Shopping Spree!!!

To be honest, I haven't done all that much shopping here. I hadn't really been into that many stores either. I realized last week that that had to change. I got done with clinical a little early today, and had two hours to kill before meeting my nursing instructor for a final evaluation.

Clearly I spent my 2 hours very well :)

The meeting with my professor was a little sad, mostly because she asked me to sum up what I learned, experienced, ect, what I loved, what was hard, and so on. I realized that even though things were rough, (I didn't always have the clinical placements I wanted, it was hard to communicate with patients), I would not have changed any of it. It all was to my benefit and they built upon each other. I am extremely grateful that I got to do this. I have opened my eyes more so than ever before to people of different cultures and backgrounds, and I think I will be a better nurse because of it.

Me and Sirkka

She was so sweet, and even bought me this cute mug to remind me of Finland. (These are cartoon characters that are HUGE over here!)

This evening my American friend Aaron and I went out to dinner, to celebrate me going home. He's been a good friend to me, especially on those days where I've needed to rant about things here, or talk about what I miss from America. He's been here for over a year already, so he totally gets all those emotions. We've had a good time together, and we enjoyed being able to slip into our "American phrases" as Leena likes to call strange metaphors and phrases that we have.

Some of the fun things we've done:

Playing cards...

Seeing the National Ballet perform with the local chillens;

And so, another day has suddenly slipped away!

T-minus 7....

I can't believe that I only have ONE week left! This time has snuck up on me, and I've decided that I'm not counting down the time until I leave, I'm making the most of my time left by reminding myself how short it is. And even though my computer is so slow, it takes hours to blog, who needs sleep anyway?? :)

This weekend we had Saarika's family over and it was so nice to see them again and spend time together. We just relaxed, ate food, and chatted, played games, ect, but it was a nice time together.
And yesterday we celebrated my friend Eva's (trip to Lapland) birthday by eating! Flashback to our fabulous trip:

Me, Santa, Zofie, Eva

And today was another great day! I have two more days of clinical left (tomorrow and wednesday!!), and it looks like this new place will be very interesting. It's an elderly home, but not a nursing home. More like assisted living. There is a nurse on hand that helps with medications, but the residents all have their own apartments. Some need help with cleaning and getting ready, but they are all mobile and can take of themselves for the most part. They even have a sauna there! I spent the morning doing the ladies' hair as they came out of the sauna. I learned that I should stick to nursing and not go into hairdressing. I'm really, really bad at curlers!

In the afternoon, I filled pill boxes. For hours. If I never see another stack of empty pill boxes and dozens and dozens of medicine bottles, I will be happy (at least for a month). It gave me a headache. But it was a good challenge to help me remember what all the medications are for.

In the evening I took a walk around Savonlinna, again to the castle, and just soaking up every moment. I dont' want to forget how beautiful it is here.

When I got home, Leena and I had such a good chat for over an hour (me sitting on the floor in my room), solving all of life's problems. I love talking to her. We always have so much to say and time flies by. I will definitely miss these moments when we are sitting on the bed, or in the sauna, talking about what matters most to us and what problems and stressors we currently have in our lives. I was surprised by how quickly we shared some of our deepest thoughts, and I will treasure these moments with her. I will miss her for sure when I am gone :(

Welcome back winter!

You thought winter was over?? Psych. It came back with a vengeance today with over a foot of snow. Last Friday we were enjoying this:

And then today we found this (At the same time of day!): 

It's really ok. I like snow. But the nurses all told me that the reason it snowed was because it's market day. It only happens twice a year, and only for two days. And every year, it snows. I was thinking, of course Finland is the only place where a market is so dedicated that it would stay open in spite of inches of snow!!

There were breads, sweets, sausages, food, toys, handmade wooden carvings, wool knit socks and scarves, clothes, ect. People from all around the area travel here for these two days. I didn't buy anything, but I was so happy to find out when I got home that Leena had already bought some of the sweet breads :) Yum. I'm going back tomorrow...maybe I'll buy something!

On another note, last week was the last week of our Finnish lessons. This week we decided to get together and celebrate not having class anymore. I was grateful for this class because it has helped me meet many other exchange students here studying different things. Also, I have never been part of a more international group, and it was both fun and exciting. German, Austrian, Chinese, Hungarian, French, English... My favorite moment of the night was when we were talking about how animal sounds are said in different languages. Everybody cracked up when I said that a rooster goes "cock-a-doodle-doo."Meeting so many friends from around the world has been a great experience, learning about other countries, cultures, mannerisms. I was amazed tonight that there were 12 of us, from around the world brought together by this experience in Finland, speaking English to each other, but at times breaking into these other languages. 

