I have a duck
-QUACK-
By Tilly, cause she rocks my socks.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Finland Part 2
Part two came a little sooner than expected! (Thanks to the hard work and dedication of Sophie ;)
Did I make your mouth water with the pancakes yesterday? Mine was! Back to the dorm food for Abby.
So where was I... Oh yes, we were leaving for the summer house.
The drive took a little over an hour. We stopped at the last store before we hit the (the direct translation from Finnish is cottage, but I thought little cabin was more fitting) cabin. We bought all kinds of Finnish stuff for the night.
My favorite part of the drive was when we turned onto the once gravel, but now snow packed road because the view was amazing. There was snow all around you, then huge green trees. Pretty, pretty--now only if the sun would have shown a bit more!
We got to the cabin and just kind of sat down and planned our night. Then the first thing we did was have a tour of course!
These are pictures from inside the smoke house. Those are reindeer furs.
The cute outhouse, but maybe not so cute if we had to use it? Most people don't have toilets in their cabins. They are lucky ones!! (and that means Sophie and I were too!! ;)
A further away view of the cabin. If you look carefully on the right side you can see a red car. Then behind that you can see the outhouse and behind that you can see the smokehouse.
So, Sophie saw the snow mobile and had never been on one and really wanted to go. It was too warm out like 1 C out. Which is above the temp of water freezing, and so there was a little bit of water on top of the lake and snow mobiles will get stuck. So we went on a little ride just on the roads around the cabin (all gravel (i think?) but snow packed nonetheless). I found that it was quite hard to steer. Then when Sophie tried to drive--oh.my.goodness. I think it was the most I had laughed all trip. We were stuck in the middle of the road for 4 1/2 minutes just her trying to turn around!!!! Hahahaha, people from the South I tell ya what ;)
When we got back it was nice to go inside and get warm by the fire. Every time I went into the house I had to eat a cracker...or two. They are really salty so they are addicting. Ville missed these while he was gone, so it was obviously something I needed to try.
I put butter on the crackers, and I think I would enjoy it with cheese or something as well. This is a beer that we tried. It was good. Better than a lot of beers that I have had in England!
After we were warmed up just sitting around it was getting darker. We had one more thing planned for the night. For lack of better word or phrase I'll refer to it as ice jumping. Ville's father went out to the lake right by their dock and scooped the snow on top of the lake. Then he took his chainsaw and cut through the ice to make a square that was big enough for us to fit in. Although we were nervous we knew we had to do this while we were in Finland!! So Ville had started a fire in the Sauna after our snow mobile adventures. We sat in the sauna until we were going to pass out (or was that just me?? haha) and *very important step of putting on grandma knitted woolen socks* and ran outside to the ....dun dun dun.... little square out of the big lake.
Now, I know what you might be thinking. If you jump in what if you can't find the hole, what if your body goes into shock, what if you can't lift yourself up from the water because the ice is slippery, what if something in the lake grabs you and pulls you down only to find out there are actually mermaids in Finland. These were the thoughts running through my head before I totally agreed to do this. Then when I expressed my fears/thoughts Ville kindly explained that we would be able to touch.
WELL, that solved just about every problem except the shock one--eh we will take our chances ;)
So with our wool socks we ran out to the lake and Ville was first (of course, like I was about to get in there) and he jumped in, dipped down, and got the *heck* out. I think Sophie was next, (remember this girl is from ALABAMA) she was like oh.my.gosh. and got out.
Remind me, why am I doing this again?
Abby.....
Fine. I jump in. Holy s**t that's cold. Ok get out--run back to sauna, in there for about 2.3 seconds when I about die from suffocation--run back outside into the winter air soaking wet with ice cold water, and----- relief. I had to stand out there quite sometime before I could go into the sauna. Maybe this is what I am made for???
NAh.
Go back into sauna. Plan our next activity. Rolling in the snow.
Now if you were to guess which would be colder... jumping in a lake? or rolling over in the snow once which would you guess?
Ville was the first in the snow and he was back in the sauna before we even were started. That seemed promising. Sophie and I went at the same time. Knees, belly, arms, and roll. I shot up out of that so fast and into the sauna. My goodness. I wouldn't have thought that it would have been different than the water, but yes, yes, yes it was. So much colder.
Sauna once more. Sophie wants to go in snow again--I was skeptical. She went in bum first this time, and she was half way there so I yelled to do a snow angel. Then I was thought what a good picture this would be---hold it there soph!! I'm going to get your camera!! "Uh ok, hurry!!"
Abby!!!! You are going in the wrong room!! Oh my gosh this is cold!!
Where is it at in this room??!?!
In my pocket!! Hurry!!!!!!!!!!!!
Found it, now hold still.... say cheese..... oops one more... ok.
I am not quite sure how she did it. Maybe it was for all those back home and her will power to prove that she could? Well she sure beat me. I had no interest in laying in that snow again (and my first time was 4 seconds long compared to her at least 30 or more).
And you guessed it..... back to the sauna. We had one last thing we wanted to do. We wanted to do a round two in the lake, but get some evidence.
I know this is a bad picture below, but I had to share this. Sophie wanted to prove herself once more.
**Fun fact you lose 90% of your body heat from your head.
What did she do? She went completely under!! (which none of us had done, but it's sort of dangerous and wayyyyyyyy too cold).
She did it. Way to go soph!! ....and she lived to tell about it... even better!!!!!!!! ;)
Welp, lets put on some real clothes and eat some supper--yep.
Back to the cabin where we would put some sausages (like brats) over the fire and eating some Finnish pies (pastry with meat in the middle) and, of course, I had to try their chips. They were still potato chips with grease and salt, so of course I loved them. I even ate the rest of the jar of pickles. (Ville, don't tell your dad it was me. I'm sorry, but then again not, because they were so great.)
