Kristen

2007-07-23T01:22:00.000-04:00

Yey! After over a year, I finally managed to figure out how to log on and update my blog...I had this typed out from before (you needed a goole account to log into this thing and they changed it all around so I couldn't find out where to post...yep technical difficulties...I'm such a loser), so I'll finish with my Wales story and later this week post my last week's vacation blog:)

We got back to Edinburgh and left for our swanky flight on British Airways to London We took the commuter train to our hotel in Notting Hill and then went out for dinner. The next day we explored a little. We were walking around a bit wondering where people eat breakfast. These construction guys were looking at us and said “Hi,’ so we were like “where do you get some bacon and eggs around here?” We ate at a seedy little joint and then headed to the Tower of London. We were standing outside with a bunch of city workers and Amy saw three rats. We thought she was going nuts and seeing things, but then I saw them, and then Trisha. We were joking with the workers because they were walking around with a shovel trying to find them (cause we were freaking out) and we are like be careful they’ll rip your face off. They never did find them. Well, we decided not to go in the Tower of London as it was way over priced so we continued our journey to the Tower Bridge and then took the UNDERGROUND (aka subway) to the Parliament Buildings and then we walked around and saw Westminster Abbey. It was Remembrance Day (not sure what the British call it), so they had lots of wreaths and funny looking poppies out. Then we went on the London Eye. We were able to get a great view of London on this puppy. It was huge and took 25 minutes to go all the way around. To finish off our day, we headed to the British Museum. This is huge. It was interesting but we were tired, so did not walk through the whole thing. We ate at a little Italian joint on the way.

The next day was our Welsh Dragon Haggis tour. This one was not as good as the Scotland one, but we kept ourselves entertained and saw some stuff. The first day we stopped in Chepstow and posed on the half Welsh, half English bridge and a saw a wicked Norman castle. We then went to the Big Pit where we go to dress up in sexy miner’s helmets and belts. We were escorted down the mine by a fine Welsh gentleman who could not understand a word Amy said. Yep, she needed English translators. Then off to view the ruins of the spectacular Tintern Abbey. Then to our final stop of the day which was in Abergavenny. It was a Welsh town with more takeaways than any place needs. We stayed in the Black Sheep Hostel which was an absolute arm pit. I think I came out with bed bug bites. Some of the locals got a kick out of us:) Amy was asking for the manager at this fish and chips place...saying they needed new menu ideas....the Canadian poutine....and she was explaining what it was. Since their words are different for things...she kept picking up stuff and saying ," we call this salt" "Do u call it salt?" Then when the bill came he said 90 pounds. She’s like “bullshit! How much did you charge them?” as she pointed at the locals. He was only teasing, of course.

The next exciting day in Wales we left Abergavenny. And headed through Rhayader and stopped at a nice little café on its outskirts. Then we drove through Elan Valley and saw three dams huge dams. We drove and drove and drove some more and saw Castell-y-bere which was “a wicked example of a Welsh Castle” as quoted by our tour guide. We ate lunch in Llanidloes and then stopped in Porthmadog which was a seaside town. We just stopped to see the washrooms though. Drove through Snowdonia and then stopped for the night at Caernarfon. The hostel we stayed at was such a step up from the other. Totters hostel was nice and it was clean! We were also able to sneak up and steal the smaller room that only had four beds. Way better then sleeping with 12…This town had a huge castle in the middle of it that was built by Edward I. There was also a nice pub around the corner. Amy, Trisha, and I headed over for a good time. The Jukebox cost a fortune to keep music playing in it though. Don’t worry we got the nice Welsh boys to keep it full of money. These guys looked about 15 years of age and were not the most attractive bunch. The one boy we nicknamed “Fang” had a thing for Amy. She did not go home with him though.

The last day in Wales we visited…Are you ready???? Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch that almost took up a hole line. It’s the name of a town in North Wales. The name translates as "The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave" in Welsh, has long claimed the fame of having the longest name in the world. We stopped for a the famous picture of the road sign and that’s about all she wrote in that town…nothing much more to see or do. Then we began our trek back to London. We stopped in Llangollen which is a really touristy Welsh town and home to the shop with the longest shop name amongst other things. We walked up to the Welsh Castle on the hill, called Dinas Bran.

We then stopped in Stratford-upon-Avon which was a Shakespeare fest. We did not pay to see his grave or his house as it would have been so boring. We checked out some parks and churches, looked in some shops and clogged a few toilets. We are now back in London, and I had no idea how I would get a bus to the airport when my flight left at 6 am. I did not pay for a hotel. I snuck into Trisha and Amy’s and hotel and took the last bus back the night before and slept on the nice hard airport seats. All in all, it was a fantastic trip. I never even got robbed! But I did lose my Visa somewhere in Scotland.....don't ask.

Well, here is how my journey home went...When I flew from London to Sweden, I had a little bit of a problem getting back into Finland because of the expired Visa....but I said just ONE day to get my stuff...PLEASEEEEEEEEEE. So they let me in:) Then I got to the airport....and Teemu was not there....and my stuff was at his place...so I went to his place...but he was not there either.....so I waited like 3 hours in the pouring rain for him and he finally came. He had been waiting at the wrong terminal:( So, by the time I had met up with him and got my stuff....I just went to bed. I was exhausted. So I’m kind of sad that I never really got to do any farewells.

Well my flight home was also disastrous. My flight left Helsinki at 9 am but due to weather in Paris could not leave till about 2 hours later. I missed my connection to Montréal and waiting like 3 hours in line in Paris to get a new ticket. I had to run like there is no tomorrow to catch the new flight. Well I get to Montréal....and waited and waited...but no bags....I waited a bit more to be sure....then I missed my damn connection to Ottawa. So I had to take the next connection to Ottawa...and finally got home like 8 hours later then I was supposed to. My bags arrived like 6 days later...I was starting to worry.

I was home for a week and then Teemu came to see me:) I picked him up in Montréal and we stayed the night and went and explored. We saw the Notre Dame, the old port of Montréal, the biosphere, and we went to the Biodome and the Olympique tower. Bioodome was cool. The had a different environment in each different section...so one minute I'm walking through the amazon sweating my clothes off...and then next I'm walking through the Laurentian forest and arctic freezing my ass off:) We also went to Ottawa many times and had some beaver tails and poutine:) Did the Parliament and a bit of a walking tour of the downtown area. We went shopping a million times:) My aunt's friend took us out to the comedy club one night and we all got hammered. Went to a Sens game. We went to Toronto for 2 nights. We did the CN Tower, Casa Loma, Hockey Hall of Fame, Air Canada Centre, Skydome, ROM, so we saw all the main sights. we then went to Niagara Falls:) Its beautiful. They had all their Christmas Lights up along the Niagra Falls parkway. The falls were lit up at night too:) We did the journey behind the falls and it was pretty cool:) Since we were already half way around Lake Ontario we decided just to continue doing the full thing...which meant we crossed the border into Buffalo...New York. Teemu got photographed and finger printed and probably anal probed...I have no idea want the yanks did to him in there....he came out a hole other person. No…it was just annoying we had to wait and he had to pay 6 bucks for them to finger print him. We stopped in Rochester and it’s the biggest dump. The place was kind of deserted and everything was closed. So we didn't stay too long. We must have been in the wrong area. We crossed back over the border in Kingston and continued our drive home.

We went to Morrisburg its a little own along the St. Lawrence to see A Light at Night at Upper Canada Village. All the buildings were lit up for Christmas and they had horse drawn sleigh rides and train rides along the beach...so it was pretty nice:) We also of course went to the big Christmas Parade in Winchester. The Parade of Lights. My town is about 5000 people, but for this parade about 15,000 more visitors come to see it:)

OK, I have updated last year…now new posts for this year will follow must make it my resolution.

2006-02-04T22:45:00.000-05:00

Holy Crap! This is going be a long one again:) A lot has happened over the last four months and I have been absolutely horrible at keeping this page updated. Oh, but not now! I’m currently an unemployed wiener with nothing to do, so it’s about time I do something.

I got home the middle of November, but before that I travelled to the U.K. where I met my sister and her friend Amy. The flight there went O.K. I got asked a million questions by the Pakistani customs officer, like I was a terrorist or something. He asked me what I did for a living like three times….LIKE WRITE IT DOWN BUDDY! Anyways, it took me forever to get through…yea and I am supposed to be with the commonwealth?! I had to rush to find Trisha and Amy and from London we immediately rushed for our flight to Edinburgh.

Well, once off the plane we had no troubles getting to our “Hotel.” The reason that the word hotel is in quotation marks, is that is was a super dump. A three bedroom room consisted of a double bed and a single bed. EWWWWWWW, I had to sleep with somebody:) We got to the hotel on a real cool double Decker bus that had designer plaid seats and the cutest old man bus driver (I mean he could have been Sean Connery) with the funniest accent:)

We spent two days in Edinburgh and in those two days, my goal was to make Amy shit her pants:) We went on a few haunted walks. The first one was of the haunted vaults under the south gate bridge. “EDINBURGH’S underground vaults have been described as one of the most haunted places in the world.” Although the only thing that scared me was the fear of someone cutting le fromage in such a confined space:) Amy??? The next one we did was with live actors. It was with witchery tours where we visited the scenes of many “horrific tortures, murders and supernatural happenings.” ooooooooooooooooooo. The groups were introduced, and when your group was called out, you were supposed to make an animal noise, so Amy made a cat in heat sound. Everyone was like “What the hell was that?” They eventually figured it out:) Our guide was the hottest man alive, so needless to say, we did not get too scared. He was a younger, hotter, version of Ryan Philippe. Amy spent the night trying to impress him and grabbing the "Jumper-ooters” (or “outers” as Canadians would say) ass. We got to chatting with the guy in between his stories. One of the guys lost his finger (a fake one was thrown out into the crowd) and Amy failed to see that, so when he asked “Give me the finger?” She ended up popping the bird at him. All the old ladies were giggling at us:) Well, those were our crazy nights in the mighty city of Edinburgh.

