Movies, Food, and I'm Sick of Snow and Ice

The narrowest street in Old Town

The weather here has settled into an annoying pattern -- it snows about every day, and for the past week, the temperatures have gotten above freezing, so some of it melts (there's way too much on the ground for it all to melt), then it re-freezes overnight, resulting in an icy mess the next morning.

I still go out every day, and fortunately, some new expat arrivals to Rauma have helped with the winter doldrums. My new friend, Sara, and her husband, Stephen, have been here several weeks, and I have enjoyed showing Sara around. I'm not the new kid in town anymore!

Something that impresses me is the town workers are out every day plowing, putting out gravel, and scraping away ice. They leave huge piles of dirty snow everywhere, but they do cart some of it away every few days. One of the older gentlemen in our apartment building (the one who has a pretty white cat) also is out every day shoveling and throwing out gravel on our steep driveway. I don't know if he gets paid to do this or not, but I suspect he does it just to help out. I certainly appreciate his hard work!

Blueberry Cake

I have continued my baking projects, and I have gotten better at guessing the amount of butter I need for my recipes. I mentioned I found a measuring cup that has U.S. measurements, so that has been great! My latest desserts were a blueberry cake and a marble pound cake. Tom took both to work, of course, and he said they were appreciated.

Marble Cake

 

Leftover Stripey Jack Cheese

I also have good news on the Mexican food dilemma. The local grocery store got in a cheese called "Stripey Jack." At first, I was all excited, because it was called "Jack," as in Monterey Jack, but it isn't that. It's a mixture of different strengths of cheddar. Still, it tastes really good, pretty mild and similar to Colby. So last night, I mixed up taco meat and put it in soft tortillas, melted some of the cheese on top, and added lettuce and pico de gallo that I made from scratch. The tomatoes grown in the hothouses here are remarkably tasty, but the "hot" peppers in the produce department have no fire. I wonder if they just get dried out from their long journey to Finland. Still, it was so nice to have some semblance of Mexican food here!
 

The Rauma movie theater

My friends know how much I love movies, and we finally went to the local Rauma movie Theater last weekend to see "The Descendants." One guy runs the theater, and he does everything from selling tickets and concessions to telling us when to go into the theater, to running the projector to cleaning up. The theater itself only holds about 40 people, and you feel like you are practically on top of the screen. The movie cost 10 Euros each, which I suppose isn't too bad. Plus, the movies are still in English and just have Finnish subtitles, so that is a bonus.

Big travels coming up -- I'm heading to Brussels on Sunday for a few days, then flying to Washington to visit Kristen, then home to Concord. Tom flies home a few weeks later, and we are going on our annual trip to Aruba. Yes! Sunny and warm! Beaches! Mahi mahi and grouper! I don't think we will want to return to Finland! But return we must, because Easter weekend, we are heading to a place we both have been wanting to see: St. Petersburg, Russia. Oh, yeah, and Tom has to go back to work, too.

And hopefully, by the time we get back to Finland April 1, all this nasty snow and ice will be gone for the season!