August 5

   Sandra and I woke up at 11 and rushed out the door since we woke up pretty late and we had a fun-packed day in front of us. First we headed to a harbor where Sandra bought us blood sausage (which was common to eat around here) for me to try.Although the name and the look of it was quite daunting, I actually liked it. We also bought waffles in addition to our brunch. After that, we quickly went to the food store to find the proper cheese for the pierogi that I planned to make my family later that day. The problem was though, I wasn't exactly sure what type of cheese to use, but after inspecting all the cheeses, and talking to the cheese lady about which cheese would be the best to mash up, we finally agreed on a cheese. After quickly buying it, we boarded the bus home and bought potatoes and onions at the store nearby the house. At around 1, we (Sandra, Lina, and I) went to work making the pierogi. It was a pretty strenuous job, as rolling out the dough very thin required a lot of effort, as well as making the filling and everything else. Finally after 3, they were ready to eat. Fortunately, they turned out to be a success and my host family liked them. Originally, I had felt a lot of pressure, as I had never made pierogi, and if they came out bad, then I would be forever scarred for leaving my host family with a misunderstanding of true polish pierogi (so thank the lord that I succeeded). However, our feast was cut short, since at 4 the bus which was taking us to a theater show in Helsinki was leaving. The show called stage, is from this television competition, where different Finnish schools competed, each week performing different parts of a play, and each week one school was eliminated. In the end, it was Sandra's school that had won, which was why her school organized buses to take us from Tampere to Helsinki. Many of Sandra's friends were there and we were able to get front row seats.The show, a musical, was very entertaining even though I didn't understand Finnish. Sandra explained the plot more or less beforehand, but I still asked a few questions to her friends sitting nest to me. The musical was basically about these kids that were in this special school for troubled kids with this mean princepal where they basically try to deal with the situation there and unsuccessfully planned to escape. The show ended with standing ovations, and then our bus left at 10.

August 3-4

      Today Sandra and I met up with Sanaa downtown to have coffee at 1pm. After we bought our drinks, we went to the Moomin museum that was located in the basement of the Tampere library. I was quite excited as I had watched cartoons about the Muminki (Polish way of saying Moomin) when I was younger in Poland and read books abut them as well. The museum contained different mini models of scenes from different Moomin episodes as well as sketches and drawings by the author, Tove Jansson. After we walked through the museum, we headed  back to town and spent some time in the bookstore. Soon Saana had to leave us to meet with a friend and then with Sandra, we went to the library and spent some time there before Sandra had to go to her Spanish course at 5pm.
     After Esko and I picked Sandra up from her Spanish course and ate dinner, Sandra and I left for her friend's house around 9pm, where we would sleep overnight in a big tent. There were seven of us there, most whom I have met previously a couple days ago by the lake. It was fun; we had a bunch of candy and chips and talked. We ended up going to bed after 5pm (we thought that we could pull an all-nighter, but it didn't work out). We woke up around 10, but we basically moped around, ate candy, and napped some more until we finally put away the tent around 1. Soon after that, one of Sandra's friends gave us a ride home. After we had washed up and ate, Sandra left for town to meet with friends and then later to her spanish classes, while I hit the Werstal museum downtown (in order to go through it thoruouhly and not leave any descriptions and whatnot unread). After that I walked around town before heading back home. When I arrived, Lina was already back from her trip and Joonas was there as well. We decided to make blueberry/raspberry muffins and even though we added 2x a much berries as we were suppose too and forgot to add the 2 eggs, they turned out pretty good. When Sandra came back, we went back to town as it was the day of events in Tampere, and first we saw this popping-hip-hop street dance performance and then later a fire performance in the park. We also met a few of Sandra's friends. We walked back home after 11 and went to sleep soon after that since we didn't really sleep too much last night.

August 2

     Today I had lunch scheduled with my YFU support person; we were to meet in front of a bank downtown at noon. We went to eat at a Thai restaurant, which made me somewhat excited, as I had never had Thai food, although after eating it, I concluded that it tastes like Chinese. Anyways, we spent about an hour or so in the restaurant, eating and discussing my stay in Finland, our travels, and anything that would come to mind. It was nice talking to my YFU person, but after 1, she had to go back to work. We exchanged farewells and I thanked her for buying me lunch and then I continued to walk around the city. In the center square, there was a French market, selling items such as backed goods, crepes, churros, candy and fudge, pickled foods, soap, deli, and bags, shoes, and jewelry. The lines for all the food stands were outrageously long, so I take that the baguettes that everyone were buying must be delicious.
     Eventually, I returned home after 4 to signal that I was still alive (I temporarily lost my phone when I went with Sandra to that family gathering a couple days ago, and thought it was lost forever, so we disconnected it. It was found the next day, but since it costs 10€ to reopen the account, we decided to just keep it closed since I would be leaving on Sunday anyways.) and then I went back to town for an hour or two. When I came back, Anita's mother and her sister with her set of 5 year old twins and 2 year old were home, as Anita was driving them to the airport the next morning. I also skyped my mom.