The days we spent looking at some cute stuff in gift shops, and doing a little bit of a walking tour. We saw this cute shirt that had bagpipes on it and it said “Blow Me.” I wanted to buy it but Trisha thought that mom would not think that it is appropriate, so I ended up getting a shirt that said “I’m a weeeeee devil on it.” I also got a lambs wool plaid scarf. We saw some monuments and the Castle, which was extremely over priced so we didn’t go in. We also saw the new Parliament building which was super modern looking and a nice cliff behind it that you could hike up. Trisha was not feeling that adventurous after our whiskey testing (no that was later). We went into this tartan weaving shop to see how kilts are made. We tried on some cute hats and took some pictures and further down the aisle the sign reads “absolutely no pictures while trying on garments.” We were like “holy crap….lets get the hell out of here.” They have to do a better job at posting the signs…anyways the illegal pictures turned out fabulously:) We ate at some nice taverns on the Royal Mile. The first place we went to was Deacan Brodies. It was great greasy food and good beer. But man, what is with the energy efficient toilets? O.K. I’m an environmentalist, but how much energy are they really saving when I have to flush it like 10 times? There must have only been like 0.25 L of water in it and on top of that it took 30 min to refill up the tank…. And that was ALL over the U.K. One time, at lunch Amy couldn’t figure out how to flush the toilet so she called for reinforcements, so I was trying to help her and the owner pushed us in and closed the door….like how rude?

What would be the U.K. without a stop at a tea room? Oh, YA BABY…we went to Clarinda’s Tea Room where I had the most wicked hot chocolate with COLOURED marshmallows and a yummy slice of apple pie:)

Now it is time for the WILD AND SEXY HAGGIS TOUR!!!!! This is highly recommended:) It was a three day tour all over the sexy highlands of SCOTLAND, and it was, in fact, SUPER SEXY!! We had two Scottish guides called Disco Dave and Ferggie. They had a great sense of humour and played pretty cool music in our hopping bright yellow Mercedes tour bus. These guys entertained us with” stories of myth, legend and history” as we twisted our way around some of the sexiest places in Scotland. Did you know that for every person who lives in the highlands there are four sheep?

From Edinburgh, our first destination was Stirling where we saw the William Wallace monument. It was a nice hike up the path but the view from the top was well worth it. Breathtaking! Ooooooooo awwwwwwwwww. There was a joke with the tour guides. They say all tourists take a picture of the William Wallace statue, and it is the ugliest thing alive. It isn’t even William Wallace. It’s Mel Gibson. So they told us not to take a picture of that or we would be punished. MUHAHAHAHA! Well, I of course had to sneak a picture for shits and giggles:) Trisha and Amy posed with Mel while they were popping the bird at him and I snapped the shot. Well, the guides, of course, caught me. I could hear them honking the horn at me and I looked over and they were waving their plastic sword at me:) I almost had to pick something from the mystery bin (rubbage bin heheh or garbage can as Canadians would say). That was the joke, if you were the last one on the bus (after the given time limit) you had to do it with your eyes closed and then guess what kind of mystery you picked up. Well, at least it worked because no one was that late.

We then headed to Glencoe where we saw the three sisters (some very nice mountains). We also meet the very sexy hairy coo, Hamish (hairy cow as Canadians would say). Hamish definitely puts the ‘Sexy’ in ‘Wild & Sexy'.

We then headed off the beaten track (literally all the roads in the highlands were one lane and you had to pull off the road to let oncoming traffic pass) to Fort William which is home to Ben Nevis (Britain’s highest mountain). We then saw a clansmen show, which was interesting. A guy showed us what life was like in the good old days. How they dressed, ate, hunt, and lived. There was an interesting kilt demonstration. Watching a guy in our tour group take off his pants may have been a highlight to some people in the group; it certainly wasn’t mine as his nickname was “Troll”--for a good reason. Anyways, it was interesting to see how they made a kilt. I had no idea that they used so much material and that there were so many different ways of wearing it. I think the material they used in the demonstration was 18 metres. Before settling in for the night, we stopped for some snacks and whiskey testing:) Then, we were off to Kyleakin where we spent the night at Saucy Mary’s Lodge. We were told that Saucy Mary obtained her name from flashing her “paps” (or boobies) at fisherman. We tried to get a pitcher of beer at this lodge and the bartender was all confused “A picture?” After we said it was a lot of beer, she was like “ahhhh, you mean a ‘JUG!’” So that was our first experience with the culture gap:) Anyways, this lodge was nice and cozy and it was located on the Isle of Skye (which has a thriving Gaelic culture), so we were ready for a full day of exploring the Isle the next day.

First stop of the day was Eilean Donan Castle (the most photographed castle in Scotland) which we missed the previous day because we got there at 5 pm and it closed at 4:30 pm. We were unlucky in one sense because the second attempt at visiting the inside of the castle was unsuccessful. What a bummer, eh? The storm the previous night had knocked out all the power lines, so it was closed again. Although, we were lucky because we were now able to see the outside of the castle in daylight as it was pitch black on our previous visit. We were very fortunate indeed because often the views are obscured by rain and mist. “But on a bright day, particularly in autumn when the colors are so warm and varied, Scotland can boast of no more picturesque castle.”

While in Kyleakin we stopped and saw kilt rock and saw some marvelous hills and waterfalls. We were given some very funny stories of Celtic myths and legends. He “heard all about the Faeries and the Selkies, and local characters who have contributed to the rich history of this magical island.” We travelled along the banks of the loch Ness to see if we could spot Nessie. I’m sorry to say, that there were no sightings and the only monster I saw was Trisha when she got up in the morning:) We even preformed the Nessie call to attract the beast (which was signing a stupid song and dancing in a line). We stopped at the Nessie exhibition for a snack and then saw the scenic ruins of Urquhart Castle.

We then headed towards Inverness, which is the capital of the Scottish highlands. From there we visited the Clava Cairns. These puppies are older then the pyramids. WOW! They are about 4000 years old and are some of the “best preserved burial mounds on the Scottish mainland.” There were three main mounds at the site and two of them had passageways leading into them. The whole tour group piled into one in order to perform a very sexy ritual which consisted of dancing around in circles holding hands and singing silly songs. Yea we did that a lot, eh?

Next, we headed for the gloomy Culloden Moor, which was the sight of the defeat of Bonne Prince Charlie’s Jacobite uprising. We went for a ‘wee’ walk around the grounds and saw some tombs of the clans and flags where both sides were stationed. We began our journey home and headed south to Dunkeld where we saw a nice cathedral. The last sexy site before we returned to Edinburgh was the Forth Bridge.

Holy crap! That was all Scotland. I was hoping to do this all in one shot but I guess I will post this now, so that it is not too long:) Stay tuned for London, Wales, and my return to Canada…

2005-10-24T14:01:00.000-04:00

Ok, so its about time that I update my blog again:)

The weekend of Oct. 8th I decided to have a Thanksgiving dinner. Well, it was more difficult then I thought it would be because I still can't figure out what everything is. Some of the stuff like poultry seasoning they don't have....and turkeys are few and far between and the ones that I did find were 7 euros a kilo and BIG BUCKS!!!! I finally broke down and bought one though :) Vesa took me out on Thursday night to buy everything, so I didn't have to carry it all around...I think everything turned out pretty good. There were 9 people at dinner and no one really complained and I don't think anyone was sick afterwards:) It would have been nice to have an apple pie or something, but they don't have bloody pies here anywhere....not even pie shells, and it would have been too much work to make one that probably won't turn out anyways. Oh yea, and I thought finding a turkey was hard! Finding a pan to cook it in was another thing. I bought small aluminum ones and cut them and attached them together with like a roll of tin foil. Yea, it was kind of messy....

