Having fun with my roommates

So I went to glögg night on Thursday. I met new people, some of them Scandinavians and others Americans studying Scandinavian languages. There were some students of Finnish there too. They were only beginner students, but it was interesting to hear how much they knew Finnish. The languages spoken mostly during the evening were English and Swedish/Norwegian/Danish. It was nice to realize that I really did understand most of what was spoken. Only the Danish part was a little hard to understand. We drank glögg and red whine, Salla brought some home made salmiak vodka, and there were also Scandinavian foods there. Felt a little like home.

Friday was the International coffee hour again. And like last week, I went to eat dinner with my Asian friends. This time, however, there was a new person joining us. One of the Danes from Thursday. He came to the coffee hour and so we invited him to join us. Again we ate there for almost two hours. I ate too much, by the way. Also, I decided to taste jello and I must say, it tastes awful. After dinner I came home to find my roommates playing cards. There was also a new person there, a friend of one of my roommate's come to stay with her for the weekend. Jenn and Sarah, being over 21, invited me to join them for drinks in a bar. So I went. And drank too much. I only really had three drinks, but apparently here in America they make the drinks with a lot (and I mean A LOT) of alcohol and sugar so as not to taste the alcohol. And so I was quite drunk. But I had lots of fun. And I got to know these two roommates much better, and another friend of theirs. There is one very good thing about American bars, by the way; I did not smell like tobacco after leaving. They are not allowed to smoke in bars here.

On Saturday I had a hangover (as you might already have guessed). And by the way, I have not had a hangover for about three years, so this was not a welcome feeling. I have always been wise enough to stop drinking in time, but not this time. Well anyway, after taking a shower and some pain medication, my roommates, the friend and I went shopping in Gateway (a mall). I bought a nice pink drinking bowl for Fiona (my little puppy), a pair of high-healed shoes, a pair of sandals and jeans. And spent only 45 dollars. Pretty good I think. And then we went to eat at Taco Bell. Ok food, not as good as in Taco House in Finland. In the end, Saturday was a nice day. Spent the evening with my roommates doing nothing smart.

My favorite event of the weekend happened on Sunday. We (two roommates, two of their friends and me) went painting pottery. I painted an ice cream bowl. It turned out quite nice. I think I am going to bring a lot of painted pottery home with me. :) In the evening I finally tried to do the homework I had been neglecting all weekend. Boy was it hard to do. I could not concentrate. My weekend was great. I was with my roommates all weekend and had lots of fun. Must do that again.

After the weekend I have been trying to concentrate on schoolwork and so have not done anything that actually requires mentioning. I have been so busy with my work that haven't really had time to do much else. Tomorrow evening going out with Daniela and Jen, my exchange student friends. Thursday evening is the Scandinavian meeting, so I'll go there. Otherwise, nothing special planned. Hope you guys are having fun. And if you want a painted mug or bowl or something, just tell me and I might make it happen. :)

The flags of mourning

So how was my weekend, you ask me. Well, Saturday was my doing nothing day. I did some laundry. My first time ever to do laundry here. I figured out how the machines work. Wasn't really hard. But after I was done I got really annoyed. All my clothes and towels and stuff were full of lint. Especially the ones that had been in the dryer, but the others too. Really annoying. Those machines down there are not so good. But what can you do. I have no other place to do my laundry. I really didn't do anything else worth mentioning on Saturday. Didn't go out for drinks. My friend had to cancel. But I spent some time with my roommates and their friends that evening. Had fun.

Sunday, on the other hand, was quite busy. Went swimming. Quite warm water at the rec center at the university. And a lot of clorine (at least it felt like it). Afterwards I had to put on some eye drops and take an allergy pill because apparently I am a little allergic to clorine. Eyes were very tickely afterwards. Have not noticed that in Finland. But here... Might have been the combination of warm water and clorine. The water used in Finnish swimming pools is a lot colder. So how about it, you chemists? Do you have an answer to this?

Later that day went for a walk. Decided to visit the other grocery store that is a little farther away than the one I have used here so far. When I came back I noticed that Salla (one of the Finnish girls here) had called me. She asked if I wanted to go to Japan night at the university. And so I went, with her and Nina. It was quite nice. Cost 5 dollars. We got some Japanese style food, or at least that was what it was supposed to be. If you told me I was going to get Japanese food, I would be expecting some kind of sushi of something. But what we got was a little more like American food, but with a rice cake and red beans dessert (very Japanese looking actually, but not so good). But the food was ok. Then there was a fashion show and some other nice programs. We went to a great ice cream shop afterwards. Very good chocolate fudge brownie ice cream. Yum.

