sauna land

in finland - land of saunas, dark bread, and dry humor. as for the saunas, i have yet to try one, but will be doing so in the next few days. the girls are staying at kati's apartment and of course the apartment has a sauna, but there is just something about getting naked in a steamy room with my students that just isn´t appealing. as for the dark bread, after being used to cheap, almost white bread, this rye bread is dee-licious. in the words of einar, "this bread is so black it´s almost a sin." as for the dry humor... i believe i possessed a large quantity of it before i came, but it is even more dry now. and last little fact about finland: did you know finland is the second fattest country behind the u.s.?
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cool story #1
we were at a camp about 40 kilometers away from vaasa this weekend, just to hang out with students and do a bit of teaching. the first day there i met iida, a finnish girl who was an exchange students in oskaloosa, kansas - just a couple hours away from where i grew up! it was like meeting an old friend. we talked about small town america and the funny things americans do. she is considering being a dts student next year in skien, which would be a huge blessing for me! she lives is vaasa, so i hope to go to a cafe with her this week.

cool story #2
during holy communion at the camp, i sat in the back and talked with a 16 yr. old guy named sami. we began talking when his father called him, drunk. i asked him why he came to the camp and he said he didn´t really know, but his friends were going and he was wondering if God was actually real. he changed the subject for awhile, talking small talk, and then i asked if it was hard to believe in God. immediately he answered, "yes." when i asked why, he said "most of these people here call themselves christian, but every monday they come to school bragging about how wasted they got over the weekend." again, the conversation changed, but a few moments later he asked me if i thought it was difficult to believe in God. i thought about it and said no, but if i tried to think about God with my head it doesn´t make any sense because i can´t prove much. if i think about it with my heart though, it makes perfect sense. he thought about it for a bit and replied, "huh. believing in God is something that a person has to do with their heart and if i believe, i don´t lose anything." we left the conversation at that and went to take commmunion, but wow. what an exciting thing.
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all is going well. quite tired still from the journey (32 hours by van and ferry) and just being around people all the time. but it´s worth it for the dark bread (everything else is an added bonus).