One Olut, Kiitos!*

So here we are in Joensuu, Finland, and I'm too lazy to upload photos.

It's beautiful here. Behind our cabin is a small creek. Cross over the creek on the bridge and you'll arrive at a gate. Go through the gate, and you'll find a game of volley-club going on. Walk past the game, and you're on the shore of a lake where the water is cold and refreshing. It's a very gentle slope, and we've taken the kids walking into the water. It's lovely, but very very cold.

The weather has been playing a game of cat-and-mouse with us. We've seen rain, almost freezing temperatures (5 c), and today was hot hot hot (30 c). Our cabin is heated but not air-conditioned. It's not even well-ventilated. There are two windows, but the hinges on one window are broken so it can't be opened. (i tried on the first night, with somewhat disastrous results.)

Food has been an interesting challenge. We've been eating a lot of fruit, including MANY bananas. The kids are addicted to blueberry yogurt. We've eaten too many potato chips, a fair number of omelets. You can get Philly cream cheese here, some of the bread is kosher, and you can get lox! We had rice and tuna for lunch, and our kids are big fans of tomatoes...Most interesting is the little miniature pies that we've been devouring... they come in apple and blueberry - super yum.

And the juggling... We bought 5 more hats, and I'm working on hat juggling now. we're hoping to work on a hat act. Right now it feels worse that starting fresh with balls, but each day is a new day.

Finnish words
*Olut-beer
*kiitos-thank you