I am currently sitting in the Helsinki-Vantaa airport, waiting for my flight to Stockholm. I think I look pretty good for the amount of freaking out I have done. Hehehe.
Have Nova, Will Travel
No Herring Allowed
It’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Jolijn and I learned how to speak Jamaican yesterday. This is the conversation we learned.
“Whap’man?”
“How yu do?”
“Mi alright mon”
It’s awesome, though I think it is better when spoken.
Anyway, I believe I left off on Valentine’s Day! My classes were cancelled today (woohoo!) but I went to Leppäsuonkatu around 6 to go to a Valentine’s Day party that Kadri threw. It was a lot of fun; we played some games and had lots of nice food.
I didn’t get a lot of good pictures. :(
Unfortunately, not much happened after that. Really, it was pretty boring. Elina came to Helsinki on Monday, the 21st; that was such a nice visit. We did some shopping in between my classes, and after my last class she took my bed and some other things. We also went to a big mall and I actually bought something! I got a couple of cute hair clips and a new green summer purse. It wasn’t too expensive either, so another plus!
Tuesday, the 22nd, was a relaxing day. I focused on packing and some homework, then had dinner with Jolijn, Lotta and Nastia at the UniCafe. Since I didn’t have anything else to do, I went with them to the musical rehearsal. After the rehearsal, we had to bring the keyboard back to the clubroom. I was holding the keyboard with the keys facing outward, and we stopped on a corner to wait for the light to change. There were some guys there as well; one of them turned around and started playing on the keyboard. Before we went to a different corner to get away from them, I made a face like I was super scared; then he stopped talking to me. I had previously watched a video on how to get people to stop talking to you, and the answer was to make that face at them. It works!
On the 23rd, we had another little dessert party at Jolijn’s place; it was a lot of fun!
Fast forward to the weekend, and I was in a hurry trying to get everything cleaned up, packed, and homework done. On Saturday, I went to Närri to watch the dress rehearsal, and on Sunday Lotta came over to help me move my bags to Jolijn’s place. We then cooked some delicious food and watched some funny videos. Then I studied!
I had an exam for my Baltic class on Monday, and a test for my Beatles class on Tuesday. I don’t think either of them went that well, but they’re over now. I am officially done with my classes at the University of Helsinki! It’s a bittersweet feeling. I’ll be super glad to be home, but I will miss Finland a lot.
Not much happened until yesterday. We had a little party for Zach and Saga, as it was Saga’s birthday yesterday and Zach’s a week ago. We made dinner and cake, played games, watched Disney movies, and hung out. It was really great! It is probably the last time I will see them (unless I see them on Sunday), so I was a bit sad by the end of the party.
Today, I haven’t done much. Jolijn and I made crepes and tried to watch the movie Winter’s Bone, but it was too boring. We then watched Jonah Hex, but it wasn’t a good movie either. Oh well. Now she’s sleeping and I am doing my best to type quietly.
I will head out to Sweden on Monday and stay there until the 12th, with Drew. After that, it’s off to Hungary until the 27th, then HOME!!!!!!!!!! I’m looking forward to traveling, but it will be so so so nice to be home again. I’m also pretty nervous about traveling, so wish me luck!
I don’t know how much Internet access I will have, so the blogs might not come until after I’m home and have lots of time to tell you about my adventures! I’ll do my best to update as often as I can, though.
I miss you all and love you even more!
Love, Becca
Fire on the mountain
Hello everyone! Things have settled down a little bit, so here’s what I’ve been up to for the past three weeks.
I believe we left off with the weekend of the 11th. On Friday, I went to the Fazer chocolate factory in Vantaa! Around 9, I went to the Senate Square. It was completely freezing, but we had to wait outside for the bus to show up. It was supposed to be there at 9:30, but it didn’t arrive until 10:15. We drove to the factory, which took about half an hour. The bus driver was very chatty with me, as I was sitting at the front. When we got to the factory, we dropped off our coats and bags (we weren’t allowed to take any of our bags in), then started the tour. We all had to wear booties and hair-nets.
It wasn’t terribly impressive, since the factory wasn’t actually working. They had closed it down for renovations. We did see some cool stuff; they had a representation of to the cocoa tree. I never knew that the cocoa pods were so big!
After a short tour, we got to the tasting room. They had a little station full of bars of chocolate.