August 1

     After waking up quite late (after 10), I ate breakfast and then helped out with painting the fence planks that my host family and the neighbors were working on installing in the backyard. I've never painted before and it was somewhat fun. However, later I went to town only for a short while (I bought a postcard and then walked around a market primarily composed of clothing, honey, baked goods, cheese, and candy stands) before returning back home before 3:30pm, as we planned to leave then to pick raspberries from a raspberry farm with the neighbors. The raspberry farm system worked this way; if you pick raspberries, then you must pick at least around 2 litres of raspberries and then pay by weight, but you can eat as much raspberries while picking as you want. So our plan when we got there was simple: eat more raspberries than you pick and eat until you can eat no more. I was never ever in a situation were there were more raspberries than I could handle, but before long, my stomach was feeling quite queasy. Nevertheless, they were good raspberries. Once we got home, we put the remaining raspberries in the freezer, and after allowing the raspberries to settle inside our intestines, Anita and I went to viewing tower in Pispala, where you could clearly see the two big lakes which Tampere is in between. After that, we went to town to pick up some chinese food; I chose chicken and broccoli to see wether Finnish chinese food beared any resemblance to American chinese food. And if you would like to know, it tasted similar to American.

July 30-31

    On the morning of July 30th (Saturday), Sandra and I packed and left around 1pm to this family/friend gathering of Sandra's friend, Irene. Irene told me that it was a yearly tradition, where her relatives as well as friends of relatives would gather at a rented cottage house by the lake, friday to sunday, and camp out in tents. We arrived to the site with Saana and we first set up our tent. We sat around, played some Finnish game composed of standing wooden logs that you had to hit with a throwing log, went to a food store not far from the cottage house, ate, and eventually we used the sauna (at around 10-11pm; none of us had any clue what time it was and its hard to tell  what time it is judging from the sky, as its pretty much light for the most part). I also met these two girls from Helsinki, whom I enjoyed talking to and spending time with. After we used the sauna (meaning that we sat in the sauna for a couple of minutes, went out to jump into the lake, came back to the sauna, and repeated the process several times), everyone gathered into a room inside the cottage to watch a couple films produced by one of the individuals who rented out the cottage; they were quite interesting. After that, we decided to go sit by a camp fire to grill sausages as well as to warm up (it was pretty cold; those prepared had on coats, scarves, and sweatpants, unlike me, who had to borrow a cardigan from Saana). After spending some time there with other people, we decided to go to bed, as it was already past 2am, but not before spending some time dancing inside with another lone guy and only the dj playing music.
     Although the ground wasn't bumpy, it was pretty cold, so I kept on waking up in the night from having my foot too cold. At one point in the early morning, I woke up confused; wondering if I am finally comfortably warm after a chilly night, or uncomfortably warm from the sun shining on our tent. It turned out to be the latter case and eventually we woke up at 10 am, as the heat was becoming rather a nuisance.
     We went to use the sauna for a while before eating breakfast. After we ate, we had to rather quickly pack up our stuff as well as the tent in order to catch the next bus home.
     Once at home, I chilled and read for the most part, before joining Sandra's friends by the lake; we had a mini picnic. Eventually, we had to go home, as it was already late and went to bed.

July 29

This day had so much excitement that I have to break it up into 2 parts:

Part 1:

     We attempt to wake up pretty early so we could have a tourists' day in Tampere and manage to do everything before 3:07pm, when Sandra and I have to catch the train to Helsinki. First we go to an art museum where there was an exhibition titled: Is This for Real?. The exhibition basically went through the history of Tampere, including various native paintings, while also going into the future and predicting the art of the future. It was interesting although it was slightly annoying that all museum workers on the floor watched your every move, giddy inside, waiting for that moment to say 'don't touch!' (Sandra said that school trips to the museum are very common, so summers can be quite slow). Anyways, after that we stopped by a cathedral which had paintings from a famous Finnish painter before going to a museum  (Finnish Labour Museum: Werstas) for a tour in English at 1pm. (We also stopped for ice cream along the way.) As it turned out, Sandra, Anita, and I were the only ones waiting for the tour, so in a sense, we had our own private tour guide. Our tour guide took us through a museum which was basically about the workers in an enormous factory, Finlayson, in Tampere during the early 1900's(Tampere used to be a major industrial city). The museum was divided into general outlook of life and jobs of labourers in Tampere, textile industry, food of Tampere, and steam engine (in the factory). At the end of the tour, we got samples of the barely bread that was common among the workers during that time. After that, we went to Sokos (a department store) to eat lunch before we quickly bought a camera bag for Sandra's new camera and then ran off to the train. We had 3 minutes to go before the train zoomed off; Sandra said we were early (contrary to the popular stereotype, I have noted in several occasions that Finnish people are not for the most part so punctual (we were told at several orientations that Finns valued punctuality, so much in fact, that they are usually early)

