Nope, no halloween, but here is a treat, a new update!! Just keep Scrolling till you see a different Finnish Gibberish Title. Thanks
25. syykuutta 2002 (September 25)
A few weeks ago I went to a small place east of Helsinki. Kotka was about 50 km from the Russian border, although we were outside of Kotka. It was a countryside summer cottage. Very simple but very nice. It belonged to my Host Dads Parents, who don’t speak English. It was a lot of fun! My sister, Nanna, was at a music camp- ok, Band Camp, and so I was the only person under 50 years old. The peoples names, I don’t remember, they were about 80 years old, and they were very nice. Their cottage was very nice. Wood stove heated, and everything. Bathroom facilities were out back. Hehe, the old out house-made me feel like home! My host dad, Erkki, or Eki for short, wakes me up at 8 30 on Saturday. We were at the summer cottage, I thought we were supposed to relax! Anyway, after breakfast (bread, porridge, some fish, ham, milk, juice) were are going fishing! There is a river about 200 meters from the house. So we are walking down and I see the row boat. Its as old as people living there!!! Like 80 years old, but sturdy enough. We decided to troll over to a different spot and fish there. I had already had the first line out and as I was preparing the 2nd, we had a bite and the 1st! It took about 30 seconds! It was a pike about 3.5 lbs. I thought ‘not bad’. Then another, and another. There was 3 so we thought we had enough for dinner. We got back to the house around 10 or so. Cleaned the fish and went into Kotka. We went to this Russian Czar Alexander IIII’s fishing cottage, ‘LANGINKOSKI’. It was cool. It was right on a river, with huge rapids. I really liked it. We toured the cabin, which was built late 1800’s. Everything inside was very old and very Russian. Pretty interesting. There are some pictures on the picture page.
That night, we had a fishing competion with Eki and his Dad, nothing but a long fibreglass rod, with a string tied to it and live worms. I caught about 10 or 15 perch. That was fun. We just threw them all back except for 2 big ones. We obviously had a fish fry that night. In Finland, one of the strongest customs is Sauna. What a lovely invention. A wood oven, and the rocks on top but it’s quite different than in Canada. In Finland, we are constantly throwing water on the rocks, which makes it hotter and hotter. Some people sing, that’s fun too, but a bit hard to breathe big breaths. There is this thing, I forget what its called in Finnish, but it’s a bunch of birch branches tied together. You then hit yourself and each other with it. It sounds really dumb but it’s very nice and it smells really good. I stay in for about 20 minutes at a time, depending on the temperature. The hottest I’ve been in is about 95 degrees, but the real test is the how much water you can handle, that really creates the burning on your skin. Yeah, sauna is a uncomfortable place. Its so hot, your always sweating, sitting with a bunch of naked Finnish guys. YIKES, haha, just kidding, Nudity is no big deal here, no one cares. (It’s the nose theory, if you catch my drift!). Even though it feels uncomfortable, you go outside and sit down and cool off, and its nice, then go again, like 3 times. When you go swimming in between, its easier to go more-like 5 or 6. After, it’s so nice. Very warm, and sleepy, and relaxing. We go to sauna usually 2 times a week - sometimes 1, and sometimes 3.
The next day, we left at 9 30 on a 4 hour drive to go to see Nanna. After her band camp, she had a concert - she plays the Saxophone in an orchestra. That was great, it was in this huge Finnish Lutheran Church. It was really great, they sounded really good. She also plays piano, and Jembe (an African drum, it’s a lot of fun). We stopped at a café outside of Tempere on the way back. I had a cheeseburger- all I have to say is there’s nothing like Alberta beef.>>>>>The next weekend was quite nice as well. Not so busy, but tranquil. I didn’t do much. Saturday, Eki and I went to clean the barnacles off of the small row boat, so that means I have a new item to add to the list of ‘things I never want to do EVER AGAIN’. Other than that we all stayed at home and just chilled (no Uncle Roger, the heater wasn’t broken). We went to sauna, and watched a few movies, cleaned up a bit and that was it.