The next week (Oct 13), I went to the movies with Teemu. It was 5 euro night on Thursday :) We saw "The 40 Year-Old Virgin" which was retardly funny. Then on Friday, I left work at 4pm and went to the cottage with Teemu and a bunch of his friends. I have no idea where it even was, but it was somewhere in central Finland. It was such a long drive. The scenery was nice, pretty much the same as home though...trees and lakes. All the leaves are changing colour, so Fall is definately here! I read my UK edition of Cosmo from back to front....quite an interesting read. We stopped at a groccery store on the way there and picked up some groceries...which took forever, by the way, because there was 5 of us...and 4 of us were Finns and are EXTREMELY SLOW. Anyways, when we got there food was already made for us by a mom:) Mom's are great aren't they ??? The cottage was more like a cabin. It was small, but had a loft with lots of beds in it, so luckily I did not have to sleep on the floor...It was also heated, and hotter then a dirty rig on a Saturday night! The first night, the guys went fishing and I tried sauna. On Sat., we went fishing all day. It was bloody cold out. I had on three pairs of socks, long johns, jeans, a long sleeve sweater, my cord jacket, Azadeh's winter coat, 2 toques....yes 2!!!, a pair of gloves, scarf, and coveralls, and I was still cold:) GEESH I should be used to this....At least, we caught 4 rainbow trout. The dad smoked them for us and they were pretty good...even though I don't eat fish that often. That night, all that we did was sit around and talk. I, of course, was extremely bored because none of this was in English. I think I began to study/memorize my Cosmo as this is now my second time through it. It is like 6 pm on a Saturday night and I'm sleeping!!!! I think I developed an imaginary friend or another personality from talking to myself so much. I made the mistake of drinking a lot of beer that night....maybe to satisfy my alter ego....but instead it ran right through me and I had to get up like 3 times to pee....yep, they can have a sauna in the house, but not a bathroom...I had to walk outside in the cold...down the very long driveway in my skivvies to pee:(

Sunday, it was extremely windy out, so we did not go fishing. Eveyrone was lazy and woke up at like 11 am. I had some weird horse meat for breakfast and then we sat around waitng for 4 Finns to make up their mind what the hell they were going to do. I, of course, had no idea what they were talking about. But finally, after 4 hours!!!!!, we decided to go for a walk...and of course there was 5 of us and there was just enough room on the trail for 4 across, so I walked ahead with my alter ego. I think Kathy (the other part of my brain) likes to walk fast because when I turned around all the Finns were like 1 km behind....no I think they are just slow:) but at least I got to talk to Kathy a little bit. After we did a short jaunt....it seemed like we were gone for 5 minutes....we were finnished our walk!!!! Kathy and I could have went for at least an hour. Kathy got really angry too because no one was talking to her--poor Teemu. He had to deal with the wrath of Kathy. We left at about 3 pm for our long ride home. Kathy and I slept most of it. But we stopped at some locks on the way home. It was very pretty.

Well nothing really new and exciting happened to me this week. On Sat. morning (Oct. 22), I went to the Science Centre (Heureka) with Vesa. All the exhibits were pretty kiddish, but I did see a IMAX like film. It wasn't exactly like IMAX but close enough. It was on Chimpanzees....Jane Goodall one....Of course she narrated it, but since the Science Centre is for kids, and kids are dumb and can't read sub-titles :), they dubbed it over in bloody Finnish. They gave me an interpretor like ear piece, which only went in one ear, so I could hear both languages at the same time. It was quite an interesting experience, but I enjoyed the film anyways. After the Science centre, Vesa made me lunch and then I went shopping with Azadeh. She bought a sweater and I bought some little souvenirs. We then went to happy hour and met Teemu and had some 90 cent wine:) After that, it was nachos at Santa Fe (this Mexican joint). Yesterday, was laundry day. I keep meaning to go do a walking tour of Helsinki, but the last 2 days it has been raining, so when I got to the city centre, I didn't really feel like walking in that kind of weather, so I went to a fancy little coffee shop and had a really good muffin and some hot chocolate with Teemu....it still doesn't compare to Tim Hortens though :) We picked up some grocceries and made steak and potatoes last night and then watched Deuce Bigelow European Gígelow which was kind of retarded...

Today, it is 0 C out. Good thing, I finally broke down and bought a coat. I went and got it wrapped for tax free shopping, and they put like 2 pieces of tape on the bag because your not allowed to use it or open in while in Finland to get the tax break. I was like oh this is a cinch....I got three pieces of tape off no prob...and the last one on the end was a bit more tricky...so I thought I could just leave it and sneak the coat out....but I RIPPED IT!!!! BASTARDS:....oh well, it was worth a try! It was only 17 euros that I would get back in tax, but its like free money so it was worth a try:)

I haven't heard from Kathy in awhile....

Anyways, thats all for now!

XOXOXO
Krissy

2005-10-03T07:07:00.000-04:00

Hellooooooooooooooooooo all! I'm finally back from my vacation and I somewhat feel worse then before I left.....I'm broke, tired, sore, my shoes smell funny, and I have a shit load of laundry to do. Hmmmm hardly relaxing...

I left for Copenhagen Thursday night and stayed in a real hole--actually could have guessed by their slogan which read "We don't have a jaccuzzi, but you can fart in the tub all you want." Anyways getting there was a bit tricky the directions of which bus etc. to take from the airpirt was good, but the driver never told me when to get off, so I missed it and had to walk a million miles back to it with my huge backpack. Copenhagen was a nice city. I met up with Azadeh on Friday with no problems because I went to the bus stop and waited for her so she knew where to get off. We then walked around Copenhagen. It was a very nice day out and we saw some churches and walked a long the Stoget, the shopping street. We checked the buses to Aalborg and ended up missing them...we were thinking of hitchhiking but decided it was probably not a good idea. We went and searched and searched for a hotel for friday night and it was very difficult as everything was booked up, but we ended up finding a really nice hostel for pretty cheap. Saturday, we walked around a lot and saw the changing of the guards and we even posed with one in their funny hat :) and went to the castle a few churches, saw the little mermaid statue, and some monuments etc. We went to Our Lady Savior Church which was a really neat church because the tower that we climbed was outside. We then took a train around the city and there was this creepy guy on it (yes, like in Eurotrip) that was sitting like 6 seats behind...and as I was talking to Azadeh I said "I swear he is getting closer" and she is like "no way he is still way back there." Anyways by the end of the train ride, he was practically in our laps so it was quite creepy, and as he got off the train he was like "Thanks." We also thought this was kind of weird. Thanks for what???? After the train ride, all I could smelll were these roasted almonds and I wanted some so badly. I finally found some and it was also a creepy guy selling them....ewwww his hands were all over them when he scopped them into a bag and he handed them to me and said "They were made with love" ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...... but I still ate them....they were damn good :) Bacteria, we will worry about you later :) There was this English guy performing acts and stuff on the street so we stayed to cheer him on (and were the only ones to do so :)). He was on a unicycle juggling burning torches.

Saturday night, we were not so lucky finding a place to stay everything was booked. We were in the central terminal phoning places and guess who we saw....the creepy train guy again!!!!! He was waving at us and calling us over, but we pretended we didn't hear him:) After being unsuccessful in finding a place to stay, we decided to go to Hard Rock Cafe. We stayed in Hard Rock Cafe for as long as humanly possible. We drank some irish coffees and listened to the musci they got up on the bar and danced to the Grease remix hahahahahaha.... I got gypped in the french fry department and my burger was raw, but I was so hungry that I ate it anyways. Again maybe the bacteria from the almonds counteracted the bacteria from the raw burger. We then went to the airport and I slept on Azadeh's lap next, but the damn floor cleaner was so loud, I had to put in some ear plugs which still did not work. And plus, now, I'm feeling the bacteria.

Rome was the biggest armpit in the world. It smelled like a dirty toilet, people were really rude, and it was really really dirty. Second day there, I got robbed, so I have no identification, or money or anything here now!!!!!! I was so careful too :(. My purse was in front of me the hole time and I had no maps or cameras out, so I did not look like a tourist...besides the fact that I'm white and speak English. Anyways, it happened in the metro, I was pushed and looked down and everything was still zippered, so I thought i was fine. I went out and sat down in line at the Vatican and noticed some threads....HOLY SHIT! They cut the bottom of my purse open with a knife. I remember exactly who it was too--6'2" 200lbs, dark greasy medium length hair, 35ish, in a black fancy suit...I looked at him and saw a paper in his hand (which was probably wrapped around the jack knife) what an asshole. It would have been worth it if I at least got to kick him in the balls. I phoned "emergency" visa card place..and yep it took 5-10 business days for an "emergency" visa...those fuckers.....so I had absolutely no money on me. I phoned mom and told her that Teemu gave me 10 euros, so she was kind of worried....but he put everything on his visa for me which was really nice:) So, now I owe him big. When, we took the metro again I guarded him like a hawk and was suspicious of eveyrone...even the sweet old ladies.

Our hotel the first three nights in Rome was kind of ghetto. There were springs coming out of my bed and 4 species of insects in the washroom. I could not identify them down to species though as I did not have an entomological key with me....but there were some arachnids....which should eat the other three species....another species was really dominant as there were more then one present. They really liked drains and kind of looked millipeedy....only with less pairs of legs...

Anyways, enough with the bugs....Having my wallet stolen sucks ass....after this happened I drank a lot of wine. We did try and make the best of our trip and walked around and saw some churches, monuments, fountains, and cool old buildings. We went to the Colosseum and Palantine one day and saw some fat hairy Romans that were dressed as Gladiators....I wanted to pose with them but then realized that you had to pay to take their picture and they weren't at all good looking, so it was not worth it. Plus I had to really stretch that 10 euros that I had.... There was another crazy cat lady feeding all the stray kitties at the Colosseum. Trisha's furture profession:) The next day we went to the Vatican...I really liked their idea of "security" when we went all the scanners were closed. hmmmmmmmmmm I don't think they had the lunch break at rotating times. I think they must be like Fred Flinstone....Its quitting time!!!! and just all leave their post at the same time. We went to the cathedral and then to the crypt to see some exicitng tombs....There was only one way through it and once we got down there, I thought I was nevrer coming back up. The Pope's tomb was there and everyone was taking their sweet ass time. We then went and sw lots of art and scultures and stuff. We saw the Sistine Chapel. It was pretty nice, but not as awe-inspiring ass I thought it would be. Two naked guys touching fingers seems kind of gay.... We also did this cheesy 3D ride called the Time Elevator. It was on the history of Rome--American style.

