Sokos Hotel Vaakuna Mikkeli

... made lunch/tea (salad with meat (don't know what sort as still not fluent in Finnish) and cheese), and after we'd eaten we realised that it was impossible to get to the stadium in time for the Denmark match at 5.30pm. So instead we had another cup of tea and left a little early for the Finland game. Which was a good job, as it had decided to start raining, so we got a tram up to the stadium, and then had to stand in a queue to buy tickets for the match from possibly the slowest ...

Can't really say much about today as all we really did was travel further south. The scenery pretty much remained unchanged and that was pretty much it. The campsite we stayed at had a really pretty lake and was really nice just to hang out at late in the afternoon.
Onwards south the next morning...

Today we went to Jyvaskyla (which we named J-town for simplicity). That really is about all there is to report as it was a long day of driving along straight, tree lined roads. Highlights include watching Team America on the bus, and kicking a soccer ball around at a petrol station during a driver break.

... with lots of bread, potato salad and beetroot salad. It was quite the meal Laura
whipped up for us. It was also Kayi's birthday so during dessert we all went around the
table and sang her Happy Birthday in as many languages as we could muster. English,
Finnish, Swedish, German, Russian, Dutch, French, Vietnamese, Spanish, Mandarin and
Cantonese. It was excellent!
On Wednesday we went out to eat at Harald's, a viking ...

... to venture out to the Finnish baseball game after class. Rachael, Jamar and I walked to the baseball arena where we met up with Ingma, Laura, Filip and Bree (who were already there because we were late). So... Finnish baseball is not like our baseball. The bases are all out of whack.. the players kind of run in a zig zag around the bases and if you hit the ball out of the field, it is actually out, not a home run like you would think.
On Thursday we all ventured ...

... some drinks and the gorgeous view. I was also introduced to a new beverage by my Spanish roommate, it was beer mixed with orange fanta... it was interesting. But I definitely like the German version that I had last year better (beer + lemonade). Yeah so the next stop was Parnell's, an Irish pub.. had a pub quiz here on Finnish culture. I was teamed up with Rachael (US), Jamar (US) and Roman (Russia) .. to say the least, we were pretty cocky all throughout the ...

... to meet Heidi, one of the Finnish Tutors, for wine and snacks. We also ran into Piret (from Estonia) she joined us too. It was so beautiful and blissfully relaxing sitting right on the lake as
the sun set (it was 11:00 pm!) and talking and eating, I really love the laid back attitude and lifestyle in Finland.


On Tuesday we had a bonfire at lake Vehkalampi, about 20 min walk from Kortepohja (student housing campus aka. where I ...

... 2. Aitutaki, Cook Islands
3. Queenstown, New Zealand
4. Wellington, New Zealand
5. Tokyo, Japan

Kristiina:

1. Aitutaki, Cook Islands
2. Hiroshima, Japan
3. Christchurch, New Zealand
4. Kailua, O'ahu, USA
5. Queenstown, New Zealand

Noin... Aitutakille täysin ansaitusti murskavoitto ja ihme on jos kovinkaan nopeasti (jos ikinä?) haastajaa maailmalta löytyy. Queenstown sijoittui myös hyvin listalle ja loppumetreillä Hiroshima ja Tokio nousi myös ...

... night I sliced open my finger and had a week off work anyway), and as they were only playing this one gig for the whole year in Finland, it became a matter of principle that I was to see them. ...But I also went to experience a Finnish Summer Rock Festival. The festival in Helsinki, though large, was only for one day and free. Provinssi Rock however is one of Finland's largest Summer Rock Festivals, a three day long extravaganza of booze, music and plenty of people ...

Four hours later, we realized that we had only seen a small part of this world-famous estate of Peter the Great...but our energy was at an ebb...time to renew at Che with a revisit to the flamenco beat of Flamma...Cuban drummer Ibel was sensational...sitting on a "Cajon" and at times his hands couldn't be seen, they were beating so fast!