PASTA

Last night Daniel, Marko and I decide to make our favourite student dinner... Pasta, of course! It was my turn to cook the meal...

...we have by now, perfected the art of making "Pasta a la tomatie" and I get a thumbs up from both Daniel and Marko...

24th Jan, Wine and friends!

Daniel, Petra and I enjoy a glass of wine while chatting late one evening. We drink a local finish red wine which tastes best cold! Otherwise it doesn't quite taste like wine...

Daniel came up with a new label for the wine...

21st Jan, Kummi family meeting

We finally met our kummi families at a meeting hall in town. Paul, Daniel and I were planning to walk into town but decided to try our luck with hitch-hiking. We did not feel up to walking in icy cold weather for 6km. Luck seemed to be on our side as within 5 min a friendly guy from Macedonia offered us a lift into town. He ended up being a very friendly chef at a Mediterranean restaurant in town called "Olympos". When we arrived in town we still had an hour to spare, so we went into a very cosy pub for a hot chocolate!

I ended up having a wonderful time chatting to my kummi family and they have already said they would take me ski-ing sometime at their cabin up north! Finally I can learn how to ski!!!

In the evening, Wolfi, Daniel, Marko, Paul, and I made "pizza bread" dinner together while looking at all the photos from our hiking weekend. The recipe came from Wolfi's famous housewife recipe book.

Wolfi, making the pizza bread topping...what skill!!

20th-21st Jan, Our "expedition" through Iso Syote National Park!

At 6am, on 20th January we left for a 2day hike through Iso Syote National Park. The hiking team consisted of Marko (Austrian/Slovenian), Daniel (German), Me (Saffie), Wolfie (Austrian) and Paul (Australian).
We started our hike at about 9:30am and the temperature was a mild -8 degrees.
We hiked until lunch time then stopped at a big log cabin for lunch. We were starving and feasted on bread, ham, cheese and hot fruit tea (with loads of added sugar for extra energy!) The cabin was icy cold inside and so we didn't stay for too long...
...from the cabin we hiked through knee deep snow...it is an amazing site seeing so much snow everywhere...the hike was tough as there was no established path through the snow so we had to trek through the deep snow and make our own path...
After about 5hrs of hiking through knee deep snow we finally reached our cabin...it took much longer than expected. We averaged about 1.5km per hour because of the deep snow and were tired and hungry and relieved to get to the cabin. The last 2 hrs we hiked in the dark as the sun had set but luckily we were well equipped with headlamps and torches. We quickly lit a fire in the cabin to warm up.. Before dinner we feasted on biscuits, salami and cheese...Marko invented a "Choc-biscuit-salami-cheese" combo, which him and me ended up eating the rest of the time before dinner. It is a really good combination...hard to believe, i know...but try it! Wolfie and Daniel were not convinced and stuck to the non-combo biscuit...Then later on we feasted on pasta with pesto! We were to find out after our return to Oulu, that it was -28 degrees that evening! In the cabin we slept on "comfy" wooden planks.

Day 2: We started our hike with a beautiful sunrise...but it was an icy cold -24 degrees and our faces were frozen as we hiked...all the hairs sticking out from my beanie were white and even my scarf was frozen! We hiked for most of the day and at sunset we arrived back at the ski center where we all enjoyed and gulped down 2/3 cups of hot chocolate! We were all sad to leave beautiful Iso syote but were eager to get back for dinner as we were starving by the end of our hike!

We decided to go out for pizza when we got back to Oulu, at a pizzeria (called Babel) about 3min walk from out apartment. Everyone else, who didnt go on the hike joined us for pizza to hear how our hike was. This pizzeria makes THE biggest pizza's I have ever seen, and I ate up all of it becuase I was so hungry! So finally with full satisfied tummy's we all fell into bed for a much deserved sleep!

17th Jan, Ice-skating

We have two outdoor ice-rinks about 5minutes walk from our apartment. At 7pm a group of us decided to go ice-skating..it was a chilly evening but the ice-skating warmed us up!

In the photo is me, Daniel, Alicia, Francesca (Italian), Antonie (French) and a German girl.

17th Jan, Lunch on campus

We often go for lunch at one of the many restaurants on campus. The meals are very cheap for students and there is usually an option of 3 or 4 different choices one can choose from. A salad bar is always provided at no extra cost. This time we went to "Snellmania" and for 2,15 euros I ate some yummy fish in a creamy roasted almond sauce, bread and spread, salad, milk(Finns drink milk with everything!) and water. In the photo, Petra, Lind (from Iceland), Wolfie, Michelle and Daniel join me for lunch.

14th Jan, Daniel's birthday!

The first of us to have a birthday was Daniel. Petra, Wolfi, Marko, Sarah, Daniel and I all got together for breakfast at our place. After breakfast, at 11am, we took a 2hr walk to the "beach"...

On the way, Wolfi was brave enough to try the local "fufi slide"...


The sea was frozen of course...

After two hours we were so cold that we decided to walk to our favourite local coffee hangout "Coffee house" for something warm to drink.
We finally got back to Yliopistokatu (home sweet home) at 4pm, then Sarah, Patrick and I started preparing the birthday meal for Daniel's birthday party. The kitchen was "out of bounds" to the birthday boy, as it was supposed to be a surprise...Daniel only new what we were having for dessert as he was providing that part of the meal.
The surprise meal...Honey mustard curried chicken!!!!