We looked at some T-shirts but they were of poor quality and didn't want to pay the full price for them...the salesman was quite rude and proceeded to tell us where the Gucci store was...What a dick.

It was hard to eat well there as they eat at strange times. Most restaurants close at about 3 pm and open back up at 7 or 8 pm....so with only having a small snack for lunch...I'm always so starving...we have to settle for big shitholes.

We then went to get our train ticket to Flurence. Ok, customer service sucks ass. We went to information previously and was told it was around an hour and 20 euros....when we got there the ticket was more like 30 euros and took 2 hours...so we thought he was selling us the wrong one. We wanted him to switch tellers so we could make sure, because this guy did not speak any Englishh, so we did not was to buy the ticket until we were absolutely sure. He would not refund the ticket and said he couldn't, there was a line, and all this shit in Italian which we could not understand. Finally he refunded the ticket after about 10 min. We later realized that we can buy the ticket at these automatic machines, and we bought the same ticket that we originally had but through the machine as there was an English option.

So, we finaly arrived in Flourence. Some lady greeted us at the train station. She was like Are you looking for accomodation? We were like..maybe why??? and she got my sap story about loosing the wallet, so we got a good deal on an apartment. It was a very nice apartment, with our own bathroom and no uninvited guests. We walked around Flournece, saw some churches, monuments, fountains....pretty standard things. We ate at a pretty snazzy place one night. We ordered this steak for two. It was the size of Barney. Anywyas, I wanted it well done, but they only do medium, so we were like oh ok thats fine. It comes to us like 5 cm thick and "Medium" is actually straight from the freezer. It was sooo raw. I hope I don't get worms or something. I had a litre of wine to rise it down with though and some icecream for dessert :). The next night in Flourence we switched rooms to a hotel... It was also pretty nice:) We then left and bought our train ticket (through the automatic teller machine) to Milan. We got to Milan and looked for a hotel. We found onein the Lonely Planet that said Rcok Bottom Rooms, so we were a little bit leary on taking it. We asked to see the room first and it was all rennovated. It was the nicest spot we stayed at...clean, no bugs, it was so new we couldn't figure out how to work the electricity. We had to go and ask the lady... she laughed at us...we had to put our card key in the slot....

In Milan, we walked around yet again saw the standard things, monuments, fountains, churches. We went and looked at a few shops...we went in the Ferrrarri store and realized that I was out of my league when I couldn't even afford an umbrella. I bought a new wallet at a leather store. Oh, and I did not find any shoes in Italy either. My feet are just too big and nothing suits my taste....oh well I will be home soon. It's just I only have one pair of running shoes,that smell really bad...so everyone around me also thinks I should buy a new pair of shoes. Saturday night we flew to Tallinn and stayed in the airport till 7 am and took the bus to the city centre. We did a little bit of shopping and had a snack while we were waiting for the ferry to leave for Helsinki. Well, there was a little misdirection with the time. The ferry actually left at 12:30 pm not 12:45 so we missed that one, and took the next one over 2 1/2 hours later. We were pretty tired. We were laying on a disgusting bar couch for the hole ferry over and it smelled like cigarettes and there was some creepy guy looking at me. Teemu left his jean jacket somewhere so he had a cold walk to the metro when we got in.

So I have been back for a week now, I finally have got through all my laundry and now I have another load to do. It just doesn't stop!!!! This weekend I cooked a turkey dinner for everyone here. It was so hard to find all the stuff, and we invented our own turkey pan with lots of aluminum foil and cut open disposable caserole dishes.... but it was cooked and turned out well, at least I thought it did.

Anyways,

I think that is about it!!!

XOXOOXO
Krissy

2005-09-20T09:34:00.000-04:00

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

2005-08-24T13:58:00.000-04:00

Hey Hey Hey,
I finally have my new address for Sept 1:
Linnoituksentie 10 R 167 Room: 4, 00940 HELSINKI

Frig this one is for 4 tenants...and it says "room in a shared apartment for 4 tenants + kitchen/living room, balcony, 3rd floor" So does this mean there is no bathroom?.....and if there is one...would probably never see it...almost would rather live with the 2 guys as probably will never be able to get in it with 4 girls...

Tonight, I met my msn pal. We went to a cafe and chatted for a couple hours. It was nice:) The rest of the week is party party party so tonight am taking er easy as I don't want to go to the one tonight as would have to be naked.....(its a sauna one).

Can't wait to hear from you!

XOXOXO
Krissy

2005-08-23T14:41:00.000-04:00

Photos
1. National Park
2. National Park
3. Juha Deploying CPR
4. Anna's Sediment Cores
5. Me, Anna, and Azadeh
6. Sibelius Monument
7. Aranda
8. Muikko
9. Botanical Gardens
10. School of Herring at the SeaLife Aquarium

2005-08-22T04:31:00.000-04:00

Everything is looking up, Milhouse! I got a new apartment with just girls and no dirty guys:) So hold off on mailing me stuff till I can post the new address!

2005-08-19T04:17:00.000-04:00

O.K, Continuing on with my story....

On Monday Aug 1, we woke up at 6 am, and took the first ferry over to Tallinn. Wow! What a beautiful city. We went into a billion old churches and walked around all day! It is a midevial town from the 1100's, so it was neat to see the walls and towers. I wanted to see the Pharmacy, but when I asked they thought I meant a regualr one...and not the old school one, so we never ended up finding it. The first church we went into I wanted to climb the tower, so I asked Sharon to do it, she was like sure. So we climbed and climbed theses steep stairs, and It went around and around...half way up there was a "rest area"...its funny becasue Sharon thought we were just going up to the organ loft hahhaah. When we got to the top the veiw was worth it...but it wasn't even a tower...it was just the roof we were walking on with a hand railing so it was pretty freaky. We went out for dinner at the town centre. I had pizzer...it was pretty good :) We had our expressos and cafe latte and we were good for a few more hours. We bought some cheap wine to take back too:) I didn't really plan it right, I forgot to check the bus schedules etc, so we got in Helsinki at like 1am and the bus was not running from the port....it was pouring rain, so we walked 15 min. to the metro...but it was closed.... I saw across the street, so buses were still running so we went to that stop...luckily it was a Kannalmaki bus...going straight to my area of town....so we got on that...only I had no idea where to get off since I never take the bus. We were in the middle of no where....we walked around forever and finally found a 15 year old boy (at like 3 am) and he got us to the train station so I can get my bearings :).

On Tues. we just relaxed, I emptied out like 117 emails, we walked around Kamppi and looked at the photo exhibition by Yann Arthus Bertrand. We stopped and got some grocceries, drank our wine and relaxed.

Wed. we decided on going on another journey. We woke up at 6 am again and went to the train station and took it to Turku. The train went 201 km/hour! We got a Turku card and was able to get free admission and public transport with it. We went to the Pharmacy Museum (finally) , at least I made it to one :) We also went to an art museum. It was neat becasue when they started excavating the basement for a safe they discovered a whole midevial village, so the musuem because a civilazation museum. It was neat to see the buildings, cellars, and artifacts. They had to build another museum to house the art. We made it just in time for the guided tour. It was modern art, so weird ugly stuff that you wouldn't put in your house. There was this one interesting piece where it was off an angel leaving earth. Apparently a bird shit in this guys eye, so he was blinded and an angel came to help him...when he could see again the angel left. Joanne stood in the foot prints, and all of a sudden her hat blew off and it was a huge gust of really strong wind came out of a wall and the feet came out...apparently that is what if feels like when an angels leaves you. It was very weird. We then left the museum and did a bus tour. It was o.k but in three languages yet again, so I slept through the second half and didn't really see anything. We did stop at the cathedral. It was very nice. People who have wedding jitters should not get married in thsi church as it is the longest walk to the altar. Over 100 metres :) It was a very beautiful church, but very creapy, as it had many tombs inside. A sweedish queen is buried there and apparantly they want her back... We got back on the bus and continued our tour. We got off at the castle...which was huge. It didn't look like any castles that I had ever seen. It was a little dissapointing as I was really tired and everything in it was like museums and silver exhibitions and boring stuff like that, but when we finally got through it and got to see all the rooms and stuff that was interesting. We stopped and had a coffee and then went to city centre to look for a place to eat. We finally found an American restaurant which was pretty tasty, probably the most tasty meal I have aten so far. I had chicken fajitas:) After supper we looked for the bus station and took the bus home, to see a different route as it was not even cheaper then the train and it took the same amount of time....

