Palapeli = Done.

It's been a tough two and a half months not being able to blog as much as I would like as I have been studying and taking Finnish lessons via Palapeli.

The exams were this past week and involved 3 days worth of tests.

Monday:  The speech test.  You are in a room with two teachers - one to ask you the questions, the other to mark your responses down.
Some questions I was asked and not necessarily in this order (translated English):

• What's your name?
• Are you married?
• Do you have children?
• Tell us about your family.
• How old are you?
• How long have you lived in Finland for?
• Why do you live in Finland?
• What is your profession?
• What do you like to do?  (hobbies)
• What would you like to do in Finland? (Long term goal or dream)
• What is your nationality?
• What country are you from?
• Where do you live?

Then - the describe the pictures session:

You look at a comic strip and describe the time and what the character is doing.

"They wake up at 6, they shower, they eat breakfast, then go to the bus then get to work ...etc."

Then the situation questions...this was brutal for me as the teacher who asked me the questions wasn't my regular teacher (she was marking my responses down) so I was just picking words and stringing them together and hoping they made sense...

• You're in a grocery store and want to know where the pepper is.  How do you ask for help and where the pepper is?
• You're in the grocery store and you found the pepper but it doesn't have a price.  How do you inquire about the price of it?
• You're waiting at the bus stop and when the bus comes - you need to ask the driver if this bus goes to the hospital.  What do you say?
• You get on the bus and your bus card (pass) is empty - what do you say or do?  

Then it was conversation time.

• "Huomenta!" - I responded with "Huomenta, mit� kuuluu?" (Good morning, how are you?)  Apparently that was the wrong answer - I should have just stuck with "Huomenta."  Why was this the wrong answer (sort of)?  Because her next question was:
• "Mit� kuuluu?"
• Do you know where the bathroom is?
• Can I borrow a pen?

That's all I can remember, considering it's been over 2 weeks since I started this post and did the exams.

The written ones were alright...mix and match, write a description of photos, label things, explain what's going on based on advertisements, write your profile out etc.

Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take my tests home (so I could give you a slightly better description) because they re-use the tests every time it seems.

The final markings are based on A-C levels - based on comprehension, reading and speech - so if your percentage (out of 100%) was a bit low - do not stress.

Mine were 82 and 76% respectively (there were two written exams plus a listening one) but my A levels were A 1.2-1.3 - so pretty good for a beginner studying Finnish!
And if you're wondering (sorry I don't have the descriptions of levels with me right now) a C-level is pretty much a native to Finland who speaks Finnish as their mother-tongue.
So if you're not a C-level...don't worry.

I have learned since that Palapeli is not available anywhere else in Finland - just in Jyv�skyl�...but I'm sure if you live in a different part of Finland - your city will have something similar to offer assistance to foreigners to learn the language!

And afterwards - there is another couple classes then there's some group outing...then perhaps a massive potluck - I wouldn't know because I left early to travel to Wales.

Good luck!

Wales Trip!

Hubby has 3 conferences this month and they're all in England.
We decided we would join him for the second one because one of his colleagues from Canada was planning on being there, but at last minute he wasn't able to get there.
The conference we went to was only 4 days long and in Cardiff, Wales.
I have never been to England before, with the exception of a stop over in Heathrow Airport (London) - so this was super exciting for me!  (And what if I saw a Royal?!)

Well, Wales rains everyday for at least five minutes and multiple times a day...sometimes it's drizzle, sometimes it's a lot of rain and sometimes - it's a downpour.
I'm sure the babies there are born with rain coats, splash pants, rain boots and an umbrella!

The signs in Welsh were amazing...they were a mix of letters that made absolutely no sense to me (thankfully the English translation was included!) and I now understand why people say Welsh can be a tricky language!

What to pack when traveling to Wales:

• Rain boots or sandals if you don't mind your feet being wet!  If you intend to do a lot of walking about - good foot wear is a must!
• A good rain coat that is not only water proof but warm!
• A good camera - mine finally kicked the bucket while I was there, so I don't have many photos and had to resort to a cell phone while there (blegh).
• UK plug converter...no, your North American/EU one (or other country) will not fit :).
• An empty suit case for all the goodies you buy at Pound Land or Pound World...and it's not full of things that will fall apart after using them once or twice!! There were brand named items and even the non-brand name stuff (i.e. children socks as we forgot to bring some!) were pretty decent quality!

