Hockey Mania

We're still having horrible rainy weather. It's like Humboldt County, but colder, and in Finnish. I've had a little bit of a cold all week, but my professors have been sick too, so luckily some of my classes have been canceled. This gave me some extra time to go to the city center where I finally bought some stamps. Now I need to finish writing letters, and a couple of you still need to send me your addresses --Mary, Karol, Hannah!!! Yesterday evening I also went to a hockey match, which was amazing. We took a bus from the student village to the kauppatori, and then we caught another bus to the local stadium. It wasn't very expensive since the school got all of us exchange students half-price tickets (4 euros) - not bad for a professional hockey game. Turku's team, TPS, has been quite good in the past, but I guess they're having a bad season. The team they played last night was even worse though, so Turku won!

Still, the whole event was a little strange because it reminded me a lot of the US. There were distinctly Finnish things too. The cheerleaders (for ice hockey?) and constant advertisements were very American, but the constant metal music and enthusiasm for ice hockey were very Finnish.

I had my second Finnish language class today, but it's kind of slow so far. Right now we're just learning how to say "hello" and "thank you," which most of us already know since we've been here for two weeks. We also learned how to ask "how are you doing?," which I wouldn't really try on a Finn. In my experience, at Finnish shops you say "hei" or "moi" to the cashier, they ring up your items, tell you the price, you say "kiitos," and then you leave. No one has ever asked me how I'm doing. Finland is not big on small talk. And I love it.