We were allowed to eat as much as we wanted, but we weren’t supposed to take anything out. But, being poor exchange students, we weren’t having any of that. When the tour guides weren’t looking, people started shoving chocolate down their pants, and shoving stuff into their boots and pockets. We felt like we were chocolate smugglers instead of drug smugglers! I ended up with 9 extra bars. Fazer also produces chocolates with alcohol inside of them, and they’re really popular.
I tried one of the vodka ones, and it was disgusting!!! I had to spit it out because it was so gross. Anyway, after the tasting room we went back to the front area. They had a big shop full of stuff you could buy, but I didn’t get anything. Before heading back out to the bus, we got a nice gift bag. It had bread, a full bar of chocolate, a pack of gum, and a package of Dumle chocolates. It was so lovely!
After that, I went back to my apartment to pack things up. On Saturday, the 12th, I went to Tampere in the morning. The trip there was kind of weird; halfway through, we had to switch trains. I wasn’t sure what was going on, so I asked someone and they told me. Eventually, I got to Tampere. Elina and Roope picked me up from the station, then we went on some errands before Elina’s party. We got some groceries and some pizza, then went back to Elina’s. While at the store, we found a food called a litsi. They look super weird, but we decided to try some.
I thought they were pretty good! I had never even heard of them before.
After a while, her brother and his fiancé, and her friends Anni, Koulu, and Roosa showed up. We had a really nice time: we sang karaoke, ate good food, and just had a bunch of fun.
I was so proud of myself; I sang Finnish karaoke! It was so awesome!
Sleep followed soon after the festivities. On Sunday, Elina and Roope’s friends came over for some cake. A little while later, Elina’s parents and Roope’s parents and brother came over for some cake and snacks. It was nice, but kind of weird for me; I didn’t really understand anything that was going on. Around 5, Elina’s parents drove me to the railway station. This was one of the saddest weekends; I had to say goodbye to Elina’s parents. I wouldn’t have time to see them anymore before I left Finland, so this was it. It was so sad. One more uneventful train ride back to Helsinki, and that was about it for my weekend!
Well, it’s rather late here right now, so I’m going to get to bed. I will finish posting things tomorrow! I miss you!
Love, Becca
P.S. I have a TON of party pictures, so I’ll post more once I finish sorting through them. Cheers!
The sky could be blue
Hi guys! I haven’t forgotten you. I just wanted to let you know that this weekend is pretty hectic for me; I have 8 lecture diaries to write, 10 essays to read, 2 tests to study for on Monday and Tuesday, and I have to move out of and clean my apartment by Monday. I don’t have time to keep on blogging, but once all that stuff is over, I’ll be posting quite a bit. See you then!
Having fun is just too much fun
Hiya! How you be today? I hope that you are doing wonderfully and enjoying your day. My day is going well, but before I tell you about today I’ll continue with everything you missed!
I believe I left off on last Saturday, the 5th. We didn’t do a whole lot this day; I had a headache most of the day unfortunately. We went back to the Natural History Museum and had a nice time; they have lots of cool exhibits, but nothing extraordinary.
This is a nice museum because they allow pictures to be taken. We were trying to look like we were making out with the elephant, but it just looked like it was feeding us.
Sea cow!
I like me some dinosaurs.
On the top floor of the museum, there was a little information sign about spiders. Apparently, there is a type of spider that lives in the basement of the museum and no where else in Finland. It hitched a ride from some middle eastern country on an exhibit, and now peacefully coexists with the museum caretakers. Weird!
After the museum, Drew and I did a little bit of window shopping, got some groceries, then went to Jolijn’s place for a game night. We had so much fun; we ended up being there for about 7 hours! We made desserts, played games, talked, and just had a really awesome time! Drew and I made puppy chow with the nougat pillow cereal; it was good, but not spectacular like we thought it would be. We used really cheap chocolate, so that could be why it wasn’t terribly awesome.
We played charades, and this was my team. We decided to be Team Ood, which is a reference that only Whovians will understand.
After a long night of games and laughter, Drew and I retired to my apartment for a bit of relaxing TV. Then, sleep!
Sunday was another lazy but nice day. Drew and I went to Suomenlinna, the island fortress. It’s not very spectacular in winter, but I can imagine it would be gorgeous in summer. Plus, it was still really cold and windy, but we managed to have a nice time anyway. Before we went to the island, we had a Runeberg tort and laskiaspulla at Kappeli, that fancy restaurant by the sea.
