Bradly came to town

I got a message on Monday night saying he needed a place to crash. Him, as in Bradly! He is from New York and we became good friends when we arrived here in Finland. He now lives in a seaside town called Pori,

When he arrive I hurried after school to greet him and we spent the time till he had to go to his jazz concert doing the most crazy things. First thing is first. Coffee. We have all started to appreciate the Finnish culture especially when it comes to coffee. And of course I have my favorite coffee house! It is about three stories up, a few roads from the White Church in the historic area.

We sat and since it gets dark here at four (as in pitch black) the old attic coffee house was lit by christmas lights and candles. Awesome Awesome Awesome atmosphere. (no romance at all. clearing that up.) There was an old organ in the correner and we were able to play it and then we asked to go into the old theater to play the piano!!! They allowed us and they sat and listened to us play!!!! We had coffee and a small audience.

After we wandered to an old book store and convinced the man to let us in to look. It was closed but I pulled the exchange student/ hi i speak cute Finnish card. And we were able to go in to this sweet book store.

After we climbed the old brown church and looked at the view of the city. After I took bradley to his theater and went and bought boots. I bought them in Finnish! This is a big deal. I am able to talk and act like I know what I am doing. I am thinking that I may actually know what I am doing.  I enjoyed a cup of tea and skyped a friend I met at otterbine. It is great to have friends when returning home which have stories like you do too.

We caught the night time train home and had a small dinner of everything we could find in my house. In the morning we had coffee and talked about books. Man friendship and adventures are everywhere!

peanut butter and carrots

koti

The visit of the Darling: Thursday

Oh the final day! Having her here made time fly so fast. I wish she lived closer so I can see her more. Next month though I will see her again.

We arrived in center by noon and in the next hour we:

• accidentally snuck into the parliament building ( I thought us following this man through a door so we wouldn't have to open it again, but that man was official and so was the part of the building we were in. Not the tourist desk. I walked in and everyone looked at us.)
• purposely snuck into the best music school in Finland only to find you need to have a card to swipe to get out... we were stuck. but eventually caught another door.

first sight of snow! it didn't stick but it was there. 

the parliament building...

Miguel came to town! He lives in the most northern part and caught a plane down to see us. 

coffee at the national museum means we go and visit the throne room

Kat came!

reuniting!

 We then headed to the Orthodox Church which is one of the two really famous ones here in Finland. It was beautiful.

go katherine go 

we were all kinda amazed at the curved brick

this view took us all by surprise. when you looked down you could see the chandeliers from the restaurants below and the sea was over the one side. and you could see all the roof tops

ehhh I love Europe. I love Helsinki.

so cute

There are wild hedgehogs here

So we wanted to go see the crypts and they were originally closed today... but we pulled the exchange student card.
we just rang the big door bell thingy to the gate where we said "Hi, we are exchange students. We want to see and learn. Can we come?" and they let us.

is it reallllyyyy a karaoke and dancing bar?

We all went out to a cafe afterwards for a final coffee before we all parted ways. It was good to talk. I truly adore these people. 

till next time my love

After saying good bye to my darling Katherine. I caught the train home and this little girl just sat right across from me. She was maybe five years old and was dressed in all pink. It was just the most perfect way to end this week. I came home to hot glögy and walking dead (host dad recorded it!! I knew they were cannibals!) Time to pack. I am leave tomorrow morning at 7 to travel(across the country! by myself!) to Kuopio to visit friends. Woo for a 6 hour bus ride...