The sound of a normal life

San Francisco, the 27th of May 2009

Weeks pass by too fast. I keep saying that all the time. I've been working with the video project and it's going good but still have a lot to do before it's done.

I've started to live a night life. We always stay up till late at night having kitchen parties with french toasts, crepes and all other treats. Quite often we have movie nights at the basement of next door. We have a big screen there and couches. So it is a good place for movies. I tend to fall asleep sometimes but it's fine. And it's a fun thing to make jokes about.

On Thursday I got to spend a while with my American Finnish friends Saara and Sami and Sami's brother Miika. They stayed a night before heading down to Los Angeles. Originally i was suppose to go with them but then I started to run out of money and time too. So I decided to stay in San Fran which was fine cause I love it here and want to enjoy the company of my friends as much as possible before heading back to Finland.

We had a lot of people coming in on Friday to do Hot Chocolate evangelism. Christina asked me if I could take one of the teams out to do Hot Chocolate. That is what we call it when we do the ministry, "to go out to do Hot Chocolate". So it was nice to get to share God's love by giving hot chocolate and coffee to people on the streets.

After Hot Chocolate Myk, Rachel, Casey and me headed to Hilton hotels rooftop pool and hot tub. It was exciting and so relaxing. it was nice to be in warm water especially cause it was a bit chilly outside. When we were done with swimming and bathing we headed to Lori's diner to play cards and eat some good food. And yeah, we had Oreo milkshake too.

On saturday I headed to Fremont with the family of Ancheta's. Myk and Rachel had a band rehearsal on Saturday and they asked me to join them and so I did. I got to sing at their worship band which was to lead worship at the Sunday service the next day. It was funny how normal I cold be there. I usually tend to be nerves about that kinds of things but maybe years exercise has finally done a difference in me. the time in Fremont was good. It was so nice to spend a relaxing weekend out of the big city. And the family was so nice. They were so generous and hospitable at all times. It is such a blessing for me to have them in my life.

Rachel in Fremont.
If you look closely, you can see a lemon
tree behind the car. I was so excited about it!

We had a day off on Monday this week because of the Memorial day. In the morning I wanted to sleep in cause I haven't done that enough lately. It felt so good. In the afternoon I headed to the Haights with Rachel. The haights is a part of the city where the biggest hippy communities live. It was nice but still in some ways feels a bit strange to me. But i got to buy some cheap strawberries and raspberries there. And the best part was when we headed to a huge record store named Amoeba. I bought a new Mewithoutyou cd and Copeland's newest album.

The Amoeba

Cable wires at Haights

Later on me and Rachel headed to do some grocery shopping and made dinner. Wow, doesn't my life sound like a pretty normal life here?

I got a good laugh one day when this one homeless man came up to me while I was working in the office. He wanted to know if I did karate cause my body was kicking. I was laughing so bad. That was probably the cheesiest pick up line ever!

Lovelovelove

San Francisco, the 21st of May 2009

On last Thursday there was a free movie night at the Dolores park. The movie was Amelie which is one of my all time favorite movies. We rode our bikes there after a chai explosion inside my back bag of which my leather jacket still hasn't recovered. I think chai is going to be the new odor of my perfume from now on. If I even get my jacket to look decent anymore and get to wear it. I so hope that I do cause I love the jacket.

The view in front of us at the Dolores park

Anyway, about the movie night. It was so fun. Everybody was sitting next to each other on their blankets on the grass. some people had snacks with them some people just prefered smoking pot. I'm not used to seeing people smoking pot infront of my eyes and I didn't like that. Neither did I like the smell of it. But inspite of that the night was beautiful and the movie made me smile once again. It never seizes to do so.

Cherise, Dillon and me enjoying the movie

I fell in love on Friday. It is official now, I'm in love.. with Lori's diner's Oreo milkshake. Myk and Rachel took me out to Lori's. It's kind of a tradition to take people hotel hopping an to Lori's to have garlic fries and Oreo milkshake. Oh my gosh, I've never tasted anything like it. I couldn't stop talking about the milkshake and now I'm craving some more of it everyday. I'm definitely gonna have it again before leaving back home to Finland. And I'm gonna miss it so much and look forward to our next meeting.

