"Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile"

Autumn is here at its best and as always this time of the year I feel the need of bringing its colors and scents into our home. Being so busy at the university doesn't allow me at all to play around in the kitchen during the weekdays but when the weekend comes I'm ready to attack and take over the whisk and the rolling pin. 

This weekend I did both some cooking and baking. I have been craving for some sweet potato-coconut milk soup with croûtons, and I also decided to make blueberry pie for a change after the 3 apple pie weekends we have had in a row (not just my fault!). The recipe of the blueberry pie is already familiar to you (I made it in the same way as last year when my friend came back from her exchange) but here comes the recipe for the soup: 

 Sweet potato-coconut milk soup  

• sweet potato (about 500-600g), peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 tbsp ginger
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• about 6 dl water
• 1 stock cube
• some lime juice
• 1,5 dl coconut milk
• 1/4 red chili, finely chopped   
• Some croutons or pumpkin/sunflower seeds to the top 

After you have peeled and chopped up the sweet potato, onion and garlic, heat up the pot, add some olive oil and gently fry the onion and the garlic in it for a couple of minutes. 

Add now the chopped sweet potato, water and the stock cube and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

Now stir in the coconut milk, lime juice, ginger and the chili.

Take it off from the stove and puree the food with a stick blender. 

Put the pot back to the stove for a couple of minutes more to cook. When ready, garnish it with the croutons or with the pumpkin/sunflower seeds.

Although the picture maybe doesn't look so appetizing, the result was a delicious and warming autumn Sunday lunch/dinner and I already see myself preparing it again in the near future. The only bad thing about it was that I used too much chili and it was a bit too hot for my taste. Have to remember paying attention to it next time!

Sooo, my first procrastinating project in Greece! On Friday I have a mid-term exam and I just can’t get myself to look into the stuff. I already tidied up my stuff, made notes about what I have to do and was thinking about what I don’t need here anymore and can take back to Finland when I go there at Easter. Now I decided to write a bit here but then it’s really time!

The thing is that I should really not screw this up because it sounds so easy! The teacher gave us 4 essay questions already and from those four, two will be on the exam. So basically we know the questions, it can’t get any easier than that!

My weekend was really nice. On Sunday I went for that bike trip and it was great. It was 40km long which scared away most of the people but it was the easiest 40 km of my life!:P The organizers’ aim is to promote biking since it is not that popular here, and since people don’t bike here, you have to keep it easy. The people were very nice, the weather was perfect, around 20 C but very sunny (I got sooo burnt even though I used sun lotion), out of Thessaloniki in small roads. And it was very cheap, only 10 euros (5 for participation, 5 for bike rental). They organize trips often and today they already sent us the details of the next trip. It seems that the place they are going is very pretty but it’s a bit further away, therefore they have to rent a bus to take us there and this makes it more expensive. It’s 25e + 5e for bike rental this time. I will see later if I go or not. The place sounds very nice, but it’s a bit pricey and it might be a bit rainy that day. 

Today finally I managed to meet Iliana, one of the girls who was in Jyväskylä on exchange last year. It was very nice to talk with her. I always enjoy really much chatting with Greeks and I hope I can spend more time with them.

Today also the travel issues concerning the Turkey trip are resolved. My flights are booked from Helsinki to Antalya and from Antalya to Istanbul. From Istanbul I will need to take a bus to Thessaloniki but I already visited the travel agency that deals with these trips and I now know that every day they have 3 buses coming to Thessaloniki. Haven’t booked a ticket yet, I’m still hoping that maybe someone would join me for 2 days in Istanbul. If not, I will just come back straight after the training. I wouldn’t want to be in Istanbul alone.

Oh yeah, and today morning I finally put some pictures to Facebook. There are a some about Thessaloniki, some about Edessa and some about the people here/dormlife. I really don’t take many pictures here but I’ll try to remember to take more photos about the university and the dorm.

I guess now it’s time!:/

Orientation Program!

