Stamping Pidgeons

This weekend I stayed with my second host family, the Kaikkonens, to get to know them better before moving in with them in January. They have four children: Antti is two years younger than I, Martti (currently on exchange in South Africa) is six months older, Saara is nineteen, and Laura twenty-one and currently living and studying in Joensuu. On Saturday I went with them to Turku (2.5 hour car ride) to see a horse racing (harness racing) competition. There were contestants from Sweden and Norway as well as Finland. My host father (my second, that is), Pekka, is the chairmain of the leadership board of the company that sponsors these races, so we got VIP tickets for free. There were many famous Finns, Swedes, and Norweigans in the VIP box, or so I was told. I bet on which horses would win, and I even won some money from it.

Lack of English is beginning to take its toll on me...I have already forgotton the words "pidgeon" and "stamp".