Insomnia Finlandia

I drank a pot of coffee after I came home from uni today, and now, of course, I'm too awake to go to sleep, and all of my friends back home are online now. I don't have class on Friday, so it doesn't really matter. The past couple of weeks I've kind of fallen into a routine of general lethargy, but I'm finally starting to come out of it now that the first period is over. Semesters here are broken into two periods, and next week is reserved for final exams. All of my classes are for the entire semester, except for my Finnish language class, so I only have one exam next week, leaving the rest of the week free. Of course, I will be very busy with homework, but in my spare time I might take the bus to a neighboring city. I've heard nice things about Naantali, but I kind of want to save the really nice places for the spring time. Maybe I will go farther north, and try to find snow.

Speaking of places that are farther north, I've actually made Finnish friends (!) and one of them has invited me to go with her and her boyfriend to Lapland for Easter break. I'd given up on trying to go to Lapland, but this seems like an opportunity that is too good to give up. I've been looking at train prices and they're not too bad for students. The only downside is that the train ride is really long. The trip is about 9 and a half hours with the fastest combination of trains from Turku to Rovaniemi. Once I get to Rovaniemi I will have to take another bus for 180 miles. Of course, traveling north of the Arctic Circle is something I have to do.

And here is a random piece of knowledge I just picked up: the animal that I (and other North Americans) call a moose is known in Europe as an elk. They don't have North American elk in Europe, but they have reindeer at the supermarket (in Finland).

Well, staring at the computer screen has made my eyes tired enough to let me go to sleep. And now I can fall asleep with a clearer conscious, knowing that I have finally updated.