Sorry about taking so long to update my blog...I've been having technical problems. Actually, more like mental problems because, apparently, I have about 9 user names and only one has the blog on it. I don't know how I've managed to create so many accounts.

Anyways, I've been keeping busy myself. I don't even know where to start (for once). It's been almost a month, so here goes....

Thursday, Aug. 25 was "The Night of the Arts." Azadeh and I met downtown to take in some of the festivities. Everything was free, which was a bonus:) It was pretty busy that night too. We went to the Helsinki City Museum, which was more like an art museum of different areas and eras of Helsinki and we saw some folk dance outside too. They had sexy outfits on, and I must get meeeeeeself one of those. We continued on down the street and I bought some maple walnut ice cream, yummy!!!!!!!!! I also "minted" my own coin, while holding the icecream....I'm talented at multitasking....I had the cone in one hand and the hammer in the other.... We also saw Trisha's future profession as "the crazy cat lady." There was this lady on the street with all these cats and a poodle. She trained them to do tricks and walk across a tightrope and jump in baskets and shit. It was cool. We looked at some photo exhibits, and then we went and listened to some music in the park, but it started to rain, so we went to the church to listen to chorale music (which I had no idea what it was, but it sucked ass, so we left).

Friday, was the Sitsit. It was a Finnish academic party that was 15€ (which included dinner and drinks). Even though I ate none of my dinner, I sure got my money's worth for the drinks:) I sent all the disgusting food to Henrik...yuk! Spinach soup with deviled eggs in it...puke...and rye, dried out, cardboard, bread....I'm gagging now thinking about it....We had to sit boy, girl, boy, girl, so of course, I was sitting near a Polish guy that drinks lots of vodka....I think we had the two bottles finishedd before dinner arrived....I couldn't even cut my chicken. Henrik was totally tanked too, and he ripped his damn trousers (in his words)....I wanted to take the last bus home, but when I looked at my watch it was 4:30 am...so I missed it by about 4 hours....so I got the idea, I could walk home, but it was like a 40 min taxi...so I didn't attempt it...I fell asleep on the floor and left at noon the next day. I was in the shower and was looking at my arms...and I had lots of war wounds...I was full of bruises because Henrik thought he could dance, but went and fell down and took me down with him.

Saturday, after the party, I went home and got clean underwear and met Azadeh for shopping. All the stores closed at 6 pm and we thought we could go for a few more hours, so I went to her house and we made dinner, I did some laundry (for free) and had a great night :)

Sunday Aug. 28, Azadeh and I met Teemu for lunch at a very divey place (student cafeteria) I had lips and assholes (sausages) with potato browns (or as I like to call them hash browns). Then, I went home to pack up some stuff.

Tuesday, I brought some stuff over to Azadeh's house, and on Wednesday I stayed at her house, as I couldn't move into my new place early....I had someTurkish coffee with her friends, and it was strong and kind of gross. One of them drove me back to Kannelmaki to get the rest of my stuff....man I have a lot of stuff. Thursday, I went straight to the rental office to get my keys, so was massively late for work.

That night I made a few trips from Azadeh's house to my house, and unpacked a little. The new place looked like such a shit hole from the outside, I was going toa cry when I saw it, but the inside is all renovated and a step up from the old place....

Friday night was Rianne's party. I tried to get there on time, but I was waiting for my stuff that a friend was dropping off etc. I finally got to the bus station at like 10 pm, and met another girl going late...so we got lost together....I phoned Henrik to askl him where we get off etc. like 4 times, and finaly I'm like come to the bus stop and find us, because we walked around for 20 minutes trying to find her place..... I didn't do too much the rest of the weekend, just took it easy and I probably went shopping (I forget its been so damn long). Monday, I went for a walk in the park...all the students were out in their sexy coveralls...they wear these weird outfits and in different colours for each faculty...actually there are some real fruity ones...bright pink is some type of engineering....maybe they wear these for easy access???HAHHA...I don't know.

