Pretty Uneventful Week

My-oh-my! I have been really busy lately. Let's see what has happened this week. Well, nothing really interesting has happened in this week. I started a new course, NMR Workshop, which is kind of difficult but not really. And I went to this really good restaurant in the city center called Amarillo. It is a Tex-mex restaurant, and my friend and I got fajitas that were gi-normous (gigantic + enormous).

Also, I have decided to update my wardrobe because it looks very teenager-like. However, I do not have enough room in my luggage to do it here, so it must wait until I return home. Then my sister and her sister-in-law will help me revamp my look. XD I have already started it by buying a new coat!

Other than that, nothing has happened lately. :( I am planning more stuff for this coming weekend though! Plus, it is time to start planning my birthday!!!

That is all.

Nähdään,

Anthony

P.S. Yesterday was my dad's birthday. Happy birthday, dad!! "Hyvää syntymäpäivää, isä!"

Ruoka, Filmitähtien ja Champagne. Oi Minun!

So I guess my actual postings are one week and one day apart from one another, haha. Here's what happened this week:

Tuesday was the International Food Festival. I was definitely planning on going, but what was I going to make? I decided to make banana pudding. I needed to go to the store to get some ingredients first. I don't know why, but I have been a bit ADD today. So I started watching Modern Family. I watched one episode, then two, then I had to force myself to stop because it was 3pm. The festival was at 6pm. I went to the store, got the ingredients, then needed to make the dish. I got on Facebook instead. After chatting with some people, I decided to actually start cooking. While cooking, my friend from across the hall said he'd come help me. He came over, and we cooked and talked. It was good. :) But then my oven is stupid and took forever to heat up. Since I was going to walk, I needed to leave by 5:20 to make it in time. The dish wasn't finished baking until 5:40. Therefore, I decided not to go. Now, I have a whole banana pudding sitting in my fridge, waiting to be consumed. XD

On Thursday morning, I was offered a job to do while I am in Helsinki. I will get the chance to work on a national Finnish televised movie award show called Jussi Gaala. I am working with the camera cables, but I still get to work on set and meet some of the most famous Finns. :) I don't want to mess it up. I am still deciding whether or not to take the job. I will talk more about it with the producer tonight when I arrive in the city.

 On Friday, after running errands all day, my friend, his other friend, and myself went to a bar up the road from his flat. Again, we drank and talked. It was really nice. She and I really hit it off and we talked more than my friend and I did. Haha. We started drinking wine around 11 PM and did not stop drinking until around 4 or 5 AM! That night, I ended up drinking wine, White Russian, Screwdrivers, Cognac, champagne, and sake. We also watched hockey as we did every night. This night had to be one of the best nights of my life. XD The next day, we pretty much slept the entire day away, hehe.



The big day was Sunday. We woke up at 8-ish and arrived on set at 9:30-ish. The atmosphere on set was relaxing and fun. I was expecting it to feel more like an American set with tension once the producer arrived, but I was pleasantly surprised. :) Everyone loved my friend and really enjoyed working with him. They also treated me very nicely and accepted me on set. The Jussi Gaala 2014 went very smoothly, and I got to meet some amazing actors and actresses.

Oh! My friend does this thing where he bets on hockey and soccer matches. The only thing is, he bets on combinations of games and usually one game goes wrongly and screws up his bet. They either tie or lose, and it definitely makes the games even more interesting than they already are. After being with my friend for 3.5 days, I have become much like him. Haha. I found out I am pretty good at choosing the winning teams, and I have acquired a taste for good wines. As soon as I returned to Oulu, and after my meeting with my professor, I went to Alko and bought three wines: Chateauneuf-du-Pape Le Moulin Teyroud 2010 for Sebastien, Amarone della Valpolicella di Emilia 2010 for Cameron, and Ben Marco Expresivo 2011 for myself. Now I need someone to enjoy my wine with. Notice I did not say drink because I don't want to down it. I want to sip on it, maybe eat some snacks, and enjoy each others company. :)


That is pretty much it for this past week. :)

Nähdään,

Anthony

Mess With The Lion...

Wow! Keeping up with a blog is a lot of work! I'm not starting off the weekly trend very well. Whoops.

