This is going to be another rambling post hi hi hi...1. Tell me how to explain to a man that buying candles and lighting it every now and then isn't a waste of money, please he he he he...2. I met someone online the other night and we talked via YM. She's an Indian girl living in Helsinki with her hubby. I don't even remember anymore where I met her. It must've been from some Finnish website online. Anyway, she had started her full-time Finnish course in Helsinki and I got some info from her about students' benefit (how much money I'll get from the government while doing the course). The most important piece of info was that she told me that the actual integration plan for immigrants should go like this:a. A full-time Finnish course (from 9 am to 3 pm Mon-Fri) for a whole year.b. 3.5 months work as an apprentice in a company.c. The immigrant's ready to work for real.Of course it's only an IDEAL plan. Everybody knows how hard it is to get a job here in Finland, especially in a small village like Sodankylä. I'm not being a pessimist (if God wills, nothing is impossible), but I just want to be realistic, too. Now the full-time course I'm going to go through next January is only for 5 months. I DO NOT know if there'll be a continuation course after that, but based on the Indian girl's description, there SHOULD be a continuation course. However, hoping too much from this village isn't good. My Brit friend has been waiting for a Finnish course for 3,5 years, whereas I was LUCKY enough to only have to wait for 6 months. So I don't want to complain (plus one of my resolutions this year is to catch myself before I start complaining and just stop that train of thought) 'coz for me, this current Finnish course and the upcoming one are A MIRACLE for this little village!!!! ;-DI talked to my hubby that it seemed I would have to take another certification course before I could get a steady job here. I don't know yet what 'coz I still don't know what kind of job I want to do. I'll have to find out later on what I wanna do and what kind of courses they offer here in this village, then I'll go for it provided that my Finnish is good enough after May since all other courses will be done in Finnish.If I still have trouble finding a job after that, then we're thinking of planning to have a baby. I don't know yet what God has in store for me, but I'm just walking through this step by step. I don't wanna think too hard, but I also want us to have the same rough map of possibilities in mind. When I asked him if he wanted me to have a full-time job still after we had a baby, he said it was up to me. GOOD answer he he he he...Deep in my heart, I want to be a SAHM until my kids are big enough provided that we have enough money to pay for our family's expenses. But we'll see about that. ;-DSo my journey's still long and winding he he he he he...but I'm determined to enjoy every step of it. ;-D3. Sometimes oblivion means peace of mind, even though it is a mere illusion.4. Last Saturday my mother-in-law asked Arttu and I if we wanted to eat at the nearby school, so we did. Apparently there was a group of people offering free moose and mashed potatoes since it was hunting season. Arttu said the free food was only for a certain group of people, but I don't really get it. Anyway, we went there and there were a lot of people already. I thought I could get my own food, but apparently two men were serving the food and I got a HUGE portion of moose and mashed potatoes. My stomach almost felt like exploding afterward and I didn't eat anything else that day ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...
Then she bought us some kind of raffle tickets. We had to give the official our names and phone numbers and we had to keep the piece of ticket with us. I'm not sure what this is all about as Arttu apparently doesn't know anything much about it, either. Oh well...I guess if we win something, they'll let us know ha ha ha...
OK, here are some bird pics I took at my in-laws'. Too bad there weren't any squirrels then he he he he he...
And here's a pic of my mother-in-law (on the right) and her sister-in-law at school where we enjoyed moose and mashed potatoes. We drink milk from those metal cups he he he he he...
I thought I'd post this recipe just in case somebody's interested in trying to try cooking the meat Finnish style he he he...It's not that complicated!
PORONKÄRISTYS
(Fried Reindeer Meat)500-600 grams of reindeer/moose meat100 grams of butterapprox. 2 dl water (1 dl = 100 ml)
approx. 1 tsp salt
black pepper to taste
some beer with 4.7% alcohol level (approx. half a can)
How to Cook:1. Cut the meat into thin slices. My hubby says that it's best to do it when the meat's still half frozen.2. Dump all the meat in the pan and stir-fry it with butter until it's brown and add pepper and salt to taste.3. Add water bit by bit and make sure to check on it every once in a while so the meat's not dry. Keep it simmering with medium heat for approximately an hour. 4. Add beer during the last 15-20 minutes (enough beer to soak the meat). Hubby says that beer will tenderize the meat. That's all you need to do. Not hard, isn't it? It just takes time to let it simmer he he he...I've followed the recipe once, but I think I added a bit more water to the pan. Hubby says that if you put too many spices when you cook reindeer/moose meat, you'll take away the original reindeer/meat taste, so just make sure you only add black pepper and salt to taste. You can eat it with anything you want, either potatoes or rice. GOOD LUCK and bon appétit!!! ^_________________________________________^
1. Being able to send SMSes again with a friend of mine after not being able to do it for a few months. Getting back in touch with an old friend feels SO good.
2. Getting an email from another old friend about her personal testimony on God's provision and miracles. The email made me strengthened.
3. Finally I managed to push myself to say 3 simple Finnish sentences to my mother-in-law (before today, usually I just used body language) he he he...Next time I'll try to do this again. And I could pick up a few simple sentences wholly and other bits of words while I was there with my hubby. One snail's pace of progress at a time. YES!!!!!! ;-D4a. My mother-in-law asking my help to make lingonberry pie. I personally think it was her way of teaching me how to do it he he he...
