Helsinki, etc.

So despite my sickly state, I had a pretty good day in Helsinki. Tom and I switched hostels this morning. The first one we were staying at was in the old Olympic Stadium from 1952 and was about a 30 minute walk from the city center, so we wanted to be a little closer to things for our last two nights. The hostel we're at now is in a much better spot and way less institutional-feeling. Then we went to lunch at this vegetarian spot I had tried yesterday, where everyone gets the same massive plate of deliciousness. Tom tried tofu! I spent a lot of the day just reading at cafes because I'm so tired, but I also managed to make a trip into H&M (although I didn't buy much because I kept reminding myself I would have to carry whatever I bought... lugging my bag around has for sure been the worst part of the trip).

Then I walked to this really cool cathedral - built in 1969 and carved out of the rock! It's tucked away in a hill not too far from the main area. There was some sort of service about to begin (you can see churchgoers in my pictures..) but a man was still walking around taking pictures, so I figured it was ok. The church was really beautiful, the organic nature is quite a change from most of the other cathedrals I've seen - the architects were probably big hippies.
Then I climbed up on the hill the church is carved out of. Again, some other guys were doing it, so I figured it was ok. The roof is a cooper dome, which looks really beautiful on the inside.

That's most of my day. In other *big* news, I finally got up the courage to just call the school, rather than waiting on them to email me back. I butchered some Russian and then got the woman who I'd previously corresponded with on the phone. She gave me the address of the house where Tom and I will be staying (yea, we're in the same house, big surprise! let's hope we have two beds...) So that's exciting! I finally feel like I'm actually going to Russia now that I know the address of the place we'll be staying. I told her when our train gets in (she was all like, yes, she is expecting you, but did not know when you will arrive, like it was my fault for not telling her....) so hopefully our host family will be there! I'm looking forward to it! Russia in two days!