We stayed at the Church Guest House, which was a nice 10-15 minutes walk from the downtown area.  The host, Andrew, was very friendly and nice and gave us lots of tips on where to visit while we were there.

However, there are some pit falls to the Church Guest House that maybe one travelling with little family members should know about:

• There is a continental breakfast included (cereal, fruit, nuts, yoghurt and hot toast with jam/butter, and tea/coffee or juice) but they do not have high chairs or booster seats...(yet they have a play pen? Keep reading...)
• We stored our stroller in the breakfast dining room and just kept our children there while we had breakfast the first morning.
• A hot breakfast is available at extra cost, but we found it cheaper to eat at local pubs/caf�s for breakfast.
• It's ideal to let the staff know that your child has any kind of condition that may cause them to be louder "than the average child".  Guests above us had complained that our son was too loud - and yes, he did yell quite a bit, and we tried our hardest (covering his mouth, letting him watch Cars a million times, playing his favourite Youtube channel all night, Simplynoise.com - ANYTHING to calm him down) to keep the noise to a minimum at night time - but sometimes crap happens.
  When I advised Andrew that our son has Autism and that we are trying our hardest - he understood and I assume - advised the guests above us - so they knew we weren't trying to make their vacation a horrible time...we didn't have any more complaints after that.
• Hot water in the shower didn't last long - hubby took a 10 minute shower maximum - and I didn't have any hot water after him...and when you turn on the hot water, you have to wait a bit for it to kick in...like brush your teeth then the water is hot enough.
• Bring your own shampoo and body wash - or pick some up at the Pound shop - the samples in the bathroom were kind of small for 4 of us and my hair just didn't feel clean after...but that's personal choice!

• The mattresses are approximately 2 weeks old (as of our travel dates of June 12-17, 2013) and they are not protected by mattress protection covers.  
• We found this out the hard way, when our 3.5 year old leaked out of his diaper due to stress of a new environment and travel (he is Autistic) - and despite peeling the blankets back, the smell of urine and the wet hand towel (that we used to soak up his mess) left on the bathroom floor intentionally so it could be changed - it wasn't.  We ended up stripping the bed the next day and putting ALL the towels on the floor with the bed sheets and were happy to see everything was changed the following day.  (We also did not file a complaint in person in case you are wondering - but did find it quite gross - even though the bed sheet and mattress were dry that night).
• When we did strip the bed, the host advised us that the mattresses were less than 2 weeks old and that they would have to be cleaned.  Of course, I agree and would be willing to pay the fee (but we were never advised of any additional fees - despite seeing the host every day at some point) - but I am curious if the mattresses are so new - why aren't there protection covers??  I mean - mattresses are expensive and these were super comfortable ones too!  I would want mine to last a long time - especially when a new person sleeps on it every day or week...
• We were issued a play pen for the child who peed (since we have two - I guess they assumed it was the younger one who did it?) the bed and we just kept it folded up in the corner - because there was no way a 3.5 (almost 4!) year old was going to fit in that play pen...let alone stay in it without making a fuss.
• Some things to also consider when having people sleep on a mattress (with a bed sheet) and no protection covers: 
• Sweat can soak through and stink up a mattress easily.
• Dirt - enough said.
• Flu/Viruses/Colds - think coughing, snot, leaky nose, sweating from chills...usually happens when one goes on vacation!
• Pee - not just little kids that wet the bed.
• Poop - same deal.
• Blood - nose bleed, menstrual cycles, miscarriages, scrapes and bumps, cracked feet...
• Sex - let's face it - it's a B&B and people go on honeymoons and vacations and anniversary trips and if the mood strikes - well...sex is just as dirty as pee.
• Bed bugs...

Those are just some things to consider as I said - but really, the Church Guest House (it's not religious inside - no worries if you're not religious yourself) is a lovely place, the staff friendly and the place in a good location (there was a big playground about 10 minutes the opposite direction from downtown).
We would definitely go back - without children (mostly because they are fighters and travelling with kids can be quite difficult for us!).