Part 2:

     Beyond all, the reason why we went to Helsinki was because one of Sandra's friends, Veris, wanted to see a band that was playing at a festival in a park in Helsinki, so she asked us to join her. When we got to our stop in Helsinki (or rather a stop before the main Helsinki stop, since the park was on the outskirt of Helsinki), Veris was there waiting for us (she came a hour or 2 before us). We were there around 5pm, and the first band  that we wanted to see played at 7:30, so we had some time to spare. We went into town to buy some food for a picnic, and Veris and Sandra also bought a tube of Ben and Jerry's ice cream (I refuse to indulge in any American food while in Finland) so we went to a playground and sat on the ground to eat ice cream. After that, we walked around a bit, but decided that it was too far to walk to the center of Helsinki, so we walked back to the park so that we could begin our picnic. A band began playing at 7:30, but the band that we came specifically to see started at 9:00 (the bands were kind of electronic/pop/techno). When that time came, several people went to dance up in front of the stage, so we decided to go as well. It was fun, since there were several hippies and drunks with unique and funky dance moves, so no one judged how you danced. Eventually, we had to leave since the band stopped playing at around 9:45, and we wanted to catch the next train to Tampere, which was at 10:12. We made it, and after the apprx. 2 hour ride, Veris' father picked us up and drove us home.

Jul7 28

     Today we woke up pretty late and had a brunch. I stayed at home reading, and then went to the garden with Anita to get vegetables for dinner before going downtown around 3pm. I don´t really do anything special downtown, just walk back and forth on the main road, go into different stores, although each time I go to town, I venture out father from the main road and central square. Nevertheless, I hopped on the bus to go back home at 5:45  since we agreed that everyone should be at home at 6pm to eat and met Sandra on the bus (Sandra was with her friend Saana running; I declined the offer to go because it was too hot. I think it was in the low 80's. :).) Anyways, we got home, ate, and then went out again to a department store so that Sandra could buy make-up (since she left her cosmetics bag at her relatives when we went a while back). When we came back home, I decided that I would go out for a jog since it was cooler than in the day. After I came back, which was before 11pm, I stayed up a while longer and then went to bed.

July 26-27

     Tuesday morning me and Lina left for camping (1 night since Lina had to leave for Denmark Thursday morning). The camp was for kids 10-14, and there were a couple of leaders that were around my age. When we first arrived to the camp site, we had to set up our tents and help the younger kids.After that there was a lot of free time, so I spent most of my time sitting, talking to the other leaders, or listening to them speak Finnish. We also rowed a boat in the lake. In the evening, there was a scavenger game set up for the kids where they had to find various items as well as answer questions. One of the questions was: find out where Natalie is from and ask in English; extra points if you know what state. It was pretty funny, since most kids just began learning English in school and the thought of asking an American `where are you from`must of been terrifying. You could tell which kids were about to approach me to ask, since they had this nervous serious look on their face and walked hesitantly towards me as if I was their doom. Kids also had to ask Lina for a piece of candy and she told each one that she would only give it to them if they came back with a phone # of the opposite sex, which was pretty funny too. In the evening, we made sausages over a fire. Although I was excited to eat sausages, after I ate mine, it struck me as rather gross since it had a weird texture and  a flavor of little resemblance to meat (later I found out that it was 39 % meat). Anyways, soon after that we went to sleep into our little tent (there were 4 f us). I have never liked the feeling of being in a tent, and the tree roots in my back the whole night did not help me fall asleep either. In fact it was a long night.
     The next morning we woke up before 8 and went down to eat breakfast. After that, we looked for different pieces of wood in the woods to carve so that we could later attach it to our scouting scarf (kind of like a pendent for a necklace). I didn't make a pendant, just something that would stand up on my shelf which said ´Finland 07/27/2011. I was rather amused that all the kids were able to carve out smooth pendents, as I don't believe anyone in America would give a 10 year old scout a knife. Later, the kids had a competition: which team could row through the different obstacle courses the fastest. I was excited to watch that since I thought that there would be much excitement and energy within the kids as it was a competition. However, it was after the competition started that I remember them mentioning at the Finnish embassy in DC that Finns were not as competitive as Americans, and judging from this competition, it appeared to be true. The kids that were watching were sitting silently or talking with friends, while the ones rowing looked as if they were just peacefully rowing the boat. Only a few boys had the American competeviness spirit. After that, we ate a snack and while the kids were in the sauna, I carved a butter knife; it was quite nice if only there wasn't a split in the middle (now I can't use it for my butter since it is a place for bacteria to grow). Soon after, around 6pm, Anita came to pick us up.

