Jet lag hit me even worse today. I had a very hard time sleeping last night and ended up just laying there for the better part of 7 hours. I finally fell asleep at around 5:30 and woke up at 9. Sari decided to show me the way to my school, and it only takes about 10 minutes to get there. Less if I biked. Ada came and she decided to bring a blue
balloon from her party the day before. She ran the ahead of us the whole way, and if we ever lost sight of her all we had to do was watch for the blue balloon as it bobbed up and down. Jarno and Aatu came as well and played Basketball at the courts for a few minutes. My school is beautiful, it has white bricks, with cobblestone in the court yard and lots of playgrounds and parks near it. Then we all headed back to the house for Sari’s “Me and I” Clothes party. Her friend came over with the new fall clothing line, and showed it to us. Sari said usually there were 15 other women there, but today there were only 4 of us. After a presentation that was mostly in Finnish, though I picked out a few words, everyone went to try on the clothes. I was very surprised when they all just whipped off their clothes in front of everyone. One thing I have noticed is that Finnish people are very comfortable with their bodies. In fact, it is common in the winter to go into the sauna completely naked. In some public saunas swimming suits are banned. They view their bodies as beautiful, not sexual things and are not afraid of nudity. I took a nap after having lunch with the kids and Jarno, it was a tortilla with yummy chicken in it that Jarno made, and woke up at 3 to go into Helsinki with Sari. Another place I noticed the differences in body image were the advertisements in the Metro, and the shopping malls. Most of them showed regular women, who had regular bodies. It was a welcomed surprise. Sari took me shopping for school supplies, and then we had dinner at a nice restaurant called Memphis. Sari and I talked for a long time about what I want to do when I grow up, and my life back home, and her job. On our way back we stopped at a grocery store and Sari bought me a sparkling pear drink. Which we later drank after the kids went to bed. Sari is encouraging me to help Jarno with his English, as he is not very good at speaking right now. One interesting thing about the weather is that it is common here for it to rain when the sun is shining. It has happened every day I have been here so far, but today I finally saw a rainbow. That's all for now! School starts tomorrow, I’m a little nervous, but mostly just excited!