Onto the rest of Wales.

We enjoyed "proper English breakfasts" (my photos from my phone will be transferred to Pinterest at some point this week...) which consisted of:

• Fried eggs
• Toast
• Baked beans
• Tomato and mushroom (depends where you go)
• Hash browns (so greasy and crispy and delicious...)
• Welsh bacon (not the skinny pieces you get in the shops - but nice wide chunks of bacon...salty and smokey ....and doesn't have a parallel chunk of blubbery fat attached to it)
• Sausages
• English tea of course!

We managed to explore Wales a bit and got on a train to Caerphilly to explore the castle there.  It was nice and big, lots of landscape and geese!
But in the shop - no post cards...tsk tsk.

One restaurant we ate at was "The Golden Corner" in Cardiff.
Food was tasty but there were a couple pit falls to eating there:

1. Cash only.
2. The menu said we would get 3 sticky rice (wrapped in lotus leaves - a Dim Sum specialty) and we only got 2 for some reason.
3. I asked our waitress twice for a glass of ice water (since I planned on eating some dumplings with chili sauce) and she never brought it.  So I ended up going to the counter and asking for it myself...

Definitely check out The Works book shop!  They had a huge 80% off sale when I was there and I ended up scoring 2 knitting books for 3 and 2� each...and it turned out they were a lot more expensive on Amazon or Book Depository!

So if you ever get the chance - definitely pop into Wales!

Finland and The Box...

Finland is quickly making the news again and it's in reference to a BBC article: "Why Finnish Babies sleep in cardboard boxes".

I'm sure the concept of sticking your new baby that you waited MONTHS for into a cardboard box sounds absolutely dreadful but when you think about it - a crib is a type of box.  Putting your baby in your own bed with you and surrounding them on all four sides so they don't fall off - is boxing them in...
Remember, you need the sleep and if you don't have a crib yet or haven't decided if Junior will sleep with you in your bed (pretty common in Europe) - this box is MEANT for being a bed!
And you're not shipping your kid in this box... :)

What are the other benefits of this box?

Well, everything that comes IN the box is pretty sweet.
I've already written a blog post about what comes in the Kela maternity box - which can be found here.

Every year the prints change a bit but the basics are all the same.

Yes, we did end up letting our newborn sleep in that box and it was fantastic.  He slept soundly in it for about a month or so and it was handy because it didn't take up as much space as a traditional crib.  Nor was he in our bed, which was nice too.
Oh and if we had to move rooms and worried about not being able to keep an eye on him or hearing him when he woke up - we just picked up the box and moved him easily.

And when he was too big for the box - we used it to hold A LOT of dishes when we moved to our current flat!  It's a very tough box.
And you can apparently buy covers for the box to make it look nicer - about 35� from what I've seen online!  (Or you could get all scrapbook/crafty on it and go to town decorating it yourself!)

What does the 2013 box look like?  Check it out here - and wow is that box nice!  It appears to have a Family Tree design on top....

My Restaurant Day Menu!

Hi everyone!
I will be participating in Restaurant Day again as "Hooked On Sweets!" and will be sharing space with a new pop-up Restaurant, called "Kuma Sushi".

Here's my menu!

Pick Up JKL: A Review

I assure you that this blog post is perfectly safe to read for anyone of any age.
I am not writing a review about an escort service or any other in-appropriate service one may think of when they hear the words "Pick Up".
I'm also not writing about blind dates or designated drivers either.
Feeling better now?  Keep reading!!

Last night was one of those exhausting nights where the kids were hyped up, I had forgotten to put potatoes on the stove so they were happily sitting in a bag on the table ...or maybe the floor...and I was getting stressed about my up-coming Restaurant Day (which is tomorrow...and here I am blogging while hubby helps empty the dishwasher!)...and decided let's just order take-out.