July 25

     Today, we decided to go to town at tourists. Anita and I first went to a spy museum, which was small but quite interesting with different spy gadgets and short biographies about different spies. Then after that, we met with Sandra at the central square (Sandra didn't come with us because she said it was boring) and then went out to eat at a chinese place. After that Sandra left us, as she had some class reunion thing, and then we went back to the central square where there were singers and later a circus act (it was Flower week in Tampere; a festival). Soon after, we went to the tourist information desk and asked what is exciting in Tampere. The lady told us a few things and then we left. We first went to this handcraft exhibition, which was nice. Then we went to the souvenir shop (I asked if there was any place that I could buy souvenirs), but I was more like handcraft souvenirs, so it was pretty expensive. After that, we walked around a few stores and then went to the library. The library was designed by an archeitect to look like a bird from airplane view. Anyways, I got some books to read and then we walked home. While we were walking on a path through the woods, there were many raspberry bushes, so we often stopped to pick them (although they were small, they were still good). As you know, my family lives at the bottom of a big hill, so Anita decided that we walk to the top of the hill and get home by what are known as the Pispala stairs. From the top of the stairs it is a very beautiful view of the houses, trees, and lakes. The stairs had about 250 steps (Anita said it was a common question to ask a Pispala native exactly how many steps were there). Soon we got home around 7:30pm, and after that, I  just read, ate, and other stuff.

July 24

     Today was nothing special: I went to town mid-day, primarily to exchange money (it still hurts my ears when I hear that I get 67 euros for 100 dollars), and since it was a Sunday, most shops opened late or weren't open at all, so I went back home rather early. I, for the most part, sat outside and read until we had to leave for a reception in honor of a conformation. We stayed there a while to eat and then went back home. At home we began to watch a movie until me and Sandra walked to Hesburger (a popular fast-food chain in Finland) at 10pm (we decided to record the movie to watch when we get back). Anyways, when we came back home to continue the movie, it turned out that the whole thing wasn't recorded and it cut of at the most important part of the movie (the part where after 1-2 years the women realizes she really loved the man she met at a vacation and flies to Nigeria to tell him her feelings, and then she knocks on the door, and its the moment of truth, and BNJBJDNKSNX, MOVIE CUT OFF). So I was pretty down after that, cause I really wanted to know his reaction when she showed up at his door.

July 22-23

Sandra, Lina, and I went to town to see this museum that was like a little complex were people lived during the 1800´s up to the 1900´s. It was quite interesting, although Sandra said it was kinda boring (but it really wasn't, some people just don't appreciate history). Soon after at 2pm, we met up with one of Lina´s friends and went to eat at a vegetarian cafe. Since Lina is an unofficial vegaterian and my host family doesn´t really eat meat at home, my host sisters joked around that they are trying to make me vegetarian. Aharhar never. Even so, the food was good. Eventually Lina and her friend had to part since they planned to donate blood and the place closed at 4pm. Then me and Sandra left to meet her friends at the lake. It was nice and I think I tanned. I think it was because I didn't but on sunscreen. Anyways, we left around 6pm since Esko was coming home to Tampere with one of the cousins from Ruovesi and then together, we went overnight to their other cousins on the other side of Tampere. Much English was not used while we were there, so I spent most of the time pondering my day and thoughts. Oh and not to forget, we also went midnight swimming at a lake. The water wasn't too cold.

     The next morning we ate breakfast at 12:30pm. (I was reading a book for 1.5hrs before that because no one was awake). Anyways, we left their cousins at 2pm. Then around 6 we left for a going-away party for a girl that was leaving to California as an exchange student for the school year and met up with one of Sandra´s friends, Saana (forgive my spelling Sandra if you read this). The party lacked a tad of excitement but we had to leave at 7:30ish anyways to meet up with another friend of Sandra's who was away at NYC for 2 weeks. We met downtown and then went to see this regea festival/dance/event thing in a nearby park. It was very interesting to see people dance to regea music, as I have never seen such dancing. If you've never seen regea dancing either, then I will tell you that its more like slow motion dancing where you are almost spiritually connected to the music. Anyhow, at 9:30pm we went to see the Harry Potter movie (Lina joined us) in 3-D. The movie was good, but I was just slightly confused at some parts since I never really followed the cronicles of Harry Potter. After the movie, we all parted ways and went to bed.

