Thursday, August 02, 2007

Lone Lukonmakian

My flatmate went back to Slovakia on Tuesday.
Since she was almost the last one, except for me, it's pretty quiet around Lukonmaki. Lukonmaki is not a wild neighborhood, even in March or April. We have one grocery store within walking distance. In the winter time we have the famous ski hill, but its days are in remission. There are some nice little hikes, but that's it. If I wake up in the morning and I realize that I don't have any cash or any food, I have to hope I have some credit on my bus pass to make it seven kilometers into town. Four gentlemen recently moved into an apartment upstairs. They spend their free time getting so drunk that they can't walk and then stumbling around my (locked) apartment door. One of them invited me to one of their parties: No thanks! Please don't slobber on my door. I need some housing allies.Anyway, I was thinking about all of the fun times around Lukonmaki and all of the people who I wish were here. I suspect (and hope) the new students will move in any minute, and I'm only here for another month and a half (a substantial portion of which time I will be attending conferences in other countries). I appreciate the old Lukonmaki crew with the greatest respect and admiration! We had a lot of fun in Lukonmaki, with pretty much just ourselves (I'm realizing)!Especially right there. That's FUN that they're having! Especially Emnet.

I'm heading out to Stockholm (on my favorite ferry) next week. I'm planning to attend World Water Week, a conference that focuses on policy and scientific water issues with a goal of reducing poverty around the world. It's huge and it lasts all week long. A few weeks ago I thought I was going to Stockholm by myself. Then I found out about Ryan and Megan, some ex-Vallers who stayed in Stockholm for an extra year. I was super glad because it's nice to know people when going to relatively new places. They know special secrets and it's always fun to see other Americans since I hardly ever see any in Tampere. And then I randomly found out last night that my friend Bobby happens to be passing through Scandinavia (from California) during World Water Week. I haven't seen him in a year! That's going to be so much fun! And then, I'm embarrassed about this one, but I just realized today that MY MOM is actually going to be in Stockholm for the first two days of the conference. I can't believe I didn't realize that one a long time ago. She's flying in directly from Oxnard. It's going to be a huge U.S.-fest gathering in the evenings, after the conference festivities. I love Stockholm (even without all of my friends and relatives), it's going to be a great conference and fun times!

1 comment:

About Me said...

It must be a complete ghost town there, except your drunk neighbors upstairs (lucky you!) Well...this last month will fly by, so get in as much "old drunk guy on the bus" parody as you can. You will want to remember those good times (ha, ha!) Cheers from security-bound South Africa! L.