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.

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 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.