I Know What Sunlotion Is

Something to report again :)

I had my first exam and it went ok. The professor asked some questions I didn't really expect but I knew the answers for most of the questions. At least I think so... We had 5 pages of questions on both sides of the papers, multiple questions, true/false or short answers. I was done in half an hour though I didn't believe it, so I checked my answers, didn't change anything and watched someone else to return their paper first. It was funny that people kept asking questions about the exam during the whole exam time (like some details about the questions or asked some clarifications), in Finland what you see is what you get. If there is not some mistakes about the question and you ask something about it, the professor just says that you see the question, answer to it...

I also had my first "proper" lab in animal behavior. Last time we just watches the March of the Penguins and wrote short proposal for that, today we played with zebra fishes. We had a male zebra fish alone in a tank and we were supposed to tease it with a fake female/male fishes and write down its behavior. In the end we wanted to repeat the trials but our fish got tired and was only interested in me :D (it stayed only in the corner that was on my side) I laughed that even the fish is interested in European girl :D

And I felt really special at the beginning of the week when people came to say to me that "Oh we missed you!" I was away only one weekend :D Tymon was best when he said that "Oh, the Asians are no use, you need to come to the bar with us!" I also talked with my mother in law today! She was visiting Tarmo today and we talked via Skype and webcam :) So I saw our kitties, Tarmo and my mother in law <3 It made me happy but it also made me miss home. Talking by just writing is easier though I love to hear Tarmos voice, but it makes me miss him and home more. Though time still goes by so fast, it's already Thursday night!

People are still teasing me about my red face. "You know what sunlotion is? You know, S-U-N-L-O-T-I-O-N." "Yeah, I thought you were red! You want me to get you some lotion?" Thanks, but I can handle this and believe or not, we do have sunlotion in Finland too :P I just supposed that we were going to bar to see the game but we didn't, so we stayed outside and it was cold and and... Which reminds me that I'm kind of waiting for the colder weather. It's windier now so it's not that warm even though the temperature is close to 30C. And the trees are dropping their leaves... I want to wear my winter skirts and boots :P And many people have asked me if the girls in here are like in every American movies: all made up and fresh and beautiful 24/7. No they aren't. I leave out the sorority girls ;) They're just like we normal people ;D But I hate the water in here, it's so hard that it makes my hair so dry...

Oh I should do some vacuuming to our floor but we don't have a vacuum cleaner... And I never hear anyone to do any cleaning (vacuuming), now I've just picked up the trash every time I see one... Though I don't really spend that much time at home, I mainly sleep in here and I am keeping my laundry clean ;) And I keep my side ordered (most of the time...).

And some random things: people in here don't really know how to drive. They just get their drivers license. Well they know how to drive but they can't back up the car... In Finland we really need to learn how to do the backing up in small places before we get our license :P And Aston Kutcher and Elijah Wood have studied in the University of Iowa ;) And I had a troijan horse in my computer. The virus detector was funny, it gave this alarm (and scared me) but it said "there is no reason to panic..." Well that's a program for women! Because if it hadn't said that, I would've panicked :D And oh yeah, I bought Windows Vista and Office 2007, for total of $20 :P

We're going to Chicago in two weeks! We need still find a place to stay... And after that it's not long for out Thanksgiving trip and after that it's not long for finals and after that it's not long for me to see my love!

Everyday Life part 2

Ok, some differences between the everyday life that I've discovered. Americans have three big holes in their papers, we have two. People in here get noisy in the Sundays when they get back in to the residence halls, in Finland people are dead on Sundays. When it's sunny people do not go out to enjoy the sun like in Finland.
Now that I've been in here for "so long" I don't notice anymore the differences like I noticed them few weeks ago. But instead I've started to see familiar faces from Finland now. I did the same thing when I moved from Tampere to Jyväskylä. I started to see my friends though I knew they couldn't be there.
And I don't want to study this much. I was just talking about this with Kaisa. I want to get good grades but I don't want to study my ass off, I can do that in Finland too. The good thing is that when I transfer my courses I can choose if I get pass/failed or grades. That makes things so much easier. But I just need to see what my grades turn out to be when I'm done here. It's not that I want to be lazy, I just want to explore my surroundings too, not just study all the time. And that's what I'm doing now :P Though I like studying, time goes by quicker and then it's December soon... And I want that and then again I do not want that to come this quick.

And by the way, I ordered some more Finnish chocolate, salmiakki (kind of sour sweets, kind of liquorice) and hapankorppu (dark dried bread)! All traditional Finnish things I can offer to poor people in here who have no idea what they taste like (I have to start with the dark bread, then give salmiakki because I'm sure many people won't like it and then give the chocolate so that people don't start to hate me ;)

And my parents had this water damage in their house. Their dishwasher had been leaking for about year already but they didn't notice it because there was no water anywhere. Finally last week the neighbors downstairs said that there was water dripping. My mom was so shocked and she cried (that does not happen often). And I know it's because she's had so rough time this year and she really didn't need this to happen. Dad is shocked too obviously. Now they need to take off the floor and dry the apartment and then get the floor back. I think they even had to take one wall off too... And they can't cook or wash the dishes there for a few months or at least for few weeks now... But mom sounded a lot better this morning. I wish I could just give them hugs. I sent them a cute card instead, hope that cheers them up.