On Monday morning I was really quite surprised when walking to my Spanish class. There is a park here in the middle of campus. Now it is full of very small white and red flags (maybe about 20 cm in height). Apparently the red flags represent the Americans that have died in Iraq. All together 3000 of them. The white flags represent the Iraqis that have died in the war (soldiers and civilians). One white flag represents 6 Iraqis. There were 120 000 white flags on the ground. I mean the whole park is full of these flags. They are put into the ground on the lawn. And the lawn area there is about the size of a football field. The whole area is covered with the flags. The sight of it really can't be explained. The white flags especially, they never end. It just makes me sick to think of all the people that have died there in Iraq. Again, very good that I carry my camera with me all the time. This is just one way of seeing how much against the war the people here really are. The flags are called the flags of mourning. And so they are.

Must mention one more thing. On Monday I got back my Spanish exam. I thought it had gone very badly. We had to write two little essays. I could not think of anything to write about concerning the subjects given and wrote anything that came to my mind. But guess what I got? An A. Very odd really. But ok. Who am I to complain about an A? Apparently what I wrote about didn't much matter. I just didn't have so many mistakes in what I wrote. Thus the A. Nice.

Tomorrow going to Glögg (glögi) night. The Norwegian exchange student I met before is hosting it. Will be interesting. Going there with Salla. Tell you about that later on.

What a game!

It is official. I now have seen my first American college level basketball game. And boy was it exciting. On Thursday the Ducks (our team here, if you don't happen to know that yet, and notice I wrote OUR team, yes, I am now a Duck fan, a true Oregonian) won the Stanford Cardinals. The Cardinals are apparently quite a good team, so it was a great victory. The announcer started with the team rosters. First he said the names of the Stanford players that were going to start the game and right then and there all the students got up and turned their backs to the court so as to show their disrespect. After every time he said a name, the crowd would yell "SUCKS!". It was so funny. My Mexican friend and I could not stop laughing. And when the announcer came to the names of the Ducks, we couldn't even hear them because the crowd was cheering so much. The game in itself was really very exciting. The teams were so even. At no point of the game was one team more than four points ahead of the other. But in the end the Ducks ruled, but really only by 7 points (66-59 was the score). And those points the Ducks got only during the last minute or so. I took a lot (and I mean a lot) of photos. None of them were really that good (only a few were), since they were moving all the time (what a surprise). But I got pictures to prove I was there anyway. I really must say that the spirit or the togertherness of the audience was really wonderful. Almost breathtaking. Something that can't be explained, it must be experienced. One funny thing, the Cardinals had these twins on the team. They were like sooooo tall, way over two meters. Dave had told me about them before the game. When they were on the court at the same time they looked so scary. And boy were their feet large, I mean the shoes must have been like Finnish size 50 of something. They didn't even have to jump when dunking the ball into the basket. I would have felt like a midget next to them.

On to other matters now. I have noticed that I fit over here quite nicely. In Finland I always feel like I'm not dressed nicely and that my hair is all wrong etc. Finnish girls (at least in Tampere) dress so... how do you call it... viimeisen päälle... (it just won't come to me right now). Well anyway, they dress according to the latest rage and their hair is always so nicely put. But I have never been like that. Here I don't have to be that way. The people here (meaning boys AND girls) wear hoodies and sports shoes and sweat suits to class and everything. Ok, there are of course exceptions (like there are in Finland too, not all Finnish girls dress the way I just explained), but most people really do dress like that. It's quite funny really. But then again, I have not seen many fat students here. So they really must be quite athletic. Actually, the student recreation center (the sports place) is used a lot here. I actually started a body sculpting class on Tuesday. It's mostly muscle training, which is quite good since I don't do that so much even though I should. And boy was I hurting on Wednesday. I hadn't done almost anything athletic for a month, so that's the reason, since I did stretch and all. And by the way, very odd athletics courses here if you want to get the credits from them. I will have an exam on that course. Yes, a written exam. So odd. I also decided to start swimming here. I thought I might go tomorrow.

