Third Week

Hei Blog Readers, Friends and Family,

Saturday, June 8th has rolled around and I'm in my third week of Finnish living.  This week was an interesting week because I continue to learn all about this funny world we live in.  My class this week was Interpersonal Relationships and Social Networks in a Multicultural World.  Again I participated in the Free Time Activities and created activities of our own.
Monday I played basketball for an hour or so with Sasha, Egyvn (sp?) and Charlie.  After that Merle and the new students, Christopher, Endre, Kent, Mira and Nicci joined us and we went to the beach.  Endre and I jogged to the beach while everyone else took bikes. The water felt really nice after the jog--not too cold but just right.  The boys were fun, they are from Norway.  We ended up trying to play some version of volleyball with a football (round soccer ball) in the water.  Nicci and Mira are from the Netherlands, more Dutch people.  The beach was fun and after we were tired of the sand we went back to the student village.
Tuesday was class again.  This class was a lot of discussing, so lots of talking and listening, which can be tiring even with native English speakers.  It was really tiring because the language barrier between all of the students just added another element of difficulty.  After class I met up with Becca and we tanned.  Katalina and Desponia, two Greek girls from my class, also joined us.  After an hour or so Merle found us and we moved locations to another beach.  The Greek girls did not come because they didn't bring their swimming suits that day.  This beach was full--lots of people, and I can see why, the water was a delightful temperature and the view really isn't hard to look at either.  There was about twenty people in our group so the conversations were lively.  After some swimming and ice cream we played the Finnish game Moukly (sp?).  I had Kent (Norway), Nicci (The Netherlands), Mira (The Netherlands) and Becca (USA) on my team.  I started the game and had a really nice hit.  We were doing pretty well for a while but then not so much.  While abroad I've realized that I'm more competitive than I thought I was.  I like to win, and I especially like to antagonize (playfully, of course) the other team to add extra value to bragging rights.  Unfortunately, we lost, twice.  Can't win 'em all.  Beach time, fun time.
Wednesday my class did not start until 12:15.  We were assigned a group project for this class so we took the time off from class to work on it.  I met up with my group, Lauren, Katalina and Sasha at 11.  Class was released at 3:15 and then Lauren and I walked around campus for a while.  We found the pool.  This pool was the sweetest, sickest, most awesome pool I think I have ever seen!  It somewhat resembles what I would think is an olympic training center.  A HUGE lane pool with bleachers surrounding it. A pool with a curly slide, a shallow kiddie pool, and then, and then... wait for it... A Double Decker Pool.  What?! That's right, let me repeat, a Double Decker Pool.  A pool on top of another pool and they connect!  It is pretty awesome.  Lauren and I absorbed all this pool awesomeness and I'm hoping to return sometime this week to not just look at the pools but actually get in them.
Thursday was class again.  During the evening we were supposed to go to the Island and Sauna we went to the first week but it was Thundering so we just went to a Sauna on the roof of one of the dorm buildings.  Charlie brought cards so we indulged in some competitive card games.  We improvised the game spoons by using assorted pens and highlighters.  I won two times and was runner up the third time.  I would like to take this time to thank my family:
     Dear cousins,
          Thank you for playing card games when we get together.  It is good training and practice and I am a champion because I have had such good training.  I hope when you meet other card players you will share my success.  Being talented in card games is a good skill to have, in my opinion.  Thank you, I look forward to playing with you when we have more bonding time.  Hurrah!
Sincerely,
Kevin
So, in review, Thursday night--cards, sauna, talking, licorice, heart-to-hearts, joking, learning useless Dutch words, counting in Norwegian and the Greek alphabet, fun time.  People are so fascinating and I enjoy interacting with them, most of the time.

Friday we presented our group projects talked more about stereotypes and interacting with other cultures.  We finished class at 12:15.  We watched a Finnish movie, Rare Exports at 4pm, then Charlie, Merle and Luuk ate Taco's at my place around 6pm.  Then people came to my room around 9pm to hang out, we played King Cup to get to know each other better.  After that a smaller group of us went to the City Center to a dance club.  I love dancing. Which resulted in a 5am bedtime.  So. Much. Fun.

Today I slept in. I needed the sleep I was really exhausted after this week.  This afternoon is a cruise/boat ride that lasts three hours.  It goes across the second largest lake in Finland.  Hoping to work on my tan some more.  Right on cue, I need to leave to make it to our meeting place for the boat ride.  That was my week in a condensed summary.  Learning lots in and out of the classroom, having fun and  soaking up life in Finland.

Hope all is well with you,
Cheers,
McCall