We ended the night by watching an episode of Muumi and even though we couldn't understand anything I loved it. Ville translated a bit, and if you just use visual cues you can get enough information! ;)
It had been a long day with sooooo much food and awesome activities. Time for bed.
The next day, we packed up our things and had to say goodbye. It was pretty sad leaving the cabin. It felt like we had been there the whole weekend or at least more than 24 hours (which we didn't even spend a full 24 hours there). We headed back to Ville's mother's house and had one last Finnish meal.
Meat balls, mashed potatoes, and a sauce to cover all. I could have eaten, and eaten, and eaten it. It was delightful. Not only that, but she made a homemade pie with the rest of the fresh blueberries from the morning before. AND his sister had made muffins (that were like dense cupcakes) MMmmmmm. Everything was amazing.
Then, you wouldn't have guessed it!!! We graduated from Finland High School!
These are what their graduation hats look like, and they always hold a bouquet in their pictures as well. So we joined in. :)
After a minor worry session of me forgetting to look/write/ or actually KNOW when our plane was leaving we figured it out after twenty minutes or so ;) silly me.
We said our goodbyes and how grateful we were to have been able to stay there or be there with them!!!! Such an amazing amazing trip.
We left his hometown. We drove to where he goes to college and he showed us around. It was really nice. Then back to the airport for the 5th time in 3 days. Our flight was delayed 25 minutes. Not a big deal. But it was a big deal when we had a connecting flight to get to in now 15 minutes. We landed 5 minutes before we were supposed to board our next flight. We just took off. Starting sprinting. Had the whole airport looking at us. Ok whatever.... asked the guy at customs how far our gate... oh... well it's not that far....
Yeah in what world is at the clear end of the building that far. We took off sprinting once again then had people yelling at us... can you not run in airports? I didn't know because I didn't speak German! (Where is Hunter when I need him?) Then something we did know... ma'am ma'am... Sophie turns around... my coat fell out of my bag! Well my goodness, thank you sir. :)
Made it to the gate panting and we got on... just in time!!! One of the more hurried moments. But hey, we didn't have to stay in Germany for the night... couldn't decide if that was a punishment or reward anyways....
We made it back to Birmingham!!! Obviously :)
I'm proud of myself for getting this one up so soon! hehe self pride. My next will be about Oxford/Food :) I'm pretty excited even though I have so much more English food to try!
Have a good week :)
Feed Wags :)
Did I make your mouth water with the pancakes yesterday? Mine was! Back to the dorm food for Abby.
So where was I... Oh yes, we were leaving for the summer house.
The drive took a little over an hour. We stopped at the last store before we hit the (the direct translation from Finnish is cottage, but I thought little cabin was more fitting) cabin. We bought all kinds of Finnish stuff for the night.
My favorite part of the drive was when we turned onto the once gravel, but now snow packed road because the view was amazing. There was snow all around you, then huge green trees. Pretty, pretty--now only if the sun would have shown a bit more!
We got to the cabin and just kind of sat down and planned our night. Then the first thing we did was have a tour of course!
This is the cute little smoke house.
These are pictures from inside the smoke house. Those are reindeer furs.
The cute cabin!
The cute outhouse, but maybe not so cute if we had to use it? Most people don't have toilets in their cabins. They are lucky ones!! (and that means Sophie and I were too!! ;)
A further away view of the cabin. If you look carefully on the right side you can see a red car. Then behind that you can see the outhouse and behind that you can see the smokehouse.
And last but not least is the Sauna house.
And the lake!!!!
So, Sophie saw the snow mobile and had never been on one and really wanted to go. It was too warm out like 1 C out. Which is above the temp of water freezing, and so there was a little bit of water on top of the lake and snow mobiles will get stuck. So we went on a little ride just on the roads around the cabin (all gravel (i think?) but snow packed nonetheless). I found that it was quite hard to steer. Then when Sophie tried to drive--oh.my.goodness. I think it was the most I had laughed all trip. We were stuck in the middle of the road for 4 1/2 minutes just her trying to turn around!!!! Hahahaha, people from the South I tell ya what ;)
When we got back it was nice to go inside and get warm by the fire. Every time I went into the house I had to eat a cracker...or two. They are really salty so they are addicting. Ville missed these while he was gone, so it was obviously something I needed to try.
After we were warmed up just sitting around it was getting darker. We had one more thing planned for the night. For lack of better word or phrase I'll refer to it as ice jumping. Ville's father went out to the lake right by their dock and scooped the snow on top of the lake. Then he took his chainsaw and cut through the ice to make a square that was big enough for us to fit in. Although we were nervous we knew we had to do this while we were in Finland!! So Ville had started a fire in the Sauna after our snow mobile adventures. We sat in the sauna until we were going to pass out (or was that just me?? haha) and *very important step of putting on grandma knitted woolen socks* and ran outside to the ....dun dun dun.... little square out of the big lake.
Now, I know what you might be thinking. If you jump in what if you can't find the hole, what if your body goes into shock, what if you can't lift yourself up from the water because the ice is slippery, what if something in the lake grabs you and pulls you down only to find out there are actually mermaids in Finland. These were the thoughts running through my head before I totally agreed to do this. Then when I expressed my fears/thoughts Ville kindly explained that we would be able to touch.
WELL, that solved just about every problem except the shock one--eh we will take our chances ;)
So with our wool socks we ran out to the lake and Ville was first (of course, like I was about to get in there) and he jumped in, dipped down, and got the *heck* out. I think Sophie was next, (remember this girl is from ALABAMA) she was like oh.my.gosh. and got out.
