A Week in Review

I can't believe that I have been in Finland for about four weeks! I guess the old saying, "time flies when you're having fun" really applies to my experience here. Since I haven't had time to post the last few days, I will try to update you on my activities since Tuesday.

On Tuesday Kaati, Konsta, and I visited the largest city in Finland (home to about 500,000 people). While Helskinki is not the oldest town in the country, it looks old enough (and it is - it was founded in 1550) with its neo-classical architecture and huge churches. We took a streetcar (number 3T) as a sort of introduction to the city's biggest landmarks and most famous buildings (museums, the opera hall, etc.), and then spent the rest of our time on foot. Our first stop was the old market hall, which was founded in the 1800's and is still used as a place for merchants to sell various food items (like bread, candy, and fish) today. After we walked through the hall, we visited the open-air market. The square was full of people (probably mostly tourists) buying all kinds of food and gift items from merchants set up under brightly colored tents. Once we had taken it all in, we began a leisurely walk back toward the city center, where we visited the Stockmann department store. This store is probably the largest and most famous department store in Finland, and while it was in most ways comparable to the department stores found in large cities in America, it did have some distinctly Finnish offerings (like a sauna shop). After making our final purchases and taking a few photos, Kaati, Konsta, and I were ready to head back to Porvoo. Once in Porvoo, however, the day was not over for Kaati and I - we had to quickly change clothes and grab water bottles and yoga mats and head over to the free aerobics class that is held twice each week on a sports field just outside of the city center. I was a little apprehensive at first - I had never done aerobics in the U.S. (when the instructions are given in English)! The class ended up being really fun (and good excercise), however, and even though I sometimes felt like the most uncoordinated (and slowest, as I was always at least 5 seconds behind everyone else because of the language barrier) person in the world, something about moving around to cheesy workout music with at least 200 other people was extremely invigorating and satisfying.

On Wednesday, Kaati and I took a walking tour of "old Porvoo," and I learned a lot about the history of the town, which is the second-oldest in Finland. In the evening, I went with Vintta and her kids (Santtu and Emma) back to Tampere, which is where I am now.

Thursday was fairly laid-back. One fun new thing that I was able to do was wash rugs...yes, I know that probably sounds like one of the most boring, tedious tasks in the world, but that's because in the U.S. there aren't cool public carpet-washing stations like there are here in Finland. I learned the correct way to wash a rug (actually, according to Santtu, there are several different washing "styles," but the most important thing is that you scrub both length-wise and width-wise on the rug)...and had a great time doing it!

On Friday (yesterday), Vintta, Santtu, Emma, and I ate dinner in Tampere and then walked to see (well, we actually accidentally found) a sort of adventure competition where the competitors had to run, bike, swim across a river, and rapell down the waterfall that was part of the hydroelectric dam.

Today Santtu and I went into the city and walked around and did a little shopping.

Sorry I don't have time for pictures right now...maybe tomorrow!