We normally order pizza on Friday nights to go with out sauna night - a nice way to end the work week and the kids are used to it and it's a good rhythm.  But it was Thursday...and it was so close to 8pm that many restaurants stop delivering at 8pm.  I got online and checked with a friend of mine who suggested "Pick Up JKL" - she hadn't eaten there before and wasn't sure if it was good or not - but why not?
Pick Up Pizzeria not only sells pizza - but they also sell Chinese food.  Had I not been to New York before and seen something similar in one restaurant, I would have thought this was an insane idea.  For Jyv�skyl� - it kind of is...but with so many pizzerias around - it's a unique concept and I'm sure that's why they have survived so far.
Here's how the order placing conversation went:

"Hi, are you still delivering?" -me
"Well, where do you live?  Yes well, we can deliver but depends how much you order!"  - her (please note she was screaming into the phone and the background noise was minimal...)
"Oh well, we just wanted two dishes...for my husband and I." - me
"Well, my car is broken...so you need to order at least three - then I can deliver to you.  AND there is 3� delivery fee." - her
So I agree to order a pizza for the kids (and to try it out myself) and I gave her the address, she confirmed they accept bank cards and she'll be there in an hour.

I rushed around finishing up some cheesecakes for tomorrow (I haven't even started anything else really!) and pedaled my bike (I walked beside it while my lovely bike handles carried the cheesecakes) to my Restaurant Day location (Laajavuorentie 5B)...I got some posters and had a quick chit chat with my friends when suddenly my phone began to vibrate and ring...
"I'M LOST!  I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO GO!  WHERE ARE YOU?"
Very professional lady....so I advise her where to turn and how to get to my building...2 minutes later...
"I DON'T SEE YOUR NUMBER!  I SEE 34!!  HOW DO I GET THERE?! I CAN'T DRIVE PAST THE SIGN!"
I said I'll be there in a jiffy but I can't ride and talk on the phone at the same time AND cross the street safely...
I get there and she found my door after all.  She had a huge Styrofoam box and when I apologized for keeping her waiting, she asked where I was looking for her at.  I told her that I was at a friend's house PRIOR to her coming over and was on my way.
"Why did you go to your friend's home when you knew I was coming here?!" - and the lecturing began....
Finally I lock up my bike, she digs out the food and as I'm digging for my bank card she said:
"So where are you from?"
"I'm from Canada." -me
"Well, you look Asian!" - her  (Apparently Canadians cannot look Asian...fantastic.  Hello stereotypes.)
"Yes, I get that all the time." I managed to say this with a straight face and no hint of humour at all - because let's face it - I'm sweaty, grumpy at her for numerous reasons and hungry.
Eventually I "confess" she's right, I have a Chinese-Malaysian genetic background...then she wants to know if I speak Chinese or Malaysian...nope....
"So, your husband is Finnish?" - her
"No, he's also Canadian." -me waiting for her to go so I can rush the food upstairs...
"Why you live here then?!"
Apparently it's a crime to leave one's home country...? 
"My husband is studying here."
The conversation continues as she asks if it's my first time ordering from her and I said yep and that was that.
"CAN'T YOU SEE THE INTERNATIONAL LOOK OF STARVING ON MY FACE?!" is what I wanted to ask her...
Finally, she is satisfied with my answers and payment - then she leaves happily...in her vehicle that clearly works.   A friend suggested perhaps she borrowed her boss's car - but I think she IS the boss...anyways...

So! The food quality?
Hubby ordered Beef Szechuan sauce and deemed it, "It's okay..." which translates to: Not really the best and I've had way better.
I ordered the Beef with Mushrooms and Bamboo...it was a bit peppery - which is fine...the mushrooms were from a can - big pet peeve as I love fresh white mushrooms...the sauce - not so amazing.  The bamboo was in excessive amounts and that's all I remember about it.  For the amount of bamboo that was in it - they could have cut back by about 1/4-1/2 and added a bit more beef...which tasted weird to me...can't put my finger on it.
I also tried hubby's food and it wasn't very spicy and missed that Szechuan taste I'm used to from every other Asian restaurant I've ever eaten at.
It was pretty late so I didn't bother trying the pizza - but it had real pieces of chicken (various sizes and looked shredded nicely), not the cubed stuff you buy in the grocery store...the kebab meat was probably frozen and the ham was the little match stick pieces of ham that looked more like salami (dark red) to me...I tried some the next day and it wasn't amazing.

