minä olen asunut jo yhden viikon Suomessa

I've been in Finland for a week now. The weather is already turning to spring - yesterday and today the temperature was above 10 degrees, and today wasn't even windy. Easter certainly came at an appropriate time this year.

I'm getting more comfortable speaking Finnish. Although far from fluent, I can have basic conversations with people without resorting to English - most Finns have a good to excellent command of English. I've found that starting conversations with "Minä puhun vähän suomea. Puhutko sinä englantia tai ranskaa?" (I speak a little Finnish. Do you speak English or French?) is the best way to indicate that I'm not fluent but that I'm trying to improve my Finnish. (So far, the only person to take me up on the French has been Dutch, not Finnish...)

A few days ago I finally made it to Stockmann; I've been back at least once a day since. This is a department store which sells, in addition to clothing and household goods, everything from automobiles to textbooks. ("If Stockmann doesn't have it, you don't need it," one saying goes...reminds me of Dan & Whit's, although Stockmann has considerably greater selection.) I go for the basement, which is where the grocery store and an Alko are. Stockmann's grocery department has the best selection in Helsinki: a fine cheese counter, an excellent selection of teas (three single estate Darjeelings, for example), herbs sold still growing in little pots (only 1,40 € for a whole tarragon plant!), all sorts of tasty breads, and so on. The only things I'm missing so far are baguettes: the "patonki" contain rye and oil.