A Fabulous Day!

Today is absolutely amazing. It was around 55 degrees, the sun was shining, everything was perfect. It's strange how warm 55 degrees feels now. Spring has finally begun and even my class was canceled today! I got to sleep in, make coffee, and read the news online. In the afternoon, I took the bus to the music library and returned about 30 CDs that I had checked out. They probably hate me there, I go at least every other day. I then went to the bus office and paid for my April bus pass. Afterward, I crossed the street and looked around the kauppatori (market square). In the afternoon, the vendors put together big bags of surplus/slightly damaged veggies and sell them for one euro. I got a couple pounds of potatoes and several bunches of dill. Does anyone know if you can freeze dill? I know I can mix it with potatoes and rice, but I don't think it'll last more than a couple days.

While I was in the city center, I also had to go to Stockmann, which is a big Finnish department store. They don't really sell soap or shampoo in grocery stores here, or have drug store places like Longs or Rite Aid, so the department stores are the best places to go for that kind of stuff. Unlike Macy's or Nordstrom's, Finnish department stores carry regular brand name soaps like Dove and Nivea, and then high-end stuff like Channel, etc. Well, I didn't know this beforehand, but Stockmann is having a huge sale right now, and it was crazy in there. Everything was in yellow, and people were shoving each other and frantically looking through bins for the best bargains. I got a couple good deals too, which in Finland is especially exciting.

Once I escaped from the Stockmann madness, I headed over to another shop to get some other miscellaneous stuff, and a couple things to mail Hannah and Mary for their birthdays. At the other shop I finally found some conditioner too. It's almost impossible to find conditioner for curly/dry hair in Finland, and I certainly don't need any conditioner that promotes volume or thicker hair!

A few of my friends left for Moscow on Tuesday, and even more will be leaving for St. Petersburg tomorrow, but I'm not really bothered that I couldn't go, because it's just too expensive. I have my trip to Stockholm on April 17th to look forward to anyway, and I've just started planning a May trip to Tallinn, Estonia. Leila, Kristin, and I are contemplating adding Lithuania to our list as well. Bus tickets to Lithuania from Tallinn are around 20 euros, and I've found several flights from Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, back to Helsinki for 5 euros + taxes (around 30 euros). Considering that the price of the ferry is around the same price as a flight, and we'd be able to see another country, I'm going to look into it. The biggest problem with this plan is we'd have to go through Latvia again, but the Baltic countries aren't really that big. Nothing is really planned at the moment though, we're just thinking about our options.

My birthday party was pretty nice by the way. Not one, but two cakes showed up at my party, and the guacamole I made was a hit. I shattered the European idea that guacamole is nothing more than mashed up avocado! On Sunday, my actual birthday, I didn't do very much though. I went over to a friends apartment and worked on homework, and then we ordered a pizza from Koti Pizza (Home Pizza), which is a popular Finnish chain. Their pizza is quite delicious, especially the crust, but they put pineapple on everything, which prompted me to get the bacon and egg pizza. I was also really hungry, so I think my hunger possibly impaired my common sense. Despite the potential threat of a heart attack with every bite, I enjoyed it.

Speaking of food, on Monday night I went to the house of the woman I teach English to for dinner. She is an absolutely amazing cook! Soup, rice, salad, barbecued pork, and some kind of egg foo young dish. Loved it! I brought some chocolate chip cookies for dessert, which their two-year-old son devoured. He is one of the cutest and most energetic children I have ever seen. By the time I left I was exhausted from running around a playing with him. So cute!!! I'm not doing any English lessons for the next two weeks though, because Young-Min and her family are going to Korea.

What else? I have to register for my Fall HSU classes tomorrow. Yuck! I'm not taking any English classes, which I think will be a good thing, but I have to take a bunch of upper-division GE classes, which I'm not particularly excited about either. Except, maybe, EU Sociocultural Integration, which I'm actually interested it. I just have to be careful not to be the annoying student always mentioning the time that they were in the EU. Students never talk in Finnish classes though, so I think adjusting back to the stoned hippie discussion hour that most HSU GE classes turn into will be weird enough. And because HSU is run by complete assholes slightly incompetent individuals, all of my prospective classes, except German (unless they cancel it), will be at night. Looks like someone has time to get a second job! In Spring it'll be back to all English classes again. Really important stuff too, like creative writing... eh, I'm not really that upset, I just need to vent a little. I only have another month of instruction/exams here, so that's something to look forward to. And, I get to watch Sponge Bob tonight, so life is pretty good.