Thursday, We walked around the city centre a bit and went to the Natural history musuem, which is not as impressive as Canada's Museum of Nature or the ROM. The museum had many animals, but it was not climaticatly controlled, so it was pretty hot in there and all the windows were wide open. The birds were all faded and didn't have their regular colour. And holy if they were gonna put writing so permanent you think they would use spell check or something, as most of the English translations made no sense. Half of the plaques didn't even have English. After the museum, we went outside and sat in a little park area and ate our lunch. There was a display there of a huge block of ice. I think it was probably another modern art thing....I don't know as everyone was taking pictures of it and there were TV people there. Maybe as it melts it is "art," hahah. I joined in the hooplah and took a picture too :) We then went and walked around the market for a bit, and stopped and watched some Finnish Folklore music. It was pretty good.

Friday, we went and checked our email, and then I picked up a roll of film. It costs 10.90 Euro to get a single set developed!

We decided to buy tickets for the Finnish Folklore dance and musci show at the Savoy theatre. We went and bought our tickets for it and decided we wanted to check out the Architecture Museum. The museum book I had was in like 6 different languages so it was very confusing. I thought the museum was number 16 on the map, so we took a bus all the way on the other side of the city. We were asking where we get off to go to this musuem and everyone was confused and said its back that way where you came from. Finally we showed them where it was on the map and they were like, "Oh, ok get off here" so we got off and walked around and couldn't find it. I looked it up again, and the musuem was on page 16 not number 16. So anyways the musuem was on the same bloody street as the Savoy theatre where we just were to buy the bloody tickets to the Music/dance show....By the time we got there is was 3:36pm and the bloody thing closed at 4 pm, but we went in and he said we can do it very quick he charged us student rate of 1.70 Euro, which as worth it because we used the bathroom:) It was very small anywyas we were actually through it before they closed. It was just a display on wooden architecture and then they had models and blueprints and stuff, I guess for people who want to do research. We quickly looked at the models. There was Toronto City Hall there. I'm assuming a Finnish arichect designed it...

After the museum, Sharon and Jo went and watched the rest of the marathon and then went to the art museum. It was free admissions on Fridays after 5 pm, so I might still go. I wasn't too interested in going as it was cntemporary art again. I went and met up with my penpal, Tiina. We met at the statue of naked blacksmith men and then went to a cafe and talked until 7 pm. I was very nice to meet her, hopefully I will get to see her again. I had to leave and go to the Folklore show, which was really great.

On Sat. Aug.6, we decided to go to Nuksio National Park. It was in Espoo, so we took a commuter train, but it didn't go all the way there. It went half way there and then headed back to where we came from. Frig. I had taken that train before....so we got off and tried again....We finally got to the park. Sharon and I decided to be ambitious and do the 7 km trail. We walked it and saw lots of different types of nature, goin through rocky areas, and different types of trees (come on botany was so long ago..) and vegetation. After that trail, we totally missed the starting point, so we started to do it again. But we caught ourselves and realized when we saw this giant ant hill the size of Sharon for the second time, so we turned around and went back. The funny thing was everyone was picking blueberries, and starting carring these 10 L pails full of heavy berries. We should have realized that they were done and carrying them back to their car...to the parking lot which we were looking for, but instead we went the opposite way. We ended up in another park. The girl we asked was all worried like did you bring food and water:) Yep, we walked 21 km. We had to take a bus back to our starting point, as we were totally lost, and had to go back to meet Jo. The bus stop was 2 km away from the park, so I walked really fast so that we can catch the next bus. I lost Sharon somewhere along the way, but met uå with her on the way back, we had 20 min to catch the next bus. On Sunday, they don't run as often, so it was really important that we made it :) Anyways, it all worked out we found Jo and headed back to my apartment :)

Sunday, we decided to do a Tram ride of teh city to get a recap :) But before we got on there was this drunk that was all gross and drooly. He had on adidas trainng pants with stains, dress shoes with no tongues and laces, and a blazer with stains and all. He also had a black eye, and smelled like industrial cleaner. He was like "Can I have your water?" (in the worst Englsih ever) ....and Jo was like "No" and he took it from her and said "thanks" (all drooly). He got on the tram and spilled the water everywhere. I went to sit down. I was crouched over, my ass was like 2 inches from the seat, and he pushed me out of the way! and sat in my seat ....How rude! He left for a while, and then came back and was poking Sharon's leg. She turned around and gave him the glare...and he winked at her! Azadeh was like its safer in Iran...so we were like K lets get off the tram. We got off at a park...and ate our lunch then went and saw the Rock church again as Azadeh hadn't seen it yet. We then went to a movie. Sharon and I saw "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and Jo and Azadeh saw "Sideways." After the movie, Jo and Sharon praticed how they would get back into my apartment when I was on the boat. They climbed through the window! Yep, I got some good pics of this :)

Monday, I had to leave to go on Aranda. We left a little early , so I was able to show Sharon and Jo some of the boat. I was there super earl as it didn't leave till 11 am and wasn't sure when it left...I read most of my book before it freakin left. I had my own cabin for the first week which was nice :) The U-Tow was still in the US. So what was planned for me didn't come through. I was kind of bored. I took some plankton samples, did the secchi disk. Good thing I had brought with me 2 books. I read them both in the first week. I thought I would be home for the weekend but we didn't go in to port as we were so far away. This cruise covered all of the baltic. So it was nice to see the lighthouses. On Saturday, we picked up two girls, so I had to share my cabin. I helped the one girl with her Masters project. She did some dredges, so I helped her look for polychaete worms, sideweimmers, and isopods. I stained a pair of pants...DAMN. I think I watched every movie fro the early 90s ever made. They had just gotten a DVD player so not that uch selection. At night I got pretty boring. I don't think that my cabinmate liked that I watched TV because I got up to go to the bathroom and came back and it was turned off. The last night was the BBQ. Everyone got totally shitfaced I think it was calculated that everyone drank 2 bottles of wine and a bottle of the hard liquor. It was hilarious to see all the ladies my mom's age make out with the crew...one of the crew members passed out on the deck too. I have to hand it to them though, the drunker ones were up at 7:30 am for breakfast.

Friday, there was a party at work for the new director of the institute. I went but understood nothing. Oh well, drank lots of beer and wine with some collegues, and was on the metro kind of drunk. Azadeh and I went to the Fantastic Four. It was pretty good.

Saturday, I went shopping to find a pair of pants, as I stained a pair on the boat. Look out 80's is coming back...legwarmers, neon colours, cowboy boots, mullets, and tights are all hot. Lee, Levis and Wrangler brands are like 120Euros and way over priced!....I have't broguht myself to buy anything yet and its killing me, as I have been out looking the last four days now. There was a party utside my apartment, so I went and got drunk and for some reason a potato chip bag is sooo much funnier when your drunk. It said "Mega Pussi" on it, so all the guys were like "I want mega pussi" It translates to "big bag" in Finnish...also kind of funny.

Sunday, I went shopping again and checked my email....

This week at work has been pretty slow. The boss isn't around so I'm anaylzing data, and am not sure if I'm doing it right. I heard hat I got a new apartment. I was all ready to move in with 2 guys. I had prepared myself...now there is no need to worry as there was a cancellation and now i have a flat with 2 girls. I haven't heard from them yet, so I don't even know if I can move in early or not. I finally got my computer back, but I couldn't get it hooked up to the internet. I went to phone the help line but they were closed at 8 pm and it was 8:15pm. DAMN..this always happens to me. The next night I made sure I called them. I was on hold for 20 mins. (listening to 80s music) and pressed all these buttons in the selection to get service in English and the still answer in Finnish!!!! So I got another temporary passcode...but was like ahhhhhhb retard, this was the reason it expired, i can't register its not in english...so I made the guy on the phone do it:) The next day I try and take money outta the damn machine, and I can't! Not very user friendly. There is a slot you put your card in to take out money and a slot to put in mone, and then its all in Finnish, so I have no idea. I was just pushing buttons....but no money comes out. I took it to the bank and they were like oh it says wrong pin code. Well, I thought it was the pin code that I had made up...but you know they make things soo complicated and give you like a million. I have a sheet of paper, so everytime you go on the internet you enter a pin code, but you have to be sure to cross it off, or it will screw you up...becasue there is a huge lst of them that you don't use the same one everytime...and then in some instances it gives you a letter like U so there is yet again another list of 26 pin codes that you don't cross of and that you enter in the number next to that letter U. But apparently, the debit pincode is different and it was mailed to me separately without the card. So it was probably in Finnish and I threw it out. I will have to look. Its funny too, because I told them not to mail me anything. Now I have to go have a new pincode put on the damn card.

Anyways, will try and post some pictures once I get them sorted out!

XO
Kristen

2005-08-19T03:18:00.000-04:00

Holy Cow! This one is gonna be a long one, as it has been almost a month. I still don't have my computer back, I am finally back in the office today, so I will try and see if I can locate it...
I guess I will start from the second leg of the first cruise I was on (July 25-July 29). I left around 9 am and kept missing all my damn connections... (i had to take the train and metro) so I got to the ship at exactly ten o'clock and they were all waiting for me:( I wasn't late or anything...just on time...I also got held up by yet again another preeeeeeeevert. Yep, I have gotten three phone numbers in the metro station. This is where you go to pick up...how romantic, eh? Yep, the smell of a garbage dump...really turns a girl on. Very creepy.

