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Published: October 1st 2007
Pekko the Reindeer
A real live reindeer, how cool!!Hey everyone, I promised I would update after my weekend in Helsinki. So, here it is.
First I have to start off on Thursday night in Vaasa. I went to the University of Vaasa with one of the Rotary members and her family. They were having a sort of open house thing to kick off the new year. It was pretty fun. But the best part was that I got to see my first real live reindeer!! As part of the event they had this guy walking around with a reindeer and he was letting people take pictures with it and pet it. It was so cool! Of course I had to take a picture with it, which you will see here.
On Friday I didn't have school until 11:40 since my Japanese class was canceled. I got to sleep in! Then Ros-Mari, my host mom, took me to school since she was on her way to work. I only had history class at school, and then I was done by 1:00. The train station is only a couple blocks from the school so I had brought all my stuff for my trip to Helsinki with me and I
was going to just stay in town and go to the train station when my train came. So, anyway, after school I had lunch with Christine since she ended around the same time as me and I had some time to kill before my train came. Then at 3:22 I started my journey from Vaasa to Helsinki. My first train went from Vaasa to Seinäjoki, a town about an hour from Vaasa. That train was kind of old, but not bad otherwise. The seats are a little smaller than those on trains in America, but other than that it was ok. The train was really full! Vaasa has several universities, and I think alot of students were going home for the weekend. Anyway, I'm just glad I bought my tickets in advance. In Seinäjoki I switched to a train going to Helsinki. That train was really new, and the seats were a little bigger and more comfortable. I had brought some books to read on the train and also my iPod. When I was about 2 hours from Helsinki I had gotten tired of my books and decided to listen to my iPod. However, I was horrified to discover that
They're NOT Buttons!!
Ok, seriously, doesn't this give you the impression that those are buttons? I think they do that just to have a laugh when they see people trying to push them. my iPod, which had been charged the night before, had only the tiniest sliver of battery left! It must have been on in my bag. I decided to listen to it anyway, assuming that I would only get through two or three songs, but, miraculously, that teeny tiny sliver of battery lasted over an hour. I was so happy! After my iPod battery ran out I noticed that in the arm of the chair there was a place to plug in headphones and listen to the radio. There were several stations to choose from so I figured I could probably find something. However, I couldn't figure out how to change channels. There was a plus and minus sign in the arm of the chair which I thought were buttons to change the channel. However, upon closer inspection, I discovered that they were in fact decorations carved into the arm of the chair. How bizarre! So, after a few minutes I gave up on that and decided to just look out the window. I arrived in Tikkurila Station at about 7:30.
Tikkurila was a very small station and I was supposed to meet both my friend Jose (the j is
Jose
He looks so different! pronounced like a y btw, so please don't ask why it's Spanish) and the people I was staying with there. I hadn't seen Jose in over a year and I had only seen the people I was staying with in pictures so it was going to be quite the challenge to find them. I walked up the platform searching for any face I recognized. Finally, after a minute or two, I heard someone say "MacKenzie". I turned around to find a very short man in a Dallas Cowboys jacket. This was Simo. Simo is Jari's brother-in-law and I would be staying with him and Jari's sister, Minna, and their son Roope in Vantaa for the weekend. As for the Cowboys jacket, he was an exchange student in Texas when he was in high school. Simo was parked right there so we put my stuff in the car and then I had to find Jose. We were just going to meet for a few minutes to say hi and decide where and what time to meet the next day. So, Simo and I walked one way up the platform looking for him. However, we didn't find him. Then I sent him
a message asking him where he was. He replied, "On the platform." Gee, big help. So, then we walked the other way up the platform, and I saw him. He looks so different from last year! I was like whoa! Simo told me later that apparently we had walked past him several times and I must have just not recognized him the first few. Haha. Anyway, so we talked for a few minutes and we decided to meet on Saturday at 11:00 at the train station in downtown Helsinki. Then Simo and I left and went to his house in Vantaa. There I met Simo's wife, Jari's sister, Minna and their 5 year old son Roope, who is ADORABLE by the way. He wanted to have a party because I was coming so he "decorated" and made Minna make brownies. Anyway, so we ate dinner and brownies and I talked to Minna and Simo. They had actually both been exchange students in high school. Simo, as I said, was in Texas and Minna was in Minnesota. Consequently, they both speak near perfect English! It was really fun to talk to them. Anyway, at about 11:00 I went to bed.