Well, let me start off by saying my mom and I have both signed my lease for next school year, and the place is awesome! It is over 1,500 square feet with a swimming pool, tanning bed, gym, club room, gated, stainless steel appliances, master bath and bedroom, furnished, and it isn't even finished being built!! Plus it is less than a mile from campus and on the bus route. I am so excited to move in!

The weather here in Finland has shocked me. At the beginning of the week, highs were about -3F to 0F, but by the end of the week, the highs were up to 25-28F. Unfortunately, that means the snow has begun to melt and the ice is back. I have slipped a couple of times, but luckily, I never fell.

Oh! I found out that instead of working 6 weeks with 6 different camps next summer, I will be working 3 weeks with 6 different camps! :) It's the same amount of hours crammed into 3 weeks. That gives me more time to work at my other job.

So I don't know if anybody reading this remembers City Rally last semester, but this semester we ROCKED IT!! My team, Perkele, tied for first for the event! The prize was a bottle of champagne - my favorite drink. And my group was a lot bigger than last semester with a whopping 17 people! At points during the event, we did get naked, and it was really cold outside. Haha.

This past weekend, I participated in two dinner parties and had lots of fun at both. The first one was in my building at my friend's flat upstairs. :) We laughed and joked and ate and drank and all had a spectacular time. After the dinner party, we went to the toga party hosted at my flat, but I'll discuss that later. The second dinner party took place at my other friend's flat in Otokylä. When I went inside of this flat, I was instantly reminded of Graham-Hewlet back home. They look sooooooo much alike. The only exception being the one here has an enormous sauna that gets really hot and burns your skin. It was awesome! At this dinner party, I had the privilege of trying delicious Hungarian foods.

About the toga party. There were a ton of people there. I would guesstimate 130. I am still editing pictures from that night because I was the unannounced photographer and took many pictures. The night was full of emotions and drunk people. Club 16 is out and Club T is in. We are the new student dorm hotspot for the semester, and I still don't know how I feel about that. There is one thing I must say. If you're going to come to a party in my building and on my floor, you better respect me. I told this guy who was smoking inside to take it outside or discard the cigarette. He rolled his eyes at me and gave the smoker to another guy of the same nationality. I will not mention what this nationality is. Since they were by the window, I said fine and opened the window. The wind was so strong it blew the cig out of his hand, and I proceeded to smother it out with my foot. Disrespect me again, I dare you. Of course they got upset and left. Good riddens.

You'll notice there aren't pictures in the post. That is because I cannot decide which ones to put in, haha. Anyways, that is pretty much it for this past week. :) I hope this week goes really well! I am making my way down to Helsinki to visit my friend for the weekend! XD

Nähdään,

Anthony

I'm Back!

Okay. So after a long, long, loooong break from Oulu, I am back. I know, I haven't written a blog for over a month now. But now that I am back in the swing of things here in Oulu, I can start posting again. I traveled back to the States for the holidays and boy was it a roller coaster of a trip! The trip there was amazing. I mean, Delta Airlines really knows how to treat their guests, and I am thrilled with my experience flying with them through their partners, KLM and CanadAir. On my last connecting flight, from Boston to Raleigh, I had the most amazing stewardess. She was extremely jolly and made our hour flight the most enjoyable I have ever had. For the first half of the flight, she wore the following apron:

 And for the second half, this one:

Not to mention, she gave me a bag of cookies because some really nice ladies I had the pleasure of conversing with mentioned to her I had been traveling for 30 hours. Yes, my total trip was over 30 hours.







 Oh my gosh!! When I finally arrived at RDU, my family was there and greeted me at the arrivals platform. The look on my little sister's, C's, face when she saw me was priceless! Let me give you some background before I continue. So my older sister, M, really wanted me home for the holidays and between her, our mom, and myself, we hatched a plan to surprise my little sister. All of this, by the way, was planned and executed within a week. Anyways, C thought the three of them were going up to the capital to do a little bit of shopping. However, my mom was like let's go people watching at the airport instead. M played along and was all like, "It's mom. (rolling eyes)." While people watching, my mom looks at me and says, "He kind of looks like Anthony." C replied, "Yeah, he..." She then proceeded to run to me, lock her arms around my neck, and dangle there while I am carrying my book bag and am covered in my winter gear. She was so happy tears began coming out. XD Best Christmas surprise ever!


