Six months have gone by FAST!

Today marks our six month anniversary of moving to Finland. So far, so good! The honeymoon is over for sure, but there are more than enough good experiences to outweigh the bad.

Things I Did Not Miss While in the US:

Not complaining, just didn’t miss ‘em. Didn’t even think about them.

*Looking at the clock and subtracting 12.

*Squeegy-ing the floor after a shower.

*Trying to guess the temp in Fahrenheit when it’s given in Celsius.

Surprise! There’s a ‘Things I Missed While in the US’ list as well:

*Studded tires

*Heated floors

*My Nursery friends, short and tall.

*Lakerol mints. Can’t hack Lifesavers anymore.

*Marli Natur juice, specifically mandarin orange.

*My bed, but I guess that’s not Finland specific.

Sliding snow: Last weekend temps were to get above freezing. Dan’s co-workers warned him to be careful of snow sliding off the roofs. Wasn’t too concerned about it until I started seeing this:

I don’t remember this phenomenon happening when we lived in Iowa or Indiana. Not enough snow?

It sounds eerie when you’re inside and it starts sliding. Like a giant is trying to scratch his/her way through the roof.  Thankfully, no one got dumped on by the sliding snow, although it would’ve made a great submission for America’s Funniest Videos.

Ice skating-postponed: Above freezing temps turned the ice skating rink on the soccer field into a slush fest. No ice skating this week. The PE teacher is concerned the city won’t refreeze it, Zamboni it, whatever they do to make it smooth. I asked Lauren if the skating unit would be cancelled and she said, “No, we’ll just skate on a bumpy rink.” Sounds fun!

My first encounter with Finnish police: Friday I went into Helsinki. At an intersection there appeared to have been an accident. A police officer was directing traffic. (I use the word ‘directing’ loosely.) I needed to go straight. The street was clear, despite a car that had been in the accident being off to the side. The officer waves us through.  And when I say wave, I mean he put his hand in front of him, palm facing in, and then pulled it back toward his shoulder. No directing us to the right or left, just a ‘let’s move it’ gesture. I go straight. He starts yelling at me and I slam on the brakes. Before I can roll down my window, he has yanked open my door and is yelling angrily at me in Finnish. Then he points to the left. After I turned, the taxi behind me tried to go straight as well so it wasn’t just me that misunderstood his ‘directing’.

I was a little rattled as I drove away, which surprised me. I’ve had people yell at me before. My time at Whitey’s gave me plenty of experience in that department. You’d be surprised how many people get angry about their ice cream. But I digress. What shook me up is that he opened my door. He got in my space. If he wanted to he probably could’ve dragged me out of the car, once he got past the seat belt. Or punched me. Or poked me in the eye. Nutshell, I didn’t like it and I will be more vigilant about locking my doors once I’m in the car.

What are we going to do with this?: Dan got this as a present from a customer. Fancy shmancy cookies, candies and a bottle of champagne. Cookies and candies we’re all over. Champagne, not so much. The kids asked what we were going to do with it. We asked what they thought we should do with it. Their reply: “Let’s smash it against a boat!”

Froot Loops excitement!: Found this at the store on Monday. It was not on the American end cap. (Read: Almost normal price of €2.69.) Cool! At Christmas time the same store offered a 24 case of Coke for €23. Unfortunately, it was just for the holidays. I hope the Froot Loops is permanent.

They have a funky color. Maybe it has to do with this.

Freezer: Here’s a picture of one of our freezer drawers. Since I don’t normally buy my meat with the head still on, I had to think about what each picture represented. The reindeer one makes me smile.

Injury #641: (I may be exaggerating a tad.) Wednesday Dan sprained his ankle playing basketball. Shocker.

Here, his minion for the morning went out and got a bucket of snow so he could ice his ankle. She was really happy to take this picture.

Dan, enjoying his breakfast and a bucket of icy snow water. Best picture out of three.