First week of school continued

I forgot to mention I got a roommate on Tuesday: Paige from Indiana. She is in the Atlantis program as well, but she is from Michigan Tech instead of NC State, and she is studying plant biotechnology not forestry. She is doing her European exchange in the reverse order of us. She spent all last semester in Sweden and is now finishing up in Helsinki. 

On Thursday I had class on campus for most of the day. Eating lunch in the cafeteria is the best thing ever! Not only is it a beautiful, relaxed atmosphere with real glass glasses, ceramic plates, and wooden chairs, but the food is incredible, and at €2.50, it's cheaper than making your own lunch! You get a glass of either milk or juice (I always go with Finnish sour milk), one of the main courses of the day (so far all have been very tasty and healthy), unlimited potatoes, rice, bread (dense wholegrain bakery bread), salad, and fruit. After only one week, it still seems too good to be true, and I end up loading my plate with way too much food. Then I feel full and sleepy for the rest of the afternoon. Unless I end the meal with a cup of Finnish coffee!

In the afternoon I ran some erronds. I bought a new Made in Finland pillow, since the one they supplied in my flat is more like a bag of cotton balls than a pillow. In the evening I hung out in the "Club Room" with some of my suitemates. The Club Room is just a room in the basement of my building with a pool table, a TV, some books, and some awesome posters of Finnish flora and fauna that I really want to steal. I watched Simpsonit (The Simpsons).

Friday I had a 4 hour lab in my Ecological Modeling class. We are using a software program called Powersim where you can basically model differential equations, adding and manipulating as many variables as you like. We made some growth model simulations for leaves, stems, and roots in a stand. It was pretty intense and complected, but also a lot of fun. And those 4 hours (or 3.5 minus a coffee break) absolutely flew by.

That night I took Paige to the city center to show her around and help her get acquainted with the bus system, etc. I also set up my tent in my room, since it's so much cozier to sleep in than having to look at my rather bare walls. It was pretty challenging to get it to fit, and I have a feeling the housekeeper will make me take it down. And I'm sure everyone now thinks I'm very strange as well.