I went to the International Coffee Hour again today. But today it was not boring at all. I met many interesting people. And I went to dinner with four of them. I really went to the coffee hour with my Mexican and Australian friends, but in the end I lost track of them while talking to new people. I also met this one guy, I think he's a teacher here or something, and right from the start he apologized for the people in the US for choosing Bush as their president. :) Quite funny really. He was nice. Well anyway, as I said I went to dinner with four new friends. One of the girls is from China, the other from Japan, one of the guys is from Taiwan, the other from Hong Kong. All of them were quite good at English. What I thought was annoying at the coffee hour was the loud music. I sometimes had trouble understanding what they said, because I could not hear them. But anyway, only the girl from Japan is an exchange student like me, the others are international students, meaning that they are getting their degrees here and so staying here for a couple of years and not just a couple of terms. We went to eat at a dorm. They all live in dorms so they get the food there free. The Chinese girl was so kind as to "pay" my meal. (They get a certain amount of points on to their student cards every week and eat with those points, but apparently they never eat as much as they really would be able to with the points, so the girl was more than happy to pay for my dinner with her points. Everyone understand?) So we sat eating and talking there for almost two hours. Very fun.

I really do have to complain about the amount of work that I must do here. I am not used to this. We do not have to do so much in Finland, at least I don't. I am so tired of doing school work. And I just printed the list of languages that I have to memorize according to what language family they belong to, what branch of the family, where they are spoken and if they are alive or dead languages. Some languages are easy, like Finnish (heh), French, Spanish etc. But do you know all that about Scythian? Or maybe Chamorro or Pashto? I certainly don't, but I hope I will before my midterm.

I really don't have much plans for the weekend. I planned to go for drinks with my Mexican friend tomorrow evening. But nothing else. I really should do some school work, since I have an exam next week. And I should do some laundry tomorrow. I have no clean socks or underwear left. So must do that tomorrow morning. I'm actually quite happy to have some time to myself. This week and last weekend were quite hectic. Not that I'm complaining. I have had so much fun. But now I'm tired. A day doing nothing appeals to me very much at the moment. And if I happen to need people to talk to, I always have my roommates. And if I get really bored, I can always go shopping.

Oh yeah, I am drinking root beer at the moment. I think it is my first time ever to do so. At least I can't remember when I would have done that before. My roommate had bought some and offered one to me after having found out that I have never tasted it. But it tastes and smells quite familiar. I just can't place it. Do we have a drink like it in Finland?

Having a bad day

Today is not a good day. I woke up and noticed that mom had sent me a text message. My godfather died today (or actually yesterday in Finland time). I new it was coming soon, him having inoperable cancer and all, but it was still a piece of news that shocked me. Not a good way to start a day. And to add to that, I started talking to my boyfriend through Skype and after telling him the news about my godfather, he told me that one of his parents' dogs had died, had to be put down. Their third dog to die in the course of a year, all of them to cancer. Now they only have one left. I can't even imagine how that feels, to have three dogs out of four die in the course of a year. I sort of new that this too was coming, since he was diagnosed with cancer a little while ago, but still a shock. So not a good day today.

Maybe I'll go on to better things now. Before today I have actually had many good days. Thursday evening I went to a Scandinavian meeting. There was one Norwegian, one Dane, one Finn in addition to me and two Americans (the other had been in Sweden as an exchange student and the other is going to Norway as an exchage student). They were the greatest. It was nice talking to people who new a lot about the area I come from. I had fun.

Friday I went to the International Coffee Hour. It was kind of boring. My Mexican friend was there too, and we decided to leave and go see a movie in a movie theater. We saw Marie Antoinette. It cost only two dollars. Apparently you can go see movies, that are no longer in the normal movie theaters, for 1,50 or 2 dollars. This is possible in only one certain movie theater here. Quite nice really. The movie was ok, not really what I thought it would be, but still ok.

Saturday I went shopping by myself in a mall I had never been to. I like going to the malls alone first so that I can go to the stores that I want to go to. That way I can get to know the place better and see if there are any good stores there. Well anyway, I found the best store ever. I went in and right away found a dress I just had to buy. In the store there was this kind of bargain, buy one get one half off, so of course I had to find another dress to buy. I really don't have any good dresses in Finland so why not buy many here. Anyway, I then found another great dress and so bought two for 100 dollars. Quite cheap I think. Now I have a dress for both weddings I have to go to next summer. I wonder where I can find a good shoestore?

