lauantaina, joulukuuta 22

kuvia!

as joululoma (Christmas vacation) has just started, I figured it was time for a small photo update. I shall try to muster a blogpost sometime soon that contains actual text, but, after uploading these pictures...

the button accordion that I received as a loan from Pappa (maternal grandfather). he plays it far better than I, but it is immensely fun to play around on.
candles (both wax and electric) are everywhere. they joined forces with the snow and are bravely battling the darkness.
our front yard on the 6th of December (Finnish independence day)
oops, I guess I was feeling a bit patriotic.
äiti took me skiing on Independence Day. I didn't realize at the time that she was taking a picture, so I am not posing. this is how we ski in America, right?
on the way home from skiing, I paid another (my third) visit to the viewtower. the first time I went there, the sun was shining and the world was green. the second time was during the rain and fog of autumn. and this time, climbing the snow-blanketed steps in skiboots, it was definitely winter.
the museum at the top of the hill.
this is Finland, folks.
today I went to a friend's house for her birthday. we went snowshoeing in the field and woods behind their house. this is Meri and the field, in the ~14:00 sunset of the day after the winter solstice.

snowshoeing for the first time! the only feeling stranger than putting on snowshoes and feeling like you have enormous feet is taking them off and realizing that you have minuscule feet.

left to right: Meri, me, Meri and Sara's father Juke

minä. many thanks to Sara (whose birthday it was) for the pictures in which I am. <:

!
joulukuusi! kuusi, for the record, means both six and fir/spruce, though they're declined differently, as iskä has been teaching me. we plucked it from the woods last weekend and just brought it inside/decorated it today.
obligatory Christmas bokeh picture. <:

lauantaina, joulukuuta 1

mihin ihmeeseen syksy meni?

oops, haven't blogged in a while.

winter has come to Savitaipale, I think. yesterday we got our first snowstorm (we got snow in late October, and a sizely amounts of it, but it was much gentler), but more on that in a bit. today is the first day of December and my 99th day in Finland and I honestly have never before witnessed an autumn that was either as incredibly mindbogglingly beautiful nor as evasively short as this one. and my sense of syntax is leaving me, I think. I spent over two minutes trying to decide whether that should be 'either' or 'neither' in the sentence two sentences before this one, and am still not entirely pleased with my decision. though I suppose I should save language-related rambling for a language-related post I hope to make in the near future.

but I digress.

I should probably tell about Thanksgiving. it's never really been my favorite of holidays, and I have always liked it mainly for the downtime at home with family (and the break from Nutcracker dress rehearsals... but I shan't speak of that). here, without the day off nor promise of a long weekend, Thursday was its usual hectic self and didn't bring the promise of a long weekend. but after school and visiting with a friend, I came home, cooked for three and a half hours, and served my host family some semblance of a Thanksgiving meal around 8 o'clock (very late for dinner here). I even managed to make an apple pie, with the last-minute emergency help of mama. it was rather stressful as I have never made one alone before... I couldn't shake the feeling that the statue of liberty was watching over one shoulder and Uncle Sam over the other, and plotting in Texan accents what they would do to me if I made a mess of such an American icon as apple pie. I comforted myself that if worst came to worst Finland wouldn't be a bad place to start my career as a refugee.

at any rate, it ended up looking alright (see photo below). my host family enjoyed it, and I admit the texture was rather nice, but I couldn't taste it at all due to a headcold.

the pie
yesterday came the kind of stinging, minuscule snow that comes on furious winds and doesn't fall but flies, antiquating fresh footprints and filling the cracks between layers of clothing. the lights were flickering all day.

I think perhaps now is the time to begin my telling of the prechristmas atmosphere in this country. or this village, I suppose I should say, for fear of undue generalization. even before our first snow (October 26), people could be heard singing Christmas carols in the hallways at school and talk of Christmas has only grown. as if out of inability to wait, Finns hold parties called pikkujoulut (lit. "little Christmas"), at which Christmas pastries are eaten, glöggi is drunk (with raisins and almonds mmm), saunas are saunad in, tonttu hats are worn, songs are sung... the reporter who came to school on Black Friday to interview me for the local paper explained pikkujoulut as a way to have Christmas celebrations with friends and extended family, as Christmas itself is more of a family affair.

pikkujoulut have been happening since October, but I went to my first last weekend (with my AFS chapter) and my second was yesterday. all the cousins came over. there were seven small children in Santa hats singing Finnish carols. while snow-smattered wind glazed the windows. the power went out while the cousins were in the sauna (that's also when joulupukki (Santa Claus (lit. Christmas goat), who looked a lot like me, Tiina and the oldest cousin Eveliina) came and hid presents in the living room for them to find). there was much tickling and red hats and one of the major bonuses that has accompanied the bettering of my Finnish skills (and the lessening of my shyness to make language mistakes) is my ability to play with my Finnish cousins. yes, you can play with small children without words (I mostly do...) but understanding when they say something like "tickle Katsu while I distract her with this little Santa Claus" is a convenient ability to have.

 
that is a photo of Savitaipale at about 4 o'clock today, as I approached the center square (where the light-hung tree is) from home. last night there was a joulutori (Christmas market) there, where handmade baked- and woolengoods, hot glöggi, and sausages were vended. there was singing of carols and a Santa giving out candy, and I think the whole village probably came there in the five o'clock darkness and flickering streetlights of a biting snowstorm.

on the theme of Thanksgiving, I must say that I am  truly and deeply thankful to have ended up in such a lovely host community. I can't imagine a warmer group at school (my grade and otherwise) or a more fantastic host family. I rather wonder what I did to deserve it all. and sometimes it worries me how perfect this has all been...

and I shall leave you all with a photo I took today while walking with Eddie and a friend. shortly before we cut into the woods. it was very dark, and there was a glittering snowfall.

happy December to you all!