Vaasa: Obligatory weather post

As I'm sure you've noticed, I am horrifically spoiled all the time, by which I mean I am from San Francisco, and many of us are maybe the worst people at not being in San Francisco. I could go on about this further, because I'm very long-winded, but the important thing is: weather.

Weather is a big deal to me. Bay Area natives are, per my former coworker's EMT class, high risk in severe weather by virtue of living in the Bay Area. And by severe, I mean anything below 50°F and over 70°F, because of course that's ridiculous.

Don't be fooled; this is the actual air.

It's 63°F here at the moment. Fine. It probably wasn't much warmer yesterday. Fine. But the difference between today and yesterday is something like 30% humidity. And it is, as it turns out, kind of a big deal.

Google weather says that the humidity in San Francisco right now is 100%! But it's all fog. Cheaters.

That's enough about that. Vaasa is very clean, and it would probably be very relaxing to walk around it and eat. (In an unlikely turn of events, I spotted a  Mexican restaurant in the town square earlier, and I'm extremely curious as to how good it actually is...)

Perhaps that time will come in the next three weeks. But in the meantime, I haven't eaten cheese since I got here on Monday, so apologies for any undue crankiness. There has never been a time in my life that I have wanted to bite straight into a large block of cheddar more than I have right now.

Helsinki: Jetlag, day 3

I hate it when all my clothes fly out the window at once.

Helsinki is pretty awesome. I know, because I was there.

I have learned quickly, however, that my body is not so sure about this whole traveling thing. My jetlag is finally starting to clear up, but my left eyelid is a little swollen and my digestion is a little... impaired, but whatever, who needs food? Cholera is totally cool because you can get it in Oregon Trail, and Helsinki is totally cool because you don't get mugged all the time. And all the buildings are tall and the streets are narrow and huzzah, you're in Europe!

(Also, all the seagulls sound like siamangs. As someone who has lived very close to both the beach and the zoo in San Francisco, I feel that I have the authority to make this claim.)

Wild. Berry. Fanta.

The important thing is that I had a pink doughnut and it was filled with jam. Also, Fanta in a flavor that doesn't exist in the United States, booya.

Basically, I eat a lot. This should come as news to no one.

Tomorrow, I leave for my language course in scenic, coastal Vaasa. It's got almost twice the land area of San Francisco and about a thirteenth of the population. I expect I'll still manage to get lost.

Helsinki: Blurhgdfjkhasdlfhfkjgjhjkd

Just bullet points, because I'm too tired to be interesting:

Do they still make these? I want like fifty

• oh my gosh, jetlag.
• I dreamed that I made a sandwich with cheese, mozzarella sticks, pasta, pasta sauce, and more cheese, and it was better than Denny's, probably.
• that had nothing to do with Helsinki.
• there are lots of trees here.
• it seems like a pretty awesome place, but I've been asleep for something like 13/19 hours that I've been here, so I'll get back to you. WITH PICTURES.

San Francisco: A big hand for Mr. Rochester

EXCEPT NOT.

This has nothing to do with traveling, but whatever. I'm pretty much all packed, printing out airport maps, and watching the BBC version of Jane Eyre. It's fantastic. Mr. Rochester is a beautiful creature who broods like a very broody thing from the... planet of Brood or something, I don't know. This is the first time I've watched any version of Jane Eyre all the way through (I start playing video games by the time Liz Taylor dies in the first), and so it is time for some long-delayed venting.

SERIOUSLY, MR. ROCHESTER. SERIOUSLY?

and then a hint of this:

SERIOUSLY, JANE. SERIOUSLY?

In other news, everything I am wearing today is velour-ish because apparently the only things I haven't packed are velour.

You needed to know any of this.

San Francisco: Fact 5

I found a dollar in my room. Packing is AWESOME.

San Francisco: Cat, 1; Adriane, 0... one last time.

That's a very misleading title. I've still got a good 44 hours in this city; I'm sure my cat will find a way to put me in my place at least once more before I go.

I'm pretty sure that this blog is already ridiculous, so I apologize if you were looking for quality and somehow stumbled across this. (And just how did you do that, anyway?) I think it sounds good if I say that this blog is probably about parallel to quality: the two may never intersect. Nonetheless, I will try to explain some things about my quality-adjacent blog.

Fact 1: The line "Yeah, baby, we're going ABROAD!" is from America's Next Top Model. I'm pretty sure it's cycle 10, because I think I can hear it in Anya's vaguely deranged voice (EDIT: right cycle, wrong girl; it was Katarzyna). Or maybe I made the whole thing up. Either way, probably something I'll regret later. If I get around to it.

Fact 2: I chose this background because I think it would make a great Snuggie. My secret Snuggie desires are so hard to repress sometimes. That was a terrible background. Here, have some squiggly lines.

Fact 3: I am lying in bed right now, consumed by nausea and covered in a cat, less than two days before my nervewracking first-ever jaunt outside the country. Mostly, I'm terrified of flying, so let's all give Lost a big round of applause for having a major impact on my life (besides all the withdrawal symptoms... someone ask Damon Lindelof when the internal cardiac bleeding is supposed to let up).

Fact 4: That said, Finland is kind of my childhood dream. This should explain a lot about me.

So... there. As soon as I can get up from under this cat, yeah, baby, we're going abroad.