July 20 - 21

    We left the summer cottage during the day and left for anita´s parent´s summer cottage. There, were the 5 year old twins that were with us on the cruise to stockholm; so there was a lot of energy, screams, laughs, and similar stuff that would result from over-hyper 5 year old twins. Anyways, Sandra and I used the sauna and before you knew it, we left for the house of Anita´s sister were we would spend the night.

    The next day, we ate breakfast and went to the town center of the little town were their relatives live (a population of about 14,000), and we visited the market place and did some shopping. Soon we left for home in Tampere.

House in Ruovesi (July 16 - July 20)

July 16

We arrive to Ruovesi late. I think I ate 10 pounds worth of strawberries.

July 17

• picked blueberries and made blueberry pie (yummo)
• went out rowing with Sandra in the evening: we rowed to this little island called maggot´s island in the center of the lake and explored it (it was maybe 7 feet long, 3 feet wide). But let me assure you that this was no easy task as when we were nearing to the island, birds began to squack loudy and fly above us (I sappose that they were feeling that we were trespassing in their territory). Anyways, I am 100% sure that if we stayed just a minute longer, they would have dove in and ate us alive. Then we rowed around this fairly large island close to maggot´s island and then went on it cause there was an old cottage that we wanted to explore. Unfortunately it was locked and we couldn´t find the key(jk we werent planning to go in), so we decided to get off the island and row back.
• made a fire and grilled sausages and bread at night, I also had this delicious fish, common whitefish, that Esko caught in the lake and smoked. It tasted similar to salmon, and had the flakes like salmon, but they were thinner, and was white.

July 18

• finished reading the Kite Runner
• went to see Sandra´s cousin´s baseball game (quite different than American baseball, for one, the pitcher stands next to the home base and throws the ball up for the batter to hit it)
• ate ice cream (2x)
• made a fire again but this time grilled chicken and then for dessert crepes filled with whipped cream and strawberries
• went moose hunting (drove around in a car through the woods and fields) -> saw a baby moose

July 19

• watched Sherlock Holmes
• picked blueberries -> made blueberry muffins
• went out to eat at a little port 
• watched the Pianist

July 15

     Today Arely (one of the other exchange students) came over from somewhere about 2 hours east of Tampere. We met up in downtown Tampere a little after 12 (although it did take a while to find eachother). We, for the most part, walked back and forth on the main street until about 6. And actually, we had a lot of fun: we talked about our experiences so far, sat by the lake/river, walked around the different shops, and ate food. Also, in the center of the town, they were giving out free pizza if you played a game, free drinks if you took a picture, and crackers if you just walked passed them (for advertisment), so we spent some time there :). Anyways Arely had to drive home with her host mom and sister at 6 and we said goodbye to eachother. Then I walked around a bit before I boarded the bus back to Pispala (the neighborhood where my host family lives in Tampere). OH and I must not forget to mention that this was the first time that I rode the bus to and from downtown alone, so I was just a tad proud of myself. Anyways, while I was riding the bus home, I met this nice fellow that moved from Iran to work for the red cross in Finland; we talked a bit. And then I came home, ate, read, took a walk alongside the lake (which was very relaxing), and then went to bed.

Time at the Summer House in Ruovesi (July 10-13)

• ate strawberries (a lot)
• ate strawberry cake
• watched tv
• sat on a chair and looked out at the lake
• visited ´downtown Ruovesi´
• swam in the lake
• used the sauna
• made blueberry pie
• finished reading Freakonomics -> continuing reading The Revolution of Europe
• skyped with my mom
• internet
• made crepes with strawberry sauce

 For the most part though, I slept, ate, read, and watched tv.

Cruise to Stockholm (July 8-10)

     We drove to Helsinki and soon the ship sailed off at 5:00pm. By 'we' I mean my host family and Anita's side of the family which included her 2 parents, her aunt (and her nephew), her sister (and her husband and daughter), and her other sister (and her husband and 3 kids). It was quite hectic considering that there were so many of us, and not to mention there was a pair of 5 year old twins, who would not stop running around and jumping all over Sandra. (I forgot to mention that Lina was not with us because she had already planned to go to this over-night camping ground thing with different events and parties and such.) We had dinner scheduled at 5:30, but we lost one of the twins, so before we actually found him (he was at the info desk; someone presumed correctly that a little child wandering around must be lost) we ended up eating dinner a lot later. After dinner, Sandra and I explored the ship and then watched a Peter Pan show for kids at 8:00. After the show, we went to kareoke, where Sandra went up to sing 2 songs on behalf of her grandpa's birthday. Then there was a midnight show and then we went to bed.

