• A beautiful sunny day to spend tanning on the balcony with a glass of apple cider
• Very yummy spinach-tomato-onion-cheese pancakes made by couchsurfers
• Hearing that a package I sent got to Belgium safely!
• Seeing the couchsurfers to the train – I really enjoyed having them here, and I hope they have an awesome rest of the journey! 10 months ago

• Impressive closing ceremony of the Olympics
• Attempting a Dutch Day… we failed a bit though, but it’s the thought that matters!

• A relaxed movie night with friends
• Delicious banana bread with ice cream
• Couchsurfers!

• Going on an adventure, hiking and enjoying the nature!
• Sunshine
• Speaking and hearing a lot of Dutch
• A cold cider on a hot day 10 months ago

This Saturday was a lot of fun! We got a few friends over, watched the men’s javelin finals (Finland got bronze!) and then a movie, all accompanied with some drinks and snacks.

I enjoyed…

• Yummy rainbow trout in cream sauce
• Seeing friends after a long time
• Cheering for Finland and sending bad karma to other countries
• Andreas Thorkildsen taking his shirt off at least twice. :D 10 months ago

So, this Friday we were supposed to have some friends (6 of them) over. Then the plans changed and we were going to have none over. Then the plans changed and we were possibly going to have 2 over. Then the plans changed and we were possibly going to have 2 other people over – who weren’t in the original 6. In the end, we had 4 – half of whom I’d never even met in my life.

Now, I’m not a fan of surprises. I like to prepare and my brain needs time to adjust to changes. Around half past 9 in the evening, when the first two people announced they were going to be over in 10 minutes, I was ready to hide in the bedroom and pretend I wasn’t home for the rest of the evening, because my brain had already thought I would be able to sit on the couch on my pajamas, watch the Olympics and sip some red wine by myself! I didn’t hide, though, of course.

To my surprise, the evening proceeded to be quite a nice one – one could even describe it as gezellig! I’m so happy about that.

So, all in all, I enjoyed…

• My boyfriend making me a couple of egg sandwiches in the morning when I was starving
• Playing PS2 with my boyfriend. Normally we do our own stuff, so having some time together (even if it is gaming) is a really nice change.
• Red wine! Need I say more? It’s been ages since I last had wine, and I could notice that. The smell and first sips of it always take me abroad – to Belgium, to Germany, to England, to the Netherlands, to Hungary… wherever I’ve had some wine at some point. Instant mind-teleportation!
• A nice night with people I don’t normally spend a lot of time with. 10 months ago

• Doing an outline for one of my essays, now it’ll be easier to start
• Contacting new exchange students
• Watching the Olympics… mmm, Andreas Thorkildsen.

• Going out on the town with my boyfriend
• Yummy cakes and tea in two (!) cafes
• Buying 3 new PS2 games we can play together
• Thoroughly cleaning up the bedroom & part of the hallway
• Cooking together
• Ending the evening by a couple of levels of one of the new games
• Good conversation before falling asleep! 10 months ago

On this rainy Tuesday, I enjoyed…

• Not having to go anywhere, just listening to the rain against the windows.
• Rearranging the living room! I’d never even thought of that, but my boyfriend really wanted to do it. It was sweaty and annoying, but the result is totally worth it!
• Chocolate that my lovely boyfriend went to get, yes, through the rain. He’s awesome.
• Watching old Finnish documentaries about interrail – fun! 10 months ago

- Tackling a nagging task and signing up for the summer exam
- Eating leftover chocolate cake
- Making progress with my portfolio!
- Watching Weeds with my boyfriend
- Seeing the moon for the first time since, I don’t know, May? Autumn is coming!
- Great conversation before going to bed. I’m starting to look forward to that moment of day when everything’s done and our minds just wander around. 10 months ago

What a nice Sunday! I enjoyed…

• Talking Dutch with my boyfriend, learning new expressions and feeling very proud of myself in the evening
• Baking together while listening to The War of the Worlds
• Obviously enjoying the chocolate cake we baked…
• Having a friend over and watching two comedies – neither of which were excellent, but I don’t normally watch a lot of comedies so it was fun to laugh
• Great conversation with my boyfriend before falling asleep: about everything from bilingual children to orchestras consisting of mentally challenged players. We’re making so much progress on our communication! 10 months ago

What a nice weekend!

2.8.
- Getting a reply from the music video festival about volunteering!
- An energetic morning and completing an essay!
- Chanterelle soup… yes, again. I simply had to make some so my boyfriend could taste it too! We enjoyed it tremendously.

3.8.
- Finishing my book. (The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. Recommended!)
- Festival afterparty! Free drinks, food and snacks. Hallelujah.
- Having so much fun dancing at the club with friends!
- Having someone to wait for me at home and hold my hair up when I met my four Jägermeister shots for the second time (good riddance).

4.8.
- Sleeping in until the afternoon… I am getting too old for partying, but at least I didn’t have anything important to do!
- My awesome boyfriend who went to get us pizzas and afterwards made me a perfect green smoothie. Speaking of him… I think I’ll go wake him up now! 10 months ago

First day of August! Where has all the time gone?

• Waking up early and being able to do school work before boyfriend even got out of bed
• Finding interesting blogs and reading all the entries (starting from 2010) in one sitting! I absolutely love blogs and am always on the lookout for interesting new ones.
• Not having to cook, but eating yesterday’s leftovers instead. Mmmmm, enchiladas.
• Curling up with my boyfriend to watch an episode of Weeds before heading to bed. 10 months ago

Enjoyments before August marches in:

- Getting things done: schoolbooks and groceries
- Chocolate ice cream and sunshine
- A boyfriend that’s kind enough to fix the freezer door & hoover
- Cooking together (and it was delicious)
- Talking about some important things
- Drawing after a long pause 10 months ago

27.7.