Weather was good for the majority of the trip. One night is was really rough. Anna lost her cheesecake. Something also kept Anna and I up till 5 am. We couldn't figure out what this loud banging sound was. We thought it was outside the cabin,. but it was inside, we moved our bags, took the ladder down from the bunk...but it was still banging...finally we figured it out...it was the damn Vodka bottle in the frigde...it almost went overboard. But good thing we saved it for the last night :)

The U-tow was still in the U.S. , so again it wasn't very busy for me. I helped load the CPR and preserved the samples, and I helped Anna a bit with her project. I watched every movie made in the early 90's. I also read all of my books. One day, I was lowered into the little work boat from the top deck of the ship and we went to another ship the Muikko. It was a pelagic trawler, so it was neat to see the fishies. The trawler had different compartments to keep the fish separate so you can tell at what depth the fish were caught at. There were only three of 4 different species and they were sooooooo small compared to the fish in the Atlantic. We caught sticklebacks, herring, and sprat. There were also some lampreys...which one of the guys put on my hand. The suction power of that sucker felt kind of gross. I cut some heads off and skinned some fish, for Anna cause she was testing them for toxins.

Oh yes, I also tried the Sauna....I was told I have to go and try it. Its a social thing and very popular among the Finns. The naked thing, I'm not really comfortable with. I was like can't I bring a towel. "There's no room for those in there," I was told. So all's you have is a little kim-wipe for your ass. When, I went, it wasn't so bad because hardly anyone was there. Good thing too because if I went when everyone was there, I wouldn't understand anything and would be sitting there looking like a big lesbo.

The last night of the cruise, we had a big BBQ, and drank lots, everyone was pretty hammered and was dancing on the helideck. I also got to go visit Finland's largest Zoological station. It was very nice.

Friday July 29, we got into port early, so I was able to meet Sharon and Jo at the airport...without them having to wait too long. I brought them back to my joint. We relaxed some and then did some grocery shopping. We also drank some Finnish beer, wine, cider, and all got hammered hahahha..No we just had beer. My weeks holidays has officially began :)

Saturday, July 30, we went to the market and the old market hall and bought some souvenirs. We also went to Suomenlinna and walked around the island for a few hours. I, of course, spulrged on some maple walnut ice cream:)

Sunday, we did a tour of Parliament. It blew ass. The biggest waste of an hour ever. We saw one bloody room. "Is it in English?" I ask. "Oh, yes of course," was the reply. But they failed to mention that it was also in Finnish and Sweedish. I sat in that room for 30 min listening to "Charlie Brown's parents" blah, blah, blah....and then finally she switches to English, but since it was the last language, I feel we probably got the short and sweet version of what everyone else got and what ever she said, I had just spent the last half hour reading in hte brochure anyways, so I didn't even need a guide. I didn't even get felt up by the secuirty guard going in....so I didn't get anything out of it :) Hahahahah.

I had to pee soooo bad, so Sharon treated me. It costs one euro to use the toilet. I think everyone was trying to get their euro worth and empty completey out because it was not pleseant. I opended the door and joanna was like can you fill my water bottle. I didn't even leave the rest room. The nasty bea-tch made us pay another euro for bathroom water.

We then went to the rock church, it was very cool, I think the most impressive church I have ever seen. It is round, carved from rock, has a huge copper dome, and water runs through it naturaully. There were drains at the bottom of the walls. We stayed for the service as it ended up being an international one. We went for coffee and tea and I sat with this weird guy that kind of creeped us out. I put an add out in the bulletin for an apartment.

2005-07-24T09:08:00.000-04:00

Hello All,

I'm back for the weekend. My week at sea went pretty well. It was rough one day and rained a couple. It was sooo rough that my cabin mate was sick. The food was pretty good. It is customary to always have dessert with lunch. I watched a crap load of movies, and finnished the DaVinci's Code. I learned how to load/work the CPR and hopefully this week we will have the U-Tow. A news helicopter landed on the Heli-deck on the ship, so it was way cool:)
This weekend, I hung out with my Polish cabinmate and my Iranian roomate. We went inside all the Cathedrals, did the MArket and went to the Sea fort.
Today, Anna and I, went to the "Upper Canada Village" equivelant...I forget the name, but will look it up. I was late meeting her casue I could't shake off this Greek guy....ewwwwwwwwwwww. Anyways, I'll try and write more and update the pictures when I get my computer

XOOXOXOX
Krissy

2005-07-18T03:12:00.000-04:00

Hello, Hello!

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, there came a time of revolution when rebels united to challenge Kristen's quest for clean underwear. But, I stayed obeident to my task and used the Jedi force (actually a cell phone, but it was so difficult. I actually wished I could use the force...would have been easier) to do my laundry.

The rest of my week went O.K. The computer is still massively screwed up. I hope we can save my pictures :( I took some more over this weekend, so hopefully I will be able to load some up soon. On Wednesday night, I went to pub night to meet some of the trainees. I met two girls from Britain and two from Hungary. On Thursday, I also went to pub night met a few more trainees. I was so tired that I went home early. On Friday, they yet again had another pub night...holy crap. I was too sick to go, had a head ache and a stomach ache...I think I had some bad food or something. I knew I wouldn't enjoy myself if I went out.

On Saturday, I went to the sea aquarium. It was neat. I was actually supposed to meet other trainees there. I went and was standing at a gate at 2:45 pm, so I asked a worker "Is this the main gate?" No, it wasn't so I finally found the main gate/sea life entrance and and no one was there!!!! They were supposed to meet me at 3 pm :( I waited for 15 minutes...still no one, so I just went in by myself...which was fine because I could go really slow and read everything etc. After, I was in there for a bit, I ran into another trainee, he said no one was comming....well nice of them to leave me that message..losers. I'm beginning to be less and less impressed with this trainee program. If I would have known, I would have left earlier and done it in the morning or maybe done the whole amusement park. Anyways, the aquarium was really neat I liked the sharks, jellyfish, octopus, pipefish, sea horses...etc. I LIKED IT ALL:) The sharks were really cool because you could walk underneath them through this tunnel and the aquarium was over top of you.

Anyways, after the aquarium me and my collegue went and walked around the botanical gardens and saw the glass houses (I refer to them as a green house) which were really neat and looked "old school." There was a heavy metal concert going on nearby, so not the regualar nature sounds, and wasn't as peaceful as I was expecting. Lots of gothic people walking about...I actually felt outta place...note to self...get pleather outfit. Anything that turns flab into cleavage is a definate asset to have in one's closet. I really don't know how comfortable those corset/bodice/boned things really are, but they could be a key piece in your wardrobe. You know, play up your classic pant suit with red pleather corrset...it could look really hot.

On Sunday, I went to Nuuksio National Park to meet up with some trainees, but again no one showed:( So not impressed. I did it all on my own again, which was fine because I could go at my own pace. I did two trails the Hawk's trail which was 4 KM and then the Robbin's trail which was 2 Km, plus the 2 KM hike from the bus to the park and another 2 KM from the park back to the bus. The trails were nice, one was really off road and rugged, but I saw lots of nice scenery and there are lots of blueberries!!! I left and at the bus stop ran into some of the otehr trainees, so they were there...but never found them...I was bitter so I talked to no one.

Anyways, today at work, I just anaylzed some data. Tomorrow, I'm leaving for 2 weeks on a research cruise, so I'm not sure if I will be able to keep you updated, but will try!

XO
Kristen

2005-07-13T08:54:00.000-04:00

Hello,

Well, things this week have so far been going OK. I think I've hit rock bottom, so things can only get better right? My computer went all F.U.B.A.R. on me. (For those of you who don't know what this means is it it now fucked up beyond all recognition). So I have no form of communication or entertainment for that matter in my room. I burnt a moth last night in a candle. He was the one that actually flew in it though, I didn't force him.

I don't even have internet to look stuff up to do after work. I went to the bookstore last night as I finished a book in one sitting last night. I'm now reading the Da Vinci's Code, which will finish rather quickly as my lovely commute to work is 50 minutes. I have no idea what went worng with the computer...I did an automatic update then it went all screwy. I had no network connections and I previously had 6, so I wanted to do a system restore and it conked out in the middle, so now I can't even get windows. I brought it to work, so hopefully tonight the computer guy can fix it. It'd be stupid to spend a small fortune to fix it when it is still under warranty at home.

I finally got a phone...so for those of you who wants to call me, I can email you my number....So tonight I will use my phone to do laundry. I hope it works as tommorrow I will have to go commando if it doesn't.