What else..? I miss our cats a lot. When I went to sleep on Friday I saw this Kittie statue in the corner and it just made me smile :) It was white but it still made me miss our kitties. And yeah, my face is getting better. But I'm still embarrassed to be in public places with my red face. People tried to joke around "But red is your favorite color!". Yeah, but I don't need it in my face! I prefer it to be in my clothes and accessories :P

And the daydreaming made me miss home, so I need to stop daydreaming :D though I don't miss home that badly that I'd like to leave so that's good. I still love this place :) Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I talked today with my parents, with Tarmo and with Tarmo's mom. And she promised that she has some mushrooms and berries for me when I get back (we Finnish people go to the forest to get mushrooms and berries every Fall) ^^

Missing Him

Ok. My network still sucks but I e-mailed to them again. Lets see what they say this time.

There are some things I want to tell you. Guys in here don't really have manners. They keep their caps on inside, even during lectures! Though one guy amazed me at the bus, he gave me his seat but I really think it was because he couldn't see his buddy. And about my professors, my endocrinology professor is just hilarious. I think I mentioned him earlier. Oh shoot and I'm so sick are his most used words during the lectures :D Though I'm a bit worried of him, he limps and seems really tired. And he actually was in hospital last weekend... And even still he keeps joking all the time. And my Animal Behavior professor says "emm" at least 15 times in 5 minutes (I counted). And that continues the whole lecture. And the news papers. They are so weird shaped! They're long and narrow and so hard to read unless you read them on table! And buses don't run in time starting from the evenings (I don't know about the morning and daytime buses because there are so many anyway so it doesn't really matter if they run late).

I went to play frisbee with Danny, Tymon, Meike and Paola (after Paola and I took a nap on the lawn) and now I can barely walk! My legs and bottom are so sore! What a good exercise! :D But then it started to rain and we went to eat to Chinese restaurant and after that we went to Java Juice to meet other international students and our global buddies. I was home at 10 pm but although I was tired, I was too hyper to go to sleep so I was awake until midnight and now I'm really tired. And Josh has been trying to reach me, every time he called me, I missed his call. I was in class or deaf. And I didn't even realize that it was he who had tried to call me! And then he tried to come and see me at home but I wasn't home :(

And about my phone. I got this AT&T prepaid thing where messages and calls cost 25c, both sending them and receiving (both of) them. So it's quite expensive but I thought that I wouldn't do so many calls nor that someone would call me. But I really don't want to buy any plans either because they're quite expensive and I can't have any other type than prepaid because I don't have the social security number. And it's so stupid that I really don't have service in Mayflower, so people can't call/send messages me and vice versa when I'm home. Sometimes when I put the phone on my pillow, there comes one block but that's all. So that's why I'm better reached via internet, and I'm actually all the time in internet when I'm home, so take this hint ;)

I'm looking forward to this weekend. I don't know why but I just do :) I want to go to some bar!

And I miss Tarmo. I really do. Badly. I dreamed of him last night and the night before that (and other one of them actually was That Kind of Dream ;) There are so many things I'd like him to see. There are so many people I'd like to introduce to him. There are so many things I'd like to tell him. And we do talk almost every day (at least we try to get a change to talk every day) and I do tell him everything but then again I can't remember everything I was supposed to tell him. And then I forget those things. I'd like him to hang around with me. I'd like to sleep with him. I'd just like to cuddle... That's the biggest thing I miss.
I really love being in here. I love Iowa City. So I really don't miss home (though I miss our bed), I just miss him. And of course I miss our kitties. I miss their purring and playing. I miss the thing that I just sit and I can feel someone passing me by and just touching my legs slightly. I miss the touch. The magic touch Tarmo has. The slight loving touch our kitties have too (if you are laying in the bed they just come sleeping against your back. I will alway remember the first night we had them, other one was sleeping in my armpit and other one was sleeping almost on my head and I could feel them breathing and my arms just went numb because they were so cute that I didn't dare to move). And that touch I can't have in here. I don't even want to have, I want that touch just from Tarmo. I do give hugs, I always give hugs. For both men and women. But it's not the same thing. I am touching person. I always touch people when I talk to them, especially when I'm exited and tell some hilarious things :D And even though I love hugging people, I can't receive long hugs, they're too loving and get me in tears. And I don't want to hug ALL the people in the world. I give hugs only to people I care. And I don't want strangers to hug me. That's just harassment.

Oh I really can see from this text that it's getting late and I'm getting tired. I always get so sentimental this time of the day. And I just miss Tarmo. And I like writing about it because it makes me feel better. And I prefer writing over talking because writing doesn't get me into tears as easily and I actually express myself better in this way. At least in English :) And I don't really feel so confident of my speaking. I know I can speak but it's just so much easier to write. My vocabulary is so much better when I write because I tend to use easy words because I'm too afraid to say the hard words wrong. Yes, I'm perfectionist. A tired one, so I'll go to bed now. Good night!

ps. We had a fire alarming today at Mayflower... We had to stop studying and go outside and couldn't continue studying because we were shocked, right Kaisa? ;)