Back from Silence

Been busy with so many different things, so haven't been able to blog or blog-hop. First of all, had a company party until late at night with another group of people from another branch and of course I was the only foreigner in the bunch ha ha...But it went very well and I realized even more that these days I could manage those kinds of group gatherings better than in the past. I remember how overwhelming it was in the past 'coz my vocabulary was so much more limited. Of course it also helped that I had known my own coworkers for a while, so I felt more at ease with them as well. We laughed so much that my cheeks got sore he he he...and I managed to talk more to some coworkers of mine there 'coz usually at work we don't really have much time to chit-chat. 

In between the party I had work as well as a test, so before and after the party I had to study the materials. I had to take the test in Rovaniemi, but thankful that another coworker had to go there with me, so we could go together. It was fun getting a ride from her 'coz during the trip we also talked about so many different things that we never got to talk about at work. :-D

I was a bit worried about the test, but it went very well (THANK GOD). The thing is, I would have felt bad if I hadn't passed because the company had paid me to take the test and I needed to pass it so that I could learn something else at work. Without the certificate, I wouldn't be able to do the new task that would be available at work later on. So my coworker and I were both relieved that we had passed the test. :-D After this we'll have more things to learn at work, because the test only comprised of theories, but the practice will come later.

There have been again heart-warming situations at work when my regular customers wondered where I had been and said that they had missed me. One or two of them even joked that their days were "complete" now that they had seen me at work LOL!!! BLESS THEM!!! THANK GOD for sense of humour!

However, I felt a bit uneasy when one customer (don't actually remember this one particularly as this one was not quite old yet) asked me where I had been and then I heard this customer say to me, "Yeah, here in this little village everybody's being watched because they want to know who's leaving." (rough translation of what the customer said)

That very second I just had this eerie feeling as if the government had sent spies to watch my whereabouts ha ha ha ha...Too many movie watching!!! LOL!!!

Anyway, I saw this one on FB and it's SO good that I just have to share!!! I'm gonna blog more about the Rome trip later. Take care, folks!

3BT: Random Days

1. My SIL's baby's heartbeats have been confirmed to be stable. So hopefully there will be a healthy baby in August or September this year. Another grandchild for my Mom! :-D

2. After being told that he'd be a big brother, 4 y.o. Ken told his Mom, "You know, I'd love to have a big sister, too." LOL LOL!!! GOOD LUCK with that!!! :-D

3. Seeing perfectly lovely ice flakes forming around my bike saddle. Here are a few pics that I took. 

I took the first pic with an anti-shake mode and the result was blurry, so I took the second one with a regular mode and a flash. The third one is the cropped-up pic of the second one. 

4. Seeing my friend's VERY cute baby pics (after two miscarriages, finally she could get this healthy baby) and I was among the first to receive the pics via email. :-D

5. Spending time with my friend in Rovaniemi after shopping there for a bit he he he he...

6. An uninterrupted long sleep after having a rough night the other day.

Welcome 2013!

Happy New Year, everybody! Actually this year I didn't really feel anything much. Perhaps one of the reason was 'coz I had a morning shift on NY Eve and it was rather chaotic at work due to the fact that for two days straight prior to NY Eve, the weather was bad, so people opted to stay home. Therefore, they all came to the stores only on Monday. In the past I'd have time to reflect on things, but this time I was so exhausted that I had to take a nap at MIL's right after we had had a late lunch there ha ha ha...

Anyways, during the night we played cards as usual and then during midnight we went out to look at fireworks (MIL stayed inside, though). I didn't see too many fireworks this year, but this time MIL's neighbour lit two fireworks and I managed to take this pic. They were right on top of MIL's roof and they were SO noisy 'coz of the short distance. I took three other pics, but they didn't come out too well ha ha...One of them should've been good if not for the fact that one of the trees blocked 1/3 of it LOL!!!

It snowed a lot on the first day of the year. And the temperature's been very mild (closer to 0'C). Very surprising. I'm really excited 'coz I'm planning to visit my friend in Rovaniemi sometime this month. We haven't met each other in a few months already, so I'm sure we have a lot of things to talk about ha ha...and I'll also do some shopping while I'm there. 

