Ruoka...

That means food.
I really like the food here. I'm also finding that I like things here that I didn't like in the States. Like marshmallow fluff. You can't even buy it here. The kind my host family has they bought from the US, and then I brought them another jar because they said they were running low. But about twice a week now, I find myself going into the kitchen and making myself a peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich. And then I thoroughly enjoy it.

But enough about food that you can have in the US. One thing that I have absolutely fallen in love with and already know I will miss when I'm gone is karjalan piirakka (or Karelian Pie). It is an eastern Finland specialty, but I'm so glad that we also have it in the southwest. It is a thin rye bread crust, filled with a rice pudding (not sweet though) mixture, and then you bake it. Then you chop up some hard boiled eggs and mix it with butter to put on top. Delicious.
Here's a basic recipe, along with some information about them. http://katinthekitch.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/finntastic-karelian-pies/
So that's one thing that I'm always happy to see in the house. I've also eaten reindeer... twice. The first time was on my bread for breakfast. It has been cold smoked, and was sliced like lunchmeat. For some reason, reindeer lunchmeat just doesn't seem right. But it was really good. I also had it like in chunks with mashed potatoes and lingonberries on top. That's the traditional way to eat it. And I'm sure I'll be seeing more reindeer on my plate this year. And I will be happy to eat it.

The chocolate here is to die for. I buy some pretty much every day, which I should probably stop doing. Because that's going to add up to be a lot of money spent on chocolate. But I just can't help myself. The main chocolate company here has so many different flavors, and my mission is to try them all. So I guess I'll just have to continue buying chocolate every day until I've done that. It could be a while.

Salmiakki! That would be salty black liquorice. Although I don't really enjoy it when I eat it, it definitely needs to be mentioned. Everyone here loves it, and I haven't found a single person that says they don't. My goal is to enjoy it by the end of the year. This means that I continuously force myself to eat it so I get used to it. There's lots of different kinds, and some are definitely better than the others. There was one that also had eucalyptus in it.... that would definitely be on the worse list. But I will continue to eat it until I can eat it without making a face... and then eat it some more until I like it. I figure I'm not really a Finn until I like salmiakki.

I'll post more about the food later after I've spent a little more time at a grocery store, but I figured I should post another blog, and this was pretty much all I could think of.

But on a side note... here are some other things I've been up to lately:
I went sailing in the Turku Archipelago last weekend. It was amazing! So beautiful! And with so many islands, it seemed like we weren't out in the middle of the sea... but we were! (more pictures of that to come later... I've just been kind busy and haven't uploaded anything)
I also got a cell phone! Finally. Everyone kept asking for my number... but I didn't have a phone. And not having a phone in Finland is like a sin. Everyone has a phone. So now I don't feel left out of the loop. And I can actually go and do things and if I get lost I have some way of figuring out what to do, and just being able to tell my host mom where I'm going is always a good thing.