First Day in Finland

Well, I arrived in Finland to be picked up by “Aunt Päivi” – whom I had never met. She and her daughter Jenny had a sign that said:
“Jessica”
“Heli’s friend”
Then I got to spend over 2 hours driving to Mikkeli and getting to talk with Päivi some, who is very nice and did very well speaking in English.
While driving I saw a lot of trees and quite a few lakes. In fact, there were so many lakes that the roads would just go right through the middle of most, I guess if they didn't do that you couldn't get anywhere in the country. The road surprisingly reminded me of an US Interstate - except that there were not many Road signs, advertizments or cities that I could see of any kind. Just lots of trees.
Then the road changed and got much smaller and reminded me of parts of the Trans-Canada Highway in BC.
Finally I arrived at Heli's Oh-so-fabulous appartment. I loved coming inside and seeing different things that she had bought over the years while we were in different countries together. It's like a journey of memories for me to look around the apartment.

Today while Heli has been at work I went out for a walk. I hadn’t gone far before I felt like I was being followed. They were somewhere between the size of a large rabbit or a small dog. And there was a whole pack of ‘em. I began to walk faster and soon realized that I couldn’t shake ‘em. Soon I found that if I didn’t keep up a fast pace I would get eaten alive! This must be where the concept of vampires came from. So, instead of a nice quite walk with just God and I, it was a rushed walk with many uninvited guests. I felt like I was going for a walk with the Teja’s again (my sister-in-law and her parents - For being people with short legs they sure can move them like no one I’ve ever seen!!)
Well, every time I stopped to try and take a picture a whole swarm of ‘em tried to get a blood transfusion! I thought of naming some of them, but I didn’t have time to stop if I wanted to have any blood left at all by the end of my walk.
When I finally got out of the woods, I took my jacket off (I had been using my hair and my jacket as a protection, since I did not have a mosquito protective shroud with me) thinking that I would be ok now that I was in the streets. As soon as that jacket came off I was dive-bombed by one the size of a sparrow!! I quickly killed it and then found that I had bug parts all over my arm – but VICTORY – there wasn’t any of my blood!

Aunt Päivi taught me how to pronounce this flower in Finnish, but not surprisingly, I've forgotten. They're literally all over the place!