You see, the last time we went to the cabin in Kelujärvi, I accidentally burnt the bottom parts of my good winter jacket sleeves. It was cold outside, so I was warming up my hands on top of the fireplace, but I didn't realize that I was too close to the heat. Doh!!! Yeah, stupid moi! I managed to fix them temporarily by putting on some black cellotape. It wasn't an expensive winter jacket, though. I bought it on sale at €20 (it was a children's jacket, you see LOL!!), but one time the zipper got broken and I had to fix it. Guess how much I had to pay for it? €20!!! (because it was a two-way zipper). But then again paying €40 for a jacket that has been faithful to me for 4 years is a bloody cheap investment, don't you think? HA HA HA HA HA HA...I can still keep this jacket at home, though, so when I need to shovel the snow outside I can just wear this one. :-D

So maybe it is time to buy myself a new winter jacket and I hope there are still good jackets on sale now that Christmas and New Year are behind us. :-D The hunt is on! :-D Oh, and while I'm in Rovaniemi, I'm also planning to have some Chinese lunch buffet HO HO HO HO HO HO...I'm drooling already! :-D

OK, now I still have tons of house chores to do. I'll blog-hop later in the evening. Today I received some good news. My Mom sent me an SMS and said that my SIL had been a few weeks' late, so it seems I'm gonna be an aunt again sometime this year! Let's hope that the pregnancy is going well until the end, shall we? :-D

Go Away Bugs!

Dang, I feel like I'm going to have a cold or something. There've been some viruses going around here and my best friend in Sodankylä has been down with it. Yesterday when I went to work, my coworker started losing her voice and I felt a bit of a headache when it was near closing time. Ugh...today I let myself sleep so long (12 hours) - even though it felt as though it wasn't enough still and if I had let myself, I would have been sleeping still. I'm drinking some vitamin now and I hope I won't catch any viruses.

Our New Year's eve was spent at my in-laws' place again. R2, MIL, and I played cards until about 2 am. I did go outside a bit to see some fireworks at around midnight, but didn't manage to take any good pics of them. We went there cycling, so we went back home cycling again.

When it comes to FIL - I guess there are good days and bad days. Sometimes he remembers MIL, sometimes not. But these days he sometimes uses the kind of cup that babies use before they start learning to drink from a regular glass, so it breaks my heart to see him like that and I can see that it's getting harder and harder for him to move (the body gets so stiff nowadays). But I salute MIL for having taken care of him with such patience and love...that's really what you call "loving in good times and bad times, in sickness and in health". For those who are praying, keep on praying for MIL so that she gets all the strength, patience, love, and comfort that she needs.

Anyway, let me continue with the photo shoots in Rovaniemi...

1st pic: Taken at around 10 am before the sun showed up above the trees.


2nd pic: I posted this pic also in FB and someone said the tree looked like a monster hi hi hi hi hi...


All the pics below were taken at around midday. Any fave pic?






OK, now I'm going to browse around for a little bit before going to work. Good thing we have a national holiday on 6th. YAAAAAAAAAAAYYY!!!! Take care, people, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Brief Holiday

So, I've been busy enjoying our brief holiday 'coz R2 has his summer holiday only now. He has a 3-week holiday. Saturday I had work in the morning, so we decided not to go to my in-laws. Instead, we went there on Sunday afternoon 'coz we were also planning to stay at the cabin there. We played cards until almost midnight and I lost every single game. Doh...:-((( Then we went to the cabin to have some burgers and sausages (roasting them in the fireplace) and then we went to sauna. By the time we went to sauna, we were already TOO sleepy HA HA HA HA...It made me feel "aged" somehow - I mean, I remember when I was in High School, I could sleep only 4-5 hours three nights in a row and still I didn't feel like a zombie he he he...

So we didn't stay long in the sauna and we ended up going to bed at around 2.30 am. Every time I go to the cabin, I'm reminded of how blessed I am to be able to enjoy complete silence - there are only sounds of birds or dogs barking in the distance, no traffic sounds, no TV, no computers...just the two of us and some music from the radio. Oh, no electricity as well - just some candles that made everything feel so romantic ha ha ha...ahem...

To cut the story short, we woke up SUPER late on Monday. We went back to my in-laws' place...oh yeah, almost forgot...on Sunday when we arrived there, I gave her the poster and she LOVED it!!! Esp. 'coz she had never seen all the pictures that I put there HA HA HA HA HA...so she spent time looking at each photo. ;-D Here's a pic of the poster before we brought it to my in-laws - I had R2 pose for me to let you know how big it is (R2 is about 176-177 cm and the poster ix 50X70 cm):


We had lunch there and then MIL and I went out to pick some blackcurrants while R2 went to cut some wood (we brought home about 1.5 litres of blackcurrants YAY!!!). Then it started raining, so we had to go back inside. We drank coffee and played cards again - this time I managed to win 2 games out of 3. YIIIHAAAAAAAAAA!!!! ;-D And what did we see while playing cards? RAINBOW!!!



