estonia, midsummer in finland, classes

Helsinki is home now. for the summer, and could be for awhile if i didn't have to return. i like this city. biking is excellent and the city is so green! (and so is Finland). the city is dense, so everything you need is close. the architecture is nice. rents a little expensive though.
i have a nice little routine forming now that i found a pool and a gym nearby, and now that Finnish classes have begun.

i just had Ebony and Daniel visiting me for a bit here in Helsinki. we rode bikes around and hung out. we took a ship south to Tallinn in Estonia and spent the day there. the city is lovely. the old city has narrow cobblestone streets and beautiful buildings everywhere. despite being one big tourist trap, it was quite fun. we brought our bikes over from Helsinki and roamed around.
people in Estonia seem much more macho (if you're a guy) or feminine (if you're a girl), which was a little strange to find in a city. for some reason there were tons of US marines around. we never solved that mystery.
we got some cheap booze and brought it back with us to Finland.

last weekend was Midsummer here in Finland, and its a big deal here. most workers get a day and a half off (paid), and everybody heads out to the wilderness to hang out and celebrate. often involving cottages or camping, swimming, saunas, alcohol, and HUGE bonfires that are probably visible from space.
we took a bus to a little dock in Espoo (city right next to Helsinki), and paid 2€ (!!) for a 2 hour ferry ride to a little island called Stora Bodö, which is part of a bunch of small islands to the south of Helsinki in the Baltic Sea.
it was raining when we first got there, but we set up camp, and went to a little shelter with a fire place that was near our sight. everyone there was Kirsi's friends, and really quite lovely. we had a fire and ate and drank and hung out until the early morning. at one point in the night we went and climbed up a tower on the highest point in the island and looked for the big bonfires on the neighboring islands. i think we saw 4. some of which were humongous.
i really like the ritual of Midsummer. seems really pagan in origin, and makes a lot of sense in Finland where people seem a lot closer to the land than most cultures i know; that even goes for those who live in the Capital City in Helsinki. because nature still feels like its all around you.

i started Finnish lessons! mina olen paul. starting with the very basics of course. makes me feel like i'm in kindergarten again. and its hard! but that's what the classes are there for i guess. if it was easy, i probably wouldn't be learning that much. so my classes are from maanantai - torstai (mon - thu) 16h15 - 19h30. which feels like a good amount of time. by the end my brain hurts, and i think its impossible to absorb any more information.

so that's all for the present. future things are: Russia and Saint Petersburg, punk rock festivals in a neighboring (Finnish) city, and eventually Sweden (Stockholm). see ya!