Today I learned about a popular pastime in Finland, one that we don't have in the U.S. It is called suunnistus, and it roughly translates to navigation. Basically you wander around the woods with a map and a compass and you try to find little markers. Mori, Miksu and I ran around the woods for 2 hours finding these little markers and I was so happy. Firstly, there were wild blueberries EVERYWHERE so I ate a million of them and my fingers were stained purple. We found 6 markers out of seven that we looked for. So I thought that was pretty good. Secondly, Fall is in full force here and the trees are all yellow and red, and the forest was absolutely stunning. We wandered through pine groves and maples groves, it was amazing. Thirdly, the weather took a turn about halfway through and it started to ran. Lightly at first and then full on. I cannot describe how happy this made me. I love rain, I love rain in fall, I love wandering around the woods…. It was a good day.
Then, however, I had to walk 25 minutes home in the rain. I was still in high spirits, despite being pretty wet, but then I found out Venla wasn't home. So backstory here… I lost my keys. Yeah. Lost them in Helsinki. This kind of thing usually doesn't happen to me, and I am pretty embarrassed. I think they fell out of my bag on Saturday. Anyway, today was the first day that that was a problem. Venla had said she would be home at 1. It was already 3 and there was no sign of her. I was starting to get cold. All I had was my Co. C hoodie, which was already pretty wet. Neither Venla nor Aatu would answer their phones, and then my phone died at 20%. Probably from the cold. So I sat on the back porch as far away from the wind as possible and read my book. After an hour I started writing my will. “All of my things go to my dogs, Sneakers and Flip Flop.” That didn't take long, so I started writing my goodbye letters to all my friends should I die of hypothermia in the Finnish outdoors. I was outside the house a grand total of 90 minutes. An hour and a half. I was freezing and starving by the time Sari came home and let me in. A hot chocolate, two cups of tea and dinner later, i was feeling a little thawed out when Sari asked if I wanted to go swimming. I thought she was joking. All I wanted to do was sleep on the couch. Instead though, I said yes. And I am glad I did.
At the “swimming hole,” as Finns call them, we swam for a long time. Venla, Aatu and I played tag in the whirlpool. Which was fun, until they started lying about who was it. If you can’t beat em’, join em’ right? So I started lying too. We went in the sauna after swimming and relaxed for awhile. Minor scare as we left, Aada disappeared. We looked everywhere. Turns out she had run straight out the door of the school and was running around on the dark sidewalk that lead to the cars. Once home, I read for and hour, finished my book, and then figured out my schedule for next term, which I will write about later. I am exhausted, it has been a long day. I am gonna sleep well.
ell tonight.