Me, Myk and Rachel,
we love Oreo milkshake


Lori's Diner

Tae bo is still something that we do here at the base with girls. It's good work out even though I'm not the biggest fan of it. We always have such a great time doing it. This week we expanded our arsenal into pilates. It's a lot less swettier but still good for your body.

This is some serious work out

The weekend was so nice again. Jesus just loves pampering me. We went to Luke's pool on both days and now I get to say that yes, I am tanned and I'm so happy for that. As if it was the most important thing in the world but I still like it.

The roof pool

On Saturday on our way back from the pool I wanted to video tape a little piece of the life on Ellis Street of Tenderloin. You can see it down here. It's not a very long video and at the end of it the footage is not very good material cause I got a bit scared and wanted to get inside the base quite quick. There was a woman on the streets that didn't like me using my camera and was getting quite angry and shouting at me to put the camera down. You can actually hear some of it on the video piece.

The Ellis street of Tenderloin

I just love the Ancheta family. It is so easy to be around them; they make me feel so at home and they're so sweet people. On Sunday Myk, the son of the family, came to pick me up to go to the Yerba Buena gardens. We hang out there with their family. Afterward they took me out to the Old Siam which is one of my favorite restaurants here since I love thai food. They've been such a blessing to me. I think that even though I still don't know them that well, they might be a bit similar to me than the Caruana family in Australia is for my roommate.

This week I started to edit the video project. It's been fun but I still have a lot to do to get it done. This far I've worked with iMovie but will continue to work with Final Cut express next week. It's a better program and easier for me to use.

I've also started to run every day before our morning meetings. My body doesn't like that much of running right after waking up but I've heard that it's good for your body and i like to get it over with right in the morning. And it's not that big of a project cause the only things you need to do is to put on your jogging clothes and you're ready. When jogging later on in the day you always need to change clothes and take a shower and make yourself ready to continue the day looking decent. So in many ways it is better to do it in the mornings.

My Rolls Royce and me on our
way to the Bottom of the Hill

On Tuesday, oh my, I'm so excited about this, me and Rachel headed to the Potrero hill and to a club called the Bottom of the Hill. Manchester Orchestra was about to play there that night. We tried to get in even though we knew that the concert was sold out but no, they didn't let us in. We were so disappointed cause we really wanted to hear them play. Well.. at least we had a good bike ride and got to see the financial district out from the distance. But the story isn't over yet. Two hours later we along with Laura wanted to try to get in again and that was when the fun part started. The porter took us in and said that he would take care of us. So we got in for free. The tickets would have cost 14 dollars each and Manchester Orchestra hadn't even started to play yet. So we were very lucky.

Out at a patio after the concert

Tired concert debriefers at
the dining area of the base

I really liked the band even though I had only heard some of their songs earlier. I felt so at home there. And actually I feel so at home in this city and with these people too. Rachel is one of the best girls here. I love hanging out with her. We have the same taste in music, we love riding bikes, doing stuff and she's so easy and fun to be around. She's definitely my best friend here.

Rach playing Manchester Orchestra;
notice the cool vinyl player she has

I just realized a couple of days ago that, wow, I think I have learned to love myself a bit more. It's not that I haven't loved myself but in many things I tend to be very strict to myself and always strive for perfection. On many things I'm quite hard on myself and almost never let myself go easy on anything. Since I've been here in a way I've been on a holiday. I've allowed myself to eat things that I never allow me to eat back home and in general taking it a bit easier. And it has felt good and something that I want to keep up with in Finland too. But I think it might have something to do with this culture too cause to me it seems like people are not as hard on themselves here than in Finland. It's so sad that back home especially girls tend to compete against one another when it comes to weight and beauty. Maybe I'm a bit exaggerating now but in some ways it is like that. And it is so easy to go with the float and let all that kinds of things start to affect to you as well. But I'm so glad about this change in me, and I know that it's something that God is rejoicing of too. Actually, He commands us to love ourselves.

