Personal

Yesterday Oliver and I went to Rotherham to get more Pimsleur language courses from the library and to find a coloring book. I guess it’s that time of year again, when different charities try to get others to sign up for stuff. There were loads of “Save The Blind” people around, but we managed to dodge them. Apparently they like to aim for the boyfriend half of the couple because he’ll be more likely to respond so he can show his girlfriend how caring he is. Which is exactly what one of the girls did. Didn’t stay to talk to her though. Just when we thought that we were safe, this guy in dark blue holding a clip board catches us by surprise. So there we were, having to listen to him talk about monks while I was thinking: “Wait a minute.. isn’t this the same guy we met in Blackpool in March??” I donated 1p, didn’t have more with me.. and that one just happened to what I had found 10 minutes earlier on the ground. When we finally got rid of him, Oliver and I just looked at each other and asked (pretty much at the same time): “Haven’t we seen him before?” After going to the market, we bump into him again and ask if he was in Blackpool. It was the same guy. Here’s the funny part: he thought that we were on our honeymoon back then. o_O

Still, what are the chances that we bump into him again while we’re together? I mean, I’m not over here that often. The monk thought the same, that it was “intervention from someone up there” so he gave us a book about his religion (Hindi?). About Visnu and Krishna anyway.. Just too bad that I’m not interested in religion right now. All of the Mormons that I’ve met have had nothing to do with each other so they can’t be sending notes to each other to track me. Is there something about me that makes these religious people flock to me? I mean, I feel like I’m being followed by Mormons and now this guy…

coincidences, religion, charities

Was at the lake again. This time we grilled just sausages. And roasted marshmallows. I was the only one who managed to not burn their finger(s). Then again, I have been nominated as the Fire Watched of our “tribe”. So of course I know how to handle the fire. And this time I got it going by myself too. ^_^ Yesterday I just kept watch over it, making sure it wouldn’t go out while our entertainer was putting on a performance. Jade came up with a really funny show too. Jaz, the leader, said that Jade has to play a rich city person. So Jade goes around these imaginary stalls buying with loads of bills berries that have to be carted around in a huge basket. In the end she gives it all to the leader as a present. Then Jade has to play a poor city person. So it’s another trip to the berry market. Except this time, she can only afford to buy one strawberry, one blueberry, etc each worth one coin. Then when she’s bought the basket for the berries, she checks her pocket, turns it inside out to show that she has no money left with a pout. She pours the few berries back into her hand, gives the basket back and gets her coin back before she presents the berries to the leader. ^_^ She killed us with the surprised pout. It was hilarious. Really. Should’ve been there. Trust me. The food we had yesterday.. *drool* There was filet mignon in two different marinades, blue cheese creamy potatoes, pickles (the American kind) with smetana (a sort of sour cream), sundried tomatoes.. Yum. ^-^ Haven’t had food that good in ages. The only times I’ve had my meat cooked exactly the way I want it has been when my dad grills it. He just knows when it’s a really nice medium-rare. Usually the rarer the better. At least with his style filet mignons.

Then Friday.. got chocolate cake. The good Sacher kind. ^___^ Very yummy that. The breakfast part was a bit of a mess that morning because there was no electricity for an hour. So we ate what they had managed to get cooked (mainly the bacon) and then the stuff that didn’t need cooking. Then later we went to Stockmann in Helsinki where I tried on a smaller version of the jacket my parents got me. It did look better, but I couldn’t wear anything thicker than a tank top underneath it. So I’m keeping the larger version. At first I was a bit iffy about the style and cut, but now.. luuuuurve. It’s fantastic. Baby pink, leather, round collar, zippers.. I got 50€ from my grandparents which I spent immediately. With it I got round toed flat yellow shoes that have a white elastic strap, a black hair clip, a loofah, hair ties, a hair band and a pair of black courdroy(? in Finnish it’s sametti.. and I dunno about the spelling) pinstripe pants. Very content with Friday’s finds.

There was a mini-storm here around noon. I woke up to the wind howling and the rain beating down. Then in ten minutes, it was over. Very impressive though. Too bad it didn’t turn into a good thunderstorm, like the ones in Florida. I wanna feel the fury of the skies. Feel the windows shake every time it rumbles. *sigh* But no, not here in Finland.. gotta go to Orlando to get that..

Leaving the day after tomorrow. Had to repack my suitcase. Decided to leave some shirts and two pairs of pants behind. Hopefully my parents can take them with them when they go to Belgium. More importantly, my shoes. I’m taking three pairs with me now, leaving four pairs for them. Two of those aren’t must haves, but it’d be really nice to have my silver strappy high-heeled sandals. I miss my shoes that are in Belgium. An outfit can’t be complete without shoes (unless you’re at the beach, then you’d look kinda silly swimming with shoes on). I have no idea how large my room is in Aberystwyth, but I’m pretty sure that I’ll be short on storage/closet space. I’ve really started to like shopping. Now that I’ve got my own money to buy things with. And I can find nice things that fit. Especially shoes. I think I’ve got like 15 pairs of shoes.. maybe more. What I now need are bags. The kind of bag that Jaz uses for school would be nice. It’s got compartments, it’s roomy, it’s not too big, won’t break easily with use. She’s had that one for two years now and it’s still pretty much intact unlike most of my bags.

I think the sauna is ready now. So it’s one more time in there before I leave. ^-^

I keep having really strange dreams. Most of the time I can’t remember what they were about, I’m just left with a strange feeling. I do remember bits of last night’s dream though. I had gotten myself a shift at a shop that looked like Alepa but I’m a Prisma cashier… Anyway, it was like 3 a.m. when I reported for duty. I ran into Daniela in the changing room.. didn’t talk to her, just waved and I went to my register. Some little old lady had left her groceries next to my register the night before. So I took all of them back. Then I run into Anji and Steve. They tell me that they’re the supervising kassapäällikkös or something. I ask if my shift can be modified a bit and they said that they’ll see what they can work out. We run into Dave and we all sit down at the café. Then this really weird old guy joins us and starts blabbling about something random.. we all start to inch away. Then it suddenly switches to morning and I’m in my bed. I remember sitting up and thinking that that was a weird dream. Then I hear my parents walking into my “room” with my birthday cake. And then I really wake up. And again, I’m left with a strange feeling.

I’m so sore.. I went blueberry picking yesterday. You have to be some kind of acrobat to do it. I was there perching on different sized rocks, reaching as far as I could to get to all of the blueberries. They were huge. Loads of them too. And every time I switched position I could feel the muscles in my legs stretching. I guess I should’ve warmed up before I went there and stretched afterwards. So I’m paying the price for it today. Hurts to move. ;_;

Inga just gave me 20€. The reason? Apparently she thinks it’s so great that I want to repair my clothes instead of just throwing them out (I asked her to take a look at my pants and see if the hole in them could be patched up) so because she can’t do it right now, she gave me money to go buy myself a new pair. I don’t want a new pair. Those were just fine. The hole just needs to be patched up. That’s all. And since she won’t take the money back (believe me, I tried), we’re gonna split the amount that’s left after our expenses on Monday into three. Which would leave each of us with 1,40€. That’s not much.

Hmm.. maybe I should go pack my suitcase. I know I won’t be leaving for another 5 days, but it would be easier for me to see what clothes I can wear over here if the ones I’m taking with me aren’t in the way. At the same time I’ll go help Jaz look for her clothes in the yksiö.