kevät

I suppose I could apologize for not blogging in a while. life here has continued to continue in its lovely little way here, still as full of surprises and potentially blog-worthy adventures, I suppose, but it really just feels like life. this isn't an excuse for not blogging, because I know there are people who blog about everyday life, but I'm not one of those people and blogging hasn't occurred to me lately.

for the beginning of Pääsiäisloma (Easter vacation), I made my way to Helsinki to which Brother Dear Bub came from Estonia. we spent a morning and afternoon wandering the sun-thawing city and talking of this and that and a late afternoon and evening wandering a darkening city with Jula (an exchange student from Argentina, and a lovely young man) as a guide.

as soon as Jula met us, he took us to the 'best place in Helsinki', a tiny coffeehouse on the sea. an unreal little red wooden cottage. a few people have been wondering how I managed to survive in a Nordic country for seven months without drinking coffee... and to them I have to say: I wonder too, now. I'm still not a coffee addict, but sitting there the sun, outside the impossible red cottage on a frozen inlet of the Baltic Sea, how could I take hot cocoa or tea with the mustikkapiirakka slice we shared? right, I couldn't. I have no idea if that coffee was good or not, but the two cups that I drank there shall remain in my mind forever as the epitome of coffees.

Bub and Jula afront the legendary red cottage.

coffees and mustikkapiirakka.

on the ice next to the sublime little red cottage was a potkukelkka ride. I have slowly fallen in love with potkukelkkas while here (our relationship started out rather bumpily but I shall miss them terribly). Brother Dear and I went for twirls.

it was magical.

just up the hill from this was the Sibelius Monument which was lovely to visit live after seeing so many photos of it ja silleen.

would have been nice to be there on a windy day, I hear.

we climbed to the top of Helsinki to catch the sunset. I took a picture of the women's bathroom there, but I find my photo only partially catches the allure and, as it would also be something of a spoiler, I shall refrain from posting it. but ladies, if you are ever in Helsinki during sunset, go powder your nose at Hotel Torni. (it's free for the public).

our original plan to witness sunset at Suomenlinna was slightly delayed, so we explored the island fort in the dark. recalls George's Island. a bit. it was magical in the fresh darkness (stars were only just sprouting), and I would like to revisit it in the day.

the last of the light as we ferried islandwards.

I spent the night at Jula's host family's place. his hostmother speaks Finnish and his hostfather Swedish. they speak Finnish to eachother and their mothertongues to the kids. everyone speaks English to Jula, and Jula speaks Spanish on the phone with his Argentinian friends in Helsinki. the English tv program was muted so one had to read the Danish subtitles. it was incredible.

 the next day we met up with Kate (Alaska) and Alexandra (Italy, my roommate from Lapland, whose sister and friends were visiting from Italy) and wandered the city some more before heading home.

Helsinki's tuning fork of a subway. isn't it adorable?

at home, on Easter Sunday, I tried mämmi. for those of you not familiar with the stuff, it is a traditional Finnish Easter food made of malted rye and molasses and infamous for its excremental looks. having been taunted and prepared for this experience since I arrived, I have to say I was expecting something far more unbearable. I wouldn't want to have to subsist on it, but with milk and sugar (there seems to be a large debate about what kinds of sweet dairy products to smother it with) it was actually quite edible.

since then, spring's hesitant approach towards Finland has accelerated remarkably. this week rain started coming. o, how I have missed the rain! there's nothing quite like coming out of school one day and smelling rain after a long winter... when everyone talks about looking forward to summer I can't help but nod and smile and wonder if that mixture of dread and longing that I feel about leaving here and going home can be called 'looking forward'.

a few days ago I got an email from AFS with my return flight information. looking at the date of my departure caused a sort of numb panic that (probably) had nothing to do with the fact that it is the day AFTER my visa expires.