My Life after University

Pura Vida...

2010-02-20T12:32:00.000-08:00

...is the name of my new blog. I moved all my blog entries from Costa Rica to http://puravidabine.blogspot.com. From now on I will only post on this one. So, go and check it out!
Or you might also want to check out my webpage: www.binegirl.de.tl.

Travelling alone in Costa Rica and Panama? No, thanks!

2009-12-02T14:09:00.000-08:00

Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica (the town where my new workplace is) is about 240 km away from Boquete, Panama. However, it took me about 7 hours to get there: quite normal for Central American standards.
Luckily, the first 180 km I could hitch a hike with my boss from Isla Verde. She and her friend were going to Bocas del Toro and they dropped me off in Almirante where I waited for the bus to Changuinola. However, I had forgotten that the tiny bus station of ugly Almirante is full of little annoying boys who are just too happy to help you with your luggage (for money, of course) and how are there to persuade rich-looking tourists to take the taxi instead of the bus. I hated the fact that they always went really close by my luggage and wanted to carry it for me because in two of my three bags I carried quite a bit of money. The rest was hidden somewhere on my body! :-P However, I was stubborn and waited for the bus. When I arrived in Changuinola I paid $1 extra because I had such a big suitcase. I think that was quite unfair because all the Panamanians carried huge bags of oranges, rice or potatoes, but none of them paid extra. Why do people here always think that blonde girls are super rich? And when I tell them that I just earn as less as they do because I get an Panamanian salary, they don’t believe me!
From Changuinola I wanted to take a taxi to the border of Costa Rica. I read in my travel book that it should cost about $5, but I also know that I always get an extra (high) price for looking like a tourist. So, when I asked a taxi driver he wanted $8. I tried to get him down to $6, but he didn’t want to. But instead he told me about a bus to the border which would only cost $1. I thought that was very nice of him, so I smiled, thanked him and looked for the bus. It turned out the bus was even less than $1!
At the border it was a hard fight with my luggage. Since I’ll be travelling for nearly 2 years in total, I have a lot of stuff. The first challenge was to get up the stairs. But only a second after I tried to lift my heavy suitcase myself, I had a Panamanian guy helping me. I looked at him and asked in Spanish: “Is it for free?” But he just grinned. However, once we were up the stairs, I grabbed my suitcase really fast and told him that now I would not need any more help. I, of course, didn’t give him any money. As I told you: I only get a Panamanian salary and that is not enough for paying extra tips! After I had my stamp from the Panamanian side of the border, I went into the direction of the Costa Rican side. And just before I came to the bridge, there were a lot of people yelling out that it would only cost $5 for me to let them carry my luggage over the other side. I very soon found out why they offered that service: The bridge consisted out of a few wooden blanks which were pilled on top of each other and pulling my suitcase over them turned out to be nearly impossible. On the very side of the bridge there was a little sidewalk which was made out of rusting metal. I couldn’t quite decide which one was less dangerous, but decided to take the rusty side (although nobody else did) because it was easier to pull my suitcase there. However, I nearly ripped my jacket open at a rusty part that was sticking out from the fencing!

But once on the other side, I got into Costa Rica without problems. Now I only had to wait for another bus. Both border towns, Guabito (on the Panamanian side) and Sixaola (on the Costa Rican side) looked exactly the same, except for the fact that the Costa Rican side only had a gravel road and not a paved road like in Panama. The bus took much longer to get to Puerto Viejo than I thought. (It looked so short on the map.) However, once I was in Puerto Viejo, it was easy to get a taxi to the hotel and there I was greeted by two very friendly Costa Rican receptionists. One of them, Raymundo, brought me straight to my apartment which is in the middle of the jungle (I can hear the holler monkeys every morning and I check for scorpions before I put on my shoes.), but not too far from the hotel. I turned out that half of the employees of the hotel live in my block of apartments and I feel a bit like being in summer camp.

Some Thoughts about Panama:

2009-12-02T14:06:00.000-08:00

Since I have now left Panama, I thought I jot down some things that are weird, different or special about Panama:

- It’s OK to walk along the street with an uncovered machete in your hand. (Try that in Germany and you’ll end up in prison right away.)
- You always have some extra inhabitants in your house, may it be cockroaches or lizards. I myself shared a room with my colleague, a lizard (I have never seen it myself, but heard how it was making it’s specific sound and I saw how the cat tried to catch it.), some really big spiders and a lot of other big ugly bugs. In Bocas del Toro my sister and I also had a lizard as a roommate and once he walked over my bed sheets while I was sleeping under them. Although I’m not scared of lizards, it wasn’t exactly a nice experience!
- The closer you get to Costa Rica, the worse are the streets. (The presence of the Americans in Panama until not too long ago helped the infrastructure quite a bit. However, the Americans have never occupied Costa Rica.)
- Daily electricity blackouts were normal; mostly just for a few minutes though. If there hadn’t been one in two or three days, you would start to wonder what was wrong.
- And I think due to those many blackouts, the electric devices started to go crazy. Because in quite a few roundhouses of the hotel and also in the main house, the TV’s would suddenly turn on although there hadn’t been a blackout right before. Sometimes that scared me quite a bit!

Location, Location, Location

2009-11-08T07:29:00.000-08:00

I've just realized that most of you probably don't know where exactly in Panama I am or where I'll be living in Costa Rica. So, that's why I stole a map from Googlemaps and highlighted a few places.
Boquete is the place where I have worked for the past two and a half months. Las Lajas and Bocas del Toro are the places where I spent my vacations. And Puerto Viejo is the place where I will work for the next 3 months.

Time to Go!

2009-11-07T12:23:00.001-08:00

A break-in at one of the hotel apartments, floodings in Boquete and partly of our house and continuuous rain: time to leave Panama and go to Costa Rica!
Well, those are, of course, not the reasons for me to leave. The real reasons are having to do with
- my boss with whom I live together and I don't have a good relationship with
- the fact that the house I live in is the hotel reception at the same time and I have the feeling that I can never relax
- not having my own room
- having too many rules in that house....
I simply feel too restricted. I like the work here, but I just don't feel comfortable here and I can't be myself.
I have lived together with many people and families and so far I've never had problems. But I know that some people just can't get along well and if there's no chemistry, then I think it's the best to change location.
Of course, not everything is bad. Boquete is small, but you always have somewhere to go to on weekends. I love the two dogs and the cat. And I found out that the Rottweiler is just like me: we both can be very dramatic! :-P
I'll be going to a super expensive hotel close to Puerto Viejo and close to a beach. I'm excited to see who and what is awaiting me there!

Our own Coffee

2009-11-07T11:36:00.000-08:00

Richard, a friend and neighbor of Isla Verde, invited us to his coffee tour. And his tours are special because you can roast your own coffee. I still don't know much about coffee although it was my second tour already, but I can tell you that much: If you barely roast your coffee, it will taste a bit more like lemon. If you roast your coffee really dark, it mostly just tastes bitter. So, we decided to do a medium roast and Ina, my sister, did the roasting. That and what I already wrote in my older blog entry about coffee is about as much as I know, so enjoy the pictures! :-P

Surrounded by Water

2009-11-07T09:17:00.000-08:00

After Las Lajas we went to Bocas del Toro; probably the most touristy place in Panama. It consists of several islands in the Atlantik.
Although it's only about 200 km away from Boquete, it took us forever to get there. To get to the other side you have to take a bus that goes over some very high mountains and for only $7 you get 5 hours of excitement because the bus doesn't slow down because of tight curves. It was like a rollercoaster ride without the safety precautions.
However, the fun was not over after the bus ride. To get to the islands, you have to take a speed boat from Almirante. My sister really wasn't a fan of it, but I loved it! :-P By the way, Almirante (the town where the boats leave from) is the ugliest town I've seen in Panama so far.

When we arrived on Isla Colon during the early evening hours, we were a bit surprised to see Bocas Town so empty: we even saw vultures. However, we later found out that Bocas is a party town and before 9 pm at night nobody is out on the streets.

The hotel room we had booked surprised us in a positive way though. My boss had said that found it too sterile. But to be honest, if I have my own computer, a fridge, a flatscreen-TV with English channels, hot showers with good water pressure (Have I told you that so far I haven't had a hot shower at the hotel where I work? On good days, the water is luke warm. But of course, our guests always have hot water. :-/), and airconditioning in a room, it can be as tasteless as cardboard and I will still enjoy it. Especially when it's as cheap as this room was.

In general I really liked Bocas although it's very hot and humid, pretty run down in some parts and everything is even slower than in Boquete. There was just one big downside: There are no good beaches close to Bocas Town. You always have to take a bus or water taxi to the beaches and they charge very high prices for tourists. (That was the one beach that was close to Bocas Town, ugly and full of garbage. But wait: The nice beaches will come.)

On our first day we decided to take a water taxi to the small island of Carenero. It's the closest to the island of Colon and we were hoping to find a good beach there. Although the taxi driver of the boat told us in which direction the beach is, I prefered to at first look around the island. However, it turned out that this island is only pretty on one side. On the other side you are walking through slums where the huts don't have a sewage system. But some of them had electricity and an antenna for TV on the roof. But once you've crossed the slums, you came to very rich houses built by an US-American firm and very beautiful places. We found out that you can't walk all around the island. So we had to go back through the slums to find the beach. I like walking and discovering new and sometimes not so pretty places, but I think that my sister didn't really like our little trip into the slums and the jungle! :-P

On our third day we went on a snorkeling trip. And surprise, surprise: There was a really cute Panamanian snorkeling guide with us! :-P At first we went to Dolphin Bay and were looking for some dolphins. We even saw some, but it turns out: taking pictures of fast-moving animals is not easy. I think I got one picture where you can see a tiny bit of a fin! Snorkeling was fun though. They still have really nice reefs...and some dead ones already. Unfortunately, the first snorkeling ground was full of jellyfish and although most of them didn't sting, it was still a bit of a pain to avoid them. The next place where we snorkeled was without jellyfish and also very pretty. There was just one thing that bothered me: Right after I had jumped into the water, something really big passed by me. Since I can't wear my glasses in water and had forgotten to take my contacts with me, I couldn't see what it was. But it might have been a shark; one of the not dangerous ones though. Nethertheless, t did unnerve me a bit! And one of the stops on that tour was at a very pretty beach. But there was a downside of it, too: sandflies...ouch!!! Unfortunately, I don't have an underwater camera, so no pictures from pretty fish! :-(

Later that day we decided to go out. There are always bars on the island that have ladies night. And at the first bar which was built over a sunken ship, we met the cute snorkeling guide. It turns out that he is from Boquete, has lived in Germany (Berlin) before and will go back there in August. He confinced us to go to another bar on another island which also had ladies night. The water taxi right in the dark and in a way too full boat was more adventurous and safe. The other bar was full of US-American marines and the snorkeling guide felt kinda out of place. However, I fixed my sister up with some of the marines and went somewhere else with the cute guide! :-P
The next day my sister was so hung over that on the ride to Boca del Drago, a beach on Isla Colon, she got sick. I was doing fine though! :-P Boca del Drago is full of starfish...really cool!

Our last day we finally spent at the beach of Isla Carenero which was a very good choice because it barely had any sandflies.

All in all, it was a very nice trip with lots of mosquito bites. On our adventurous bus ride back we had a flat tire, but Panamanians are so used to it that it was exchanged quickly.

Windows are Good!

2009-11-04T13:51:00.001-08:00

My sister came to visit me in Panama. And our first stop was Las Lajas, a 13 km long beach on the Pacific side.
Eva, my boss, recommended that we stay with a German couple that has a bar at the beach. The rooms are very cheap, only 5$ per night per person. And since I didn't want to spent much money, I liked the idea. However, when we arrived we were a bit confused about the definition of "a room". It was on top of the bar and it didn't have any windows. I didn't mind that it only had a mattress and otherwise very simple furniture. But with the location being directly at the beach, the "room" was incredibly sandy. The sand was just everywhere: in the bed, in our bags, on our skin.... The owners of the bar also didn't have any windows in their room. I mean, it was kinda fun to live so close to the nature and beach for 2 nights, but I doubt that I would like to live like that for 2 years.