Helsingin Tuomiokirkko 2
This is a statue of Alexander II. I have no clue who that is or why he has a statue in front of the church. I woke up on Saturday morning excited for the day ahead. I ate breakfast and showered and at 10:30 Simo took me to Helsinki. I would have just rode the bus but Simo wanted to go into town because some shop there was selling root beer, something he dearly misses from his time in America. Anyway, so I got to the train station by 11:00, met Jose, and we set off for our day around Helsinki. Since it was my first time in Helsinki he decided to show me some famous sites first. The first thing we saw was Helsingin Tuomiokirkko (Helsinki Lutheran Cathedral). It was a really cool old church. According to Jose, "It's a really famous church. Well, at least it's famous in Finland. I don't know if people in other countries know about it, but it's famous." This seemed to be his explanation for just about everything we saw. Obviously not the world's greatest tour guide, but I didn't care. After that we saw Uspenskin Katedraali, an orthodox cathedral in Helsinki. It was pretty cool, too. Then we saw the president's house. It's totally different than in America. You can just walk right by it and it's
no big deal.Then we visited Kauppatori and Kauppahalli, I think. I don't remember if that's exactly what they were called, but we'll just say it is. They are two big marketplaces in Helsinki that sell all kinds of stuff. After that we happened to be in the old neighborhood where Jose lived when he was young. So, he showed me his old house and his old school. Then we walked by the sea for awhile, it was really windy, and we visited some really famous park. I don't remember what it was called though. After that we came back to the center of the town and walked through Kamppi. Kamppi is a new six story shopping mall, the lower part of which is one of the central bus stops for most busses in the capital city area. I thought it was huge, but "it wasn't that big" according to Jose. After that we visited Tennispalatsi, the biggest movie theater in Finland. It has 17 screens and also many restaurants. We were hungry so we decided to eat lunch. Since I had mentioned to Jose that I had not yet been to Hesburger, Finland's major burger chain, he said that we
must eat there. The food was pretty good, but I think it really just tasted like McDonalds. Being a Finn, Jose wanted to have some coffee immediately after lunch. So, we went to McDonalds because the coffee is cheaper there. They were having some sort of special day so the coffee was actually free. What luck!
After McDonalds we went back to Kamppi and took a bus from there to Espoo. It cost € 3.60 for the like 15 minute ride from Helsinki to Espoo. I thought that was pretty outrageous, but there wasn't exactly anything I could do about it. Jose said that it cost so much money simply because we were crossing the imaginary line between Helsinki and Espoo. He said that if we were traveling the same distance within Espoo or within Helsinki it would be much less. I thought that was pretty stupid, but oh well. Espoo is much different than Helsinki, from what I could see. Helsinki really looks like a big city. Everywhere you look are tall buildings, shopping centers, apartments, basically concrete and man-made things. Espoo, however, is completely opposite. Everywhere you look are trees, and, if you didn't know any better,
Uspenskin Katedraali 2
That stupid tree is in the way. you might think you were in the middle of a forest or something. The trick is that even though you can only see trees, just beyond those trees, on all sides, are more buildings. So, it's like this huge city in the middle of the woods or something. It's kind of bizarre. So, anyway, we went to Jose's house. His family is preparing to move in the next month or two so there were boxes everywhere. There was barely any room to walk. He showed me his room, which made my old room at home look spotless. Not only is it his room, but he also records music in there so there was all this recording equipment and instruments and cds everywhere. I really don't know how anyone could live in there, but I guess he's a boy so he doesn't care. Anyway, so, we hung out at his house for awhile. We listened to his band, Sverige no Börje. They weren't too bad, especially considering the fact that all of the music was recorded in his bedroom. We also listened to his older brother's music. His brother is a rapper who goes by the name of Ruudolf. I immediately
The President's House
Not quite as heavily guarded as the White House. wanted to ask "The red-nosed reindeer?", but I managed to stop myself. After that he showed me his new house, which is only about a kilometer away from the one he lives in now. It's not finished yet, but it will be soon. It was really cool. It's kind of hard to describe though. So, you'll just have to take my word for it. After that we decided to go to the store to buy some salmiakki. Salmiakki is this candy that practically everyone in Finland loves, but almost no one eats it outside of Finland. There is a good reason, too. It has a very, um....
