I survived the tough work week without having to go to the doc, even though I had to ask to switch a shift with another friend because I was scheduled to work close to food and I still had a runny nose and an annoying cough. Thankfully Thursday night I managed to sleep non-stop because I really needed the rest, so on Friday everything went OK.
Went to Kelujärvi right after work. It was raining and R2 was adamant in grilling some food outside ha ha ha ha...it was about 3'C. It kept on raining and raining and raining, but at some point it turned into very light rain, so R2 went out to light the grill ha ha ha ha...by the time the food was done, it rained even more.
It also rained for hours on end today until the sky finally cleared up at around 6 pm and then the sun started shining. The temperature at the moment is around 10'C (under the sun probably around 12'C).
The good thing about all the rain was that I got lots of shots of beautiful raindrops on plants. :-D Enjoy the photos! :-D I'm still recuperating from the runny nose and the cough (it's amazing how much mucus and phlegm a single body can produce, I tell ya!) and yesterday for some reason my stomach was acting up (had to go to the toilet 7 times that day), but thankfully today is a better day. Take care, people!
P.S. Any fave photo(s)?
1. I thrive on one-on-one conversation.
Last Friday I met a friend at her house and we talked for 5 straight hours ha ha ha...It reminded me of my university days when I used to do that with my closest friends. I LOVE having a one-on-one chat. Of course it's also fun to meet a group of my friends altogether, but I find that usually it's more satisfying to have a one-on-one conversation as the topics are more "controlled", esp. if the group of people consist of many chatty people who have LOADS of topics of their own.
Within a group of people, there are times when some of them are talking to themselves and some others are talking to other people and you wish you could split yourself in two (or more) so that you could follow all the conversations he he he he...
2. My Brother's Baby's Name.
The other day I sent SMS to my brother, asking him about his baby's name. Contrary to the people in Indo, Finnish people don't usually have ready baby names when their babies are born and they usually publicize the name on the newspaper once the baby has been christened at church.
Well, my brother said that the baby's name would be Kenneth Octavian Winarta (he'll be called Ken). It means that he's handsome and trustworthy he he he he...
As I said in my earlier post, I'm not sure yet whether I can meet the baby or not since the due date turns out to be October 20th, whereas I'm flying back to Finland already on October 24th. We'll see then how it goes. 
3. Wisdom Tooth.
Yesterday hubby stayed home as one of his wisdom tooth was extracted. He bled a lot, but thankfully no sign of a swollen cheek. He has to take antibiotics, though, of course. He keeps the tooth and the roots are SO long. Yikes!!! He said that it was so hard to get it out, so when the dentist managed to pull it, it "fell" into his throat, so the dentist asked him not to swallow. Oh dear goodness!!!
I've only got 3/4 of a wisdom tooth out until now (yes, only one has grown), even though I'm almost 30 years old. The problem I have with that is that there's a gap between that 3/4 of a wisdom tooth and my last molar, so I have been chewing in one side of my mouth ever since that wisdom tooth started to come out. It's getting harder and harder to clean that gap, so I don't want to chew there. I hope the wisdom tooth really grows FAST!!!
If I remember correctly, that tooth only started to grow after I moved to Finland ---> is it a sign that I was getting wiser by moving to Finland that it decided to grow only then? LOL LOL LOL!!!
To anyone of you who've got all wisdom teeth out, how slow did they grow???????
4. Customs Tax for the Chess Set.
The customs officials sent me a customs tax bill. The tax I had to pay was around 72% of the cost of the chess set itself (The Chess Set itself was only around €22, whereas the customs tax was around €16,50).
I guess since it's an electronic device, then I had to pay the customs tax. I mean, I've bought vitamins from ebay which cost more than the chess set, but they never asked me to pay the customs tax. But anyway, at least I have the money to pay the tax HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE HE...
The silly thing was that I was still sleeping when the postman rang the doorbell this morning. I woke up sometime during the night to pee and when I got back to bed, I started remembering something and I just had a HARD time going back to sleep. GRRRRRRRRRRRRR...