Last weekend, I went with Tapio to a youth group. Wow, it was so great. I didn’t even understand a word, but it was so intimate and personal. The songs were great too. Although in Finnish, they were still worship songs. I was feeling very full and complete. I got home pretty late, but it was cool. The next morning, I went with my Host Dad in Martina (their big 36ft wooden boat) because there was a ‘no private cars downtown’ rule that day. We had to pick up some things in the market, fill up the tank and test out the heater. This coming weekend, we are leaving at 7 am for our 9 hour trip to Kotka to store the boat for the winter, it sounds like a long cold trip, but I am looking forward to it. Later that day, I met with a bunch of exchange people. We had Romildo and Kelly of Brazil, Mélissa of France, Jenna of the US, me, and 4 of the Finnish Tutors from Karkku. We went shopping and walked around and went to a café. That night, some of us went to a movie, ‘Signs’. HA HA!! What a dumb movie, but I must admit, it did make me jump a few times. It was a good day. Sunday I was at home for most of the day. I went to a café with a friend for a few hours but that was it. We had sauna, watched a movie and went to bed.
During the weeks, I go to school (usually) but starting tomorrow, they’re having exam week. Its Thursday, Friday and all of next week. I have it off, so hopefully my club will let me go somewhere to visit someone.
After school, around either 1 or 3, I have nothing. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I have Finnish classes downtown. I’m the only person in the class under 25, which is kind of fun. There are people there from EVERYWHERE - It surprising how many immigrants there are living here. Other days, I go out with friends, or play football (soccer), I try to stay as busy as possible. A few weeks ago, I went sailing with Nanna. She is in a scout club and goes on sailing trips. It was about a 40-ft boat, so pretty big. I felt like a Dummy – everyone is running around, doing stuff, as I sit there and shade my eyes from the sun (not that I didn’t mind it). I got kind of sea sick, but not too bad although I figured out that sailing, for the time being, isn’t exactly my cup of tea.
Nanna gave me a blue bandanna with Finnish flags along the border and it says ‘Suomi – Finland’. (Suomi means Finland I Finnish). I thought it was pretty cool so I wore it the next day to school. The Finns had a laugh and said, ´´We don’t even wear that stuff``. It was funny but then some of my other friends, the non-Finns, they told me that its pretty offensive to wear something like that. In Canada, we have lots of different cultures, but even if I wear something that says ‘Canada’, its cool, nobody cares, its just saying that you like Canada and you’re a Canadian. In Finland, its not promoting Finland, its putting down everyone else. My friends and I joke around a lot, so I though they were just lying to me and messing around but they were serious. I decided not to wear it the rest of the day. It was a weird concept to Grasp-In your own country, you can’t promote patriotism without getting your but kicked. I can wear Canada clothes all I want, and no one cares, partly because I’m somewhat ignorant to the racism and partly because there aren’t too many Canada-haFinland yet, whether I like it more than Canada. What I’ve told you now is not a good representation of Finland, there are many great things, which I believe are much better. Free Health Care, Free Post Secondary Education, better Social Security, better Welfare, Democratic Government. These are a few things that give Finland appeal but there are other things that aren’t so great. The Obvious Racism, The Finnish Language (just kidding), The compulsory Military; although they really have no choice about having an incredibly strong Defence. They are worried about Russia, they hate Russia, Russians, and anything with a slight resemblance to Russian culture. That may seem like an unfair generalization, and if you ask most Finns about Russia, they will act as if they don’t really have a preference, but when you mention certain Topics about the Finnish-Russian history, they become quite defensive and sometimes a little angry.
Well, I must be off. Things to do, people to see. Thanks for reading the whole thing, and congratulations if you didn’t fall asleep, I may be boring, but this will hopefully get me some reply mail. Thanks again, Pray for me lots!<><
1. marraskuuta 2002 (November 1st)
First of all I would like to say that I don’t like to do these often, so don’t blame me for not updating. It does take some reality away from my life, having to tell about all of my life to everyone makes it seem like less of a life, and more of a trip… NO I don’t consider it a ‘trip’—I live here, this is my home. That may be hard to understand but…
Also, I am not in Europe, I am in Finland. I am in Finland for 11of 11.5 months. Finland is a great county, even though most people know nothing about it, and what they know is mostly, if not completely wrong. Almost everything anyone told me about Finland is all-wrong. Oh well, I didn’t take anyone seriously anyways, (don’t take offence to that). I want to talk about some misconceptions
2. Finland has little or no Russian influence—since it has not been a part of Russia, and since The War, Finland Hates Russia, they are the reason why military is compulsory.