This is a pulla bun with whipped cream filling in the middle. It was a bit too dry, but other than that good.
Saturday was Runeberg day, but we forgot to celebrate it. Runeberg was a Finnish author, and he also wrote the lyrics to Maame, the national anthem.
We were in a pretty small boat, so we could hear all the icebergs dinging on the side.
This is the main church on the islands. It was closed for a service, so we weren’t able to go in. Lots of people live on the island year round.
Since it was rather chilly, we got off the island, got snacks, then concluded our evening with more relaxing time together. It was so nice to be with her again; I had missed her. Unfortunately, she left the next morning. It was a great visit, and I had a great time! I hope she did too. The rest of the week proceeded as normally as it could, until Friday… but that adventure, my friends, will come on the next post! I’m rather cold right now, so I’m going to take a very hot shower and probably go to bed. And by go to bed, I mean watch TV and knit until it’s ridiculously late, then go to bed.
Until we meet again,Love, Becca
Hyvää Ystävänpäivää!
As we say in Finland, Happy Friend’s Day! I like the idea of celebrating friends rather than romantic partners, probably because I don’t have a romantic partner! Anyway, whatever you do today, or whomever you do it with, I hope it’s a fantastic day.
My past couple weekends have been busy and fun, which is why I haven’t posted in quite a while. Here’s what you missed!
Last weekend, Drew came to visit me. She arrived at about 16:30 on the 4th. We then went back to my apartment to drop her stuff off and back to Helsinki center. It was really nice to see her again! When we were at my apartment, we looked up the addresses of a nice sounding themed restaurant (it was supposed to be like a Finnish loggers restaurant) so we tried to find that place. It turns out it was right by the big white Lutheran church, so pretty easy to find. Unfortunately, they only took reservations, so we didn’t get a place. That was a blessing in disguise, though; nothing on the menu was under 15 euro! And they didn’t even have dessert. Oh well, it was good to check it out nonetheless. We looked through my handy Finnish guide book and found another restaurant that sounded good, mostly because it was listed under the cheap places! What’s sad is that the logger restaurant, Savotta, was listed under the mid-range restaurant. If that’s mid-range, I certainly don’t want to go to any of the expensive ones!
Despite our fortitude and adventurous spirits, we weren’t able to find where the restaurant was. We ended up just getting some groceries at Lidl, going back to the railway station, and having Hesburger. It’s just like Burger King, but not as good. I felt like Drew needed to experience the Finnish equivalent, though. After our delicious, gourmet meal, we headed back to my apartment for a nice relaxing evening. We just had snacks and watched different TV shows, then went to bed!
The next morning, we had a leisurely breakfast, then did some sightseeing. I showed Drew all the typical sights: the railway station, the National Theater, the Lutheran Church, and the less typical but still awesome national library. They have a really pretty study area, so I wanted to show her that.
This is a cool shot of the library.
We also walked past the President’s Palace, the Market Square, the indoor market, and the Uspenski Orthodox church. We had quite an experience with this church. The entrance that I normally use was covered in ice, but it was the only entrance to the top of the church, so we decided to use it anyway.
We climbed up the side where there was some snow, then pulled ourselves up using the railing on the side. It was pretty intense.
We had to climb up two sets of stairs to get to the main level. Difficult is a good word to describe that process. And when we got up there, it was an ice skating rink! People aren’t meant to go up there in the winter, so no one takes care of it. But we went, and we conquered! Drew wasn’t so confident about the top level, though…
Crawling beats falling, I s’pose! Coming down the stairs wasn’t too difficult; since we could slide down, Drew and I had a contest to see who could surf down the fastest. I’m pretty sure I won. Coming down the first part was a bit trickier, but turned out to be more fun. I went first; I was originally just trying to walk carefully. After slipping, I gave that up and just slid down. I ended up going pretty fast, so it was a bit scary to see the end of the entrance and the busy road in front of me! I tried to grip the ice to grain some traction, but I just ended up ripping my fingernail a little bit. I didn’t end up as roadkill, and I guess that’s all that matters. It was awesome! I’d like to do it again actually. Drew had it easy; when she came down, I just caught her.