Well, the view was georgeous though, the Pacific warm and the beach empty. So far I haven't seen a crowded beach in Panama.

During the weekend we were there, the German couple had organized a Oktoberfest with tyical music and food. The food was absolutely delicious, especially after not having had German food for nearly 2 months! And since my sister lives in Munich and has been to the Oktoberfest many times, she taught me the funny dances to the typical music: the dances are so easy because you also have to be able to do them after 4 litres of beer. However, the Panamanian guests of the bar were quite shocked when they saw us dance. I guess, they don't know what fun is.

That was hot!

2009-10-03T18:24:00.001-07:00

The next day, Dania, Sofia (my new collegue) and I went to the hot springs in Caldera. Those springs are natural hot springs which are heated up by the volcanic activity in this area.
After walking/hiking on bad roads and knee-deep mud, we saw the the hot water pools which were fenced in by stones. You could see some air bubbles filled with sulfur coming up, but it didn't smell bad at all, fortunately. And they have their name for a reason: they are really hot...nearly too hot to bear. After a few minutes in the water and a ton of photos, our faces were all red and we were ready to jump into the cold river close by.

Unfortunately, we had to go back after only two hours because we had given the taxi driver a certain time to be back. We didn't know that it would be so cool and relaxing. But Sofia and I already agreed that we'll go back soon and next time we will have lots of time because we will hitchhike.

Crazy girls!

2009-10-03T18:14:00.000-07:00

I decided to show Dania the Pipeline Trail in Bajo Mono.

Unfortunately, I couldn't borrow any car, so we had to take the taxi and told them to be back at a certain time because in Bajo Mono the phones have absolutely no reception.

We were both really excited to have a shower under the waterfall, but since it wasn't very sunny, we very soon found out that the water was way too cold to go down all the way. Since we still had a lot of time before the taxi would pick us up, we had a crazy idea and took the most amazing pictures ever. But I can't show them to you! :-P

On our way back, we decided to go back down and walk along another trail for a while because we still had lots of time.But then it started to rain. At first it was just a drizzle, but then it rained heavely and, of course, we didn't have an umbrella or a rain jacket. We couldn't even find any shelter under the trees either and a few minutes later we were completely soaked. But then we found an old greenhouse which at least gave us some shelter from the rain. So, we sat down, covered ourselves with towels and ate cheetos while waiting for the rain to stop or the time to pass. However, the rain didn't stop and we started to freeze. But then we saw something really funny, well...actually something cool. Some indigenous people passed and they had natural umbrellas: huge leaves...very smart!

Fortunately, the taxi was on time and we were so glad to be taken back to the dry house!

We never made it to the hot springs...

2009-09-30T17:35:00.001-07:00

Dania had met an American family who wanted to take her to the hot springs of Caldera. She told me about them and said that I could come along.
At 10 am we took the bus in the direction of David to get off at a gated community where that American family was living. After about an hour, everybody was finally organized and we went to Caldera. There we went to a hotel resort in the mountains to meet some more Americans. This resort had a pool and we spent a lot of time there.

There seemed to be a case of miscommunication because Dania had thought that we would go straight to the hot springs and would be back by afternoon, so that I could work from 3 pm on. However, the Americans planned on spending the whole day there until 8 or 9 pm. But they were really nice and promised me to bring me back to the main road to catch a bus to be at work in time.
But the hot springs were about 4 km away from that resort and nobody wanted to drive us there because they said it was too hot to walk the remaining 500 m up the hill to the springs. Instead we decided to find a waterfall close to the resort. But after trying out several trails which all ended in dead ends, we gave up.
By that time, it was already time for me to go home. But on the way we wanted to stop at another waterfall. This time we found it and it was very beautiful and the water was refreshing and clean. When it was 3.30 pm I made the Americans drive me to the main road to Boquete.

However, catching a bus in Panama is not so easy because they don't have set schedules. And after waiting for 40 minutes, I finally made it into an overcrowded bus. Since there weren't any seats left, I stood in the aisle (how I would do it in Germany as well). But then a woman moved over and pushed the person beside here even further towards the window so that I could sit down. I was surprised because most Panamanian women are not very friendly towards blonde girls. But then I realized that only men were standing in the bus and that all the women got offered a seat. I guess, in Panama girls don't stand up in buses.
At 5 pm I was finally at the hotel...only 2 hours late!!! I was glad that I had already called in at noon that I would be late because I knew that Americans would never bring me back in time.

And I thought there was no nightlife!!!

2009-09-30T16:48:00.000-07:00

After about a month in Boquete, I finally managed to go out. Why so late, you might ask? Well, before I didn't have a collegue and although I could have called in a replacement for the late shift, I don't feel comfortable enough to go out alone in Boquete as a blond girl.
But Sabine has always told me that there is not much of a nightlife in Boquete because during the week the bars close at 10 o'clock.
After meeting Dania, a girl from Israel, at the office of Boquete Outdoor Adventures, we immediately became friends because she was travelling alone and I don't know much people here who are my age. In the afternoon we went for a walk with the dogs and for the night we planned on going for a beer. She collected a few more people who stayed at the hostel with her and we went off to Zansibar. We tried to get Jim (the owner of Boquete Outdoor Adventures) to come with us, but his excuse was that he has to repair his fridge...how lame!
I ordered a Long Island Iced Tea which turned out to be very strong and as a groupe we smoked two shishas (water pipes). After three more beers and a shot, I was pretty drunk. However, the other people in the group had met some Panamanians who knew a bar which would be open after 10 pm. So, we squeezed into a car (having 4 people on the back seat), were driven to Romero (the 24-hour grocery store) because the guys wanted to get some cigarettes and then we parked in the back of a building which didn't have any lights on the way to the entrance. To get inside you had to know somebody who knows the bar because before you were let in, they checked the faces through a camera. Inside there was a pool table, the drinks were cheap, and it was smoky. But I didn't really feel like any more drinks, so I just talked to various guys (mostly Panamanians). At 2 am I decided that it was time to go home because I knew I would have to get up at 7 in the morning. But when I left the bar, I realized that I didn't really know where I was. Furthermore, it was foggy and it night, everything looks different anyway. So, after going into the wrong direction for a few minutes, I recognized a restaurant figured out that I would have to turn around. It turned out that this secret bar was quite close to the hotel. But I still had one more obstacle to overcome: I have never before tried to unlock the door to my room because I always came through the main door of the hotel. It turned out that unlocking the door was much impossible and by the time my collegue woke up, the lock was so jammed up that she had to open the main door for me. (The next morning I again tried to unlock the door and was glad to see that it still wasn't possible although I was completely sober! :-P Then I practiced with Migdalia, our cleaning lady, a bit and now I can open that door in much shorter time.)

Flying from tree to tree!

2009-09-23T15:32:00.001-07:00

The last free tour I did was with Boquete Tree Trek. They are having canopy tours or you may call it zipline tours.

After a very bumpy ride on benches in the loading area of a truck up into the mountains, they tied us into some kind of climbing equipment. Then we had to survive another bumpy ride even further into the mountains and finally you could see the ropes which were hanging between the trees. All in all, the tree trek is about 3 km long and the longest rope is 410 m long. It definitely was a lot of fun although on one rope I didn't manage to break and crashed into the tree. But luckily it was padded! One of the girls in our group was afraid to go on her own, so one of the guides always went with her: he was her so-called taxi. Unfortunately, it was a bit rainy that day and I even started to freeze a bit. However, it's definitely worth doing!

PS. A little shaky tour through downtown Boquete:

Just buying the suncreen is not enough to prevent the sunburn...you also have to apply it!

2009-09-14T14:52:00.001-07:00

This Saturday I went to an island called Boca Brava with Guillermo.
This time he picked me up much earlier and we went straight to a village called Boca Chica where you can get a water taxi to the island and we told the capitain of the boat to pick us up at 2 pm again.

We walked through little paths in the jungle to get to a lonely beach where the water was very smooth and you did not have to fight with strong currents. Due to the walk I was quite sweaty and was looking for a refreshing moment in the Pacific. But when I walked it, I immediately was disappointed: The water was neither cristal clear, nor cool; it was luke warm and did not refresh me. So, I didn't stay long in the water, but grabbed my book and read and read and read! When I looked up, I saw that all around us was a lot of movement: all kinds of crabs were going after their daily business of looking for food. And it turned out to be a lot of fun chasing them around the beach! :-P And we've even heard howler monkeys in the jungle.

Although it was very cloudy that day, it was still warm and I really enjoyed the beach. But since it was cloudy, I thought that I wouldn't need any sunscreen. However, I was wrong: now I have sunburns on both of my feet and knees and around my belly...ouch! It still surprises me how strong that Panamanian sun can be.

At 2 pm we waited at the pier for our water taxi. Well, Panamanians are always late, so we knew that we would have to wait a bit. But when at 2.15 the taxi still wasn't there, we called another taxi over that just came by. Back in Boca Chica we met the taxi driver of the boat who was supposed to pick us up, but he didn't look like he had a bad conscience because he had forgotten us.

We had been planning to eat something in Boca Chica. But on our way to the only restaurant in the village we met an American lady with three Panamanians who told us that the food was terrible there. So, we decided to eat Playa de Las Lajas, a very long beach.
On our way to Las Lajas it rained and now you can see how a very long empty beach looks like during rainy season. However, I bet it's amazing when the sun is shining.

PS. That's how it looks like when I am chasing crab!

Counting my bruises!

2009-09-14T11:24:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday I went white water rafting again with Boquete Outdoor Adventures.
I have to say that I liked this tour a bit better than the one before. Somehow everything was more relaxed and Jim, the owner of the company (who came with us in his safety kayak) seems to be a cool guy, especially because he has a waterproof camera (so all the pictures are from him)!
However, the tour in general was similar: it was on the same river, we saw the same animals, and the lunch was similar. But instead of squeezing 6 people into one boat, they had two boats with 3 people plus guide each. I liked the extra space although it does involve a bit more work while paddling. The guides spoke better English and gave better commands and this time we didn't lose anybody. But I have a few new bruises anyway: one on my knee because the guy beside me hit me with his paddle and a few on my side because I was flying around in the boat again! And the transport to the river was a bit different: Instead of sitting on the loading area of a pick up, we all stood in the loading area of a cattle transporter; it must have looked very funny!

However, Panama Rafters was also on the river today and I felt a bit weird when the owner of this company saw me going with another operator this time. But I guess, it doesn't matter so much because they all know each other and the three boats (two from Boquete Outdoor Adventures and one from Panama Rafters) stayed together all the time anyway. Panama Rafters didn't even have his own safety kayak this time. I guess, Jim was responsible for them as well.
At the end, Jim bought a round of beers and we had them on our way back to Boquete. People who buy me alcohol always get extra points! :-P
So, I guess that I'd most likely recommend Boquete Outdoor Adventures, especially because they have the rafting tour nearly every day (more often than Panama Rafters) and because they have lots of other tours as well (island beach day, kajaking, hiking...). I might get to do the beach day next week! :-)

PS. At first I was in the second row of the boat and later on in the first.

Scared by a bird!