Remind me, why am I doing this again?
Abby.....
Fine. I jump in. Holy s**t that's cold. Ok get out--run back to sauna, in there for about 2.3 seconds when I about die from suffocation--run back outside into the winter air soaking wet with ice cold water, and----- relief. I had to stand out there quite sometime before I could go into the sauna. Maybe this is what I am made for???
NAh.
Go back into sauna. Plan our next activity. Rolling in the snow.
Now if you were to guess which would be colder... jumping in a lake? or rolling over in the snow once which would you guess?
Ville was the first in the snow and he was back in the sauna before we even were started. That seemed promising. Sophie and I went at the same time. Knees, belly, arms, and roll. I shot up out of that so fast and into the sauna. My goodness. I wouldn't have thought that it would have been different than the water, but yes, yes, yes it was. So much colder.
Sauna once more. Sophie wants to go in snow again--I was skeptical. She went in bum first this time, and she was half way there so I yelled to do a snow angel. Then I was thought what a good picture this would be---hold it there soph!! I'm going to get your camera!! "Uh ok, hurry!!"
Abby!!!! You are going in the wrong room!! Oh my gosh this is cold!!
Where is it at in this room??!?!
In my pocket!! Hurry!!!!!!!!!!!!
Found it, now hold still.... say cheese..... oops one more... ok.
I am not quite sure how she did it. Maybe it was for all those back home and her will power to prove that she could? Well she sure beat me. I had no interest in laying in that snow again (and my first time was 4 seconds long compared to her at least 30 or more).
And you guessed it..... back to the sauna. We had one last thing we wanted to do. We wanted to do a round two in the lake, but get some evidence.
I know this is a bad picture below, but I had to share this. Sophie wanted to prove herself once more.
**Fun fact you lose 90% of your body heat from your head.
What did she do? She went completely under!! (which none of us had done, but it's sort of dangerous and wayyyyyyyy too cold).
She did it. Way to go soph!! ....and she lived to tell about it... even better!!!!!!!! ;)
Take that Finland! From an Alabama girl.
(Made that quote up. She didn't actually say that, but it pretty much was said with actions.)
Welp, lets put on some real clothes and eat some supper--yep.
Back to the cabin where we would put some sausages (like brats) over the fire and eating some Finnish pies (pastry with meat in the middle) and, of course, I had to try their chips. They were still potato chips with grease and salt, so of course I loved them. I even ate the rest of the jar of pickles. (Ville, don't tell your dad it was me. I'm sorry, but then again not, because they were so great.)
We ended the night by watching an episode of Muumi and even though we couldn't understand anything I loved it. Ville translated a bit, and if you just use visual cues you can get enough information! ;)
It had been a long day with sooooo much food and awesome activities. Time for bed.
The next day, we packed up our things and had to say goodbye. It was pretty sad leaving the cabin. It felt like we had been there the whole weekend or at least more than 24 hours (which we didn't even spend a full 24 hours there). We headed back to Ville's mother's house and had one last Finnish meal.
Meat balls, mashed potatoes, and a sauce to cover all. I could have eaten, and eaten, and eaten it. It was delightful. Not only that, but she made a homemade pie with the rest of the fresh blueberries from the morning before. AND his sister had made muffins (that were like dense cupcakes) MMmmmmm. Everything was amazing.
Then, you wouldn't have guessed it!!! We graduated from Finland High School!
These are what their graduation hats look like, and they always hold a bouquet in their pictures as well. So we joined in. :)
After a minor worry session of me forgetting to look/write/ or actually KNOW when our plane was leaving we figured it out after twenty minutes or so ;) silly me.
We said our goodbyes and how grateful we were to have been able to stay there or be there with them!!!! Such an amazing amazing trip.
We left his hometown. We drove to where he goes to college and he showed us around. It was really nice. Then back to the airport for the 5th time in 3 days. Our flight was delayed 25 minutes. Not a big deal. But it was a big deal when we had a connecting flight to get to in now 15 minutes. We landed 5 minutes before we were supposed to board our next flight. We just took off. Starting sprinting. Had the whole airport looking at us. Ok whatever.... asked the guy at customs how far our gate... oh... well it's not that far....
Yeah in what world is at the clear end of the building that far. We took off sprinting once again then had people yelling at us... can you not run in airports? I didn't know because I didn't speak German! (Where is Hunter when I need him?) Then something we did know... ma'am ma'am... Sophie turns around... my coat fell out of my bag! Well my goodness, thank you sir. :)
Made it to the gate panting and we got on... just in time!!! One of the more hurried moments. But hey, we didn't have to stay in Germany for the night... couldn't decide if that was a punishment or reward anyways....
We made it back to Birmingham!!! Obviously :)
I'm proud of myself for getting this one up so soon! hehe self pride. My next will be about Oxford/Food :) I'm pretty excited even though I have so much more English food to try!
Have a good week :)
Feed Wags :)
Monday, March 4, 2013
Finland
As we get further into the academic year, my blogging has slowed due to the realization of deadlines coming up. My Finland trip was amazing, and i've been slow to get it posted--so here it is!
We landed in Finland after having an amazing day in Sweden. We had two hours to drive after 4 hours of sleep, two plane rides, and a packed day. I thought that I would be dead, but being in a car is a weird feeling--so that alone probably could have kept me up. We were all fine (at least I thought) on the way home with weird conversations (that happened a lot).
We arrived at Ville's mother's house. She was so kind and greeted us right away! (Again, how fortunate we are to have people learn our language--wow) Their house was beautiful (and I am ashamed that I didn't think to take any pictures--oops!), Sophie and I even got to have beds and share a room. We had had such a long day of traveling that we went to bed right away, after a short tour of the house.
