Rovaniemi, Finland

August 11th

Ready to depart Norway, but realize we have a long long road ahead of us until we reach Rovaniemi, 10 hours long. We are making a stop in Finnish Lapland Region of the Sami. Then make way to Santa before reaching camp.

I get on the bus and grab a front seat. Rash said she is sitting next to me. Then when I get on it looks like she jumped ship to sit with Miles on the other front seat. I don’t care to much. I look back and see Derek with a nice window seat and alone until Matt sits next to him. Matt is fairly large and takes up two seats. Feel bad for Derek so I call out to him that there is a free seat here and to come sit by me. He is grateful not to be cramped anymore. I am grateful because he has a pillow and I plan on using it.

Finland is known for having 2000 lakes, I make it a point to say it since it is written on our itinerary. Also we should see many many more reindeer. We arrive at Santa’s workshop and it is great, we head straight up for a group photo with Santa. You are able to have individual photos take but I did not do my hair and make up (don’t care too much for it). Then I went in search of a Christmas ornament. Found one.

The place was awesome, really got you into the Christmas spirit. I think If I went walking around first then I would have considered the picture with  Santa. Oh well next time. There were some many little nick-nacks I couldn't decide what I wanted. When I came back on the bus Joey said that is all you bought, he thought I was going to buy out the place I guess.

Get on the bus and take a nap during the movie. I wake up to me drooling a little bit and hear that I did in fact take over Derek’s pillow. Well at least I was comfortable! There was some movie on that is a mock of 28 Days. It was British humor and alright, but preferred to sleep.

The next stop at a gas station was good since you realized how much cheaper beer was. I picked up some Lapin Kulta, Joey said it was pretty decent. Back on the bus we get the rooms list and Rash doesn’t pass it to me but behind here and I find that I am rooming with the two Korean girls. They pretty much keep themselves as they are a bit older. We have a good while before dinner and some people are making a beer trip to the store. It is a bit ways away. I am feeling happy with my decision to get it in the gas station when we stopped.

Alicia asks if we should go for a run now or later and I tell her we better go now, I know I will get lazy later and say I don’t need to go. We head out and run for a good 25 mins, I say I am going to head back and she continues on. My shines were aching real bad. We caught up to the people hiking and I walked a little bit with them to stretch them out. When I turned back it was good that I did. My legs were killing me, I get back to camp after the 50 min run and it is so warm out decided to go swimming. Some people already went so I went alone. The lake we were on was incredible. I go in and the water is perfect, I swim for about 15 mins and then see Anneka and call her over. We talk for a while and then I start to get cold. Walk back to my room and get my stuff for a shower. My cabin is the furthest away from everything so I bring a backpack of stuff as I know we will eat dinner right when I finish. Sure enough I get out and the line has formed. We ate Mexican that night. Everyone was impressed but me. The burritos were so large and people went up for seconds. I started realizing how much people were eating, drinking, and not working out. I lost my appetite. Ate half my burrito I made.

After dinner there was some misunderstandings with Joey and the Korean girls. They were arguing and it got pretty heated. The girls were not having such a great time and were ready to go home. Not sure what it was all about, just was dreading going back to my room. I went to blow dry my hair in Emma’s room since I use her dryer all the time. I grab a couple beers and head over. I sit with Emma and Krysten and then Scott shows up and we girls were having a heart to heart. Bad timing on his part.Then we go to hang out with the group. Luke is drinking this huge beer and I ask to have a picture with it. People were just playing some soccer, not much was going on. Got to hear about what happened with the Koreans so I knew what to expect going back to my room.

I go back to the room and the girls are still up and tell me their side of the story, they were pretty upset. I was up for another hour before going to bed. We were leaving the next morning at 8a. I said I have to go to bed now and we turned out the lights.