- Getting my boyfriend back home!
- Beautiful sunny, warm weather – perfect for festival volunteering!
- Working at the festival was relaxed and less hectic than last year, so there was less pressure
- Seeing some great gigs!
- Getting home rather early, ready to rest for the following day’s 14-hour workload!

28.7.
- Even warmer weather than yesterday! I didn’t have to change out of my shorts even in the night!
- Feeling useful! Our day was a lot busier than the previous day, so we were hurrying from one place to another. Just like I like it!
- Yummy Starbucks frappuccino that promoter girls handed out for free. Mmmmm.
- Really good food! Salmon with blue cheese and grilled vegetables for lunch, and fried vendaces with potatoes for dinner. Festival food can be really good if you’re allowed to dine in the VIP area!
- Getting home after a long day at 3am, reading a book for a while and drifting to sleep with earplugs on – not waking up to the cat meowing!

29.7.

- Going to movies with my brother and mother
- Enjoying lunch on the hot beach, watching thunder in the horizon
- Getting fresh ingredients from the marketplace – yum, strawberries!

30.7.

- Visiting a month-old twin brothers – so small! Holding them was so precious.
- Thunder! The whole city was overflowing with water, so I was really happy for not having to go outside. But it was great to listen to the distant roaring of thunder and the rain against the window.
- Making delicious food – perch caught by my little brother and smoked by my father, chanterelle sauce made from local mushrooms and some quinori for essential vitamins.
- Enjoying a cider on the balcony after the rain stopped – the air smelled wonderful and it was still warm at 11pm. 10 months ago

- Waking up early and noticing that the sun shines!
- Pancakes for breakfast!
- Nice, long shower + facial mask to pamper myself.
- Finally getting a new window to replace the broken one! I’ll have to be more careful with bees from now on…
- Going to the festival volunteer info and meeting everyone after a long time! It’s TOMORROW!!! I’m so excited!! Time’s gone so fast!
- Biking for 10km and noticing my condition is getting better – no breathing problems!
- My boyfriend’s coming back tomorrow!!

So, all in all, a great day – and tomorrow’s going to be even better! 10 months ago

- We’re having our festival info tomorrow! I get to meet all the other awesome backstage workers as well. I know most of them from last year, but we have a couple of new ones, too. (:
- Ordering some vitamin supplements and tea for myself. I love shopping for goodies to make myself feel better.
- Breaking a sweat on the dance mat, gaining extra energy.
- Eating the leftovers of the world’s best chanterelle soup. It. Is. So. Good.
- One more night less to seeing my boyfriend again! He’ll be back tomorrow or on Friday. 10 months ago

- Getting the window repairman in the morning! He took the window away and promised to try to bring it back by Thursday. Woop!
- Listening to the radio on my new phone while biking to water a friend’s plants and back. I think I’ve lost my mp3 player, and it doesn’t work properly anymore, and I’ve always preferred random radio stations to tracks chosen by me anyway!
- The absolutely most delicious chanterelle soup I’ve ever had! The secret was cream with smoked cheese flavour. So good!
- Finishing reading The White Masai and realizing how very privileged I am to have the kindest, least selfish and most understanding boyfriend I could imagine. I felt overwhelmed with love for him when reading about Hofmann’s struggles! 10 months ago

- A yummy mango-kiwi-spinach smoothie in the morning. Could’ve used a bit of almond milk or banana to soften the kiwi taste, though.
- A friend dropping by, sharing some views of his, which got me thinking a lot about mindfulness and similar things. Some of the thoughts might find themselves as goals in near future.
- Hearing that my boyfriend’s coming back this week already, instead of next week! At first I was a bit bummed – I’ve learned to enjoy solitude – but now I can’t wait!
- Counting down days to the festival where I’ll be working! Almost there! 11 months ago

I spent 5 hours today outside in the middle of mosquitoes, rain and cold. It was not enjoyable, but luckily there were other small sources of enjoyment in my day!

- Sleeping late and remembering a really nice dream I had
- A text message from a classmate that showed we share similar views
- Getting home after all that standing and freezing and killing mosquitoes! A nice, warm couch and two purring cats (pictured: the hairier one) feels like heaven. 11 months ago

- Instead of getting up when my alarm went off, I decided to sleep for another hour. Woke up feeling much more well-rested!
- Falling asleep on the couch while reading a new travel magazine. I like naps.
- Sauna at my grandparents’ place! So worth the 30-minute drive!
- Strawberries. Need I say more? 11 months ago

- Getting all dolled up for the meeting: facial mask and body scrub
- Fresh sugar peas from the marketplace and chantarelles for cooking! Now I just need to decide what I want to make from them, hmm.
- Eating yummy food – salad, grilled vegetables, baby carrots and salmon!
- Driving my mum’s car – I love automatic gears!

P.S. We counted yesterday – I have 70 second cousins from my mom’s side alone. Around 200 from my dad’s side – we didn’t bother to count those! 11 months ago

- Spending time with my mother and brother. This made my whole day!
- Materialism: new clothes, a new phone, magazines, a book, some household stuff. I don’t go shopping often, because I think I have everything I need already, but my, does some new stuff every now and then feel like a luxury.
- Speaking of luxury… freshly squeezed orange juice. Mmmmm. 11 months ago

- body scrub with pomegranate-sugar scrub (mmmm, the smell!)
- foot massage, lotion and soft socks
- quality time with the Purr Machine and 43things 11 months ago