So a couple of days ago we got an email from the Erasmus office in which they invited us for their Orientation Program. After having been here for over a month I highly doubted that they could say anything new about practical matters that concerns me, but I was actually really interested what on earth they think they can tell us still. Today was the big day and with Merja after out class we headed for the Orientation. Neither of us remembered what room it was supposed to be so we had to ask the receptionist who, surprisingly enough, could answer to our question but he also added that we have to wait for an hour because in that hall where we were supposed to go there was a lecture. Starts good!
We went to the lecture hall and indeed there was a lecture. What was also weird, that there was 1-2 other people around only. Well, we waited and soon the organizers and ESN people started to show up. The actually very nicely apologized from us and told us that there has been a misunderstanding and double-booking so they have to find a new place. In half an hour we were sitting in a new place, all of us: 4 ESN people, 7-8 organizers and 10(!!!) exchange students.
I wonder if they realized why so few people turned up only. Anyways, no new info really. They said some possibly interesting things, but they didn't get into details so no gain from it. But I do know now a lot about the size of the uni, the faculties, its history, statistics about how many incoming and outgoing students they've had in the past years, how many exchange students took Greek courses on what levels (even know the male-female portions!) and we also got a leaflet about the Greek courses that were organized before our arrival. I feel armed with all kinds of useful info and I certainly move around in the university and Thessaloniki with more confidence now!;)

Anyways, like always, ESN was the most useful part and in the end I went to ask them about some stuff and they were nice and helpful:)

Now there's a 5-days long weekend ahead of me: Monday and Tuesday I don't have classes and tomorrow is a national holiday. They celebrate the independence of Greece from Turkey.  It was fun on our class today when in the end the teacher asked the others who would take me and Merja home with themselves for the weekend. But nobody volunteered, buhuuu!:P

So, during the weekend I'm planning to be outside a lot because the weather is really nice (reaching 20C), probably going to a party-thing tonight, maybe going on a bike trip on Sunday (depends on who else is coming), meeting with Iliana, the Greek girl who was in Jyväskylä last year, and probably working out answers because next Friday I have my life's first mid-term exam! We got the questions(!!), 4 of them, out of which 2 will be asked on the exam. We should bring the short stories with us that we have dealt with and we can and should write the outline of our answers into the booklet...sounds fucked-up but fine by me!:)

Ok, I didn't mean to keep such a break! After the first posts I had a worse week in Athens when the weather was crap and it was very cold in the flat (central heating, you are my enemy!), I wasn't too happy about one of my teachers and many more things so then I didn't feel like writing. Later, a couple of times I tried to make some update but I failed miserably.

Anyways, about the rest of the time in Athens: it was quite ok, nice people on the course, but I wasn't always happy with the course and the organization. I missed knowing Greeks (tutors would have been great.) We went for organized trips almost every weekend which was nice but maybe the guide was a bit too enthusiastic for me and I'm not sure if I have already recovered from the museum and archaeological sites-overdose. Athens itself is huuuge, neverending and full of nice places, nice cafés, nice shops, nice streets, nice graffitis. This was the first time I lived in a capital, or a big city and it was very nice because I have been playing with the thought of at some point of my life I should try to live in a bigger, more lively place. Well, problem solved, no, Jyväskylä is perfect for me. I really missed seeing green and trees and the sky..because yeah, often we couldn't see much from the sky since the buildings in many areas are so closely built to each other and have so many floors that you can only see a small piece from the sky. And yeah, the metro life:fed up with it. People just can't behave there and I probably bothered about it just too much but still. I mean, it wasn't the first time I was using crowded metros but geez, if I'm standing in the door and if we arrive to a stop which is not mine, I still get out so that those who want to get out can do it, and when they finished, I step back. Noohhooo, not here! No, don't move, just take your stand and do not help others. Also, if the metro arrives, try to get into it before the others get out, because it is just sooo much FUN to do it that way..or something...mystery for me.

During our stay there were several strikes too but that didn't bother me so much. There weren't many 24h strikes and often the strikes were only from around 11-15 so it wasn't so irritating. When in the morning it was raining and you were supposed to walk 45-50 mins, that was annoying. Or when you had to leave from your friends place in time so you fetch the last bus/metro before at midnight the 24h strike starts, that was annoying too. But mostly if you knew beforehand what was on strike and when, then it was ok for me.

Overall, I'm happy I didn't need to stay in Athens for longer than those 5-6 weeks but I don't regret that I chose to go there for the EILC. At least I got to know Athens (and hey, I still haven't really done my tourist rounds in Helsinki during the past 5 years, so who knows if 6 months would have been enough to check Athens out) and seriously, I'm glad that I know that JKL is just about perfect for me.