The next weekend was my big birthday weekend....I did lots fo stuff and had a fun time :) I got lots of mail too :) Friday night, I went to the "Night of the Cats" at the zoo...Trisha are you jealous???? It is a night where the zoo is open super late so you can see them chuck raw meat at them (or feed them) and their nocturnal behavoiurs etc....because when I went during the day, they are always sleeping and not even in view:( The Nothern lights were also out, so it was very nice. The zoo and look-out tower was all lit up too. Saturday, I went to see the Wedding Crashers. Sunday, my actual birthday, I went to the amusement park. It was the last night it was open so it had some good fireworks:) I walked around with my friend, Teemu. We played some shitty games, and had a coffee and some doughnuts (but I miss TIM HORTENS!). The amusement park was quite small, so we didn't go on any rides....they wouldn't thrill me anyways:)

Wednesday, Sept. 14, I was in Tallinn and took the day off work to see Teemu off for his vacations. I had a great day in Tallinn. The weather was windy so none of the express boats were going over. We ended up taking a moster ferry over which took 3 hours, so I was quite bored....we listened to the cheesy band and then BINGO started! I was like I'm soooooooooooooo playing...Teemu laughed at me, but I made him get me a card....so I got the card and then all the damn numbers were called in Finnish, so he was my BINGO bitch and translated all my numbers....hahhahahahaha.....(cause he wanted to sleep). It was kind of rainy in Tallinn, but I already did the "Old Town" so we went to the mall for some cheap shopping, I didn't buy anything :( We ate at a ritzy restaurant for lunch too...It was prety fancy but around 10 euros.....I took the ferry home alone and I forgot to bring a damn book or something so it was pretty boring. I sat and listened to the same cheesy band only with tackier shirts this time......green sexy Hawaiianan ones...they were previously wearing red "Night at the Roxburry" shirts. Then, I got up and went shopping in the tax free store. I bought booze and chocolate for home. You know...the necessities :) Then, I was writing my postcard and some guy comes up to me "Moi dsfgsfgjhfgs." I'm like "I speak English." He was all loaded and wanted to dance with me etc...so that was pretty exciting. He said I was stunning hahahahha and he gave me his business card, kind of a fromage fest I would say. Then on my way home some guy on the metro was like, "I'm so happy to see you." I was looking around thinking...do I know this guy?...is he talking to me?...and he was like I want to be your boyfriend and all this stuff...pretty creepy....

Thursday, was the work excursion day...everything was in damn Finnish again, so I didn't get too much out of going...we went hiking in a different national park so that was nice. It was a raised peat bog where you walk on planks, so it was quite different from the other national park I went to. Plus, it was over an hour away, so it would be hard to get to on my own. It rained like hell and was also quite cold, and I did not have the fancy hiking attire that everyone else had on...was actually quite jealous of many of thier outfits......

I discussed with the secretary that I did not want to go to the excurion on Friday as it was all in Finnish, so she said I could have the day off. I have been off since Wednesday...yep I'm lazy....so Henrik (who is done work) decided we should make use of this long weekend.... Anyways, I missed the ferry to Sweden on Thursday night due to the hiking excursions, so Henrik and I woke up early on Friday and left for the airport (actually, I was late...I needed more beauty sleep). We had no idea where we were going to go and had already missed a few of the flights in the morning...so our choices were Riga and Stockholm. I need a visa for Riga, so we flew our asses out to Stockholm.....We even asked the cargo company if we could go as baggage (to go for free or cheap), but apparently they don't do that here.....Well anyways, the ticket lady was all worried as we didn't have any room etc...but we said we were fine. We got here and walked around a bit, and we finally found a tourist office. We asked them to find us a room and the only thing available was an 8 bed dorm. Henrik was like "that's not very fun...call more places"...but nope that's all there was.....and of course when I got to the room it was a complete sausagefest (all guys). I even went to an irish pub and drank lots of beer before bed...but still did not sleep too pleasantly...it was a symphany of snoring...yep all 6 guys were snoring....not to mention the bodily functions that I heard in the morning....Henrik was also not impressed and he went and bought ear plugs for the next night. We also had to rent some damn sheets....and there were a lot of weird stains on the bed. Henrik and I flipped a coin to see who got the cleaner one. I won of course :) We didn't even pack towels, so we both used the stupid pillow cases which totally didn't cover or dry me well.....

