Berrylicious and a few other important things about Finland!

New experiences for me:

1. Cloudberry ice cream and homemade citrus-apple crumble is a delicious combo!! I haven't actually seen or eaten a fresh cloudberry yet (they mostly grow in the northern regions of Finland), but recently tried this flavor of ice cream- it tastes a little bit like a raspberry.

2. Buckhorn berries grow here in Kokkola and are a very tart. My host mom Leena told me each berry has as much vitamin C as an orange, so people eat them like vitamins here- a few every morning will keep you healthy! The flavor is a very intense and sour/tang... after you get over the initial pop of flavor in your mouth, it is actually quite yummy!

(I don't have any photos, so go google "buckhorn berry")

3. Since I now live on a farm, in the middle of the forrest, I spend a lot of time taking walks there and looking atall the surrounding nature. I have discovered a new appreciation for fungus; it can be so beautiful!

4. I went sailing for the first time last weekend with Daniel and Leena and loved it. Luckily we had a nice sunny day and just the right amount of wind! We went to an island and had a picnic grill lunch while looking out at the amazing scenery. This island was especially nice because it had a bathroom/latrine and of course, a big sauna (I quickly learned the Finnish people can't live without them)! They aren't for the public, but if you pay a small annual fee to this boating committee then you get a key and can use all these facilities on all these different islands.

5. Yesterday was potato harvest day on the farm, so we all helped with collecting the potatoes; it brought back so many memories from when my family used to have a small garden in Seattle; we would harvest our potatoes and gather them in our plastic kiddy pool... basically the same as what I was doing on the farm haha!!

Land o' lakes, berries and shrooms!

I have almost completed my first week here in Finland and learned so many new things already! Here a few that I thought were worth mentioning on my first blog post because they are things that I wondered about before coming...

1) Finland isn't freezing... well at least not yet! I didn't really know what to expect when I stepped off my first plane in Helsinki, but it was perfect! The day I arrived it was about 65-70 degrees and I actually had to take layers off. I know it isn't really winter yet, so it will be getting colder but right now it is lovely! My host mom Leena asked me today if I liked long underwear (and if you know me well, the answer is obviously no haha!), so I know the real cold is probably coming soon.

2) People EAT jam- not on bread or toast... they just eat it plain!! Being a normal American, when I saw jam as part of the school lunch I put it on my buttered cracker (there was no bread) and every student at my table just kind of looked at me strangely haha! I don't really understand why they just eat lingonberry jam, but I will admit it is delicious!

3) Coffee and/or tea is consumed about 4-6 times a day. I don't know if it because it is usually always so cold here, but I love this, especially because it is usually accompanied with cookies, apple cake, sweet rolls, etc!!

4) Most people know English- I haven't encountered a single person who doesn't speak enough English to communicate with me. However, everything I hear on the street and in shops is either Swedish or Finnish. This is good for me because I haven't quite mastered Swedish or Finnish in my first week here haha!

5) I read before I came that Finland has the most lakes in a single country... and I believe it now. I went "trekking" (more like walking because it is so incredibly flat here) with my host parents Daniel and Leena this weekend and walked by about 4 bodies of water/marshes/lakes in just a 3 mile trek! The hike was so beautiful; everywhere I looked was forrest filled with moss, mushrooms and lingonberries. Here are a few photos to visually explain the elegance that is basically in my backyard! I can't believe how lucky I am to be in such a beautiful place, and if anyone has been on the fence about Kokkola or Finland these should make you bump it up on your list of places to visit. Here's a look: