Life rarely is.
Didn’t expect to measure a smoke sauna – it makes you smell like smoke, and it might get you a little grubby with soot, and you’ll likely have a backache by the end of the day. Smoke saunas are dark, so you’re also likely to feel some eyestrain. Makes you wish you’d have gotten the chance to take a smoke sauna after all that work…
Didn’t expect to upset my boyfriend by drawing – it turns out that when you’re so much of a perfectionist that you can’t let anything happen differently than you envisioned and you can’t admit that you’re making life impossible for those around you, you can really bug people.
Didn’t expect to eat great meals all week on 30€ – including homemade ice cream sandwiches and a meal of grilled salmon, reindeer and lingonberries, mashies, cauliflower, and mixed berries with cream/ice cream.
Didn’t expect to want to be with the aforementioned boyfriend significantly more after our long, tense discussion of many of the things that often come between us. Then less when he seemed unable to consider forgiving my aforementioned stupidity about the drawing. Then more when he showed himself more than capable of that forgiveness.
Didn’t expect to read Harry Potter so soon to its release date – did expect to enjoy it, and succeeded, despite feeling quite guilty as I repeatedly slipped away from social time post-dinner and post-sauna.
Didn’t expect to get to go to Rauma’s Lace Week, let alone the Night of Black Lace – and didn’t succeed, since the tourist book printed the wrong date for the event, and the city of Rauma turned out to be almost a ghost town because everyone had partied too hard the night before.
Didn’t expect to be quite as disappointed as I was by The Simpsons Movie. Don’t know why.
Didn’t expect to have a delicious desert of Buckthorn sauce over ice cream at a fairly fancy restaurant in Rauma at the end of the strange day of finding ourselves a day late for the big party.
Didn’t expect to miss out so completely on Gingerbread building. Or to be so enchanted by the Turku castle. Or to spend so much of the time thinking about past places and people. Didn’t expect to forget the name of the street I lived on in Brattleboro (Elliot St.) or the ones I lived on in Oberlin (Pleasant and Cedar). Or to be so nostalgic about both places during such a supposedly exciting trip around the world.
Didn’t expect to ever be so confused about so many things. Still awestruck by life, though, so don’t worry too much yet…