Sunshine in Sweden

This past weekend I went with ESN, the organization for exchange students, to Stockholm, Sweden! We rode on a huge ferry (almost like a cruise, but not exactly)from 4:30 pm to 9:55 am when we arrived in Sweden. The ferry was fun but very crazy. We were in the worst rooms, you know the ones underneath the water! Yea, I felt like Jack from Titanic. I actually ended up in a room with three guys (which would never happen in the US! Guys and girls just aren't separated like they are at home). It was actually an accident that I ended up in that room. Anyways, The ferry was filled with live music, a lady with a mullet, amazing older couples who just wanted to dance, and me to watch it all! The live act consisted of three women in sparkly dresses and two men in matching tuxes. The older generation on the boat just wanted to get down and boogie with the sparkly people, and so they did. They would not let you get in their way either! The songs ranged from Finnish to Cher to Garth Brooks (which the Brit and Aussie claimed someone else sang. I think they were in denial of Garth).

As soon as we arrived in Stockholm, the jackets and socks went off and the sunglasses went on! It was amazing. I'm sure those of you back home don't think much of that. But after spending four months in a jacket and living in a city with wind and some sunshine, yea, I was very excited to not wear socks. Oh the little things in life. Asha, Abbie, and I just walked around the city. We found a park with green grass!! After lying in it for a while, we found another park! We also found a lot of cool playgrounds. I think each one we found had a castle and some crazy see-saw or spinning object in it. The second park we went to had the biggest and thickest blade of grass I think I have seen in a long time. Once again, oh how the little things make you so happy.

Our first day we really just walked around, saw the older city, ate a lot of ice cream, bought fruit from the outside stands, and sat by the water a lot to eat whatever we were eating at the time. Stockholm and Helsinki are very similar, but oh so different too! Both are on the water and both have little islands everywhere. But, Stockholm's city center was more surrounded by the water than Helsinki's. There are just so many bridges to connect the islands, meaning there are a lot places to walk along the water. It was so pretty! There were boats everywhere!

I am not trying to dis Helsinki. Its just that Stockholm was warm! Plus, everyone was out and about. The Finns claim this happens in the summer, but sadly I will not be here to witness that. Stockholm also had really beautiful architecture! Everyone who went came back with pink and red faces from the sun. Our poor skin hasn't seen the real sun in a long time. Okay, the sun comes out in Helsinki, but it just doesn't seem as warm as it did in Stockholm.

On our second day in Stockholm, we only had until 4:30 pm. Since we spent our first day in parks and walking around the city, we spent the second day going to the market and a museum. We went to the Nobel Museum. Sadly, we had to leave pretty Stockholm and get back on the ferry. On the way back we all stayed at the top of the ferry to be in the warmth and sun as long as possible.

It was such a nice break to be in Stockholm, especially not having to wear a jacket! I hate how pictures and blogs just don't do tt justice though. Now I am back in Helsinki, and it is actually getting a little warmer. Today I only wore a light jacket.

As for classes, I took a test today and I have an essay due at the end of the week. Other than that, I am through with classes! Once I finish this essay, I just have to clean my room and pack for my trip to Europe! I officially have all my plane tickets bought and my Eurail pass ready to go! It is so insane to me that this time next week I will be in Germany on my way to the Netherlands!

A lot will happen until that moment though. April 30th-May 2nd is Vappu, or May Day. It is a huge celebration for Finland. Someone once told me it was the St. Patty's Day of Finland... so I will let you know about that.

I have just put up pictures of lovely Stockholm.

Big Ole Time

It has been a while since I have written. But I figured you wouldn't want to read about me attempting to study and getting distracted by Facebook and Surf the Channel (a site where you can watch almost anything you want for free! Don't go... it can be more addicting than Facebook sometimes).

Easter weekend was very interesting and different for me this year. We got a whole week of classes off, which was really great. I tried to spend most of it getting work done before my mom came to visit. Saturday I made a traditional Polish Easter basket with two of my Polish friends. We boiled eggs with onion peels to make then a brown/orange color (and then colored on them to combine my usual tradition of dying Easter eggs). Then, we covered the eggs in butter to make them shiny and put them in a "basket". Our basket was just a gladware bowl, but it worked. We also put frozen sausage, bread, salt, a sheep figure to represent Jesus, and some chocolate in our lovely basket. Then, we walked to the Polish Catholic church where we got our baskets blessed! Yep, that's right. I got a blessed Easter basket this year... very different from the Easter bunny. The church was packed, so sadly I did not actually see the blessing of the baskets, nor did I understand anything! The priest said everything in Finnish and Polish. Either way, we walked out of there with a blessed basket! I just thought that was so cool.

That evening we went to a big bon-fire that the Finns have every Easter. It was the biggest fire I have ever seen!! But all the little kids were dressed up as colorful witches. I won't go into too much detail about the tradition, but it has something to do with witches did a lot of bad things during Easter weekend, so the bonfire was made to scare them away. Now the kids dress up as cute little bright witches. The bonfire was on an island nearby.

Easter Sunday was very different from what I am used to. I mean this was the first time in my life that I did not spend it at home, going to church in a new Easter dress (which by the way the Europeans think it is silly that everyone gets a new outfit for Easter), and getting a visit from the Easter bunny (he just came late this year). I started the day off with eating our blessed basket of food and some really good Polish soup. Then, Abbie and I spent the rest of the day at the indoor waterpark! Yep, I spent Easter Sunday at the waterpark. It was a lot of fun though. I will say that the wave pool didn't seem as cool as it used too.

