Meet ________ the new plant!

The front of our building

A plug in for block heaters in cars as many of the cars are diesel

So we bought my plant last night, it is a Phalaenopsis orchid. It was my Birthday present and will be my "pet" while we are in Finland. We did not want to have to deal with a dog, especially not getting it back home. We also could not be mean enough to flush a fish down the toilet once we left. So, I settled on a plant; mainly because we will not feel bad about throwing it away when we leave and it is cheap to maintain.
I do however have a slight dilemma, I do not know what to name my plant. I would appreciate suggestions. My email address is listed on my profile and you can email names to me and I will pick one from the list.

On a different note, I went to register for classes today and found out that I just need to activate my student account to do so. I tried to do this but one section in the process is messing up so I will have to try later today or tomorrow. I hope to start my first class next week. It will be a Literature review course on Organic Food and Farming. I am working on free-range pork production as part of my Master's and this will allow me to get more than one use out of the Literature review I have to do anyway. Classes end on December 20 for this quarter and start back in mid January. I hope to take three classes during the 3rd quarter in January and one class during the 4th quarter in March. The last quarter ends two days before we leave but my class is online so I can finish a week or two in advance. I hope to get all of this worked out in the next week or so.

First solo trip to the Prisma

Today was my first day going to the Prisma alone. It was also the second time I have done laundry with a dryer! The Prisma trip went well, I took my time and really looked at things on the second level (non-food level). The second level was not as crowded as the first level so I was able to look around and learn where things are. I found most of the things that I needed except oil. I was however, unable to get everything on my list because it is all to heavy to carry by myself. It will take a few more trips to stock up on the larger items and then my weekday trips will not be bad. I did manage to get everything to make a pot of sweet tea and have made two in the coffee maker :) I would not need as much if the Prisma was open yesterday because Randall would have carried the heavy stuff for me. We tried to go yesterday and were surprised when it was closed. We should have paid closer attention to the hours sign on the door. Fortunately we were able to locate a store that was open so we could get our supper!
Laundry today was an experience, I had to wash all of our jeans which take a long time to dry. The dryer ran for 2 hours and they were still slightly damp around the pockets and waist! I will not wash that many jeans at a time again if I can help it. Fortunately no one else had checked out the facilities until 3:00 this afternoon so I was able to continue reserving time when I checked on them every half hour from 10:00 until 12:00. I made sure I reserved 2 hours for Wednesday even though I hope not to take that long.

The Prisma

As promised here is the Prisma or "Finnish Wal-Mart" post. The Prisma is the largest grocery store that we have seen so far in Finland. There two levels in the Prisma; level one is food and some plants and storage containers and detergents. There is also pet food and supplies on the bottom level. On the top level there are electronics which include washers and dryers, and refrigerators. There is also a clothing section, sporting goods section, toiletries section and DVDs, CDs and other media. There is a home goods section that include fine china and glassware as well as kitchen gadgets, utensils, bath towels, shower curtains and bathroom decor.
There is an abundance of fresh produce and herbs on the bottom level. There is also a nice breads and fresh made desserts section, doughnuts and danishes are very popular desserts. There are several aisles of meat and cheeses with lots of variety on each isle. There is also a large selection of sauces and condiments (they even have French's brand mustard and Heinz ketchup!). They have a lot of juices and have a good selection of soft drinks. The juices are cheap but the soft drinks are still quite expensive. There is however, a place to sell back your glass and plastic jars and bottles so the cost for drinks may include the refund for the bottle. We will find out when I have enough to take back. One thing that struck me as odd for this store was the fact that they have refrigerated dog and cat food. This food comes in a roll similar to cookie dough and is kept in a cooled section just like cookie dough. However, it has Pedigree and Whiskas on the wrapper. Who knows what kind of food they feed their pets around here.
I will continue to learn this store and will try more and more Finnish food items as the weeks go by. I am just happy I found a store that is similar to Wal-Mart within walking distance of our apartment, it will make my life so much easier. The only item that we cannot find here at all is our Euro Shopper brand frosted flakes. Randall will stop at one of the K-markets and get those on his way home when we run out. We can also get laundry detergent cheaper near our old apartment so we may make a few more trips during our stay to purchase that, but it is such a large container we will not have to do that often. Pretty much everything we need is just a five minute walk from our apartment, aside from legal or important passes or documents and the bank, but there is an ATM in front of the Prisma.

