saturday partyday

i met up with my host family at about 13, we went out to their lot on the lake and did some work on their new sauna... (there are 6 million finns worldwide, 5.2 million in Finland and .5 million vacation homes/corteges/on the lake saunas) of course a picnic with tasty grilled peppers followed. quite a nice day. Pauliina drove me back to my flat. is quite lovely out there though. i got to taste some ligon berries straight from the forest floor.

later on Devan rang me up with an invitation to do what Devan does best, meet up with people and head to the bars in city center. i joined up and off we went barhopping. from the chic to the metal to the imitation pub we made the rounds. i kept well under my limit as i always do when i know i have to walk in excess of 4 kilometers home. Devan however, got wasted.

he was demanding food and whatnot around 1.30 so i offered o break from the group and walk with him home so that he didn't get hit by a car or anything. he lives in the same building as me so it works out fine.
that was by far the longest walk i have ever had, but quite an adventure in and of itself.
Devan is a sociable person to begin with and even more when he's drunk. we talked to maybe 20 Finns including a hippi/goth couple, EVERYONE in the line at the all night burger kiosk, a few trees on the uni campus, a guy on a bike he stopped to ask for a light, a fellow uni student from Helsinki and several others who avoided him.
Ellie and Margot (the Austrian girls) encountered us on their walk home and joined me in trying to divert his attentions from other people. at some point we stopped and moved aside for a bike to pass. lo and behold, it was the some of our party (namely Christan the cultured Swiss guy and the German girl whose name escapes me at the moment) who we had left at the bar long hence. eventually (at 3.30 am) we made it back to the flats.

a good night, got to meet new people and found a super nice pint glass and a silk scarf on side the road on the walk home....

i'm coming into my surroundings... getting the hang of this walking everywhere thing

Lenka is mad at Trang saying she didn't clean well enough as it was her week to clean according to Lenka's timetable. and even though she hasn't *been* here all week (she has a second appartment from the bug thing she raised hell about (which she says would be a national scandal int he Czech republic and wants housing to write her a formal letter of apology)) she expects us to live by her law. i get the idea behind it, trying to bring order to the situation but none of us had say in it. the only reason she asked me about it is because she didnt know the english for some words. she says i should be mad too since i have so much work on my hands now. quite frankly i don't care, her obsessive, controlling and racist remarks are starting to get under my skin.
would it be too much to ask for a peaceful living situation?
all in all a good weekend though.