Have I ever mentioned that I have the coolest sister-in-law ever?! It's true, she's the greatest, and I wouldn't trade her for the world! :) Lauren has sent me multiple pieces of love in the mail, and one of them was an epic package that contained so many great things! The point is to tell you that she mailed me a packet of forget-me-not seeds, and I planted them about two weeks ago now. I already have baby flowers and it's been so fun to watch my them bloom in my kitchen while everything outside is shedding its summer skin.
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| I love, love, love them! :) |
Meanwhile, as I probably don't need to tell any of you, because I'm fairly confident that anyone that actually reads my blog is in the United States, but just in case: OBAMA WON!!!!!!!!!!! 2 terms and another 4 years to make revolutionary change, I hope! Maybe I'm being too idealistic, optimistic, or both, but I don't care! This election was funny for me because literally everyone I encountered before election time, upon learning that I am an American, would ask me what I thought was going to happen. My response to people's inquiries was always that I had my fingers crossed, and they always knew what I meant. It was eye opening being abroad for a presidential election, because I realized how much the American elections affect the whole world. Whether people like the United States or not, they recognize that it is an extremely powerful nation, and therefore everyone has a vested interest in who is the next president of the United States. Needless, to say, it was a very enlightening experience. Everyone that did speak with me about the election would also always give me a look of desperation, hoping that I would be the reason that Obama got re-elected, but spoiler alert, my vote never counts, at least now while I'm registered in Arizona. It was fun having the election results rolling in on my Wednesday morning (time differences are so bizzarre) so I was kind of a bad student and sat in the back of class and watched the election results from my computer! I mean, hey, it's the most important thing that happens ever 4 years, so I was justified in being a bad student!
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| #2terms #4moreyears #obama |
A couple of Sundays ago now, Valeria and I went on a stroll to the city center and back. You truly have to soak up the rays of sunshine when you get them here, or you'll regret it on those grey days where you never really know if it's day time or night time. Actually, as I write this the sun is on my back and it's instantly therapeutic when you see those rays coming through your window! :) But anyways, on Valeria's and my excursion we stumbled upon the only cool piece of street art in Lahti. I love beautiful street art, and it calms me down to know that Lahti at least has this cool piece because otherwise how could they honestly say they're a European city?!
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| Of course it has to do with cross-country skiing, everything in this country really is kind of focused around the snow! |
School is still going well, I just can't believe that I'll be home in 30 days from today! Insane! Meanwhile, I've gotten myself involved in a bigger green roof experiment and I'm really excited about it! I will be burying pyramid-shaped Lipton green tea bags in green roofs in Helsinki to see how effective the green roofs are at decomposing litter. I'm really thrilled to have the opportunity to be a part of this study because this is exactly the kind of stuff that I am very passionate about. Next Tuesday I will be going to Helsinki to bury the tea bags on the numerous green roofs around the city with some of the professors from the main campus. Yesterday, however, Valeria and I did the grunt work of numbering, weighing, and soaking the tea bags in preparation for burying them. We had to soak them in order to get all the leachate out so that this variable doesn't affect the weight difference of how much 'litter' is truly decomposed. These are the reasons that it would be ideal to become a professor some day, so that I can make other minions do the grunt work, but we just turned up the music and had fun with it! :)
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| We tied the tea bags to this rack so that they could soak in the sink. |
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| Letting the leachate soak out in hot water. |
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| Freshly rinsed tea bags ready to dry for two days! |
The other things I can tell you, hmm, well I've been watching a lot of movies to fill my downtime! I am so proud of myself for not spending money on frivolousness these days, but rather movie nights with friends have become a regular occurrence. I recently have discovered how many Roald Dahl books there are that I'm not familiar with, and that has become the newest obsession, and therefore we have been watching the Roald Dahl movies! The Witches, Matilda, and James and the Giant Peach have all been watched in the past 2 weeks alone! We typically watch the movies at Magda's place because she actually has a couch, but there is the added benefit of getting to visit with the bunnies!
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| She never calls them by their names, so I'm not sure what they are, they are rather known as bunny boy and bunny girl! |
Oh and last bit of SUPER exciting news! I am going to COPENHAGEN!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will be spending Thanksgiving in Copenhagen with a good, old friend from high school. Jenna and her boyfriend will be in Copenhagen for Jason's work, and she asked if I'd care to join them on their adventure. Obviously this was an easy decision, and I'm sooo excited to go explore this town that I have heard so many amazing things about! It's perfect timing for them to be in Europe as well because it'll help me to feel a little closer to home this Thanksgiving by spending it with a friend from home! Eeeee I can't wait!!!
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| 7 MORE DAYS!!!!!!!! |
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