No matter the political conflicts or differences of opinion, people are people and by human nature we bond and create friendships regardless of backgrounds, culture, language, or country!

Feeding the Baby Seals

In this time of year, baby seals are born all around the Savonlinna area. There is an organization that named Savonlinna the city of the seals and have started a celebration each year for the baby seals. You know how when your neighbor has a baby, you bring them food or something to eat? In Finland, many people get pulla, for example. Today's event is basically symbolic for doing that for the mother seals. Two men in scuba gear bring pulla and fish under the water to a monument of seals in the middle of the lake.

The starting point

And the destination

They start on the side of the lake and swim the few meters underwater to find the seal, using a compass. When they find it they put the pulla on their own heads and then transfer it to the seals. It was funny because they completely went around the seal and it took them longer.

They had a hard time finding it...

The act of providing this pulla means that the people of the area are interested in the welfare of the seals and want to protect and provide for them. This year it's more dangerous for the baby seals because there's no snow. Usually they burrow under the snow on the ice to stay warm in these months, but without the ice or the snow, it makes it harder for these seals to survive. Check out the ceremony in two parts in the videos below :)

Success!

I thought it was a nice ceremony. Only a few people were there, but there was a small band and a guy selling hot dogs. It was snowing pretty hard right before it started and I didn't want to get out of the car, but right as the men found the seal, the sun came out and everything cleared up. It was a beautiful day.

 On another note, today we had some company over.  The husband is Finnish and moved to South America where he met his wife. They have twin girls, and they just moved here a few months ago. The wife is learning Finnish, and doesn't speak English. So I really really enjoyed speaking with her in Spanish. It made me realize how excited I am to use Spanish with my patients or others that I meet. I've realized that I do know it better than I think. It's strange that it took crossing the ocean and coming to a country that has few Spanish speakers for me to realize that! I felt a little bad because we were just chatting away in Spanish for a long time!

Skates and Frozen Lakes

This weekend I had my first outdoor sports in Finland. It was so exciting! 

Savonlinna is almost completely surrounded by lakes, and this time of year, they are finally frozen over enough to ski and ice skate. I've had my fair share of ice skating, but it's never been on a lake! So Leena and I packed up the two kiddos along with a neighbor friend to enjoy some time in the Finnish sunshine.

The original plan was to skate the 2km to the other side, have some warm pancakes and then skate back. We probably only made it 1km with the kiddos :) 

Now, even though I lived in Utah for the past five years, close to the "Best snow on Earth", I have never been skiing. Cross-country or downhill. It's really a shame...and a little embarassing. That's ok, though, because I'm definitely getting that experience here!

I started off trying the cross-country skiing. Let me tell you, I definitiely underestimated how hard it is! I only did it for about 5 minutes before I awkwardly fell down. I know I looked like a foreigner for sure because the kids here learn how to ski in elementary school. Good thing there are no picture of those few minutes. But Pekka here was patient, and even though he speaks no English and I speak little Finnish, he was very helpful :)

I haven't given up on skiing! But ice skating is more up my alley. 

The weather was really nice, and skating on the frozen lakes through the beautiful woods of Finland was such a cool experience! I mean, just look at it!

Even though we didn't make it all the way we wanted to, we had a great time together with friends and family. I will definitely make the trip over to this place again sometime soon

I love my Finnish mother :)

Becoming cultured and cracking ice

Disclaimer: Excessive photos of the same stuff over and over again. I just loved every picture so I couldn't choose!

Today our school organized a cultural event for all the exchange students (there are only 16 of us). I was really excited because this is the kind of stuff that I really like. Our morning started by touring the Olavinlinna Castle in Savonlinna. This castle was built in the 1600s and has been in control of the Swedish and Russians. When Finland became independent from Russia in 1917, it was abandoned for a time until it was restored in the 1970s. It was used as mainly a war castle, and it's position on the island in the middle of lakes made it ideal for defense. It was really interesting to see the castle and learn about Scandinavian history. And the castle was so beautiful! Also, it was freezing!

Next we stopped at a museum by the castle to learn about the history of the Savonlinna area. The most important thing I learned is that baby seals will be born in February. Don't worry, I'll be looking for them on the lakes :)

After the museum we took the 30 km drive to Kerimäki, which is home to the world's largest wooden church, built in the late 1800s. The official religion of Finland is Lutheranism. It's only open during the summertime because it's dangerous of course in the winter to light fires in there, so we didn't really expect to be able to go inside. However, the caretaker of the church happened to pull up as we got there so he let us in. It was huge and freezing. But very fascinating. It can hold up to 5,000 people. In that time, they wanted a church big enough to fit most of the congregation in at one time. So, high ceilings and wall to wall benches. Leena told me that on Christmas Eve they hold a service, and each member holds a candle, so they worship by candlelight. I think that must be a sight to see!

