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

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.