Day 13 - Has it been a week already?

This week flew by really quickly.

Monday was a slow day. Too slow, in fact. The twins went for two separate camps - gymnastics and sports camps, and the eldest one went to sleepover at the grandparents' place. So it was just me, Anu and Jaakko. In the morning, I went to Kela, the social insurance instituion of Finland, where all Finn's health care expenses and employment related matters are being taken care of, to get a social security number. But they told me to go somewhere else. Then went to the bank to open an account. Here, you don't need to pay anything or have a minimum amount of money to open a bank account. But they charge like 1€ per month to have a bank card, and 60cents€ per online banking transaction. Then went to Prisma to get some stuff and came back to be a window washer. Tedious work but it was ok. Guess they do not know the newspaper trick :P

Tea time

The box on the left is connected to the exhaust hood in the kitchen below.
There are pipes in my closet, cos I live in the attic.

Szechuan chicken and mixed salad for dinner. Chicken was spicy.

Wine, not the best drink to go with Szechuan food

Midnight sun shining from somewhere at 11.15pm.

Tuesday was Green Day =)


Wednesday, went to Turku, the oldest city in Finland. The original capital before Finland got its independence. Nothing much to see in the mainland itself, except the riverbanks, the cathedral, and the castle. Did not make it to the castle cos it was a little too far. There are other small islands that you can visit too but I didn't have the time to.

Farmers' market

Random

Buildings by the river

Jäätelö and maps

Chilling by the river

The breath taking cathedral

I wanna have my wedding photo take at steps like these

Foyer

Interior

The great 81-stop organ. When I entered, there was music playing. Halfway through, it stopped abruptly. When I turned around, I realised that the music was actually coming live from a small orchestra on the level above. I was in awe.

Holy communion?

And then I had tea at this quaint little cafe

Having some pie and tea

Riverside

Boat restaurants along the river

Note to self: I must find a way to reduce eating at fast food chains.

Thursday was Helsinki again, with Eemil. Went to the Malaysian embassy to get my driver's license translated. Now, I am legal to drive in Helsinki. The family provided me with a car to get around.

Met some Malaysians at this day - 2 staff at the embassy and a fried kuay teow uncle in Kamppi station. KC told me about the stall in that station, and then the 2 staff told me the same thing too. There'll be a summer potluck next Saturday, organised by the Finnish-Malaysian (or was it Malaysian-Finnish?) Association, somewhere near Helsinki. I'm going for sure! To meet new people and eat lots of Malaysian food.

Eemil with his backpack full of DD loot

Beef kuay teow with sambal *slurps*

Probably 1/10 of his entire collection of DD

Dinner was smoked salmon, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumber and rye bread with butter

These are pickled herring I mentioned before. A slice of herring, and a slice of potatoe.

Oh meet Pupsi (poop-see), the resident rabbit, who loves to
poop on this particular carpet when let out of his cage.

Friday, today! Went to the maistraati in Lohja to get my social security number on the way back from picking Eliel up from sports camp with Jaakko. Friday is also candy day for the kids, so we stopped by Filmtown, a video rental store that sells candies for 1€ per gram. Best of all, you can pick and mix! I was soooo tempted to buy something =( but my will was stronger =)

Spent most of my time cooking today. Boiled ABC soup for dinner, made cheesecake dessert, and croque monsiuer for lunch.

Not a good photo but it's basically ham and cheese
sandwich flooded with cheese sauce and cheese

Made curry chicken and soup.

Knew the kids wouldn't like the soup so I did not make a lot. But the curry chicken was gooood. I love Brahim's now =)