kolme kymmenta - 30

My morning began with me running to the bus stop only to realize half way there that my bus pass was in my otherrr jeans. Instead of running back home, I decided I would just pay the trip, although I didn't really know the exact price...I knew it was 2,-- something so when I got on I presented the bus driver with 2,30. He shook his head and quickly said a number that I didn't quite catch. So I gave him ten more cents. He shook his head again and then started a whole sentence in Finnish. I quickly intervened and expressed that I spoke english only to find out, he didn't ! So I just kept handing him more money in ten cent increments eventually reaching the correct amount of 2,90. Boy, thattt was a trip :] School began with Spanish where we once again went to theee Langauge Lab! We sit in little cubbies and listen to stories in Spanish through headphones. We then have written exercises that usually tell us to fill in the blanks based on what we hear. Today we worked on numbers. The Spanish storyteller would talk about something that had to do with numbers and then say the numbers in Spanish, our job was to write down the general idea of the phrase and then write the correct number. It wouldn't have been too difficult had we not just gone over numbers in Finnish lessons the day before. So while I'm trying to think of what 17 is in Spanish, all I can think of is "seitseman toista". Ughhh. But my teacher understands, so it's all good. After Spanish I had P.E. We walked down the street to use a gym inside an apartment complex. It was probably 4 degrees outside and my teacher is alwayyys late. So Saana, Anu and I stood outside the building with the rest of the class until our teacher finally arrived. The gym was really nice however, so that was cool. We did some basic stretching and then we just went around trying out different machines. I did a 15 minute run on the treadmill and in the middle of my run my teacher came over and.......SPOKE ENGLISH ! Ah, I almost died. All she said was "Put this on so if you stop, it stop." She was talking about the little emergency strap thing on treadmills. But hey, its a start right ? After my run I went over to the machines and noticed they didn't have weights attatched like our machines do. These machines work with air pressure. You can increase and decrease the amount of air pressure in the machine which in turn increases and decreases the amount of resistance. Once I got used to them they were really cool, but before that was a nightmare. I sat down on a leg workout machine, not knowing how it worked. I pushed the increase button, but nothing happened, so I pushed it again, this time holding it down. Still nothing. I looked to the other side of the machine and saw a button that said "free" and one that said "exercise", so I pushed "exercise". And up went the legs ! I was trapped ! I had accidently put the air pressure to the maximum and I was in no way strong enough to push the legs back down, so I sat there folded in half laughing so hard I almost peed. It was probably the most hilarious looking thing ever. Saana came over and helped me out, but she was laughing hard too. Ah, goooood times :] Lunch was good, pea soup and pancakes ! Odd combo, but oddly delicious. Music was interesting. On tuesday my teacher told me that Aino and I, the girl I had been working with, would present our song "next thursday", little did I know that "next thursday" in finnish meant the next thursday to occur, aka, today ! We chose to analyze the song "Yesterday" by The Beetles, mainly because it's the only english band we both knew. We were supposed to find out how the song was written, i.e. A; B; chorus; A2; chorus; interlude; etc. And then we were supposed to talk about what the lyrics meant, how the rhythm went, etc. Since I wasn't prepared I just wrote down the "rakenne" which means something like "order" or something, and Aino did all the talking. But it went alright, everyone liked our song choice :] Then my schooling was done and I had an hour and a half to kill before my Rotary meeting. I sat upstairs in the school and did my Psychology homework ! I arrived at my Rotary meeting about 10 minutes early [whoops!] and there were only two others there, but they were nice and invited me to sit with them. They were probably 65 or so, but so sweet :] Meikko is my buddy when we have these meetings, he usually clues me in on what they're talking about and he was one of the ones early as well. So it was nice talking to him for a bit. The guest speaker today was the headmaster for the Jyväskylän University which is celebrating 50 years this year. It was all in Finnish, so it wasn't very interesting, but they like it when I come, and it's not terrible, they only present for about 40 minutes. The rest of the time is for eating and chatting, my favorites ! I arrived back home around 7 this evening, cleaned my room, showered, packed for tomorrow, and watched a movie :] I am taking the 11 o'clock bus to Lahti tomorrow and I won't be back until late Saturday night, so I may not post again until Sunday. I hope you have a fabulous weekend, thanks for your thoughts and prayers. Hei Hei !