I THINK the postman must've wanted to give me the chess set. Stupid me!!! Now I have to wait againnnnnnn...I hope that I can get it SOON!!!
5. Health Matters.
I haven't been taking a shower since last Saturday (though I did wash my hair two days ago) since I'm still sneezing every once in a while (esp. when going out in the cool weather) and my throat feels phlegmy and my nose feels rather runny, though I have no fever or headache or whatsoever. I'm kinda impatient in wishing that I'd just DROP sick next week or something so that nearing my departure date I'll be completely well. Oh well...We'll see how it goes then.
Now time to blog-hop he he he he...Hop, hop, hop!!!
Life has a funny way of giving you the lessons you "try" to avoid ha ha ha...When life's determined to shape you in a certain way or when you're still not learning the same lessons over and over again, then you'll face a similar problem again. And perhaps again.
I've told you that I've found a place to do my training after the course ends in mid June. The problem is that I still have to meet the boss to work on the training contract. And I also need to ask about my working hours and when my lunch break is and stuff like that.
Yesterday I went to the store again to do that, but alas, the boss was talking on the phone and there were some customers there. Plus I saw another guy restocking the place, so they must've been busy. So I went home and decided to go back to the store today.
Today I went there after the course, hoping to find the same woman I talked to last week that told me that I could do the training there. Alas, there was a different person near the counter and I didn't see the boss there. I did talk to her, though, in Finnish. I explained to her about what I wanted to do, and then she replied in a "normal" pace in Finnish, which sounded in my ears like "blrblblrrlkbbbklllrrrbbbllrlrlblblrlblrbbblrrbbbrrlkllkkllllbbbrrr".
So I smiled and asked her politely to say it more slowly. She smiled and decided to change her words into simpler ones (I know it for sure since at first she said SO many sentences!!!). THANK GOD for that hi hi hi hi...I LOVE it when Finnish people try to explain something to foreigners in a simpler way. I TRULY appreciate it!!! She said that today was her first day at work and that I should talk to the boss instead so that everything would be clear. She said that the boss would probably come either the next day or the day after, so I should come back later.
Phew!!! I actually still "dislike" talking to new people in Finnish, since I don't know whether I can understand them or not. I can prepare at home whatever it is I want to ask or say, but I have NO idea whether I can understand what the other person is saying to me or not. I guess my self-confidence is still so low hi hi hi hi hi...Plus I'm not really a people person. I'm getting better at practising Finnish (read: forcing myself to speak), but still I'm not nearly as chatty as people who are born chatty, you know what I mean? *wink* If I don't really have to talk, I prefer still not to talk HA HA HA HA HA HA...
Anyway, speaking of health, I've been doing MUCH better though my nose's still runny and every morning for the past few days I've been able to blow out some YUCKY stuff out of my nose. I described the yucky stuff in detail to Arttu and he asked me, "Do you have to describe it to me?" LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL!!!
Ahem...what can I say? I AM a gross girl sometimes HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...You can ask my closest female friends and they'll all say the same thing hi hi hi hi...
And speaking of MONEY, remember when I said that last week I got more student money than I thought? WRONG!!! It was actually the accumulation of unemployment money. You see, I didn't know that I could have applied for unemployment money since I had NEVER worked in Finland. When I applied for the student money right before the course started, the government sent me so much paperwork to fill and they asked me to explain why I hadn't applied for unemployment money when I first moved to Finland.
Today I received the notification from them, stating that I was actually eligible to get unemployment money starting from last June, but since my application came so late, they only paid me unemployment money starting from last December.
So the money they sent me last week wasn't my student money. I'm REALLY HAPPY to get that extra sum of money, though, since I didn't even expect it!!! Every cent of it goes RIGHT into my "untouchable" account HUE HE HE HE HE HE HE...Pretty soon I'll be able to get back the amount of money I want to keep safely in that account. HALLELUJAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
Okie dokie, I think I may exercise right now so that tomorrow morning I don't have to wake up too early he he he...I tried to take a nap, but unfortunately sleep didn't come over me, so better make the most of the time then he he...I'll blog-hop again either tonight or tomorrow, OK?
