Well, my friend who is currently living in Spain managed to visit me, but that is a whole other story. As you can see, I finally went cross country skiing. My previous skiing experience was (falling) downhill in Big Bear, California. So, here we are at Paloheinä, taking a turn around field. Actually, we were going to go on the easy quick 3K path. Then things went horrible wrong. Ok that is a bit dramatic. We just went on the wrong trail and were sort of way off track. I think we ended up skiing 6 kilometers. I only fell twice and managed to make it back alive. Since then, we've bought our owns skis and have been skiing almost everday. I have finally learned that I only need a t-shirt and a fleece, and ski pants. So, none of that 5 layers of clothes I wore the first time. I don't even think I need the ski pants, I get so overheated. I don't know how people can wear all those clothes when they ski. I am about to go out in shorts next time. 

So, Saturday morning, I took all the food out of the freezer, placed it on the balcony in the freezing temperature. It was time to defrost that freezer. After a few hours, it was defrosted and cleaned. So, I put everything back in. Then I decided to make pudding from scratch, suklaakiisseli. Here is the recipe:

6 dl maitoa
½ dl sokeria
3 rkl kaakaojauhetta
¾ dl maizena maissitärkkelystä
2 rkl vanilliinisokeria

1. Sekoita pinnoitetussa kattilassa maito,
sokeri, kaakaojauhe ja maissitärkkelys.
Nosta kattila liedelle ja kuumenna seosta
koko ajan puuhaarukalla sekoitaen,
kunnes se kiehuu.
2. Vähennä lämpöä ja keitä kiisseliä noin
3 - 4 minuuttia. Nosta kattila pois liedeltä
ja lisää vanilliinisokeri.
3. Laita kiisseli tarjoilukulhoon jäähtymään.
Ripottele pinnalle sokeria kuortumisen estämiseksi.


Somebody made that in class once and it was good. My partner and I made the appelsiinikiisseeli and the mustikkakiisseli. So, I wanted to try to make the chocolate pudding myself at home. It came out really well.

Anyway, after that I realized that I had time to make it to this Conan O'Brien arrival at the Helsinki-Vantaa airport. I went warmed up the truck and made my way to the airport. I arrived and parked in P3, I felt so 'charmed'. Reality set it as I walked to the terminal and noticed some Conan looking fans leaving and walking towards some other buildings. I realized that this terminal where he was arriving was not in the main part of the airport.

With dread, I began following the crowd. Miles away from where we began we found the VIP-Presidentii terminal and a lively crowd. No sign of Conan and, although, I forgot my watch, I was sure it was sometime past his arrival time. So, I waited by one gate. I walked as close as I could to the the door of the building but there was too many people to get too close. I stood by the other gate and took pictures of the border patrol guard, the arrival of some police, and some random planes. Of course, I took pictures of the crowd, some climbing trees, some standing on trailers, some carrying signs reading 'Tarja Sucks, Conan Rocks'.

Soon, I began to regret wearing my Vans tennis shoes, instead of my Columbia winter boots. I began to regret that I drank that glass of water before I left my flat. I began to get really annoyed that it was surely an hour past his arrival time and no word had been given as to what was going on. We were just kept outside in the freezing temperatures. I thought, that we would be standing inside a terminal, or something. I decided it was time to pack it in when my batteries in my digital camera kept dying because it was so cold.

One cool thing did happen. I saw Roni Tran, I will admit that he is the only person I ever voted for in any Idols competition. He participated in the last Suomen Idols competition. During the semifinals or whatever it was, he wasn't actually voted to continue. I don't know why because clearly he was the best singer in that bunch. Anyway, he was picked by the judges to get a second chance in the wild card round and we was voted in. So, he became a finalist. Eventually, he was dropped out of the competition. In the end the person who won, imo, had sooo little singing talent compared to Roni. So, it was really great to see him. Here is the link to him, it is in Finnish but there he is. He is so cute. www.mtv3.fi/ohjelmat/ido...ailijat.shtml