So about a month ago we came to Thessaloniki, and actually I think we were among the first ones who arrived for the second semester, though we arrived almost a week later than it would have been ideal. Thessaloniki is much nicer (you can see the sky!), more spacey, cleaner in general, and thank God, they still haven't managed to finish building the metro line though I think it should have been ready a couple of years ago already. It's also slightly cheaper here, though not much.

We live in a dorm here, at least at the moment. The dorm itself was actually a positive surprise, it looks better than expected. But the rules are more stupid than I would have ever thought. Ladies and gentleman, the kitchen doors are lock after 10 pm, that is, no cooking after that. Also means, no hot anything after that. Just wanted to have a tea or something last week, but I arrived to the kitchen 10.07 and it was locked already and I could say goodbye to my tea plans. Also, you are not allowed to stay in the dining room after 11 pm (which is the only place where a bigger group of people can be in the same time because we have no common rooms or anything) and parties are not allowed. We have our own private security guy who makes sure we don't do anything that is not allowed. We have a “study room” but no way I ever would be able to study there. It's the only place you can connect to the net so it's always full. It's very cleverly done btw: There are I think 17 plugs for the internet cable in a dormitory that can place more than 70 people. The internet part is the most irritating part because sometimes you just would like to have a peaceful moment at the net, or talking but that's not really possible. The water situation hasn't been too bad so far. I was lucky and I always happen to go to have shower when happens to have warm water. They did say that there's warm water between 18-22 or sth and also in the morning some time, but in reality that isn't always like that, or actually, I don't think it has ever been really like that. But yeah, it's not that bad and the only times I had to take cold showers were when there was no warm water at all, at any point of the day. But, what I like here is the people. It's them why we came here, to get to know the others, and I'm very happy with this decision. The other thing I really like is that the sea is really really close and you can take there really nice walks:).

So that's about the dorm. Now university: it's a chaos. They are sending you from place to place, when you get to the place one sent you, that place says you have to go somewhere else. When someone tells you to do something and than go back to the same place, and they you do what she asked go back to her, she is telling you you didn't need to do that. Everything is open only for 1-2 hours a day, around 11/12-13 and then you, and all the others, should do everything else. Of course no tutors to clarify anything. The Erasmus office people don't seem the nicest so I don' feel like asking them about things. So, it took time to get things done, but it wasn't so irritating as it may sound. I mean, things are upside down, but I didn't expect things to work perfectly anyways, so the only time I didn't like this running when I was tired.

Although the university doesn't seem to me to well-organized and effective in its administration, the courses are actually nice and I can't really complain about them. Of course I can complain about having 8.30 classes 3 times a week but it was basically my choice. And to tell the truth, I still prefer that than 6-9 in the evening. I have one Spanish course that I'm pretty sure JKL won't accept because it's only Spanish 2, but actually it rather different than our Spanish 2 was and I learn a lot. Besides the Spanish course, I have 3 English classes, 6 credits each. Language and Style in The Media, with a nice teacher who, to me it seems, sees propaganda in everything and can have heated lectures about the media and how it messes with our minds. Then I have Race and Ideology, with a nice female teacher, though she uses a type of cynicism that I don't like. The course dealing with America and it's pretty ok, but I feel that the teacher takes a too big role in the class and she basically tells us how the texts we read are supposed to be interpreted. And finally I have another literature course, African American fiction. I have no idea how I ended up with the literacy courses out of 3. But anyways, the teacher is from the States and he seems very nice. Coleman-ish:) Has very similar gestures and way of speaking/explaining as Coleman does. What is nice also that I ended up having two courses dealing with America and it feels like that finally I can fulfill my original dream, which was to study American Studies. I know it is only 2 courses, but I'm also not that into American Studies as I used to be so it's a good-enough deal. Anyways, this Friday we won't have a class because it's a national holiday here, and next time we have class, it's time for the Mid-term exam! My first Mid-term of my life! Have no idea what to expect but luckily the teacher said that by tomorrow he will prepare some study-guide for us and we can use that in our preparation. Scary scary, and the part that I don't do literature doesn't make it easier, but I suppose I will survive it.

In the meantime there were nice things happening to me that are not related to Greece. I visited England which I really really enjoyed. I need to get back! I also applied for a week-long training to Turkey and I got accepted, so I'm heading to Antalya, or actually like 70 kms from it in the end of April. And also, yesterday I got an invitation for a phone interview for the Intecultural Communication MA program that I applied for the day before I left for Greece. I'm not loving the idea of a phone interview but I cannot do much about it. The ratio is not that terrible, every 3^rd person who gets interview won't get in. Oh, I so want to be in that 15 who gets in!!