Most of my time spent back home was pretty boring but SUNNY! I missed the sun. Haha. I got to see my best friend in the whole wide world, H, and her son. I was sooooooooooo happy to get to spend time with her. Congratulations to her, by the way, because she is getting married, and I get to be her "David Tutera." Her wedding is going to be FABULOUS!!! And her son is getting so big and mean! I walk up to the door expecting him to be like, "Anthonyyyyyyy!!" like he usually does but no. Instead, he looks at H and says, "Anthony's here." Later on, on another night, he called his mom and myself old!! I almost beat that kid. I am not old...yet.









 I finally got a haircut!! It was so nice to go to a salon and get the American treatment. :) Plus, I realllllly like getting my hair cut! It was also nice to spend time with my mom. One of the last things we did together was going thrift shopping, and we saw Hunger Games 2. OMG! I got a Claiborn pea coat for $35 instead of $200!! Score!









Unfortunately, my last week back home was bittersweet. I met the most amazing man, J, who is funny, charming, sweet, handsome, caring, open-minded, and we see eye-to-eye on just about everything. But at the same time, the world lost two other amazing guys, N and M. These two guys were the perfect couple. I mean, I have never seen two people so in love and so happy. There were nice to everyone. And they passed away over the holidays side-by-side. The last thing I did in the States was visit my eldest sister, D, and her family who in a way are also my family. Hell, (sung) WE ARE FAAA-MILY! Hahaha. 





Remember how I mention my flight back home was amazing? Well, my flight back to Finland sucked! First, do to a tornado in the area, my first flight was cancelled, causing me to redirect my flights because I wouldn't catch my second one. I was rerouted to Paris then Helsinki. I became ill after eating food from AirFrance, the airport was confusing as all get out, and they lost my luggage along with 10 other passengers to Helsinki. I refuse to fly with them again or through CDG airport. I did have a great time in Helsinki with my friend who shall not be named. I arrived in Oulu the following evening and started prepping to go back to the US - looking for an apartment, finding a flight, etc. Then classes began. I currently have two courses - Inorganic Chemistry I and Beginners' Finnish II. Later on, I will have NMR Spectroscopy, Physical Chemistry, and Inorganic Chemistry II. I buy all of my own groceries now, and I really like the new people I have met. There are four more people here this semester from NC, and one is from my university. And I knew her previously! I am soooooooo thrilled to have her here. Oh! And one of the ladies from NC also has a blog. Her blog address can be found below. You should check her out, she has had a lot of interesting stuff happen to her while being here so far. That is pretty much it for now. Look forward to having a post to read every Monday from here on out. :)

At OUL when I arrived. I left RDU at 70F(20C) and arrived at 5F(-15C). 

By the way, my first morning of classes was brought in at a nipply -3F (-19C). Winter has just begun...

Nähdään,

Anthony

http://www.mysuomiadventures.blogspot.fi/

Disclaimer: All of the instances mentioned in the above post are of my own experiences and cannot be taken as a definite example of any general business practice. Everybody's experiences vary. All rights to the name and brand of David Tutera - the fabulous designer - belong to him and the business associated with him. Thank you for reading my blog! ;)

The Lappish Life

Whew! Has it been busy? I would have posted earlier, but I'll be dammed if the vile bronchitis didn't make its return. Anyways, I visited the north pole!! Well, not exactly the north pole, but I did get to go to Santa's Village on the arctic circle. :) Yep, that's right. Lapland is above the arctic circle, and I went there!

It wasn't as cold as I was expecting it to be. Needless to say, it was still pretty damn cold. While on our Lapland trip, we were able to snowshoe to the top of Levi Fell and look out over a sea of black because it was nighttime. Haha. On our way down the fell, we stopped at a fire hut for some roasted sausages and hot blueberry cider. Yummy! Then we hiked down through the woods and ended up at the top of the ski slopes!! It was a lot of fun to figure creative ways to go down the slope. Some walked, some rolled, and some slid down on their butts (I tried and failed miserably).

Another thing we were able to do was take an extra trip to Northern Norway to visit the fjords and swim in the Arctic Ocean! I couldn't pass this opportunity up, so I went. It was a lot of driving and twilight, but we made it, and the fjords were beautiful. The water wasn't bad either.