For dessert..."Heisse Liebe" with a delicious apple cake that Barbara and Jakob had baked.

We ended up partying until the early hours of the morning...enjoying orange and vodka cocktails and very good German wine that Daniel had brought with from Germany...

13th Jan, Reception at the Oulu townhall.

On Friday evening we were invited to Oulu Townhall by the Mayor of Oulu for a reception to welcome all the exchange students to Oulu. We heard from previous exchange students that we could expect a free buffet dinner and drinks (alcoholic and non)...so naturally, we were very excited! The dinner consisted of platters of funny fish terrine, cold turkey, salads, bread and spreads. Very "interesting food"...you can't expect anything less from the Finnish!


We first mingled and chatted, looking hungrily at the food. We were then welcomed by the director of the Townhall and then we proceeded with dinner...


At the end of the evening I got to practice my public speaking skills, as Joanna (head of international relations) asked me to say a short thank-you speech on behalf of all the exchange students to the director at the end of the evening...
I was very nervous about speaking in front of so many people in the beginning but after consuming some champagne and wine my nerves "miraculously" disappeared...;)

After the reception a big group of us went out to a nearby coffee place and chatted the night away about issues from "how to make a proper tiramisu" to comparing the "political issues in South Africa, Italy and Germany".

8 Jan, Orientation Day

On Monday we had our first day of orientation. All the exchange students had to meet at the main cafeteria on campus and we were welcomed with strong Finnish coffee and a Finnish sweet bread role thing called "Pula"...then for the rest of the day different people spoke to us about the different services and courses that we can take and what we can expect. At the end of our orientation we went on a campus tour with our kummi's. A group of us ended up going with Petra's kummi student (Heikki) because our kummi students were not available. Afterwards Wolfi (Austrian exchange student) suggested a group of us make dinner together.

That evening, after shopping for pasta ingredients my new friends (Daniel-Germany, Wolfi-Austrian, Alicia-North Carolina, Emmanuelle-Germany, Petra-Slovenia, Michelle-North Carolina) and I made (of what would be a first of MANY), pasta dinners in our apartment.
Wolfi and Petra (our two chefs for the evening), preparing the pasta noodles...
Everyone is eager to "tuck into" the food...
YUMMMY Pasta!
After pasta, we make Maritini's with sugar. A good ending to our first dinner together! Sarah and Patrick (two German exchange students) were kind enough to provide the beverage.
After Pasta and Martini's, it is "Uno/Solo" time...Daniel, brought with some uno cards and we play, what I consider "extreme uno"...will have to explain the rules sometime to clarify...anyway, we had lots of fun!

6th Jan, More walking...

On Sunday morning, Petra and I decided to walk to Pyykosjarvi Lake. The moon was still up and the sun was starting to rise. Once we got to the Lake we saw that it was only 4.9km to Oulu city centre, so we decided to walk into town. On our way back we got a bit lost and had to ask a local on a bicycle to direct us...with my lack of direction, this was bound to happen!;)

We ended up walking for 3hrs and we were starving by the time we get back...it was a wonderful stroll, none the less...it gave Petra and I a chance to learn about each others backgrounds...

5th Jan, My new roommate arrives!

On Friday finally one of my roommates arrive. Petra (exchange student from Slovenia) and I hit it off immediately and the next day we go for a long walk (1,5hrs) to the lake again to explore some more! It is a beautiful day and a beautiful sunrise (about 10am) accompanies our walk. We also walk to a nearby town and take lots and lots of photos. I am tempted to take photos at every corner...have become quite trigger happy!:) The sunbeams glisten through the dense forest and everything looks magical and beautiful!

Thurs 5th Jan, Downtown Oulu...

Emmanuelle and I exploring Downtown Oulu!


My first week in Oulu I meet a Belgium exchange student and we decide to take a bus to downtown Oulu. Unfortunately the weather isn't favourable as it is raining and bitter cold, especially when we walk to the lake in town. But we are still able to explore the area.




We walk past the Oulu Chapel as well as Oulu townhall and the famous Oulu policeman statue. By lunchtime we are starving and we go into an indoor market where we enjoy a sandwich and coffee.

Winter wonderland

The next morning my kummi student fetches me and we go to the University of Oulu. I move into my new home: Yliopistokatu 16 as 310, 90570 Oulu. I am one of the first exchange students to arrive and so have my apartment all to myself. The first place I get to know well is the library and for the rest of the week I use the internet facilities there to email and chat with everyone back home...assuring everyone I have arrived safely in the northern hemisphere;)

During the week I take a nice long walk to a lake nearby, about 10 minutes walk from my apartment...its amazing I don't get lost, knowing my bad sense of direction! I walk to a nearby town and take some photos, everything is covered by a think blanket of snow!
The temperature is about -3 degrees, rather "warm" for Oulu, this time of year...so I'm told! But I am not complaining...it is cold enough for me!

Some facts about Oulu:
- it is a city and municapality of about 130,000 inhabitants
- in the province of Oulu and the region of Northern Ostrobothnia, in Finland.
- It is the largest and most important city in Northern Finland and
- the sixth largest city in the country.