day 10

so today is my 10th day here in oulu... it is crazy how much can happen in 10 days. i still feel in a bit of a daze with all of the running around trying to get everything figured out! (i had to sign up for internet on campus, then pay for it downtown, get a bank account but first get a paper from an office on campus, sign up for a student id card, but pick it up downtown, buy a cell phone, buy a bus pass, buy a sports hall pass, sign up for classes etc.etc.) hopefully, my routine will start to kick in soon and things will be more normal....

but i can't complain, oulu is a great place to be! my kummi student is maiju (kummi means godparent) she has been most helpful showing me around the campus and the town... she is so exhuberent and sweet, i think i have the best one! it is perfect because there are about 8 of us in her group so we immediately can start here with a group of friends... on one of my first days she was showing us the city library and theatre and stopped in the street to show us a traditional finnish dance that looks a lot like the bunny hop!

so the campus is set up outside the city about 6km and i live on the campus on yliopistokatu (university street)... my building is 8 stories and i live on the 5th floor with 3 other official roommates (julia from germany, dawn from france, and violet from china) and then 2 extra french girls juliette and anais (who sleeps on my floor) until they move into their flat downtown on oct. 1st. they are already fast friends. it is crazy that all of these people from paris and madrid and bavaria and all over can all come together and understand eachother so well. we all really do have so much in common it is hilarious..we sang sing star karaoke at my place sat. night after going to the most amazing opera (orpheus and eurydike) at the city theatre and everyone could sing along to the same stupid pop songs..we all grew up with a lot of the same popular culture and yet we have so much to learn from eachother at the same time... we spend hours just talking, laughing, translating and looking up eachother's houses on google earth.

i feel good here, minus the fact that my computer is broken. also, today in the wood shop i was lowering the planer sander table with the automatic control and all of a sudden i heard a big snap! and one of the internal bearings broke because the back of the table got caught on a piece of wood that i couldn't see! so we had to finish our sculpture by with a hand sander, but it ended up looking ok... but still it was a bit stressful.

well i need to make some dinner and do some homework! i will write more when i can.