Huomenta!
Yesterday night I had my first sauna in a private room located in Tiffiny and Risto’s apartment building. They saunaed in one room while I took the other. It felt so refreshing to relax and shower after my flight. We had dinner afterwards and then watched the news, where I discovered the Toronto Maple Leafs lost something painful to the Ottawa Senators. Yikes! The series is tied 2-2 now.
I am writing this from the new location of the Self-access Language Lab on Fabianinkatu. I walked up to and in to the lab’s former location in the building next door, only to discover that it had been converted to private offices. Oops. A sign outside directed me to the new location, however it was a comedy to watch me try to gain access to the building, as only one set of doors was open. These doors were located in a courtyard and not at external street level. I finally found the place, and am checking my E-mail here, when I am away from Tiffiny and Risto’s computers.
Once I finish here I will phone SAS (Scandinavian Air Service) to book my flight on 26.4 to Copenhagen (returning 9.5). I will not be spending all that time in Copenhagen; I plan to be there three nights then spend 29.4–9.5 on the Danish island of Bornholm. I had already purchased my flight from Copenhagen to Rønne (capital of Bornholm) via the Internet from home in Canada.
This evening I will be meeting a friend of a Scrabble friend for dinner and clubbing. Leslie Shannon, a friend of Scrabbler Ben Greenwood, moved to Helsinki a few months ago and we have been E-mailing each other ever since. Tonight I will finally meet her and after dinner we will go dancing to dtm and stay till who knows when. Thank-you, Leslie, for putting me up at your place tonight. Leslie is also coming with me to see Scandinavian Music Group at Helsinki club Tavastia tomorrow night. Looks like I’m going to bunk down on her couch for two nights in a row!
I will hit the post office and then the bookstores. I will be on the hunt for Finnish Christmas cards and postcards, and I know where to find them. I just have to find the courage to ask for them, even though I know I will end up looking like a complete idiot. “This foreigner doesn’t know what the heck he’s asking for. He just asked for Christmas cards for goodness sake. Someone show the Canadian a calendar.”. Wish me luck.
So much to do, no need to try to do it all in one day. I’m in Finland till the 26th, then again from 9-11 May, so I shouldn’t be all excited about getting all I want done by 6 tonight.
Check your mailboxes people! If you sent me your mailing address, you will get a postcard, I promise. I might however save the bulk of my writing for when I am on Bornholm. My access to a computer might very well be nonexistent while I am on the island, so my communication will be via the old-fashioned snail-mail way.
To my Scrabble friends: if you see Eric Chaikin’s new Scrabble film, “Word Wars”, please tell me about it! Look what I’m missing, a local screening of a Scrabble movie and I’m not even in the country to see it.