4b. Plus she didn't even flinch when she realized I wasn't mixing the batter well enough (there was a little bit of flour on a one side at the bottom of the bowl). YIKES!!! I couldn't believe my eyes when she was pouring the batter to the baking pan. I'm SOOOOOO glad to have a mother-in-law like that. She's truly an example for me! ;-D 5. Watching breathtaking twilight again. Different colours in the sky made me feel like I was truly watching God's piece of artwork. Mmmmm...6. Eating my mother-in-law's DELICIOUS moose and potatoes. YUM YUM!!! PLUS getting some more to take home HO HO HO HO HO...7. Being able to stop negative voices inside my head in mid-sentence over and over again for the past week and control my emotion. I shan't let you win, negativity!!! And hey, it gets easier as time goes by! SPLENDID! ;-D
THANK YOU, Lord!!! Thou hast truly heard and answered my prayers he he he he...THANK YOU for this trial! ;-D8. Kissing my hubby's bald part on top of his head and tickling it with my finger by running my fingertip round and round and round hi hi hi...
1. Introducing POLTTIAINEN or the Burning Bug!!!When we (me, hubby, and father-in-law) went out to pick strawberries last Saturday, I felt a burning/pricking sensation on my scalp a few times (it felt a bit sharper than the sensation of being sucked by a mosquito). Gladly I was wearing my summer hooded jacket, so I pulled on the hood as I thought they were mosquitoes trying to suck my blood. While picking the strawberries, I didn't feel anything else as I was focusing on finding the ripe ones among the thick leaves. Once I got inside the house with my bucket of strawberries, however, I felt that both my hands (uncovered by anything while picking the berries) felt SO ITCHY. The itchy parts were ALL OVER the back of my hands. I thought to myself that it couldn't have been caused by mosquitoes. It felt more like the itchy/prickly sensation of having touched a kind of caterpillar. The sensation was sharper than that of mosquito bites and definitely closer together as I felt it all over the back of my hands.Then my hubby came inside while I was vigorously scratching my hands. I told him that I hadn't felt that way the first time we picked berries the week before. He said that the burning bugs made me feel that way. He also felt their stinging/burning sensation. They are called polttiainen.
I've tried to find an English explanation of the bug, but there is none. I also have no picture of them as they're SO small. Let me try to translate polttiainen from one of the Finnish website (of course using a dictionary HE HE HE HE HE).Polttiainen is a small slender insect (around 1-2 mm), oftentimes winged and spotted. Generally they appear in Central and Northern Finland from late summer up to early autumn. They suck the blood of humans and animals and cause stinging sensation on the skin.2. My hubby read one of my earlier posts and he corrected me on something. Turns out that reindeer are tame animals. Their ears are marked, so only their owners can "kill" them. The licensed hunters are allowed to hunt moose as they're wild animals. The reindeer owners would gather the reindeer and then "kill" the weakest one to get the meat. Gee, I didn't know that! My hubby says that reindeer are like sheep (weird as it might sound). I thought they were wild as they could roam about everywhere and they even cross the roads every now and then. 3. Summer in Finland SEEMS only to begin full force in August. It's been sunny and pretty warm starting this month. My hubby chuckled when I told him that. He said, "But summer's almost over." Oh well...4. Since during summer here the sun didn't set at all until a few weeks ago, the other night when I stayed up late due to coffee, I was surprised when I looked out of the window and realized how dark it was (at around 2 am). Then a wave of realization came over me and I said to myself, "Of course, silly! It's only normal that it's dark 'coz it's already SO late at night." OH YEAAAHHHH!!! I FORGOT that!!! LOL!!! ^_________________________^ That's what experiencing Midnight Sun here did to me...my brain started to operate weirdly, expecting the sun to still hover in mid-sky at night HI HI HI HI HI...5. I have to add one more beautiful thing that happened last night. Hubby went into our bedroom first. It was SO dark already. When I entered the room, I couldn't see a thing. Then all of a sudden from the side of the doorway, he SPOOKED ME. And I SCREAMED!!! I was thinking he'd be already curled up in bed, prepared to sleep (as he usually did when he got into the bedroom first).
I'm telling you, I'm NO screamer!!! I never scream even though I love suspense, thriller, and horror movies. But HE made me SCREAM!!! Boy, I was ready to bite him or something when he confessed that he was also surprised due to my scream. LOL!!! So it was "karma" HA HA HA HA HA...
Btw, I wonder what our neighbours thought when they heard the scream. Probably they thought that somebody murdered somebody in our apartment HI HI HI HI...LOL!!! We ended up laughing together, thinking what our neighbours thought of that scream (we live on the 3rd floor). ;-D All's well that ends well. MMMMM...
6. I'm SO excited about this weekend again. It seems that my mother-in-law wants us all to go to a forest. She and I will be picking wild berries grown in the forest whereas Arttu'll be cutting down some trees to get firewood. Don't worry, there're PLENTY of forests and trees here, unlike in Indo he he he...I'd better prepare my digicam again as I've never been to the aforementioned forest. YIIIIPPPPIIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!!! BERRIIIEEESSSS!!!
Btw, in the city centre for the past few weeks, there have been stands where some people are willing to buy berries from you. INTERESTING!!! I thought there would only be stands where people sell their own berries, but I was wrong.
BERRRIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS, HERE I COMMMEEEE!!!! *jumping up and down*
