Almost Settled In

I've now been to Ikea three times, and along with more visits to the grocery store I feel that I've acquired most of the things I need to feel settled in. Lunch at Ikea is only 3.30 euros! My mom is sending me a box of winter clothes that will arrive this week (hopefully). It's still very warm out, about 70 degrees, and doesn't get dark early. I think that will happen more towards the end of October.

Tonight I'm going to attempt to do laundry. In the particular apartment I'm living in, you pay for the washing machine using your cell phone. So high-tech!

Tomorrow I have financial economics, micro, and Swedish. I'm considering dropping the Swedish class, but I'll give that another week or two. Amazingly, at the university, if you fail a class it just doesn't show up on your transcript! How nice.

On Tuesday I am going to Talinn, the capital of Estonia, for a day with mostly European exchange students. Tons of Finnish people go to Talinn all the time because you can buy cheap alcohol there. It's only a two hour trip each way, and costs 15 euros.

In the city of Helsinki, people are much more fashionable, and 99% of them are wearing just black, grey and white. I think this might be a northern-city phenomenon. Beers are ridiculously expensive - between 4 and 8 euros ($5 to $10) for a pint glass, and Finnish beer isn't even very good! Chocolate, however, is quite cheap and much better than Hershey's.

I've seen multiple people walking cats on leashes around Espoo, and Chihuahuas seem to be popular. No sauna time yet.