Day 74 - Has time flew by?

It has been almost 10 days since my last post? I never thought it was actually that long. I stopped writing for a while since some days went by with nothing extraordinary. Oh well, let me just break it down. I've got a few things I'd like to share too.

Tuesday
Drove again. This time with Anu instructing. Better, but my heart still fell into my stomach. And I went into the wrong side of the road. But yea, still better. Oh, and I taught Helmi how to write some Chinese characters.

Numbers

And my name =D

Wednesday
Drove again with Anu. I stalled the car fewer times, and was requested to drive Eemil to his ice hockey camp the next morning. Tried to make some videos with Helmi so I could share it with everyone. At the moment, the video I took can only be seen here, which you have to create an account with Ustream to view them (but it doesn't take long too, really!). I tried uploading to Youtube, but there was no sound in the video once it's uploaded. I dunno whyyy....I'm such a tech noob lah.

Helmi wearing my sleep mask

Thursday
Drove Eemil to camp, stalled the car twice (it's an improvement!), drove myself to Citymarket to get some breakfast, and then drove home. Alone! Friday Helmi woke me up by screaming my name from downstairs. When I peeked out, she said, 'It's cleeeeaaaaning dayyyyyyyyy!' Oh yea, it is...it is....zzzz... Helmi's a great kid. She loves to help, be it cooking or cleaning. But she's a funny kid too. She said she's going to clean her room. Halfway through, I found her plopped down on her chair watching a movie on her Mac.

Saturday
The family went to the summer cottage. I went to the city again, for a traffic light themed party that didn't quite happen. Met up with Angie and Matias, who both made efforts to dress accordingly (thumbs up!). Angie wore red, while Matias wore purple, claiming that his wardrobe is colour challenged and that's the best he could come up with. Well, purple does contain red. I wore yellow and blue, which is mentally green. The whole idea was to wear red if you were attached, green if you were single, and yellow if you were in between. You get the gist.

Mr Tom invited us to the party and he didn't even check out the place himself pfftt :p But we had fun, sitting on a bench drinking ciders, looking out at the Helsinki Zoo, which is located at an island, and listening to free music that was blasting from a Motor Show expo from across us. Headed to Aussie Bar in Kamppi to meet Tom and his friends, and then went to Baker's to meet more people up.

Managed to order a Flaming Lamborghini for Tom, by chipping in with Heikki. Bartenders here do not know this drink. I didn't try with other cocktails, but it seemed to me that they're equally bad in mixing cocktails too. Unfortunately, the Flaming wasn't as spectacular as it was supposed to be as the bartender did not mix everything into a glass. Instead, he separated all 4 shots into 3 shot glasses, told Tom to sip from one glass that was flamed up, and then proceeded to mix the other 2 shots into the first shot glass. Ooh, and guess what. We actually googled for the recipe; thanks to Angie's iPhone.

Sunday
Woke up in the afternoon to find out that Jaakko and Anu was out in the city too in the previous night, since the kids were sleeping over at their grandparents' place. And they came home only at 4.30am! Oh sweet date night. Then we went boating at the summer cottage in the afternoon. And swam in the lake. I swam in the deeper waters with a life jacket. Pahahaha. Eliel's also a funny kid. This was how he was trying to show me how to swim:

'Julia! Do like this!' *shows a move*
'Julia! Do like this!' *shows another move*
'And now, I fart.' *proceeds to fart in water*

The boat we hopped into

Then I made kuih sarang semut, half successful. It didn't taste bad, just that the 'nest' part was only at the bottom. The twins didn't like it, with Helmi saying it tastes like mushroom cake. She hates mushroom, by the way.

Pfft.

Monday
Last day of holiday for the kids. As usual, I was Helmi's playmate.

Tuesday
Walked Helmi to school in the morning and jogged on the way back. The air is so fresh and crisp in the morning. I felt so refreshed coming back from the morning jog, although it was only like 15mins. Or lesser. Must do this more often.

Wednesday
Helmi told me school on this day starts the same time as the previous day. So I happily woke up at 7-ish, close to 8am, to find that all the kids had left for school. It actually starts at 8am instead of 9am on Wednesdays and the rest of the week. Oh well, went for my morning jog nonetheless. Took a longer route. Came home feeling good, refreshed, and enjoyed the rest of my home alone morning watching Beautiful Mind, which made me cry. But it was a good movie.

My Finnish classes have not started yet. I've decided to take up a less intensive class, which will start in September, for twice a week in the evenings. Time wise, it seemed like a more suitable choice for the convenience of everyone. Since the beginning of the week, I've been thinking what I should do when my contract ends here. I mean, I've been thinking about it all this while, but I think it's time that I think about it more seriously this time.

I've been here for over 2 months now. And before I know it, 1 year will pass really quickly. I'm still thinking if I should study or work. I want both, just a matter of which I should put priority in. If I should study, should I stay in Finland or move elsewhere? And if I move elsewhere, how can I support myself? Of course, I want to travel too, and I should since I'm here in Europe. But that would be later as it requires me to find some moolah, which I'm also trying to get more at the moment. Hey, if you guys need help in anything, don't be shy to contact me, ok?

And oh, I'm invited to a wedding at the end of this month. I'm so excited! =D