Anyways, I should go to do my homework because today I'm going to go to the aerobic lesson here for the first time (as I heard, it doesn't even make you sweaty so I'm actually really curious what sort of humppajumppa they have in here) and after that we are making tortillas with Merja.

The first week

This week has been full of new things and happenings and it is impossible to tell about everything but I just try to write about some random things.

People first: They are very nice and helpful! If you ask one but she/he can't help you, the other one who heard us comes to tell the answer. When we arrived to Athens Merja's bag was kinda at her back and someone told her to keep it in front of her. We went to fetch some breakfast from a bakery and the guy put some Greek cake/pie/whatever into our bag for free! We went to get some takeaway latte somewhere in the morning and in the next morning the girl already remembered us, what we order and who wants sugar and who doesn't. 

Another thing about the people is their English! I came here thinking that sure I need to learn some Greek because the English skills of the people here is supposedly not that good but so far this is just so not true! We barely bumped into people who couldn't answer us in English. I usually approach young people or a bit fancier looking people if I have a question and it makes sense that they speak English. But one day I didn't see many people around us except an old, 70-80 years old man sitting in a bus stop. He looked typically like someone who never learned a word of English but I only wanted to show him a place on the map and ask what direction it is. You can do it very easily even without having any languages in common so I started to approach him and he was already "How can I help you?" and then explained us with perfectly ok English how to get there. His English was easily on a strong intermediate level. I was just so shocked! So yeah, our experiences with the Greeks' Englishes are very positive so far. I wish I could tell the same about my Greek.

So, time to talk a bit about our Greek course:We started on Tuesday at 9..except that the teachers didn't come in time. When they arrived they told us we should divide ourselves into two groups and so we did. Of course we stayed in the same group with Merja. Then in some minutes people from the other group started to come in with their teacher and it turned out that they have already divided us up. A real harsh moment came when they called out my name and I had to go to the other group...without Merja! I hadn't even realized till then that since our departure we have spent every moment together.But maybe this is good like that so we can get to know others as well. 

Already at the beginning of the lesson I started to freak out because it seemed that everyone knows already things, but at least the alphabet. The teacher was writing to the board and I couldn't even read it! I started to be afraid that they are skipping the teaching of the alphabet but after some torturing finally we started to deal with it. I can't say it's easy but I guess I can learn it. There are some pretty impossible sounds in it and it is very confusing when for a sound they use a letter that exists in the latin alphabet as well but in it stands for another sound. Like they use the letter "v" for "n" sound. Their B letter stand for the v sound. H letter is "i" sound for them. So there're plenty of room for confusion and it also takes time to learn to write quicker the letters we haven't known from before. But this is ok. What was frustrating is one of the teachers attitude: "why don't you know this?", "Why aren't you interested?", "you don't say it well, it's ___ not ___. no no no.". Her attitude was very annoying sometimes. I often felt like telling her a couple of things about language teaching though I'm no expert in the area. But do you need to make the student feel stupid if he/she can't produce some sounds, that he/she doesn't have in his/her mother tongue, for the first attempts? Or should we be able to write easily and quickly just because we have dealing with he letters for a bit over an hour previously? So after the first days I wasn't so happy. On Thursday, though, there was a 24 hour strike and there weren't any metros, trams or buses. The teachers asked who can make it on foot and I said I can, along with 2 others in my group. So we were 3 who said we definitely can make it and some more said maybe. On Thursday morning we arrived there with Merja and there were 2 other Finnish girls, and no one else. This was just so typical! Who are the ones who go to class even during a 24th hour-strike?! Of course the Finns! And now I have to include myself among them again. It was pretty funny actually that eventually the 3 other girls were on one class and I was alone with my teacher! Private lesson!:)I really liked it though, I could ask all my nerdy linguistic questions!:) On Friday it was again much better and if we go on like this I think I will like the course. But so far the language sounds very unfamiliar and it's very difficult to remember words. I also need to practice reading because my speed is like a 1st grader's.

The area where we study is pretty nice by the way. Lots of nice cafes, book stores, music stores. It's young and different and nice.However, it turned our that it is right that place that the tourists are not advised to go and that is said to be dangerous. Well, we have been there only daytime and then sure it seems perfectly fine. In fact, that is the place I feel the safest at. By night it could be different though but I don't feel like trying it yet. 

I'm starting to be very cautious with my things. We always hold on our bags and I'm very afraid someone tries to steal from me. The metros are always packed so that is a very good place for that and there are also thousands of motorists who could just grab your bag when passing by. And what didn't help at all was today going for shopping, The sales started today and the shops were absolutely packed! And unfortunately some used the chance and stole Merja's wallet:( I felt really sorry for her but I think she noticed it quickly enough. She called to block her cards so that should be ok but she lost her cash and many cards that were in her wallet. We went to every shop we have been and left her name and number there in case hey find the wallet. In one shop the seller was very assuring and said that in most cases they do find the wallet, of course without cash and bank cards. But getting back insurance cards, driving license and student card would be pretty nice already. Anyways, of course our shopping trip ended there and we headed to get to know the police station a bit. It was pretty bad to see that in the line there were a lot of foreigners and a lot of girls:( But anyways, we are fine and hopefully the wallet will be found. And stealing the wallet is still better than getting robbed face to face.

So, that's all for now. There are so many things to tell but I can't remember and I think I have written enough for now. Sorry for the typos, I'm lazy to correct them.

Before coming to Greece I thought I wouldn't write a blog because it didn't work out that well when coming to Finland either. But in the past day so many things happened that it has to be remembered and told about. So, here I am, starting the blog. I will try to write often of course and you feel free to read it. If things continue like they have been in the past day, you will have plenty of amusement.


So maybe not much about the journey: we met with Merja a bit before 2am at the Travel Center and left for Helsinki. To my disappointment, this time I couldn't find the wonderful red fleece blankets that the bus had the last time I used it, but it did have a snorer again! So briefly, I couldn't sleep anything during the night but we left late with the plane to Frankfurt so I had an hour more to sleep on that flight. The time n Frankfurt wasn't so long and we had a very nice salad after which the boarding was almost starting. Sitting there, waiting for the boarding, noticing that I'm being surrounded with Greeks I started to realize finally something about what was going on. In the same time a bit adverse feelings came as well but don't ask why, no idea. Anyways, on the plan I became super excited already, mainly when we could see the sea and Athens in a beautiful sunset.

At the luggages we got some excitement because our luggages came a bit late and we were worried that they didn't transfer them in Frankfurt but eventually we both got them and we headed to the subway.Luckily the signs there were very clear and getting to our destination went without any problem. When we were only one stop away from our final destination, we went 'above ground' and we could see the surroundings. Maybe it has its own charm, but at night it looked only scary and I was thinking "oh my God, where did we get to". We got out and well, the place didn't seem any more promising and the random groups of men hanging around there look a bit scary, plus I guess we looked like some tourists who just got lost. But the good thing is that our place is very close to the metro station so we were there very quickly.

When I was mailing with the owner he said that we have to come to the 3rd floor but no door numbers. I started to think that maybe the whole floor is ours aaand actually that's the case! So we arrived and the owner is a bit old Greek man. I think we are lucky with him because he is very 'proper' in a way, explained and showed everything. We got everything what was promised to us. Maybe the flat is not so clean as it seemed on the photos but we have beds, we have blankets and warm water and these are the most important. Now I sounded like it's an awful place and there's nothing else than those but it's not the case:) We have everything, but the two boys we are living with atm are not from the cleanest kind and so everything was pretty dirty and the kitchen smells. Also, I got a pretty nice welcoming: in the kitchen wall there's an Europe map and there's written on it "This county sucks" with an arrow aiming at Hungary. Oh, thanks a bunch!:D

Because the owner seemed so nice and helpful, we asked from him how we can get to the university campus which seemed to be pretty far. He checked it from us and we wrote up but then he came to us and said in his very slow way: "But maybe you will be a bit late tomorrow. I think there will be a strike". Well, welcome to Greece! We asked the boys later and they said they didn't think there was going to be a strike so in the morning we started our journey to the university.