I also dragged Henrik shopping....hahahah poor Henrik...he's a good sport though. Saturday, we had a busy day. We got up early and of course nothing is open till 11 am...we were starving and walked around forever lookign fro aplace to eat. Only McDonalds was open, but we held out and finally found a bakery. Yep, 10 euro for a doughnut and a hot chocolate...HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!
We went on a canal tour, then to the royal palace, saw the changing of the guards (which I haven't even seen at home yet) and some of the inside of the palace. Then we walked to city hall and climbed the tower for a lovely view of the city. Although, we got a little turned around and we finally spotted it, so headed in the correct direction only to be surrounded by water, so we had to walk all the way back around to find a bridge...I think that was the only time we sort of got lost. After the city hall, we went to the Vassa Museum and saw the ship that sank in the 1600s and was brought up in the 60s. It was very neat! Then, we went to some zoo type thing which was my highlight....all the cute animals :) I got to see so many damn monkeys...and a lemur jumped on my head.....as the cages are ones you could walk through. I pet a python and a taratula's ass....very nice....We then went out for dinner at another american restaurant...which was pretty good....Pizza Hut.,..mmmmmmmmm finally:) and TGIF was the other place we ate at. Saturday night, I went to my room and actually met all the snoring guys...yep they were all British and talked very funny....We went to a few bars with them...they were hilarious. The second club we went to was a real sleazy joint. Becasue the first place we found...Henrik got carded (you have to be 24 to get in). Well, this sleazy joint we ended up in cost 100 krononor things to get in (looks like monopoly money)but its worth 19 bucks)....Holy shit just to get into a bar. Luckily, I had no currency left, and was only going to go for an hour, so I was like oh, I will just go home...but all the British guys paid for me. Anyways, it looked like a homo bar, because all the guys looked fruity and I swear I saw them making out. But, when I walked by to go to the toilet they were all "Night at the Roxburrying" me...ewwwwwwwwwww. So, maybe they are bisexual...anyways, I finally made it to the toilet and IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!!!! One toilet for both sexes....guys were peeing and I could see ewwwwwwww. None of them washed their hands....gross. So I waited for a toilet and when I got in there was no toilet seat or paper...what the hell? Cuba has nicer washrooms then this and I didn't pay 20 bucks to get in....geesh.

Anyways, the earplugs worked wonders that night! They were snoring and I could hear them throught the ear plugs...(which cost 40 bucks for a package of yellow foam ones I could steal at work for free). They almost worked too well, as I slept through the alarm that went off at 8 am. So we were in a panic at 10:30 to get to the airport....but we made it.

It was great to be spontaneous, I have never done anything like this before:) and despite the lack of planning, I did see lots and had a great time. Next week, I'm on holidays, so I booked a bunch of flights. Thursday I leave for Copenhagen, then Sunday to Rome, and taking the trian to Milan, and flying back to Tallinn on the Sunday and taking the ferry back to Helsinki....so I have one day to book some hostels and plan this trip.....

I'm now at my new workplace...It's gorgeous..only thing is, it takes me 3 buses and an hour to get here. But, it is way nicer then the old place...no porn shop on the bottom floor...so I have nothing to do at lunch now :( But this building has a sauna, gym, cafeteria, and everything is new!!!!!I'm still waiting for the printer so I can print my e-tickets off.

Anyways, I think you should be all updated now...I will try and post some pictures soon, as I have to empty my camera before leaving for Copenhagen....

XOOXOX
Krissy