On Friday there'll be another birthday party to attend as I told you. Pirita's Mom is throwing her 40th birthday party. A few days ago Arttu just told me that it would be a kind of snack potluck party where guests could bring some snack. Gladly he had told me that early so that I could think about what to bring. I asked him if I should bring some sweet or salty snack or appetizer, and he replied that it would probably be better if I could bring something salty.
I thought that it'd be nice to introduce some Indonesian snack HA HA HA HA HA HA...There are several options in my mind: risoles or perkedel (potato cutlets). I've never made risoles before and I know it's a bit complicated to make since I have to prepare so many things, so potato cutlets would be the easier option. However, I'm not going to deep fry them in oil. The healthier version of making potato cutlets would be to bake them in the oven he he he he he...and Arttu LOVED my potato cutlets, so I think I'm going to bake them to bring to the party.
However, I'm also tempted to try making risoles. Risoles are small snacks filled with either beef or chicken fillings with cheese and sometimes a slice of boiled eggs and well, you can add anything you like ha ha ha ha...But what's tough about making it is that I have to make the wrappers first, then the filling, then put the filling in the middle of each wrapper, wrap them, then roll them on white eggs and then roll them on a pile of bread crumbs, THEN deep fry them. Phew!!!
I haven't tried making risoles yet, so I'm kinda craving for them he he he he...Hmmm...maybe I should try making risoles, as well, but only for us and my in-laws HUE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE...
Dang, I just made myself HUNGRY!!!! *drool* Anyway, I'd better have lunch first and then blog-hop before I go to the supermarket to buy the ingredients to make the potato cutlets. I wonder how many I should bring, though, since I don't know how many people will be coming to the party. Maybe I'd better send an email to ask them about it. However, I'm sure unlike Indonesian birthday parties, there would probably only be around 10 people max. in the party HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...
I was going to post a link to my wedding pics as those of you who've known me later in this blogosphere probably haven't seen them yet. Karen has asked me to show my wedding pics, but I'm afraid it'll have to wait 'coz photobucket's undergoing maintenance right now. But I promise you, Karen, that I'll show you my wedding pics, OK? HE HE HE HE HE...
Now let me talk about my killer Math teacher in High School. Since Trin also went to the same High School (a couple of years my senior, though), I bet she knew the guy, as well he he he...He's been VERY famous in my school.
I've never been too good at Math, though I've never really been bad at it, either. My High School was considered one of the best in Bandung. Every year on our senior year, we have to go through a National Exam. The national exam comprises of several subjects, one of which is Math. My High School had held the highest mean score in this national Math exam, so my killer teacher wanted us to get good scores for the exam.
The year before I became a senior at that school, the mean score was 79, so that killer teacher wanted us to get at least 80 for EVERY test that he gave us. If we got a lower score than that, then we would have to stay at school after everybody went home to do some exercises. He would appoint his star kids to help us do the exercises after school. Sometimes the punishment was to write down our test 5 times to make sure that we'd remember the right answers. I managed to get good grades most of the time, but there were a few times when I had to do the punishment. YIKES!!!!
He was always single and skinny. He had perfect teeth 'coz he brought a toothbrush to school. He'd brush his teeth after lunch (I caught him do that once). He also demanded the kids to sit up straight during his classes and not to slouch on our chairs. He also demanded us to be quiet, otherwise he might throw the eraser or anything toward the student who talked a lot. He also demanded enough supply of chalk of different colours 'coz he loved writing notes on the blackboard with different colours of chalk. Though skinny, his voice was SO booming. Whenever he got angry and yelled at us, his voice could be heard over three classrooms!!!!!
Back in those days, the class organizers would appoint which kids had duties on which days (the girls had to prepare the chalk for the teachers and get the table cloth for the teacher's desk and the flowers, whereas the boys would have to take turns cleaning up the blackboard right after the teacher finished writing something all over it). So whoever had duties on the days he had his lessons would have to be PREPARED!!! If one of the boys in charge to clean the blackboard didn't come up right away to clean it, he would get mad. He'd also get mad if the girls in charge didn't prepare enough chalk of different colours for him.
The girls had to go to this office to get the chalk. The problem was that the guy in charge of giving the chalk was VERY stingy. He wouldn't allow us to bring as many chalks as we wanted to, so we always had to fight with him to get more chalk he he he he...Crazy indeed!!! ;-D
Anyway, our fave day was on his birthday. We knew he was single and he LOVED pets, so on his birthday, the students would always bought him rabbits or turtles or cute yellow chicks and we'd throw a little party. Why? Because only on that day he'd loosen up and joke with us and forget about lessons and exams. Only on that day we could all HAVE FUN with him without feeling any pressure. We'd bring balloons and a cake, as well he he he he...Yeah, so festive!!!