Second weekend in Finland

The tire monkey

The building across from the tire monkey

The barn that can be seen from our apartment

One of the trails that we walked on today

The barn from the parking lot at our apartment

The Prisma my new Wal-Mart

Today we went back to the City Centre to get our travel cards. These are basically bus passes for our stay in Finland. We were both able to get cards; mine however, is only worth 20euros and will not last the duration of our stay. I will have to go back and get another card once I get my student ID. We also bought a router and a large thing of laundry detergent since they were cheaper in the mall near our old apartment. After that we took the bus back to the new apartment and went to the Prisma.
At the Prisma we bought a printer, two small dish towels, a hot pad and some more groceries to stock our apartment with. We also explored the area more today and saw a farm area and plant nursery. We walked down through a residential area with beautiful houses that have one side mostly made of glass. We also walked on part of the campus that I will be taking classes this spring. I did not get any pictures of campus today but I will soon and will post them when I have them. I also did not get pictures of the houses because I felt like that was rude, so you will have to take my word on how pretty they were.
On part of campus near the grocery store we saw a monkey statue that is made entirely of tires. The statue is probably twenty feet tall and about ten feet around. I am not sure why it was made or who made it because the sign was in Finnish and I do not trust Google translate well enough to try to translate it.
We hope to do some more exploring tomorrow, our legs have not adjusted to all of the walking or we would have done more today. I will take the camera and post more pictures from our walk tomorrow.

First day in the new apartment!

Side view of our walk in closet.

Front view of our walk in closet.

Half bathroom

Living room

Me at the desk in the guest room.

Our room, yes there are two bed pushed together and they came that way.

The kitchen

Hall way from front door

Living room from the hallway

We have successfully moved into the new apartment and it is huge! Especially compared to the old place which was tiny! We have an oven now which is nice but we do not have a microwave or a dishwasher; guess I know what I will occupy my time with. There are two large bedrooms here that are bigger then the previous place by themselves. There are one and a half bathrooms, a large kitchen with table in it, the living room is behind the kitchen and it is a nice size as well. There are laundry facilities that are on the bottom level of the building and they must be reserved before we use them. I have heard and seen several moms with young children and there is at least one in the building. This is due to that fact that our building is reserved for visiting researchers only. There is defiantly room for my plant and there will be plenty of sunlight as most of one wall in the living room and kitchen are windows. We also have a small balcony which will serve as a freezer when it gets colder because our refrigerator is a mini-fridge with a very small freezer.
We have seen a little of our surroundings on our short walk to the store, which is my new Wal-Mart (more details on that in a later post). There are several farms in the area. We have a good view of one outside of our guest bedroom, or my office until we have guests. We plan to do some exploring tomorrow after we take a bus back to the city centre for a few documents and grocery items. I will post tomorrow with pictures from our exploration of the area and expand on the "Wal-Mart".

Last day in the Small apartment!!!!!

View of the apartment standing in front of the window.

The actual sleeping area occupied by our bags.

The small, small washer.

A view of the apartment standing in the kitchen area. The bathroom door is behind the ladder.

So, today is the last day in the small one room, hotel type, apartment. I am packing up all of our stuff today so that we can move into our two bedroom, large, apartment tomorrow. It will be nice to have a real bed that doesn't function as a couch! It will also be nice to have room for everything. Right now all but one of our suitcases are in the real sleeping loft while we are sleeping on the futon.
So far everything else is going well. I have been watching out for those dangerous cars :). Thanks for all of you who expressed your concern for my safety. Yesterday we were able to finally open a bank account which was a relief. We have to go back tomorrow and pick up our debit cards and online access codes. Unlike many banks in the US they do not require a deposit and they do not ask nearly as many questions either! Our passports, address here, date of birth and phone numbers were enough! We did have to show proof of working/studying here but that was it. The lady that helped us was the first person we have dealt with that did not speak English very well. She actually had to get one of the other employees to translate for her when she was explaining the account to us. He was fluent and they were both very nice about it considering we came in close to closing, oops. They apparently close early on Wednesdays. All in all everything is going well and we are learning more and more each day. We hope to explore our new neighborhood this weekend so there will be pictures of that and posts to follow.

Randall's first day at work

A picture from the cemetery yesterday

The view of the walking trail and water from the cemetery wall

Some of the trees in the cemetery

The parking lot of the building where Randall works

Today was Randall's first day of work and my first day home alone. He seems to enjoy his work and he says that everyone is friendly. The hours are good and they have a cafeteria that he can eat in for lunch which will make things easier for him. While we are still in the hotel apartment he is able to walk but once we move he will have to ride the bus.
I went to the grocery market alone for the first time today and struggled with the card reader. The cashier finally turned it around and took the card from me and swiped it herself. Oh well, better luck next time I hope. I am branching out on the food and decided to get some sausages. The ones that I chose look like a fatter version of the Hillshire Farm "U" shaped sausage back home. I hope they taste good! I was also able to catch up on laundry today which takes some time considering that our Washing machine will only hold two pairs of jeans at a time (1 of each of ours)! I will be glad when I have access to a dryer at our apartment so that my whole apartment is not lined with clothes. Still we are having a good time and making the most of everything and enjoying this once in a lifetime opportunity.