Another awesome activity we were able to do was snowmobiling. Anybody who knows me, knows I love four-wheelers, snowmobiles, jet skis, and all of the like. So of course I did this, and oh my gosh it was sooooooo much fun. In the middle of our trip, we stopped at a cabin in the woods for some coffee and cookies. They even had reindeer. :) I look a hot mess in the next picture because, although it was around 6F, the outfit made me sweat!

On the way home from Lapland, we stopped at a reindeer farm to have sleigh rides and learn some history of reindeer farming. Although they were cute, they were also a bit scary at times. We were again given coffee and cookies, and allowed to warm up in the house. I learned every reindeer in Lapland is owned by someone, and it is illegal to hunt reindeer.

Okay, so we returned home from our trip safely and soundly. Then Thanksgiving happened. The Americans and myself decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner for all of our international friends. I am pleased to say it went very well. And all of the food was delicious. :) We had Native Americans running around, great conversations, and food left over even with 30 people there. It was arguably one of the best Thanksgiving dinners I have ever had. Pictured below is about half of the people; the other half trickled in due to the thick ice sheets outside that night.

Unfortunately after all of the fun, I was hit with bronchitis. This entire past week, I was lying in bed with a terrible cough and pains. The worst night was Tuesday night, but I will not go into details because that would just be rude of me, and I am not rude. ;) You're welcome. Haha. All I will say is, I beat you again bronchitis!

And that is what you've missed in my life. I hope you feel caught up now. I am going to "study" for my exam next week.

Nähdään,

Anthony

Nothing is Happening

Hi all.

It has been a while since my last post. That is because there has not really been anything happening lately. I wake up, study, watch the sun set around 3pm, and hang out with my friends. I have also been busy preparing and planning for Thanksgiving in Oulu. :) I forgot about that! Everything has to be ready before I leave for Lapland and Northern Norway. I have less than a week to go!! I am uber excited! My pic for this blog was taken at about 11 in the morning. It is also about the highest the sun goes in the sky at this time of year. OjO

Nähdään,

Anthony

PoBS

Looking at "PoBS," you do not know what it means unless you experienced the trip. For all who did not go on this trip, it is an acronym for "Pirates of the Baltic Sea." It was this amazing trip I went on from Helsinki to Stockholm on a cruise ship filled to the brim with crazy, fun-loving students from all over Finland hosted by Erasmus Student Network (ESN) Finland.

I told myself, "I am not going to get drunk on this trip. I want to really enjoy everything." That went out the window when I found out they were serving my favorite drink, champagne. :) I started the night off in a poorly constructed, last-minute costume as Antoinette, the ghetto, ratchet, albino black woman. By dinnertime, I had transformed into a booty-licious ghetto, ratchet, albino black woman, and was humped by about 20, yes TWENTY straight guys. Or should I say "straight" guys. Only two asked if they could feel my toilet paper breasts and pillow butt. The others? -.- Needless to say, Antoinette was dead at about midnight. Oh! The alcohol! So, after champagne at the kick-off party, I proceeded to enjoy a Sex on the Beach and then 4-5 glasses of wine and 4-5 glasses of beer with my boisterous amount of food all for FREE!!!! So yeah. I was pretty plastard after all of that.




The next day was spent visiting Stockholm. O.O There is nothing really to say about it except everyone was dressed posh, and it was old, and it was nice. Main point is that Stockholm was NOT the purpose of the trip. XD







The trip back:

This night was CRAZY. I don't quite know why, but it may have had something to do with the fact alcohol was open for sale from the tax-free shop for students on this night and not the latter. I may have visited the store and got a cheap bottle of wine (plus 4 packs of beer). By the end of the night, I was left with an empty bottle and 3.5 cases of beer. So yea. I will let you make your own conclusions about how drunk I was. X9 If you can't imagine it, I may have kissed not one, not two, but three people that night. One of which, I was not particularly fond of doing the next morning.
= (I)

Case-in-point:

Next semester, make sure, if you are a student in Finland, to be among the first to register for this trip when registration opens. Luckily, I was 17, but my flatmates were 124 and 166. We all registered at the same time - opening time. I WILL be going again next semester, and I expect to see ALL of my friends there as well XD.


Nähdään,

Anthony