After Kerimäki, we took a drive through the countryside, stopping at different places of interest, that were closed. We would drive for 20 minutes, pull up, learn something about it, and then hear "well unfortunately it is closed so..." The best part of the day came last. We pulled up over a ridge that overlooks the Lake Saimaa in Punkaharju (near Savonlinna) in a national forest. We originally stopped to take pictures of the sunset, but we ended up going out onto the frozen lake. We had so much fun making snow angels, taking jumping pictures, and running around. Until we heard a loud crack! That sent us all running for the shore. My heart jumped into my throat! But it didn't crack, just made a few more loud noises. So we were safe!

All in all, it was a beautiful day today in Finland. I'm learning to develop an appreciation for the snow. It makes the whole world so beautiful and clean looking. I love it!

Church and Chocolate Chip Cookies

We have had a very busy weekend here in Savonlinna.

As I mentioned in my last post, as a way to welcome me here, Saarika invited me to her house for dinner on Friday night. Well, something that I learned very quickly was that she loves chocolate. Brownies are her absolute favorite, but when she asked me, I told her chocolate chip cookies. And I'm not even going to be humble, my recipe is the best. It just is. So we decided to give those a try because she loves cookies but had never made homemade ones before, and I love to bake. It was an adventure.

When we were getting the ingredients at the store, we had a hard time finding vanilla. That's just an easy thing to find back home, but the store didn't have the liquid kind. It had the plant. Which we had to open and scrape out to get our vanilla. That's the first difference.

Secondly, I was worried because my recipe uses cups. Thank goodness previous BYU groups that have visited brought cups for Saarika to use with brownie mixes from the U.S. They use deciliters here for measuring-that would be tricky to convert.

Third. No hand mixer. Usually you beat the sugar and butter together until they're mixed. I used my hands. It was left as sort of a grainy texture...

Fourth. No teaspoons. It was a guestimate. I only hoped we didn't add too much salt.

Finally, the oven was in Celsius. So we had to eyeball the cooking time. Overall I was very impressed. They turned out exactly like my favorite ones we make at home. And the kids loved them, too. They were gone by the next day. :)

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Some of my extended family lives in a small town in South Dakota. We are all members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also known as "Mormons," but since there are few people in that small town, there are few members as well. We call our large congregations "wards", but when they are small they are called a "branch." The branch in South Dakota has about 20 people. I knew Savonlinna had a branch, and I was prepared that it would be smaller than my 150 member student ward at BYU. I was very interested to see how differently church might function. 

In our church we have three hours of meetings. First we have our worship service, our "Sacrament Meeting." Then we have Sunday School and finally Relief Society for women and Priesthood for men. This branch only meets for two hours and rotates Sunday School and Relief Society/Priesthood every other week because they are small. There were probably 15-18 people there for Sacrament Meeting and 8 for Sunday School. One of the missionaries blessed the Sacrament and the other passed it. Leena was playing the piano for the meeting so she told me to sit by the elders (missionaries) so they could translate for me. I was very impressed. One had only been in Finland for 8 months but was able to translate most of the talk for me, except for quotes. For scriptures he just told me the reference and we looked them up in my English scriptures. 

Leena taught Sunday School and she asked me questions in English and interpreted my answers for the class. Even though I was separated by the language barrier, I felt the Spirit very strongly in their branch. These members know the Gospel well. They love and serve each other and try very hard to live good lives. Between the missionaries and the Spirit, I learned a lot today. 

In between the two meetings, I took a few moments to read my favorite chapter in the Book of Mormon. It's Alma 26. At the very end, I stumbled upon a treasure in verses 36-37.

"Blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people, who are a branch of the tree of Israel...Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth."

When I read this, I knew and felt very strongly that this was true. This small and faithful branch of members in Savonlinna are loved and watched over by a loving God. He knows them, and they are never forgotten. They are a small group in our eyes, but God knows every one of them. I began to feel a different sort of love: for a moment, I believe I felt a little of God's love for this branch. 

The Church might function differently in different areas of the world, but it is the same Church and the same Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for my membership and the strength that I feel from it. I am blessed that I can travel thousands of miles away and still feel the love and hand of the Lord guiding my life.