Away..on Lapland trip!

Hello everyone!

Tomorrow we leave for a 5 day trip to Lapland! I will update my blog with some pictures of the trip when I return...

I wish everyone a wonderful week!

Nadine

Finally an update!

Dear all my lovely friends and family!

Sorry to keep everyone waiting!

I have been back now for a week, but it has been a hectic week and finally I have some time to update my blog. I have also had problems with downloading photos onto my computer so was only able to download today. Here is a quick update on what i have been up to this past week so enjoy...

Slovenian food and chocolate!
On the first Sunday back, Petra made a typical Slovenian meal called Burek for Sunday lunch...YUM! I think she sensed I was missing the Slovenian food already;)










We also made sure to buy some traditional Slovenian chocolate for Marko, as it is his favourite chocolate from back home.










Petra's Basilica lives on!

Before we left for Slovenia, Petra had bought herself a Basilica plant. The leaves are then dried from time to time and used for cooking. The responsibility of the survival of the plant was handed over to our Italian roommate, Elena while we were gone. When we arrived back we had seen that Elena had done an outstanding job at looking after the plant and it had grown quite a bit in the 10 days we were away...

Early Spring in Oulu

Petra and I arrived back to a really much warmer Finland...average temperatures being around 1-3 degrees!
One of the first mornings back we woke up to Oulu covered in snow after it had snowed the whole morning. However that snow quickly disappeared as the days became sunnier and warmer as the week went by.

Our building being "kissed by the sunbeams"...

Tuesday morning after class Daniel and I decided to drive to a place 4km from campus where he could go cross-country ski and I could take a long walk as it was a beautiful Spring day, too good to stay indoors!
Daniel off on his ski's...

I took a nice long walk (1.5hrs) through the forest, taking photos while Daniel was ski-ing.

Away...on holiday in Slovenia!

Dear all my lovely friends!

I am currently away in Slovenia...but I promise this blog will be updated as soon as I return!

Until then...

Nadine

Update!

This week everyone is working hard on finishing their Northern Cultures and Societies essays as well as studing for the Finnish exam which we write on Thursday morning 8:30am. Some people have been more productive than others and have already finished their essays but that is unfortunately not the case for me. However, I have found out that my productivity levels are considerably higher in the library...who would've thought!;) So will be spending a considerable amount of my time there...

Just to give a quick update on what has happened the past couple of days, and over the weekend. On Friday I spent a wonderful afternoon and evening at my Kummi family. We chatted for hours while looking at photos. We also went to the son's "elders ball" where everyone was dressed elegantly in beautiful ball gowns and tuxedos.
Then on Saturday we went into Oulu market place for the ski-jump competition. They had built a snow ramp in the market place of Oulu town especially for the competition which took place from 18:00-19:00.

Sunday 8 of us drove to Kemi to visit the ice-castle. Four of us travelled in Daniel's car and the other four in Patrick's car. It took about 1,5hrs to get to Kemi. The ice-castle was not exactly what we expected (a bit dissapointing) but it was nice to see anyway. There were some impressive ice-sculptures inside castle. The interior temperature was an ice -8 degrees so by the end of our exploration through the castle we retired to a souvenir and coffee shop for some "luke warm" coffee and hot chocolate.
Walking on the Baltic Sea...












Inside the ice-castle...

The ice-bar in Kemi ice-castle...After exploring the ice-castle we drove about 6km to see the ice-breaker, unfortunately we were too late as the ice-breaker was not there anymore when arrived...

On our way back to Oulu we stopped over in town for some coffee and pulla in our second favourite coffee restuarant "cafe bisketti". We have all become very fond of Pulla and try and taste all the different pullas whenever we go out for coffee.

Anti-valentines Party!

We decided to celebrate valentines a bit differently this year...by having an "anti-valentines" party. The rules:
1. Know one was allowed to say the "L" word
2. Know one was allowed to wear the colours pink or red
3. No mentioning of flowers, slices or pulla
4. No mention of the "V" word allowed

Petra and I made pancakes that evening for the party. The ingredients: 15 eggs, 2 litres of milk and 1,5kg...which is the equivalent of about 150 pancakes!!
Petra and Elena (our new roommate from Italy who arrived on Sunday). Petra making pancakes and Elena making dinner.
Paul and Marko making (of what would be one of many...) gin and tonics!

Hmmmmm...strawberry and mayonnaise pancakes! Marko and I trying our new combination...Petra, Lind and Amy...after one too many glasses of wine...Later we moved from mine and Petra's apartment to Marko's and Paul's place...and the party continues...Needless to say, the next day was a bit "tough" after the hectic night especially since we had Finnish survival course at 8:30...

Busy Monday!

I usually have a boring breakfast of toast and margerine, but after spending the whole morning in the laundry room (from 8am-10am), watching and waiting for the clothes to finish washing and drying, Daniel and I decided to make a yummy breakfast of toast, finish bread with egg and tea...as we were starving by the time our laundry was done and we thought we deserved a good breakfast before our 4 hour long "Introduction to Saami culture" lecture that would start at 12:15pm. Just before class I went to the library to search for books that I could use for my Northern Cultures and societies essay. My essay is titled "Finnish Magic" and I will be writing about the history of Finnish folklore, fairytales and witchcraft. I was able to get 5 useful books from the library.

At 6:30 this evening, Marco and Paul pitched up at our flat, pleading to use our kitchen to make dinner- pasta (of course!) with pesto- as their kitchen was being used by tons of people their roommate had invited...of course, Petra and I borrowed them the use of our kitchen.

After dinner was biscuit time again! Marco and I had a new topping for our biscuits that we wanted to try...pesto ...unbelievable as it may sound, it turned out to be a really good combination...YUM!First I tried just a little dab of pesto, to test the combination...so as not to ruin the whole biscuit in case the combination failed.

Marco and I munching on our chocolate-pesto biscuit! Curious to try the combination, Paul joins us with the chocolate pesto tasting session. We still have to find a combination that we do not like...;)



Then during our chocolate-pesto tasting session, Lind arrived with her laptop. She had borrowed the laptop to her roommate and later when she tried to login, it wouldn't let her. Daniel and Wolfi came over to assess the problem. Unfortunately it didn't look like good news...a virus!

The rest of the evening until 10pm, Daniel and Wolfi tried to recover some data and fix the problem. A worried Lind, sitting beside Daniel trying his best to solve the problem.


Wolfi was also called to the rescue...but unfortunately by the end of the evening, the problem had not been solved.

Sunday afternoon coffee and pasta dinner!

This afternoon at 3:30pm we decided try a new coffee place in town called "coffee bisketti" (or something like that...can't exactly remember the name)...anyway, we enjoyed some good coffee/hot chocolate and Pulla. Afterwards I met Sarah and Patrick at "St Michaels"...an Irish pub in town where they were playing live Irish music. It is a really warm cosy pub with a warm friendly atmosphere.
When we arrived back, Marco, Amy, Paul and Daniel came over for dinner...we made our "favourite " pasta a la tomatie...Marco trying to multi-task... dishing out the food while at the same time holding a fork in his mouth (tough task;).












A hungry Amy,Daniel and Paul tucking into their pasta...













For dessert: our favourite Finnish chocolate biscuits with jam!
Marco demonstrates how it is done...
First you spread it...

















Then you eat it...
and don't forget your "bib", in case you mess some jam on yourself (which was the case for Marco...)














Daniel and Paul (evidently still hungry...)