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.