The next morning after we had showered, breakfast was served!
As you can probably see there was breads, yogurts, fresh blueberries, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, cheese, butter, cream cheese, rolls, juice, milk, coffee, more fresh fruit, and karjalan piirakka which I will explain in a couple pictures down. (which to use would mean karelien pie) which is like a rice pudding in middle then the dough on top is some kind of rye dough.
Ok, karjalan piirakka (which to use would mean karelien pie) which is like a rice pudding in middle then the dough on top is some kind of rye dough on the left side. Then for the topping on the right side it is egg butter that you put on top. It was like hard boiled eggs with butter all mashed up (as you can see). This is traditional for Finnish breakfast. So, of course I ate it, and it was great! I would definitely enjoy more for breakfast (or snack!)
This bread (above and below) is rye bread. It is different than any bread I have tasted. When Ville was in the US, Linda said they tried to find this bread all over Omaha and KC!
It is really thin as you can see in the picture above. It was also pretty dry, but from what I could tell was used frequently with butter, cheese, slice of meat, and maybe cucumbers or tomatoes.
I had one of these before we left for the airport the day before, and I had to eat another when we were at Ville's mom's for breakfast. I did like it, but I always had to have something to drink otherwise it went down chokingly slow for me.
I tried pretty much everything on the table for breakfast karjalan piirakka, rye bread with stuff on top, yogurt with fresh fruit and honey (oh my goodness their honey is so good. it is different than our in a little squeeze bottle or jar. i think it may be taken out of the hive sooner than the honey we buy (but hopefully we have this stuff and i've just never seen it before??) but if you look at the table picture you will see an orange with green bottle and you squeeze the honey out of there. How awesome and non messy is that? Great! (except i would probably squeeze it into my mouth too often. :)
After breakfast and my photo shoot with food... I ate a chocolate. Just a little wrapped chocolate and when I bit into it mint spilled into my mouth. Oh yes. It was like an Andes Mint but chocolate with liquid creamy mint inside. Yeah. Just think about that.
So, after we are stuffed Ville takes us on a car ride around his town. It was a dangerous combination. It was like giving a baby a bottle and taking them in the car so they can fall asleep within 5 minutes (that was me, but with some will power my eyes stayed open). His town was like Logans! (Ah, good to be home ;)
I thought it was a little more spread out, but when you are new to a place you think every turn is taking you somewhere different. It was lower population and everyone knows each other--sounds familiar. They had more schools than Logan though. I guess not everyone can get by with preschool through 12th grade in one building. haha.
Then one of the greatest parts of the trip happened.... dun dun dun....
He took us to his grandparents house (and bless their hearts neither of them spoke English!), but oh what a great time it was. We were happily greeted and instantly taken to the kitchen to sit for (more food!! breakfast was only an hour ago... big girl pants Abby... taken quite literally) tea or coffee? I've almost always taken tea being in England or even Finland in this case. I drank a red tea that was from Egypt, it was delish. Still not the best part..
His grandpa went right to the stove. He had his pancake batter made, and as soon as we sat he started his magic. Sophie was the first. Thin pancake landed on Sophie's plate within minutes. Not knowing what to do Ville graciously coached her through it.
First, you put the freshly whipped cream on your pancake.
Second, you sprinkle some sugar on the cream that is on your pancake.
Last but not least, you choose your jam. Homemade raspberry jam or homemade strawberry?
Take your pick. How you pick I don't know. But she went with the raspberry.
Before Sophie was done dressing her pancake----bam!!!
My first pancake had landed on my plate. At the time I didn't know that it was literally one of the best things that I would have ever put in my mouth.
Cream, sugar, and raspberry jam it was for me.
OH.MY.GOODNESS.
That is all I have to say. I have never tasted heaven before, but I would assume this was the closest thing I have ever eaten to it.
I probably don't have to mention that since the pancakes were so fresh right out of the skillet the cream and jam started melting and yeah. I have nothing else to say. I am going to cry if I don't get to taste these again.
In the picture above you can see how we weren't just eating pancakes! We had boxes of chocolates, biscuits, more chocolate, (not shown but were their--because I once again tried everything) were buns that had vanilla pudding and apple jam type things in them, and homemade sour dough bread.
Can you say spoiled?
We didn't just stop at one after Ville's grandpa served Sophie, I, Ville, and Toojya (Ville's mom) then he went back to Sophie, me, Ville, Toojya... and Ville warned us that if we didn't tell him when we couldn't eat anymore that we would just keep receiving. I wanted to try other things on the table, so after my second I told him that I was done. (One of the worst decisions of my life--what was I thinking!?!?)
But after we were done eating (at least one of everything!! haha) we sat and talked. Ville would translate some. His grandpa would show us books and his grandma showed us some of her knitting.
It made me miss my gram.
Turns out grandma and Ville's grandma had a ton in common! Not only the exact same age, but baking and sewing were top on their list of hobbies. I told his grandma that they would definitely be friends. :)
After an eventful afternoon (and probably a little crazy with two people only speaking English, two speaking only Finnish, and two that are bilingual with both!) we had to say goodbye. His grandma gave us a Finnish chocolate bar and a hand towel with Muumi on it. Muumi is a really popular cartoon in Finland that has been on for over 20 years. At first I wasn't too sure about Muumi, but I have fallen into a deep love with him. I don't know why but as we were leaving the airport I went into every store and didn't want to leave him!
We were SO spoiled. And we are so happy to have had them let us stay at their home.
