Monday September 13 - First day of classes

I feel like I'm leading my listeners on. By first day of classes, I really mean first day of CLASS. It should be singular seeing as I only had one class today "Sport in FInland." I've already noticed how closely sport and society are intertwined but now I get to learn about it. It sounds like a very interesting course with lots of interesting speakers coming to talk with us including a coach from the Finnish National Olympic team!
For this class, I will be keeping a lecture diary and reading literature to prepare for a book exam which I am free to schedule. That seems crazy to me. The student is not given this much choice at the U of A. I'm getting the feeling that this system is very demanding of the individual although it seems very liberal at first. I have the opportunity to take advantage of many learning outlets. Hopefully, all my classes will be this great. I met a girl named Silke from Belgium. She has told me that her english skills are not as good as she'd like them to be so I have agreed to help her with coursework if she does not understand it. Mostly, she takes notes in Dutch so it's really cool to see her write.
After class, I went to the Alvar Aalto swimming hall with my flatmate Mimmi and Malwina. It was a great swimming pool and I am proud to say that I did at least 7 lengths of the pool. I have no idea how long it is though. This swimming hall also has two warmer, smaller pools. One has a big slide and waves that come on periodically while the other one has more of an obstacle course that is entertaining for kids. I don't think ill make it a habit to come swim here, it reminded too much of Millwoods Rec center or any other pool in edmonton for that matter. What did fascinate me was the real finnish way of going to the sauna and after a lot of hesitation, i sucked up my embarrassment and walked into the sauna. That experience was a new one for me and is not easily experienced in Canada.

Kuokkala bridge at nighttime