This Wednesday Mom came to visit! She stayed for 5 days. We had so much fun. It was really neat because we did a lot of things I had never done and had been meaning to do for a while. Her first whole day we just took a tour of the city. We were really lucky to have four out of five sunny days! The sun didn't mean warm weather, but it just makes everything a bit brighter. I showed her the harbor and the beach. Although I had been to both places before, I had never seen them unfrozen! All the snow and ice has melted, finally. It is still really windy though, which is what gets you.

We also went to the Opera. It was a Finnish opera about Finnish life. I thought it needed a better happier ending, but it was still fun. One day we also went to the zoo, which is on an island! We had an interesting time getting there. We rode the metro and walked a little ways to actually get to the zoo. However, to leave there was supposed to be a ferry that went back to the harbor. We waited for about 15 minutes next to the creepy Vulture cage, and then finally realized it wasn't coming. Then, we waited for the bus for about 15 minutes... and then realized we had the wrong time. So right when we decided to hike back to the metro station, the bus came pulling in. Let's just say it was an adventure. The actual zoo was really neat. We saw everything from pink flamingos to a llama that stared us down to reindeer!

Another day we went to the open-air museum that is an island that the Easter bon-fire was on. It was really cool. Its made up of different kinds of Finnish houses over time. It sounds weird, but it was neat. We just walked around the really windy island and looked at interesting wooden houses and barns. It reminded us a lot of Cade's Cove (minus the 11 mile loop).

Mom actually experienced the Finnish sauna twice! Although, one was a traditional public sauna in the city that was very interesting. It was really old and "authentic", but ended up just looking really creepy. It warmed us up from all the cold wind, so I guess it was worth the creepiness.

We ate out twice too! Which means I have eaten out twice in Helsinki in the whole 4 months I have been here. Helsinki is really expensive, so I just eat in and at the university cafeteria. The first time we ate at Memphis and the second time at a Finnish restaurant. I think the fact that a restaurant was named Memphis entertained us way too much. At the Finnish "ravintola" we had reindeer and salmon, which are both pretty Finnish.

It was great to see Mom and we had a "big ole time" as she would say. Now, I am back to normal life of attempting to study and get everything done. I leave for Stockholm, Sweden on Thursday. We leave on the ferry and spend two nights on the boat and one in Stockholm. Basically, I am going on my first cruise since the ferry is really just a big cruise. I'm really excited. Plus, rumors have it that it is a lot warmer in Stockholm than in Helsinki. Country number four, here I come!

Spring is here?

March and April have always meant Spring to me, well at least the sight of warm weather. But apparently in Finland, this is not the case. March was freezing! Okay, we did see a couple +4 C days(39 F), but that was rare and only lasted for a bit. This cold weather has been getting a little annoying too. Yes, the snow is pretty. Yes, I enjoy wearing hats and scarves and cute mittens... but only for a couple months! It also doesn't help that everyone's Facebook statuses let you know exactly what the weather is doing. I have been jealous that all my friends are "loving this warm weather!" or "Going to the park to enjoy this amazing weather!". Okay, you get the point. At first I was pretty bitter towards Finland for being so cold and forgetting Spring should be here by now. However, now I have decided to take a different approach... humor with a bit of hope. April 1st was a new day in Finland. A lot of the bars and restaurants put out their outside chairs and tables. Plus, flower and fruit vendors are on every other corner of the streets. This is what I mean when I say humor... it was pretty cold the day everything came out. Today, however, I have hope. It started out as +7, then went to +8, and now we are at +10!! That is 50 F!!!!! Oh I am so excited. The sky is blue, the sun is out, it is a beautiful day! I have been walking outside with just a long sleeve t-shirt on! Crazy! The Finns are all bundled up still, which doesn't make any sense to me. I had to take off my jacket because I was dying from the heat. Anyways, lets just say I now have hope that Helsinki is ABLE to get warm. There were times I didn't think it was possible.

I know I haven't written in a while. Not much has been happening except my attempt to actually study. I say attempt because it is not going very well. I finally have work to do (I guess it was about time) and I can't focus to do it! Don't worry though, it is slowly getting done.

I did have upsetting news last week. My Australian friend Ashley who I had been planning to travel with decided to go home early. I was not only upset that he was leaving, but that I was without a traveling partner! I stressed out about it for a couple days, but have now worked everything out. I am going with Brad and Amanda, an American couple from West Virgina. We have decided to take a different route from before. Its rather strange, but it works. When I leave here I will have been to 16 different countries! That is insane to me! I mean what an opportunity I have! I feel so lucky. When I leave here I will have been to Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, Luxembourg, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, England, Scotland, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary. Phew, that is crazy! Everything is official too because I bought my plane tickets! I think I am most excited about warm weather and cheddar cheese!

Last night Abbie, Asha, and I went to the Opera! We only paid 11 euros for it as well since we got out student discounts and bought them the day of. I had to be there at 8:30am on my day off to get them, but it was well worth it. We saw Mozart's The Magic Flute. It was in Finnish with English and Swedish subtitles. I wasn't quite sure how they were going to pull off the subtitles in the opera, but they did it. They were on a screen at the top of the stage. It was nice because you didn't have to read the screen the whole time. Since they were singing and it is was in Finnish, one sentence lasted for a while. We really enjoyed it and felt very classy! Abbie and I sat in the balcony, but Asha had to sit on the floor since our seats weren't all together. During intermission we splurged on a white chocolate and coffee cake that were both amazing!

Last weekend someone threw a movie themed party in their flat. Abbie, Asha, Emma , and I went as the Pink Ladies from Grease. We just bought cheap pink shirts, wrote "Pink Ladies on the back", and put a scarf around our necks -simple. Everyone did a great job at dressing up! I saw Austin Powers, Apollo 13, Sarah Jessica Parker, Indiana Jones, Snow White, and Mitch from Baywatch. People get so creative! I even saw a Telly Tubbie!

So above are photos from the move theme party with Abbie and then Marg Simpson and our night at the opera.