And then there were two...

Ten days after I lost one of my earrings, Aila and I were talking as I was getting ready to head out the door.  She mentioned how much she liked my backpack.  I looked down and saw this:

Aila was still mid-sentence as I flew down the hall, scurried across the living room and threw open my bedroom door to see if this earring had played a sick joke on me.  Nope!  The earring that had been left behind was still sitting on the bookshelf.  The lost earring had returned!!  The best I can figure is that it had lodged itself in the collar or hood of the famous purple jacket.  I hadn't worn the jacket since Katie's birthday party so when I put it on, it must have fallen out.  What are the odds that it would have fallen out onto my backpack and Aila would comment on my bag.  Had she not said something, I'm not sure I would have paid any attention to it and would have slung it over my shoulder and raced out the door.  Of ALL the material things I could have hoped for--this was #1 on the list.

For the next couple of weeks, everywhere I looked I saw twos.  

Two:

 Daisies.

???

Two-toned pansies.

??? 

Summer snowballs (at least that's what Eija calls them. :)  ).

Poppies.

???

These were all growing in the Kurra's garden.

See the two 'r's? :)

(They hosted our monthly women's meeting at their house. Wonderful company, yummy food, sauna, and swimming.  The best part?  Spending time with Kirsti, Katie and Karen Martin (the Fulbright scholar who was with us for the spring term).

And two lights on each lamppost:

Loved enjoying lunch outside!

After two years of planning, we hosted the SS20 Symposium (June 15-18th):

held at the conference center in Jyvaskyla (Paviljonki).

A dinner on Monday night for researchers interested in Nexus Analysis.

Our colloquium on Nexus Analysis.

Conference dinner held in Juurikkasaari.  The vessel in the distance is one of two cruise ships we chartered to bring the conference guests to the peninsula for the evening festivities.

We recreated Juhannus with kokko (bonfire) and then traditional Finnish dancing (humppa).  Who knew academics LOVE to dance and party?  We had 400+ people attend the conference dinner.  I was fortunate enough to be asked to MC the evening.  SO MUCH FUN!!  It snowed earlier that morning (YES!--snowed!) so I was able to bring in Santa Claus to the mix.  We had invited him to join us as one of our evening hosts but he had already committed to another engagement.  So, he sent us some snow instead.
I LOVED working with our incredible team.  

Oh--and the live band that we hired goes by the name 'My Academical Romance'.  How apropos, eh? 

Here are the 7 wildflowers I picked that evening (as we had talked about the various traditions surrounding midsummer):

There were 60 people still on the dance floor at 11:25pm. The buses were waiting to take the remaining guests back to their hotels.  The crowd asked for encore after encore.  The band was kind enough to play three encores and then I got up (again!...as the crowd drowned me out chanting, 'One more, one more!') and said that if they wanted to catch the bus, they needed to be out in 90 seconds.  Within 60 seconds the place was deserted.  I've never seen so many people exit so quickly.  What a night to remember!  

I just love my team.  A colleague of mine said, "I never appreciated what we have here at the Univ. of Jyvaskyla until having attended this conference.  I'm so proud to be here."  That makes two of us.  See...the twos are always meant to be.

Like these two houses:

I'm not sure what it is about this particular stretch of street, but I absolutely love riding/walking to/from the university everyday and seeing these beautiful homes and foliage.

This is my desk at work.  I pulled everything down as we'll be moving offices right after I return to Finland later this fall.  Here it is before I packed up and then hit the road with Esther Michela (one of my friends from Washington DC who was on a tour of Europe this summer and stopped in to pay me a visit!!) to...

The island of Pyllan.  It's owned by one of my colleagues, Karin.  (Yes--you read that right.  She owns the island--all 2 hectares of it).  You have to get to it by boat.  By this boat, more specifically:

We helped seal the wood of Karin's summer cottage (that she built herself!!)...

 by applying a natural wax that smelled mighty fine:

Something about physical/manual labor is so relaxing and rejuvenating.

Then came feeding time.  First for the ducklings:

And then for the adults:

Grilled veggies.  So divine!!

There was also plenty of time for rowing (the boat), swimming, and sauna.  It was COLD...which is why we look like this:

The best part feature of this sauna was this:

The bucket that functions like a shower head:

There are tiny holes in the bottom of the bucket and when you pull on the brass lever, the water comes streaming down.  It feels just like a regular shower (with a bit less water pressure).

 Best investment ever!!

And...it was also at Karin's cottage where I learned how to catch a wasp with a matchbox.  Watch on!

Stay tuned for the run-down of the second half of June's adventures in Finland...and Estonia!! :)

**Thank you Angel for the gentle nudge to post about the final few weeks in Finland before returning HOME to TEXAS!!  And happy anniversary.  :)  **