Life in Oulu

Rusty and I have gotten more settled here in Oulu. Our apartment is coming along, we have made new friends, I joined a gym, we got library cards, and we finished our visa paperwork...we're official residents of Finland! 

I haven't posted much about Finland, so here are some things we have been up to...

Exploring the City

Sometimes I feel like I need to pinch myself- Who gets to hang out and explore new places with their husband pretty much all day, everyday?! 

Oulu is pastel-land and I love it!

NFL Sundays

Rusty and his teammates, Josh, and Juho watch football most Sunday nights. I join them, but for me it's more "baking Sundays" than NFL Sundays haha- not that I'm very good at it, but I have been enjoying trying new dessert recipes!

Chocolate cake for Josh's b-day. It didn't turn out exactly as expected, but I'm just happy it turned out!

Salted Caramel Apple Crisp- was so good we made it again for Thanksgiving! 

Lunch 

The team has worked out a deal with a couple of restaurants- Rauhula and Tuba, so we are able to eat at either of them for free! The restaurants are owned by the same people, and they are right next to each other, which is super convenient for when we want to compare menus :) I like that both of them have buffets everyday- so we have a variety of options, and luckily, we really like Finnish food. I love their bread. They always have so many different kinds and they are all good!

Hockey Game

Hockey is big here in Finland- no surprise there :) I was excited about the hockey game for many reasons: 1. It was my first hockey game ever, 2. Oulu's team, Kaarpat, is a good team and recently won the National Championship,  3. It was free since the volleyball team gets tickets, and 4. (the most exciting reason) We got to dress up in costumes! The game was the day after Halloween, so it was a costume party theme. Rusty and I, a few kids, and the employees were the ones ones dressed up, but since my Halloween consisted of watching shows at home while Rusty was away at a volleyball game, I wasn't going to miss the chance to dress up. I hate to admit it (since I pride myself on putting together really great costumes) but this year, our costumes were not good haha. We threw them together last minute, so we did the easiest thing we could think of- we dressed in black, cut up one of Rusty's old shirts to make masks, and called ourselves robbers. As you can see, the masks were not very becoming haha.