Week Three

So being that my first rotation in the hospital is 5 weeks long, Wednesday this week marked my mid rotation point. Exciting!  That is going good. I'm working with one nurse more often than the others and he's really good with helping me learn. He has some trouble with English but we work through its we're a good fit I think. Unfortunately, I've also worked with 5 other nurses up until this point, and I only one have one more day, Monday, with the nurse I like. Hopefully I'll find another one for the last two weeks that's also good to work with.

As for the fun part of this trip, I still haven't had much. Considering last night, Friday night, I was in bed by 10 and fell asleep watching the clouds float by, my life doesn't seem fun at all. Hopefully this weekend I can get out to do something. So far (almost noon on Saturday), I haven't been able to find anyone to go out with. But I need groceries so this afternoon I'm going to go take some pictures in my neighborhood and get my groceries. Keep an eye our for an updated photo journal link! (For those of you who haven't seen it, I'll post the link at the end of this blog). I'll keep updating on the same one but just adding new pages so make sure to flip through all the pages, it's not just the first one.

So that's pretty much my week. More about Finland now. I think I've mentioned this before, but the weather here sucks! For instance, I have an app that shows the 14 day forecast prediction. Here's what it says, compared to at home.

9/14 days here call for rain, compared to none of the next 14 at home.
Only 6/14 days will be over 15 degrees. All 14 at home will be 18 or higher.
9/14 days will have less than 8 hours of sun (some as low as 1, 3, or 4 hours a day). At home, only one day will have less than 8 hours of sun, and that day it will be 7 (not 1).

So for all you complaining about the weather getting colder, stop!  You have it good!  One positive thing about the weather here is the lows are a bit higher than at home. I imagine if the lows were like at home, the highs would be even lower because there's no sun to warm it up during the day!

You HAVE to go to pharmacies here to get medication. Even something as simple as cold and pain meds, you can't buy them in grocery stores.

And muscle relaxants you apparently need a prescription for. I've already told Paul to send me some in my care package!

My language vocabulary has been expanding from being at the hospital every day. Not that I have the guts to actually use what I know, but here's the ones I can think of right now.

Hyvää Huomenta = good morning
Most people just say Huomenta = morning
Moi = hi
Moi moi = bye
Kiitos = thanks
Anteeksi = sorry
Bussi = bus
Apteeki = pharmacy
Asema = station
Keskus = center (meaning Helsinki center - downtown)
Yksi, kaksi, kolme, neljä, viisi, kuusi, seitsemän, kahdeksan, yhdeksän, kymmenen = 1-10
Adding toista to the end of any of these adds 10 (kolmetoista is thirteen, etc.)
Olut = beer (anywhere you go, you can order Olut and they'll bring you the cheapest beer they have. No more having to know what kind you like!  This is good, first beacause I don't know what kind of beer they have here, and second because alcohol is expensive here so the cheaper the better!)
Maito = milk
Vesi = water
Kahvi = coffee
Tee = tea

That's about all I can come up with right now, but I'll add more as I think of or learn them!

Oh, one more thing. Everyone drinks tap water here. No one buys it! And no one uses reuseable water bottles. My Costco bottle is the only reusable water bottle I've seen so far!

Anyway, have a great weekend and keep watching for pictures! Here's the link: https://www.icloud.com/journal/#4;CAEQARoQtaBdbHKJwWoXlx-pS1KsTw;F0C2C02A-20A1-4D37-A087-60192C0CF554
Tee = tea