     In the morning, we ate breakfast (buffe- style) and eventaully made our way out of the ship; we were one of the last ones off and on the bus to the center of Stockholm since we were manuevering as one big group.    Nevertheless, we got to the center, and walked around a bit.
     Now I will take some time to tell you of this little friendly rivalry between Sweden and Finland. A couple of months ago, Finland won some important ice hockey game against Sweden, 6 to 1. Now, several months later, Finns are still bringing up the topic of how they won, and you can see guys wearing black shirts with a big "6 - 1" (although Sandra says that whoever wears that shirt is in danger of being beat up by a Swede). Nevertheless, I will also share another tibit of information; in Finland, it is customary that during a bachlors party, the man getting married has to do something embarrasing (ex: on the ship, there was a man that walked around in a pink bunny suit).
     Now to continue back to my Stockholm adventures, in the middle of the Stockholm center, there was a famous Finnish boxer (or wrestler) that was having his bachlor party and as a result was sitting by a cafe outside (in the center of Stockholm, Sweden, must I remind you), wearing a Finnish ice hockey suit. It was quite funny; you could clearly tell by the looks on people´s faces who was a Swede or Finn. It was quite funny. I chuckled. Sandra said in his case, it was okay for him to wear that, beacuse no Swede would attempt to beat up a Finnish boxer.
     After we walked around the center for a while, we went over to the old town of Stockholm. There, I visited the Royal Palace where the Swedish monarch resides (yes, Sweden still has a king). It was quite nice, I spent a few hours in the palace, walking around all the different elaborate rooms, listening to tour guides. Unfortunately, since I spent a good amount of time in the palace, I had little time to walk around the actual old town.  Even so, I still did, even if for just maybe 45 minutes, and I even managaed to buy some souvenirs. Right before we left Stockholm for the ship, Sandra, Anita, one of her sisters, and I ate pasta at an Italian restaurant (everyone left for the ship before us).
    Back on the ship, it was a (slightly) similar schedule as the night before: we (Sandra and I) walked around the ship, spent some time on the top deck with the rest of the family, read, ate chocolate, ate dinner at a buffet, watched the midnight show, walked around the ship, went the bed.

      In the morning, we woke up, packed and got out the ship by 11ish. We stopped at some place to eat and then continued on our way to Tampere. Back at home for some reason, we were really tired but nevertheless, I went out with Sandra to buy stamps for my postcards and then met with her friend to eat a salad (that Sandra prepred at home) by the river and later bought ice cream. Then at night, me, Lina, and Esko left for the summer cottage in Ruovesi (Anita was in Spain for a couple of days for work and Sandra had to stay to sell strawberries).

July 2 - 6

Saturday  July 2:
    We woke up excited and nervous at the same time since today was finally the day to met our host family. We ate breakfast, checked ot our room and spent 2 hours in the conference room talking about Finnish family life and expectations. After that, we went off to eat lunch on a boat and after spent time in a medieval market in Turku. It was nice to walk around since there were people dressed up in medieval costumes and they were may stands selling wooden items, different clothes, jewelry, and food with a medieval-Finnish flair (salmon, sausage in lettuce, caramel apples/pears). After an hour or so we met by a bridge and quickly walked back to the hotel, it was time. We arrived and we were lined up one by one in the lobby, ready to walk into the dining area, were we would meet our family. Everybody was freaking out, unsure how to act when we see them yet excited to finally see them and see how they're like. I was the second to last in line, but no worries, the line moved up pretty quickly, after one went to the dining area they soon returned to the lobby with their family to retrieve their luggage. Finally it was my turn, and I walked in nervously; there I saw my new family walking towards me, Sandra and Lina looking exactly as I pictured them from Facebook. I was unsure whether I would hug or greet my family with a handshake since Finns are known to be more modest and shy, but I ended up hugging every family member. We got my luggage and headed to the car. What I expected to be an awkward  2 hour car ride was actually an enjoyable ride where we talked and passed by quite fast. When we got home, I went off with Lina to Tampere to play soccer with a few of her friends. We played for 1.5 hours or so  around 5:30pm and then we returned home. I enjoyed meeting her friends and it was a lot of fun playing soccer with them (my team won, if anyone was interested in knowing). We ate dinner when we came back home and went off to bed since I had not yet gotten a good night´s rest after our long gruesome plane ride to Finland.
 
