WE'RE IN HELSINKI!!!

We have been in Helsinki almost 2 weeks and it has been crazy with culture shock.  There have been many friendly and happy moments and many of confusion and frustration~everything is in FINNISH!!!  Sheri took us to the airport in Salt Lake with the HAPPY news that our 13th grandchild, Weston, was born in Puerto Rico to Mark and Miranda on 11/11/11!!!  We flew from SLC to Chicago, Munich, and then Helsinki!

We were sooooo happy that ALL our luggage arrived and we were not even charged for the second checked bag!  The mission couple, Elder and Sister France met us at the airport.  President and Sister Rawlings were there briefly but had to go to Stake Conference.  

The Frances are the ones who spent many, many hours searching for our apartment and equipping it with Ikea furniture and things from the church storage.  We can never repay them for all their kindness.  They are so wonderful and giving.  We rely on their knowledge of all things Finnish even though they have been here only 3 months.

This is our living room with a futon 

and a huge wonderful rug that feels

so great because we have all wood floors.

This picture to the right was also brought from home we just needed IKEA frames. 

Here is our kitchen eating area .  We had to get lights because in Finland the fixtures just plug into the ceiling and people take them with them so we were pretty dark for a while till we found some inexpensive, bright lights and had time to install them.  WE LOVE IKEA!  We have dishes, silverware, glasses, placemats, frames, and decor from there.  We got new chairs and will be getting a new table tomorrow.  The mission has been very generous with furniture for us!

 

Our kitchen is nice...it has a dishwasher which is very rare.  We have a VERY small oven and stove and of course, no disposal.  The door you can see goes into our main bathroom and sauna.

Something unusual and very nice is our HUGE refrigerator (on the left) and HUGE  freezer on the right.  We can buy ahead for our dinners for the Center For Young Adults (CYA)

This is our favorite wall...our family pictures so we can see all of our wonderful family all the time!!!!!

Here is our very cute half bath!

 We have TONS of storage.  This is in our bedroom and we have identical cupboards in our study and entry.  We do not lack for storage and many are empty!!!

Sister France had purchased bedding so we just had to get an overhead light and small lamps.

Here is our main bath with the washing machine.  I had to take a picture of all the settings and print it and have someone translate so I could wash clothes.  You can see our sauna...

...or as we call it "The drying room"  It really helps to dry things by putting our drying rack  in this nice, hot room.  We have taken a few saunas and hope to do more.  The Finns swear it is the only way to get really clean and one of the office ladies bought us sauna brushes.

Hot water flows through our towel bars so they are always warm and dry.  We have radiator heat but never turn it on as it is 72 degrees in our apartment.  We often have to open a window...we don't know if the heat is from downstairs or from the pipes flowing with hot water.  We are cozy!!!

We have a glassed in balcony that will be nice when it warms up in about 6 months.  

                                                          

Finally, this is our study.  We love having an extra room...it makes the apartment feel so much more spacious and we use the storage.!!!

Every week there will be a theme...next time we will show the Center and office staff and tell you about what we do.  These first 2 weeks we have spent our time arranging banking, parking (we do alot of hiking to our car) shopping, shopping, shopping  for apartment things, getting the Internet, and getting acquainted at the Center.  There are many subjects to be covered to explain life in Helsinki!!!!!

LOVE TO ALL!!!  WE LOVE E-MAILS!!!!!   SISAR AND VANHIN ROBERTS, GRAMMY & PAPA!!!