I can be your Lance Armstrong

A lot of firsts going on over here! The first first (LOL) is that we have moved into the new arena, which is beyond sick. In our locker room we have showers (pretty standard unless you aren’t in to that), a sauna, a massage table, and shelves are being built so we can have food and PROTEIN SHAKES/supplements. There are 16 of these locker rooms in the arena, and this has been the first week where I have seen people from other sports like hockey and gymnastics, because we all use this arena now. This leads into the second first which is the arena is a little farther than the old gym we were practicing in.. It is actually about 2.5 miles away, so I have also started my Tour de France training. I am actually not a very good bike rider.. I never really have been. When I tried to learn, I remember I was in some grass and my mom stood me up on the bike and I think I was too scared to pedal so I just tipped over on my side. This is weird to me because spinning is my favourite work out? AND, this leads me to my third first: It has snowed. It didn’t stick on the ground, but there were flakes. It was September 23 when this happened, and I don’t think this is the best sign of the winter to come. I have heard from my teammates that in the East, there has already been about 3 inches.

Another first: the first full weekend plus Monday off. I cannot even explain to you the excitement I had after we were done with our “friendly match” on Friday (even after getting our butts whooped). Not setting an alarm has never been so awesome. Off days are dangerous. They are scary because you love them so much you don’t want to return to your daily schedule that you previously had been a part of. This was very true of my off days. Saturday was me in bed pretty much all day.. I watched some rom-coms on Netflix along with some Mad Men (Christina Hendricks is so sexy), and then Noppi and I went out. I bought this whiskey/brandy (?) from the liquor store because a bartender once told me that “all of the Finnish rockstars drink it,” and being like a rock star is what I live for. Kidding, but it sounded cool. Highlights from the night: requesting Anaconda with Noppi and getting it changed after 30 seconds, a 3 Euro cookie that I apparently did not care was extremely over priced, and getting a huge pizza (that was my first Finnish pizza). I love that they put pineapples on pretty much everything, because I love pineapples on my pizza. Sunday was another pretty chill day, I had a sugaring appointment, the equivalent to American waxing, went on a run (when I was pretty far out, it started to pour), and made this avocado banana hair stuff that hasn’t really done anything for my hair.

MONDAY. Monday really made me want to make something that will make me billions so I can live in a big city, never work, and just look fly for life. I went to Helsinki and this time I really wanted to check out the Design District. They have some really cool museums like the Finnish Architecture museum, the design museum, the art museum, etc. I am a nerd for big cities and the design of them because that is what I studied in college and if I had enough money to buy the clothes that I pin on Pinterest, I would look fly in the city. Also, I had my first pumpkin spice latte and paid the American equivalent of 9 dollars for it (that is what the selfie is of.. completely basic, but completely necessary). I drank that thing so slow and can honestly say that I got my money’s worth. I also had my first macaroon which I am now addicted to. Macaroons, to me, are like edible pillows of sugar. Find something bad about an edible pillow of sugar and we can chat. I got to go to an art museum that explained the HUGE peeing boy statue in Helsinki by the market square, and this artist is kinda freaky. He has plenty more peeing statues, I saw them all in his section of the museum. He said something like he just molds stuff together and is always surprised by what comes out of it, but I don’t know… Can an artist really not know that what he is molding is going to make a peeing boy statue?

I have kind of sucked on the part of introducing you to the new people in my life in Finland, so I am going to talk about Tuija (too-yuh) because I have a massage with her today. Tuija is the masseuse for our team, but she is also an EMT, she does sugaring, and she is a personal trainer. I don’t really know much of what she doesn’t do. On Sunday, I biked to her house to do the sugaring thing, and it is always such a good time to hang at Tuija’s. She always makes coffee and tells me crazy stories from the EMT about drunk people. Her hair colour is close to neon orange and it totally fits her strong and fun personality. She prides herself on being the mom of the team, and totally is. I told her once that I loved apples, and Sunday we picked apples from her apple trees and then she had a surprise! She made this apple jam for me that has cinnamon and vanilla in it, which you are supposed to put on toast, but I eat it with a spoon and I don’t care, it is so good.

Finally, I have maybe been out of the music loop in America. I wanted to share with you the songs that I am jamming to in Finland in case you feel out of the loop on your Finnish music.

1. SHAKE IT OFF – the jam. T. Swift kills it and I could listen to this every single day 2. Bad (ft. Vassy) – David Guetta 3. Lovers on the Sun (ft. Sam Martin) – this is always on at the club, always. 4. Big Pimpin – Jay Z (self explanatory) 5. Dare (La La La) – Shakira, always on in the weight room 6. Work Bitch – Britney Spears (SHE ISN’T DEAD), and this is always on in the weight room, too. 7. Loppuviikko – this is a Finnish rap song and I am starting to kinda like this.. youtube this for the funniest/weirdest music video you have seen in a while.