On Saturday evening I went out with my Mexican and Australian friends. We went to eat at a Thai restaurant (very nice place by the way, very friendly waitress, good food). Then we went to a bar and bought some drinks. We met new people and had great fun. Must do that again.

On Sunday I met with the two other Finnish girls and my host family. We drove around Eugene. They showed us many nice places. Afterwards we went to their home and watched a movie (a Spanish movie about Finland, Lovers of the Arctic Circle) and ate calzones (which are sort of pizzas but not). Those calzones they sell in that one pizza place in Finland, not really calzones. I ate the real things. You must remember now that my host mom is a great cook and knows a lot about food. Us Finnish girls also took a sauna bath (if you happen to remember that my host family has a sauna). A very nice day.

Oh yeah, I heard a real live police chase one day. I was home and then suddenly I heard a lot of police cars driving by. My roommate came home after that and said that about ten police cars had been chasing this one car. They had put barricades on the streets and all. I didn't think that kind of stuff happened here in Eugene. Why do people really think they can outrun the police? Too bad I didn't see it myself.

So that's what has been happening to me. I have been quite busy. Only today I don't have much to do, and I really don't feel like doing much. Had no classes since it's Martin Luther King holiday. I just hope tomorrow is a better day.

A bit tired.

I've been trying to write something in my blog for the past couple of days, but for some reason it hasn't worked. I don't know what's wrong. Now it seems to work, but we'll just see.

First of all, I am not happy. I got the 7th season of Gilmore Girls from my sister (which I am very grateful for), but it only has ten episodes. I was wondering about that before I started watching them, but then thought that it might just be a short season. Well, it wasn't. I am missing four episodes. And I don't have a TV here, so I can't watch them when they are on here. :( What can I do? I need to see the last four episodes. And why are there episodes of Nikke Knatterton on that disc?

Then I might just move on to what is going on in my life here. Well, classes have started. At first it looked like I wouldn't get any of the courses I wanted, but I actually did. Apparently a lot of people, after signing themselves into a course, take themselves out of the list. That is how I got in. I just kept a close eye on the lists through the internet, and finally I found a spot for myself in all of the courses. But Monday was an awful day. I ran around campus looking for the professors of the courses I wanted. And the campus here is BIG, at least much bigger than in Tampere. I was so tired by noon and almost went home even though I still had things to do, classes to go to. I am taking three courses, which in hours per week is quite little. I have only 13 hours a week. On Tuesday and Thursday I only have one hour of Spanish. And yes I am taking Spanish in English (a little getting used to by the way). The two other courses are linguistics courses: Languages of the World and Second Language Teaching (those kinds of courses I am used to studying in English so no biggy). I like Languages of the World the most. But even though I don't have many lectures, I have a lot to do. The amount of Spanish homework I get is murder. There is a lot to do for one course. I am taking almost the minimum. I am going to get 13 credits, we have to get 12.

Some of the teachers here are odd. They talk to the students like they were in seventh grade or something. My Language Teaching professor has warned us a couple of times that there might be some words we don't understand in the texts she gives us to read. When I read them I'm waiting for the hard words to come but they never do. The texts couldn't be more easy to read. And I don't speak English as my mother tongue like the rest of them!

Well, I have nice roommates. The first night I was here they invited to play a boardgame with them and their friends. The board game was called Apples to Apples. I was quite sure I would not know the rules to it and asked them to explain it to me. It turned out that I had played the game, but only by the name of Kuin Kaksi Marjaa (or whatever it is in Finnish). Their friends were super nice. I must say, I got lucky with my roommates (and their friends). The only thing is that they aren't that tidy. The kitchen here is not the kind of place I like to hang around in. I had to clean the bathroom because I just couldn't use it like it was. The door was all yellow (it was supposed to be white). It really looked like someone had peed (is that how you spell it?) on it. The roommate that I share the bathroom with said it had been like that when she arrived. How she had been able to use it all this time, I don't know. But my room is nice, even though it is quite white and a little empty. I'll at least have to buy something for the walls. The heater in my room keeps me up at night. It's this odd kind of thing that goes on when the temperature in the room goes under a certain point. And boy is it loud. Every time it goes on I wake up. And why don't I turn it off then, you ask. Well, if I did I would freeze. The houses here aren't built like the ones in Finland. They let all the cold air in and I don't have enough blankets to keep we warm.

