Hyvää ystävänpäivää

On Thursday night we had another Stammtisch, this was a Latino themed.
On Firday, I did homework for most of the afternoon then Collette made a dinner for everyone. She made risotto, garlic bread and scones. Then I watched "Notes on a Scandal" with Fergie.
Valentine's Day is not a love holiday in Finland, it is a holiday for friendship. The title of this blog is the Happy Valentine's Day equivelent in Finland, it means Good Friends Day. On Saturday night, I went to Jämsä with my finnish family and the 2 other American girls, Elizabeth and Jaime and their finnish moms. There was a dinner party at a restaurant for the Finnish-American Societies of Jyväskylä and Jämsä. A woman came in and told a story about the life of a famous Finnish poet, we had a copy of the story in English, so we could follow along. They also had a man playing the guitar and everyone was singing to the Finnish songs he was playing, again, they gave us the lyrics so we could sing too. For dinner(paäruoka) we had the choice of a cheese salad(juusto salaatti), meet salad(liha salaatti) or soup(keitto). I didn't know the kind of soup and I had no idea what a meet salad was so I got the cheese salad. It was salad(salaatti) with cucumber(kurkku) , tomato(tomaatti), apple(omena), 3 kinds of cheese(juusto), some berries and two rolls(sämpylä). It was difficult to eat and not to my taste. The beef salad looked like roast beef and potatoes(peruna). (I know all food words in Finnish ;) ) After dinner, Jaime, Elizabeth and I performed our George Bush skit, which most people enjoyed. Then, we had desert(jälkirruoka) and coffee(kahvi). My finnish family got me a coffee mug filled with candy and a card. Jaime and Elizabeth's finnish moms got us all flowers, too. It was a really nice evening.
I leave for Lapland on Tuesday at 1:30am (so tomorrow night, really). I will have lots to write and a ton of pictures when I come back on Sunday!