#not to mention another 8 or so boxes of whole dried chiles

[robustcornhusk]

got lids for all the little jars (fucked up and got the wrong number of lids when i bought the jars) (waited 3 years to fix my mistake) so now all the spices can be consolidated into same size containers so they all fit now in the same drawers

[engbergsinfinland]

Hello everyone and happy Saturday!

We had a really nice Saturday. It started with a too-early wake-up (for a weekend, in my opinion), at 7:00, so the kids could get to their ice skating training at 8:15. It was the "far away" rink today (which is actually two rinks, totally underground -- like, a bunker!). But, we got there with plenty of time and they only had a 1-hour session today and it went well.

On the way home, we stopped at the skating shop (also a ballet and gymnastics shop, called Pirouetti) to put in an order for one of the team's skating jackets. I found another one through the WhatsApp group for their skating club; someone was selling one that her child had grown out of.

Once we got home, we had about an hour before we needed to be at a classmate's house, actually two classmates' house: siblings. One is a classmate of Rowan's (Joakim, pronounced sort of like "Yokam") and one who is a classmate of Cece's (Hertta). The kids had been invited the kids over for a hobby-horse race. It turned out that a lot of kids in school have come down with beginning-of-the-school-year cold, so it was just our kids and these two siblings. Eric and I went too, and ended up visiting with the parents the whole time; they were so gracious and wonderful and encouraged us to stay, too. We ended up being there for 4 hours! The parents have lived in the US, in North Carolina, and in China. They returned about 2 years ago. Anyway, the kids did do some hobby-horse jumping in their backyard and then they did other playing in the house -- and candy eating. It seems to be an international phenomenon ;)

After we were at their house, we went to Ikea like to pick up a couple of things: a pan lid, and then (like at Costco, where you just can't seem to leave without many more things than you planned to get) a miscelanous assortment of other items (including a set of four metal sporks for 59 Euro cents).

For, dinner I fed the kids some homemade refried beans and rice, now that I have procured pinto beans from the Mexican grocery in Helsinki! Hallelujah! I also got dried hominy and dried red chiles. There is nary a pinto bean in all of the "Tex Mex" sections of the super-abundant grocery stores in our town or other towns! I have a lot to learn about their impression of what "Tex Mex" cuisine is.

Eric and I went on a walk while with Cece while Rowan read at home. He is trying to finish the Oz series. He's on the last book that we have here, but when Alia comes in about 11 days, she's going to bring the rest of the books, which I'm going to give him for his birthday on September 9th.

There are a few things that Eric and I wanted to be sure we mentioned in this week's post. First, last night we happened upon a television show called Naked Attraction Suomi ("Suomi" is how Finnish people say "Finland," in their language). Apparently, there are other versions in Sweden and Norway. This is the most bizarre television show I've ever seen. It is a dating show with four people standing in obscured boxes where you can see them from the hips down -- and they have no clothes on! The primary contestant and the host are standing facing them, analyzing the naked bodies that they see before them.

The first episode we watched was all in Finnish and had no English subtitles. Eric said, "this is a very weird way to learn Finnish." Haha! Anyway, the bottom line of this show is that, incrementally, the other parts of these naked contestant-bodies are revealed and the main contestant then decides on one person to go on a date with. It is such a weird way to arrange a dating show and I am just not sure whether this would be something that would be viable in the American television marketplace. I can tell you that my inherited Irish Catholic prudishness was very much scandalized by such a television show!

Another thing we wanted to note was that while I was in Helsinki and the kids and Eric were back here, the kids finally got their bikes! They have been thrilled to have them.

As I noted in my last post, I was in Helsinki without the kids and Eric from Tuesday night through Thursday night. The rest of the Fulbright orientation was as exhausting as the first few days, but it was very fulfilling and I am so lucky to have been able to glean all the information from the guest speakers and the Fulbright Finland Foundation staff. We also had many university representatives, government officials, and former Fulbrighters speak to us. The settings for these talks were universities (Hanken School of Business and Aalto University), a very fancy law office (White & Case) that made me say, "wow, we are definite not in a university conference room anymore!," and the national art gallery -- plus other spots. We also had a reception at the US Ambassador's house! It was such an honor to be there, but also exhausting. My face literally hurt after so much looking interested and half-smiling and I was emotionally/mentally taxed afterwards too.

After the orientation wrapped up at Aalto University on Thursday, I went with another Fulbrighter (another Julie! She is at Oulo University this year) to the Mexican grocery, with a few graduate students along for the adventure, and then we also popped into Hakaneimen Market Hall and I went into the Rosebud Bookstore. I have got to get back to Helsinki soon; there are so many places I was hoping to get to this last week while there, but there was absolutely no time.

I will write again on Tuesday -- the day before my teaching starts! I have so much to do before then. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!