:: Arizona, Rio Grande Zoo ::

After having my breakfast I went to the Rio Grande Zoo. It was a 20 minute walk, but it was worth it! The Zoo was beautiful, and most animals had quite good environments. The hyeenas and the tigers made me sad tho, cos their cages were not suitable for such mobile animals and they were a bit frustrated. But everything else was wonderful! I took a lot of photos, I hope you'll enjoy them. The wolves and the polar bears were my favorites, and the giraffe was posing to my camera. There were also free-fly cages where you were inside the cage with the birds. It was weird to see all those tropical animals in a snowy environment. See for yourself :).

The last picture is a photo of the two wonderful Zoo-ladies who helped me get a taxi to the train station. They were so friendly! I can't believe how well everything turned out in this trip!

I sat in the train and the train was SO different from European trains! It was two-storey and it had a lovely lounge above the restaurant coach. The seats in the lounge were facing the windows and they were cozily organised, so that you could easily chat with people and watch the beautiful sunset over the Arizona deserts.

I arrived to the small city of Gallup at about seven o'clock and noticed that I was at the train station, where as I SHOULD have been in the Grey Hound bus-station where we agreed to meet with Ben. I walked outside the station with my HUGE backpacks, and was a bit worried about how to get to the bus station. I saw there was one shop open, so I walked there with all my baggage and stepped in. I asked where the bus station was, and they told me it's quite a walk. But again, I was so lucky! The only customer in the shop was a taxi driver and his taxi was waiting right outside the shop, and he offered to take me to the bus station. Everything has worked out amazingly well during this trip!

I met Ben at the bus station in about 20 minutes, and he took me to NABI, which is about 30 miles from Gallup. i will write about my first moments at NABI later, as I take more pictures of this wonderful place. I just want to let you know right now, that I couldn't have nicer people to serve with. Both the youth and the adults are amazingly committed to their service and on the same time they are hilarious people to work with!

Checking out at 18:45 NABI time.

:: Arizona, first day in America ::

Written 14.1.2007, NABI Office, 17:50 local time.

Hola!

Wow.. I don't know where to start. Since last time I wrote, so much has happened! I flew to Albuquerque and spent the night in a hotel. I have never been so happy to get to bed in my life. I was so tired after the trip. I woke up the next morning and took my luggage to the train station and bought a ticket to go to Gallup at 4:45. I had a lot of time and I was hungry, so I went to see Albuquerque and have a breakfast. Albuquerque is a very funny city! The buildings remind me of a mixture of Mexican and American Wild West building styles. Here are some pics of the buildings.

I found a lovely chocolaterie! I went inside and there were tons of beautiful chocolates all around the counters and walls. There was no-one inside. After a while a dark man came behind the counter and smilingly started chatting with me. I told him it was my first day in America and that I was going to NABI. We talked:

"Oh, you are a Bahá'í? That's wonderful! I have had some Bahá'í friends, they are such sweet people!"
"Oh, you know the Bahá´ís?"
"Yes, yes! Bahá'í Faith is very good.. I couldnt' imagine any Bahá'í saying 'I'm right and you're wrong!' It's a very friendly Faith."

And we talked about how he knew about Bahá'ís for a while, and he was so friendly that I felt really welcomed to America! It's amazing.. the first shop I stepped in while in America, and I get this kind of a reception!

I bought some chocolate and went to get some breakfast. There was a cosy, traditionally American style restaurant where I bought an even more traditional bacon and eggs -sandwhich with french fries and a drink, and it was DELICIOUS. By now, I was feeling so happy I just had to call some people to tell them how great everything was! Even the weather was perfect. There were little patches of snow here and there, and the sun was shining bright and warm.

:: Arizona, flying ::

Written 10.1.2007, Dallas Airport, 19:30 local time.

I woke up at 4:30. Arghhhhhh so early! I still don't believe it was THIS MORNING! It was hard and lonely, and yesterday nights blues came back.. even though I knew all the time, that once I'd get to Arizona to the Bahá'ís, I'd forget the prior loneliness and enthusiastically and happily start my service work at NABI! I was sitting at the windy bus-stop waiting for bus 615 to the airport when mom called, and her call made me feel a little bit less frightened.

The series of flights I took today started with the flight from Helsinki to Zürich, during which I mostly slept, but I got to see the most beautiful sunrise above clouds! I've never seen a sunrise like that! It helped me cheer up.

The plane was late so in Zürich I was helped out by the airport personell so that I would make it to the 11-hour flight to Dallas, Texas. I noticed immediately that American officers are stereotypically much better in customer service than those that I'm used to. They were all very polite even though I came late to the flight. I also called dad from Zürich and after that I was only excited, not anxious anymore.

I got to see Greenland! It was amazing! There were no clouds so the view was perfect... we got to see the fjords on the eastern side, then the vast, really VAST glacier and finally the western fjords. It seemed amazing that there are people living there, because there seemed to be no trees or any kind of vegetation at all. Such a shame my camera was in the checked-in luggage so I couldn't take any pictures.