My general opinion? 1/5

- Customer Service is quite sad...I felt bullied into buying the 3 dishes when I really only wanted 2 - and then on top of that she was going to charge me the 3� delivery fee anyway.  If you have a minimum order amount to match the 3� delivery fee - then why not list that on your site?  Slightly misleading if you ask me.  Maybe it was my phone - but the screaming has to stop...I held my phone away from my head a good foot and a half and still could hear her perfectly fine.  (It really may have been my volume on maximum...)
- Food Quality - portion size was good for both the Chinese and the pizza, but the flavour was quite bland.  Could have been more meat on the pizza I think...not so spread out so that the pizza toppings look even thinner (less) than what there was.
I have gotten better taste and quality at Sakura Gawa for my money's worth.

ONLY BONUSES:  Our food was piping hot - despite her being late...that Styrofoam box did wonders.  And they accept bank card as a payment option at the door.  And they use real chicken pieces on their pizza...

Would I order from there again?
No.  I'm sorry but I was quite disappointed overall and would not recommend Pick Up JKL.  Perhaps eating in the restaurant would be different - but the take-away service was blegh.
Sure there's "Well, it's better than nothing!"
Honestly, had we known this experience could happen like this - we would have just had grilled cheese sandwiches for supper.

How to Say "Hei Hei" to 30�

Do you ever have one of those days you think, "It can't possibly get any worse....but maybe it will?"
Yep - one of those - right here.

I was un-usually crabby today and was internally wanting to beat myself in the face with my little Finnish-English dictionary during what felt like a long day in class and was super happy when I got to the day-care that V�in� was napping in the double stroller.
Fantastic!

Ahti (youngest) was able to enjoy his snacks and a different movie other than Teletubbies in Finnish, while I started laundry, a load in the dish washer and did some tidying up.
Unfortunately, due to all this noise and the inner door of the flat being closed as well - I didn't hear V�in� scream when he woke up downstairs in the building's lobby.
Thankfully a neighbour from below came up and rang my bell and I rushed out - clumsily closing the inner door and hoping the outer door would stay open a bit so I could get back in (my neighbour looked pretty mad) quickly with V�in�.
No of course it couldn't be that smooth.
The outer door slammed quickly with the rush of air between the doors (Ahti opened the inner one) and I was locked out with an Autistic, screaming 3 year old...in my shorts and long-sleeved shirt - no socks and no shoes...no phone or keys.
Hubby wasn't due back for at least another hour or so...and I actually was calm about my 1.5 year old alone in a flat with the two dogs....the kitchen door was shut (=no knives, dishes or stove access) and the balcony door was closed (=reduces chance of a cold and eating dirt blown onto the balcony)...and a movie was playing....the dog's water bowl was the only thing I worried about actually!

I grab V�in� and start ringing doorbells of my neighbours - hoping SOMEONE would answer and speak English or understand my horrible Finnglish.
The neighbour beneath us did and kindly lent me her phone - so I tried calling my husband twice - no luck.  He wouldn't answer because it was a strange number and thought I was a telemarketer...I even called him once after another.  I didn't want to send a message and abuse the courtesy of my neighbour so she called the maintenance people and they came within 15 minutes to un-lock my door.
The flat lay-out is the same, however it was not home and V�in� was hungry and angry.
I thanked my neighbour profusely for her patience and help and believe it or not - her daughter got upset that we were LEAVING....shocker I know.  So I'll be leaving her some cookies tomorrow for her help.  She looks like the jogging/exercising type...hopefully she likes cookies though!

Signs I am possibly learning Finnish (in English):

Then the maintenance guy opened the door, I thanked him and thought he would leave.  He ended up walking into my flat - which was a total mess (I was working on that while V�in� was asleep!) and  stood there.  Finally he said the one word in English he knew after I asked him if he could speak English..."MONEY."
Well, how much because I don't carry cash and there was none to be found in my husband's desk...
30� (I'd be even happier if I mis-heard and it really was 13� - guess I'll find out later)...Okay well I don't have that amount and can't you send me the invoice? (I'm making square gestures by this point) and apparently that was a no-go.
So I told him flat out I don't have cash, I just have my bank card and he just stands there and stare at me waiting for me to pull the money out of my arse I suppose.
I figured out how to ask him if he could come tomorrow morning for the money and that I would have the cash then.
He understood and I double-checked everything and he finally left me in the peace and squalling of a 3-year old and a 1-year old retaliating against him with screams of his own.

