Yes, you can catch cold in a foreign country

I must have not had quite enough orange juice, lol.  I am trying to think I am not sick, but have gone through many a Kleenex (actually Lambi is the brand of facial tissue here), want massive quantities of hot chocolate, and took some Tylenol because I woke with a pressure headache.  Thankfully we had furniture design class yesterday morning so today our only class is at 5:30pm, history.  Another major positive - the clothes washing machines were fixed yesterday so I was able to wash my two large loads of laundry!!!

Other random things:

1. Something my studio professor stated as our goal for our first design project was really neat in my opinion, "prove that your architecture lives within the details".  It was a great summary for why I wanted to study in Finland and appreciate a lot of their architectural designs.  Even if I do not love the overall look and even through modernism is not yet my favorite aesthetic, I do really appreciate having a design intent and using that same methodology for the form of the building, the layout of the plan, the development of the section, and the design of the furniture and doorhandles within the space.

2. On Saturday in the Helsinki National Museum I observed that while cultures vary greatly, children everywhere are pretty much the same.  There was a birthday party happening while we were touring the museum for a child turning about 5 (I think....I'm bad with ages) and there were many parents taking their children around on their own.  While, as they like to remind us, the Finns are typically a quiet people and think a lot before speaking so seem quite reserved, this was not yet true of their children.  Darling people about thigh high were yammering away to the adults with them, climbing places the oughtn't, and grabbing at their parents to make sure all their thoughts, opinions, and questions were heard.

3. All over Finland are chairs that were designed and have actual titles.  Or knock of versions of these designs.  Our apartment, for example, contains a derivation of an Aalto chair.  I want to know if the chairs in America are this way and we just neglect it or if this is another demonstration of the passion this country has for design.