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Published: October 28th 2014
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Many of you are aware of the burrito shaped hole in my heart which developed shortly after arriving in Finland. Luckily, I was finally able to fill that hole! Nathalie found a burrito place in Turku and it was amazing. It was like Qdoba or Chipotle except really delicious. Yeah, you read it right. I said except like as in contrary to those places. Cry about it. For this momentous occasion, I wrote this haiku.
I love burritos.
Rice, beef, and cheese. Sour cream please.
And one for the road.
Sadly, I did not grab a second burrito to go but to do it over again I would.
You may have also noticed that I renamed my blog to an actual blog name. "All My Friends Are Asleep" seems like an appropriate name for a West Coast American living in Finland. In Finland, I am ten hours ahead of all of my friends back home so when I wake up, they go to sleep. It's kind of horrible but at least I really look forward to all of the messages and snapchats and facebook updates I wake up to every morning. If
I'm up early enough, I may even catch a few people! It's also kind of crazy how my nights happen before everyone else's so when I wake up hungover and get snaps of people out drinking, I know how they will feel in ten hours time.
Last week was quite a bit more eventful than the week before and I believe this week will be even more so. Projects and papers are picking up so I have exactly one project and one paper. I'm avoiding that paper right now while I instead write on my blog. I also have my final exam in survival finnish. Wish me luck!
On Friday, I recieved a care package from Ryan and Gavin and my Little Erica. I almost cried it was so perfect. It was basically a box of things I lovefrom people I love. It was a gift and a curse because while I was so touched and was overjoyed to recieve it, now I miss them more than ever. I look forward to being a part of the poop stoop shenanigans.
On Wednesday, because our classes for that day had
been cancelled, Nathalie, Liza, and I went to the Ahtari Zoo. We accidentally snuck in for free but as poor college students, we have no regrets. Sorry Ahtari! Close your gates. We saw all sorts of great animals, but most importantly, we saw the owls and we saw the bears fight! One second the two bears are just chilling, one is happily gnawing at a stick and the next thing we knew, they were attacking each other! It was so awesome! And scary! And we were really close! A lot of you got snap videos.
Friday, we celebrated Lukas! Thank God we are in Finland, where he can happily drink as much as he wants. I also attended my second hockey game with Arja, a member of my friendship family. It was a really great game! We lost our two point lead in the last round and then took it back within the last three minutes! Much more eventful than my first game.
I also learned something really interesting about Finnish and American culture on Friday. In class, I had learned that Finnish people stereotypically don't say that they are really happy because it
is like a form of braggery. I then took this topic and spoke with Arja about it, to confirm whether it was true. Finns don't say that they are happy when they are asked how they are doing, they would instead say that they are okay because being really happy implies that you are happier than everyone else. This in turn, made me understand why Americans are considered to be stereotypically proud to many Europeans. When I think of being proud, I imagine arrogance and that just doesn't seem like the experience I have generally had in America. I at least wouldn't consider Americans to be more arrogant than everyone else, but really this pride is our acknowledgment of our accomplishments. We are proud and we do brag. I often say that I am very happy because my life is ridiculously blessed! Now through the eyes of the Finns, I can see how that may be percieved as bragging when in the U.S., it is typical to acknowledge when your life is going well. Americans are also generally more comfortable with saying what we are good at. That is not to say that we lack all humility, but when we
have certain talents or skills, it is acceptable to be aware of that and to indulge in them. Anyways, this concept of pride was very interesting to me and put a lot into perspective.
Saturday, Nathalie, Liza, and I took an overnight trip to Turku and we had such an amazing time! Many of you may know that Hesburger is like the finnish McDonald's. So when we signed up for our cheap motel which was name Hesehotel, maybe we should have been suspicious, but we couldn't believe it when we arrived to see that our room was above a Hesburger! So much class. The reception was literally in the restaurant. It was the cashier. It was hilarious. After we checked into our room, we just walked around the city and visited an art museum. That night, we went to dinner at this pretty classic touristy Scandinavian restaurant named Harald. We were happy to see there were quite a few Finns there though, so we figured the food must be alright and it was! In fact is was really really delicious! One of the best meals we have all had in quite a while. That night, we stopped
at a pub called The Waterloo which used to be the public toilet. We were lucky to also stumble across a local band playing there. The pub was pretty cool, I would definitely go back, but the show was really mediocre. This didn't bother the Finns whatsoever though! It was really great to watch them all dance and rock out and have a great time. Saturday night we slept so hard too! Because we finally had real mattresses to sleep on and we were so tired from Lukas' birthday the night before. The mattresses in our student village are basically the foam pads we put on top of our beds in America to make them extra comfy. I hate them. One thing about Finland that's a real downer. Sunday in Turku, we went to the castle which was only 5 euros for student admission and it was so cool! We could have spent an entire day in there I think. After that, we only had time for dinner and to catch the bus home. Overall, it was a really nice and relaxing trip.
I wanted to publish this ASAP because in my next blog I will talk
about St. Petersburg and Halloween! So many great things to tell you all about!
Miss you all to the bottom of heart!
Hannah
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