After our tea time with his grandparents we took off to the summer house. I will have to wait and continue this post soon (whenever I can get the photos from Sophie, because those will be important to the next post!) So, you will have to wait just a weeeee bit longer. In the mean time, I may post about a few other things that have happened or that I have tried. But my Finland post isn't complete and you can bet your bottom dollar that it will be!! The last post is quite exciting.
Until my next post, feed my wolf---Wags. She likes steak and howls at the moon. A certain someone said they were unsure about my pet.... hmmm... what do you guys think about my new pet?
We landed in Finland after having an amazing day in Sweden. We had two hours to drive after 4 hours of sleep, two plane rides, and a packed day. I thought that I would be dead, but being in a car is a weird feeling--so that alone probably could have kept me up. We were all fine (at least I thought) on the way home with weird conversations (that happened a lot).
We arrived at Ville's mother's house. She was so kind and greeted us right away! (Again, how fortunate we are to have people learn our language--wow) Their house was beautiful (and I am ashamed that I didn't think to take any pictures--oops!), Sophie and I even got to have beds and share a room. We had had such a long day of traveling that we went to bed right away, after a short tour of the house.
The next morning after we had showered, breakfast was served!
As you can probably see there was breads, yogurts, fresh blueberries, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, cheese, butter, cream cheese, rolls, juice, milk, coffee, more fresh fruit, and karjalan piirakka which I will explain in a couple pictures down. (which to use would mean karelien pie) which is like a rice pudding in middle then the dough on top is some kind of rye dough.
Ok, karjalan piirakka (which to use would mean karelien pie) which is like a rice pudding in middle then the dough on top is some kind of rye dough on the left side. Then for the topping on the right side it is egg butter that you put on top. It was like hard boiled eggs with butter all mashed up (as you can see). This is traditional for Finnish breakfast. So, of course I ate it, and it was great! I would definitely enjoy more for breakfast (or snack!)
This bread (above and below) is rye bread. It is different than any bread I have tasted. When Ville was in the US, Linda said they tried to find this bread all over Omaha and KC!
It is really thin as you can see in the picture above. It was also pretty dry, but from what I could tell was used frequently with butter, cheese, slice of meat, and maybe cucumbers or tomatoes.
I had one of these before we left for the airport the day before, and I had to eat another when we were at Ville's mom's for breakfast. I did like it, but I always had to have something to drink otherwise it went down chokingly slow for me.
I tried pretty much everything on the table for breakfast karjalan piirakka, rye bread with stuff on top, yogurt with fresh fruit and honey (oh my goodness their honey is so good. it is different than our in a little squeeze bottle or jar. i think it may be taken out of the hive sooner than the honey we buy (but hopefully we have this stuff and i've just never seen it before??) but if you look at the table picture you will see an orange with green bottle and you squeeze the honey out of there. How awesome and non messy is that? Great! (except i would probably squeeze it into my mouth too often. :)
After breakfast and my photo shoot with food... I ate a chocolate. Just a little wrapped chocolate and when I bit into it mint spilled into my mouth. Oh yes. It was like an Andes Mint but chocolate with liquid creamy mint inside. Yeah. Just think about that.
So, after we are stuffed Ville takes us on a car ride around his town. It was a dangerous combination. It was like giving a baby a bottle and taking them in the car so they can fall asleep within 5 minutes (that was me, but with some will power my eyes stayed open). His town was like Logans! (Ah, good to be home ;)
I thought it was a little more spread out, but when you are new to a place you think every turn is taking you somewhere different. It was lower population and everyone knows each other--sounds familiar. They had more schools than Logan though. I guess not everyone can get by with preschool through 12th grade in one building. haha.
Then one of the greatest parts of the trip happened.... dun dun dun....
He took us to his grandparents house (and bless their hearts neither of them spoke English!), but oh what a great time it was. We were happily greeted and instantly taken to the kitchen to sit for (more food!! breakfast was only an hour ago... big girl pants Abby... taken quite literally) tea or coffee? I've almost always taken tea being in England or even Finland in this case. I drank a red tea that was from Egypt, it was delish. Still not the best part..
His grandpa went right to the stove. He had his pancake batter made, and as soon as we sat he started his magic. Sophie was the first. Thin pancake landed on Sophie's plate within minutes. Not knowing what to do Ville graciously coached her through it.
First, you put the freshly whipped cream on your pancake.
Second, you sprinkle some sugar on the cream that is on your pancake.
Last but not least, you choose your jam. Homemade raspberry jam or homemade strawberry?
Take your pick. How you pick I don't know. But she went with the raspberry.
Before Sophie was done dressing her pancake----bam!!!
My first pancake had landed on my plate. At the time I didn't know that it was literally one of the best things that I would have ever put in my mouth.
Cream, sugar, and raspberry jam it was for me.
OH.MY.GOODNESS.
That is all I have to say. I have never tasted heaven before, but I would assume this was the closest thing I have ever eaten to it.
I probably don't have to mention that since the pancakes were so fresh right out of the skillet the cream and jam started melting and yeah. I have nothing else to say. I am going to cry if I don't get to taste these again.
In the picture above you can see how we weren't just eating pancakes! We had boxes of chocolates, biscuits, more chocolate, (not shown but were their--because I once again tried everything) were buns that had vanilla pudding and apple jam type things in them, and homemade sour dough bread.
Can you say spoiled?
We didn't just stop at one after Ville's grandpa served Sophie, I, Ville, and Toojya (Ville's mom) then he went back to Sophie, me, Ville, Toojya... and Ville warned us that if we didn't tell him when we couldn't eat anymore that we would just keep receiving. I wanted to try other things on the table, so after my second I told him that I was done. (One of the worst decisions of my life--what was I thinking!?!?)