After that chilly adventure, we warmed up with some chai at a Robert’s Coffee, the Finnish Starbucks. Since we were heading back towards the railway station, we decided to get the metro. At the Kaisaniemi stop, there is a long tunnel with cave drawings along it. Of course, these aren’t real cave drawings, but Drew didn’t know that. I told her that they were from hundreds of years ago, and they decided to put a metro in it so that we could see our history every day. The drawings inspired Finns to remember our past and cherish it. She believed me until we got to the drawings of a cityscape and a guy on a scooter…
We had been heading towards the Natural History Museum by Kamppi. Unfortunately it was closed when we got there! It was another one of those blessings in disguise, as we were soon to find out. Drew had wanted to go to sauna while she was here, but the sauna for my apartment only ran on Saturdays and we already had plans for that time. We decided to check out a public sauna, which was also right by Kamppi. It was a strange experience. There were a ton of people lined up, and we all had to put on these booties over our shoes. I picked the option that seemed best, paid, then waited for a vacancy. This lady led us upstairs, gave us a robe, a towel, and a butt cloth (for sitting upon, not wiping), then showed us our cabin. It was incredible! For 6 euro, we got to our own cabin (two beds separated by a curtain), lockboxes, the robes, towels, cloths, a regular sauna, a steam sauna, and electric sauna, and a swimming pool for two hours. Since it was warm and humid, plus the blue tile going up to the ceiling, it felt like we were in the Mediterranean or somewhere totally exotic! They gave us keys to the lock boxes on elastic bands, and we put them around our ankles; it added to the ambiance of being part of a harem in Morocco!
Outside of almost every cabin, they had these tables and chairs. There were even waitresses walking around, and you could order food! In the picture you can also see the blue tiled walls. It was a bit awkward at first, but Drew and I both did the sauna the traditional Finnish way: au natural. No body cared about being naked, so it was easier to do it. It was a very freeing experience! The two hours passed by in no time at all; we did the traditional sauna, swimming, Turkish sauna (also known as a steam sauna), more swimming, traditional, swimming, Turkish. And then it was over! It was such a lovely time though; I’m definitely going to go back at least once before I leave Finland.
After that, we just got some groceries and came back to my apartment. I cooked my pasta, vegetables, and mushroom dish for dinner, and we just watched TV and visited. A nice relaxing night!
I’m going to stop here for now. I have to get ready for a little Valentine’s Day party with my old roommate, Kadri. I think it will be fun! I’m finally wearing a dress I got this summer but haven’t had an occasion. More adventure stories later! I hope you have a fantastic day!
Lots of love,Becca
I will be making a HUGE post this afternoon, I promise! If I still have my computer, that is. I have to go get it checked out at the Mac store because of a battery issue. But hopefully I will be back and blogging my brains out later! Here’s a little picture to whet your appetite….
See you later!
The Year of the Rabbit
Hi again! I hope most of my readers haven’t been frozen into blocks of ice from the huge storm that’s barreling down in America. Everyone out there, stay safe!
Once again, not too much has been happening in Helsinki. I’ve mostly been going to classes, watching TV, knitting (my scarf is going to be awesome. maybe a little short. but awesome), and doing various housekeeping things. I filed my termination of tenancy today; it’s a very weird feeling to think that in less than 60 days I’ll be home again. And in just about 45 I’ll be meeting my Hungarian family! I’m super excited about that. It’s going to be so amazing.
Classes have been ‘eh’ so far. I am hoping they will get more interesting soon. Anyway, today was a beautiful day. The temperature has been really nice- weird, but nice. It’s been over 30 degrees for the past couple days; today it was 34. After my Baltic class, I walked around and took some nice pictures.
This is just a really beautiful tree by one of my school buildings.
It was so nice to see blue skies again. We even got a few rays of sunshine.
The yellow building is the Main Building, where I have most of my classes.
After my class, I walked to the railway station and met up with Jolijn. We hung out a bit, then went to Lasipalatsi (right by Kamppi) for the Chinese New Year celebration. It was so crowded, and everyone was being quite rude. We couldn’t even get close to the vendors because people kept pushing. They had a big screen TV showing the live celebrations in Beijing, and there was a stage here that had some performers doing different things. They taught us how to say ‘Happy New Year’ in Chinese but I forgot how to say it.
