I'm planning on making Mexi-Burgers with Homemade Salsa and Guacamole. Speaking of which, I have to stock up on some ingredients so I'm going to go grocery shopping right now.
I think I got everything covered. I'm planning another entry for very soon though!
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