Kathleen's Adventures

I've had three days out of the last four that somewhat resemble what I would have expected for "summer" in Finland - maybe a bit cooler than I expected, but still nice and worth spending many hours outside.  I have come to recognize and appreciate a few things here recently and feel that they are worth noting - if nothing more, to remind myself come about November or so when I wonder why the hell I moved here. 1.  Public transportation is great.  Granted it isn't quick sometimes (getting home takes ~50 minutes usually), but I can mentally check out while on the bus - I'm not stressed in traffic. 2.  Amazing running routes.  My only regret right now is that I have about zero endurance so I can't make as much use of the trails as I'd like.  I am exploring some by bike which is nice too. Combination of 1 and 2: Taking public transportation to run.  I can hop a tram or bus and go however far away and run home. 3.  While it is a bit of a pain a...

I will never forget the feeling of driving away from Camp Olympia in the backseat of my parents' car year after year.  The pit in my stomach presented itself the second we drove out of the gates and hung around for a while.  The realization that it was going to be a full year before I was there again and the realization that I had to go home without my amazing camp friends were sometimes almost too much to bear for my adolescent self.  I would walk around almost like a zombie the first few days back home, numb, just not sure what to do with myself.  Sure enough though it was never long before regular life got going again - the longing in my heart to be back there would go from insatiable to a more manageable presence that never fully went away. My nieces have all experienced something similar, even after their first year at age eight.  Kate's hangover started before closing day lunch was even over her first year and I had to take her on a walk (she was little ...