2009-09-11T15:46:00.000-07:00

On the outskirts of Boquete, there is an animal rescue center called Paradise Gardens.
Before I went, I had checked their webpage and knew that they are asking for a donation of $5. But when I went there and talked to the people who run that place and mentioned that I’m from a hotel and want to see that place because I want to recommend it to my guests, they ensured me that I would not have to pay anything. However, I still gave them a donation because I think it’s a great idea.
It’s not a huge place, but a lot of fun. The first few cages included monkeys: tamarins and capuchins. The capuchins were trying to steal my jewellery and the tamarins would come really close to the fence to be pet. In the bird house I was attacked by a toucan. I’ve never really been a bird person and this one really freaked me out because he followed me everywhere! Then they had some really beautiful and huge parrots and cockatoos. The Margay cat was hiding, but at least the ant eater and jaguarondi said hello!

I think it’s a really nice place and worth going to although it’s not a zoo with thousands of different species.

Telling the difference!

2009-09-11T15:28:00.000-07:00

Most people know that I’m not a big fan of coffee. I drink it about once a week and preferable with lots of extra stuff in it, e.g. milk, cream, sugar and or caramel, vanilla flavour….
However, here in Boquete we have lots of coffee plantations and a few of the companies offer coffee tours. And since I work at the hotel and my guests always ask me which one I could recommend, I went on the coffee tour of Cafè Ruiz.
Our guide belonged to one of the indigenous groups of Panama, the Ngobe-Buble, who even today work on coffee plantations as pickers and speak a completely different language. But of course, our guide spoke Spanish and very good English (surprising for a Panamanian). And I learned quite a lot of coffee. For example, Panama is one of the smallest coffee producers, but one of the best because one of the kind they grow is called Geisha and cost about $200 per pound. I also learned that coffee beans are red when they are picked and not brown and that the coffee fields of the expensive brand are not planted row by row, but with lots of other trees in between and kinda chaotic-looking! :-P

When we went into the packing and roasting area, we all had to wear funny hats and coats and we all looked as ridiculous as our guide.

All in all the tour took about 3 hours and at the end, we got to taste coffees with three different roasting stages and even I could tell a difference. The European roast (the lightest kind) tastes fruity and a bit like lemon. The Latin roast tastes a bit like chocolate. And the Italian roast (the darkest kind; nearly burned) tastes really bitter.
But although the real coffee growers make fun of places like Starbucks because they use a very cheap kind of coffee and change the taste through all the extra ingredients, it’s still my favourite place to get coffee! :-P

That's how Robinson Crusoe must have felt like!

2009-09-07T09:56:00.000-07:00

I spent my weekend on an island. It was in a very curious location because on one side it was surrounded by a river and on the other by the Pacific.
Guillermo (Eva's accountant) has a house on this island. But the house does not have electricity or running water yet and although I had always refused to spend a weekend in a summer cottage without electricity and running water in Finland, I wanted to go to this island anyway because I have never before been swimming in the Pacific.
After Guillermo picked me up, I realized how different Germans and Panamanians can be. When a German takes you somewhere, everything is already prepared: food is bought, the gas tank filled and you go directly to the place. Well, Guillermo picked me up at 11 am. Then we went to David to a gym to see the child of a friend of him fighting taekwondo. After that we went to a grocery store and I was supposed to choose the food. Everybody who knows me knows how picky I can get with food. And going to a grocery store alone is hard enough for me. I stand in the aisles forever and try to find out what I might like to eat today or tomorrow. The easiest thing is to just put a plate in front of me and then I might eat something. After shopping, we went to Guillermo's office so that he could check his e-mails, then we changed cars and then we filled the tank of the car. So, at 2 pm we were finally on our way to the coast. After 10 km of gravel road we arrived at a rather broken pier and muddy-looking river water. The boat that was supposed to pick us up wasn't there yet and Guillermo explained that the guy with the boat was always late.

However, by 3 pm we had crossed the river which also inhabits crocodiles and we were at the island. I had a beer, spend some time reading my book in a hammock and then we went for a walk and collected a certain kind of seed which is called ojo de buey (ox eye). You can give it to a friend and that is supposed to bring him/her good luck. Eva has given me one as well and I have about 13 ox eyes to give away. But Guillermo has found many more.

The island is very pretty and the beach would have been all to myself. However, here in Panama it gets dark at 6.30 pm already and the current was so strong that it was impossible to go swimming.

The night was nearing and Guillermo and one of the two guys who live on the island set up a mosquito tent to sleep in. The mosquitoes on this island were horrible; they ate me alive and they did not seem to be too repelled by all that mosquito repellent I had put on my skin. I just hope that Eva was right when she told me that mosquitos here do not transmit malaria. (All the travel guides of Panama say that it is a malaria region.)

The night was hot and short because the cocks starting crowing at 6 am. We slept on the floor and I think I had stolen the camping mat from Guillermo. There was a big bag in the mosquito tent and it included that mat and since I wasn't sure that Guillermo would also sleep ustairs, I just took it because I have too much back trouble already for sleeping on the floor. I also kind of did not realize that I experienced my first two earthquakes over there. The house had a wooden floor and if you run or walk really fast along it, it moves and makes lots of noise. So, when at night I felt something move and heard some noise, I just thought that one of the guys is running around the house. However, as Guillermo told me in the morning it was two small earthquakes.
The next day I was longing for a warm shower, but I wasn't so keen on the jungle shower (water coming down from a big barrel) and since I continued sweating right away, it didn't matter so much after all. However, what I didn't like so much is that I had the feeling that I could never really get my hands clean there. I wash my hands fairly often: after petting the dogs, before and after preparing food, after using the bathroom (of course), after having been outside, after not having them washed for a while... And although they had water and soap there, my hands always seemed to be dirty and sweaty! :-/
On our way back we had to cross the river during low tide which turned out to be a bit difficult. At one point we all had jump into the river and pull the boat through 10 cm high water.

To get to the pier Guillermo always uses his old 4-wheel drive which doesn't have any doors, side mirrors or a rear-view mirror and the tachometer was also broken. I think knowing how fast you drive and to see if somebody is behind you on the highway when you want to change lanes is totally overrated anyway! :-P However, the missing doors were kind of cool because it made you feel like sitting in a convertible although you had a roof. But on our way back to Boquete, those missing doors caused a little uncomfort because it started to rain heavily and the cars driving into the opposite direction splashed all the water into the car on Guillermo's side and he was completely soaked. I found it fairly hillarious and just had to laugh. I didn't really get wet; just a few drops on my legs.
After a weekend on the hot island, I can just say that I like the cool climate of Boquete. There is a reason why it's called the town of the ever-lasting spring!

PS. I made a very funny discovery about different cultures: In Finland there was one species of snake that was poisenous and whenever somebody went for a walk in the wilderness, they would wear gumboots so that a snake wouldn't bite them. Panama has a few species of poisenous snakes and spiders and everybody walks into the wilderness with crocs or sandals; they don't care!

Swimming with crocodiles!

2009-09-04T17:46:00.002-07:00

I went white river rafting. And to warn you up front: I did not take any pictures because I couldn’t take my camera with me because it’s not water proof.
There are certain tours I can take for free because I’m a new employee at the hotel and those tour operators want to show me how much fun those activities are and then they want me to recommend it to my guests.
So, today I went on the rafting trip with Panama Rafters. I have never done rafting before and didn’t really know what to expect. The operator told me to bring dry clothing with me, so I knew that I might get a bit wet. However, it was much more adventurous than that.
By pick up we went to the border area of Costa Rica and Panama and since from there we were 6 people (5 tourists (including me) and the driver) and 2 rafting guides, I and the two guides had to ride the last 10 km in the loading area of the pick up. I haven’t done that in ages, but it’s always fun although it messes up my hair.
After a 30 minute speech of the driver/operator about the dangers of the river, how fast you can get injured, and what to do when you fall of the boat, we finally went into the water. After 5 minutes I knew why I was told to bring some dry clothing because I was completely soaked! Our rafting guides were a lot of fun; they were making jokes, splashed us with water, and tried to pull us out of the boat. Some of the rapids were really strong and I nearly fell out three times. At one really strong rapid, our boat filled up with water and we lost one of our team. But the tour guide in the kajak rescued him. On our way, we saw monkeys, an iguana, two boas and lots of big birds which eat the fish of the water. One part of the river was slow and deep enough for swimming, so one of the guides, another guy and I jumped in. Five seconds later we were told that there are also crocodiles and piranhas in that river…thanks for the warning (which was too late)!
It was a fun and exhausting trip and I’m looking forward to my next rafting adventure with another company.

Aliens?

2009-09-04T17:46:00.001-07:00

White foreigners (especially American immigrants) are called “gringos” in Panama. Usually that word has a negative connotation and I know why. I have already met quite a few very arrogant and ignorant white immigrants who have been here for more than 3 years and speak less Spanish than I do. I really try to learn more Spanish every day and try to get to know the Panamanians a bit. Of course, the gringos are usually much richer and think that they own the country. So far I have not met any unfriendly Panamanian and most of them seem to be happy people, but sometimes I wonder if they also think of me as a gringa.
However, there is something which really annoys me: When I go around town, lots of Panamanian guys honk their horn or yell something at me: only because I’m blonde. I do feel like an alien sometimes!

Sports

2009-09-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

The dogs are a great way to get to the area because they have to be taken for long walks every day. The first few days (while she was still in Boquete) Eva showed me a few good trails close to Boquete. However, Eva is very fit for her age (which I won’t tell you) and a trail that you would normally walk in 1,5 hours, Eva makes you walk it in 40 minutes. I think after 6 months here I’ll be sporty and fit again.
Bajo Mono:

Palo Alto (those are the pictures from Guillermo, Eva's accountant, because I had forgotten my camera):

Boquete:
(And yes, there are people here who live in sheds like that. Some of the shed/houses even look much worse.)

Faial is the well-behaved and playful one. He always finds a stick to play catch with. Or he even takes lemons or oranges to make you through it. I find that very intelligent: it’s a ball with a flavour! He is known all over town and when I go through Boquete with him, every third person greets him. Moga is not quite so easy; she gets very angry when you get to close to her while she is eating and she is super protective of Eva. However, she has the funniest way of sleeping on her back! And Lakshmi, the cat, is probably pregnant and spends most of the day sleeping.

Working???

2009-09-02T18:40:00.000-07:00

The hotel is absolutely beautiful and consists of 6 roundhouses, 4 apartments, and the main house with reception. Everything is perfectly designed and the hotel has its name (Isla Verde = Green Island) for a good reason. My job is also pretty easy; the hotel does not have a super complicated computer booking system and once I can understand everything in Spanish, I’ll feel completely comfortable working here. Since Eva (my boss) will not be here for a whole month, my main job is to get up early and turn off the all the lights, help with preparing breakfasts for the guests, taking the dogs for their walk at noon and being around the house/reception after 6 pm till 10 pm to welcome guests; nothing too complicated! Compared to the other hotels where I worked, I do not have to wear uncomfortable business attire. I can just run around and work in jeans and t-shirts!

Right now it’s rainy season and not very busy. However, so far I haven’t seen a lot of very rainy days. It’s usually nice in the mornings and in the afternoons it starts to rain a bit. But since it’s still warm (around 25 degrees Celsius), the rain doesn’t bother me so much.