It really depends who you rent from and the organization that provides the building maintenance because others in the Foreigners in JKL group have mentioned different prices and their companies DO provide an invoice...
I mean once you're in, would they actually ask you to leave since you can't pay in cash???

This is a FIRST since moving here that I've been 100% locked out...an experience not worth repeating or paying for - in case you were wondering.

How To Help And Offend...AT THE SAME TIME!

A couple weeks ago (I know - total slacker with my blogging...), Jyv�skyl� was a sheet of ice.  I'm not just referring to the lakes either!
The sidewalks were horrendous to walk on but as the sun peeked out more and more  - most of the side walk ice began to melt - yay!
But there were still a lot of rough and icy patches I assure you!  I have the busted up bruised knees to prove it.

Anyways, I decided to get my hair cut after my Finnish lessons one day and then grab the bus to head to a knitting group.
While waiting for the bus, I dug out the latest Sookie Stackhouse ("True Blood") novel and was enjoying trying to figure out who killed so and so...and what will happen with Eric and Sookie...or Bill..or Tara's pregnancy!
Sorry, did I get side-tracked?
This little old lady came walking over and there was a huge patch of ice in front of the bus stop and I noticed she had a cane with a rubber bottom - she didn't use the metal pick attachment.  Brave lady.
I kept an eye on her to make sure she got to the bench safely and she did.
After a couple minutes she asked me a series of questions in Finnish - I don't dare to try to write them down IN Finnish but my guesses in English instead, along with my responses in Finnglish.
*Please note:  When I hear Finnish now, I pick out the words I DO know and try to string them into a sentence to figure out what is being said/asked!  Also, please excuse any poor spelling in Finnish or Finnglish.*

• What book are you reading?
  "Englangtia!" - me so proud of myself...
• Oh English.  I have 2 boys and one lives in America and married an American (amerikkalainen) and they have children.
  "Joo.  (Me being super brave and thinking "maybe I'll use some of the Finnish I learned today!")
  M� olen kanadalainen."  (My inner Finnish-learning goddess does a happy dance since I repeatedly said this at least 20 times that day in class).
• "MIN�!" she screeches at me.
  *BANG*  There goes all my confidence...a quickly deflated balloon floating to the patch of ice on the ground...
  "Oh.  Min� olen..." I whisper meekly...but I double checked with other Finns later and they think it depends where she's from and perhaps "Min� olen" is the old-fashioned way...and my schoolwork still says "M� OLEN"...so there.  (Perhaps it's an issue of written versus spoken..anyway - clearly I'm still learning!)
• "Is your husband Finnish?"
  "Ei, kanadalainen." (Confidence slowly building...)
• "Does he live in Finland?"
  "Joo, asun Laajuavuoressa!" ("Yes, I live in Laajuavuori!" WAHOO - I'm getting there!)

Insert some quiet Finnish silence...then I dip my toes in the water again...
"Mulla on kaksi lastaa." (I have two children.)
She then continued to converse with me and all was fine in the world.

THEN the bus came.  

I flagged down the bus and she dug out her bus pass in her right hand and held onto her cane with her left.  I shuffled on the ice then turned back to help grab her RIGHT elbow to help her across the ice.

Well, she clearly thought I was going to rob her of her bus pass...because she had a look of fear on her face.

SERIOUSLY.

So I pointed to the ice and the bus and showed that I was trying to help her - not steal her freaking bus pass.
She then snootily told me that she did not need my help.

Fine - I got on the bus and that was it.

After sharing this experience on Facebook, some Finnish friends advised me to not take it too seriously or to heart that I was rejected to help her NOT break her bones because older Finns tend to be pretty darn un-grateful at times of need.
One friend mentioned that she helped this elderly lady carry her groceries X flights of stairs and made sure she got into her apartment safely and the lady didn't even thank her.  Just slammed the door in her face and that was it.
Not that my friend expected anything more than a "Kiitos!" (Thanks!) which takes all of 2 seconds to muster the courage and say it...and is free.

Thankfully, I do not use that bus stop very often - if at all.