One bad thing about him was that back then, usually he would ask the boys to go to his place after school as punishment for getting bad grades. However, sometimes he'd ask the students to post something for him or escort him somewhere instead of making them do exercises. This made the male students upset and angry. Thus during my last year in High School, the boys finally couldn't take it anymore and they reported him to our headmaster. So for the last few weeks before our national exam, the teacher was suspended from teaching us. What happened during his lessons, then? We all had fun playing games with one another ha ha ha ha ha...
Then right before national exam started, our killer Math teacher came into our classroom along with our headmaster and apologized formally in front of us. He shook all our hands and it was such a touching moment. I saw some of the male students' eyes got wet because of that. All's well that ends well, I guess.
I remember one funny incident, though. When he was still teaching, the girl that sat next to me (who became one of my closest friends) was VERY GOOD at Math. My Math teacher appointed her to be one of the kids who helped other students do exercises after school as punishment for getting bad grades in his tests. One time my Math teacher told me to solve something on the blackboard. You see, in our school, we had to go up two steps (on a kind of stairs) in order to write something on the blackboard 'coz the blackboard was hung high on the wall. I knew I couldn't solve that particular Math problem, so I was SO afraid when I stepped on the stairs. Before I knew it, I thought there was some kind of small earthquake 'coz the stairs kept on moving. But then I realized that my legs were SHAKING so badly and since the stairs weren't too level on the ground, then it shook along with my legs, can you believe it? Funnily, the teacher didn't scold me like he used to do when he realized I couldn't solve it. Maybe he understood how scared I was by seeing my legs so that he just let me go that one time he he he he...
Ahhhh...memoriessss...I'm SO glad I only had one killer teacher in my entire life. No more, please he he he he...
Post Note: I got a VERY good Math score on my national exam that year. I think that year we managed to beat the previous year's mean Math score. ;-D
So, as you guys know by now, last Saturday I went to my hubby's cousin 40th birthday party. I didn't know what to expect since I never went to such a party before. This cousin is actually my hubby's best friend, as well. They're also gaming buddies. Sometimes they have guys' gaming night either here or in his place (they'd play computer games till early morning).
Anyway, the birthday plan was at first like this:
3 - 6 pm : Party at his house. Snacks and drinks are provided. 6 pm onward: Sauna at the army cabin. (I didn't even know what kind of place that was!!!) Late at night : Go to bar together.
My hubby and I walked to his place bringing a bottle of liquor as a present and a backpack filled with two towels and some liquid soap and shampoo. When we got to his place, we were the first two guests coming even thought it was already around 3.20 pm. His girlfriend was preparing the table and getting everything ready. Then she said that the girls weren't going to have a sauna at the army place, so she asked if I still wanted to have a sauna. I said yes, thinking that I had brought the towel and everything and I loved going to sauna anyway. So I was at first thinking, "What?!?!?! I'm going to the sauna ALONE??? ........ OK, but maybe that's good since then I'll have the whole sauna for myself."
After some time, some more guests came (more relatives) and the girlfriend said that I could have a sauna in her house instead with another girl named Pia. I didn't even know her hi hi hi...but I thought, "OK, at least now I'm gonna have a company. I just hope she'd talk to me in English." So not long after that we went to the sauna together. Turned out that Pia was the girlfriend's niece, though she was actually two years older than her aunt he he he he...Confused? Well, they have a big family. Pia's mother is the eldest of 8 siblings, whereas the girlfriend's the 6th kid out of 8, so there's a big age gap between them. Pia was pretty talkative, so that helped me A LOT since I didn't have to think of topics to start the conversation going he he he...We talked about regular stuff, mostly just getting to know each other. ;-D
After sauna, I dried my hair upstairs and then I came down to eat since I was SO hungry already. Here's a pic of the table and the snacks they served:
See the liquor bottle next to the jar of water? That's our gift for my hubby's cousin he he he...Besides all these, they also served cake. MMMMM...YUMMY!!!
Not long after that, the group of relatives went home and more guests started coming. They were mostly the birthday boy's friends. They talked to each other and sometimes one of them talked to me or teased me HA HA HA HA...Yeah, one of them kept on saying to me, "Beautiful smile. Beautiful girl." It's hard to know what to say when someone says that to you over and over again in one minute. It made me kinda awkward, though I appreciated his sentiment.