But after we were done eating (at least one of everything!! haha) we sat and talked. Ville would translate some. His grandpa would show us books and his grandma showed us some of her knitting.
It made me miss my gram.
Turns out grandma and Ville's grandma had a ton in common! Not only the exact same age, but baking and sewing were top on their list of hobbies. I told his grandma that they would definitely be friends. :)
After an eventful afternoon (and probably a little crazy with two people only speaking English, two speaking only Finnish, and two that are bilingual with both!) we had to say goodbye. His grandma gave us a Finnish chocolate bar and a hand towel with Muumi on it. Muumi is a really popular cartoon in Finland that has been on for over 20 years. At first I wasn't too sure about Muumi, but I have fallen into a deep love with him. I don't know why but as we were leaving the airport I went into every store and didn't want to leave him!
Below is a Muumi drink.
Muumi statue awwww
:)
:)
And below is the towel I got with the chocolate bar. The girl on the towel is another character from Muumi. The bowl with chocolates on the top left is that gift that Toojya gave us.
We were SO spoiled. And we are so happy to have had them let us stay at their home.
After our tea time with his grandparents we took off to the summer house. I will have to wait and continue this post soon (whenever I can get the photos from Sophie, because those will be important to the next post!) So, you will have to wait just a weeeee bit longer. In the mean time, I may post about a few other things that have happened or that I have tried. But my Finland post isn't complete and you can bet your bottom dollar that it will be!! The last post is quite exciting.
Until my next post, feed my wolf---Wags. She likes steak and howls at the moon. A certain someone said they were unsure about my pet.... hmmm... what do you guys think about my new pet?
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Sweden
I eat my words.
The picture below is part of the Royal Palace. They had guards outside, but they weren't as statue as the popular London guards.
Ah, the picture below is part of old town of Stockholm. It was beautiful. It was fun to walk down the cobble stone streets and cute little buildings. In the bottom of the red building we fikaed (I think that is the term) which (I think means) getting a hot drink and having a pastry (something like that). Haha. I said I wanted to sit and have a tea or coffee and maybe a sweet treat, and Caroline said they do that and call it fika.
This is Ville and Sophie inside fika-ing! We got hot chocolate (the place was actually named something with hot chocolate) and as you can see in the photo it was a high class hot chocolate! The cups or mug whichever you want to call it were interesting because they didn't have any handles. I don't think i've seen a bowl-y type mug like that and not without a handle. But hey! They were cute and tasted good so that is all that matters.
Caroline and I with our hot chocolate and cinnamon bun and lemon cake I believe!
This church was beautiful. It had so many colors, and as you can see it had special places on the sides as well.
The picture below is an extravagant piece. All the gold and detail, wow. Has anyone else seen these before or know exactly what they are used for? I thought they were beautiful, but found them curious because their placement would cut off 1/4 of the people from seeing (not that you have to see to hear, but it always it nice to have a face to look at when listening).
After we walked around old town, saw a few churches, and had our snack it was time to move on. We walked to one of Caroline's favorite sights of the city. A sight it was! How cool is it to have a local (well she lives 2 hours away) but to have them show you their favorite spots rather than googling and trying to find things and places to go.
Caroline, me, Ville
Next, Caroline decided to take us to a market. There aren't a lot of main sights to see, but just walking around in the environment and being with 3 great people (Caroline, Ville, Sophie) made the trip one to remember!
So the market was amazing. We didn't buy anything, but just walking around it was pretty neat. Every kind of meat you could think of, every cut of the meat (and it's kind of just pretty to look at food. do you other foodies agree?) You name it they have it. Meat, bread, pastries, vegetables, fruits, cheese, more, more, more...everything fresh and homemade just perfect!
There was a man selling honey and there were three stages of the honey (depending on when you get it from the hive). They were all different colors and had a different taste. Yum!
As we were walking about the city we ran into an ice skating rink, so obviously we had to rent some ice skates. I haven't ice skated in a long, long while. Turns out it is a little different than riding a bike years later! A little shaky, but it wasn't too bad by the end of the 30 minutes that we skated. No one fell!!! Well.... no one had fallen, until Sophie falls right before she steps out of the rink to take off her skates!! The worst part is... we didn't get it on camera.
I am a candy freak. So we had to get some candy, and I had some money to waste! (Not waste, but there would have been no point in converting it back to pounds or euros. Their currency is the crown, but can also look like krona so that was confusing and I still don't get it. Their currency has been the hardest to use because it is so confusing. For lunch I paid 100 crowns which would be like 12 euros which is 16 dollars. I felt rich throwing around 100s like they were nothing!
Back to the candy. I filled my bag way too full and I have a self diagnosed eating disorder called cantstopia. I was sickly full, and felt like a 5 year old for getting a stomach ache from eating too much candy. It happens.
I wanted to share that they don't sell Swedish Fish (the American candy) in Sweden! Crazy, I thought that stuff was authentic! But they do sell gummy fishies, but they still aren't called Swedish fish or anything of the sort. Bummer. The middle is a Dala horse. I should have taken more pictures of them. But you get a true gummy picture. They were all pretty tasty.
I make a nice little blog post finishing up my last weekend saying i'll have more done then I end up being late for the "deadline" that I set for myself. Sorry to let you down if I have! I wonder if this is foreshadowing that I should not be my own boss in 4 years when I enter the real world.
From now on I'll have to use ambiguous terms so I don't feel like i've let my loyal readers down!
Speaking of loyal readers (sorry I know this isn't Sweden.... i'm getting there) I just want to say thank you to everyone who reads! Sounds silly, but you keep me going and wanting to write more blog posts. I have over 1150 views on my blog (I have no idea who you are, but it's safe to say I can probably guess a few :)) but seeing the numbers go up after a post makes me want to do more posts and share more! I wanted to do a blog not only for people who wanted to follow me while I was gone, but for something to read back on (so hopefully the internet stays around for a little while longer). I also have a journal, but both are nice to have. Ok so that is that!
