Keskiviikko (Wednesday)

I really should not be writing this right now, seeing that I have a gigantic lab report due in the morning. But there is nothing like a bit of pending homework to really increase your productivity in every other aspect of life! 

As I write this I am eating an incredibly Scandinavian snack:

Caviar paste, hardboiled eggs, and butter on rye crisp bread

It's SO good!

Tomorrow I'm leaving for Lapland for 5 days! Overnight train in a sleeping car to Rovaniemi, the official home of Santa Claus. It's just like the Polar Express! I'm going on a trip that's organized through the international department at school. I usually hate group trips, but this was a really, really good deal. Plus, it seems like it will be fun. We're staying in cabins and have free use of snowshoes, skis, ice fishing equipment, and saunas (now that I love saunas and all). And we get to go dog sledding, reindeer sledding, meet Santa Claus, and ice swimming above the arctic circle! And although the aurora borealis forecast is "low," I am bond and determined to see some northern lights!

The day that I get back is Shrove Tuesday which is a huge holiday in Finland, and then the next day I got some free ferry tickets to go to Estonia for the day. Fun times!

Look at the cute little snowplow out my window:

I was walking home from the bus tonight (dark, about 2 degrees Fahrenheit), when I saw (and heard) the last thing in the world you would expect to see in those conditions: An ice cream truck! And it was just like your ordinary ice cream truck too. It was driving all over the neighborhood, playing loud annoying music up and down the street. It was so bizarre. Granted, I didn't see anyone coming out to buy any ice cream.

Random fact about Finland: It's the law (although about as strictly enforced as jaywalking) that as a pedestrian you have to have a reflector attached to you. These are the guidelines on the back of the package:

"Attach reflector knee-height on the right side of your body. The reflector must hang freely and be seen from back and front. Change a badly scratched or damaged reflector to a new one. Reflector must be used in the dark - also in built-up areas."

And here is the picture they have. Notice how not one of these people are wearing their reflectors in the proper way:

Here is the one on my backpack:

And on my jackets (hanging freely at knee-height on the right side):

Okay! Time to knock out a lab report, sleep, and head up to the arctic circle tomorrow!