Love your neighbor as yourself
Matthew 22:39

If we don't love ourselves how can we ever love somebody else? And if we only love ourselves a little, we will love others as much too, or should I say as little. And I do want to love a lot! Oh man, this was like some really deep talk.

New, different, weird

San Francisco, the 15th of May 2009

In the States vacuum cleaners are different from Finland. Here you pull the whole big machine when in Finland we only pull the tube and move the machine every once in a while. Here you get more arm muscles when vacuuming.

In Finland we don't use garbage disposals in the kitchen. They're actually quite convenient but before coming to America I had only seen them in the Flintstones movies. You know, they have an animal eating all the food waste. I'm glad that we don't have an animal for that here.

In the States you always have to add taxes on the price that's on the price tag when buying something. It doesn't apply in restaurants but there you have to tip the waiter. So I'm used to counting the price without tax and taking off some dollars so that's pretty much what the item costs in euros.

Here we never hang our clothes to dry out. People always use driers. That's a good way to use your clothes quick after washing them but I don't like it that much cause not only it makes your clothes look ugly much faster it also is such a waste of energy and money.

The insurance system here is much more complicated than in Finland. My roommate wanted to get one for herself and it took like days for her to find one and still she has to pay a lot more money than what I pay for mine back home. I think she still has to pay something when she wants to give birth unless she gets a more expensive one before that. Unless we in Finland don't have to pay anything for delivering kids into this world.

When it comes to cleaning, bleach is the thing in America. Almost all cleansing agents have bleach in it. I think it is quite efficient but it also takes colors out of your clothes. I've become familiar with that here.

Time to say goodbye

San Francisco, the 14th of May 2009

I was invited to go up to Redding to visit my friends and to see a dance performance. I decided not to go cause last week was the last full week that I got to spend with the dts. It's time for them to take off to Italy for their outreach. I would have loved to go to Redding again but I'm probably never gonna see some of these people again so wanted to stay here in San Fran.

Another reason for my staying here was that I wanted to throw a surprise goodbye party for the dts before they go. Yeah, people back home know that that is something I love doing. Just wait till I get back :). So I told about the party to the staff and dts leader Steven said that he could sett up a meeting for the dts so that they wouldn't be in our way while preparing the party. So we sliced up some fruit, baked brownies, put out Reese's butter cups and soda. I made a card for each dts student with their name and photo on so that everybody could write something on them. It was kind of a yearbook thing.

Allie, Savanna, Linda and Laura
writing on the cards

We had some video games to play with too. Everybody was so happy about the party and I got lots of hugs that night. It was so good to get to spend a night with all people together. But it was also a bit sad night for me cause I started to realize that I would have to say goodbye to all these so lovely people and wouldn't see them any time soon. Some of them I will definitely see again so it isn't gonna be like a goodbye for good but still. I'm gonna miss them so much and the base is gonna be so different place without them.


It's funny how people can become so close to you in such a short period of time. I think it's partly because we all live together and pretty much spend our days and weeks together. I'm used to having all these people around me 24/7. It's gonna be so weird not having them here. I'm so glad that one girl, Rachel, is staying here cause she's probably the closest of them all to me.

Weeks go by so fast here. To me it feels like if it was weekend always. That is a good thing but also a bad thing because soon my time here is up and it feels weird. My eyes have started to get used to all these things and views that surround me here. I've seen them tens or hundreds of times already. But many times I still look at these hills, plants and buildings with a big smile on my face.

On Sunday we headed for Fremont which is a smaller city South of Oakland. The Ancheta family, that lives here at the base, have their church there. The church consists of mostly Philippines that live in the area. The Anchetas' are Philippines too. They are such lovely people and they have an amazing family. The mom of the family is in a way a mother of this base too.
You can check out a video here below. It was made on our way to Fremont.

A roadtrip to Fremont

The church seen from outside

The service at the church was a special one because of Mother's day. They had little performances and thank you -speeches to mothers. Myk and Rachel had made a song for Christina Ancheta, their mom. They performed it singing and playing guitar. It was so awesome and quite different from what I'm used to in Finland. We don't tend to show our feelings that easily. But that's one thing that I love in this culture. In general the Philippians culture is very generous, hospitable and warm. After the service we had dinner together and just hang out for a while in the church. I really liked the church and especially the worship part of it. Myk and Rachel played in the worship band together with these older men and some other people. All of the songs were familiar to me which was nice and the atmosphere of worship was very free.