Sunday July 3:
    After waking up at 9:30 and eating breakfast (I tried for the first time scrambled eggs with mashed strawberries, and although it seems like a strange combination, it was quite delicious), we went to a Lutheran communion at 1:00. Anita and Esko were the godparents of one of the girls getting confirmed and it was apparent that they play a rather significant role in the process. Anyways, after the event ended (it was about 1.5 hrs long), we went to go pick up Lina from a restaurant where she went to work as a pianist for a few hours (she was not with us at the confirmation). We stopped by home to get a jacket, as it was getting cold, and then we went off to the summer cottage of the girl´s  family. There we ate moose soup (moose meat and potatoes in a broth) and 'Bambi´ meat (I asked if that was deer, and they told me assuringly that it was not deer, but something like Bambi, a smaller deer). I was very excited to taste this as I never had moose nor Bambi and I must say it was very good. For dessert we had this delicious cake with layers of light cake, whipped cream, and strawberries (I went back for seconds). We left for home soon after dessert.
     Since it was Sandra's birthday, her friends came over with little gifts and candy and I got to meet them.  They also went to the store to buy candy and what they came back with was salted licorice, soft licorice, and chocolate with licorice pieces (it has become apparent that the Finnish have a fetish for this stuff, I don´t know how or why for it taste rather....terrible I must say, but they love it indeed). We watched a movie together called Mr.Nobody, it was a pshycological film that makes your brain hurt. It was quite good except I personally believe it would have been better if it was shorter. After the movie we went to eat a light meal before bed and talked before Sandra's friends went home. (I forgot to mention that in the morning, the family woke Sandra up by singing happy birthday and will be getting her one of those proffesional cameras for her to take when she goes to Uruguay this school year).

  Monday July 4:
Today was nothing special; Anita was at work until 4:30 and Esko would be away until Wednesday night. I had a chance to finally skype with mom, the first time we talked since DC. Lina´s boyfriend, came over in the morning, but left before 3, around the time that Sandra left for work to sell strawberries (3 to 8). After they both left, Lina and I decided to bake something exciting from a Finnish recipie book, so finally we decided on cinnamon pulla, which is a traditional Fnnish sweet bread that contains cardadom, a very unique and strong spice related to ginger.  However, we agreed to omit the addition of this spice, since to anyone that is not finnish, it is not exactly the most pleasant  taste in the world. Even so, they turned out quite good, though we  agreed that it could have used more cinnamon (and Lina and later Sandra admitted that they missed the cardamom flavor, but that´s not important). Anita came home before 5 and for dinner we had vegetable stir-fry and pasta with ketchup, which was quite good actually (although I don´t think I would like to try that with our good o´l ketchup infested with mysterious ingrediants) . Sandra came home around 9, with a great stomachache from eating alot of strawberries. Even so, she was happy to say that she had sold all the strawberries (Although I personally believe that that was because she ate most of them. jk. Apparantly they are the best in the area, but I shall judge that for myself when I try them).

Tuesday July 5:
Today we (me, Sandra, Lina, and Joohan) ate breakfast at this little, older restaurant in Tampere. Actually, to be honest, we missed breakfast since we arrived arfter 11, so there was just soup and bread, or pastries. I ordered a finnish pancake, this rice pudding in ryebread type thing, and a slice of bread. After that, me and Lina walked down Tampere (Johan headed home and Sandra had a dentist appointment and later strawberry selling). We bought me a monthly bus card (for 35€, unlimited bus use in Tampere), and then stopped by the music festival in the center of Tampere to listen to a sing-a-long. After we visited Anita at work to give her my future temporary phone which she barrowed from a collegue(since she forgot to ask for the password) and then headed back to a mall in Tampere. We later sat down to eat ice cream where we finally decided that we were tired and agreed to go home. Later after Anita came home, we had salmon, potatoes, and salad for dinner. Sandra came home at 8 with a container full of strawberries and after eating some (most) of them, I must admit that they are the best strawberries I have ever eaten.