We went back home pretty late on Monday, so we didn't have too much time for anything 'coz we had to prepare ourselves to go to Rovaniemi the next day. When we arrived home, I found out that my handbag was broken (one of the straps came off) - so it was about time to buy a new one. Went to Rovaniemi yesterday and found a suitable handbag on a discount. Here is a pic of my old bag (bought it at a special price of €8 about 3 years ago):



And here's the pic of the new bag (original price €25, discounted price €15):


Notice the long horizontal zipper there? It goes through the whole bag, so if I need to make the bag bigger, I can unzip it. KEWLLL!!!!

We went to different stores and found some things to buy, such as bed sheets, pillow cases, and even one mattress. I bought a Finnish novel that I had been wanting to buy, though I've got a crazy story about it. When we went to that one bookstore, I saw the English version of the novel (it's been translated into many languages 'coz it's such a famous novel in Finnish) and the translated novel costs only €13. I was tempted to buy it due to the price and the fact that it'd be easy for me to read it through. BUT then again I wanted to know if I could read the whole book in Finnish, so I found the Finnish version, but the price is €27. Crazy, isn't it? But I did decide to buy the Finnish one after all with determination that someday I HAVE to read it 'coz it's such an expensive investment he he...If you're curious, here's the English version of the book (you can click on the book to go straight to the amazon page):



Unfortunately we didn't find any place where we could fix the camera, but it was our fault. We should've browsed through the internet first to find it 'coz after we got back home, R2 browsed the internet and found one. That means we'll have to go back to Rovaniemi someday (well, we had actually thought of going there again) - preferably while he's still having his holiday, though I hve to check my schedule first. My working hours will be busier this month 'coz one coworker will soon stop working there - I think maybe she's been accepted in a university or something like that (dunno for sure). So we'll see when we have time to go to Rovaniemi again.

We also went to a Chinese restaurant to buy some takeaway dinner - I ordered some duck, whereas R2 ordered some chicken. Too bad the duck meat has strange texture, though overall the food tastes OK, but I've tasted better duck meat (even the frozen duck meat from Lidl tastes BETTER than that - I mean texture-wise). Oh well...at least now I know that I'll NEVER buy duck from there again. Once we bought lunch buffet there and everything tasted GREAT, so it's just the duck that's the problem.

OK, now I need to blog-hop a little and then exercise (haven't done any exercise for about 5 days or so). Tomorrow and Friday I've got work to do. For those who want to see the pot of flowers I got from a customer at work, here goes:

Trip to Rovaniemi + My Personal Project

Went to Rovaniemi on a whim yesterday since we both had a day off. It wasn't really planned, though, so that means I'm becoming more and more spontaneous HA HA HA HA HA...Anyway, we didn't plan on buying anything EXCEPT I TRULY WANTED to buy Chinese food. *BIG GRIN* After all, the closest Chinese resto from here is one hour away from this village (Rovaniemi is about 1,5 hours away by car from here), but we've never tried eating there yet.

We went to a downtown mall and I found a Wii game that seemed nice (Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party), so I bought it. I looked around in the women's section, too, but didn't find anything too interesting or cheap ha ha...so we were just browsing around and relaxing. Then we moved to a different mall and browsed around some more, but didn't find anything. Soon we were hungry, so we went to a recommended Chinese resto called "Hai Long" in downtown Rovaniemi.

We ordered buffet lunch since it included everything. It was €8.90 per person (plus tax) and we could eat as much as we could and drink anything we wanted to (there were two types of rice, at least 8 types of dishes, CHILI SAUCE!!!, one type of soup, bread, milk, soft drinks, tea, water, and coffee). The resto were full all the time - people kept on coming and going. VERY good business!!! (side note: Well, the food is pretty good, though it's nothing compared to the food in a Chinese resto in Indo, but still it made me HAPPY!!!)

After that we went to a small hypermarket where R2 bought miniskis (because the old ones broke) and found a big lasagna dish. After that we went to a big hypermarket to buy our weekly needs (and R2 bought a cheap Wii game there). Then we got back home and played Wii for HOURS HA HA HA HA HA...We tried the new games right away and couldn't stop. FUN FUN FUN!!! :-D

So that was yesterday. Anyway, remember that I once wrote about my "project"? I decided to submit an article to a local newspaper just because I wanted to practise writing in Finnish and because I wanted to share my thoughts. At first I wanted to write about Indonesia, but the boss said that since it was only a local newspaper, I could only submit an article if it had something to do with my moving to Finland and how I "survive" here and things like that. So I did it and then their photographer came to the library to take my picture. On Thursday my MIL sent me an email, saying that she enjoyed reading my article he he he...I've only seen it today at her place since we don't subscribe to that newspaper he he he he...

