Bitches and Money

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bonrino everybody!

Andy and I went on a city tour yesterday and learned a ton of facts about Finland, including:

1. Helsinki has a population of 500 000 people.
2. 1/10th of Finland lives in Helsinki.
3. There are 200 000 lakes in Finland.
4. "If you can't get it at Stockmanns, YOU DON'T NEED IT" (Stockmanns is a huuuuuuge department store)
5. Kids go to school from ages 7-16. A hot meal is included everyday.
6. There are 20 universities in Finland.
7. The official languages are Finnish and Swedish. Kids have to learn both languages in school, but most also speak English, German and some speak Russian as well. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
8. The bear is Finland's national bear (hahahhahahahahhahahah) ANIMAL, JEEEZ.
9. Apparently, Finnish people drink the most coffee of anyone in the world.
10. Finnish people hate andy sargents

ummmm, that's it for facts. The tour was pretty neat. It took us to outside of downtown which was neato. Not that downtown is bad or nothin'. We actually feel really safe here. Seriously, mom and dad. SAFE. We've only been robbed twice. AND one time andy was robbing me.

Bathrooms. Well this is a topic we could talk about for days but i'll just tell you two things that we've learned about Finnish bathrooms. 1. Sometimes you have to pay to use them (that's common in europe?) 2. Sometimes there are little sinks right in the stall.

Smoking. People do that here too. Inside. GRoss.

Peanut Butter!!! We bought some but not after searching high and low (in one store). We found it and it's crazy looking. But it's ok tasting. Andy didn't die.

Seats outside ("patios"). They all face the street, lined up like theatre seating. And that's how people sit! Not facing each other, but sitting beside each other faced outwards. Weird! Awkward!

Homeless people. Haven't seen any.

I haven't been feeling so great for the past few days, but Andy's been nursing me back to health. It's gettign annoying. I'm pretty much better now.

May Day. On April 30th of each year the university students have this big party and dress up in overalls and wash a famous statues and put a hat on her. Yep. And then they drink. The biggest party of the year here in Finland, or so they say. Tomorrow everyone has a picnic and celebrates the end of the academic year. And andy. Or so she says.

Tonight we meet up with our tour group. Hope they're not losers AND that they have computers and/or discmans.

OH YEAH. We went to a Finnish sauna last night. It was like a regular sauna. HOT. But lovely, of course. We didn't last very long (we had it for 1hr and 15 min. and we lasted 45 min.). We're not sauna savvy yet.

byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyeyeyeyey
Sonja (the lame one) HEY

Hi Guys

My dad wanted to know about the cars here. They drive small, FUEL EFFICIENT cars here which is great! Canada could learn a thing or two! Mostly VW's,Mercedes, little Toyotas etc. Also there are a lot of Eurovans dad so you would fit right in here! I haven't actually seen any autoshops or places that sell car parts, which is weird cause that's all i've been looking for! ahaha!

I bought a couple of CD's and then realized that I don't have any way of listening to them. Doh! I didn't think to bring a discman and staring at the CD's doesn't transfer them on to my ipod (funny). It seemed like a pain to bring my laptop but now we think that it would have been a good idea because it's pretty little, we could upload our pictures and have internet in our hotel room. Oh well.

Tomorrow we're doing another tour of Helsinki and then heading out to an island where there's some sort of fortress. Or whatever. I don't know. Sonja knows about it and that's what matters. I'm just following her.

We slept in today and don't really have any plans which is nice cause this will probably be our last day like this for about 21 days. The tour days are pretty packed with activities. Sonja's going to end up carrying me around alot.

Bye!
Andy (the cool one)

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Comments

[TJ Sargent]

HEY
HEY!

[dadio]

Sounds like you are having fun, too bad Sonja is not feeling well. Maybe she should lay of the BOOZE ! Are all the Eurovans silver like they are here ? Have you met any good looking Boy's, you know the type that maybe able to support you in stead of me doing it ????????

[Stein]

Bathrooms
Get used to paying for bathrooms, it happens a lot around there. You might see outhouse on the street and stuff that you have to pay for. They are cleaner then regular outhouses but don't try to cheat the system by sneaking two people in. They are on some weird system that self cleans after the door closes the second time, so if you think that one of you can go and then hold the door open so the second person can sneak in without paying, don't, your asking for trouble! By the way, McDonald's with bbq sauce sounds awesome, too bad the sushii didn't have bbq sauce then people might like it. Hey do finnish words have lots of n's? I picture finnish as english but with lots of n's. Finnish names have lot of n's, that's all I know.