I slept most of the time in the plane and nothing exciting happened. I saw a variety of American people and they seem to match my expectations pretty well :). In general they seem a bit more sociable than Nordic people, and they smile more openly at you.

Now I'm at Dallas Fort Worth airport, the size of Manhattan, it advertises itself... The queue to enter the country was 1 hour long, and during that time I sent various SMS's to Finland and called my dad and Nadja, who didn't remember I'm not in Finland anymore so I had to tell her :P. The lady at the passport control was friendly and no problems occured.. this was one of the things I was most afraid of in advance... you know, if they'd suspect I'm a terrorist or something.

I got a good overview of the airport as I took the Skyline train from Terminal D to Terminal C, and it seems huge from the outside, but in the inside there are no big lobbies, so it doesn't seem that big. My flight leaves at 21:35, so I still have time.. now that my laptop and cellphone are charged, I'll go and eat something :).

I want to send thanks to various people for being such a good support during the few moments of loneliness and insecurity... Your messages meant a lot to me :).

I'm very excited about starting my service at NABI.

Checking out at 19:45 Dallas time.

:: Arizona, before the trip ::

This post starts a series of photostories about my two and a half month service period in the Native American Bahá'í Institute (www.nativeamericanbi.org) in Houck, Arizona. My trip started 9.1.2007 when I left my home in Rovaniemi to Helsinki. The service period ends when I leave NABI in the 28th of March 2007.

Written 10.1.2007, Dallas Airport, 19:04 local time.

So the long expected trip started. I flew to America. I left Rovaniemi on Tueday morning to spend time with my friends in Helsinki. Pate picked me up at the airport and while waiting for Mea's lecture to finish, we went to his grandmother. She lives in an amazing apartment from the 1920's, with a view to the Parliament House and parks! It was a very funny situation and we got a nice brunch and had a hard time eating everything on the table. Grannies... ;)

Tuesday was fun! We picked up Mea and went shopping for food. After that we went to Mea's apartment and made a lovely salmon-mushroom-paprika-onion-and-other-random-stuff pie! It was de.lici.ous! We also made a huge bowl full of fruit salad and cream to go with it, and we had a hard time (again) eating it... even offering it to other residents of Mea's student house didn't help :D. Stiina's arrival solved the problem, and after washing the dishes we went to Stiina's dad's and stepmom's place. It's a b-e-a-utiful, old bohemian house in Käpylä, very near the Bahá'í-Center, and we got to see some proper artist/bohemian family life. The kids, Ilmari and Olli, were totally different from each other, but both very much fun in their own ways.

After visiting the Kallius family we headed to the Bahá'í Center and met up with Änisa and Taneli. We played a wonderful Moomin-game, honestly, it's got to be the best roll-the-dice-and-move game in the world. And even better, I WON! I also received a very beautiful card, handmade by Pate (a native american cut into paper) and signed by all the friends in Helsinki.

We had a lovely midnight-prayer moment. Then everyone left. While saying good-bye, I suddenly realised these were the last familiar people I was gonna see for three months. I suddenly felt the excitement and anxiety of leaving everything familiar... I said good bye to everyone and Taneli's words about spiritual developement through service really woke me up to what it was that I was going to do in Arizona. I have to confess, after the door was closed, I cried a few tears... maybe tears of insecurity, because the trip on the following day was going to be very long (29 hours!) and complicated, and I would be all alone. I talked with Änisa for a moment and the fright passed.

:: graduation party, June 3rd 2006 ::

Here are some photos from my graduation party in June the 3rd, 2006. It was a very lovely day! Thank you for everyone who made it so happy. I've never seen so many dear people at the same time in the same place.

The thank you -card I sent to people after the party.

Getting the cap. Principle of the school and my tutoring teacher.

Dropping a curtsey.

Hat row.

Happy faces of three very good friends. Right to left: Anu, Tiina, Linda.

Another photo of us three.

Happy granddaughter with happy grandparents. My dear Mamani and Papani.

Parents and I. Beginning to get that permanent smile :P.

Mamani.

My aunt Marja giving me a rose and her gift.

This is what we ate.. or actually, 1/4 of it :P. The rest was still in the fridge.

Biology teacher Raimo Koponen, Finnish teacher Sirkka Veikkolainen and her daughter and my friend Genet Veikkolainen.

Anna Kinghorn, Mom, Inkeri Saloheimo and Robert Kinghorn. Some of the members of our local Bahá'í community. Robert and Anna don't live here anymore tho.

It wasn't a surprise, was it? Yes, there were also children at my graduation party. Samu, Juho and Oscar :).

My other beloved grandmother Marita with Jarkko , a family friend, and Kristiina, our dear ex-neigbour.

Lara doing the mosh and Pete and Juho just can't figure out WHY?

Guests.

The official , more "artistic" graduation picture feat. Karoliina 6 years.

High school graduate Linda.