russia arrival

we made it russia after a 2hr train to helsinki from tampere (5:33am train), 6hr train from helsinki to st petersburg. it was a little scary arriving here. i think i read too much on st petersburg and safety. if i read a book on los angeles, it may say similar things about the dangers.

adam sleeping on the train. we were working on a few hours of sleep.me on the train. we moved to the back of the train so we can have our own row of seats.
there are no lanes and few signal lights on the streets! the taxi drive to our hotel was scary!
our first russian meal. it was sooo good. maybe a little too rich but i loved it. adam ordered a meat and beet soup called borsch.
i ordered a lamb, garlic, chili soup. really good.
adam's beef stroganov with potato croquette balls
my current obsession (caviar!) and crepes and blini's.
there is a mosquito in the room i am trying to kill. who knew mosquito's existed during the cold season.

Shizuoka + Polaroids

two of my favorite things (is my birthplace a thing?).


images via shizuoka polaroids

Tampere: Day Three

i almost got run over taking this photo. i will be picking up some matroyshka dolls when i get to russia to add to my collection.


when in Finland must buy something from the marimekko store.
my lunch from K supermarket
Fire Balls. I am almost done with the whole bag. Adam's reaction to my purchasing chili flavored cheese balls, "Gross!!"

Tampere: Day Two

I can't believe this is only day two. Finland is very relaxing and we crammed a lot of things in the two days so far.Today we visited the Lenin museum. The museum is just a room that used to be an apartment a century ago. This is the exact room that Lenin and Stalin met for the first time. Exciting piece of information for history buffs. I didn't take any pictures inside of the "museum" except for this creepy basket of toys. The sign reads, "you may play with toys." Very scary looking toys.
My mid-morning snack (danish pastry and coffee).
Vegetable stall at the Kauppahalli indoor market. One of Finland's best says the guidebook.
Adam bought apples, oranges and banana's to snack on.

Adam is doing his talk tomorrow in this room. Good luck Adam!
Snacks from the S Market (baguette, beer, proscuito, and brie).
Donut with banana cream filling.
River
Adam

We ordered Reindeer pate as a starter. It was pretty good. It tastes like sausage.

first finnish meal

We had our first dinner at Plevna's. It was a twenty minute walk from our hotel. I think that their specialty is sausages.apple cider for me and plevna's pils for adam
bockwurst with plevna's original curry, tomato, green pepper sauce. it had a warning for being hot. it wasn't.
Adam order the "Tamperelainen." This is a local specialty: genuine Tapola black pudding sausage with lingonberry sauce and mashed potatoes. A recommended dish for visitor's of Tampere.

For dessert we shared the ice cream treat. The description says is it vanilla ice cream with tar-flavored syrup. Not sure what tar is. Taste like wood chips. haha.

wow

so beautiful yet so terrifying.. volcano eyjafjallajokull in icelandimage via

aurora borealis

finished my final project. please give me an A. now i can focus on packing for my maybe not canceled finland/russia trip. maybe i will see an aurora borealis.isn't this photo gorgeous? image from flickr

final project

working on my final project today. all my assignments for this class end up like symbols of something. get the theme here? i wanted it to be "twin peaks" like but I ended up going for the native american theme. see the log lady's log?

addiction

i am crazy addicted to reece's peanut butter cups right now... i like peanut butter m & m's also. but today i think i ate 20 of these things. i'm about to finish off a bag! these were for our plane ride saturday. i need help! image from

brie baguette red wine

a little bit of paris in mount pleasant

dinner

adam made chicken risotto for dinner tonight. it was very good.

i made carbonara for dinner friday. it turned out pretty well.

volcano

did you hear about the volcano in iceland? i hear that europe is covered in ash. i read today's new york times article that london to moscow will be covered by friday. we get to finland on saturday.images from here and here

photo for toshiro

since you like ant's so much
do we have ant hills in california?

Need to Pack

Where does the day go? we are leaving for Finland/Russia in a little over a week! I took my design test today and failed miserably. The only questions I know I got right are the two bonus questions. Name five artists discussed in class (Kandinsky, Sendak, Pollack, Hockney, Magritte - easy.) and who is known to have invented the "decisive moment" (Henri Cartier-Bresson)? I am really sad, I do not want a B. I also have to turn in my project early on Wednesday. I am skipping the last week of class for Finland. {image via real simple}

our weekend

we walked to the coffeeshop for lattes and read books on our porch. can't wait for summer.

sky

the mount pleasant sky. such a beautiful day and i was only outside in the morning when it was snowing.. :( i wasted a beautiful day indoors.

friday night movie

we are going to watch a few "small town" movies tonight to better appreciate mount pleasant.
we don't live here anymore from a few years back. have you read andre dumas? i was obsessed with his short stories back in college. they did another movie called in the bedroom based on one of his stories.
beautiful girls from 1996. i watched it a long time ago.. not sure if i will like it still. rosie o'donell is one of the townies. maybe it will be too real since we live in a small town with real life townies who look at the oriental girl weird. haha

images via here and here

dose of loveliness

from the sartorialist

image

design inspiration

www.lonnymag.com

we are having marty and kristin over tomorrow for easter dinner. adam is in the kitchen prepping for tomorrow. happy easter! hope you have a good one! (the photographer below has a print of a cute baby lamb too, felt a little bad because we are having it for dinner tom..)image from here