Betsy's Habitat in Finland

Picture it, Tapiontie 9 B 12 . . . Having a hard time? Never been there? Well, I know it has been a long time coming, but I am going to give you all the world star tour of Tapiontie 9 B 12, inhabited by Eva, Czech Republic, Betsy, USA, Delphine, France, and Annie, Isle de Reunion (French). These first pictures that I present to you are the before shots of our apartment. At the closing of my journey here in Finland, I will take another set of pictures to show you all how the flat has changed and accumulated the things that make our flat feel more at home.

Here I show you the precious key to my building and my front door. If I were to lose this key I would have pay 120 euros to get it replaced!

TERVETULOA to my building (or at least the front door) . . .

There are 3 sections of Tapiontie 9: A, B, and C. There are corridors connecting A to B and B to C. In building A is Sauna 1 (the one that works). In the corridor between A and B there is Sauna 2 (which does not work). The laundry room with two washers (not very big), one VERY large dryer, and two VERY large drying rooms is in the corridor between B and C.

9 B 12’s front door. . .

Here you being your first journey through my humble abode . . . (note that the door has no handle, has a peep hole, a door bell, and a mail slot).

Other side of the door . . .

I found it quite interesting that there was no handle on the outside of the door. At least there is one on the inside. Maybe that makes things safer? I dunno.

(oh, and this is completely off topic, but back in sophomore English I didn’t exactly try to hard to remember certain rules of English, so maybe one of you all will inform me of the rules with more and most and –er and–est. Such as I wrote above, am I correct in saying safer, or is it more safe? Also, as another side tangent, if there are grammatical mistakes, misspellings and such, don’t get too annoyed with me; I do try to proofread).

The second door after the first door . . .

I think this door is supposed to cut down on the amount of noise that sometimes comes in through the stairwell. Are you catching on with a theme here? . . . White, white, and more white.

Since I am on a door theme, here is another one . . .

And door number FOUR leads to . . . zee bazsroom.

Typical sink and mirror scene . . .

Yes, one of the lights is out, and they keep on going out! Rather irritating. I feel like I am back in my apartment Building J 339 A. Every couple weeks one of the light bulbs goes out. Grrr. Stupid light bulbs! ;) Maybe it is a sign. The Finnish people who make up the plans for bathrooms aren’t very bright (you will see what I mean in the below picture).

Do you notice anything a little different?

Well for one thing, the previous tenants don’t know how to clean a bathroom! Yucky! Well at least we got away from the purely white theme: pinks and rusty colors! Woo whooo!
;) Anyhow do you notice something a little weird about this picture? Yeah, there is no partition between the shower and the toilet! All I know is that if this were the case in Samantha’s old bathroom in Building B 339, her feet would smell like urine. Thankfully none of ours do, and Annie, the cleaning machine, scrubbed that floor like there was no tomorrow! She did a good job too (but you’ll see an after shot in a few months).

Here is a close up of the toilet . . .

I encountered my first Finnish toilet in the Helsinki airport. It took me about a minute to realize that the object on top of the toilet was the flusher.

Now for the bedrooms . . .

This is the bigger bedroom where the French girls stay. Needless to say, but it doesn’t look like this anymore. You can’t see but to the right of the picture are the closets. I didn’t feel like taking any other angles.

The other bedroom . . . (at 2 angles)

This is the smaller of the two rooms. Eva sleeps on the bottom, and I sleep on the top. This is the first night I was in my flat. Messy already! Haha!

Here is our closet . . .

Quite small, I know. I find it rather amazing thatboth of us are able to fit all of our clothes in this one closet. Real women we are!

First angle of our wonderful kitchen . . .

Not much to it, but the white theme is still going on. The bag is from Valintatalo. You have to pay for the plastic bags here! An atrocity, I know. The bags are anywhere between .13 and .17 cents per bag.

Angle number two . . .

Again more and more white!

Our dishes and stuff . . . I have to do quite a bit of converting . . .

Thankfully, the previous tenants (students) left us tons of silverware, cups, mugs, cooking utensils, cooking ware, etc. We had to buy a couple of things, but for the most part not much :) Notice the oven has degrees Celsius. I also have to convert cups, tablespoons, etc. into milliliters, deciliters, etc. I guess learning math did pay off ;)

Our humble living room . . .