Since the girls weren't going to the sauna, the guys went there ahead of us. Turned out that the girls got busy preparing for more food to bring to the army place (which turned out to be a rented cabin). They got busy preparing some macaroni with tuna and slices of tomatoes and cucumbers, salad sauce, and they packed the rest of the food on the table to bring with them. I mostly just watched as they were talking in Finnish and I didn't even know what to do. I was afraid I'd be in the way of the whole process since everything was different from the parties back in Indo.
Soon after we finished preparing the food, we took a taxi to the army place. The taxi was big enough for 9 people (besides the driver) and it was so clean and there was this big skylight on top. When the girls were talking about how lovely the taxi was, the taxi driver turned on the light around the big skylight (neon green). COOL, isn't it? ;-D
When we arrived at the army place, it turned out to be a big cabin overlooking a river. There were steps down to get to the river. There was a big living-room/dining table in the main room along with a big fireplace. There was also a small kitchen complete with a sink and a fridge so we could store the drinks there. There was also a big sauna (enough for 15 people) and a shower room and a toilet.
We girls began to set the table with food and forks and stuff while some of the guys were still inside the sauna and some others were skinny dipping in the river. BRRRRRR!!! It was only around 7'C outside so you could imagine how cold it was. Here's a video clip of the river and the cabin (notice the smoke billowing from the chimney):
The girls began to eat the macaroni. Some of the guys had finally had enough of sauna and skinny dipping (they brought a towel to the "dock" but they went in the water naked). To those of you with dirty minds, of course we weren't even watching them!!!!!!! ;-D
So basically we were just talking and having fun and eating and drinking in the cabin. I only drank water or light cider as usual, though one of the girls (the birthday boy's friend) tried to persuade me to taste wine and other alcoholic drinks hi hi hi hi...
I got to talk to some of the girls, so that was nice, as well. The birthday boy sat next to me at one time and he said that he was happy to have me there. He said that he was my hubby's best friend, so he wanted me to join them, too. He said that he was surprised about our marriage since my hubby didn't even tell him about the plan even though they were best friends. But he understood that my hubby was a very private and a bit shy man. I told him that I had persuaded him to tell everybody about the wedding plan, but he wouldn't budge. Do you know that he only told his own mother about the wedding A DAY before the D-day? I was so glad his mother didn't get mad at me or him he he he...Anyway, the birthday boy also said that he liked me 'coz now he could see how I had made my hubby happy. Then my hubby, who was sitting right behind me at that time, said right away, "Yep, that's right. You DO make me happy." Darn tipsy guys!!! How could they make me feel SO touched? My hubby's not someone who'd profess his feelings like that. It must've been the alcohol, but still it was a nice moment for me. ;-D
We also brought a tape with us, so we were listening to some music. Some of them started dancing and the birthday boy also danced himself silly while we were laughing at him he he he he he he...After midnight came, we left the place by taxi again. Then we went to the bar to drink and talk some more (yeah, this is the Finnish way of having fun!!!). I got to sit next to one of the guys and we talked a bit about everything. He was into languages and travelling, so he loved practising his English he he he he he...At around 1.30 am I begged my hubby to go home since my eyes felt SO heavy. So finally we walked home, though as usual we stopped on the way to buy some DELICIOUS pepper steak at a nearby kiosk (it was a small building actually, not really a kiosk). Then we ate it and went to sleep. My hubby fell asleep right away after eating (he didn't even bother to brush his teeth) HA HA HA HA HA...
Well, we'll see what happens in 10 years. The birthday boy said that it'd be fun to get together again 10 years from now. He also wanted to make a deal with me. He wanted me to have a kid already in 10 years, so I made that deal with him since I had already been thinking of planning to have a kid in 2-3 years (if God permits us to have a kid then) he he he...
Anyway, one of them told me that years back they only celebrated the BIG 30, 50, 60, 70, 80, and so on. However, lately the BIG 40 has been celebrated as well. All in all, it was a better party than I expected since some of them sometimes translated what the others were talking about for me. I even got to talk to some of them pretty much, so that was pretty satisfying. I went to the party thinking that I'd be left out the whole time, but that wasn't true.
Here are some autumn pics for you. I haven't taken too many pics yet he he he...but I will later on!!!
Almost forgot...we also roasted some sausages in the fireplace. Here's a pic of it:
Here's a pic of me in the porch of the log cabin. Unfortunately the pic isn't too straight since I put my camera on the log in front of me and took a pic using the timer he he he...
