Woke up at 8.30 am. I don't remember seeing the sky turn dark. I probably went to bed when the sun is still up and woke up...well, at 8.30am, the sun has to be up. In summer, the sun sets at 11pm and rises at 3am. It's 10.50pm as I'm writing this, and the sun is setting right in front of my eyes...and it's beautiful. There's an L-shape window along my walls right behind my monitor that allows me to witness the beautiful blue-orange hue in the sky as the sun sets. I'm guessing this direction is west. But it's painfully annoying at 9pm cos that's when the sun is high. It shines directly into my eyes. I literally have to duck when using the computer since I have no curtains or blinds yet.
I had bread for breakfast, just as I did for dinner last night. I don't mind, cos the cold cuts and cheeses taste awesome. Swiss cheese, I was told. Don't know the difference but they all taste great. And then some cereal. The Finns drink lots of milk. The kids were served milk during meals. I usually do not drink milk just like that; I take it only with cereal. But the milk here taste great too. The smell is not as strong as it is back at home. I don't know. Aren't they all from cows?
Walked to the school to walk Eliel home, and then Helmi an hour later. It's heart warming how both kids ran to me when they saw me waiting at the gate. I tried to make conversations when walking. But at many times, they don't know how to explain things to me in English. Children do not learn English in school here. The 3 kids learned their English when the family lived in the US for a while some years ago.
I asked Eliel to teach me 1 to 10 in Finnish. Their words are friggin' long! Helmi on the other hand is more active and more sporting. And I was quite surprised when she told me she doesn't like snow cos it's so cold. I thought that was so cute! Oh and Angeline can make snowman. Haha!
They still talk about Angeline sometimes (their previous au pair, my friend who introduced them to me), like how she ate just about anything with Thai sweet&sour chilli sauce, how she wasn't used to eating fresh salad all the time, how she managed to self-weigh her vegetables in supermarket since everything is in Finnish, the seat she always take in the car and how she can make a snowman :) I think she left a good impression with them and the kids love her.
Finally unpacked my suitcase, cycled with Helmi to collect a gift and to buy a present for a birthday boy whose party was in the evening, and then came home and helped Anu make spaghetti bolognese for lunch. Spaghetti is considered light food by the way.
We drove to Helsinki for Otso's 6th year old birthday party. Otso is Anu's godson; as tradition, the godmother will have to give the godson a silver spoon. That was the gift Anu sent Helmi and I to collect from the jewelery store. It has got Otso's name engraved on the front of the teaspoon and the date at the back. The party was attended by Otso's grandparents, uncle and us. Small home, small party with great food. Everything was homemade, including the cake. The grandparents were seated at the table together with the children, with Otso seated at one end of the table, as he's the star of the day. Food was karjalanpiirakat (Finnish rice pies), salad, sausages, chips, and cherry tomatoes. After the ones at the table has food on their plates, the rest can start to take food, find a seat and eat. Then the birthday cake and song, and then the cake and pies are served. Chocolate mousse cake with fresh raspberries, lemon pie and blueberry pie, served with coffee and tea.
I love how everything is homemade compared to food bought from outside. At home parties like this, Finnish families will make all the food by themselves, even if it's just coffee and cake, it doesn't matter. For us, it's usually a meal; either a dunno-how-many course dinner or catered food. It's nothing bad, just cultural difference. But then again, we take food quite seriously :P
Helmi was behaving like a princess today for some reason; throwing light tantrums and making too much noise in the car, annoying both her brothers. But the thing about kids here, they get along pretty well with each other and everyone I've met so far is very well behaved. They play well, they don't scream at each other, they don't always play by the rules of each game and no one will complain, no hitting...but they are very shy towards new people e.g. me. Otso and his sister, Ellen, shy away from me whenever I come near. Ellen was playing the piano in her room and when I appeared at her door, she saw me, she immediately stopped playing, turned around and joined Helmi on the floor. Otso behaved the same in doing another activity.
Eemil warmed up to me today. Actually, I just did not see much of him yesterday since he was out with friends. He taught me 1-10 again and spelled them out for me. He even lent me two comic books - Donald Duck and Asterix the Legionary. Eemil has a large collection of DD's comic books. DD in Finnish is Aku Ankka. That's like 'I am Ankka' in Malay. Lol :P
Matias asked me on MSN, 'what's your first impression?'. I replied, 'trees. the view from the plane, it's so green everywhere.' And it's true. They still have lots of trees and land here. That was really my first impression - as I was landing on Sunday morning. The trees looked like those trees in scale models, long thin brown sticks with green fluffs on top. Trees are really tall here, but not really the people. Ha! who says people here are big and tall! and that the kids would be taller than me? pffftt
11.42pm now. It's finally dark. Had Finnish bread crisp with smoked turkey and cheese for supper.
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