Sorry guys for taking so long to write this second summary in English. I haven’t forgotten you – it just takes more time and effort to update this blog than you’d think. Better late than never, eh?
So about the Seattle trip: We had a lovely time in Seattle. The weather was beautiful and warm and the city itself very nice. Most of our time was spent shopping (surprise surprise). Our boss-lady Evi had recommended us this shop called ROSS. She said that we should not be put off by the way the shop looks, cos you can find real bargains in there, and that all the students who have been to Ross, have found something to buy. And this was good advice, because the shop looked like a second hand shop with tons of clothes hanging on racks everywhere. But turns out Ross is fantastic. Even I found bigger sized clothes to buy, which is rare for me, cos in Finland the bigger sized clothes look AWFUL and there’s not much choice in em. Both of us bought quite a few clothes and they were so cheap! In Finland I would’ve had to pay several hundred €’s for the clothes, that I now got for about a 100€! So if you ever go to the US, find a Ross-store and go rummage through the racks! You’ll spend hours there, but it’ll be worth it.
When we were in Seattle, there was a convention there for fans of Japanese Anime, which meant that diehard fans of anime came to town dressed in the most bizarre outfits in honour of their anime heros. We saw all kinds of people walking down the streets and in our hotel. It was hard not to laugh when you walk down the street and there are for example two people walking towards you dressed as cartoon dogs. They looked great but also hilarious. You should’ve seen em. F-u-n-n-y! Sadly I wasn’t able to get pics of em. I was laughing too hard behind their backs xD
All in all we had a great easter vacation in Seattle and who knows we might find ourselves there again before we fly back to Finland. Ross is SO calling us…
A day in Finnish Home
Jenna and I do all sorts of activities with the residents. I’ve posted some photos of our activities groups, which you’ve probably already seen.
Our day starts at 8.45: we come to work and go upstairs to the dining area. Both of us have been assigned to a resident whom we’re supposed to feed/help eat breakfast. Jenna’s resident is called May and she’s originally from Scotland. She’s a lovely lady, but she can’t eat on her own so Jenna has to feed her. My resident is called Marlene. She’s just brilliant – always smiling and laughing, but her speech doesn’t make sense most of the time. She’s able to eat on her own – I’m there to encourage and remind her to eat, cos she tends to forget what she’s doing or gets distracted. I always have good time with Marlene, she’s such a sweetheart and it feels good to see her eat her breakfast with a little encouragement from me.
After breakfast we have different programmes for residents. We organize and lead the activities either together or on our own. We have e.g. bingo, word games, drum circle, exercises, sing along etc.
We also have a special programme for the Finnish speaking residents. It's called Suomi-ryhmä = Finland-group. We only speak Finnish in that group so the residents who don't speak Finnish can't take part. We want to keep the residents Finnish language skills up, keep em informed on things that happen in Finland etc. It's a popular and needed programme. It makes the residents feel special and gives em the feeling that they still have a contact to Finland even though it might've been decades since they've been to Finland themselves.
After the other programmes are over we usually have One to One-time, which basically means we go and chat with residents and spend some quality time one on one. That takes about 45min and it's the last programme of the day. We usually get off work at 3:45.
We also have a pub night once a month. (See pics in previous Finnish post). We go to work at 1pm. First there's a beauty hour when we help the ladies put on make up, get their hair done, paint nails etc. Then we help set up the place for the party. Then when the party starts we help serve drinks and snacks and just have fun with the residents, volunteers and "the apartment people" (elderly Finnish ppl who rent flats in the Finnish Home's apartment buildings where we also live). We also get to drink cider etc. ourselves and of course for free. I love my job ;)
Birthday in Canada
So I had my birthday on Tuesday and had a wonderful day at work. First when i woke up and went to my laptop on Tue morning I found a birthday card from Jenna (see previous post in Finnish) which said ”Happy Birthday Dear Old Fart”. Jenna’s a sweetheart isn’t she (read cow).
Then at work they announced it's my bday during breakfast and i got a bday-balloon and everyone sang Happy Birthday. Then around lunchtime a residents daughter Barbara brought me a bday cake which she had made herself. Then after that Evi and Ritva brought me another cake! They didn’t know Barb was gonna bake me a cake, so they’d gone and bought me a lovely mango cake. Now i had 2 bday cakes to eat! Good thing I loooove da cake ;) Mmm.. CAKE! I love a bit of cake. CAKE!!!
(Btw – looking at the pics in my previous Finnish post, can you believe Barbara is in her 70s!! She looks 50! She’s brilliant, always brings us food and baked goods on Fridays. She’s our Canadian mum and she spoils us rotten. I wish she’d adopt me <3)
After work on Tue we went to the biggest shopping mall in BC, Metropolis in Metrotown, and popped into a travel agents office. Since I’m an old fart and I can’t handle the cold weather that well, we went and bought ourselves a weeks all-inclusive holiday in Varadero, Cuba! We leave on May 24th and come back on May 31st. And it was really cheap compared to what we would’ve had to pay, if we wanted to take a trip like that from Finland!!
Never been to Cuba before. It’s supposed to be gorgeous there – white beaches and turquoise water.. Sounds like paradise to me and I can’t wait!! Now I just have to find myself some summer clothing and a swimsuit that I can get into. If during our week in Cuba you hear in the news that a Beluga-whale has been found beached in Varadero, it’s probably just me trying to tan myself at the beach… :P
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