Hiya babes,

How are you all? ♥

I'm currently sitting on a school computer typing this text, as I was supposed to do a school project, but the computers that have the program I need are all taken, so I decided to make the most of my completely empty trip here.

So, I'm writing a post about out May Day - or as we Finns call it: Vappu. As I mentioned before, Vappu is a sort of working class holiday (originally, at least) but nowadays everyone - especially the students - celebrate it. It's the holiday when kids get big balloons, adults enjoy some sparkling wine - and students just get wasted. We have usually spent our May Day with friends, but this year we just enjoyed our time at home, eating nice food, watching some TV and simply relaxing.



This is the time of the year I always want to start the barbeque/grilling season, if only the weather makes it possible. So, that means we spend the holiday eating not-so-healthy foods, like hamburger and such.



Traditionally, Finns make a big pile of sugar coated donuts for Vappu. These are called "munkki" in Finnish language, and this one is one of the few Finnish traditions I personally cherish. I love baking and frying the donuts, and the awesome smell of them, which lingers in the house for days after making them.

Vappu, as most of the holidays in Finland, is mostly celebrated on the Eve of the holiday itself. I don't know why exactly we Finns do it that way - for example in Christmas time, the Christmas Eve gets more noticed than the actual holiday, the Christmas Day. I'm a Finn, and even I can't explain this habit to you. Anyway, we spend the Eve at home, and on the May Day, we headed to the center of the city to see the May Day market.



The spring seems to finally be starting - though I can't wait for the grass to get more green!



In the city center, there were so many people - and big part of them were wearing black-and white hats. Why? Well, I'll tell you soon enough.



On the market, there were plenty of booths selling all kinds of stuff, like licorice, candy, cotton candy, salty goods, clothes, toys etc.









And by the channel, Tammerkoski, there were hundreds of people gathered to have picnic. But having an outside lunch wasn't the only reason people were there.



The thing is, on May Day, a little student event takes place. It's called "Teekkarikaste" and it's a sort of rite of passage for the first year students of the university of technology. The students go there on their overalls (more on that later in this post) and their black and white hats (also, I'll tell about those later), and then they're lifted to the channel to get joined into the student community after one year of studying. That's as much as I know about it.

I can only imagine how cold the water must've been, but the fellas and ladies there seemed very happy, so...





A small group was also entertaining people with live music. They had different drums, and they were playing a pretty catchy beat there.

So, now to the fashion part of the post. I decided it was time to start the spring properly and slipped on a dress. I was having a crappy hair day, but luckily the day encouraged wearing a hat so it didn't matter.









Dress: Gina Tricot, Tights: Sokos, Boots: SpiritStore, Leather jacket: H&M, Scarf: Cubus, Belt: Gina Tricot, Necklace: Boohoo

After the trip to market, it was time to make some food. Again. Some days I swear I spend most of my time with food... How scary is that? Haha! :D



So yes, I got to use the grill, yay! I was so happy to cook some lamb with red onion and mushroom.



Yum!

And now, ladies and gentlemen, I'm showing you (for the second time ever) my fantastic purple overalls. All thanks for this you can send mentally for my friend S, who practically forced me to post these. Okay, I was grilling the food on these anyways (they're warm and comfy, so don't you laugh!) so it was the same to take a photo. Sorry for the lame-ass mirror pics, I just took a quick snapshots.





Usually people have a lot of different badges on these, but I've been unable to attend all the events where they hand them out, so mine are kinda empty. I'm going to fix that before graduation, though. The color is what it is because of my major (business) I wouldn't have chosen that otherwise. They're also too big for me, as I thought S would be a proper size - though XS would've been better. But hey, I can almost use these as a tent, so it's not all bad. I can fit anything under these. :D And one more thing, as my school is university of applied science, the overalls are worn only as bottoms.

Okay, so have you had enough food pics already?

No?

Good, because I have more! :D



I was craving for a summer dessert already, so I made us fruit plates with two dips. The brown is dark chocolate sauce, and the white is marshmallow dip - I can post recipes for both if you wish so.





This totally completed the holiday for me, and it was nice have all the alone time with my loved one. Of course, next year we will definitely spend May Day with friends, as this would get boring in the long run, but for once, it was kinda nice to take it easy at home. :)

Were you celebrating May Day/Vappu/Vappen/etc.? What did you do? ♥

Now, I'm off to work, but I'm glad to tell that after this weekend I'll have more time for blogging! Yay! I'm so excited as I have far too many posts waiting for you, I'll start posting them next week. But this week, I'm at least posting another "That's Who I am" post, so stay tuned! ♥

Have a fantastic day!

Blog ya later,

xoxo

Johanna