A little bit this and a little bit that

Last time we met was 15th March. We knew Rika wasn’t able to come with since she was going to abroad, but we decided to held a meeting just the 4 of us. We had plans to go the grocery store, and buy foods which the exchange students had been interested in, but not tried them. We planned to meet at Prisma. Me, Jonas and Mayu were waiting for Tiia to arrive, but she informed us that she didn’t feel well, and therefore couldn’t come. So in the end it was just the three of us.

We went inside the store, and saw some Easter decorations.

We told Mayu about the Finnish Easter tradition, and how she will most likely see children going around on Easter Sunday dressed as witches.

We continued to the food section of the supermarket. We discussed about the foods, for example what we have here in Finland a lot, but not much in Japan and what there also is in Japan. It was pretty interesting. I’m still worried about the fact that if I get accepted for exchange (and I really want to get accepted), I can’t eat that much fruits in Japan as I can in Finland, since in Japan fruits are really expensive. I really love eating fruits, so we’ll see what I’m going to do then. Also the fact that in Japan they don’t have that diverse selection in breads is worrying me too, since I really like to bread too. When I was in Japan last year, I remember only finding that really white toast bread. I’ve heard that they make other kind of bread too, sometimes they’re so just more difficult to find.

Mayu was also surprised that we have this many Easter chocolates here in Finland. Of course they have these kind of candies too in Japan, but they are available over the year.

After we finished shopping, we came to my house to eat! Here’s all that we bought.

Mayu really wanted to try some kind of special cheese. She said that in Japan they don’t have so many different cheeses as we have here in Finland. We bought some kind of pepper cheese and also bread and crackers to eat it with. Hapankorppu was also something that sparkled Mayu’s interest, and she really liked it. After eating everyone were feeling really full.

We talked a lot while we ate, and after too. We also made a list about similar words that we have in Japan and in Finland. Here’s the list in case someone is interested.

Word             Finnish             Japanese

Kutsu             Invitation             Shoes
Koko             Size/Whole         Here
Kasa             Pile             Umbrella
Sora             Grave             Sky
Tori             Market place       Bird
Me             We                      Eye
Te             You             Hand
Se                   It             Back
Suru             Sorrow             To do
Kani             Rabbit, bunny      Crab
Tai             Or             Thai
S(h)ika            Pig             Deer
Naku naru       Naked string  To disappear
Naku  Naked  Disappear
Naru               String  To become
Hai  Shark  Yes
Nai(da)  Fuck  Isn't
Sukunai  Little
Suku               Family (as cousins, aunts, grandpa etc)
Joku/Yoku  Someone  Often
Aho  Meadow  Idiot
Kai  Maybe  Shell

Our next meeting wasn’t decided, and we’re still kind of deciding the date. On Sunday 14th I’m going to meet with Mayu and Rika, but it’s not really counted for these EOTO-meetings. We should still meet once next week I think. Then we are going to Tampere again, at the beginning of May.

Exploring the languages and cooking

We met on 19th February at Jyväskylä University  We were supposed to stay in the café  but when we met, the café had just closed! Just our luck. We wondered a while where we should go and decided to go to the center of the city. We ended up going to Coffee House, since most of us hadn't been there yet. The café was very cozy, and everyone ordered something for themselves.

We sat around the table and started by chatting how everyone had been and enjoyed our foods. Today’s topic was Finnish and Japanese, and we had promised the girls we would help them with Finnish. I first showed Mayu and Rika our Japanese course books and they had fun looking at our kanji book.  Seems like the exercises brought back some memories maybe.

Both Mayu and Rika had brought their Finnish papers with them, and they had some questions for us. There were confused about some grammar, and we tried our best to help them. The Finnish word “noniin/no niin” was also a word which meaning Rika had been wondering about, since she had heard it a lot!

We sat in the café for few hours talking about Finnish language.

Next meeting was held on 5th March. We met on Mayu’s place, and this time Rika’s new friend Miki joined us too. She was currently visiting Jyväskylä. For this meeting we had chosen beforehand a Japanese dish and a Finnish dessert that we would make. We decided on rice balls with different kind of fillings and a pie, half apple half blueberry.

Everyone working to make the food

Funny looking mushrooms and other Japanese ingredients

Apple blueberry pie! We had also bought vanilla foam to go with the pie. It was really delicious and seems like everyone liked the pie and the foam a lot! I was happy to hear that.

Rice balls on their way to be done

All in all, we used 5 different fillings. They were all very tasty. I want to try making them sometime again.

We talked about various things like Finnish school system, travelling for example Lapland and how Miki had met the Santa Claus. We talked so much that I don't even remember anymore all the things we chatted about. I was also happy that I understood some parts of the things that Mayu and Rika talked with Miki in Japanese. There is still many words in Japanese that I don’t know, but if it’s simple Japanese, I can understand. I was very happy notice that. Maybe sometime I can gather up the courage and try to speak in Japanese with them a little bit! It was also nice meeting Miki and hearing her experiences in Finland and how she has liked being here. Maybe if I’ll get accepted to go to Japan for exchange, I can meet her in Japan too. I’m sure that would be fun. The evening was really relaxing, and I had really fun with everyone.

Until next time!