YAY for pancakes!

For some reason I feel that Spring is right around the corner, but this past week has reminded me it is indeed still winter in Helsinki. It snowed on Thursday and Friday. It is not a pretty snow though. It is a very wet slosh snow that is gross when it hits the ground- not fun to walk in. Luckily today, Saturday, was sunny with blue skies!! I am telling you, you don’t realize how much you love those blue skies until you only see them once in a while. I did see some very white snow this past weekend. A group of us went to Porvoo, the second oldest town in Finland. It was really neat! We had to ride the bus about an hour just to get there, but the view on the way there was beautiful. The sun was actually out most of the day then too. It is just so pretty to see the sun shining down on the white snow. I have been very lucky to have 2 sunny Saturdays in a row.

Porvoo is actually a fishing village, I think… When we first got there we saw a lot of ice fishermen, which I thought was so neat! I know they are in the States too, but I have never seen anyone actually ice fish! I thought about joining one of them and learn the ropes on how to ice fish, but I thought that might just creep out a Finn to the max. It surprised me how ice fishing is a very individual sport. Everyone had their own section where they sat by themselves, even though they were only a couple feet from each other. We actually walked along the frozen river, which I think would be so pretty to see in the summer. I was a little nervous about walking on the ice, but the one of the fisherman told me he was 400% sure it was safe. We really just walked around looking at all the colored wooden houses, most in a dark red tent. It was a very sweet town I would say. I just find it so amazing that I walked in a place with so much history! I mean, yea, we have history in the U.S., but not like this. Just to think of all the memories and people who had lived there was really incredible to me. We also saw this really old train station in Porvoo. The side of the train said “Soumi” which means Finland in Finnish. That was pretty cool to me as well for some reason. Basically, I was like a kid in a candy shop in Porvoo, or really anytime I site see. To give you a picture of what sweet Porvoo looked like, it reminded me of Maine. I have never been to Maine, so I could be wrong. But it was like a little sea-side town, that supposedly Maine is actually modelled after. It was also more “Finnish” than the city of Helsinki is, or at least what we exchange students think of as “Finnish”.

I have been going to the sauna on a more regular basis now. I may have already written about this, but my building has free sauna nights. Guys get Tuesdays and Fridays whereas girls get Wednesdays and Saturdays. We actually have two saunas in the building, one with a pool and one without. The one with the pool is only open on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The past couple weeks we have been going to both the Wednesday one and the Saturday one. I am about to reveal way too much information, but I have also been going naked! I feel so European, kind of. Every week it gets less and less awkward. If you know me at all you know I am a pretty modest person, so this is huge for me.

As for classes, I have not been writing much about them. That is because I have not been doing much with them. I mean I am going to class and doing my reading, but it is almost like a joke. The amount of reading I do in a week here is about one days reading at Maryville. Attending class I feel like is also a joke. The Philosophy class I am taking doesn’t end until April 30^th, but our professor gave us our exam topics this past week. He also said that we could turn it in as early as we wanted. So, basically, I could write my essay, turn it in mid March or something, and never attend class again… not very smart on the teacher’s part I think. Don’t worry all you parents out there reading this, I am going to my classes and doing my work - I am just realizing a couple loop holes in the system. It is really scary though to think that my only grade for the course is the essay or exam I turn in at the end of the period.

This past week was a little hectic for everyone exam and essay wise since it was the end of the first teaching period. Next week is our “spring break”. I only had only course end, my Intro to Film and Music course. I simply had to watch a movie, write about a couple musical cues in the film, and submit it via email. That’s it. I am done. Crazy, right? I still have my two other courses, Anthropology and Philosophy. Next week after break I pick up two more classes that I am really excited about. One is another Anthropology course, which is the whole reason I am at Helsinki, and the other is a Theology course looking at song lyrics in Soul, Jazz, Blues, Rock-n-Roll, and Gospel music. How neat is that?