Wednsday July 6:
     Today Lina and Sandra´s grandparents came over in the morning with their black poodle, Bigot (or something like that). They came to Tampere for a dentist appointment, and left Bigot here for a few hours. Lina had driving lessons in the moining, and Anita was working from home but she was in her office and was not to be disturbed if unnneccessary. Sandra and I went to take Bigot for a walk around the neighborhood. At this time I got to see how pretty the neighborhood was; they live on and around a hill, the hill being set next to a rather large lake, where the streets follow no particular pattern or criss-cross grid, but rather seem to curve to their own liking. There are houses and townhouses scattered around, following no specific archetcural deisgn. One would think that this would make the neighborhood seem unorganized and unharmonious, but actually it gave a sense of individuality to each home as well as uniqueness and coseiness to the community. Scattered amongst the houses were patches of trees (segments of woods if you will) with small ponds and gravel walkways where one could take a walk or jog. Anyways, you get the jist, it's a nice place to live.
  In the afternoon, I played soccer with Lina's friends again.

Turku (July 1 - 2)

Friday July 1


8:15-9:00 Breakfast
 During breakfast, Marika went over with us three (who missed all of
 yesterday due to our unfortunate travels, to be posted later on) the information about
 yfu policies that we missed yesterday. 


9:15-10:30 Workshop on adjustment and culture shock (yawn)


10:30-11:30 Walk to and tour around Turku Cathedral
 It was a nice cathedral, where a yfu voulteer told us
 intersting information about the cathedral itself as well as the
 history of the coffins there and such.


12:00-1:00 Lunch at viking-style restuarant
 Food. again. although it was quite good actually (like everything
 else we have eaten

1:00-3:00 Guided tour of Trun Linna (old castle/fort)


3:15-4:15 Exhibition: Tuli on irti! (Turku on Fire)
   This exhibition was organized because Turku is the culture capital of Europe for 2011         and because Turku was burned to the ground 31 times. It mainly focused on fires (great fires around the world, games based around the theme of fire, history of fire) and there was also a small area dedicated to football/soccer and it´s history.

4:15-6:30 Free time in Turku
    I went to the mall and ate ice cream with Morgan and Arely

7:00-10:00 Time at Lake, Sauna, and Barbeque
         THis was our first experience in the sauna, and in a strange way it was actually   enjoyable to sit in a 72C room (about 180F I believe) except for the fact that it was hard to breath (it kindo of burned). Nevertheless, when we had enough, we would run out and jump into the lake (excpet me of course since I had my contacts in). Eventually we went to eat sausages, salad, and this amazing Finnish chocolate (Fazer). Oh and before we were let out to go to the sauna, the yfu staff made us try some (unpleasant) Finnish foods. It included some fermented cow milk, some type of yogurt, sticky brown stuff (that looks like mashed up dates) made from bread yeast, and little black pieces of salted licorice (reminded me of some type of medicine a doctor would shove down your throat and watch you with a smirk as you try to consume it as fast as possible with tears coming down your eyes). 

10:00-11:00  Headed back to the hotel with a few of my friends (most stayed and would return to the hotel on a later bus). We walked around Turku a bit, noticing how the nightlife was just beginning to wind up.




 Saturday July 2


    We woke up excited and nervous at the same time since today was finally the day twe would meet our host family. We ate breakfast, checked out of our rooms and spent 2 hours in the conference room talking about Finnish family life and expectations and stuff. After that, we went off to eat lunch on a boat and after spent time in a medieval market in Turku. It was nice to walk around since there were people dressed up in medieval costumes and there were several stands selling wooden items, different clothes, jewelry, (etc.) and food with a medieval-Finnish flair (salmon, sausage in lettuce, caramel apples/pears). After an hour or so we met by a bridge and quickly walked back to the hotel; it was time. We arrived to the lobby and were lined up one by one, ready to walk into the dining area, were we would meet our family. Everybody was quite uneasy and anxious, unsure of how to act when we see our family yet excited to finally meet them and see how they're like. I was the second to last in line, but no worries, the line moved up pretty quickly; after one went to the dining area they soon returned to the lobby with their family to retrieve their luggage. Finally it was my turn, and I walked in nervously; there I saw my new family walking towards me, Sandra and LIna looking exactly as I pictured them from Facebook. I was unsure whether I would hug or greet my family with a handshake since Finns are known to be more modest and shy, but I ended up hugging every family member. We got my luggage and headed to the car. What I expected to be an awkward  2 hour car ride was actually an enjoyable ride where we talked and it generally passed by quite fast. When we got home, I went off with Lina to Tampere to play soccer with a few of her friends. We played for 1.5 hours or so (leaving he house around 5:30pm) and then we returned home. I enjoyed meeting her friends and it was a lot of fun playing soccer with them since there isn`t really that type of opportunity at home (or maybe it´s just because we Americans are jut to lazy for that sort of thing) Oh, and my team won, if anyone was interested in knowing. We ate dinner when we came back home and soon went off to bed since I had not yet gotten a good night´s rest after my long gruesome plane ride to Finland.