Thursday night I left for the airport with Sophie. We conveniently could take the train from university straight to the airport! The airport was scary. Why? I didn't have my passport checked once, security was laid back, I didn't even have to take my shoes off! That was new for me. Besides that, I was surprised by all the shopping that was available. There were stores that are in the malls here so I hadn't seen actual clothing stores in airports before.
We flew to Denmark and as we were finding our next gate (power walking with our short 40 minute layover) I noticed it seemed really clean and nice dark wooden floors. As well as a ton of shops! Victoria Secret, H&M, Oakley, etc.etc. I also realized I have no idea of the currency used in Denmark because I went to the vending machine and it was 18.00 for a bottle of soda.
We hopped on the next flight (also had never been in an airport where I can read everything because the languages presented weren't English--made me feel like I should learn more languages ha!) Another side note: we are spoiled. Even though none of the newspapers were English and just about every passenger about to board the plane first language was not English the language used to tell us to board was English. After talking with Ville and Caroline they have opened my eyes to how important it is for them to know English and how beneficial it is. It truly has become a universal language. Realize how lucky you are to be able to communicate with people from every country because they had to learn OUR language. Wow. We are spoiled.
Anyways, so we flew to Finland and we were walking expecting to go through customs but nope. Didn't have our passport checked at all walked right out and Ville was waiting right there with his friend. Hello!!!!!
It was 1 am, and so we hopped in the car and got going. We stayed at Ville's friend's place in Helsinki. We were lucky to have his hospitality because in 4 hours we would need to be up and heading to the airport again. It was really weird to be in a car because I haven't been in one (not including taxis) since my parents were here and that, uh, interesting experience. That wasn't the weirdest part..... I was back on the right side of the road with the steering wheel on the left. Woah. Curve ball!! My brain was so confused. It was an odd odd feeling. It took my a while to get used to being back on the side of the road that I have spent 20 years on. It'll be interesting getting home and actually driving... ha!! :)
We stayed at his friends house and they couldn't have been sweeter. His friend even had a test the next morning! We got up the next morning and Ville had made some breakfast sandwiches. It was rye bread with meat, tomatoes, and cucumbers oh and some butter underneath. I say meat because I have a problem with meat, but as you know I have been opening my mind to just trying things and throwing my old habits away. So I just ate it. It was good, but I needed lots of water for the bread. It isn't something you should eat with a dry throat! I asked Ville later that day what the meat was. He told me ham. I don't eat ham. So +2 points for Abby (remember the haggis).
We got to the airport and this time I was greeted with pubs. People were having pints with their breakfast at 9am. When we go on holiday sure my family might have a bloody mary or beer or whatever in the airport, but it was different it was so normal for them all. (I have done my morning drinking plenty of times before, but not often just a couple pints with a plate of breakfast and men and women) I apparently need to step up my game a little bit. Our flight to Sweden took 50 minutes. We arrived and took a bus into the city centre of Stockholm. We waited for Caroline. Eeeekk!!! Caroline had arrived. We don't know what all we are going to do with our day, but who cares.
The memories and stories of Logan started flowing. We probably talked about you, if not, your name was at least mentioned. (not in a bad way people!)
It was so fun just being around Ville and Caroline. Especially being gone from home, it was like a little slice of home being able to discuss things and have them actually know what i'm talking about or where i'm coming from.
We walked around Stockholm and I just liked the little streets with colorful buildings. When you see little things like that, that is what always reminds me--yep definitely in a different country.
This is outside of a church that we went by. I don't know all the names for everything but I will do my best to let you have context of what it is.
This was inside a church. You will notice a golden something (I don't know what it is) on the left side. I do know that they give their sermons from here on special occasions. I have never seen anything like that before. I thought it was really interesting, and it was so beautiful. They are predominately Lutheran religion in Sweden. 
Ah, the picture below is part of old town of Stockholm. It was beautiful. It was fun to walk down the cobble stone streets and cute little buildings. In the bottom of the red building we fikaed (I think that is the term) which (I think means) getting a hot drink and having a pastry (something like that). Haha. I said I wanted to sit and have a tea or coffee and maybe a sweet treat, and Caroline said they do that and call it fika.
This is Ville and Sophie inside fika-ing! We got hot chocolate (the place was actually named something with hot chocolate) and as you can see in the photo it was a high class hot chocolate! The cups or mug whichever you want to call it were interesting because they didn't have any handles. I don't think i've seen a bowl-y type mug like that and not without a handle. But hey! They were cute and tasted good so that is all that matters.
The picture below is when we were walking around old town and you can see the little shops. Cute!
We went inside another church in old town. If Caroline reads this post she could comment and give me some tips if she remembers any names ;) *hint hint*
This church was beautiful. It had so many colors, and as you can see it had special places on the sides as well.
The picture below is an extravagant piece. All the gold and detail, wow. Has anyone else seen these before or know exactly what they are used for? I thought they were beautiful, but found them curious because their placement would cut off 1/4 of the people from seeing (not that you have to see to hear, but it always it nice to have a face to look at when listening).
After we walked around old town, saw a few churches, and had our snack it was time to move on. We walked to one of Caroline's favorite sights of the city. A sight it was! How cool is it to have a local (well she lives 2 hours away) but to have them show you their favorite spots rather than googling and trying to find things and places to go.
Caroline, me, Ville
The picture below is also taken from where we were above. I thought it was so cool. The colors of the buildings and the dark roof tops. Ah!! How cute!! Just like Logan! .....not.