When I first arrived, I thought we might have 6 girls living in one flat. I also thought that it would be disastrous! One bathroom for 6 girls, no way Jose!

Well, that’s all folks (for now). I’ll post some of the pics around the outside of our flat as well another day :)

Ystäväpäivä

Yes, Hyvää Ystäväpäivä! Happy Valentine's Day!! Or is it, Happy "Valentine's" Day?? First of all sorry this is 6 days after v-day, but hey at least I am getting to it now . . . . Back to v-day. So, it seems that Finland does 'celebrate' Valentine's Day; however, they celebrate it with different intentions involved. The first item to note when saying Hyvää Ystäväpäivä is the word Ystävä. This word in Finnish stands for "friend" in English. My Kummi friend Janika (or Eureka; haha, sorry inside joke), said that they do not discriminate between the singles and couples. I thought, "These Finns are an egalitarian society!" Now, don't get me wrong, sure they have little hearts, candies, and other commerical items for sale, but it isn't such a big deal here as it is in the USA. In fact, most of Europe, even the FRENCH, don't really take Valentine's Day very seriously. Delphine one of my French roomies said that she didn't need one day to tell her boyfriend she loved him. But she did send him these goofy little heartsy, gag-me gifts.

So, what exactly is this day to you? Who is St. Valentine (I have been meaning to research this, but it hasn't happened yet)? Should this day also be called "Singles Awareness Day," to help make this day more "user friendly"?

Match Maker Finland

“. . . Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Make me a match, Find me a find, catch me a catch . . . Matchmaker, Matchmaker, Look through your book, And make me a perfect match . . . ” Fiddler on the Roof. Finland has brought many surprises my way. It feels as if I have already been here for more than 3 months. This match maker, Finland, has done quite a phenomenal job of connecting me to the right people, places, things, and animals at the right time. There are four match making events that have stood out like the beautiful wild flowers of the Great Smokey Mountains in the early spring season. The following four match making events are in short detail, but if you would like more description I can give it at another time. It can be rather difficult to truly convey the meaning of all of these without facial expressions, intonation, and body language.

Numero yksi concerns the exchange students of this semester. Never in my life have I been with such a large group of people who love to be inclusive, not exclusive. Gossiping, drama, and jealousy, seem to bounce of the force field around this group of exchange students that I love to hang out with.

(This is not everyone, but the pic contains most of us).

Numero kaksi deals with my roomies. For the past 2 and half years I have lived with other people, but I have always had my own room and either have had my own bathroom or have had to share with only one other person (Nicole, a.k.a. - Tina). Here in Finland, I not only have to share a bedroom, which contains a bunk-bed (I sleep on the top), but I also have to share ONE bathroom with three other girls. At first I was quite leery about the whole situation and almost convinced myself that it just would not turn out to be the best living situation. Boy was I wrong. Finland brought me my bedroom roomie, Eva from Czech Republic, and two French girls who are flat roomies, Annie and Delphine. Not a day goes by without some sort of laughter in the apartment! When I’m in a bad mood, it seems to dissipate when the girls enter the room. Couldn’t have asked for a better living situation. (Delphine and Annie)














(Me and Eva)

Now, numero kolme is a bit more light hearted and amusing (in my opinion). All exchange students have an opportunity to have a Kummi Family. What is a Kummi Family? First of all they are Finns who enjoy the company of foreigners and they invite you to become like almost part of the family. Before I met my Kummi Family, I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t really have any expectations, except that they would be nice to me; I certainly had that one ;) Without great detail of the initial meeting and buying of food to take to their home, I will get to the main part of numero kolme of the match making events. As a background note, my favorite car has almost always been BMW 325i. Someday when I have lots of money I’m going to buy me one or at least, one like it. Thus, the moment we reached their car after our round in Stockmann, I knew that we were a match. They had a BMW 325i, and it was even a stick shift!! I was amazed. Of course, the car wasn’t the end all be all of the match making by Finland. I definitely felt even more chemistry between them and me when we arrived at their house and talked for about 3 hours! (Sorry, I don't have a picture of them yet).

