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.

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