9 hours for 350 km

2009-09-02T18:38:00.000-07:00

My bus was to leave at 7.30 am, but since Sergio had to work he had to take me there earlier and couldn’t wait with me. The bus station is in one of the most dangerous parts of San Josè and I felt quite weird to be the only blonde girl waiting at the station. However, the bus was on time and inside I felt a little safer. Everybody told me that it would be very hot on the ride, but the first two hours I was freezing because all the windows were open, we were going up the mountains and the sun wasn’t out yet. But later on it did get very hot inside the bus because the bus didn’t have any air conditioning. According to schedule the bus would need 9 hours for about 350 km. I had thought that it takes so long because it would slowly inch its way up the mountain. But I was wrong: the bus raced through tight curves and incredibly bad streets with huge potholes. (By the way, Costa Rica and Panama are both knows for its bad streets. That might be the reason why most people here drive jeeps with 4-wheel drives.) On my way I was a bit surprised that there are still so many very poor people who lived in little wooden sheds without electricity or running water. (The wooden shed for the garden tools in the yard of my parents looks so much nicer than the sheds where the poor people here live in and nobody would ever think of living in our garden shed!) At the border it took about 1,5 hours to get the stamp for the passport. I’m not so sure why it took so long because here were only 6 people in front of me. The officials blamed their computers for the long waiting time, but I blame the slow-moving officials. Then they also wanted to check my huge suitcase. I opened it and they only looked at the very top layer of my clothing and then said that it was done. So, I could have smuggled my drugs in either my backpack or in the bottom of my suitcase. However, I at least got my tourist visa for 3 months for Panama without any extra questioning. Back in the bus, it only took 40 more minutes and I arrived in David, a dirty, loud, and very hot town in the Chiriqui Province of Panama. I was supposed to call the hotel when I arrive, so that they could pick me up. But when I stepped out of the bus, a woman came towards me and asked if I’m Sabine. The woman turned out to be Eva, my boss. I was very happy that she had already been there because I would not have felt very safe waiting in David for half an hour. When Eva and I went up the mountains to Boquete (where the hotel is located) I was shocked about the even bigger potholes and the way of driving here. (It has already been very bad in San Josè, but supposedly the driving manners in Panama are even worse.) When we arrived in Boquete, I saw that it’s quite a cute and energetic town with very beautiful views. Way before I arrived in Panama, Sabine (my collegue at Isla Verde, the hotel) asked me if I like pets and if I would mind taking care of Eva’s two dogs and the one cat. I love animals, so I replied that I wouldn’t mind at all. But when I read that e-mail I had thought about two cute little doggies. However, when I arrived I realized that those two cute doggies where a full grown 90 pound female Rottweiler (Moga) and a big male Labrador (Faial). And Lakshmi is the very affectionate 8-months old Burmese cat. Already on my first night I realized that it will be a challenge to go for walks with Moga because she likes to kill cats and smaller dogs and does not really listen to commands.

It looks like a dangerous place!

2009-09-02T14:49:00.000-07:00

It is my very first time in Latin America. Before I left I thought that Costa Rica and Panama would maybe be a bit like Spain. But apart from the language, everything seems to be very different.
My first stop was San Josè in Costa Rica. I took a flight from Frankfurt, Germany to San Josè because this international airport is closer to Boquete (where the hotel is located) than the airport in Panama City. However, Condor did not want to let me fly with them because I did not have a return flight from Costa Rica or a visa for it. Well, I knew in advance that you need some kidn of return flight when you go to Costa Rica and Panama without a visa, so the hotel had already acquiered a fake one for me (it was from Panama City to Frankfurt). But when I wanted to check in at the Condor counter and they asked me for a return ticket and I told them that I have one from Panama City they said that this is not enough because that wouldn't prove that I'll be leaving Costa Rica. I was a bit confused because when it says that I'm flying back to Germany, it also proves that I'm leaving Costa Rica, doesn't it? Well, I told her that I'll be leaving Costa Rica in two days to go to Panama and that my friend has already bought a bus ticket, but that I did not print it out because I thought that it's not necessary. So, although the lady said that a bus ticket would be sufficient, she sent me to some counter for last minute flights and he offered me to book a flight from San Jose to David in Panama and cancel it right away and that I would only have to pay the cancellation fees of 150€. (By the way, I know that the price for the flight itself is only 100€, so the cancellation fees are totally ridiculous!!!) But I told him that I just need a place to print out my bus ticket because it's still in my e-mail-account. Luckily, the guy was nice enough to go into my mail-account and print out the picture if the bus ticket my friend had sent me. I went back to the Condor check-in, but to a different counter. That guy said that he had to check with his boss, if the picture of a bus ticket is enough prove that I'm leaving the country. After having been at the counter for a while, he came back and said that it won't work although the bus ticket had my name and passport number on it. I couldn't believe it and complained and when he wanted to send me to the last minute counter again, I again mentioned that I already have a return flight from Panama City. Suddenly, he brightened up and wanted to see it. He again went to his boss and when he came back, that this is totally fine and that I can now check-in. I was soooo relieved, but still did not understand why the first lady told me that this ticket is not sufficient.
After 10 hours in an airplane with very tiny space for your legs, we stopped in Santo Domingo to refuel and drop off / pick up a few people. We had to wait at the terminal for 2 hours, but it turned out to be not boring because some people started playing Latin American music.
Two more hours in the plane and we landed in San Josè. The airport was as chaotic as the city itself. Fortunately, my Costa Rican friend Sergio picked me up and drove me through the morning rush hour to his house. Although I was totally jetlagged, I wanted to see the nice parts of Costa Rica So we went to the Volcano Irazu which is just 40 km away from San Josè. Up there (3400 m high) it was much colder and windier than in the city, but it was very beautiful! And it was so high up that we were above the clouds of the rainy season.

Sergio went crazy with his camera while we were up there. So, here are a few of his pictures:

On our way back down we had a very good meal for very little money in a good restaurant!

However, then I got so tired that I had to take a nap in Sergio’s bed. After that I felt a bit better and we went to a shopping centre of that colorful city. There I was amazed by the cheap prices. But unfortunately, I can’t really do much shopping because I will continue travelling and I have enough stuff to carry around already. We also went to a grocery store and when Sergio parked his car in front of it, I saw a police woman walking around. She was there to prevent people breaking into the cars. All in all, San José made a pretty dangerous impression to me. I would not have liked to walk around there by myself all day. The city is not very pretty or very clean. All the houses have big bars in front of them and some even barbed wire on top.

And when I asked if San Josè also has those slums where people live in little huts made out of scraps of wood and metal without running water and electricity, he answered with: “Of course. Do you want to see it? Because I’m not taking you there. Most of the time the police or ambulance doesn’t go there because it’s too dangerous.”
For the night we were planning to go out for a drink or two. But while watching a movie, we actually both fell asleep and I was so tired that I did not feel like going anywhere. So I tried to get a few hours of sleep before I had to get up early to catch my bus to David in Panama.
I will go to San Josè, the latest when after my 6 months in Panama are up and I have to catch my flight to the US. And next time I'll hopefully be less tired and can enjoy the Costa Rican nightlife!

Goodbye Finland!

2009-08-14T05:35:00.000-07:00

It's my last day in Finland and tomorrow morning I'll sit in an airplane to Germany.
I definitely had a nice summer here although the weather wasn't always very summerly. Sari and Tommi became like friends to me and I'm sure we'll stay in contact. And I will miss the cuddly Arttu and the alcohol I was having every night! :-P Here I have seen the prettiest sunsets, became fascinated by taking pictures of nature, and used every chance to go swimming in one of the 187 888 lakes of Finland.
I just think it's a pity that I could never really communicate with the boys because they only speak little English and I don't speak Finnish (and language courses don't take place during the summer)! However, I think I did a good job as the first au pair in this house anyway...so good that my host parents will get a new au pair in September! :-P
But there is one thing I definitely will not miss: picking up dead, squashed, but still warm mice from the kitchen floor which were brought in by Klaara, the cat!!!

Medieval Times

2009-08-13T07:02:00.000-07:00

Lots of Finns regularly go to Tallinn (Estonia) because the boat cruises are fairly cheap. However, Finnish people don't to go there for sightseeing, but for alcohol shopping. But I heard that the old town of Tallinn is very pretty and that's why I wanted to visit it (and my friend Päivi gladly came with me).
The day started out with rain (as so often in Finland). During the 3-hour ship voyage, it continued to rain and even got worse. The entertainment on board wasn't much better than the weather: the dance bar turned out to be a place for people aged 50 and above who like dancing waltz and the singer with this giutar sang mostly boring songs. So we continously were fighting not to fall asleep.

When we arrived in Tallinn, it was raining cats and dogs and it was super windy at the harbour. My host parents' storm-proof umbrella got partly damaged and our moods were a bit cloudy because it looked like it would never stop. However, we fought our way through the rain to the information to get a proper map and when we stepped outside, the rain had stopped and the clouds began to move away. And without an umbrella one could see so much more of the beautiful town.
Since I have never really heard anything about Tallinn or Estonia, I didn't know what to expect. But I had never imagined such a beautiful, medieval town!!! Most of the buildings from the eleven and twelve hundreds are still there and were kept in a good shape, you can hear medieval music at lots of places, and you can see lots of small alleys. So, in the 6 hours we had in Tallinn we saw: the 600-year old town hall, the Viru Gates, St. Nicholas' Church, the Olde Hansa: a medieval restaurant (Unfortunately, Päivi didn't want to eat there.), St. Olaf's Church, parts of the town wall, the Dome Church, the Stout Margaret Tower, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, and the Toompea Castle (a modern one though) with its tower.

Supposedly, you can have very good meals for small money in Tallinn. Well, not in the tourist-filled old town though! It took us quite a while to find a restaurant with half-way reasonable prices. (And since we only had 6 hours, we didn't want to walt to the new part town and back just for some food.)
The time went by way too soon and back on the ship, the music was just as bad as on the way to Estonia. However, it did get exciting again. The ship needed 3 hours to Tallinn, but 3,5 hours back to Helsinki. And that only left me half an hour to get from the harbour to the bus station. However, the buses don't leave from the harbour every 5 minutes, but have quite big gaps in between. So, when we got off the boat, we ran to the bus. But after we got on, another 50 people wanted to take this bus as well and it was getting later and later. The bus left 10 minutes late and my time to reach the bus station had shrunken to 20 minutes. The bus was supposed to take about 10 minutes to reach the train station and from there it's another 10 to get to the bus station. But luckily the bus took a different route which was much closer to the bus station and after squeezing out of the bus and a fast walk down to the buses, I had just made it in time!

A night out!

2009-08-13T06:24:00.001-07:00

When I heard that my friend Maike from Germany is also working as an au pair in Finland, I thought it would be great if we could meet and go out in Helsinki. Helsinki is so expensive that so far I hadn't been there for partying. But since I live so close, I wanted to do it at least once.
So, Maike and I met in Helsinki. At first, we sat down in Kamppi (the area in front of the bus station) and had the two beers I had brought with me. However, while drinking we realized that we are the only people with beer in our hands and were wondering if it's even legal to drink in pubic in Finland. (Because it was in Ireland and who would have believed that???) So, we went up to some police men who are always standing around Kamppi and they told us that on Kamppi it is indeed forbidden, but if we only went 20 m back from where we were standing, then we can drink there. So, confused-looking we walked 20 m and sat down on some dirty-looking steps. Later that night we were looking for a club called Rocktown (which didn't seem to be very popular because people in Helsinki didn't really know it) for
quite a while, but we gave up and went to a street where there are lots of bars just side by side. There it was the first time in my life that I paid 6€ for a beer (0,5 litres) and although I knew in advance that it would be that expensive, it still hurt quite a lot!!! (In Germany, that amount would cost 2,80€ in a bar.) By the way, yesterday I found out that Rocktown doesn't exist anymore and that now there is a club called Happy Days which doesn't have anything do to with rock. Since Maike had already been in Helsinki the whole day, she had done some research and knew in which bar there would be some good rock music. So, we went to a club/bar/restaurant called Virgin Oil, paid 10€ and saw some very good Finnish rock bands. I, of course, have already forgotten what they were called! :-P
We knew that our bus wouldn't leave before 4 am and it was only 3. So we decided to have another beer which surprisingly was quite a challenge. The closest bar was already closed. So, we went to On the Rocks (something my host mom has recommended) and I walked through the door and my ID wasn't checked because when I go out I wear quite a lot of make-up and that seems to make me look older than 17 (which is what most people guess when I do not wear make up). But since Maike is smaller, the bouncer wanted to see her ID. So I was waiting for her inside because I knew that she was old enough anyway. However, then the bouncer made a sign that I should come out and told me that my friend wasn't old enough to go in. We both were confused again because Maike is already 21. But the bouncer told us that for this night they had raised the age limit to 23. What an odd age!!! (And I though the US was strict with their age limit of 21!) So, the next bar we tried was also closed. But finally we found a bar/club that was still open and I could have a cider for 5,50€ (which still hurt)!
Back at the Kamppi bus station we realized that all the doors to the inside (where the buses are leaving from) were closed until 5.30 am. So, we asked another police men and he told us that our bus would be leaving from another bus stop just around the corner. We walked there, but couldn't find the bus number on the bus schedules of any of the bus stops. We asked another police man and he told us that the bus into the direction of Nummela leaves from inside the Kamppi and he was even friendly enough to tell us how to get there: through an elevator on the side of the bar (without any signs on it that it would bring us down to the bus stops). We were down at the bus stop 3 minutes before 4 am and were surprise how full this bus was at that time of the night. Of course, it was packed with young people who went partying in Helsinki for the night.
When we arrived at the closest bus stop to my house, my host mom picked us up by car at 4.30 am!!! But she said that it was a good thing to do because it was practice for the future because when the boys are older, they'll be partying every weekend and will want to be picked up from somewhere in the middle of the night regularly.

