Out with Outi

A view of Tampere


On July 14th, we were faced with the taks of clearing out the entire cavity beneath the house. You see, the entire building is built on a slanted hill (I suppose that's redundant, as all hills are slanted, lest they be called plains). Anyways, the house is held up by large stone pillars, and the area between the house and the ground had become a jungle of wood and bricks and miscellaneous junk, all of which had to be transported elsewhere.

And so it was. For three ours, we heaved wooden planks to the shed. The pieces that couldn't be slavaged were piled into a...well, a pile to be burned later. It was all heavy work, not like what I'm used to. Still, it was good to be useful.


While we spent the whole of the morning and early afternoon clearing the underside of the house, I failed to understand the purpose of it, as I was told we'd be taking it all back later. There was something said about covering the opening, but then how do you get everything back?

Whatever. I don't make houses, I wouldn't know.


After washing up and wolfing down some soup, Outi came and I went to spend the rest of the day with her in Tampere. Ah, I should back up and tell you who Outi is.


Well, I'm here in Finland through an organization called Youth for Understanding (YFU). During my stay, YFU has assigned my host family and me a contact person to keep a tab on me and help smooth out any misunderstandings between my family and me, should they arise. My wonerful contact person is Outi Lehmus, who lives in nearby Tampere and has been associated with YFU for a number of years.

She offered to take me around Tampere with her, and I gladly obliged. She is about my mom's age. She's blonde and wears bright pink sweaters and speaks wonderful English and Finnish and very good Japanese (she lived there for a year due to her husband's employment).

We were joined by her daughter, Aino (kinda like Aima!) who returned from a year long exchange program in Argentina just two weeks earlier. Outi told me that since coming back from Argentina, Aino had turned latino and was suddenly very talkative.

The three of us had lunch, and did a bit of shopping and ice cream eating. We drove around Pispala, which is the older, well-to-do area of Tampere. It is complete with cobblestone streets and a gorgeous view. We went to the lookout tower at the top of the hill for a good look at the entire city. Tampere is a beautiful, quaint city nestled between two lakes. At the foot of the tower is a cafe, where they serve coffee and the best munkki (sugared doughnuts) in town. Unna tells me there are contests to see who can eat as many munkki without licking their sugary lips. I'd fail miserably.


Next stop: Outi's house. I was delighted to find Japanese decorations everywhere. After a quick tour, we watched "Lost in Translation". Then it was back to Saarikylät for Aima.

There you have it. That was my day with Outi. (btw, Outi is pronounced O. T. like oh, tea!)