From Saturday:

Well it´s 4:30 am Saturday (Wisc. time) or 12:30 am Sunday (Finn. time) I´ve been up almost 36 hours with no sleep and only 6 hours of sleep in the last 90 hrs or so. I´ve gone through so many tired-dead-hyper phases and now I get to sleep for 10 hours! Finland is great so far (though they didnät stamp my passport :( ) Though I really hate travelling in such a large group and being so conspicuously foreign. I´d be fine by myself, just another quiet Finn (who´s not very good at speaking the language ;) ) Everyone here is just great, lots of questions, but it´s fun to be able to talk with others and learn more about this culture. I hope I get more comfortable speaking, I´m a little scared to, to tell the truth, I know I´ll sound retarded when I do. The opera was ok (Der Rosenkavalier) except I found myself comparing the supertitles (finn and english) and then realized that they were singing in German, and I distracted myself. Everyone in our entire group slept for most of it. I felt the performing was good (wonderful tubist), however I felt their curtain call really detracted from the performance by being really disorganized. After the show I rode the tram back, had tea with Maija and Jukka, and talked for a long while and then time for sleep. The bathrooms are different, they have a tiny washing machine/dryer in them, and there is no shower curtain, just a tub, and this keyboard is sort of annoying because some of the keys are shifted just a little so it is a little annoying to type and punctuation.

Sunday:

This morning I set my alarm for 10:30 am, but fell asleep and woke up at 11:15. So I took a quick ´shower´ and got to the tram stop just in time to make it to the station to meet the group. However, people were really late anyway, so it really didn´t matter whether or not I was on time. Andrea hurt her foot at a party the night before so was at the Dr., Leila was with her family, and Kjersti slept in. So the few of us went to the Ateneum (art museum) and wandered for awhile, I found some paintings I really liked, bought some cards, a calendar, and some finnish magnetic poetry. Then we went to lunch at a yummy pizza buffet (very finnish :) ) But the pizza is different, very flat crust and not very much sauce, I liked it a lot. Everyone else continued on to more churches, but I went back to the apartment to wait for my relatives to get me. Then I met relatives, cousin Mary, and Raija Elina, and their 5 children. We went to Mary´s house in Riihimaki, where we had pizza, pullat, and leipa. We just visited for awhile (Mary is from Minnesota though has been here for 18 years now). Then we drove home, Elina stopped to show me a good sauna to go to if I have the time. Hopefully Tuesday. Maija and I then proceeded to watch the election, and just talked and looked at pictures until Jukka got home, then more chatting and watching some comedy, listening to music etc... Bed around 12:30. I get to go to school with Maija in the morning and watch her teach 7th grade Finnish.

Monday:

Woke up early, 6:45, got in a decent shower, and was able to slowly get ready, that was nice. Then we hopped on a tram and a bus to get to school. School here is very different, Maija´s class was so loud and disorganized, that I know I would go crazy if I had to teach the same students. It´s amazing that finnish students rate as high as they do around the world. Her class was only 1 and a half hours, and then we took a bus and a train back to the city center. From there we proceeded to a university building to have lunch with some of her students. It was free, and not that bad. Good bread, which is a nice change from all the processed american food. Then we went walking all over. I saw the main buildings, went shopping, went to the folklore archives, sat in the bathroom with the best view in all of helsinki, bought a marimekko bag, (it´s super cute!), bought Harry Potter in Finnish, hopefully I can eventually learn how to read it, and maybe it will help me in the translating that I already know the book pretty well, so I´ll be able to compare. I also bought some postcards which I will hopefully send. Then we went to this gorgeous little coffee shop for tea, and then grocery shopping before coming home and making dinner. This apartment is super cute, completely maija (Which is really traditional), now we shall nap before we go meet some of my group and some more students from here to go drinking in the ´dive bars´ in Kallio. Tomorrow will be another full day, with a hopeful sauna!

Terveisin!
Sheena