A weekend without electricity and running water? No, thanks! :-P

2009-08-13T06:01:00.000-07:00

Tommi's parents have a summer cottage about an hour away from Tervalampi. However, it is very back to the basics, i.e. no electricity and no running water (just an outhouse). And when my host parents offered to spend a weekend there during the summer, I wasn't so thrilled because I insist on my morning shower! But I did at least want to see it and when Tommi told me that he'd just drop off some stuff and would only stay there for an hour, I went with him. After 15 km of driving on a highway which only had one lane in each direction (and would never be considered a highway in Germany), we turned on a small road where we did not meet another car for the next 20 minutes. From the small road we turned into an even smaller gravel road which later on turned into a very narrow dirt road with high grass growing all over it. If I didn't know Tommi that well, I would have had second thoughts about bringing me there.

Of course, as every good summer cottage in Finland it was located by a lake and it looked very cosy. And while Tommi worked doing some construction, I went to the sauna and then swimming in the lake. It was filled with spring water and after even after drying my hair, it smelled like that very fresh lake water!

On our way back, it was starting to be foggy and I was able to take some very amazing pictures!

Ouch!!!

2009-08-04T00:28:00.000-07:00

I have sore muscles everywhere in my body. It even hurts at places where I didn't know that I have muscles!!! What happened? No, I didn't have a car accident or anything bad. I went horseback riding! When I was still at school, I used to go 4-5 times a week, but with entering university I had nearly completely stopped. But I still love horses and here in Finland lots of people own horses, just like the friends of my host parents. So, I asked if there is the possibility to go for a ride. Most people here have a Finnish breed called Finnhorse. Those horses were bred to serve people: to pull carriages, pull agricultural equipment... That's why they are really gentle and like being around humans and since they are used to being outside, they don't get scared easily. So, riding them is not a big challenge: you just sit straight and hold on!
We went through the forest and really stony terrain with the horses, but they don't mind. And since we did quite a lot of trotting and I'm not used to horseback riding anymore, my muscles are really sore now. But nonetheless, it was a lot of fun and I hope that in New Zealand I can do it more regularly again! I'd mostly be interested in vaulting though. I used to be in a vaulting group and took part in competions with them...it was so much fun!!! If you don't know what vaulting is, check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aZTj-MDAYw (Of course, I cannot do all those things the girl in the World Equestrian Games does...but a few! :-P)

I wish I would have paid more Attention in my Russian class at School!

2009-07-24T09:42:00.000-07:00

One day I realized that Finland actually borders Russia and that St.Petersburg is only about 500 km away from where I'm living at the moment. So I thought it would be great opportunity to make a short trip to Russia. I found a travel companion in my Finnish friend Päivi and we started to plan. We found out that we needed a visa for going to Russia, even just for a short sightseeing trip. After many calls to the embassy and various travel agencies, we found a travel agency that could get us the visa without a personal invitation from a Russian citizen or expensive hotel. After paying 50€, we had a nice sticker in our passports and ready to get into the plane. Everybody was surprised that we did not take the train because that seems to be the traditional way of travelling to Russia. But flying was cheaper, but not much faster (if you count the time of waiting in line at the check-in counters). But the flight only took 40 minutes and was fairly smooth although it was very windy and thunderstorm clouds were all around us. (I would like to say thanks to Finnair for taking away at least some of my fear of flying!) The weather forecast had promised us a very rainy three days and we weren't so happy about that. After they had checked our passports and Russian visas in Helsinki already, the Russians made us fill out another slip of paper about our arrival and departure dates and the loaction where we would be staying and thoroughly checked the visas again. In front of the airport we were aked by five taxi driver's if we want to take a taxi to the city and a bus driver tried to convince us that we should take his mini-bus to the city because it's so cheap. But we had looked it up earlier and knew that the cheapest way to get in to the city was the trolley bus number 13 and that was also the one all the Russians took (Sometimes it's safer to look what the natives are doing to not to step into the tourist traps.). When it came aound we jumped on it and the driver made us sit down instead of paying. The bus ride was shaky, windy and the bus most have been made and already driven during communist times. When we arrived at the Moskovskaja Metro Station, the driver made us pay and we went deep down into the underground station (the deepest underground I have ever been in). The underground station also hadn't seen any renovation since communism and it was sticky, crowded and fairly dirty. So far, St. Petersburg had not made a good impression and I wasn't really surprised because I had expected that.

Our hostel was in the middle of the city and and the booking confirmation gave us a quick description of the loaction and it sounded very simple. However, St. Petersburg lacks street signs and numbers in most streets and therefore it was rather hard to find out in which direction one has to walk. After walking into the wrong direction for 5 minutes, we returned and we finally were on the right street. We also found the entrance to the building, but the door didn't have any sign of the Hostel Fireplace on it and the entry code that was given to us was also not working. While walking back and forth to try to find another door, some Russians confirmed that this was the entrance to the hostel. But the entry code would still not work. Finally, somebody came out of the building and we slipped in. We walked up all 5 storeys of the damp, old and funny-smelling hallway, but again could not find any sign of a hostel. So, we called the hostel and found out that the receptionist does not speak English. But after a few minutes on the phone trying to explain that we can't find the hostel, the receptionist finally stuttered "Please wait!". So, we waited in the hallway, but nothing happened. We decided to go back to the entrance in case we had been in the wrong building. And after 5 minutes a woman our age in shorts came along and made a sign to follow her. We indeed had been in the right building and the hostel door did not have any sign on it. But somehow the receptionist seemed to be surprised about my booking confirmation that said that we would stay three nights in an ensuite double room. She made a fairly long call in Russian and then showed us to our room that did not have a bathroom. Through an online translator she explained that all the ensuite rooms are occupied and that the room without a bathroom would be cheaper. Since it would have been senseless to look for another hostel, we agreed to take the room. The hostel was actually just a big flat in a blocks of flats and the same receptionist remained there for the next 2 nights and days. However, the room was cosy and big with a very Russian wallpaper and the shared bathroom looked clean. But we had forgotten to book a sea-view as you can see on the picture below! :-P

On the first day we just took a walk along Nevsky Prospect (the main street of St. Petersburg) to get to know the area. And it suddenly didn't look so communistic anymore. Most stores were western stores, the streets were very clean and all the buildings on this street were in a very good condition. Of course, you could also find MakДoнaлдc there where you could buy a Хeппи Mил! :-P By the way, I can still read and write the Russian letters, but I have to say that nearly none of my Russian vocab is left after having had Russian at school for 4 years (but it already is nearly 8 years ago). Very soon we found out that not only our receptionist couldn't or wouldn't speak English (People my age must have had English at school, so I guess it's more a refusal of speaking and understanding it.), but that nearly nobody in St. Petersburg could. Only the waiters in Subway and a fancy Italian place did. And lots of restaurants also didn't have the menu in English. However, all of that does make sense because, although St. Petersburg is packed with tourists, only very few are foreigners (probably because of the extra work of acquiring the visa). But during our walk through the centre of rainy St. Petersburg we already realized that it actually is a very pretty city, so we were looking forward to the next day where we would do a good deal of sightseeing.

The easiest way (but most of the time not the cheapest) to see the most important sights of a city is through a hop on and hop off tour in a bus. (In case, you haven't heard of those: There are about 5-6 buses circling the city all day on the same route along the sights and you can take any bus as often as you want and just hop off at a sight and half an hour later hop on to another bus and go to the next sight.) However, in St. Petersburg that tour was reasonably priced and we drove around in buses all day and could listen to an English tape telling us about the city. We saw the Kazan Cathedral, the Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood (the prettiest building I've seen in my life!), the Russian Battleship Aurora, weapons from the World War II in front of the War Museum (most of them pointing at their own fortress :-P), the Peter and Paul Fortress, Russian toilets in a bus, the Stock Exchange with its Lighthouses, St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Bronze Horseman, the Admirality, and many more sights. Most of the day, the sun was shining so bright that I got sunburned. After being around all day, we ended our day with two Russian beers, self-cooked pasta (we decided to not order something we couldn't translate in restaurants), and reading about St. Petersburg.

The next day we went into the Hermitage which is a museum in part of the Winter Palace. Fortunately, my friend had already booked her ticket over the internet and that's why we did not have to wait in line for 3 hours. I didn't need a ticket because it's free for students and I'm still registered as one! :-) (At this point I want to thank all the nice student prices in St. Petersburg!) The Hermitage is nearly as big as the Louvre in Paris and seeing all of the exhibitions in one day is impossible. But we did make it through most of the paintings and I especially liked the Picassos. Slowly walking through the Hermitage seemed to be more painless in your legs than running 5 km and when we finally were outside I needed a long break.

So it was a good thing that the only other plan for that day was taking a boat cruise on the channels and river of St. Petersburg. (There is a reason why this city is called "Venice of the East".) We even managed to find an English-guided tour. (99% of the boat tours are only in Russian.) We saw most of the sights we have seen before, but from a different and sometimes prettier angle. Some of the bridges the boat went under were so low that you could nearly touch them.

On the third morning we were already sick from the typical Russian hostel breakfast before we had it. It was simply horrible: the porridge was burned, the bread kinda hard, the sausage fatty and had hard pieces in it, the cheese tasted like nothing, and the pancakes were like rubber and tasted awful!!! How can you ruin pancakes? They only have three ingredients (flour, eggs, and milk and some people add sugar). However, after breakfast we did some shopping: cheap vodka for my host parents, cheap cigarettes for my mom, and Russian candy for "my boys" and me. Then we decided to be brave and go into a Russian fast food restaurant which advertised it's English menu and try some more Russian food (apart from the breakfast). I had Borsch (a very typical Russian soup) and a pancake with berries and cream and surprisingly that was very delicious! Back in the airplane we agreed that it was a very nice trip, but that the tiny very simple sandwich (with two slices of cheese, butter, and a slice of tomato) that Finnair gave us was way better than our Russian breakfast.

By the way, to leave Russia you have to get your visa registered with the hostel or hotel which costs you another 13€. I think the only reason why you need a visa to enter Russia is because the government wants to make money!

Hold on for your Life!

