Juhannus and another happy thing

First off...I have a new job! Finally! As an au pair for a family who live in Kaarina. I met them yesterday and started working today. Obviously I'm very pleased, and I also think it's very nice to have the opportunity to be outside of the city. They live in a quite rural area, and although I absolutely love Turku and where I live, it's nice to have a bit of variety. In terms of wages and other benefits I'm also very satisfied, and the family seem very nice, including the children. There was a lot to do but it wasn't so bad. So let's hope I've now turned a corner regarding money and work.

Now, onto Juhannus (midsummer). As I said, that's not a thing in my country, but Finland makes a massive deal out of it. And it was a pretty epic weekend. It started on Thursday, when we took a trip to Pori to rescue a friend escaping from the army for the night because he wanted to see Petri Nygård. That was a successful mission, but obviously I cannot name names with this.

Friday involved drinking throughout the day, which I wouldn't normally do but it seemed acceptable. Nothing very significant happened, apart from noticing how many shops and bars were shut for the holiday, which felt very odd. I'd been warned that the city would be quite deserted, and that proved to be true. I will say that I disagree with what I was told about midsummer drinking being a generally happier occasion - at least amongst my friends there seemed to be constant fights. Which was unfortunate, but they usually got sorted out.

Saturday involved more drinking, and me taking a surprise dip into the river, which was extremely unhygienic. I also managed to break my finger in the process of getting out again. Oh dear.

But now things should be back to normal, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow and the rest of the week. Here are a few pictures from my weekend.

Forte

I've been told before that I should go to Forte sometime, which finally happened yesterday. It was definitely preferable to Marilyn and Vegas, which I wrote about before. It was nice to have a girlie night out for a change, as I haven't done that for ages now. It's not the best club I've ever been to, but it's better than some of the other options in Turku. The interior was nice, and there were lots of friendly people there. I think Sunday is the really big night there, as all the bar staff who can't go out on Friday and Saturday apparently go to Forte on Sundays. Several people have told me I should go there one weekend, and I wouldn't be opposed to going again. The music wasn't quite what I like, but it was good enough for dancing, and better than in some other places where they seem to play "Selvä Päivä" and not much else.
Best of all, it was extremely cheap, and they had various cocktails. Some creepy old men bought us all strawberry margaritas. The drinks were good, the men were bad. It was a good night though, and I'm glad my friends called me else I would have just been at home being boring. However, I still find it a bit awkward when I go outside at 4am and it looks like the middle of the day. Yesterday was the longest day of the year too, so it was really weird. I'm not sure I'm going to get used to this.
Our night ended with eating burgers in the street, kindly bought for us by some friendly men. I have to say, if you've been out drinking in Turku you should go to Semi-Burger in Erikinkatu. The food is amazing, and it was pretty perfect after lots of drinking. I think I'm in love with their vegetarian burger. Maybe I was just drunk, but everything about it seemed perfect. It's a bit expensive (€4 just for a fairly small burger), but it's probably worth it. When you're drunk you don't really mind how much you're spending anyway. There was a long queue so I think it's a popular place. I'll certainly be going back.
So all in all it was a successful night with a happy ending. The occasional midweek night out is never a bad thing, so today I'm feeling rather cheerful.

More thoughts on Finnish people

This weekend I've noticed how much my Finnish friends love alcohol. I know not every Finnish person is like this, but a lot of them are, and I'm wondering how to keep up. This weekend it's midsummer, and from what I know that involves copious amounts of drinking. Just like every other weekend. I'm quite intrigued, as midsummer isn't a big deal at all in my country, but here it's a big party and tradition. Or just an excuse for a big party. Maybe it's a manifestation of how happy the Finnish people are to get a bit of daylight and sunshine. I'm sure it'll be an interesting few days at least.
Another thing I've noticed recently is that Finnish people, if they consider you as a friend, are extremely loyal, and will do absolutely anything necessary to help you. All along I've had a lot of help from my friends here, but it just suddenly occurred to me. If you need something, a Finnish person will do whatever they can to sort you out, whatever kind of help you may need. I have to say that sometimes English people, myself included, can't really be bothered to go out of their way. Only on a couple of occasions since being here have I thought this of a Finnish person. So we all need some Finnish friends, because they won't leave you hanging, and they will go far out of their way to make sure you're ok. Maybe I've just been extremely lucky with the people I've met. I think that although Finnish people may seem cold or reserved at first, once you are close to them they are the opposite of that.
Plus, a potential childcare job has come up, which I'm fairly hopeful about. We'll see how it goes, but at the moment I'm staying optimistic. Finding a new job would make me so happy. So everything here is going well enough - now I just need to deal with the student loan company in England, who, as usual, have made a mess of things. Ideal.