Monday, the start of out break, my Australian friend Asha and I are going to Riga, Latvia and then back to Tallinn, Estonia for a couple days. This is my first real travelling adventure outside Helsinki!! I am so excited! I can’t wait to see more of Europe. I am getting pretty anxious though too see everything, which is becoming a problem. I just want to see everything, which is impossible for the small amount of time I have to travel. The whole month of May is free for me to travel, but I have a plane ticket back to Memphis on May 30^th – So I have exactly a month to try and fit in everything I can. As of now it looks like a friend of mine and I are going to the UK, France, Belgium, and hopefully Italy. We only have two weeks to try and see all those amazing places because I am going to spend about a week with Abbie at her house in Edinburgh. Then, we will go from Edinburgh to Berlin, where we will meet up with Asha. Our goal is to go from Berlin to Prague, and hopefully to Budapest… but I only have a week to fit in those places because of my plane ticket. In other words, May is going to be a crazy busy month where I am going to try and fit in as much of Europe as I can. But I am not even hitting Spain, Greece, or really any Eastern European countries besides the Czech Republic and Hungary.

Whew, enough about my future plans which may not be exciting for anyone but me. I know this has been pretty long like all my other posts, but I only have one last thing to write about – Shrove Tuesday. As you all know this past Tuesday was Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday…. Anyways, it is also known as Pancake Day (really crepes). I have wanted to learn how to make these crepes from scratch that all the French just whip out like it is nothing. So, Abbie and I invited a couple people over to my room to try and make these pancakes. We printed out a recipe, but we were banking on the French and Belgians to show us the ropes. Unfortunately, they all had their own way of doing it. We ended up with 2 French, 3 Belgians, 1 Italian, and 1 Estonian all wanting to use their own recipe. In the end we kind of combined them all, but they were really good. Abbie and I had the honor of flipping the crepes, which we of course did not get as thin as the Belgians would have liked. It was really fun, and they turned out pretty good considering Abbie and I flipped them, but I still do not how to make them! When I asked them how much they use for everything (which is also hard since I used cups, they used litres, and Abbie used grams), they said you just have to look at it… so yea, I don’t know exactly how to make them just yet.

In Helsinki, Shrove Tuesday was also celebrated by this huge sledding event. There was a competition to see who could make the best sled. We saw the coolest inventions. Many people had couches on skies, which worked amazing as a sled! Another group had a huge stereo on their sled. It was crazy! There were so many tents with free hot drinks, pea soup, and the traditional donuts for Shrove Tuesday, as well as a DJ, and hundreds of people sledding down this huge hill! We were also right by the ocean, so this other American named Brad, an Australian named Ashley, and I walked on the frozen sea. I was freaked out the whole time, but I still stood on it for a little bit. Then, we saw this huge crack in the ice! That was the moment I jetted off that ice and onto safe land. It was neat though to be able to walk on the ocean, even though I walked on the river that weekend.

The pictures above are of Joanna and I on the frozen river in Porvoo, a group shot in Porvoo, a picture of me with the cool Suomi train, Abbie and I trying to make crepes, and a cool sled invention.

Tallinn, Estonia

Let me just start out by saying that my typed blog can in no way truly express the crazy day I had yesterday. I really don't think I have laughed so much in a long time. Before I tell you of my adventures yesterday, I'll tell you about my weekend. Although it was fun, nothing too special happened. Saturday afternoon Emily, Joanna, and I , all three Americans, went with a Finn named Hanna around the city. She wanted to show us a side we had not seen yet. We walked around this really posh area that had beautiful buildings. Then she took us to the ocean! We walked across this sketchy bridge to an island. It had a beautiful view. It was neat to see parts of the sea frozen. Hanna explained that due to global warming, there is not as much ice on the sea as usual at this time of year. To take a break from the cold and warm up a little, Hanna took us to this sweet restaurant where we chatted over a cup of coffee (or really tea and hot chocolate).

Saturday night there was a 70's party in another building. I think everyone studying abroad this semester was there, ok not really, but it was very packed. The Americans were used to the crowd, but a lot of the Europeans thought it was crazy! I guess they are smart and only have enough people at parties so that everyone can actually breathe.