2009-07-24T09:11:00.000-07:00

I've already told you about the 4th car of my host parents: the Triumph (a British Oldtimer from 1973, I think). Tommi had offered to me to drive it and the first time he offered it I was very sceptical. But since I'll be working in New Zealand for a year in 2010 I though that I should at least try to drive a car which has the steering wheel on the right side. So, when he offered me to drive it for the third time, I was finally brave and sober enough to do it. (The second time he had asked I had just had a big glass of wine and didn't want to risk anything.)
So, after finding out that the order of the clutch, break and gas pedal was the same, but the turn signal was on the other side, I tried to leave the drive way. I killed the engine twice because I forgot that it was a sports car and that you actually have to use the gas pedal quite a lot. Changing gears with my left hand would not have been so bad if the gears would have been easy to change like in a new car, but they were kind of stiff and hard to find. Finally on the road, Tommi asked me if I wanted to go to Nummela which is 15 km away. However, I suggested that we'd just turn around in Ojakkala which is only 6 km away. Tommi didn't like this idea and made me turn onto a bigger street where I could drive a bit faster. It was quite a good feeling driving a convertible, but driving it cost me more concentration than I needed in my final oral English exam for my Master's degree. (And no, this 60-minute oral exam was not easy at all!!!) And I held on to the steering wheel so tightly that my index finger hurt for the next two days. When we were back at the house and I out of the car, I had continued to shake for another half an hour. I just hope that the car I will get to drive in New Zealand will be a modern one!!!

Being picky makes my Life hard!

2009-07-24T08:43:00.000-07:00

All of my friends know that I'm a very picky eater. The list of things I don't like or eat of certain reasons is long. For example, I do not like red sauces, especially the ones made from ketchup or tomatoe puree. I don't eat potatoes (I think they taste like earth.) and after returning from Ireland, I have also given up french fries. After travelling a lot and mostly eating fast food, I refuse to eat hamburgers. Furthermore, I do not like white bread. I don't eat butter, margarine, honey, marmelade or jam. And I'm intolerant to lactose, so that rules out nearly all milk products (unless I buy the very expensive lactose-free products). But I also won't drink the lactose-free milk because the taste of milk reminds me of cows and I'm scared of them. Furthermore, I only eat animals that I deem ugly, i.e. pork fish, poultry, and beef. I apologize to all the pigs, fishes, birds, and cows here. But then for some reason I don't really like the taste of beef or turkey and I only like chicken when it still has the skin and was grilled on a bbq. I also don't like any kinds of salats and I'm not a big fan of white bread. Bananas are something else I detest. But that even has a reason: As a child I would only eat bananas and a certain kind of sausages for about 2 years. I guess, I simply over-ate on bananas and now I can't stand them anymore. As for sweets, I'm not quite as picky, but I want to mention that I don't like gummy bears and hate licorice. As a conclusion one could say that it's nearly impossible to cook for me and it's not a surprise that I'm so skinny! :-P But my host mom still tries. However, since I'm so super picky I told her that she does not have to be concerned about my eating habits because that would just be too difficult. I can usually always find something to eat. But now it looks like that I'm being treating like one of the boys. They are also quite picky and Sari always makes them eat their food, even if they don't like it. And now I'm also forced to eat at least one potatoe and have a certain amount of salat (which unfortunately, we have every day). Furthermore, Sari hates pork and therefore always uses minced beef instead of minced pork and that I also have to eat. All of that actually reminds me of home where I'm a still forced to eat my potatoes although I'm already 23 (turning 24 soon). And for the last 10 years they blackmailed me with the words: "If you don't eat your potatoes, we'll turn off the internet." and it, unfortunately, still works. I'm sure that my Finnish host parents will soon say that as well and my mom would be so proud of them!
But since we are talking about food I want to mention that I love backing! And so far I have made a German cake called Schneewitchenkuchen (it has a vanilla and chocolate dough base filled with cherries and a vanilla-cream toping), an apple pie (which I didn't eat myself since I don't like apple pie; but the boys loved it), and tirasmisu. The tiramisu was absolutely amazing and so much better than the stuff you can buy! And my next project is the bake some sweet rolls filled with vanilla custard which supposedly are typical Finnish. Let's see how those will turn out!

An Expensive Place

2009-07-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I visited Helsinki, small for a capital (only half a million inhabitants), but a decent size for a city. And with its location by the sea, its many island, and its cleanliness, it is fairly pretty! However, it is also very expensive: entrance fees for museums, boat cruises or just getting some food or a beer will reduce your funds quickly.
Unfortunately, it rained on and off last Sunday, so we couldn't just sit in a park or go to the jazz festival. However, my friend Päivi (who lives in Helsinki and showed me around) and I spend the day in the National Museum, going on a boat cruise around the islands and doing some shopping (Nearly all the stores had some kind of sale going on! :-)). I think I won't say anymore and will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Why do I have absolutely no sense of Orientation?

2009-07-04T08:07:00.000-07:00

Ok, by now I know where the boy's school is, the library, the grocery stores, some of the houses of the boy's friends, the lake, the dry cleaners and so on. But I still managed to get lost.
Arttu, Valterry and I went to the lake on Wednesday last week. We took Teemu (on of their friends with us). Before we started, Teemu was brought to our house by car and that's why I didn't have to bother with looking for his place. But on the way back, all the boys wanted to be dropped off at Teemu's place. From Sari I knew that it wasn't far, so I was willing to try to find his house. Well, the boys speak some English, but they don't know the words for left and right. So, on the big gravel road, they would say "no" to every crossroad or drive-way where I didn't have to turn. When I had to turn, they said "yes" and just pointed into the direction. Well, I had to concentrate so much on their "yes" and "no's" that I completely forgot to memorize the way we came from. When we finally arrived at Teemu's place, I only knew that there was a big gravel road and then a small gravel road with lots of forests on the sides. However, all of rural Finland looks like that! So, I made my way back alone and of course, I took a wrong turn and ended up on an endlessly long gravel road. When it finally crossed with a normal street, I saw a sign saying "5 km Veikkola". I know where Veikkola is and how to get home from there. So, I took the road to Veikkola. But after 15 minutes in the car with no town in sight, I was so lost that I decided to turn around and try the gravel road again. Luckily, only going straight on the gravel road brought me back to the street to our house. So, how did I manage to not even memorize one single turn? My brain is all weird!

The Machine that gets too much Attention...

2009-07-04T07:52:00.001-07:00

...is our dishwasher!
Well, there are families (or couples) who argue about the way the tooth paste should be squeezed out of the tube, if the toilet seat and/or lid should be up or down, or how the toilet paper should be placed into the holder. However, my host family does not argue about any of those things. They don't care how you squeeze the tooth paste out, the toilet lid is up or down (according to mood) and the toilet paper is not even in the holder most of the time. But there has to be something to argue about in every relationship or life would get boring. And here it is the dishwasher. I could have never imagined how much a dishwasher could amuse me.
The here is the story: Most of the time, I load and unload the dishwasher. And I actually enjoy that, especially if the plates are still warm when you unload it. But once in a while, Tommi loads the dishwasher and that's where it gets funny. He opens it and starts complaining: "It's all wrong. The bowels should be down there, so that you can put the glasses on top." After that he will go through the trouble of touching all the dirty dishes, getting them out of the dishwasher to reorganize the way I loaded it. It sometimes takes up to 10 minutes. Of course, he thinks he can get much more stuff in it than I do, but I doubt that. To realize how funny it really is, you'd have to be here! But I let Tommi rearrange the glasses as much as he wants, as long as it makes him happy! :-P

Too much oxygen?

2009-06-28T04:34:00.000-07:00

While we were in Häkkilä, Tommi got to drive the tractor of one of Sari's brothers and I guess, he really liked it because the next day he wanted one himself. Sari and I were a bit surprised and asked him for what he would need it in Tervalampi since they don't have potatoe fields or anything else of that kind. But Tommi explained that he could do the snow work with it and get the wood for the fire places. Well, they already have a machine for the snow work which is kind of a snow blower and they usually get their wood ready made in little pieces which can be transported in a trailer. However, Sari had a good explanation for Tommi's idea: There is too much oxygen in Häkkilä's air and that makes him get funny ideas. I agree and think he should go back to his little office at Nokia and Siemens networks as soon as possible! :-P However, Tommi could not be persuaded to not have a tractor and that's why he bought one while we were in Central Finland. I'm sure Tommi would love to drive the tractor home to Tervalampi himself which would mean a 10-hour ride.
And I end with something Sari always tends to say: The older the boys, the more expensive the toys! How true!

Rules?

2009-06-28T04:22:00.000-07:00

If you go to sauna in Germany, you tend to follow a lot of rules. (Germans have rules and regulations for everything.)
So, in Germany you can stay in the sauna room for 15 minutes (when it's 90 degrees Celsius hot). After that you have to take a break, preferably for about half an hour. Then you can go in for another 15 minutes. After that you should have a break of about an hour. Lots of people actually take a nap. You may go in for another 15 minutes then. However, you should never go more than 4 times even with long breaks. It's supposedly is bad for your health if you break the rules.
Well, tell that a Finnish person and he or she will think you are crazy! Finns go into the sauna for as long as they want. They'll stay in for up to 30 minutes in one go, have a 5 minute break and go back in. The guys even stay longer and repeat it much more often. And the Finns are still alive and are probably healthier than the Germans who go to sauna.
And this is definitely a stereotype about Finns that is true: They go to sauna a lot!!! Whenever they are with their extended families or with their friends, they go to sauna with a beer in their hand; it is a part of their parties. When we are home, we don't go every day, but at least twice a week. And kids start going when they are only half a year old.
Sari told me a very funny story about her friend in Great Britain. She and her husband tried to have a child, but she couldn't get pregnant. And when her husband went to a doctor, he said that he couldn't reproduce because he goes to sauna regularly. Well, now I seriously wonder how Finns are able to reproduce!? Do they have especially robust semen that doesn't get cooked? *lol*

The Island

2009-06-28T02:28:00.000-07:00

Once again we went to the little island in Central Finland and this time we spent a whole week there. But this time I was prepared to fight the boredom: I took my laptop, my external harddrive, my computer game, all three Lord of the Rings-DVD's, three books, my mp3-player, and I knew that I could use the wireless of Sari's brother.

Since last time I didn't sleep so well because I was sleeping in the same room with the boys and I tend to wake up at the smallest noise, I decided to sleep in the little hut (which had a sauna on its side). The hut was about 300 m away from the main house, right by the lake, didn't have any electricity or water, and was located in a forest. Thank God it doesn't get dark at night in Finland because I would have been scared to death to go there alone at night. However, it was quite and I slept like a baby. Every morning I woke up I expected to see a bear or elk in front of my door, but I was disappointed. And apart from a million of mosquitoes, birds, a few swans and a duck with its ducklings, I didn't see any other wild animals. Tommi and Sari made sure that there was always a fire burning in the little stove, so that I wouldn't freeze to death. I even learned how to start a fire myself; I'm sooo gonna turn into a country girl! *lol* And the little hut inspired me to my latest short story which sooner or later can be read on my Facebook or on www.blankpaper.de.

The main reason we went to Central Finland was to celebrate Midsummer (Juhannus) there. Unfortunately, it was fairly cold (12 degrees Celsius) and raining that night. However, it did not stop my Finnish family to celebrate it the very typical way: You start drinking at about noon, collect birch tree branches to hit yourself with in the saune, go to sauna in the afternoon, have sausages from the bbq, sit by the lake (in pouring rain), watch the bonfire (although ours was more like a bonsmoke *lol*), and get eaten by mosquitoes. I am not a big fan of insects in general, but the mosquitoes in Häkkilä were a nightmare. Normal (German) mosquitoes get scared when you move around and will fly away and they would only bite you in hair-free places. But the Finnish mosquitoes don't care: First of all, they are huge and they will attack you from behind in thousands while you are walking and bite you into your head and will not move until you either kill them by crushing or until you pull them off your head. I am soooo glad that the house in Tervalampi is not right by a lake! :-) My host mom would love to have her house at a lake, but the properties are much more expensive if they are.

