Football

I've tried to watch one game of American football before yesterday's experience. Didn't get much out of it, but at least it was soon over. Since I'm here, I decided that I have to give it another try. After an hour and a half the game was halfway through. We left the arena to go have a glass of wine at a friend's room :) This time I got a sense of what was going on but most of the time I couldn't see where the ball was. And why did those guys just jump on each other even though the ball was in the other end of the field? (Well, most of the time the ball stayed on one end of the field- the one where it shouldn't have, from the point of view of "us Vandal fans".) Anyway, we decided that this is a good activity for hyperactive Americans. Cheerleaders, marching band, advertisements, cheerful music all going on at once. Might not go see the next game ;)

Yesterday we also went picking some apples, which was kind of nice. The views driving up to Garfield, WA were pretty (yes, still mostly wheat fields) and the apples tasted good. There's still only so much a person can eat... We also pressed some of our own "apple cider" (that's what they call apple juice here, hard cider is the kind with alcohol, very rare here) which we heated this morning to get rid of possible germs. It smells really good and reminds me of childhood.

It's weird to look at the trees changing color here. During the day the temperature still rises to over 20 degrees Celsius but it can go below zero at night. So the trees are getting yellow and orange etc. but most of the time the weather isn't the kind I'm used to at home.

Where are you from?

Practically every day people ask me this question. Sometimes several times a day. Apparently I sound funny. No longer British, but just funny. It's my vowels they say. So I’ve given up. I will never have a “perfect” American accent (then we can discuss which part of the U.S. speaks that “perfect” accent). I don’t think I can find a place, where everyone would speak in the exact same dialect, or where I would be the only foreigner. Here I find myself mostly affected by British, German and Swedish accents. So I have now decided to accept the fact (quoting several sources from the English department ;) that each person has their own idiolect blah blah blah.

So, when I tell people where I’m from, I generally get two types of response. Others get all excited. Then they either tell me: “Oh, cool, I have a sister/brother/cousin in [insert any Scandinavian city]!” (“Well, that’s nice. It’s a different country, you know”) or: “Cool! I have this Finnish friend “Samsa” (intonation so that you should react: “Oh, Samsa, he’s like my best friend”), he’s like the coolest person I’ve ever met”. Well, apparently there was an exchange student called Sampsa here and he seemed to have known a lot of people because seriously very many people have mentioned him!

The other group is also very excited but have obviously no clue whether Finland is a state, town, an independent country…

If the conversation goes on (usually not if the second group is in question), next they’ll ask me, why I came to Moscow, Idaho. For some reason (and I’ve noticed this before) people seem to think that their particular small hometown is so much more boring than any other small town in America. Personally, I don’t think it makes much of a difference whether I’m in Idaho, Arizona or California. Larger cities are too far away if you don’t have a car, services are the same everywhere (like 20 times better than in an equally sized Finnish city!)…

And yes, it gets cold in Finland, at least by your standards, but I’m really quite comfortable with it. And yeah, seriously, over there we wear more clothes outdoors than indoors and for me regular room temperature is not 17 degrees Celsius.

Fireplace

I have to tell you about the fireplace in our building. It's really cool, and safe. You turn the switch and the (gas) flames come out immediately. The "logs" are made of rock or such. But it warms, which is great in the temperatures we have INDOORS around here!

...

Yesterday we visited the Latah County Fair. A genuine American experience with chicken auctions, caramel apples and the competition for the largest pumpkin!

Bare necessities?

We're out of toilet paper. In fact, there's not one single roll of it in the whole building (well, except for the toilet in the common area wehre I went for a hunt this morning). Apparently, the housing administration guys don't consider having paper a true necessity. I say guys because I believe they are. I don't think you need to justify a woman, why an apartment with 5 women needs more than a roll of paper a week. Rumor has it that we should get some today (we've been rationed for like two weeks). Keeping my fingers crossed (and legs too, if we don't get some soon...).

Miscellaneous bits of life

Tomorrow starts the 4th week of school! I can't believe it, had to check my calendar to make sure. I'm really enjoying my courses, and so far have kept up with the readings. I've had my first pop-quiz, which was horrible (had to write an essay in 10 minutes, I didn't even have time to think about what I was going to write). Ended up having a B, which is great, but I'm still embarassed at my contribution...

I've noticed I've got tons of freetime here. Everything is so efficient: you cross the street to go to classes, and another street on the other side of home to go to the gym. What do with all the time? They have these poster around that say that university students spend approximately 15hours a week on homework. Seriously! I spend my time reading, exercising, surfing the Internet and cooking! I pride in trying to cook "real food" almost everyday - or at least have Timo cook while I look pretty ;) Anyway, it makes me feel accomplished - eating something else than pasta every day! In terms of food, I've been having trouble: everything's got milk in it! At home I can at least use low-lactose stuff, which keeps the lactose intolerance ok but here there isn't really any products available! Today I took my first look at the pharmacy trying to find some pills and there were just tons of different medicine for heartburn and other food-related "illnesses". Also a lot of the commercials on tv advertise these medicines. Got me thinking that "maybe" there's something wrong with the people's diet... These people must have a lot of trouble with their stomachs.

Yesterday a whole bunch of international students went on a white water rafting trip! I was really scared at first: I had thought that we'd have this big boat and I could just pretty much hold something and be comfortable ;) but we ended up having to sit kind of high up on a small raft, paddling. But when I got over my fear it was pretty cool. The rapids weren't too big, either. At first the weather was all pleasant and people were swimming etc. but then it started hailing! Ice just coming down to my ears, eyes... It was so freezing! But when it stopped, the water felt really warm and I ended up jumping in with my clothes on just before we were coming to shore. I thought I need to experience the whole "swimming-with-clothes-on" experience. The water didn't feel so warm anymore... Luckily I had taken dry clothes to the van so I could change everything after I got up from the water. Really cool trip!

Now I'll get ready for another week amidst the wheat fields! :)