Aloitetaan suomeksi! = let's do this in Finnish! I made up this combination of "off we go!" and "in Finnish" - it worked on the bus office lady, so hooray!
Minulla on ongelma = I have a problem.
maksoin = I paid. "Yesterday, I paid on the internet [see below]."
internetissä = on the internet
kausikortti = seasonal card (bus pass)
mutta tänään ei toimi = but today it doesn't work. I think present tense sounds OK here, even though past tense would sound better. The bus path both did not and does not work today, you know? But past tense is something I haven't technically learned yet (maksoin, above, was a one-off memorization) so I stuck with what I knew.
[Nice Finnish bus office lady: finnish finnish finnish finnish aktivoida finnish finnish finnish!] Bless her for respecting my Finnish efforts! I know for a fact that most of the employees at this office speak at least passable English, so her using Finnish with me was a gift.
nyt ei se haittaa...? = so now there's no problem...?
Nope! No problem. And we were on our way. Sterling was happy to go "towntown" (downtown) to the bus office and I was happy to get Magda's bus pass sorted!
The bus continues to be the best, by the way. We still run into hiccups here and there with the girls, but recently, for example, Magdalena got out of school, walked to an activity at a separate location, participated in that activity, and then caught the bus home. She is seven. She is awesome. Working bus passes are awesome. The end.