Sunday morning a couple of us all had brunch together. Obviously groups and clicks have formed since the first week. Many of us really don't like that things have become clicky at times. So, the group I have been hanging out with decided to "bridge the gap" with a group of Belgium girls who are so sweet. They had never had a brunch before, so we tried to show them a proper Sunday brunch. The rest of the day was actually a really frustrating day for me. I hate going to church and getting upset. I think it has only happened once and that was when I was in Mexico. I have been going to this church since I have been here, but for some reason I had problems with Sunday's sermon. I won't go into detail, but he basically said the clever can't love Jesus. Ok that was really summed up, but that was his basic point. There were also these two guys at the service I have never seen before. One man had a briefcase with a large neon cross on it, and the other man had a jacket that read "Don't go to Hell, Love Jesus Christ" on the back.... yea. I mean that's cool if that's your thing, but that is not my thing (not the message of the jacket, but the way it is presented). So yea, Joanna and I left in a semi-foul mood. True we may have laughed just a little at the two guys, which lightened the mood a little.

Tuesday (yesterday) was a great day and a great adventure. Abbie, my Scottish friend, and I went to Tallinn, Estonia!!!! We rode the ferry at 8 am to arrive in Tallinn around 10:00. I just want to point out that I had to get up around 6:30 so we could be there by 7:30... that is so early! The sun wasn't even out yet! We did get to see the sunrise on the ferry though, which was beautiful. We also saw ice everywhere on the water, which was not so beautiful and slightly frightening, but a little cool at the same time. Abbie and I ended up sleeping away most of the ferry ride, which of course made time go by quickly. I also want to point out that because we went on the week day, we only paid 14 Euros for a round trip on the ferry to Tallinn... that's so cheap to travel to another country!

Once we arrived in Tallinn we headed straight for the old city, which is very touristy but very cute. Considering we woke up before the sun rose, we were rather hungry. Luckily we found this cute coffee shop called, Cafe Rose. I got a ham and cheese pastry and Abbie got a mini pizza, which was just enough to hold us over until lunch. Once we were fuelled, it was time to explore!

One of our friends lended us his tour book of Tallinn which had a nice walking guided tour. The old city was filled with cute building, cobble stone streets, castles, towers, neat stairwells, amazing churches, lots of themed restaurants which were weird, and a lot of souvenir shops. It was so neat though! It reminded me so much of a Disney cartoon come to life. I kept expecting Bell to pop out of some cottage window and start singing about books and being different. We took way too many pictures, many awkwardly by ourselves since there were only two of us. We also have so many of the same pictures - me in front of the neat door, then Abbie in front of the neat door... creative, huh?

We ended up eating lunch, or rather, we feasted, at Pepperjack. Yes, not a very Estonian name, but it was so good. Abbie and I had these huge booths that looked a little like a throne all to your selves complete with candlelight and a stained-glass window. The food in Helsinki, along with everything else, is so expensive. Although these prices weren't as cheap as wanted, it was still about the half the price of Helsinki's restaurants. This was actually our first time to properly eat out since arriving in Helsinki (Hesburger doesn't count). Between the two of us we had two starters, two mains obviously, and crème brulee. For our main we both ordered steak and potatoes with a mushroom sauce. As for our starters we ordered some "garlic bread" which was not garlic bread but still very tasty and some fried dumplings, both complete with of course a side dish of sour cream. Everything was amazing, and we were stuffed when we left.

The ferry ride home I think was actually the best part of the whole trip, well the last 2 hours of it at least. The whole time we had been camping out at the top level where it was quite so we could sleep. Little did we know that two floors down there was a ton of entertainment at the bar, just waiting for us. After we woke up from our nap on the way home, we decided to check out the bar. We heard the live music, and we thought it would be entertaining to maybe watch some drunk people... boy were we right.

The live music was Steve Webb, a man well past his twenties, thirties, maybe even forties who was still living his dream with died long black hair, and a gig on the ferry to Tallinn where he could rock out. When he took a short break, Abbie and I asked him where he was from since we were debating his accent. Turns out he grew up Whales, lived 20 years in California, and even lived in Arkansas for a little bit. Of course I told him I was from Memphis. He actually is on some Memphis online music station called All Memphis Music.com (He of course wrote it down for me). He was really nice. He even dedicated a Johnny Cash song to me. Abbie was a little jealous that I got a dedication and she didn't.