My moment of linguistic genius

Earlier I looked something up in the textbook I had for the Finnish course I went to, and then decided to look through it a bit more. Unfortunately whilst I was going to that course I was in the middle of breaking up with my ex, and lost the confidence to keep going, which I still think is a real shame. Since then I've been picking things up in a more casual way, but today I was compelled to have a look through the book some more and see if I could make some use of it. After all, it was fairly expensive to buy, so it's much better to still use it, even if it's on my own. Other people have told me that I speak more, and better, Finnish than they would have expected, so I think I should keep developing that.
Anyway, I came to a section with a few paragraphs describing a fictional Finnish family, and was amazed to discover that, as I read through it, I understood most of what was there! Not every single word, but I definitely got the gist of it. Plus, using what I already knew and had heard in the past, I managed to work out some of the new words and sentences! I feel like I have accomplished something good today, and now I'm much more inspired to keep using the book. It's hard to use the pages on grammar by myself, as the book doesn't contain any english text or explanations, but I can definitely use it to extend my vocabulary and look up thing like how to ask questions.
Added to that, the daycare finally contacted me regarding my wages! I was asked again for my bank details, but the email included a wage slip with tax information. How they managed to get the tax card but not the bank account number, which was definitely in the same envelope, is beyond me, but who cares! Hopefully I'll get my money tomorrow and can buy some decent food. A diet of noodles and toast is getting depressing now. Also, once I have the money I'm going to call the council about selling paintings in kauppatori. I'm really excited about doing that; I think it's a really good opportunity. Today has actually turned out to be a rather successful day.

Hotter than hell

It's insanely hot! I never imagined it would get to be like this in Finland. Yesterday it was 33 degrees, which is such an enormous difference from the winter. English summers ofter get to these kinds of temperatures, but I didn't really expect it to happen here too. On Friday I even saw a rather fat old lady jump naked into the fountain outside the main library. It wasn't very attractive, but the police turned up very quickly. I can understand her feelings though. I constantly feel a bit dirty and disgusting, even right after taking a shower. I think it's going to cool down a bit next week; I really hope so because it's a bit too much now. This has been constant for about a week, and the weekend has been ridiculously hot. However, I'd rather it was like this than as cold as it was during the winter.
I've also noticed that it's not actually getting dark anymore - the sky just goes a kind of greyish-blue at it's darkest. For me it really is the strangest thing. The picture is of a very beautiful sunrise froma few weeks ago, but there isn't even a proper sunrise anymore. I'm not sure if I like this phenomenon or not.

It's now Monday morning. I started writing this last night, and apparently I spoke too soon, because I was woken up at 7.00am by thunder and torrential rain. It's not cold, just very grey and wet. I think I preferred the ridiculous heat and sunshine. Oh dear.

Something special for my lovely readers

As a special treat for being so loyal and lovely, I came up with this:

Frozen in Finland readers can have 20% off the price of any of my artwork listed on Etsy!
Please note that this is a discount on the cost of the item only; shippng costs will stay as stated on Etsy.
To take advantage of this, please contact me directly via email, with your name and address, and obviously specifying which piece you want. I will confirm the total price for you and send you my paypal details for payment. Nothing will be shipped to you until payment has been received. Now go buy some art!

Remember, if you want a discount you'll need to contact me, ot make a purchase through Etsy - they'll automatically charge you the full price.

Remember to relax

Lots of things have happened today to get me stressed and pissed off. I really overspent at the weekend, and I'm not very proud of myself. It looks like my rent will be paid in installments this month. However, if the pre-school I had an interview at could be bothered to pay me for my time, as they promised, it would likely solve the problem. The lesson we've learned this weekeend is that drunk people shouldn't be allowed to pay with cards or withdraw money. Bad things will happen.
Despite all that, I had quite a relaxing few hours sitting by the river tonight. It was very hot today, and lots of people were walking around; I felt very connected to Turku for some reason.
Another lovely thing is that the benches by the river, near to the library, have special Capital of Culture Marimekko designed cushions. There are lots of street art things around the river area, such as balloons with ships on them in the trees, and giant ducks in the river. I'm so irritated that my iPhone charger is broken so I can't take any pcitures. If I wasn't a big drunken fool I could have bought a new one already...