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.