First weekend in Finland cont.

The side of a church or funeral home in the cemetery.

The stone wall of the cemetery viewed from the waterside path.

Over view of the water from the cemetery wall.

View of graves from the main road of the cemetery.

More graves with lanterns viewed from the main road of the cemetery.

Its Sunday and we decided to visit a large old looking cemetery that we saw on our walk yesterday. The cemetery is very large and was not as old as we thought. The graves are very close together making it seem like many of their dead are cremated or buried "standing up". Another thing that I noticed while we were in the cemetery is that they plant plants at the grave sites and light candles in little lanterns. Some of the graves do not have lanterns but they do have candle holders. They also seem to have the head stones cleaned often and the plants replanted. We also walked down to the water near the cemetery and looked at the bridge and some of the houses on the other side of the water. One thing that I have noticed since I have been here is that a lot of people have dogs and they walk them every where. We were in the register office a few days ago and an older couple came in with a Yorkie! No one even reacted to the dog like it happens all of the time. We saw several dogs on the walking trail today.

First weekend in Finland

One of the older buildings that are in the down town area

Another old building in the down town area

Sokos Hotel and mall in the city center

One of the larger shopping/business buildings in the city center

The light poll that the bus took out! Notice the door on the ground!

The bus that took out the light poll

Its our first Saturday and we decided to go to the city center. It is basically a big shopping mall, train station and strip mall type area. We walked around the mall and found the place we will go to get our travelers cards. We also looked around the mall a little to see what was there. Outside in the strip mall area we found a Chico's American Chain (non-mexican food) restaurant. Looks like we will be eating at one of those soon after we move because they are supposed to have one near our apartment.
On our way back from the city center we saw a bus crash! The bus ran into a light poll and disabled all of the lights in the intersection. It also lost one of its luggage doors, as you can see from the pictures. In all of this mayhem I almost got run over by a car! We were standing at the intersection near the wreck trying to cross with a group of pedestrians. Since the lights were out we did not have crossing lights, which are very important as traffic laws are enforced from what I have read in our Finland book. So, the group decided to cross the intersection so we followed and I happened to be the last one to enter the intersection. As I was halfway across a car came through the round about and came 2 feet from hitting my right knee. It scared me a little because there was someone in front of me so I couldn't get out of the way. Fortunately the car stopped just in time to miss me! All in all today was a good day.
We have talked on Skype to Mr. Tim and Mrs. Vicki and my mom Sharon. We will talk to the rest of my Family and possibly Mr. Tim and Mrs. Vicki again and maybe Kristen. We are making every meal and day as much like home as possible. Once we move into our apartment we will be able to set up "home" and have more things like our home in America would be like.

Day two In Finland

Street view of buildings near Randall's work

Boats and waterway near Randall's work

The park near Randall's work

Street view standing in front of Randall's work

The building Randall will be working in

Today is our second day in Finland and we went to where Randall works, the mall again to check out the cheaper, smaller grocery store, and find a printer. We walked down to a park near where Randall will work and down to the water to look at the boats. We were able find affordable fresh apples and potatoes which is most likely what we will living off of for most of our stay. Meat is a little high compared to US prices but not unaffordable for our budget. We found a Pizza Hut with a 9.90euro lunch buffet, 1euro Pepsi and 2euro ice cream buffet. Ice cream seems popular here which is surprising considering how cold it is.

First Full Day in Finland

It is our first full day in Finland and we decided to walk to the register for a personal identification (social security type) number. We walked around lost for about half an hour (Randall was navigating) if I had been navigating we would have walked circles around the apartment. We were able to get some information about getting the number and what to do to get me a travelers card.
We also went to the grocery store. That was scary as we had no idea what we were doing. We just looked at pictures on the cans and bottles :). They did have some stuff that was in English that was helpful. We did manage to get some sliced cheese, mini sub bread pasta & sauce, orange drink, paper towels, toilet paper, soup, canned peaches and a large reusable grocery bag for 14euros. All in all today was a good day we also managed to get prepaid calling cards for our cell phones. All of the people we dealt with did speak English so that was helpful. here are some pictures of the place we are staying for the next 10 days.

Our Wedding Day

We recently got married on September 26, 2009 in Washington NC. We had our ceremony and reception at First Church of Christ. Our attendants were, Maid of honor Beth Brickhouse, bridesmaids; Kristen Etheridge and Jessica Anderson. Best man, Tim Etheridge, groomsmen; Jason Loftis and Bradley Amick. We went to Myrtle Beach for our honeymoon then returned to Greenville NC for two weeks before we left for Finland.