We Are Family...

I met with my Kummi family for the first time today. Kummi is Finnish for godfather/godmother. They will be looking out for me and spending time with me while I'm here this semester. There is the mother, Arja, who has two gorgeous blonde haired/blue eyed daughters, Noora (16) and Laura (12). She also has a son, Joonas (17) that I didn't get to meet because he was refereeing a football (soccer) match. The father, Petri, has a son who I didn't meet today because he is living somewhere else, I believe.

They are a perfect match for me. They are very liberal, love independent films, eat local/organic, are into theatre (all 3 kids do youth stage acting programs), hate Bush and are generally quite relaxed and groovy. Arja works with European Union financing and Petri is a master carpenter. He built their house and their sauna (which each Finnish house comes equipped with). I'm going over to their home (about 6 km from campus) on Thursday for dinner. It should be lovely. I'll post a picture as soon as I get one. They also plan to take me snow skiing, ice fishing, and maybe hiking (new adventures await me at every turn!)

I'm still sick, but pulling through. I'm back to class tomorrow morning. I had one day of class before going off to Oulanka, but the real deal gets going in the morning. I have Nordic Nature & Environment at 10, Survival Finnish at 12, and The Arts of Scandinavia at 2. It will be a very busy day and I will probably be crashing as soon as I return to my flat.

Emily came over tonight and we cooked supper. I have never really cooked anything of consequence before, but it turned out amazingly well. I cooked this salmon stuff I bought where it's the salmon mixed with a cream sauce and some herbs, etc. I boiled some rice and plopped the salmon stuff on top of it and had some peach tea I picked up. It was really good. Emily wasn't very hungry so she cooked a pot of pea soup (YUCK!) which she promptly declared as nasty and flushed it down the toilet. Then we feasted on the ice cream Emily brought over with her.

Before dinner I did some food shopping. I realized around supper time that I only had snacky food (chips & salsa, fruit, etc.) but nothing for an actual meal. I fixed that. Now I have salmon, tortillas, pizza, and some great looking pasta. I also bought much more milk (I go through a liter in a little less than two days, most of you who know me are certainly not surprised by this fact).

Finished Stephen King's On Writing yesterday and have now begun The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three. A slow start, but seems promising. I've also introduced some folks to Eddie Izzard (whom they love) and Strangers with Candy (which they are amused and slightly confused by, as per usual).

One thing that is frustrating about trying to cook here is the fact that so little food preparation instructions are in English. Something that I understand how to use--shampoo for example--is riddled with complex instructions, all in English. However, if you give me a frozen quiche with instructions in Finnish, Dutch, and Swedish, you can't expect me to understand what to do with it! (The rice and salmon tonight were improvised entirely, but it was fairly simple).

Also, I am still repeatedly listening to The Smiths' The Queen is Dead--an album that Graeme gave to me before I left. It is wonderful. I listened to it on the plane the first day and have listened to it almost each day since. Mah-velous!

Well, I'm off to blow my nose and go to bed.

Good night to all!

d