Anyways thats all for now!
XO
Kristen

2005-07-10T13:21:00.000-04:00

Hello all,

This weekend I did a little exploring. Saturday morning I woke up early and called my supervisor to see what I was doing this week. The equipment is still in the States, so it looks like I won't be leaving until Tuesday. I then caught a train to Porvoo. It was one of the old school ones, so it was pretty neat. The town is about 50 KM away, so it took about an hour to get there. Porvoo is the second oldest town in Finland and got its name from a ground fortress, which no longer exists. Everything in the town is made out of wood, so most things have burnt down, but there still is an "old town" area, which are mostly buldings from the 17th century. I explored the town on foot and I went to all the neat little shops, and checked out the hand crafts and paintings. I then did a walking tour of the town to make sure I would see everything, as I was only there for 4 hours. The streets are all cobblestone and I'm surprised I made it through the day without breaking an ankle. There were red orchre merchent sheds, a beautiful catherdal and lots of old wooden and stone houses. They are actually expanding the city a bit and the new houses that are being built on the west bank are built in wood, so that it would go with the old town area. At 4 pm I took the J.L. Runeberg steamship back to Helsinki. It was a 3 1/2 hour cruise. I was sitting on the top deck but was freezing my behind off, so I went and wandered around. I was in search of food, but found a nice spot on the rail in the sun so I stood there the last 3 hours. There was an accordian player right behind me. So I was looking and a guy went to give me the words, but they were in Sweedish, so I had no idea what they were singing. It still sounded nice:) Anyways, I think the guy was happy to practice his English because he talked to me the hole ride home and told me what the different views were of and everything. When we got off, we went to an American restaurant. It was the best food I had eaten. It was a western joint and I should have gotten the steak, but I got a ceasar salad and it tasted more mayonaisy then garlic or ceasary...after dinner I continued my quest for clean underpants. I walked all around to find a laundry mat and nothing :( So i was talking to my Finnish msn buddy and he said he could activate it for me if I don't get a cell phone this week:) hopefully I'll figure something out soon:)

Today, I went to the Post Museum and checked out their collection :) It was very interesting they had a lot of historical stuff there. However, it was not as nice as the one in Canada because the one in Canada has their stamps displayed better. Here they were like in a filing cabinet in the wall that you had to pull them out in order to look at them all:(

I then headed to the market and took a ferry to Suomenlinna. Suomenlinna is a 250-year-old series of fortifications and hence a major monement of military architecture:) It's included on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

I walked around the island for a bit and saw the king's gate, the church, and the tomb of Augustin Ehrensvärd. I'll probably go back, as I wasn't there for long. I was getting tired and had to get groceries before the store closed at 8 pm. There was also lots of people there sunbathing, and picnicing. Oh, it would be such a nice spot for that :) I never thought of it. Instead of wasting a precious pair of underpants, I should have worn my bathing suit:) But I also discovered that speedos should be illegal :) They aren't very flattering on the best of bodies and leave nothing to the imagination.

I made it back home just in time (30 min. before the store closed). I got hot dogs:) At least that is what I think I bought. It makes sense because the weiners came in a 5 pack, but the buns came in a 4 pack. Why do they always do that??? I know at home its a 12 pack of weiners and an 8 pack of buns:) The buns were hard as rocks though. They must have been imported from somewhere...like Cuba because they were that stale. On the upside, I bought some ice cream...mmmmmm European ice cream. Its actually cheaper then the crap we get at home:)

Anyways, I should go to bed:)

XOXOXO
Krissy

Pictures:

Nostalgic train I took to Porvoo
View of Porvoo
Old town hall or the Porvoo historical museum
Cobblestone street (which I survived without injuries)
Old Cathedral. The inside was gorgeous. The wood was painted to look like green marble and it sure fooled me:)
Merchant storage houses
J.L Runeberg steamboat type boat that I took home. This picture was actually taken when It came to port at 2 pm. The guy I met is actually in the picture. He's the one in the yellow shirt sitting at the bow (Is this what you call this?).
The new part of Porvoo that is being built on the west side of the bank.
An old wooden house. They were very thrifty back in the day. This house used half of the churches wall for its left side of the house:)
Some building.....I forget what this one is...I'll find out:)
Trisha will like this one. They couldn't afford to put windows in every where, so they made "fake" ones to keep the "symmetry" of the building. I also noticed that on some buildings they still had mirrors...I forget the name of the thing...but anyways, it's so they can watch a "soap opera." They didn't have a TV, so it was used to keep them informed of the happenings of the street. This would be interesting to have in Emily's condo area..with all the weird things I hear going on there :)
Pharmcist's sundial. This was brought into the town by an architect, but no one could afford it. One night the Pharmacist sat down with the architect and said he would buy it for the town. The next day he had no knowledge of agreeing to it, so some merchants came up with some money to buy it for the town, but they wanted to call it the "Pharmacist's Sundial" so he would never forget that he had agreed to buy it:)
Suomenlinna-The sea fortress
Another view of Suomenlinna
The tomb of Augustin Ehrensvärd
Another view of the fortification
Another view of the fortification
Another view of the fortification
The King's Gate

2005-07-09T04:00:00.000-04:00

YEY! Today's Friday. Work this week went well, I wasn't incredibly busy as my boss was away. It was actually kind of boring. I check ed the entire web-page of the marine institute, and all the links on it. I also checked out some books on the Baltic Sea. It's an entirely different ecosystem then the Bay of Fundy. There are no tides here, and along the east coast we have the highest tides in the world. The Baltic Sea is neither freshwater nor saltwater...it is somewhere inbetween, so I'll be learning something new. On the webpage, I found that my supervisor designed a Finnish stamp, so when I go to the post museum, I want to see if I can find it:) The stamp is of the boat that I will be working on.

I'm supposed to go out on the Aranda for 3 weeks on Monday, but I doubt I'll go as the equipment is in the States....It would be nice though becuase I hear the boat is nicer then my dorm. It has a gym, suana, LAUNDRY, a TV in each cabin, and good food:) It will be nice to do some laudry, as I'm down to 2 pairs of skivvies. I need to figure out the washer desperately....aparently I need a cell phone to operate the thing....yep if you figure that out...please let me know:)

Finnish strawberries are in season now, so I splurged and bought some and they are yummy :) I bought a no-name chocolate bar the other day and was it ever good. A Mexican trainee came over and made my roomate and I Mexican food, so I ate good at least one day this week. I've been living off peanut butter. The pans in my dorm are kind of sketchy and I don't know if I want to cook meat yet or not....I went to use the tea kettle the other day and it was all black and gross...it actually looked worse then my stinky feet after walking around all day in sandels. So now I just boil the water in a pot on the stove. Today, my collegue and I went out for Indian food. It was super spicy. She didn't have much luck...because she didn't get what she ordered. She also had gross chinese food with me on Tuesday and on Wednesday she bought a hamburger and it had yellow gross rotten lettuce on it. I had aten early and I had a stale croissant. On Wednesday, I went to a merchant ship that travels to Germany to check out the equipment that they have on that. There is an auto sampler on it, so on its 2 day journey from Germany to Helsinki it takes water samples, so they can get an idea of the blue-green algae blooms.

Last night, some of the trainees had a bbq. I met the largest guy I have ever seen. He was monsterous. A 7'5" tall dutchman. HOLY CRAP. I met a few new people, but I didn't stay out too late as the bonfire was giving me a headache.

After work, I went to the huge mall:) I bought a microphone, so I can talk to people on my computer over the phone. It was in one of those packages...you know the childproof ones that you need the jaws of life to open. Well, I didn't have any sissors, so it was a task....it took me 30 minutes to get the bloody thing out...and I was praying the thing worked...because I definatly couldn't have returned it as I totally demolished the package. I also bought some cute stationary and a book to have on the boat. I bought the DaVinci's Code....sounds interesting. I was actually on a quest for cool shoes. Everyone in Europe has cool shoes. So How come when I go in like 10 stores I don't se any? I see people wearing cool ones....but I had no luck. I tried a pair on for shits and giggles and it was a size 40 which is a size 10 in Canada and it was like 2 inches to small....like am I an giant???? Anyways, I should get to bed....I'm doing a nostalgic train and steamship cruise to Porvoo tomorrow, so I should have some pictures up soon:)

XOXOXOXO
Krissy

2005-07-07T00:00:00.000-04:00

I wasn't too busy at work today, good thing too because I'm having a wonderful time trying to open a bank account. It makes me so mad I don't even want to discuss it. Rent is now officially late becuase I still don't have an account to transfer funds from.....

I left work early to make it to the right branch but it was closed when I got there. I then went to the National Museum of Finland with some other trainees. Here are some pictures of it:)

XO Kristen

2005-07-04T15:26:00.000-04:00

Today was my first day at work. Well, I made it to the general area all right. I was told at the tourist office that it would be right there when I got off the subway. I did a huge block and asked like 6 people. NO ONE knew where it was. I was finally getting a little closer as the street names started to look like the one I was looking for only one or two letters off. The last guy I asked had no idea and he could barely speak English, but was very helpful, and called my supervisor! Turns out, I was right in front of the building, so Juha came out and met me:)

The building was a very plain office building,with restaurants and bars on the bottom floors, so I never would have spotted it. There wasn't even a sign. There was a small one inside the hallway, but it wasn't in English. They got a brand new building, so I will be with them in September for the move and will at least have the chance to see the new building :) I think it will be closer to my apartment, so that's a bonus because right now, its quite a trek.

I did typical first day stuff, got a tour, got introduced to people, and learned a little about the study location. I got set up on email and on the computers, and got a key card to get around the building. For the majority of the summer, I will be out on the Aranda doing plankton studies.

2005-07-04T03:47:00.000-04:00

Hello all :)

Today, I explored the city a bit on my own. I went down to the city market and looked at all the handcrafts. There are lots of jewelry made from reindeer, furs, wooden crafts made form juniper and birch and silver. Very neat stuff. They had lots of fresh fruits and veggies there as well. Strawberries are quite popular and smell soooooo good. The city market is right along the harbour and is beautiful. On my way there I walked by Senate square, Uspenskin Cathedral, the president's place and saw lots of neat architecture. I saw a building by Alvar Aalto, a very famous finnish architect.

