Two dogs, 3 persons, plenty of bags and a small car- that's the recipe for a succesful trip towards the southern part of Finland. We left Joensuu on Wednesday afternoon and arrived on our friend's parents' farm near Forssa quite late in the evening.







On Thursday I enjoyed myself immensely helping with the kittens and the horse and going for a walk.









The dogs got to run free without someone telling them to watch out or come all the time.





Although it's getting sort of cold, the weather was just beautifiul. In the afternoon we went shopping to a nearby town and then enjoyed good food with the family.
In the evening, Seita and I took the expressbus to Helsinki. That was a first time for both of us, and I wasn't so sure how Seita would like it. But she just walked in and then went to sleep immediately. PUH!
The next adventure was the tram in Helsinki. There I didn't wanna take a risk and carried her in the first time, but it also went just fine.
In turn, she got a long evening walk together with Niko and Hiisi.
On friday Hanna and I went to the city and to Suomenlinna with Hiisi and Seita.







The weather was great, so we went for a long walk.

















Afterwards not only the dogs were tired.





On the ferry back to Helsinki my phone rang and... I GOT THE APARTMENT!!! As if they'd known it, Hanna and Niko had planned special food: reindeer steaks. And some very good wine with them.
Originally it was planned that we go back to Joensuu on saturday around noon. When I was just about to leave, I got a message asking if it was okay to stay a day longer... No problem with that! That led to Hanna & me going "power-shopping", though (which for me means anything more than one store or 30 min... ;8). It got me some jeans for 4€ (!) and the basic Thaifood-ingredients for the next year, though.



Sunday morning we really headed back home. That was another adventure- we took the train to a small town called Riihimäki, where our friends picked us up. First time for Seita on the train... Went well.



In Riihimäki we went for a short walk and saw lots of waxwings.



It was a fun trip altogether. And all of us now watch out, how often we use the word "really"- it's almost shockingly often!!! And usually quite senseless...

On the last weekend, Seita and I enjoyed the beautiful, though already quite chilli, autumn weather. On Friday we went to visit schneemännchen. After coffee, we went for a walk in the forest- and met a hedgehog. It was walking about 2m away from us, really calmly, and wasn't even bothered by Seita. Of course my camera was in the car...
On Saturday we met with a friend, who owns Seita's (almost identical) brother Niila. Together we went to the fishmarket. That was really exciting- so many people and new smells.



Because the weather was so beautiful, we then went first to our friends place to start food, then for a walk in the forest. then we still ate their, went to sauna and watched a movie- and suddenly a short trip to town had turned into almost a daytrip. I enjoyed myself immensely, and so did Seita. She helped Niila to overwhelm his fence and escape from the yard (luckily they came straight to the front door!) and then flooded the apartment when she got hot and took a bath in the watercup.
Yesterday we went to Kuhasalo together.





That was again an awesome walk as well as a great training for the dogs and us- we met a lot of people and dogs, so the dogs had to stop and come back to us and let others go by,... It went really well.





When we came back to our place, Seita & Niila slept for quite a while, but woke up immediately when they smelled food. Interesting, how beautifully they can sit and look up when they want something... ;-)

... everything is happening at once, and usually very differently from what was planned. And so Tapsa and I split up after more than 5 years together. Which also means, I'm looking for an apartment. In Finland. And that turned out to be a lot harder than I expected. I suppose, there's not that many rental apartments in Finland; people seem to prefer buying something to live in. well, I turned in application forms and now am on a few waiting lists. I already heard of 1 (!!!) free apartment- but there's a lot of people applying for it. Let's see; the decision will be made on Friday at the latest. Would be great if I got that place!
Besides that, I feel like I'm in a neverending nightmare of bureaucracy. Huh, I thought I left that behind in Germany. Well, here it's at least as much. When I first came here I was told, that I'd have to send my diplomas to a place called "opetushallitus" to see if they're valid in Finland. That takes 200€ and about 2 months; official translations and official copies. Well, I finally got all that and was ready to send everything in. Luckily, I didn't understand the application form and went to a local project, that helps foreigners with all sorts of questions- KOODI. That, by the way, is a really awesome project and has helped me so much already. Anyway, the woman there sent an e-mail to opetushallitus asking about what I wanted to know- and got an e-mail back saying, that I don't have to send my stuff there, but to a completely different place. Takes 300€ and about 20kg of paper. I've already described my thesis (in English; still have to translate it to Finnish) on two pages; translated the names of every single seminar and lecture I've ever been to to Finnish and described my internship on 1 page (still English). That was the easy part. Now I'll have to explain- in Finnish- how the hours were counted when I was studying (we used something called "Semesterwochenstunde"- hours per week for 1 term) and how much that would be worth in the now valid European credit point system... As far as I could see so far, that is almost impossible to say.
But at least this week we have "etäviikko", which means, vacation with tons of homework. ;-) And on Wednesday I'll "go South" with friends, their dog, and my dog. Seita and I will spend some time on a farm near Lahti and then go on to Helsinki to see Hanna, Niko and Hiisi. I'm very much looking forward to that!

