More Helsinki, Bum Knee, Speak Finish

So my mother visited for easter, and that was great. We spent a few days bumming around Jyväskylä, seeing the sites, going for bike rides, listening to choral concerts, and drinking beer. We had pretty decent weather, so that was nice. Then we headed to Helsinki for the weekend, and did a lot of sight-seeing. The best part was a visit Suomenlinna, a old military fortress on an island just off of Helsinki. The day was really warm but SUPER foggy, so being on the island seemed other-worldly, with lots of chunks of ice floating by and the city seeming centuries away. Unfortunately, I left my camera in Jyväskylä, so you'll have to wait until my mother sends me some of the photos to see what I'm talking about.

Since then, I've just been working alot. Pekka has another project for me to think about, and there are still some things to work out on the first project we had, and of course there's my dissertation to think about (oh yeah...THAT.) The weather has been really fantanstic...finally kevät tulee (spring is coming). Unfortunately, while walking in Helsinki I managed to really screw up my knee - I think that I've irritated the tendonitis I developed after the Chicago marathon a few years ago. The down side is that it is really hard to do ANYTHING in Jyväskylä without biking or walking a few miles. The up side is that I don't have to worry about running out of ice to put on my knee. Thanks for the bottle of Ibuprofen, Jess! It's been a life saver! For those of you unfamiliar with Finlanomics, a package of 10 pills of ibuprofen costs a little less than $6.

I've started attending a Finnish conversation course. It meets twice a week for 3 hours at a time, which means ALOT of speaking in Finnish. Which is good, but I find that I'm really exhausted after our course meetings. Especially since many of the people in the course have been in finland for a lot longer than I have. No niin...(yeah, well...) I'm trying.

Ok, I'm going to break the cardinal rule of blogging - don't ever say anything negative about anyone - just this once because I'm so fed up. The resident of the third room in my flat recently returned from a semester abroad in Brazil. He's a Finn. He's also the WORST FLAT MATE EVER. Loud, filthy, inconsiderate, unfriendly down right rude, and steals my food and beer. Also blatantly ignores requests to modify his behavior. What the hell? Why can't I live with any of the nice finns I've met?


Sorry. I won't let that happen again. Don't forget to check out my photo stream for some new photos, like this one!