The worship band

Me, Eva and Andrea in Fremont

After the service we wanted to see the house that the Anchetas' have in Fremont. The house and actually the whole city reminds me of those films that are filmed in smaller cities in the States. You know, they have this certain feeling.

Anchetas' kitchen

One thing that spoke to me here last week was a night that I spent with three of my friends sharing our testimonies and things about our lives. Savanna told us that one Bible verse had thaught her better how to love the people that have done you wrong or just in general your neighbor. Before Jesus the last supper with His disciples He washed their feet. He knew that Judas was about to betray Him but still Jesus showed him love.

It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew
that the time had come for him to leave this world and
go to the Father.Having loved his own who were in the
world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. The
evening meal was being served,and the devil had already
prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus
knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that
he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up
from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel
around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and
began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with
the towel that was wrapped around him.
John 13:1-5

Jesus wanted to do this as an example of how we should be acting and doing as well. Sometimes , well most of the times, it's so hard to do anything good to somebody we don't like. But that's exactly what God wants us to do and that is something that should make us Christians different. And if you continue reading this Bible verse you'll notice that there's a promise in the end. God says that if we do so, we will be blessed.

When he had finished washing their feet,
he put on his clothes and returned to his place.
"Do you understand what I have done for you?"
he asked them. "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,'
and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your
Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should
wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that
you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth,
no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger
greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know
these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
John 13:12-17

Hey, I've finally found good coffee here. It's hazelnut coffee and almost the cheapest you can get out of the city. I don't have to do any tricks with adding water or honey or anything besides milk in it. And actually the place I can get it is just around the corner. It's a place that many people inside the base uses but I've never gone there before last week.

Yesterday the dts took off to Italy. The base is so much more quiet and everybody seems to be a bit down. The base is still the same. Sitting inside the office you can here John playing the same song he always plays on piano. Pool balls hitting each other still make the same sound as they do every day. Life goes on but still something has changed. If not from the outside then inside of our hearts. The dts students have made impacted not only in my life but so many other's lives around the Tenderloin and the whole San Francisco. We will all miss and love them hugely.

I still haven't gotten over my fear of seagulls. A year ago I was jogging and a seagull tried to attack me. So ever since I've been afraid of them every now and then but I've made it into a bigger deal by making jokes about it. Last Sunday proved that I am actually quite terrified of them; it wasn't anything to laugh about. Me, Rachel and Savanna went for a bike ride to the Fisherman's Warf and bought some food at In 'n Out. We didn't want to stay inside the place but take the food with us and eat it in a park. So we did it and while we were eating, a flock of seagulls and other birds started to gather around us. I noticed my heart starting to beat faster and started to be really scared of them until that point that I had to run away. You know, all I wanted to do was to enjoy my burger but no, the seagulls had to ruin the whole pleasure. I couldn't go back to sitt on the grass but wanted to stay under a tree. I probably looked ridiculous and the girls had so much fun because of me. Who wouldn't be afraid of those big birds with such a hard beak?

From routines to exploring

San Francisco, the 8th of May 2009

Back home in Finland I have certain routines for my days that I follow. I'm not like obsessed with them but my normal days have just formed to be something like this: wake up at 7:15 am, spend half an hour with God, do my morning chores, go to school, study the day, come home, take dance class/attend small group meeting/go wall climbing/hang out with friends/go to church, go to bed. So that's pretty much my week in a nut shell. I like having routines but I don't stick too tight with them. So being here has brought many different things into my days. At weekdays we have a meeting at 8 am through 9 am and after that we start working with different things and work until 5 pm. We do have an hour's lunch break in between. The thing that I've been feeling a bit guilty of is the time that I spend with Jesus. He's with me in everything I do but I have had to come up with some other times to really spend some alone time with God. Sometimes it's quite hard here cause I'm always surrounded by people. And don't get me wrong, I love having people around me but I do need my quiet time too. I usually go to a coffee shop to write my journal and letters and spend time with God. Of course I do pray many times during the day but the time that I spend with God is different from what I'm used to. Different doesn't mean bad things but to me it always takes a while to adjust into something new. And that is something that God's been speaking to me of, that He doesn't want us only to stick to our routines. He wants us to be free in Him and not feel obligated to do something. It's not about performing something for God. He loves us for who we are and that's sometimes difficult for us humans to understand.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.
I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let
your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
John 14:27