Here are some conclusions I made after the first 3 days in Häkkilä: You now when you are in Finland when people go home by boat, when they go up north for their summer holidays instead of down south, and they always find a spot to grill their beloved sausages (Sari told me that the sausage is the Finn's most favorite vegetable!).

And while trying to get rid of of the smoky bonfire the next day, the men found snow in the torf-like earth they had on there. So, we had a snow ball fight in June! :-)

On the fourth day, the sun finally decided to come out. So, we did a short hiking trip up to a mountain close by a summer cottage of on of Sari's brothers. Sari's family is quite big and most of her borthers and nephews and nieces came with us. But back at the summer cottage I found out that it did not have a normal water toilet, but only an outhouse. And you can call me spoiled, but I don't like those at all!!! Well, but if you have to go, you go. And I was surprised to find out that it was very new and shiny. The summer cottage wasn't old and although most cottage could have running water, lots of people don't even want it because they want their summer cottage to be different than their normal houses and that means no hot showers in the morning. I can't really understand that though: I'm addicted to my hot shower in the morning! :-P

In Central Finland I also discovered a new fun sport: kajaking. I always thought it would be very hard to handle and I would have to struggle with my balance all the time. But it is very stable and I didn't turn over once. On the first trip Tommi followed me in the rowing boat to make sure that I don't drown. But I prefer being on my own, listening to my mp3-player and enjoying the water around me.

Since nearly all Sari's relatives live by the lake, Tommi and I went by boat to pick up Sari's sister-in-law for sauna (Yes, we went to sauna every day!). My conclusion: The orange life vest makes me look fat and does not go with my current hair color!

I always knew that I liked boat rides, but last week I also found out that I like motorcycle rides. One of Sari's nehews has one of those really fancy and really fast motorcycles and he took me for a ride. It was amazing and I think I have to consider getting a motorcycle licence as well or at least a boyfriend who has a motorcycle! :-P
The next ride I took was on horseback. I haven't been for ages and when I heard that one of Sari's nieces has horses, I wanted to go immediately. It was great to ride again and Sandra (the horse I was riding) was so calm and didn't mind cars, rocks or the noises of birds (all things which scared the horses I used to ride to death). We also went to a lake, so that the horses could cool their feet. I sooo wanna get back to do horseback riding regularly again!

One more ride to go: a boat ride in a fast boat. One of Sari's brothers has a boat with a really strong engine and he took me for a trip on the lake (which, by the way, is huge). It was a lot of fun! (On the map you can see all the bays of the lake. The A stands for the village of Häkkilä, but not for the island we were on.)

As a souvenir from Finland I bought myself a necklace: a triangular shaped piece of an elk hoof.

During the week I also managed to watch all three parts of the Lord of the Rings. I've never watched it before because I'm not a huge fan of very long movies, let alone three very long movies. But I have to admit that it is very good and very interesting once you get into it! :-)

The last days of our stay in Häkkilä is was so hot that I managed to get a sunburn and we got to swim in the lake.

Since I don't have so much experience in driving for long times, I drove about 200 km on our way back. The VW Golf of Sari is really nice and it's quite a lot of fun to drive it! And I figured out that going in a car is much less boring if you drive yourself! :-)

The last few lines of this blog I wanna dedicate to my current hair color: I come to Finland with light/white blond hair and planned on not coloring it before I got home. But my roots were starting to show really bad and it looked quite ghastly. So, Sari and I looked for a strawberry blonde hair color without ammonia (my hair is enough damaged as it is). Well, there is definitely some kind of red in that dirty blonde of my hair color, but it's not how I expected it! :-/ However, I'll now keep it like that until I get back to Germany.

And I end with a picture of the church of Saarijärvi which has the same color-combination as most of the houses in Finland.

A Week full of Animals

2009-06-14T06:14:00.000-07:00

Last week was the first week where I had the boys all week. And apart from some fights between them about the Playstation, it went quite well.
However, on Wednesday Arttu came indoors and was crying. I ran to him and his sweatshirt was bloody and his finger was bleeding. He always said "Pesonen" which is the name of the cat and I figured that the cat had bitten him. But while I cleaned the wound and put a bandaid on his finger, he explained that Pesonen had caught a mouse and when he stepped closer, the mouse bit him. I was quite surprised because I've never heard of wild mouse attacking little boys. And I was even more surprised when Arttu pulled me outside and I saw Pesonen and a huge mouse sitting side by side. I don't know if Personnen had hurt the mouse, but it was only moving very slowly and didn't run away.

The next animals we encountered this week were lice. Arttu had a friend over and her mother just called to tell us that her little brother has lice. And when Sari checked Arttu's head, he already had eggs in his hair. So, Tommi got all of us a nice bottle of lice-shampoo and now my hair smells like medicine! :-/ (If you know start itching all over, I can tell you that this is totally normal. I starting having an itchy head the moment I saw the egg on Arttu's head. So, don't worry: it's just your imagination! :-P)

For Kathleen

2009-06-09T04:08:00.000-07:00

Kathleen, my friend from university, always used to make those little paper boats and I never paid attention to it because I can never remember how to fold things like that correctly. But now I’m alone with the boys all day and have to keep them busy somehow. When the weather is nice, it’s easy: they like to be outside, ride their bikes, jump on the trampoline, play Finnish baseball, basketball…. But right now it’s cold, windy and rainy. So, I had to get creative and look up a website that showed me how to fold those little paper boats. The boys loved it and Valterri was busy for about an hour to paint the one he had made. I also painted mine: in a really girly way! :-P

Aura

2009-06-09T04:06:00.001-07:00

I’ve never been a huge fan of cheese. But I would also never turn down a good kind of blue cheese. But here in Finland, you can get Aura. This cheese is the devil. When the boys are having it, they turn into greedy animals and each of them has to have the biggest piece. (And kids at their age usually don’t even eat a spicy kind of cheese like that.) It went so far that I now regulate their blue cheese intake: each of them is allowed to have one slice of bread with it. And I’m hiding it in the fridge behind the beer. I can’t describe the taste of it, but it’s simply super delicious! I’m already addicted and eat it secretly when the boys are playing upstairs or when they are in bed! :-P I had it only a minute ago and would like to have it again…just the thought of it makes me hungry again…I’m gonna turn into an animal as well…hrrrrrrr!!!

The Cell Phone Country

2009-06-09T04:03:00.000-07:00

Finland is a cell phone country. Everybody has one, even small kids at the age of 5. Nearly nobody has a landline anymore. They are even taken down because they are too much work to maintain for the companies.
And of course, EVERYBODY has a Nokia. I think they would expel me from Finland if I didn't have one!

Tervalampi

2009-06-09T04:01:00.000-07:00

Tervalampi is the village I'm living in. To get a little money for the local school, my host mom organized a shirt sale which promotes this little village. So, here's a picture of the my host family and they are all wearing their Tervalampi sweaters.

The Silence of the Nature

2009-06-08T08:47:00.000-07:00

I spent my last weekend in a village called Häkkilä. And believe me: this is in the middle of nowhere!!! To be more exact: it is in Central Finland. The next town called Saarijärvi (with about 10,000 inhabitants) is 25 km away and there is no grocery store which is any closer. So, you check twice if you have everything on your shopping list before you get back on the long gravel road to your house.
Well, but let me start by giving you a few maps so that you can see where everything is. I live in Tervalampi which is only 40 km away from Helsinki (Map 1). Saarijärvi is 350 km north of Tervalampi and you need 4,5 hours to drive there because of a lack of high ways; not because of the traffic because there is none (Map 2). And the house where Sari, my host mom, grew up in is on a little island called Kurjensaari (saari = island) which is connected to the main land by a bridge (Map 3). The red dot shows you where the house is. The island has, believe it or not, 12 permanent residents (5 of them belong to Sari's family). The other houses are only used as summer cottages.

My host family wanted to leave Tervalampi at 5 pm on Friday. But so far they have never made it on time anywhere. So, I predicted that we would leave at 6 pm and I think I’m a psychic because we did. After a long time on normal concrete roads and the temperatures getting colder all the time, we finally turned onto a gravel road and I figured it couldn’t be long now. On this gravel road we didn’t meet one other car although we stayed on it for about 20 km. When I had already given up hope that we’ll ever arrive, we finally turned onto an either smaller gravel road which was in worse condition. We drove a few meters through the forest and over the bridge and then we stopped at a little yellow house directly by the shore. By the time we arrived at the lake, it was midnight, 2 degrees Celsius (in summer!) and it wasn’t dark at all. (The last picture in this set was really taken at midnight, I swear!)

At least the next day it was up to 6 degrees Celsius and we went to the graduation party of Sari’s niece. They again had sandwich cakes (delicious!) and 7 types of cakes. And none of the clothes I wore (except my underwear, of course) were mine! *lol* I haven't brought any nice clothes to Finland with me. But luckily my host mom nearly has my size! :-) In the evening I took a little walk around the island. Then we relaxed in the sauna (In Finland, women and men go to the sauna separately. In Germany, I always went to the mixed sauna and didn’t mind at all.) While the sun was going down, we roasted sausages over the fire in the dressing room of the sauna, drank alcoholic drinks (The Finnish way of drinking is straight out of the bottle. Who needs glasses anyway?), listened to accordion music and I took about a hundred pictures of the sunset. But it’s definitely one of the prettiest sunsets I’ve ever seen!

On Sunday, we wanted to leave the island at 1 pm and I predicted we would leave at 2 pm. And of course, we did! So, back in the car for 5 hours and I always had at least one of the boys and sometimes even both of them lying on me. But as long as they are sleeping, they are not arguing with each other, so it had its upside! :-P

So, how did I like Häkkilä? It was ok. If it had been warmer and I could have spent time at the beach, I would have probably liked it more. But I asked myself one question while I was there: Can it be too quiet? And my answer is: YES! In Kassel (my university town) I lived in a building close to a tram line, a 4-lane street and regular helicopter traffic to a hospital, so I’m used to lots of noise around me. But on the island I could only hear birds, the occasional lawn mower, and the meowing of a cat. That’s why on the way back I had to turn the volume of my mp3-player up to an almost painful level to surround myself with noise again and to make myself feel normal again! :-P I might go to Häkkila again for midsummer, but this time I’ll take my laptop with me and use the internet of Sari’s brother (who only lives 200 m away) at least every over day. I simply can’t live with my favorite electrical device!!! Maybe I should give my laptop a name. How about Michael? Hmm…

The Toad, the Car, and the Wine

2009-06-02T01:48:00.000-07:00

That title sounds like a great introduction to a weird short story, but it's not. I just want to tell you about a few random things that don't really have a connection.
The Toad: Yesterday Sari was cleaning the car and she suddenly screamed and said something very panicly in Finnish. The reason was a toad that had jumped on her leg. She then told me that toads are very common around the house and I wasn't so thrilled because I really dislike any animal that doesn't have fur; not to say I'm scared of them. And toads are soooooo ugly! :-/

The Car: My host family doesn't just have one Oldtimer, but two. Besides the Beetle, they also have a Triumph which was built in 1972. Tommi bought it in Great Britain and it, of course, has the steering wheel on the right side. Tommi offered me to drive it, but I wasn't brave enough yesterday. But I might in the future!

The Wine: My host parents are both wine-lovers. But the last wine they bought didn't turn out to be their taste. However, this wine reminds me of the kind my mom always buys: kinda dry and strong. So, when my host mom wanted to throw the wine box away, I stopped her and said that I would gladly drink it. However, they didn't want it to be in the kitchen any longer and now I have a box of wine with about 2 litres in it in my room. I'll probably be an alcoholic after 3 months here in Finland. I already drink at least one glass (mostly 2) per evening and now I have my own wine...how bad can it get? *lol* I mean, I've always liked alcohol, but I never drank it that regularly. By the way, the 3 litre box of wine costs 25€ in Finland and I would never throw something that expensive away!