Finally, numero nelja. Another light hearted match making event concerns a little furry creature, who will eventually grow up to be a big furry creature. One Sunday afternoon downtown, my couple of my friends and I stroll down the pedestrian street to find one of the cutest puppies I have ever seen! With a mostly black coat, but also with some brown and white, this furry creature and I locked eyes. All of the sudden, I was bombarded by paws and a tongue. A young little puppy on a leash had found its way to me. I was attached. Of course I obviously can’t have a dog right now, and can’t even have one when I go back to JC, but I can dream of a time on down the road when I could have one. However, it was rather distressing, because I didn’t know the breed of dog! The very next day, my task was to find out what breed of dog I had encountered. When I finally found the breed, I was stunned. Do you ever receive those forwards in emails that tell you to take a certain type of quiz and it will tell you what color you are and what it means, what type of dog or cat or other animal you are and what that means? Well, I have. A few years ago I took one of those silly quizzes that would determine what type of dog I was. My results showed that I was much like a Bernese Mountain Dog. As you are probably figuring out by now, they breed of dog I fell in love with that Sunday afternoon was a Bernese Mountain Dog!



Like I said Finland sure does know how to do match-makin’.

Rant of the Day . . .

Need a WC, might cost you? First of all you might be wondering why you would want a WC in the first place, and what in the world is a WC? Well, if you are anything like me you had to have somebody inform you of the WC, and how it is such a commodity here. Come to find out, the WC is not only a commodity here, but it is also in several other European countries! In suspense? What is WC . . . it is Water Closet. Yeah, I was a little confused since those are English words; I’ll have to find out why exactly Finns started to call it a Water Closet when they normally change all foreign words in to Finnish ones (e.g. computer = tietokone). But I digress, back to the commodity of the Water Closet. Thankfully, in the university the WC’s are free. Now, you might ask, why would they be anything other than free? Huh, I thought the same. My friends informed me several weeks ago that to use the public bathrooms here you must pay anywhere from 1 to 2 euros!!!! I was disgusted!! Well, maybe not disgusted, more so stunned. It wasn’t that I did not believe them, but I was skeptical seeing as how I didn’t have to pay in the airport. Having to pay to use the bathroom? That’s just weird.

Also, sometimes the bathrooms even have attendants that collect the money!! I haven’t experienced that yet, but my poor friend has. She was so desperate to use the bathroom, and didn’t have any cash on her, that she used her VISA Check Card to pay the 1 euro. So, the attendant took her VISA Check Card to pay the 1 euro! Well, I finally came into contact with the bathroom where you had to pay to do your business. You would think that these 1 to 2 euro bathrooms would have marble slabs for sinks, mosaic flooring, and so clean that you could lick the floor. Just kidding! Not so much there sweetie . . . graffiti everywhere, I wouldn’t even want to drop anything on the floor, let alone lick it! I didn’t take a picture of the inside bathroom (thought it might some how be invasive). However, I did take a picture of the outside so you all could see what I mean. Crazy, Crazy. For all of you who have small bladders, tough luck, bring your own cup with you or find a bush.

Concerning Pekanpähkinää and Aunt Carol's Bataatti Vuoka

Alrighty, I actually wrote this on the 26th of Jan, but obviously didn't post until today. So I am refering to the 26th and 27th of January (Tammikuu)


I had been planning since this morning to venture to Euromarket/Prisma to shop for some ingredients to make Aunt Carol’s sweet-potato (bataatti) casserole (vuoka). They are two of the largest stores here (Wal-Mart size after you put them both together). As a side note, both stores are literally right beside each other. In fact you don’t even have to go outside to get to the other side of the store. However, you cannot take products from one side of the store to the other unless you have paid for them. Back to my story . . . Thus, after both the Kalevala Mythology and Due North classes, I begin the long trek to the “big stores” to get better discounts. As I make my way through the long corridors of the school I met another exchange student along the way, Kathy from Belgium. As girls normally do, we began with the usual how you doings (with replies) and other small talk bits of questions and answers. Rather sweet girl she is, and pleasant to be around. Anyhow we soon realize that we are headed in the same direction and come to find out . . . we both are making the trip to Euromarket/Prisma! Not only were both of us going to Euromarket/Prisma, but both of us were going there for the same reason: to get ingredients for a recipe to bring to the ESN International Dinner party tomorrow night (1/27/06)! Haha. Well, we thought it was funny. Now, with a companion, to the store I went.