The owner said it's half an hour to get there so we left an hour earlier. Everything went fine with the metros (and they were not on strike) but then we got to the bus stop and we were lost. The bus we wanted to take went away right in front of our eyes and then we were waiting for ages and none of the numbers came that we got as options. When one bus came a Greek girl came to us and told that we can take that to the university so finally we were at least going, but it was already pretty late. The journey took a long time and then it arrived to this place that looked like some edge of Athens. There was some big wall with a gate, in front of it a lot of trash, everything full of graffiti. Yeah, so that was the entrance to the university area. With help we found our building which was huuuge and then we realized that neither of us have with us the room number we need to go to. We remembered it was 3 numbers and the first started with 7 so we aimed at the 7th floor. We got there but it was just way too big so there was no chance of just finding it accidentally. We went to ask someone and we ended up in an office where the people seemed very helpful but not so informative. They said that the class is on the 6th floor, at the end of the corridor on the right but they don't remember the number. Well, ok, we went back but at least for me it was not so obvious what they called as a corridor because the shaper of the building was a bit weird. We did start to walk on a corridor but in the end it spread our and formed a square, so tell me now, what is the end of that? We knocked in somewhere which wasn't our place but we got at least a room number from that teacher, We went to that room and there they said we should rather ask from the neighboring room. The neighboring room was locked but there was a paper on it that the EILC for Australians is in what room. (Some info: we came for the EILC).Well, we are not Australians but that was the closest we could get at the moment so we went back to the 7th floor where the room was and eventually we did find the place aaand it was the right place (there were Europeans). By this time we were really late and I felt embarrassed but when we went in basically none noticed us. Everyone was talking and doing stuff. We asked what to do and all we had to do was to fill out a paper and give some photos. They had some good news too: they told us that the course won't be held there but much closer to the center, much closer to the place where we live. I think we were there approximately 15-20 minutes and then everyone was gone. 

By then we still couldn't eat our sandwiches which we bought for breakfast so we decided to look around a bit and then sit down somewhere and eat it. After that we headed back to the bus stop to get back to the center. We checked the timetables and according to that basically every 5 mins some kind of bus should have came but we waited like half an hour or more. We started to walk towards the center, hoping that a closer station will have buses more often. But we just walked and walked and walked and at one point we realized we haven't seen a bus passing buy. We decided to ask about it and guess what?! The strike has started! It was clear we needed to take a taxi so we asked how much it should cost from there to our place and they said 5-8euros. 

Then the taxi hunting started. A lot of taxis went by, we could also stop them but then we told them where we are going they just left us there.Finally there was one who stopped and how spoke English (we immediately started by asking how much the trip would be) but he said it's 18euros...a bit more than at the kiosk they said it would cost so we said we are not taking it. Then he said that the center is closed down because of the strike so we have to go around, that's why it's so much. Eventually we decided to take it and when we were sitting in the guy already said he brings us there for 15e. He turned out to be a nice guy and he noticed we speak Finnish:) (we did so he wouldn't understand what we talk). At one point he got a phone call and then he said: "Girls, we have a problem!". Apparently someone got very sick from his family and he immediately had to go. He said he leaves us where we were, he didn't charge us and told us from where we can catch another taxi. Well, catching the next one wasn't so easy. Lots of taxis had already passengers, other just went away again when we told them where we are going and then others didn't tell us a price because they used taxi meter and said that whatever the meter shows. But I was afraid that if the meter is used, they can take us for extra rounds and then ask a lot of money so we actually ended up trying to take a taxi without a meter. 

Finally we found one. The driver didn't speak English but his passenger did and he said he can take us there for 5e so we got in. The passenger left at one point so there we were, absolutely zero Greek from our part, and almost zero English from his. He could manage to ask where we are from and we told him that from Finland (I ended up being Finnish often because at these times it is just easier to say that). The answer was: "aaa, Jari Litmanen!"

The ride took for ages. The driver clearly didn't know where we are going. He was asking other taxi drivers when we were waiting at the traffic lights. Seriously, the ride was so long we started to fall asleep. I was pretty worried what he will eventually ask for the ride but I had a 5e banknote so I decided i just give that whatever it is.So we arrived and I gave him the 5e and he even gave back 50cents!!O_o That was surprising and really nice that he didn't just want to get as much money out from us as possible.

Later that day we went to have some food, to the shop and eventually to IKEA as well. It was close to closing but we could buy some things: blankets (its petty cold inside, the heating is on only 1-2 hours a day), lamps, carpet (we have big room and it made it nicer plus it helps with the cold too) and some other stuff.By the end of the day we were completely exhausted and we again had to wake up at 7 to be there on the course by 9.