Even though you probably don't understand what I'm writing, I'm sure you want to know what it's like, eh? So here goes...you can click on it to see a bigger version of it.



P.S. I don't know why I look SO white in the picture...uuhhhh he he he...And no, I'm not paid to write this, but the experience of writing it is PRICELESS, don't you think? There were SO many things I wanted to say, but I knew I couldn't write too long, so I had to edit it a few times until I felt pretty satisfied with it ha ha ha...

P.P.S. I'm curious what the ladies in the library would say about this article. I hope it's interesting enough to read my POV and my experience as an Asian moving to Sodankylä. :-D

Light a Fire!

Yesterday we went to my in-laws and armed with my new digital camera, Panasonic Lumix FZ28, I was hoping to see a few birds there (I'm still learning to use the camera to find out which features work best for different types of conditions and sceneries), but so far I'm LOVING the camera's wide zoom and the quality of the video clips.

I was SO happy to see a few birds when we arrived there. However, I got a nice surprise when I also saw a CUTE squirrel there. I'm trying to upload the video clip now so that I can share it tomorrow.

Here are a few pics I took yesterday:




This is the window from which I took the pictures of the birds. I took this pic without zooming in on the birds.



Then R2's elder brother wanted to make a bonfire, so he had to cut this empty barrel first into half so that we could make a fire inside.



It was -7'C outside and here we are sitting down around the fire!




Brrrr...our butts were cold when we got back inside he he he he...Then we played cards for 3 hours. I won the third round with such a remarkable score HA HA HA HA HA HA...It felt GOOD to win just one round out of three rounds, babyyyyy!!!

R2's second brother and girlfriend asked us if we wanted to go to Rovaniemi this Saturday to watch a play in the theatre there and we may just go there with them. I'll definitely write an update about this once we know for sure about this plan. Other than that, tomorrow I have to call the library manager to ask about the training place. If she can't give me a spot as a trainee there, I'll go ask another store nearby my house. Wish me luck, people!!! And hope you've had a BLESSED weekend!!!

Arktikum and Santa Park

Had fun in Arktikum and Santa Park with my classmates and teacher today. There were only 4 of us coming since the trainee got sick, so she didn't come with us. Thus I didn't try buying any Chinese food since I didn't know which one would be good enough to taste he he he...Never mind that, though, since after all I'm going back to Indo and I'll have PLENTY of Asian food later. Yum yum...

I'd actually been wanting to go to Arktikum for a while now, but I knew Arttu wouldn't be interested in going. That's why this course is VERY useful for me since it's also teaching us the cultural parts of Finland (as well as taking me to touristy places HA HA HA HA...). Plus the best part of all is that we didn't have to pay any entrance fee tickets HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO HO...

The bad thing about the trip today was that we weren't allowed to take any pics inside the many interesting exhibitions in Arktikum, but it was a VERY interesting place to be. At least that's what I think. I've never seen such an interesting museum with many different interesting exhibitions. If you want to visit Rovaniemi, make sure you go to Arktikum, will you? HE HE HE HE HE...

I was fascinated by some exhibitions where I could watch a short movie on Finnish pics and where I could see imitations of real-size bears, reindeer, ringed seal, and different animals that looked SO real. We could also listen to different types of animals' sounds by pressing a button he he he...That was FUN!!! ;-D

Here are some pics of the building...




Below is a picture of me and our teacher. :-D


Below is a pic of me with the skin of a ringed seal.


I really like the rooftop of Arktikum HE HE HE HE HE...



Then we went downtown to browse around the stores there. We split up and met again at a specified place two hours later. Oh, almost forgot, before we split up, our teacher, me, and the French guy had lunch at a cafe in a mall. Funny thing was that when we asked how much it cost to have lunch there, we were told that the price would depend on how much we took in grams. The price included the buffet lunch (there were 5 types of food to pick) and or salad and water or milk.

Mine cost around €6.25 in total, which wasn't too bad. After all, it would be even worse if we had to pay around €8 (the usual price for lunch buffet) and I couldn't even eat that much he he he...This way I only paid as much as I ate, which was good. ;-D

After that we went to Santa Park and we met Santa himself. But before that, I took some pics around the place he he he...Wonder why we're still dressed warmly? Because in Sodankylä it's around 0'C today and when we arrived in Rovaniemi, it was around 6'C but then it dropped down to around 3'C and then it started snowing. It's also snowing in Sodankylä as I'm typing this he he he...