3. It is not always raining and sleeting and cold. The first 2 months I was here, its was hot, +20.
4. One of the biggest misconceptions is that I am here when I don’t want to be…That’s WRONG. I love it here, everyday I dread going home more and more. Don’t take that the wrong way. I did my slide presentation for my English class and as I was going through them, and looking at Vermilion and everything…. Man I don’t want to go home. Hey mom, can I stay 2 years?? ;)
I went to a wedding on the seaside, really nice. It was my host sisters Wedding, though she doesn’t live here. She’s 27. There was very few people at the wedding, I think only 22. Titti, the bride, asked me to be the photographer, and I naturally said yes. I got to use their sweet expensive camera, and take as many pictures as possible, and get dressed up! It was pretty fun. I ended up dancing with Titti’s best friend Silja the whole night. She’s some kind of Dance student, and et me tell you it was nice to know how to dance, even though our waltz was quite different, but its fun to learn. The evening Ended with a kiss from the Groom, yes, the Groom. I almost punched him, but let it go cause he was slammed. Haha
Well, I might as well tell you now, because its over-with. I had a girlfriend here since maybe a month after I arrived for a month. Beautiful Christian Finnish Blond girl, with eyes bluer than you’ve ever seen. I know, I’m pretty dumb for ending it, but it wasn’t meant to be, trust me. But anyway yeah, we’re trying to be friends now, but she’s still kind of into me so it’s a bit tough. As for other girls, wow, most Finnish Girls are just amazing, but no one special now, lets just say I have many close friends;)
Well, I bought a snowboard. But I was smart and didn’t buy it in Finland, most boards here are at least twice as much as in Canada. I bought it from a web site in Canada. It’s a Forum 2002 Peter Line 155 cm – wide. Yikes, that’s a mouthful. It just arrived today, its sweet – and what’s even sweeter?- it has been snowing here now for the last half hour and the ground is already covered, cool. I found a place here in Helsinki to go. Its small but I hear the snowboarding is awesome. They have a half pipe and everything. I may buy a season pass, (Dad, we can talk about that later..hehe) but it will be cool. ON the 5th of December, I will leave to Lapland (northern Finland) until the 10th. It’s a Rotary trip with all the other students, so it will be great. Its about 1000-km, and we pick people up the whole way so it should take about 12 hours. We leave Helsinki at 9 pm, and arrive in Rovaniemi at 9 am for breakfast. After that, we head to Levi for 2 days skiing and a truly Lappish adventure. Everything from Reindeer sleds, and seeing Santa (he actually lives in Lapland, truly) and yeah, I can’t wait. Then we leave at 6 30 pm on the 9th, and I arrive here in Helsinki at 10 am. Ahhh, and I have my Finnish final that day, ahhhh. Oh well, I will try my hardest. Then on Friday, I leave at noon for another ski trip with my school, but not to Lapland. It will be awesome too.
Coming up here pretty soon I Change host families. Its good timing because I am getting pretty sick of my host mom. Its supposed to be at the end of November, but I don’t know yet. I am looking forward to it though, another new family, new home, new sisters, new food, and new routine. It’s nice to keep things fresh like that. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I don’t want to go home.
Other news…. Hmmm. OH! Last week, I lost my Cell phone, and today, we went to the police station and found it, phewwww! I was shopping all week for a new old one. They are very expensive, very very expensive. I think I will duck tape this one to my head, I might as well, I use so much.
Hopefully I go to Tampere Tomorrow. Its just the Rotary rules that are getting in the way, all the special permission and everything. Oh well. If I go, then you’ll hear about it..
This is me, Signing off with a new name, Kanuki – a new Finnish word for Canadian. The actual word for it is Kanadalainen, but we made a new one. Ok, I’d better header.
Thanks for reading again, like I said they don’t happen often, so be happy when it does.
PS. If you read this, will you please send me an e-mail telling me about you, that would be nice.
1. joulukuuta 2002 - December First