While at city market, I decided to take a ferry to the Helsinki Zoo (http://www.hel2.fi/zoo/index_eng.html). It was a very cool zoo. Its off on an island--like Jurassic Park. They have lots of animals. At first, it was very disappointing because I didn't see anything. Everything was hiding, but by the time I did the circle, I saw the first few animals that I missed. This little kitty was very curious and came right up to me. It looks like a house cat, but I looked it up in my book, its called a Pallas cat. Sorry the picture is a bit blurry--I took it through glass.

I also discovered the finnish equivelent to the Canadian Goose. I took some pictures, I found out that they are actually called barnacle geese.

My favourite animal at the zoo was the brown bear hands down. He keep looking at me and would sit there and then stand up:) There was a pair of them; they are sooooo cute!

Anyways, on my way back to the train station, I totally got lost. I had no idea where I was. I walked right by it and hit the one after that! What a long walk!

It's so hard to figure things out. This is my trip to work for tomorrow: From Kannelmaki to Rautatientori then take the Vuosaari subway to Itakeskus and look for Lyypekinkuja to find my work building....yep wrote it all down...cause words all look similar when they are 20 letters long....hopefully will get used to it soon:)

XO Krissy

Pictures

Central Railway Station
Senate Square
Alvar Aalto's "sugar cube" (I'm told Finnish people don't like this building)
President's Place
City Market
Boat I took to the Zoo
Zoo Look Out Tower
View of the Harbour From Look Out Tower
View of the Zoo From the Look Out Tower
Barnacle Geese
Peacock
Brown Bears
Brown Bear
Pallo Cat

2005-07-03T16:16:00.000-04:00

Alright, well I made it safely to Helsinki. I checked my email and Louis, another trainee, had arranged some stuff for me. I must have had the wrong contact or something....It was so frustrating not knowing if someone was coming to get me at the airport etc. Of course no one got any messages asking them to pick up my keys, so arranging with the housing agency to pick them up early was a big waste of my time.

Thursday night, I went to Barfly, it was pub night, so I met a bunch of other trainees from all over the world.

I had to spend the night in a hotel which was on the other side of the city then my apartment....yep I lugged it all on public transit. I had met up with another Spanish trainee in the morning to get out keys and bus cards, and since he didn't get his keys right away, he helped me with my bags. When we got here, he got his keys at the other office, so I went back to the city centre to help him with his bags. I got a little practice taking the trains.

Saturday, I spent looking for a cord for my laptop. I finally found one after 3 stores. I also went to the train station to find a phone to phone this girl about the apartment for Sept.-Oct. I had to then find a phone card. It cost me like 3 Euro just to make a local call. When I called she was like I'm leaving for holidays call on the 14th, so I still haven't figured that out yet......

Now, it's Sunday, and I have had big plans to do some exploring etc. but its alreay 1:30 pm and I haven't left yet...I think I will just go walk around the city centre and try and find where I will be working:)

XO
Krissy

2005-07-02T11:22:00.000-04:00

Day 2 in Paris,

Way better then the first day. I walked to the Arc de Triumphe and it took me a million years. I figured out how to use the metro. They have an excellent public transit system that can get you everywhere. I got it down pat now. I went to the Eiffel Tower using it and I meet the segway tourguide at the south leg and he was AMERICAN and could speak ENGLISH was sooooooooooooooooo happy about that.

The Segway tour was awesome. We covered so much ground and I saw soooo much of Paris. The segways were pretty tricky and it took me awhile to get used to it. They run by pressure in your feet. Thankfully, I didn't wipe out :) They go like stink--up to 15 miles per hour and those puppies have Michelin tires on them :) They turn on a dime too. I soooooooooooo want one.

The tour was soooo good because there were only 3 other Americans doing it, so it was such a small group. I saw the Ecole Militare (there are still bullet holes from WWII in the walls), Hotel des Invalides, Eglise Saint Louis des Invalides (Napolean's tomb is located there, and apparently he has 6 coffins placed strategically down below so to look at it you have to bend down, or bow to him--he's pretty vain eh?), the Musee
D'Orsay, Musee D'Louvre, Place de la Concorde, Grand Palais and Petit Palais, Palais de Chaillot, Pont Alexandre III (the best bridge in Paris) the Arc de Triumphe and Avenue de Champ Elysse.

The last part of my afternoon, I spent touring the Latin District. This is where my hotel will be if there is a next time:) and of course if someone comes with me because I doubt I would do it alone again.

I went and saw the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was so beautiful inside and out. I walked around a bit more and saw the Panthelon and went into some cute shops.

I realized it was time to go back, when again ,I had to start warding off the creeps...I donno what it is becuase I walk really fast and ignore everyone, but seem to still find them. I haven't had a shower in three days you would think my smell would have scared em off:). But this guy was like walking really fast and following me everywhere....and was talking to me and trying to hold my hand EWWWWWWWWW. I had to go in a store to ditch him. I made it back to the Eiffel Tower to see it light up and then took the metro back to my divey hotel.

In the two days, I ate so many pastries...they are just sooo tempting...I had a chocolate croissant, and baggettes, and a cafe du lait. Oh, and on my first night I had expensive McDonlads.

The next morning went not so smooth. I think that everything bad that could happen, happens to me. I phoned the dickwads (shuttle service) to see if they were coming to pick me up in the right spot. I guess my "special instructions" were not enough to have them understand where the hotel was because they were like the other address is in a different district, and they planned their route according to that one. But, we can come at 11 am...I'm like don't bother the flight leaves at 12:30 and its a 45 min ride to the airport, so its cutting er pretty close. I wrote the correct address down....for them, so I told them to read the sheet. I was surprised that I stayed somewhat polite on the phone cause I was turning GREEN.

I went back to the hotel to kick PLAN B into action. Of course, I had no plan B. I asked them to call me a taxi. The hotel guy said it costs 10 Euros just to call one, that I have to go wait at a taxi stand. Yep, I lugged the bags down the street to a stand and waited, and waited, and waitied. I finally, made it to the airport.

XO
Krissy

Pictures:

La Seine
Ecole Militaire
Eglise Saint-Louis-des-Invalides (Napolean's Tomb)
Hôtel National des Invalides (Military Hospital)
Station with Statue...I forget the name of it
Place de la Concorde
Musée d'Orsay
Pont Alexandre III
Me on the Segway
Notre-Dame
Panthelon

2005-06-28T21:49:00.000-04:00

Hello all,

I arrived in Paris O.K. Despite the lack of leg room, screaming kids, unidentifiable meat (looked like raw salmon but tasted like ham), stale bread, and bad cheese, my flight went alright. I got in at the right time with no delays and actually got my luggage. Holy jet lag though--6 hours difference, so I got in at 9 am and didn't get any sleep. Oh yea...and where was customs? I practically got strip searched leaving Canada, but enterering France (and Finland) there was nothing.

I found my shuttle guy O.K. and he drove me to the right hotel because when I booked it the wrong address came up, so I put under "special instructions" the correct address. He had trouble finding the hotel, but called and then found it. I went in with about 70 kg of luggage my room wasn't ready...so I had to come back in the afternoon...so I made them keep it all and went off exploring. Oh, and they knew no English at the "tourist desk" at the hotel...so not impressed. I walked around a bit and its in a dodgy neighbourhood.

After a long walk, I ended up seeing some interesting stuff. I saw the Cimetiere Montamartre, Place de Clichy Centre, Gare Lazare, Trinite d'Estein d'Oves, St. Augustin, Opera Garnier, and the Galleries Lafayette (which is a huge mall--and beleive or not...I did no shopping).

At around 4pm I headed back to the hotel to get my bags into my room. I lugged my bags up 3 flights of twisting stairs...and Trisha would so shut the place down...as the building is not up to code :) I could barley get my luggae through the hallway...definately not the required 3 '. The room....oh my goodness...K it had a very sexy red VELOUR carpet. The view was a wall (I took a picture). There was no bathroom. I never did find the showers, but the toilet was located in the hall in a place called the "water closet."

I decided to drop my bags off and go for another walk. I thought it was interesting that they had toilets on the street that you have to pay 0.40 cents to use. These washrooms were everywhere, and I still saw three people peeing on the street. It's now about 7 pm and I got my first cue too go back when a Frenchman said something to me. I'm glad I didn't understand him....turned around and headed back, but this time I'm on the Moulin Rouge strip. The theatre was very cool, except all around it is peep shows and all that, so here I am wanderering around pornoland on my own...got a few more obscene remarks..but made it, the block to my hotel and retired to my single uncomfortable bed early.

XO
Krissy

Pictures:

1. Grand Hotel

2. Eglise de la Trinité

3. Mouln Rouge

4. Opéra Garnier

2005-06-26T23:46:00.000-04:00

Wow! I can put more then one picture up at a time.....interesting...I'll be a pro at this by the time I come home :)

2005-06-26T23:23:00.000-04:00

Hello All,

I'm trying to get a webpage made, so I can send pictures and stories of my exciting trip to Finland! As, I'm technologically challenged this could take awhile, so I figured I'd practice with some pictures I took in Toronto:)

XO
Krissy