And about my cell phone you ask. Well, I got my lovely new phone that I like very much. Then the day after a woman had called. Left a voice mail. And guess where this woman called from? The parole office. And I think it was even Eugene's parole office, which was kind of odd. She was looking for some guy, saying how serious that phone call was and that the guy should get in touch with her right away. Apparently he had done something he shouldn't have. I wondered about that but thought she had unknowingly just called the wrong number. A couple days pass and I get a phone call. This time I answer and it was some man. And what do you know, he is looking for the exact same guy that the woman from the parole office was. By this time I start thinking that maybe it is time for me to change my number. I do not want to get calls that are for some guy that has been in jail, and that will most likely go again (according to what the woman from the parole office said in her message). I get my new number (Dave was so nice as to call the phone company for me) and what do you know, a woman calls me looking for some other woman. By this time I was more than annoyed. But she hasn't called again, so I think I'll stick with this number. So that's the story of my phone.

That 's about all I'll write now. I am doing fine here. I just miss home a lot. And not knowing that many people, I am alone much of the time, which is not nice. My roommates all seem to have jobs and so are not here that much and my foreign friends are a bit busy with getting settled here. But we planned to meet tomorrow for drinks. I have a vocabulary test on Spanish tomorrow which I still have to study for (the second one this week and tomorrow is only Thursday), so must go. I'll write again some time. See ya.

Getting settled...

So now I have a new phone and a bank account here. Still need to get a place to live. Now living at my host family's house. They're very nice. Not the kind you expect Americans to be like. They hate their president and often call him a jerk and complain about what he has done. They are my kind of people. ;) They help me if I need help, drive me anywhere if I need a ride. Linda is also a great cook. They are very down to earth. I like them very much. We are going to look at apartments tomorrow. Yes, they are coming with me because they want to help in every way they can to make my beginning here more pleasant. I feel a little lost not knowing almost any people or place here. But today I made some new friends who feel as lost as I do. It was good to know that I'm not the only one. They are also exchange students, two from Australia and one from Mexico. We were together quite a lot today and will go to a bar tomorrow evening. Most likely I'll meet some American students next week. They're not really at the campus this week since classes start next week.

I'm actually quite tired now, so I won't write anymore today. Just thought I'd tell you all about my lovely host family, since some of you have already asked about that. So now you know what they are like. And I am having fun here, even though life here is a little hard sometimes. Miss you all very much.

In Oregon safe and sound

Ok, so I'm here in Portland Oregon safe and sound. I arrived yesterday at 11pm. Now I'm sitting in my hotel room and waiting for my host family to pick me up. They'll be here in about an hour.

So about my trip here. It was sooooo long and tiresome. It took more than 24 hours to get here. All my flights went well, no problems there. Only I wasn't very happy during my plane ride from Copenhagen (I wrote it correctly now Salla. ;) ) to Atlanta. It was the longest flight, took 10 hours. A woman with her three children sat next to me. The youngest was about three years old. And what do you know, she cried and yelled the whole way up and also after that, as well as the way down. I blaim her mother for it. Not once did she tell the kid to be quiet. The kid wasn't yelling because she was hurt or anything. She was yelling because she didn't want to sit still. The mother was trying to keep her quiet by giving her things she wanted and saying "you'll be able to get up in a minute, baby, just wait a minute". And did that work? Not a chance. That brat was spoiled rotten. Everyone could see it. I wasn't the only one annoyed, but I was the one sitting closest to them.

The questions I was asked at the airports were very funny, in my opinion. "Has anyone given you something to take with you on your trip? Has anyone used the electronic devices you have taken with you right before you left?" I was asked a million times what I am going to do in the States and where I am going. And blaa blaa blaa. But what else can you do than to just answer truthfully and not get annoyed?

Delta lost my luggage. I'll most likely be getting my suitcase back today, however. I think they lost the luggage in Salt Lake City. I was actually quite sure they would, since I was there only an hour before my flight left. But at least now I didn't have to carry the luggage myself. :) It was expected that I would not be getting my luggage right away because, as I have already mentioned, I took four flights here.

What else...? Already I hate the fact that when buying something, you can never really know how much it costs. The prices here are shown without tax. When buying something from Atlanta, I had taken out the exact amount of money I thought I needed only to realize that it wasn't enough. Is it so hard to add the tax to the prices beforehand?

I'm kind of tired, so I'll stop now. I have to be getting ready to go anyway. I'll write more later on. Happy New Year everyone!