While we were talking to Steve, this drunk Finnish girl came up because she wanted her song to be played, some Finnish some that said "Good morning America". Neither Steve, Abbie, or I knew the song, so of course she sung it for us... Steve still didn't know it. When he finally slipped away from her, she put all her attention on us, lucky us. She could not get over why we were in Finland of all places. So she asked us a million questions, all the time apologizing for being so nosey. Finally I just ended the conversation by saying it was great talking to her. We thought that was the end of her, but we were wrong.

So after my Johnny Cash dedication, our drunk Finnish friend also got one. Sadly it was about some girl who walked home lonely because she was with someone but she forgot or something, I'm really not sure. All I know is I'm glad that wasn't my song. However, our awesome Finnish friend yelled when she got her dedication. Naturally I turned towards her to do a "YEA!" kind of motion. As soon as I did I regretted it, and of course Abbie wasn't too happy. She just said I had to stop doing that people because it gets me in trouble. Well, of course she came back over and started talking again about her dedication. Then she called me Yankee!!!! I was like, OH nonono, I am not a Yankee. Of course she didn't know about the whole North thing, she just thought she had offended me, which she hadn't. Well somehow we finally got her away as well.

So at this point we are laughing at all the drunk people who all wanted to dance but had some trouble. Then, Steve Webb started playing the John Lennon's "Imagine". This older drunk man apparently loved this song. He was kind of dancing and pointing to Steve Webb all the while singing and walking-seems dangerous, I know. Well of course I said, "That guy likes the Beetles, Wew!"... Abbie immediately said, "Oh No! You have got to stop doing that... the wew, why did you wew?" The reason she said all this was because the older gentlemen started leaning closer, and closer.... I started getting creped out. So I finally turned my head right when he went in for the kiss!!! Don't worry, he only kissed me jacket. Although Abbie was jealous about the song dedication, she wasn't too jealous about the kiss.

The adventure on the ferry did not stop there. When we were standing in line to leave the ferry, we had this mean older lady behind us. I think we were moving much to slow for here, even though there was no where to go. She kept pushing us out of the way. I had my hand on the railing, but not for long, because she pushed my hand off of it! We have decided a lot of the Finns just don't know how to form a line. We kept having people skip us and push and shove the whole time. I think when Abbie finally stood still and didn't move for a complete minute, the lady got the point. I of course just thought the whole thing was so funny.

So that was our Tallinn trip. It was a lot of fun, but the ferry at the end was the most entertaining by far! Above are pictures of me with the sunrise (had to have proof that I was up that early), some pictures from Tallinn, and a picture from the 70's party.

Esmie

Once again, I apologize for not having written in a while. I will try to catch you up to date without writing a long novel. I think I last wrote about the ice hole, so that was two Saturdays ago. Not much really happened the week after. That Monday I ate with a couple Belgiums who made homemade pancakes (crepes) that were amazing! Apparently for the French it was some pancake holiday... I am not sure except to say that I did celebrate by eating a lot of pancakes. It's amazing how anything tastes good on them! I had one with lemon juice and sugar, another with jam (not jelly... that's important to everyone else but the Americans), and then a third with ice cream and caramel... all three amazing in their own way.

The first Wednesday of every month a couple museums have free admission after 5 pm. Asha, my Australian friend, and I went to the modern art museum. I cannot say that I am an artist, or even that I am a fan of modern art, but I can say that I had fun. I think Asha and I laughed throughout the whole thing. Our judgement of the art became whether we could recreate it or not. If we could do the same thing the artist had done, we considered it less than worthy. Our favorite piece of art was by far the American who had a piece of art entitled "Teaching a Plant the Alphabet". Yep, that's right, the "art" consisted of someone holding a flashcard to a plant and repeating the letter several times, all shown on an old television. It was awfully boring but very funny. At least it was free.