Never in my life would I have thought finding pecans would be such a hassle. It took me about 10 minutes to realize that pecans are a precious commodity here in Oulu, Finland. At around the 10 minute mark I broke down and asked for help! Ah, yes, the woman inside me came out. I approached a Finnish Prisma employee, praying to God that she would half way understand English (I have encountered a few Finns here who can’t understand English all that well; quite alright though). God answered, and this employee was ready and willing to help both Kathy and me out! Hallelujah! Though not prosperous to me, Kathy did find her “vanilla sugar.” The employee was genuinely sorry that they did not have pecans. She even said, if you need anymore help feel free to come ask me, and said it with a smile. Such a peace washed over me. I just love nice, helpful people! Okey, dokey . . . Kathy and I finally finish our grocery shoppin’ (at least in Prisma). Prisma did not have nutmeg (muskottipähkinä) and obviously, did not have pecans. To Euromarket I went to see if I would be successful there. Kathy said that she would watch our stuff while I went to look. Like I said, such a sweet girl! This was only the beginning of my many thanks to her tonight. I did have luck with the nutmeg, but still no such luck with the pecans. I know, so sad. As we gathered our many bags of groceries, Kathy mentioned that she remembered seeing a large selection of nuts at Tokmanni, the largest of the three grocery stores in the Linnanma area.

Now, one major thing I forgot to be ready for was the fact that we had a rather far walk ahead of us – more so for me because my flat is another 300 meters or so from Yliopistokatu 16 (where Kathy lives). Back home when I go grocery shoppin’ I always take my car with me. I notice how heavy the bags are, but I know I don’t have far to take them and have time to take them up to my abode in sections. I rather forgot that the means I had been so accustomed to were not available to me anymore. All I had were my two little legs and arms that haven’t been exercising lately. Yep, about 7 minutes into our trip sweat was dripping down my face, back, front side, underarms, and everywhere else that sweat can come out on the body. All of that equals: HOT Betsy! I asked Kathy if it was okay if we stopped and rested a bit to let my arms have a bit of a break. She obliged and said she needed it herself. We repeat this process several times along the way (I felt like a cow). This trip made me realize how out of shape I am and how weak my muscles are! Betsy needs to get her booty in gear! Anywho, when we arrive at Yliopistokatu 16 Kathy informs me to wait on her, and that she would be back to help me take my things to Tapiontie 9 B 12. What did I say before? Sweet girl! I couldn’t thank her enough for helping me with my things and taking time out of her schedule to help me.

After she left, I prepared to make my way to the store again. Only this time the Tokmanni store (much, much closer to where I live). By this time, I am famished and ready to eat an entire cow – I could have eaten myself (seeing as how I felt like a cow) but that would be cannibalism and that’s just not right! Note to self and all others: don’t go to the grocery store when you are hungry! Although I didn’t buy that much food, I had to REALLY restrain myself from buying other things besides pecans (if they were present in the store). Praying and searching I find the nut section, and . . . . . . . . . . . Hallelujah, hallelujah . . . hallelujah-hallelujah . . . Halle-lay-lou-ya!!!!! ;) hehe. It was like finding the Holy Grail! Okay so not that much like it, but close! It was the last two bags of pecans too!! When I looked at the price for them it displayed: 10 euros. Jeeze, that’s expensive. But I said to myself you need those! So, I bought them and come to find out. Ah-ho-no, no, no, they were NOT 10 euros. They were 12.50!!!!!!!!! Yes, I know. My eyes popped out of my head. 12.50 for only a 500 gram bag of pecans (each bag was 12.50). Didn’t know pecans could be that expensive. But seeing as how the big stores didn’t even have pecans, I guess it is to be expected. With pecans in hand I finally could go back home in peace to make my bataatti vuoka!

I actually made the bataatti vuoka on Friday (perjantai). In order for it to be fresh and warm :) Well, I thought that people would possibly enjoy it, but not enjoy it as much as I do. Well, by golly I was sure dern wrong ;) haha. But I must also note that my roomie Eva (from Czech Republic helped me prepare the casserole. She didn't have time to go out and buy some of her ingredients so it was a "collaboration." Now, at the dinner everybody kept coming up to me saying how wonderful this "stuff" was and kept asking what exactly was in it! In short, I think my Aunt Carol's Sweet Potato Casserole is going to be all over Europe! Here is the picture below :)