Domestic?

These are pictures of my two closest friends I have made, who I spend almost all of my time with.

Time seems to disappear when the sun goes down early. I am not sure where it goes, but I feel like my days just fly by. Today I did not have class, which was nice to get a little bit of sleep. Considering how much I love sleep, I have actually not been getting as much as I thought I would. Because I STILL don’t have the internet in my room, I stay up later because sometimes at night I can steal free wireless. I am actually really frustrated, or as some may say, I am gutted about it! Today I also finally received my monthly stipend for food. The cashier’s office is only open from 12-2, which conveniently is when I have class on Monday.
Today was my first big shopping trip in Helsinki for groceries. I actually bought some fruit and some veggies. I was really proud of myself… especially since it is all in Finnish. I did have to ask for help when finding butter. I couldn’t tell the difference between the cheese and butter. I also bought oatmeal, but Krista my Latvian friend calls it pourage (not sure of the spelling). So even though I feel like Goldilocks (not sure of the spelling either!), I will be eating pourage tomorrow morning. I did make a little mistake I discovered when I got home. See we have all been switching turns to make dinner. Tonight was my night. I made quesadillas (which no one seems to know what they are!) and potatoes. Funny Scottish term for today, Abbie pronounces them quasi-dillas. Anyways, I discovered that when I got home I did not buy potatoes…. I bought beats!! I felt so silly! Luckily, Krista had some real potatoes. By the way, I made everything successfully-one of my first real experiences cooking without something being frozen or a mix! Krista claims she is going to make us pancakes this weekend from scratch! She actually didn’t even use the term scratch, she just acted like everyone should make pancakes from eggs and milk and flour. I think that is so neat. Perhaps she can teach me and I can make for real pancakes when I come back for all you lovely people who read these blogs… perhaps.
At some point tonight, once again, it was colder in Cordova than in Helsinki by 5 degrees! We beat them on the wind though, 18 verse only 5. It does get pretty windy here. This may be too much info, but I was sweating on my way to the uni (slang for school or university) this morning. I had my coat unzipped and my gloves off. I saw a couple of the locals give me a funny look, although I may have been imagining it.
Back to the grocery store. Let me just tell you that it is difficult! Although I find it great that you had to provide your own bag or pay for theirs, it can get hard if you have a lot of items. Since you provide the bag, and even if you buy theirs, you have to bag it yourself, while at the same time finish unloading your cart, then quickly run over to bag, and in between pay for everything. The Finns never seem to have trouble, where as I feel like I am wearing a flashing sign that says I am an American because I have loads of trouble! Today I tried really hard too. I unloaded everything, what I thought to be, at lighting speed. Then I rushed over to put everything in a bag, but I was running out of room… and the lady behind me was getting anxious. I quickly paid and then had to go back to bagging. I think two people behind me left before I was done, even though I felt like I was going uber fast! I hope I can get that down, or at least smoother than I was today. No one said anything, I just felt bad for holding up the line.
I have picked up something new since being here; I am now drinking black tea. Before I only drank green tea and passion, and of course sweet tea. I know sweet tea is black, but it never tasted the same. I discovered that with a little milk, it is rather tasty. I feel very European drinking Twining’s Earl Grey, but they surprisingly don’t have the largest selection in the store. I don’t know if I have already mentioned this, but I find it really neat that instead of always serving coffee somewhere, it is coffee and tea. If you go to someone’s room, you will probably not leave without being offered some tea. I really like that since I am not a fan of coffee but really enjoy tea.