Jyvaskyla!

Now that I finally have a day to myself, I actually have time to update everyone on what I've been doing this week! I arrived here Monday afternoon and was exhausted, but I hunted down Alex (a girl also from NC who I had been emailing before arriving) and she showed me where the nearest grocery store was so I could eat before I passed out around 6pm. Trying to adjust to 7 hours ahead will kick your ass!

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday were spent in the exchange student orientation (Thursday was epiphany so it was a national holiday and most things were closed.) Orientation was pretty boring and filled with a lot of information read sUpEr EnThUsIaStIcAlLy (that is super sarcasm, by the way) by our Finnish hosts. The food in the campus cafeterias is pretty delicious...so far this week I have had salmon stew (YUMM!), swedish-like meatballs (but that is not what they were called, I don't think the Finnish want to give them credit for such a delicious little meatball), and yesterday I had potato and game casserole. What kind of game you ask? REINDEER AND MOOSE! yupperz, and it was muy delicioso! I keep throwing some random spanish out every once in a while because I feel ridiculous only being able to speak English while all the other international kids speak multiple languages.

On Tuesday morning the very first thing I did was blow the fuse in my room when I plugged in my hairdryer (or maybe I didn't blow a fuse, I don't know anything about this sort of stuff) and maintenance STILL hasn't come to fix it. Apparently they are on call 24/7 but maybe 24/7 doesn't mean 24/7 in Finland? So the light and sockets in my room do not work, but light is pretty crucial in a place where night falls at 3pm. My roommate (who I assume is Finnish and is away on break because when I arrived there were a ton of things in the apartment) hasn't shown up yet, so I have just been leaving my door open and letting the light from the hallway stream into my room so I can at least see a little. Even during the day the "sunlight" isn't much help...its more of a grayish back light and the sky kind of just glows.

I have been into the city center a few times to go shopping and pick up necessities, and that is a pretty neat little part of town. I've seen a few unexpected bar names such as Memphis, Hemingway's Cafe, and Parnell's (an Irish pub). There is a bar called City Bar that is very close to my apartment, and I have been there everyday for a drink or two with friends. The food there is very good and pretty inexpensive, and it has really big portions which means leftovers and I am a huge fan of getting multiple meals out of one!

Also at the City Bar is a man named Ena. When I first met Ena I thought he was just a normal dude, but I was very mistaken. After talking with him for a few minutes he told me that if I should ever marry, I should pick him. This guy is mid 40s I'm guessing, so I told him I was much too young for both marriage and him. He then tells me I have beautiful eyes, which is a compliment I can handle. Then he tells me I have beautiful ears, and he reaches out and touched one of them with the creepiest look on his face! He was enjoying the thought of my ears entirely too much. Thank goodness my friend Alex swooped in and ushered me to the bathroom with her where I was half tempted to wash my ears. (Those of you who know me well also know that I hate hate hate my ears, as one sticks out much further from my head than the other. So being told they were beautiful and then having them caressed was just tooo much for me.) We have become good friends with a few of the guys here that are also on exchange, so we have employed them as our protectors against the drunken Finns who are way more open once intoxicated.

The Haddaway concert I mentioned in my last blog was pretty awesome. Such a random person to be here performing, but such a classic song to hear live! A whole group of us went and I met some more of the exchange students and have been making new friends everyday. Everyone is so nice and outgoing and excited to be here with this incredible opportunity to live in a new environment!

I am struggling a bit with the way some things are done here. Before I came, everyone told me that the Finnish are super efficient and technologically advanced. Thus far, I have found it to be nothing but the opposite. I am currently plugged into the wall via an Ethernet cable for internet that goes in and out of service and I have a daily limit of information I can process. I don't really understand all that mumbo jumbo but Skype, Facebook, and probably this blog apparently use a lot of my bites of whatever it is so my internet is pretty shitty. That, in my opinion, is not technologically advanced. As for the efficient part....well, they have some proving to do for me. I have not seen efficiency as a strong point. I know I will get used to the way things are done here but there are definitely some things I could teach them if they want to get things done a little more simply. I am not talking shit, I am just calling it how I see it! Maybe a surprise is around the corner.

I have a bit of a headache from last night hehe and should probably start making some moves towards my day but I will try to blog more regularly so that I won't have to combine 5 days into one blog. Oh and a few people have been asking for my address so email me at carter054@yahoo.com or contact my parents who will send it to you also. I'd post it on here but what if Ena somehow stumbles across my blog! Kidding, but there are creepy people in the world and I'd rather not have one at muh door, waiting to fondle my ear. (or should I say FINNdle my ear?) har har har.

Over and out, players!