Friday was a very exciting day. Abbie, Asha, Emily, Joanna, and I all attended a sit sit. It is a traditional Finnish dinner I can only describe as a banquet, well kind of. It a formal dinner that consists of singing, games, a little bit of eating, and a lot of laughing. Everyone sat in the place assigned to him or her. We actually ate really good food, when we had time to eat. Our first course was tomato soup, the main course was mashed potatoes and reindeer topped with a cranberry sauce, and desert was called a reindeer pooped in the snow, in other words, ice cream with chocolate covered raisins on top. It was all very good. Eating Rudolph was a little hard I will have to admit. I mean Tripp tried to get me to eat deer for so long. In my opinion, reindeer is much worse to eat than deer! I tried to explain to the Finns and Estonians sitting around me. I think they got it when I finally described it as eating my childhood.

Although the food was amazing, we never ate it hot. About every 5 to 10 minutes the song master would start a song. Since this was an international sit sit (also meaning all announcements were in English), the songs were in Finnish, Swedish, Russian, and even English. I think one of the best parts of the night was singing "Yellow Submarine" and "Let It Be". For some reason, our song book liked the Beatles. So the structure of our night included a little but of talking to our neighbors, a little bit of eating, a lot of singing and interruptions, and a skit game that involved killing reindeer and an evil witch or something.... it was improv.

Last Saturday was the laziest Saturday I have had in a while. Saturdays seem to be our adventurous day where we explore... although the sit sit took a lot out of us. We actually just walked around and found this amazing park with an ice rink and a lot of snow. We built a beautiful snowwoman, named Esmeralda (Esmie for short). She is actually very environmentally friendly because we used our old veggies (re-using) for her body parts. Obviously a carrot for her nose, rotten leaves for her eyes, an old banana for her mouth and another one for her hair, and rotten apples for her buttons. She was very pretty. I also felt more complete considering I had been around so much snow for a month and had yet to build a proper snowman.

The last event I have to tell you about is actually very tragic and upsetting for me... my computer crashed on Monday. I have no idea what I did! It wants some recovery disk, but mom can't find it in my pile of junk back home. I don't think it would be that bad if it weren't my ONLY form of communication with everyone. My sweet friends are all letting me use their computers, and mom and I are working on it. It is just annoying that it happened so far away from home, where it's not that easy to fix.

Other than that, we have had two sunny days this past week! I actually saw the sunset for the first time in a very long time. That is exciting! I cannot tell you how happy it makes me to see the blue sky, a round sun, and an actual moon at night. Right now it is actually snowing and really cold here, but perhaps the sun will come out this weekend.

Above are pictures of us girls at the sit sit acting very classy, a picture of Esmie, the beautiful sunset, and a picture of me at the museum trying to be artistic with the plants that learn.

Sauna-Sun-Sledges-Superbowl

I apologize for my lack of blog posts this past week; I guess I have been busy. Since I have not written in a while, this blog may be a bit long… just know that I warned you before hand. So many exciting things have happened this past week. I won’t bore you with details from the weekdays, except to say that I really only went to class. Because my classes are so much later in the day than what I am used to, I feel like my days just fly by. I wake up, go to class, then come back to my flat, hang out, eat dinner, and go to bed. I really think I need to start waking up earlier in the week to take advantage of my time and the sunlight.

Now on to the exciting things- Friday we FINALLY went ice-skating in the center. I walk past it everyday and we have been talking about it for a month now (can you believe I have been here for a whole month?), and we finally went. It was so much fun! I think the coolest part for me was ice-skating in an outside rink, surrounded by the city.