Next, Caroline decided to take us to a market. There aren't a lot of main sights to see, but just walking around in the environment and being with 3 great people (Caroline, Ville, Sophie) made the trip one to remember!
So the market was amazing. We didn't buy anything, but just walking around it was pretty neat. Every kind of meat you could think of, every cut of the meat (and it's kind of just pretty to look at food. do you other foodies agree?) You name it they have it. Meat, bread, pastries, vegetables, fruits, cheese, more, more, more...everything fresh and homemade just perfect!
There was a man selling honey and there were three stages of the honey (depending on when you get it from the hive). They were all different colors and had a different taste. Yum!
As we were walking about the city we ran into an ice skating rink, so obviously we had to rent some ice skates. I haven't ice skated in a long, long while. Turns out it is a little different than riding a bike years later! A little shaky, but it wasn't too bad by the end of the 30 minutes that we skated. No one fell!!! Well.... no one had fallen, until Sophie falls right before she steps out of the rink to take off her skates!! The worst part is... we didn't get it on camera.
I am a candy freak. So we had to get some candy, and I had some money to waste! (Not waste, but there would have been no point in converting it back to pounds or euros. Their currency is the crown, but can also look like krona so that was confusing and I still don't get it. Their currency has been the hardest to use because it is so confusing. For lunch I paid 100 crowns which would be like 12 euros which is 16 dollars. I felt rich throwing around 100s like they were nothing!
Back to the candy. I filled my bag way too full and I have a self diagnosed eating disorder called cantstopia. I was sickly full, and felt like a 5 year old for getting a stomach ache from eating too much candy. It happens.
I wanted to share that they don't sell Swedish Fish (the American candy) in Sweden! Crazy, I thought that stuff was authentic! But they do sell gummy fishies, but they still aren't called Swedish fish or anything of the sort. Bummer. The middle is a Dala horse. I should have taken more pictures of them. But you get a true gummy picture. They were all pretty tasty.
It was so sad to leave Caroline behind after a short day together. She was so nice coming to Stockholm and be our tour guide and have her awesome company. If I have time I might try and plan a little trip back to see her so I can see how they Swedes really live life. Caroline hopped on a bus back to her town, and we caught the bus back to the airport to leave. Yes I had been on 4 airplanes and 3 countries in less than 24 hours.
I will need another post to share all my Finland fun! I will say check back in a couple days OR SO. ;)
Monday, February 25, 2013
Stratford-Upon-Avon/ Warwick Castle
Home of Shakespeare, if you were not aware.
Last weekend, February 17th, we ventured to Stratford-Upon-Avon and Warwick Castle.
It was a trip organized by the university. My friends and I decided to help on the trip, because that way we got there for free! We all paired up and were the "leaders" of the coach buses. I was so surprised at how many people were going. I think there was 5 coaches full! I thought they would be exchange students like ourselves, but they were mostly from Asia and probably studying higher levels of education. Oh well! I was with all my friends, so nothing beats that! I was with some new people that I haven't introduced you to yet, so here they are!
*This photo is taken at Warwick Castle.
So, we got to Stratford, and we need some coffee. Well, after a quick look around the area we did the typical American (sorry Alison, Jamie, Katie) and went to McDonalds! ha!!
Most people got their drinks there, then we decided, well, since we are here... and then we got a little breakfast. I had brought food with me, but decided to get a hash brown. I'm not ashamed because that greasy potato was delightful. :)
Then we headed to the famous RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company) Theatre.
We went in, but you had to pay (what seemed like WAY too much) to see and get a tour of the theatre. So we looked around what we could, and bought a few things in the gift shop from previous or current shows showing. I bought a "I've been to the chokey" pin. Who knows or remembers that old movie?!? I'll check my comments to see if anyone has figured it out....
I am hoping to go back to the theatre in May with my roommate Tilly. Her father lives near by, so it'll be nice to see a show there! I figured when I bought my show ticket, that would double at getting to see the inside as well.
Next, we ventured off to see where Shakespeare was laid to rest! Funny what we tourist do.
He would be resting at the Holy Trinity Church.
This is his grave. You have now seen it for free. I had to pay 50p. ("p" stands for pence, so it was only a half of a pound. About 70 cents.)
Stratford was a cute little town with lots of shopping and little eating places. If you didn't want to pay around 30 pounds to see and know everything about Shakespeare's life, then it was a relaxing little stop. That is quite expensive about 50 dollars, and it wasn't worth for me to see inside his house for that!
However, what was worth my money was a Museum of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
We had to walk around this with a piece of paper and candle light.
We weren't supposed to touch anything, but this awesome lady sorted us!
I don't want to brag, but I was Gryffindor.
We completely the magic spell.
And became Witches!!!!!!!!!!!
Took a break for some butter beer.
And we all got our wands. What a better day!!!
As exciting as it was, I am still counting down the days til I go to actual Harry Potter World!! This helped me get through the days until then :)
Next, we went to Warwick. I don't know much about Warwick besides that it was starting to be built in the 14th century and was working and being lived in in the 15th century. It was amazing how big it was. The huge stones are amazing. Makes you wonder how they did it all. Hmmm.
Here are a few pictures...
Sword fight above.
Wax people below. Kind of freaked me out. At a glance you would have never known if they were fake.
We got to watch the thing above fling a giant fire ball. It was pretty neat.
Above they would keep bears changed in this room and have bear fights!
And I leave you with a nice medieval horse. :)
This post was me being behind on my blogging. I just got back from Finland and Sweden last night, so you can expect more posts if not tonight tomorrow for sure!!
Have a nice week everyone!!
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