Farewells and first impressions

Back in Tampere on Thursday I knew I had a lot to do before I was ready to take off to Germany. The last paperwork was task number one. I headed to the university and met with two international coordinators to get my last papers signed. After waiting for the other one for 20 minutes, because she went to some birthday, I got everything ready and went to the park to meet with a good friend. After a while another friend joined us at a terrace and I had my first "terrace cidre" this summer. Probably the last one as well - they don't really drink cidre in Germany. My other friend had just bought a sheesha, so after enjoying our cidre we headed back to the park to smoke a little bit. At the park three more friends joined us, so had a great chance to say goodbye to a lot of friends at the same time - even though I ended up seeing one of them like five more times (which equaled five more times for farewells).




On Friday I had my last performance with my choir, or well, part of it. We had a Vappu-gig at the university and another one at the local retirement home. It was fun and I got really sad about not singing at the concert in two weeks.

Then it was Saturday, and time to say bye to Finland. In the morning theguy who's sub-renting my room came to pick up the key. I'm so happy I got everything worked out! When I arrived in Bremen - 25 minutes ahead of schedule (go Ryanair!) and stepped out of the airplane it was amazing! No need for a jacket anymore, because it was summer. My boyfriend picked me up and all the way home to his parents I was amazed about how beautiful everything is. The trees are all green and everything is blooming! When got to my boyfriends parents' house lunch was ready. Asparagus soup as a starter and potatoes, schitzel, asparagus and hollandaise sauce. I was so happy, because I've been looking forward to eating asparagus for weeks. And it sure was worth the wait, it was totally delicious!




My boyfriends parents live at a kind of a vacation farm in northern Germany. They have a pony, cows, a duck, a dog, rabbits, cats and four apartments which people can rent for their vacation. So last week their dog had puppies, a girl and a boy. They are 10 days old today and oh so cute! If my work didn't start tomorrow I'd just stay here and take care of the babies. While I was smooching with the puppies my boyfriend fix up a bike for me to take to Berlin. It's a granny bike in blue and yellow and I just love it!






My fun-filled Saturday ended with two birthdays. First a quick stop at one of my boyfriends friends for cake and coffee (and sparkling wine...), then to the main event of the evening. My boyfriends ex-boss was celebrating his 50th birthday together with two others and it was a huge party. It was a beautiful, rustic hotel in the countryside. The hosts started off with greeting their guests in the back garden with drinks and a band playing nice "elevator music". After mingling for a while and greeting all the guests the party was moved inside where the huge buffet dinner was. The hosts gave each a short speech and a quartet sang fours songs. Then it was time for the buffet which was full off bavarian food: frühlingsknödel (a potato dish), mashed potatoes, sauerkraut, champignons in cream sauce, white sausage, pretzels, and a lot of pig dishes. The dessert was fresh strawberries and Bavarian cream which is a kind of sweet vanilla cream. It was all very delicious, and the party was fun!

Today were off to Berlin. I'm very excited to meet my landlord / flat mate and see the apartment. I can't believe I'm actually here!