Thanks

I just finished checking my e-mail and it was so unbelievably nice to get e-mail from friends and family saying that you're reading this. It was so good to hear from you Lisa and Katie and Mom and Matt and I miss you all!!! I spent the weekend meeting people: Paivi's mom (who doesn't speak any English, but I showed her pictures of ND and my parents) and Paivi's dad (a journalist. He took pictures of me and I took pictures of him.) and Marcos's parents and their house and Paivi's brother and his family. Paivi's brother's family is the All-American Finnish family. They've lived in Dallas and travelled on the East Coast. Tommi, their 17-year-old son loves baseball and has Snoop Dog posters on his walls as well as a map of the US.
Sunday we saw a missionary evangelist name Michael Howard at Paivi's church, the Evangelical Free Church of Finland. That was an experience I'm not sure how to describe.....hmm...well I'll just say Michael Howard was very loud and a bit arrogant and neither Paivi nor I was real impressed with him. They sing many of the same praise songs here....but in Finnish. There are some Finnish praise songs as well. Finnish music is haunting and melancholic....it has a definite Russian flavour.
Today I went to the school again with Paivi. It was another full day of "How old are you?" "What is your favourite color?" "Do you have brothers and sisters?" The kids were a bit fidgety after their week long break. One thing I still love is hearing Paivi say "Good morning class." in this very proper teacherly way, as she stands very straight at the front and the kids stand very straight and proper by their desks. Then the kids reply "Goood mawr-ning Mis-ehs Pah-keh-len." (Use your imagination to duplicate the accent.....it doesn't quite come through written on the page. You need to hear it)