Back at home after dinner, while I was sitting here eating my pudding, the news showed Conan O'Brian standing on the roof of the VIP-Presidential terminal. The Finn read from Ilta-Lehti, which sad that the crowed waited for 2 hours outside. What happened was that he held a press conference first, which the channel that airs the show, Subtv, reported he would hold after meeting the fans . He started the press conference by giving a speech in Finnish, where he said he wanted to be a sauna inspector, esp in the women's sauna. He said he might visit Lappland and the Finnish president Tarja Halonen has agreed to meet with him briefly on Tuesday. The last site has photos of him arriving here. I am still annoyed that I didn't get any photos. Plus, I ended up paying 5€ for parking.

www.subtv.fi/conan/
www.iltalehti.fi/2006/02/1...8_vi.shtml

That was my rant, now the following is the introduction to my video of the event. I appologize in advance for the lame narration and the crazy cussing that I do. I was annoyed and had to pee. So, rated PG 13 or whatever for bad language.

"If you watch Late Night with Conan O'Brien, then you might know what is going on. 11 February 2006 he came to Finland after months of joking about it on his show and comparing himself to the president, Tarja Halonen. This is my account of what happened the day he arrived. I did not see him. Contrary to the subtv webpage he gave a press conference first and then saw the fans afterward. A very inconsiderate choice, because it was at least -7 Celsius. Freezing cold!"

Finally, here is the movie.

When one moves to Finland, one has has an option to go through the immigrant intergration program with the employment office. I came to Finland on a visa based upon a family tie, that is to say, my spouse is Finnish. Permission to work was included in my visa. Anyway, one can be in this program for three years. I am on my last year. During this time, I have been taking classes to learn Finnish. At first, I was taking classes Helsingin Aikuisopisto. It was a really great place and my teacher was dyanmic and awesome. There I met my bestfriend in Finland. She is originally from Thailand. I got accepted into a immigrant preporatory course in Espoo, Espoon tekniikan ja kulttuurin oppilaitos, it was ok but there were mostly younger people in the class and it soon became tedious. I decided to apply at another school that would hopefully have people my age. I ended up going to Helsingin sosiaali ja terveysalan oppilaitos. In previous posts, I have given links to the films I had made during my study there. If you don't read Finnish, it is a College of social and health care. So, these schools prepare immigrants for there next step which would be to apply to a job, a vocational school, a polytechnic,or even a university. Well, anyway, the point of this post is this. Here is the video of my graduation. A very unusual affair, I was reminded of a wake or a funeral when we came in bearing lit candles and the nearly all of the lights in the gym were off, very curious. Now, I am in a monikulttuurinen talouskoulu maahanmuuttajille at Helsingin Diakoniaopisto. I think it is swell. We are learning to cook, bake, clean, all that home ec stuff which I can do but I never really learned the proper techniques before. Well, that is another post. Watch the video.

You have got to see this to believe it. One day last year at my old school, we shared our own countries music in our music class. Well, I did a power point presentation on mariachi music. I mean, I am American but my culture is more Mexican. What was I going to bring as an American, Bruce Springsteen as a teacher once suggested. I don't think so. Anyway, this one chick in my class who is from Crimea, brought a song sung in Ukrainian. To our complete suprise, she had this dance to go along with the music. All, I could say was wow, that lady had moxie. You gotta give her credit for putting herself out there like that.

Yesterday evening, I was leaving Akateeminen Kirjakauppa when I saw a group of photographers and spectators. After a few beats, I realized the Danish embassy was right there. Then the Finn remember a notice that had been in Metro lehti saying there was going to be a demonstration. I took photos which can be found on Flickr and I took a short video with my tiny Samsung Digimax digicam. This is what I already wrote in Flickr about this, "In reaction to the Danish cartoons depicting the prophet, Mohammed, some of Finland's muslims stage a silent demonstration near the Danish embassy. Imam Khodr Chahab entered the Danish embassy and presented a letter requesting that Denmark forbid publishing pictures of the prophet Mohammed."

Long ago, I mentioned that I had been in a belly dance class with President of Finland, Tarja Halonen. It was just a few months and then I stopped going. However, she continues to attend. Here she is on Seiska tv giving an interview about it. It is in Finnish, of course. Seiska-tv.
It was really something to be there with her and see the president of the nation dancing along with the rest of the rabble. Awesome.