Happy Thanksgiving!

Moi moi! Apologies for not posting in a while, but there hasn't been much going on in the last week. When I got home from Riga I was so tired, so I was trying to stay close to home last week to rest and catch up with studying.

Yesterday I got home from a camping/hiking trip that the student union put together. We bussed to a national park about 50km from Tampere called Helvetinjärvi National Park. We really lucked in with the weather and it was beautiful and sunny the whole time. After arriving, we set up camp and then started on a 10km hike through the park.

The Finnish forest really isn't much different from the Canadian forests, but something strange about it was that there were no animals or birds...nothing...when we stopped in the forest to listen, it was just dead silence. The park was beautiful however and as you can see from the pic above, the trees were all changing and the scenery was wonderful. We stayed the night (in heated tents, we were so spoiled!) and then bussed back to Tampere the next morning. It was such a great way to get out of the city and see some Finnish countryside. It was nice to get away from school and everything and just simply relax, even if it was only for 1 night...

So I guess today everyone is sitting down for turkey!!!! It's not a holiday here in Finland, but after class, I am going to attempt to make a turkey dinner "expat" style, complete with turkey, Stove Top stuffing my family sent from home, and last night my flatmate and I even made an apple pie!!! I've never made apple pie before, but it looks like it should, so tonight we will see if it tastes like it should!

Also, my apologies if you've written an email and I have been late with my replies...I promise to write eventually! And for more pictures, go to my MSN "Space": http://spaces.msn.com/members/julezmay/

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Love, Jules :)