An eventful weekend

Greetings from the other side.

This has been a fairly eventful weekend, but also a weekend filled with a lot of joy, music, good food and good people.

Yesterday my girlfriend and I went together with her parents to sing with a choir that they are in. It was my first time rehearsing with this choir, so I was a bit nervous. However I soon felt right at home. Everyone was incredibly nice and friendly, and there were a lot of familiar faces there as well, including some other members of my girlfriend's family, such as both her siblings and their spouses. It was a good feeling being back singing with a choir again. Though I admit it was a bit of a tough start. One afternoon to practice 8 new songs and then performing them in church after dinner. Luckily, being part of a choir you can hide a little bit, but I think I did alright anyway and didn't need to 'fake it' almost any. We also had a very energetic choir leader who was smiling the entire way through and did her best to spread positive energy to us all. Besides her, My girlfriend's brother was also playing the piano for us when we were singing in church. I have to say he is a really great pianist, and it was a joy hearing him play. We could probably not have sung a single song, and the church would still have been filled with wonderful music from his playing.

All in all it was a very positive experience and I am looking forward to next time we meet. :) Unfortunately it seems that this choir only meet up once a month, or every other month, or something like that. I am not entirely sure.

I have missed being in a choir and singing. I used to be part of a choir back home in Umeå called Cantare. I had roughly 3 years with them, and it was nothing but a joy. :) Though that choir met and practiced once a week, so with this new choir I am probably going to need to do more practicing at home instead.

Today we have just gotten back home from fist visiting church and then the church hall. There were a lot of people there today as they had some visitors from abroad. All in all it has been a nice day. I love meeting new people and so far everyone I have met here in Finland have been nice and friendly. My girlfriend was also scheduled to sing today, which she did really well. She had her brother playing the piano as she sang as well.

We are still getting people come up to us to congratulate us on our engagement, which is nice. People seem truly happy for us, and we are very happy for that.

Tomorrow is the beginning of a new week, and I return to work once again. I will probably take it easy in the beginning and see how my knee responds, but it should be alright. It feels good to be back to being able to do things again. Having an injured knee really hampers your ability to do things.

See you all on the other side!