Better Late than Never

2009-06-01T05:15:00.000-07:00

I now have been here for two weeks and just yesterday I finally I got my room all to myself. Well, as I already mentioned: my host family is a bit chaotic and the parents work long hours every day, so nothing can't be done at once.
When I arrived, my host parents let me decide if I'd rather have the computer room or a kind of indoor-balcony as my room. Although the indoor-balcony is very cool because it's high up (like a bunk bed), I chose the proper room because it has more natural light and more privacy (After all, I'm German and I like to close my door! *lol*). So, last week the computer was taken out and moved downstairs, but the desk was still full of papers and pens. But yesterday the desk was tidied up and moved, my bed was moved to a darker spot, I got an extra nightstand, and one of those sacks you can sit on. Now my room is all comfy and very pretty! :-)

My host parents actually wanted to buy me a new and proper bed from IKEA because the bed I'm sleeping on is just a pull-out couch. But I LOVE this couch; it's comfy, has lots of pillows and it's red...why would I need a new one?

Finnish Nights

2009-06-01T04:45:00.001-07:00

On Saturday, my host family and I were invited to the graduation party of one of our neighbors. So, we dressed in our prettiest clothes and walked across the lawn to get to the house. The first interesting point about graduation of senior high school in Finland is that the graduated person gets a rose from his guests (plus either money or some kind of voucher). The second interesting point is that he or she (in my case: he) has to wear a cap all day that looks like some kind of sailor hat.

So, after eating lots of food (In Finland they make something calles sandwich cakes. It's made out of several layers of bread and in between you have either fish or sausage with mayonnaise and maybe vegetables - very delicious! :-)) and drinking a glass of Russian champagne (which was bought in Estonia because buying alcohol for such a big party in Finland would make you go bankrupt), my host parents and I spent the rest of the afternoon on a swing.
In the evening, we went back to our yard, got back into our comfy clothes and read a while. And then I got to know Ville, a guy who only lives a couple of houses across the road, has spent a year in Germany and speaks German faster than I do. We exchanged phone numbers and he said that he's call me if he's going out or if there is some kind of party somewhere. Let's wait and see! He's definitely funny and entertaining! :-)

After having had a bottle of German Weizenbier (Weizen = wheat) and two glasses of champagne, the neighbors asked us if we want to come over again to have the rest of the food and some more alcohol. So, off we went. Then, I was supplied with another glass of champagne, a glass of white wine, a small glass with some kind of liqueur, and a can of Finnish beer which tasted like the watered down version of German beer. Although I only speak 30 words of Finnish and ,of course, can't understand any conversation in Finnish, I stayed there until 2 o'clock at night. Although they only partly spoke in English, I felt very comfy be the little fire and surrounded by many happy people. (And I could stare into the fire for hours and still be entertained. Fire is awesome!) And yes, there are stereotypes about Finnish people that are true. And one of them is: Most Finnish people like to drink lots of alcohol! :-P

What did I do the rest of the weekend? Well, I was working on my tan! Lately, we've had like 28 degrees Celsius here and I managed to burn my neckline a little bit.
And today I did another shopping trip with the Beetle and it went so well that I collected all my courage and took the high way route back home! So far I had been afraid to take the high way with the Beetle because I was afraid it wouldn't make it. But I got it up to 100 km/h and that's the speed limit on this particular high way anyway! *lol* My host mom told me that the Beetle is a girl and can be quite moody sometimes and she really proofed that to me: sometimes she won't start at all and on other days she's just fine!

Nature, Nature and more Nature

2009-05-26T04:35:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I had plenty of time and that's why I though I should discover the area a bit. So, my first trip lead me into the forest behind the house. Part of it is owned by the family, but it goes on for about 30 km. And since the chance of getting lost was so big, Tommi (my host dad) gave me his old GPS. However, I was still too scared to go really far away and that's why it was fairly easy to find back to the red house. Since I have a fairly fancy camera for my means, I took a bunch of pictures just to try it out.

In the afternoon I went to the closest lake by bike. Honestly, I haven't cycled for about a year and the tiny Finnish hills gave me a very hard time. Of course, now the lakes are still too cold for swimming. Just a few weeks ago the ice on them had melted. And 3 minutes after I had arrived at the lake, it began raining and hailing. So, I hid under a roof of one of the houses and had a break which was very appreciated! :-P
By the way, in both places I was listening to music by Rosebud. Well, it actually was Edmund Lowman live in Kassel! :-P

The Silence and the Water

2009-05-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

Standing in the bathroom, brushing my teeth and looking into mirror reminded me of a few advantages of Finland:
Before I came to Finland I was totally stressed out because of my final exams and I often had heartburn, slept like shit or I was quite grumpy. But here in Finland the food seems to agree with me very well, I sleep like a baby and although I had a cold for the past week, I laughed a lot and enjoyed myself here. If I don't set my alarm, I manage to sleep 10 hours straight although the boys are running around in the house or are playing playstation in front of my room. But otherwise it's totally quiet. There is no noise of cars around and the only sounds from the outside come from various birds. I'm sure that in a couple of weeks you'll see an entry here where I'm complaining about the country side and how boring it can be, but right now I really appreciate how relaxed my life is!
And then there is the water that comes out of the tap. First of all, it's very delicious! It comes from a spring under the house and is therefore void of any chemicals like chloride. My facial skin hasn't been so smooth and pretty for a long time and I'm sure that also my hair will now have the opportunity to recover from its last adventure with white blonde dye!
By the way, my host parents have actually set up a few meetings with Finnish people my age who have been to Germany themselves and would like to get to know me to practice their German. I'm all up for it because I don't know many people here yet. Let's see how it goes!

Grocery shopping in Finnish!

2009-05-23T09:56:00.000-07:00

So, this Friday Sari (my host mom) gave me a task: get some food at the store. Well, that sounds easy enough, but it was not! First of all, the next grocery store is in Veikkola (about 6 km away), so I had to take the car. And although the Beetle is kinda cool, it is really hard to drive and I still don't feel very safe with it. Driving it makes me blood pressure go up high! :-P And then there is the language: most words in Finnish are so different that you can't even guess what it might be (unlike in English or Spanish). So, my shopping list was in two languages: English and Finnish (e.g. cucumber = kurkku). That one is actually easy because in German it's "Gurke". But how about that one: beef = nauta? No guessing there. Well, I got into the car. The engine was really grumpy and when the sign said 80 km/h, I barely made it up to 65 km/h. (But going 80 km/h in the Beetle makes you feel like you are going 180 km/h and you have the feeling that it will fall apart any minute.) I made it to the store in one piece and fortunately, there were a lot of free parking spaces. If there hadn't been, I would have returned at once! *lol* Then I went into the store: The vegetables could be found easy enough. But then there was the meat. I know that Sari hates pork. But when I was in front of the shelf for minced meat, it didn't say "nauta" on it anywhere. The inscriptions on the packages had lots of variations, but just "nauta" could not be found. After considering my options for 5 minutes, I decided to go with "naudan jauheliha" and prayed that it wasn't a mix of pork and beef. The last stop was at the juice aisle: Fortunately, the packages had nice pictures on it and I didn't have to guess. Here is what I think: minced beef should have a picture of a cow on it, so that the poor au pairs in Finland who don't speak any Finnish can find the food easier. And I know I'm not the only au pair here that doesn't speak the language. But there is one advantage to not speaking the language: When the boys argue I just yell "Stop!" at both of them and most of the time it even works and I don't have to listen to their weird explanations why Valtteri was unfair to Arttu or vice versa! :-P But the disadvantage is that I can't hear their funny stories kids usually make up in their mind! :-/

PS. Naudan jauheliha was exactly the right kind of meat to get. It only means minced beef! :-)

Sun, Sun and even more Sun

2009-05-20T02:57:00.000-07:00

No, I'm not an au pair in Spain or Italy. I'm in Finland, the country where it doesn't get dark at night during summer, where every house has a sauna, where you are never far away from a lake, where the cheapest bottle of wine costs 6€ (I'd sooo stop drinking of my host parents wouldn't offer me a beer or glass of wine every evening! :-)), and where its not unusual that the next grocery store is 10 or 20 km away from your house.
So far I can't complain about the family I'm living with. The boys are fairly independent and can even fix their dinner themselves when they are having spinach pancakes with strawberry marmelade (not recommandable if you ask me!). But they are also very active: They make me jump on the trampoline with them, make me go for little rides on their bicylcles which are way to small for me, of course, and make me watch one of their 100 animated movies they have on DVD. But right now it's fairly calm because during the day they are at school and I do some housework around the house, but I'm definitely not overworking myself! :-)
Arttu is 9. He's the cuddlier one (at least with me) and he always manages to trick me into letting him playing some kind of computer game although he is not allowed to (during the week).

Valtterri is 7 and likes to play with water, can't get enough of jumping on the trampoline and is a bit cheeky.

The house I'm living on is one a gravel road, is fairly huge and a bit chaotic. It has a nice garden around it and pine woods behind it. And for German standards it's in the middle of nowhere. However, I like it here; it's peaceful and I can always find a book to read! :-)

To get around here, one needs the car. The car I get to drive is a VW Beetle from the year 1973: a real Oldtimer! However, I'm only used to driving new cars with fancy technologies and super good brakes. So, my first two driving lessons were a bit choatic. I'm having problems gettng the car into the second gear and actually all the gears are a bit lose. I just wanted to go for another test drive, but this time it wouldn't start and I have no idea why. But although this car is so old and has so many diadvantages, it's also kinda cool to drive it. And if there is a car behind you and you are not quite going 100 km/h because it's not fast enough, then the driver of the other car won't even complain because he simply assumes that an oldtimer can't go faster and overtakes you with a smile! I think I should give the Beetle a name. It actually already has one: the Finish word for "flee" because when my hostmom bought it a long time ago, she couldn't handle the cluch so well and that made the car jump!

My friends and family know that I'm very picky with food, but here in Finland I can always find something to eat. I've never heard that the Finnish kitchen is especially delicious, but I really like all the variations of bread they have here. Usually when I go abroad the only type of bread I can find is white fluffy bread which I hate. But here they have dark, half-dark, lighter... bread. One is especially funny. It comes in circles and then you rip apart to eat it. And Finns always have bread with their dinner, even when they have pasta, steaks, or any other type of a full meal.

What else? Oh yeah, let's talk about one of the major stereotypes:
Finns are cold-hearted. Not at all!!! The family I'm living with has lots of humour, treats me like another family member, and I felt at home after only one day.
Well, but although the weather has been so good here, I caught a cold. It's my welcome-you-are-in-another-country-cold; I get it every time when I intend to stay at a place longer than 2 weeks.

I want to go everywhere!

2009-04-19T03:59:00.000-07:00

On April 22 I'll have my last exam and will finally be finished with my university studies. And although they were fun (especially because of the English drama group, the English student paper, and the student council) I'm glad that it's over because I feel ready to do something new.
My first step to do something new will be going to southern Finland for 3 months to be an au pair for a Finnish family. (The village I'll be living in is called Tervalampi and it's in the region of Vihti.) My plane will leave on May 16 and I'm already really excited! :-) I'll be looking after two boys (7 and 9 years old) and will try to teach them some English. As of yet I don't speak any Finnish, but I'll probably learn a few important phrases while I'm there.
On August 23 I'll take a plane to Costa Rica. I'll stay there for one day and then I'll take a bus to Panama (Boquete) where I'll start my internship in a hotel which will last 6 months. I've never been to Latin America before and it's probably going to be very interesting for me! I hope I'll be able to improve my Spanish there (although my boss will be German and most guests will be American).
After my internship I'll plan to fly to North Carolina, USA to spend a few weeks or possible months with my former host family. It's more or less just going to be a holiday for me because I'm not allowed to work in the US. And after that? I don't know...I'll keep you informed! :-P