This lady was creeeeeeeeepy. She sang a song (Chinese song but in Finnish) and had an unfortunately bad voice. It was hard to listen to.
The guy also tried to sing a song, but he wasn’t much better.
This was the TV screen. They had a bunch of performers on tall unicycles doing different stunts. It was pretty cool to watch!
Jolijn and I didn’t stay for very long, as it was overly crowded and the show wasn’t that good. But it was fun to go to! I’m glad I went. I came back to my apartment and sorted out a small issue; I didn’t have any electricity in my room! Apparently, a fuse blew this morning so we had to buy new fuses (as my roommates room also didn’t have electricity). That wasn’t fun to deal with, but it’s over and I have lots of light now! Though, it was interesting to try to knit by candle light.
It’s rather late here, but I wanted to blog. I like giving you guys something to read; it makes me feel connected to you. I’m in for two really exciting weekends; first, Drew is coming tomorrow! I’m really excited to have her here. It’s going to be a lot of fun, I’m sure. Hopefully I’ll be able to blog about it Tuesday or Wednesday. Then, next weekend, I’ll be going to Tampere to celebrate Elina’s birthday! I’m so lucky that I get to spend her birthday with her. I am sensing a lot of fun in my future… I don’t know if I will stay all weekend, because Jolijn wants to hang out on Sunday (and my weekends are limited now, as I’m leaving soon… :’( ) but I will know more about that once I talk to Elina. For now, I’m going to go to bed. Hopefully I’ll do some homework tomorrow before Drew comes, if I can motivate myself to do anything.
I miss you all very much! Stay safe!
Love, Becca
This is the future
GOOOOOOODDD MOOOOOOORRRNNNIIINNNGGGG VIIIIIIEEEEETTTTNNNNAAAAAAAAAM!!
Hi. How is everyone? I hope you are doing well! I have a few moments before my next class, so I thought I’d tell you about my lovely weekend. Not too much happened after my class on Wednesday, but on Friday around 4 I went to the railway station and bought my ticket. After waiting, I got on the train to Tampere. Nothing exciting happened, I just read my book (I’m reading all the Narnia books right now. I got all 7 in one volume. It’s awesome.) When I got into Tampere, I met up with Elina and we went to her brothers apartment. He has lots of DVD’s, so he is our rental store. :) We ‘rented’ two movies, one called Ganes (an abbreviation of ‘Hurricanes’, but they pronounced it ‘hurriganes’. it’s about a Finnish rock band). The other one was called ‘One Way Ticket to Mombassa’. We got some snacks at the store, then went back to Elina and Roope’s apartment and watched Ganes. It wasn’t that great of a movie, but not totally terrible! It had a few amusing moments.
The next morning, we woke up and had breakfast, then went to the Moomin Museum at the Library. It was so cute!! Here’s some more information about the Moomins: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomin . They had the original drawings by Tove Jansson, as well as dioramas depicting different scenes from her books. They were all really cute, and I wish I had gotten pictures but they didn’t allow them. That’s never stopped me before, but they had security people standing everywhere so I didn’t get a chance. I took some pictures of our guide book, so here’s some of those.
Me and Moominmamma!
I thought this looked really funny. It’s just snowpants with the shoes still on, but it looks like a kid hanging from the coat hook! (Yes, I know I’m easily amused…)
After the library, we walked across the street so I could take some pictures of the beautiful Alexander church in wintertime.
We picked up Elina’s mom at her house, then went to Ideapark. We stopped into Marimekko and I wanted to buy eeevveeerryyttthiiing. But I didn’t, thankfully. The only thing I bought was a really cute necklace at H&M.
It’s a bit hard to see, but it’s a hot air balloon with a little bear hanging on. I think it’s lovely. Elise was kind enough to buy Elina and I ice cream; I had scoop of very yummy pear. We did some more shopping at Ideapark, then dropped Elise back off at her house. Elina and I went to another mall and did a little more shopping, then had dinner at a thai restaurant. While we were there, a celebrity came in! Granted, he hasn’t really been a celebrity for many years, but he used to be really popular. He was a Finnish comedian, and Elina had one of his DVDs…
That’s who is is… he didn’t look quite like this picture, thankfully!
