What I love

Well, got my viscera moved.  I like talking to the therapists, they are always very interesting, and they like to talk about diet and alternative healing practices and therapy. Took a sauna after, because even though it was hot out, it only costs $5 w/massage and I thought it might be good for me.

A year ago tomorrow, I left for Finland. And that was where I had my first sauna, in Eluvori maybe? I'll need to look up the name. Near Sastamala, a ski resort in the winter. I was nervous about getting naked with people I knew casually. I didn't know how saunas worked. As it turned out, one of my roommates had an extra swimsuit which she loaned me, and which fit, and we went separately by gender, so it was very crowded with the women. The older women kept dumping water on the fire, so it was super hot, and then we beat each other with birch branches (which, while it might get out aggression, doesn't actually hurt much when they are wet.) Ended up being a great bonding experience for all of us, I think. (This would be with the Finnish Choral Society, we were on a choir tour in S. Finland for a week.) I later went in a second sauna with my cousin and a friend the last night I was in Finland. While trying to stay as long as possible in there today, I thought with great affection of everyone that made that trip possible, everyone I spent time with, and everyone I encountered on that trip. It was pretty wonderful. Magical. Picture is from a day trip I took with my cousin to Estonia. (I had no expectations before I went, I didn't even know I was going until pretty close to the time to leave. I didn't think I could afford to go.  I had just gone to Portugal the previous autumn, which had used up any extra money I had.)

Tallinn, Estonia/L Herlevi 2012

This will be more gushy than articulate, but what I love about my country is that it is a great melting pot, and every wave of immigrants made our country greater than it was before.  I love the potential. The possibility of what we could be if we weren't so afraid, could embrace each other, learn, grow.

I love the Fourth of July. It's my favorite holiday. I love being in a crowd of people waiting to watch the fireworks, and looking around and seeing people from 20 or 30 different countries, just in my vicinity. Not tourists, but people who are building a life here. And we're all happy, and hanging out together and getting along. And while I know this doesn't happen all the time, the fact that it does, and that it can, and that we can share in one another's cultures is a beautiful thing. Feels my heart with joy.

Happy birthday America!

Good Friday

Singing tonight music I love, especially Mozart's Ave Verum Corpus. We have a cellist and an oboeist (sp?) playing with us which sound awesome in the space, and make the really long song more interesting. (We sang it Sunday as well, without them, and my mind was wandering all over the place, which doesn't usually happen when I sing.) And then I'll need to write the scholarship application, it's due Monday. Still feeling ambivalent about the trip: 1) both my parents are having surgery this month; 2) I seem to have forgotten all the Finnish that I know since spring break started, and; 3) I'm still sick. Although for the last reason, maybe I'd feel better with a change of scenery. My RA doctor tried to find a different, older asthma medicine to see if it would be cheaper. It was more expensive (because you needed to take more, so had to buy more, I think.) $155. The nurse gave me a website for help with medicine you can't pay for. So, I'll look into that. But, back to Finland, 1) going and doing an immersion course would help with the bilingual goal; 2) it would be nice to see Riikka again; and 3) it's pretty much paid for (tuition, books, housing) if you get into the program, I would just need to come up with travel money (really expensive to fly there) and food, etc.

The housemate moved out yesterday, though by the time I got home from supper and rehearsal, he was sitting in the living room drinking beer with another housemate and watching basketball highlights (to check on his bracket, I guess.) Then he took a shower and went back to the other house. He left the super comfortable Ikea wooden-recliner-type chair, which is cool. The couch is kinda' gross.