We´re back! Christmas came and went with a whizzz, we had some great times at our summer house: sitting in the sauna for hours on end, eating christmas food and enjoying the beautiful crisp white winter days. On Sunday we decided to go ice scating on the lake, it took me some 20 years back in time.. especially with the clothes I was wearing, you know the kind of stuff that kids wear in the snow so that they can roam around and not worry about getting cold or wet=) It was great fun I tell you!

These middle days are going to be spent meeting a million zillion (at least!) friends that have come home for christmas from all around Finland and the world. And then I leave for Rovaniemi for the Big Party aka wedding on New Years, yeah!! Can´t wait!

Helsinkians have a wierd habit of throwing stones onto the thin ice of the Gulf of Finland to see if it will break, but it never does. Funny little thing that I´d forgotten about.. Had to try it of course once I got a chance. It didn´t break. I don´t know what other people get out of it, but for me it is a chance to get the stone to bounce off the surface of the water more than once. Never get it to work in the summer..

We´re leaving for our summer house today to celebrate christmas. Have a beautiful christmas all of you, where ever you are!

Oh Christmas time.. I must admit that I too have been sucked into the whirlpool (oops.. hidden commercial!) of christmas-mania-shopping. Although I have screwed the system by just browsing, not shopping. Hmm.. that was a little white lie. I did buy something, actually out of purely unselfish reasons, that ended up being entirely selfish. I found the coolest T-shirt shop called Mentalwear who donate a share of their profits to mental health care. So I went in and thought I´d do my part. After I got home and revised what i`d bought (ultimately for myself..), I realised that I actually think I recognize one of my friends from the first part of the text on the T-shirt:

Who was it again who always has a feeling of being followed by the CIA or FBI?? You know who you are! Remember, I know where you live..

Here´s an unfortunate little pre-hitting-the-town incident that happened just a few moments ago: as some of you may know, a fragment of my heart has been stolen long ago by my crazy little dog, Hottis. We shared a day of joy after I came to Finland but reality hit sooner than expected.. or as the saying goes, the "shit hit the fan". When infact no fan was involved in the incident but merely an innocent hand. My hand. And poo. Here´s how it all happened: I have a date to go to this cool concert in a couple of hours and before leaving I took H out for a walk. And as my parents live in Helsinki, it is customary to pick up anythig that comes out of your dog into a little poopybag. I reached for the poop, as usual, with the bag and was prepared to experience yet again the warm soft turd inside the bag. But this time the bag came equiped with a hole, hence my hand had been smeared with this disgusting turd. YUCKKKK!!! Maybe it was Hanky the Christmas Poo out and about a bit too early? Anyway, lots of desinfectant later everythings in order and I´m ready to hit the town. I still don´t understand why on earth they had to call the poopybags "Funny Doggy Poopybags". I just don´t get the joke.

Who would have guessed that I would find celebrity-look-a-likes also when baking a pepperkakehus? There is no question about it: it´s Pam Anderson with her new student image!

This is for all you kids out there! On the fun times you can experience at school for only 400kr a semester:



"This morning was like waiting to walk infront of a firing squad. But I did it, didn`t use the segat (dont`t feel like it), but just walked straight in there, shaking like a leaf. And got shot down. Some of us were luckier and got away with minor injuries or nothing at all, I had the unfortune to be the first one to get shot straight between the eyes. But luckily enough it is not permanent and after a nice lunch it will be history."

I´ve been celebrity-look-alike-spotting yesterday and had a succesful night, check this out:





Uma Thurman was also apparently on the prowl last night but unfortunately kept out of the spot light successfully. More celebrity-look-alike updates to come!

Chills, running up and down my spine. I might be so bold as to say it might have something to do with the frosty breezes blowing from the sea but on the other hand, I think its something in addition to that. I think I´m living on an enchanted island.. Enchanted and ridiculously beautiful.

So, we´re back from Poland eh?

I´ll keep it short and try to create an image of what was going down during our random vacation. Gdansk saw 6 exhausted but curious students on a quest to learn about the crumbling of socialism in the 80´s. There was also a lot of shopping, laying in steam rooms/saunas, eating, drinking and being scared of the hostel we were staying at.. the ghost stories that were told on the first night probably didn´t help too much.

After 4 of us crumbled under the pressure (of all the relaxing??) and escaped back to Oslo, there were only two of us left, if my math skills are up to date.. So the rest of the group headed down to Krakow to do some research on the local culture. And what we found was better than expected! Despite sounding like a commercial, I have to say it: Nathans Villa is coooool! So it´s not exactly local culture that we found but vagabond culture. Tons of Ozzies, New Zealanders, Americans, Brits, Brasilians.. Needless to say, saturday night wasn´t cut short by any means! Woooosh!

Sunday was spent by draging our feet up and down the Old Town before bumping into a local family that took us for a ride to Schindler´s factory. The whole place is under construction so there´s not too much to see but what´s there speaks for itself. An uplifting place in a surprising way.

Our last day in Krakow was spent in rather mellow locations, Auschwitz and Birkenau. I don´t want to say too much about it, it´s just a place that people should go and visit themselves. It was in a way a very personal experience.

But man, I think I´ve kind of done more harm than good for myself by going to Krakow to meet all those fabulous wanderers. I am left with an itch under my feet that is almost unbearable!!

A chilly hello from Gdansk!

Poland is on the verge of being discovered by two young explorers, Sczotzsz and Marzsczana. Gdansk and Sopot have been experienced, Warsaw and Krakow are in the queue. Sunday will officially be a day of excrutiating but necessary rememberence when S and M enter Auschwitz. Only time will tell if the lives of these explorers will be changed on their journey, I ll get back to you on that one. Bonski for now!