Then we went inside Santa's Office (in the above pic, I was standing right in front of it) and met Santa. It was quite an interesting place, though we couldn't take any pics with our own cameras inside. However, they did offer a photo service. Yup, this place is really commercialized HA HA HA HA HA...

Santa himself was a pretty funny guy. ;-D We talked for a little while, then we took our pics and then when we got out of his office and went into the souvenir store, we could watch the video of our meeting with Santa HA HA HA HA HA HA...

We could choose a few options to buy the pics. In the end we choose this type of pic (we paid €30 to get 5 exact same pics along with the card), so each of us didn't have to pay too much. *GRIN*





Then the last pic I took was this...I wanted SO BADLY to show my face in Santa's place...unfortunately I was too short LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL!!!! Hubby laughed at me when I told him about this. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR he he he he he he...but I love him anyway HE HE HE HE HE...


So, that's the end of this post. I wonder how everybody's doing, but right now I'm tired, so I think I may blog-hop only tomorrow evening he he he...Hope you'll have a BLESSED weekend, everybody!!!

3BT: Random Days

1. Hubby bought WinTV HVR so that we can watch TV and record TV programs on our PC.

It's SUPER COOL since then if I want to watch my fave TV show that he doesn't like and then he wants to watch something else at the same time, he can watch it on his PC or he can record it and watch it later. Plus we don't need to buy another TV to do so HE HE HE HE HE HE...

2. Going to Rovaniemi with my classmates tomorrow. I think I'll try eating in one of the Chinese restaurants there. I CAN'T wait for tomorrow HO HO HO HO HO HO...

3. Being hugged SO tightly by hubby one night before we fell asleep and when I asked him, "What is this for?", he said, "Nothing. I just love you so much."

Mmmmmhhh...it feels WONDERFUL to hear those words he he he he he...and it felt GREAT to be hugged like that. Why? Because normally I'm more aggressive than him HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...

4. Laughing together with hubby and joking around he he he he...He brings out my inner child and it is SO MUCH FUN since not many people bring out that side of me. *wink*

5. Looking at my thighs and realizing that they're more defined than before. YIIIHHAAAAAAA!!! I LOVE TAE-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trip to Rovaniemi

The trip to Rovaniemi went smooth. As usual, Sleepyhead Me even managed to take a short nap in the car HUE HE HE HE HE...

However, I didn't expect the day to be HOT HOT HOT!!! In the morning the temperature was -17'C, so I was dressed accordingly. We went to Kelujärvi to have lunch together with the kids, then we left to Rovaniemi at around 12.30 pm. By then the temperature came up to only -1'C. I should've taken off some layers of clothes since we wouldn't be outside too much, but I didn't do it. So in the car I was ROASTED by the HOT sun. It was such a cloudless day that the sun was really scorching for me. It was also blinding me and making my throat SO SO SO SO dry!!!

Gladly I managed to sleep for a bit hi hi hi...thus the trip didn't feel too long. I took off my shoes and my leg warmers in the car, but I couldn't have taken off my woolen shorts that I had put on over my regular long john he he he...

When we arrived in downtown Rovaniemi, we went straight to the malls. That day was also a graduation day for some students there, so they were dressed up in different costumes. Here's a picture of astronauts in downtown Rovanemi he he he...



And art lovers, can you please explain to me what this is?!?!?!?!?!?! For the life of me, I can't imagine what this looks like hmmm...



And here are some more pics of downtown Rovaniemi...













Then we went to a Pizza Buffet restaurant where we could eat anything we wanted with one price only. It was OK. After that we went to another shopping mall and I found a T-shirt on a discount (it was only €5), so I bought it. Arttu also found a big bundle of Donald Duck on a discount. Yes, he's a HUGE fan of Donald Duck (in Finnish he's called Aku Ankka - Ankka = Duck. Funnily enough, in Indonesian the word "aku" means "I" or "me"). Arttu was SO HAPPY to get that book he he he he...After all, he doesn't really like window shopping HA HA HA HA...Gladly he could tag along with the nephews while my sis-in-law and I went to women's clothes stores he he he...

Here's a pic of the bookstore.



After that we had to go to the train station. It was the first time I ever went to that train station. Here are some pictures.







The last picture is Arttu near the parking lot of the train station.



I must say that going to Rovaniemi felt like going back to "civilization" again ha ha ha ha...Because there were FAR MANY more people and cars there. I don't know what I'm going to feel when I'm back in Indo. I'm a bit apprehensive that I'll be SHOCKED by the amount of traffic and people and traffic jam there he he he...

Oh well...I'll blog-hop tomorrow, OK? Now I'm a bit tired and I still have homework to do and I need to prepare myself for the upcoming test. ;-D