The sun hasn't been shining here that much for the past week but it's been warm still. I'm hoping the sun to come out soon so that I don't start loosing my tan. Hah, just kidding. Mission adventure staff flew to a conference in Germany so Dillon let me use his bike. I enjoyed a lot and went for long bike rides many times. But then, I rode on some metal stick and the back tire of the bike got flat. So I had to try to find out where to get it fixed. It was good that one of my friends, Rachel, knew this placed called the bike kitchen. It's a place where you can get guidance and instructions on how to fix your bike but you have to do it yourself. So it was a good choice for me and actually really fun. All these bikers were fixing their dear vehicles next to each other.

Nina, Holly and me riding a muni

On our way back home we saw this one nice coffee shop and my body as well as Rachel's was graving for coffee so we went to get some. Sitting in that cafeteria felt so weird cause it reminded me of Scandinavia so much. The interior decoration was alike to many places in Helsinki and in Stockholm. I liked it a lot. It was funny to notice the way that the place made me feel cause I haven't realized that things are different here. But I guess they are cause I totally noticed a difference in that place.

On Saturday night dts organized an event to collect some money for their outreach to Italy. They were still lacking finances so they wanted to throw a silent art auction. I bought some cool photos of San Francisco. I've been wanting to get a new camera for my self and take some good photos and get them framed. I think it's so much cooler to have photos that you've taken yourself instead of buying some at Ikea. I'm not able to buy a new camera now but I was able to buy the photos so I'm gonna frame those. And I got to support dts outreach so the money went for a good cause too. So it was a very good deal.


San Francisco is a funny city cause the diversity is so wide. In addition to normal American areas we have Chinatown, Little Italy, Japan town and Russian hill: the Mission district is full of Hispanic residents. So you can only imagine what kind of things all these nationalities brings in the city. People look so different than in Finland. I'm so amazed with many of their thick hair cause the usual hair in Finland is so thin. And that's what my hair is like too but I'm managing living with it though.

You can see flags of Italy in
almost every pillar of the Little Italy

Coit Tower

I was really worrying for this one homeless man last week. He usually comes in every day unless he works but Last week he only came in on Monday morning and didn't see him after that. So I was afraid that he might have done something to himself or gotten in to jail cause that's what he's waiting for. He got busted dealing drugs a year ago. So we tried calling to the police station in order to find out if he's in jail. On Monday morning we were so glad to see him in good condition. He actually had been in jail for five days and from now on has to go in for five days in every month. Sometimes things in the States doesn't work the same way than in Finland. Well, actually I'm not that familiar with jails or prisons in Finland either but to me it feels odd that he sits inside the bars five days a month and gets to be outside the rest of the month. I'm just hoping and praying thet all the things this man is going through now will teach him something. He used to be very rich running bakeries in many cities. He told me that greed has always been his stumble stones and that was also the reason behind him getting caught. Sometimes God has given us hands and feet and a free will to use them the way we choose to; we can either use them for good or bad. Sometimes we need to go the hard way just to realize the thing that matters the most in the end.

Introduction of the players

The Giants made a home
run and won the game

The Giants is the baseball team of San Francisco. So even though you weren't a fan of sports, going to a baseball game is something that everybody has to do if coming to the States. So that's something that I got to experience on Sunday. It was fun to see all those Giants fans in their Giants caps and clothing. Even though it was my first time in a baseball game seeing all sellers of cotton candy and other things during the game felt quite familiar to me cause I've seen it in so many movies. It was a fun experience in spite of the slow rhythm of the game. And the view over the ocean was awesome. I just love it, maybe partially because I'm so used to living near the sea.

And there you can see it;
the ocean