As you all probably know, I made my own snowman yesterday with the help of my hubby. Making a snowman wasn't as easy as I thought. I'd always thought that it'd be easy to make round balls and then combine them into a big snowman. Wrong!!! First of all, the snow had to be a bit wet so that the snow particles would be stuck to one another. Otherwise it'd just be like trying to make a sand castle from dry sand.
Hubby taught me how to make it at first. He made a small snowball and told me to roll it over. He said that apparently the snow wasn't too wet, so every now and then some part of the ball I made kept on falling off to the ground, so I had to press it back to the big ball. After a while, I couldn't even care less anymore whether it was totally round or not as long as I could make it big enough for the bottom part of the snowman. Boy, the snowball got SO heavy after a while that I started sweating profusely!!!
Once I was done, I had to make the second one he he he...This time it was easier to make as I knew already what to do. All this while, my nose got SO runny but I didn't want to stop yet as I had to take off one glove to get the tissue from my pants' pocket. So imagine me rolling down a snowball with a runny nose hi hi hi hi...Not exactly a good image, isn't it? Next time I try making a snowman, I think I'd better plug my nose with some tissue hi hi hi hi hi hi hi...
Anyway, then hubby put the second snowball on top of the bigger one and he said I still had to make another one for the face. I couldn't care less and let him make the smallest snowball. I was so busy adding more and more snow to both of my snowballs to make my snowman look "plumper". I didn't want to make a skinny snowman, thank you very much. It wouldn't look good he he he he he...My nose started to get runny again and I was still sweaty...but finally after a long while (I got a bit obsessed patching up my snowman with more snow to make it plumper), we were done.
I ran inside to get my camera and my mother-in-law told me that I need some decorations for the mouth and eyes and stuff, so she opened up this little hatch beneath the fireplace and took out some embers of wood (side note: I don't know if embers is the correct term for it, so correct me if you know the right one) and put them inside a plastic bag. By that time, Arttu got inside the house as he probably thought it took me a long time to get my camera ha ha ha...
I went outside again to decorate my snowman but turned out it wasn't that easy either to jam those stuff to the snowball, so I let Arttu do it after I put the eyes. He came outside bringing a blue pipo (woolen cap) for the snowman he he he he he...Too bad we didn't find any fallen branches to make the arms, but anyhow, WE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here's two pics of the snowman he he he...What do you think? ;-D
Next time I'll remember to bring some clothes to change as my T-shirt got SO wet already by the time I finished making this snowman. I told hubby that I wanted to make a snow woman next to him and he joked to me, "Yeah, leave them there for a night and the next morning there'll be a snow kid." LOL LOL!!!
Speaking of our health...now hubby's voice is SEXY. You know what I mean, right? When your nose is runny, then your voice starts to be sexy ha ha ha ha...I think I've been safe so far 'coz we've avoided kissing each other's lips for a few days...I MISS kissing his lips!!! Oh...the things we take for granted!!! Tsk...I can't wait to kiss his lips again. This is PURE TORTURE!!! He he he he he...
Anyway, other than my snowman pic, I want to share Lapland pics with you. Here are some pics taken while I was going out the other day. This is November in Lapland and here are the view of the streets I usually walked by when going downtown.
First pic: the street right outside our apt. building.
Second pic: for some reason I've always loved looking at this house, esp. in summer there'll always be plenty of flowers in the garden and a small elf statue outside. ;-D
Third pic: This is a part of downtown Sodankylä. The part that said "Kirppis" is the flea market that I often visit. The other two next to it are beauty salons. ;-D
Fourth pic: Another view of the street near my apt. building, taken from the other end.
Fifth pic: Just a pic of the snowy branches he he he he he...I find it fascinating to see! ;-D
Last pic: A pic taken when it was already dark. It was around 7 pm when I took this pic if I remember correctly. This pic was taken in the parking lot of our apt. building.
