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.