unique flavor. On our way back from the store he made me eat some. I had tried it once before and thought that it was the most disgusting thing that I had ever eaten in my entire life, but I have heard that if you eat it more you get used to it and you start to like it. So, I ate some. It wasn't that bad. And I did find that the more I ate it the better it tasted. When we got back from his house his mom and little brother and
Kauppahalli
At least I think this is Kauppahalli. I'm not totally sure. sister were home. His mom was really nice and she spoke pretty good English. She of course insisted on making us food. So, we ate and then hung out at his house for awhile.
At about 8:30 we decided to go back to Helsinki. We met one of his friends and his friend's friend in the city. There really wasn't much to do so we just kind of hung out there. Jose wanted to go to the store in the city and buy some more salmiakki. He wanted to buy the white kind because he claimed that that was even better than the regular black kind. Apparently, salmiakki is really white when it is made, but normally dyed black afterwards. So, I guess the white kind is purer salmiakki or something. Anyway, he made me try some of that too, since I had never had it before. When I put it in my mouth my first instinct was to spit it out immediately. The flavor was soooooo strong. However, I stuck with it because I knew that if I spit it out or made a face he would make fun of me. I continued to eat it and eventually
The Sea
Yeah, so, it kind of looks the same as Vaasa. it got better. I think it was just that initial shock that threw me. At about 10:00 Simo picked me up from Helsinki and we went back to Vantaa. There I had some dinner, a taco, and then went to bed.
On Sunday morning I was supposed to meet Jose again at 11:00 at the station in Helsinki. My train left from Pasila station at 3:40, so I figured that I could just spend a few hours with Jose in Helsinki and then take the train back to Vaasa. On the way to the train station Jose sent me a message saying that he wouldn't be able to meet me until 11:40. I guess he woke up a little late and the buses and subways go less frequently on Sundays, so anyway, he would be late. It ended up being ok though because when I got to the train station I had to find a locker to store my bags for a few hours so I didn't have to carry them around. Then I went outside and took a few pictures of some of the buildings around the train station. Then Jose arrived and we started walking around the
Me!
What happened to the rest of my hair!? Haha, obviously it was a bit windy. city again. He showed me Ruttopuisto which translates to Plague Park in English. It's this park where I guess some of the victims of the plague were buried. There were some tombstones there, but it wasn't like a cemetery. It really was like a park. I thought that that was a really depressing reason to have a park. We also went to Tori which is a famous market in Helsinki, I guess. There weren't that many stands there, but I guess it's just because the market season is kind of ending now. Then we went to Kamppi and ate lunch there. There really wasn't much to do because everything is closed in Finland on Sundays. I mean EVERYTHING. So, we just kind of hung out in the city. At about 2:15 Jose had to go back to Espoo. Then I was on my own in the city for awhile until I had to take the train. I walked around and took some more pictures. Then at 3:15 I took a commuter train from Helsinki to Pasila. That was kind of interesting. I wasn't sure how to buy a ticket for the commuter train. Jose said that he thought I could
just get on the train and pay for it there, so that is what I did. However, since Pasila is just the next station after Helsinki, the ticket guy never got to me before we got there. So, I just road the train for free. I guess they must not really care though or else they would do something about it. Then I caught my train back to Vaasa. Ros-Mari picked me up at the station and told me that we would have to pick up Hesburger for Jani and I for dinner since there was like no food in the house. Then we went home and I started doing this blog. Oh, also at about 9:00 I talked to mom for about half an hour. She said that I had to put that in here. Haha.
Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well, and I hope you enjoy the pictures!
Be sure to notice the second page of pictures!!
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Mom
non-member comment
you miss me!
You didn't mention how much you miss me though! It was great to hear your voice and I'm so glad you are having fun. Also, you "rode" the train - not "road". I guess you've forgotten some of your English. XOXO