Saturday we woke up early (10:30) to be adventurous and do something we were all nervous and very excited about (I was much more nervous than excited). We went to the sauna-ice pool. Let me explain. You get into your bathers (I love the Australian word for a bathing suit) because it is a co-ed sauna on weekends. Then, once you have rinsed off in the cold shower, a very crucial part of the process, you hang out in the sauna for while. Now, when I say sauna, I mean the hottest sauna EVER! It got up to 70-80 C, which is roughly 158 F!!!!! This may be gross, but once you have been in for a minute, you are not sure if there is still water on you or just your sweat dripping everywhere! GROSS! But you basically stay in there until you can’t stand it any longer. In other words, until you can’t breathe! Once you are all “saunaed” up, you run out into the -8 C weather, which I think is roughly 20 F, and you take a dip in the ice hole. Ok, let me just paint a picture of this ice hole for you. The water is frozen expect for a hole by the dock with a ladder you climb down on. The railing of the ladder is covered in ice. Since the water is frozen everywhere else, you see people walking on the ice all bundled up in their hats and gloves… just watching you in your bathers swim in the water…. It was so crazy. OK, back to the process. Once you have dipped into the freezing water, you waddle (you can no longer walk or run because you are so cold) back to the sauna. Unfortunately, because of the salt from the water, you have to rinse off in the shower again before you go back in the sauna. Cold showers feel the best for the sauna… What an experience. Krista described it as feeling good. I won’t go that far, but I will say it was so much fun!

We did this five times! We had heard from the grapevine that five times is crucial to get the whole experience. It was a perfect number of times as well. The first time I was just so nervous and thought it was crazy. The second, third, and fourth times I went, it was fun, funny, crazy, and intense. However, by the fifth time I went I was ready to be done. Apparently getting really hot in the sauna and jumping in frozen water wears you out, because all seven of us who went passed out when we got back. Who knew?

The last exciting thing I have to day about Saturday was that I saw blue skies and the actually sun. It had been three weeks since I saw the actual round shape of the sun. Everyday is overcast and cloudy. I didn’t realize how much I missed blue skies a shining sun in my eyes! On the metro ride to the sauna the sun was directly in my eyes. Usually it would have been an annoyance for me, but I just soaked it up! I also think the fact that there were blue skies and a shining sun when we jumped in the ice water helped a little bit.

Sunday was also a day filled with excitement. We went out with hopes to go the market, but discovered it is closed until March. Luckily, right by the closed market we saw a bunch of children sledding down a hill. Obviously, we were intrigued. On a side note, a sled in Britain is called a sledge, and in Australia, a toboggan. Anyways, we did not have any sort of sled, sledge, or toboggan, so we improvised with plastic bags-which actually work really well! These American business men from South Carolina came over to let us borrow their sled, I think we looked sad with our little plastic bags. For the record, we raced the sled and the bag, and the bag won. After our sledding adventure (which was so much fun and will be done again), we decided to warm up with some coffee. We ran into some problems after realizing that everything is closed on Sundays… except Wayne’s Coffee! Yep, that’s right, Wayne. There is also a Robert’s Coffee, but I think the Wayne’s has a better ring (shout out to the Washburn men).

Joanna, another American from Georgia, and I decided to throw a Superbowl party. It was a success, after a little improvising. We tried to make pigs in a blanket, sour cream and onion dip, and wings. The wings, chips, and dogs we found. Only the dip and crescents gave us trouble. We ended up making this ranch dip that turned orange (but tasted good) and went with hot dogs instead of blankets. The Superbowl didn’t come on until 1:30 am our time, but we started the pre-party at 10:00 pm. Since we don’t own TVs, we had to get a feed from some internet site, yes a little sketchy. I actually did not stay up for the whole game. Somewhere around half time, which was 3:30 am here, I headed off to bed. I actually don’t think anyone lasted until the end, but Joanna and I succeeded in our plan-to show the Europeans and Australians how Americans do the Superbowl-yelling, good but unhealthy food, and semi-silence during the commercials.

So, that wasn’t as long as I thought it would be. Once again, I will share some of the new words I am learning. Builder’s bum=plumber’s pants or plumber’s crack. I think just the fact that bum is used, just makes it sounds so sweet. Instead of butt cheek, which just doesn’t sound nice, Aussies and Brits say bum cheek. I think it softens it up when you replaces the t with an m.

Above are pictures of me and my friends showing off our amazing ice skating skills and poses, and shots from the sauna-ice hole. One is to show the distance we had to walk from the cabin to the water, and the other shows two guys (in their speedos... only the non European guys had on more material.... EEK!) doing flips into the water. My friend took a picture of me in the water as well as a video, so perhaps I can put that in my next blog.