After dinner, Elina and I walked across the street to take more pictures of a different church… yes, I realize I am a tourist…
It was already dark, so I didn’t get many good pictures…
After getting some snacks, we went back to Elina’s apartment and chilled. It was really nice; we just watched movies and TV and chatted. We watched an amazing movie called Crossroads, starring Britney Spears. I think I am going to have to buy this movie, it was so good. The acting was impeccable. (I really hope you realize all that was sarcasm!!) We did watch the Mombassa movie, and I actually liked it! It was weird in some areas, as are all Finnish movies, but I thought it was one of the better ones I’d seen.
After waking up and getting dressed, we had breakfast and then chilled. I read my book a little, watched TV. It was very restful and nice. Around 1:30 we went to Elina’s parent’s house and had lunch. We had mashed potatoes, a beef stew type thing, salad, and a berry mousse for dessert. It was all very delicious, and they were nice enough to send some of the dessert back to Helsinki with me! They know me well. :) Elina and I drove back to Hämeenlinna, then I caught the train from there to Helsinki. It was a really lovely weekend!
I have to go get ready for class now. Hopefully I will have more to post soon! I miss you all very much.
Love, Becca
Supplies!
Hiya! I know it’s been a really long time since I last posted, but honestly, nothing much has been happening. I spent most of my break reading, learning a few new skills, watching TV on my computer, Tumbling (on my other account, lots of silly pictures), playing Quake, visiting occasionally, and sleeping. Glorious, glorious sleeping. No more of that now! School has started again. I’m taking 4 classes: The Beatles (a musicological and cultural phenomenon), Ancient Egyptian, History of the Baltic Area, and Finland, The Cold War, and the Economy. The last one is an online class, so I basically have 3 classes. I was going to take another one called History of the Nordic Area, but I’ve had that professor before and I didn’t like him. Plus, it won’t help my degree, so I’d rather have some more free time. What’s that you say? Wasn’t I just complaining about being bored a few weeks ago (or yesterday)? Granted, at time I have been bored, and I will be bored in the future. But now that my friends are back from Christmas break, I have a lot more people to hang out with. To me, that’s more important than a class that doesn’t really matter.
Anyway, ye scurvy naysayers, my first couple days of classes haven’t gone as planned. Not at all. I got up at 9 (which seemed soooo early, considering I normally slept until 12 on break), and rushed to get to my class by ten (rushing as the trains were late). I get to class (I was supposed to have The Beatles), wait for 10 minutes…wait for 20 minutes… wait for 40… after an hour, I gave it up as a bad job. How lame! I came back to Pohjois Haaga, had lunch and nearly fell asleep in my chair. At 3:30 I went to my Baltic Class. That was okay. I was pretty tired, and it all was rather boring, but I’m thinking it will get more interesting soon. This class is more a series of guest lecturers, rather than having a main teacher, and the lecturers today weren’t that great. Oh well, it shouldn’t be too bad.
I took the Metro to Kamppi where I met with Jolijn and Mikko at Lidl. We walked to Jolijn’s apartment where Jolijn and I shared a lovely meal (Mikko went to a board meeting for the theater group). We had some Belgian dish (cauliflower and mincemeat in a roux served with pasta) and a mozzarella and pesto pizza. Quite delicious! After a while, Mikko, Lotta, Zach, and Nastia came from the board meeting to Jolijn’s apartment (the buildings are right next to each other). We just had a nice time talking and laughing and watching silly YouTube videos. To me, those kinds of parties are infinitely better than getting drunk and that kind of parties.
Today, woke up, rushed off to class (Egyptian this time), and waited. And waited. And waited. We waited 40 minutes this time, and the teacher didn’t show up. Come on! The students are supposed to be irresponsible, not the teachers… Marine and I went to Porthania and had some nice (but tired) conversation, then went to our Beatles class. That went all right, it should be an interesting class. I came back to my apartment, did some chores, chatted with Dad, Skyped with Mom, and now I am here. This evening, I am going to try out a new self made recipe (with results soon to follow), watch House, and who knows what. I don’t have to get up super early tomorrow so the world is my oyster. Except I don’t like seafood, so the world is my chicken.
Until next time!
Love, Becca
UPDATE 1-20-11: I went to my Egyptian class today, and the teacher once again didn’t show up. After having lunch with some friends and a little walking around Helsinki, I came back and checked my email. My class was cancelled. :’(
