Finnish Adventure: Everything's an Adventure

Today started with a "language lesson". Mostly it was a scavenger hunt, but there were quite interesting things to see. We were put in groups and each asked to go into a Finnish design store to check out items and look at prices. Then we walked down the esplanad (sp) and asked who the figures were depicted in the statues down the center of the parks.

The next stop was to the ferry docks of the boat which travels to Suomenlinna multiple times a day. At some point, probably when the weather is warmer, I would be very very excited to visit Suomenlinna: http://www.suomenlinna.fi/en/

After this adventure, we went to the market which was amazing, in my opinion. I have never in my life seen so much salmon. The pastries were beautiful. There was tons and tons of rye bread. While I have not learned much Finnish, my three words serve me very well. I say "kiitos" a lot, it means thank you. It is unfortunate that the Finns are not a very chatty people because there is very limited opportunity to practice, but it is a little bit wonderful because I can fake being Finnish with just this word and "hei" (a.k.a hello). My other word is "anteeksi"which means "I'm sorry" or "excuse me" and therefore is very useful for me. Here are my photos from the market:

As our final lesson, we went into a cafe to order in Finnish and we were supposed to have some small talk...but I think our teacher gave up on us slightly because she just chatted with us in english. I had my second bowl of the semester of salmon soup.

The picture doesn't do it justice - sooo tasty. Then I decided there were some stores I wanted to pop into, so wandered on my own for a bit. The first place had these darling red boots that I had seen before. They are a very thick felted material...I was tempted to get some slippers of the same material. Going into the iittala store I was shocked at the price of some of the glass items in our apartment. Next I walked through the stores at the harbor front. One of the tents had yarn! I think that this guy has sheep or takes wool and dyes it. Assuming I'm correct, the price was actually reasonable, but I walked away for today because I had plans to go into the largest yarn shop in Finland (which is only a couple blocks from our apartment).

The yarn shop on the way back to my apartment did not disappoint. There were so many options. I did wish that there was just a table where I could sit and knit, but the store was so packed with yarn that people just kept moving. Some brands were familar to me, so I am not sure how to tell which yarn (if any) is actually made in Finland. What was impressive about the selection was that many types of yarn were available in up to 20 different shades/colors. I desperately wanted to finish the projects that I have and buy new yarn to make things. I somehow missed the knitting needles, but they must be there somewhere.

I had a load of darks to do so tried to use a washing machine for the first time in a foreign country. The purex laundry sheet seems to be working well. I checked on the machine after a half hour and it said there were 20 minutes to go....after and hour it was still going and my clothes are locked in there, so we'll see. I am very excited to have a washer and a dryer in my building which I think is of no cost to me! Now I am watching an episode of the West Wing and Sally has returned with peanut butter that she found at the grocery store!

Although I've gone on for days already, here are pictures from Thursday morning's tour of Senate Square:

This wasn't on our tour...but the light was really cool - our first day with visible sunshine. This is St. John's church which is the largest stone church in Helsinki.