This week was probably my least eventful week thus far. On Monday, I had no classes so I stayed home and took a few notes for one of my asynchronous classes for the first half of the day. Then I introduced a couple of my new Finland friends to Dungeons and Dragons! It was a simple one-shot but they had a ton of fun, so I will be writing and running a campaign for them over the coming months!
On Tuesday, I was planning on having another relaxing day at home but decided to bike to the city to grab some lunch on campus cause it is dirt cheap there and the food is pretty decent. After I ate, I was walking back to my bike and happened to run into Anne, one of the D&D friends, and she mentioned that a couple of people were going to hit up a sauna in a couple hours and asked if I wanted to join. I had not yet been to a sauna while here in the land of the Fins so I agreed to join them. Fast forward a couple hours and I was at Polar Bear Sauna, which is situated immediately next to a large lake. As part of the Finnish sauna tradition, we went back and forth from a sauna room (that got up to 100 degrees Celsius) and the nearby lake (which was maybe 10 Celsius). It was invigorating and incredibly enjoyable! The only real downside was that after almost 2 hours at the sauna, we then had to bike back home in the cold, wind, and rain.
Unfortunately, that bike ride in the rough conditions hit me a bit hard and put me out of commission for the rest of the week. I got sick and ended up staying home everyday for the rest of the week, only really going outside to get food. I am writing this on Sunday and I can happily say that I am mostly recovered, though not fully.