"Well I Was a Boogie Singer..."

June 3rd...

10pm...

(Edyta-with a beautiful voice-in the center...Daphne and I as backup dancers)

There is one nice thing about cold, rainy days here in Jyväskylä, and that is that I don't have to worry about the nightly basketball players keeping me awake! Yesterday was pretty cold and rainy, but I was so excited because I assumed that the gray clouds would cause the night to be a little darker. For that reason, I was so excited at the thought of laying in bed at 11pm in the dark, and just drifting off to sleep naturally. This pleasant thought was slowly crushed as the hours drifted by and the sky just stayed the same....cloudy, yes, but dark...not in the least. So as usual I put on my eye mask, close my eyes, and try to mentally tell myself that although it appears to be 7pm it is actually 1am. Go to bed Allison....one sheep...two sheep...three sheep.... Whoever came up with the "counting sheep" concept ought not to be so notorized, because it does absolutely nothing in my opinion except for drive your mind crazy. Sheep? Why, Sheep? Why not cows? Tomorrow, that's what I'll do.

Last night was quite the night! The social program organized a Finnish Baking night at Opinkivi, where we would get to bake traditional Finnish blueberry pie, pancakes, and some other kind of appetizer that I certainly cannot spell. We also got to taste Karjalanpiirakat, which is similar to Karelian pie, and is especially common here for breakfasts during holidays. I ended up doing quite a bit of the baking, as most of the others lost interest in the preparation pretty early! This was not a problem for me whatsoever, because you all know how much I LOVE to bake! I hadn't been able to do that in such a long time either, so it felt wonderful to prepare food that people loved! Granted, it wasn't my recipe...but being able to put it together felt wonderful. The guys in my group decided that they also wanted to take part in the baking process, and so we left them to bake one of the pies. I was pretty impressed when I looked at the final product before it went in the oven, until I saw the 1/2 dL of sugar they happened to forget to include. I slyly pointed this fact out to them, and what was their solution? Pour the sugar on top of the pie. Same thing right? =) Maybe similar to Jason's attempt at making No-Bake cookies..."Well, I knew it took 3 Cups of something...so I put in 3 Cups of sugar..." (For a recipe that calls for 3 Cups of OATMEAL and 1 Cup of sugar!) ...It was still delicious however, and very sweet =)

After the baking extravaganza, the group and I headed to a karaoke bar called Free Time. It had been awhile since I'd been to a karaoke bar, and I'd forgotten just how much fun it is! There is certainly some talent among the international crowd here! That being said, I am not one of them. At a karaoke bar I resemble the role Cameron Diaz played in "My Best Friend's Wedding". She may talk sweet and therefore people assume she has a sweet singing voice as well...but in all actuality, she's quite tone deaf. Knowing that, I still gave it my all while singing "Play That Funky Music"...