is the name of a small natural park close to the center of Joensuu. It's a lake with a swamp around it and there's at least one beaver living there. Today was actually the first time that I went for a walk there. It's quite beautiful and there's signs of the beavers everywhere.









Seita enjoyed it quite a bit, as well. Of course she managed to go for an unintentional swim again, when the waterpuddle turned out slightly deeper than expected. Luckily she likes water!







In the afternoon, her (almost identical twin-) brother Niila came and they got to play a bit before we went to the "puppy training course" together. That went quite well. There's 12 dogs and 9 different breeds. Actually, a few more breeds, because there's at least one dog which has 5 or more races. ;) It's really cute.

favorite bone



keeping watch



;)



relaxed

the place where we went for a walk, we saw this footprint:



To me it looked big enough to come from a bear. :-) But then, this morning at basically the same place, we met these fellows:



They're dutch, called Bouvier, and at least those two were absolutely sweet. Funny enough, we only met one at first and Seita was playing with him alright. Then the other came- and my "little" dog tried to jump in my arms...
She did really enjoy this mornings walk, though.



And so did we. There's some gorgeous mushrooms to see all over the place (don't know anything about them, only the red ones, but they sure look good)









and we've never seen so many funnylooking trees growing so close to each other.





Finnish people almost always look shocked when I say that I love the fall here. Well, considering that I just caught another cold, I do see their point. But honestly, where in southeast Germany could one take a picture like this:



On our side building, the grapevine is having it's own fall celebrations. It looks awesome when the sun is shining on it.



My flowerbed is doing really well still. We dug out the old "things" and grass and stuff a bit late in summer this year, so everyone told me that my flowers would never blossom... But for about 2 months now we've been having great "marigold" (calendula officinalis), "love in a mist" (nigella damascena) and cornflowers.



Also very lovely is our Indian cress (Tropaeolum majus).



I think, altogether, my first gardening trials didn't turn into a catastrophe.

my chilis are blossoming again.





We like to eat spicy food, so I tried growing chili plants myself. Unexpectedly, basically every seed I sowed turned into a plant and I ended up with about 100 plants (5 different kinds). 2 of each kind I kept for myself, the others I gave away. From 6 plants I already got quite a nice harvest. They are all blossoming again, plus two other plants that were a little bit late.

Strange feeling: To get an e-mail from a close friend living far away after about a year of "no hear": "We're having a baby today or tomorrow- well, very soon!" And yesterday it came. Congratulations, a huge hug and a big old smile to America!
Compared to that, there's nothing really new here. I beat the Finnish medical system by getting a neurologist appointment from one day to the next. That's basically unheard of. But after waiting for 3 weeks for a letter from the hospital telling me that at some point they'll send me a letter announcing the appointment... Oh well, I was VERY sick of waiting! Especially, because I'm in the middle of reducing my epilepsy medication, which can be a rather tricky thing to do.
Yesterday we had the first "dog school" session. Theory to start out with, so the dogs got to stay at home. Could be rather interesting, that course. There'll be quite different kinds of dogs.
And then... I was REALLY clever yesterday. I finally got my diplomas translated and now have to get them evaluated. Meaning, I'll send them in, pay 200€, wait at least 2 months and then find out whether or not I have to go back to school here. Well, I needed official copies of all the papers. So after school I went to a place where I could get that, proudly told the lady (in finnish!) what I wanted, gave her my papers- and got them right back with the remark, that they would need the ORIGINALS for that. Hello and good morning. I did have my passport with me, though. In case that counts for something. ;-)

Which, at least this year, basically means, it's raining. And the days are noticably getting shorter. Still, I love it. The trees are very intensively colored and seem to light up when the slightest bit of sun touches them.



And then there's those rare, really beautiful days. Like yesterday. Around 20°C, sunny, clear blue sky, crisp air. To make it even better, our friends from Helsinki, who are responsible for us being together, were in town with their Lancashire Heeler Hiisi. Together we went for a long walk in a forest nearby, on a trail that leads to where the local river hits the Saimaa lake system.