more february antics

well well well, this is a crazy month, as demonstrated by the uncharacteristically large number of blogposts thereabout.

my train from Rovaniemi left Tuesday night at 6:20 and got to Lappeenranta Wednesday morning at 9:20. during the time between those two places, I did many things, including trying to learn German and Frisian and exploring layover cities and excluding sleeping. returned to the vapidness of southern Finnish February (gosh it felt steamy after Lapland), had a nosebleed as soon as I got in the car, and by the time I got home, showered, and eaten something it was about 12. äiti called to tell me that we had dance practice from 1 to 3. so I slept for about half an hour and then came to dance practice completely loopy (I hadn't really slept all that much in Lapland either...). got home from practice at 4 (lingering due to loopiness and catching up with people I hadn't seen for a week) and thought I would take a few-hour-long nap before going to the oilpainting class that would start at 6:30... well, I woke up at 7:10 the next (Thursday) morning, just in time to get ready for and go to school. oops.

but I think my (lack of) sleep schedule is probably not the most interesting thing to read about. apologies.

on Thursday there were penkkarit (explained below) at school and then I went to get my hair done and slept in curlers for the next morning's 11am vanhojentanssit (also explained below) performance.

explanation: in Finnish Lukio there are three grades. the third graders leave school in February to study on their own before their university matriculation exams in the spring. there is a tradition for the third graders (called abis) to, on their last day at school, wear costumes, throw candy, play pranks, interrupt ongoing classes, and other such tomfoolery. whee! when the abis leave, the second graders are now the oldest students at school (vanhat (old ones) (or wanhat (olde ones))), and this is celebrated with the v(/w)anhojentanssit (old(e) ones' dances), which is the dance for which we had practices on Wednesday. following so far?

apparently Finland got the idea for holding a dance for this occasion (it used to be celebrated differently, 20 or 30 years ago) from America (from whence this country gets many ideas nowadays...) and prom, and never having been to an American prom, I'm not in a position to judge, but I like the way this dance is organized. because it is organized. we started rehearsing for it in October--a course that was taught by my host mother. one of the dances we danced was to the Ievan Polkka (a.k.a Savitaipaleen Polkka (Savitaipale's (my host town's) polka)), which is, well, a good friend of mine.

 

 we had the morning performance, then some people went to different venues around the town to perform excerpts (I went with my partner and two other pairs to the old folks home), then we were served a very slow series of yummy foods at Piilipuu (the town's classy restaurant) and then went back for photos and an evening performance.

Sunday was my eighteenth birthday, so of course I wanted to go and make a bonfire at midnight. to my surprise and delight, my host family was instantly interested in making this plan come true and coming along. we (host family and some friends) left in three cars for the woods outside town where we hunkered down in a sort of campsite by the lake and... made a fire. it started about ten minutes before midnight and was a full blaze by the time my birthday started.

  

I took (one of) my puukko(s) along and iskä taught me how to make wood shavings to use as firestarters.

 

my host mother had brought hot juice and cocoa in thermoses, as well as sausages and corn on the cob to roast over the fire. despite my vegetarianism, I was tempted by the spirit of it all to try sausage... I mean, I was an exchange student turning eighteen in the woods of a country that loves sausages. might as well try it, I thought. the Finns were rather wary at my enthusiasm, which only edged my sense of adventure. all fell silent around the fire as I lifted the sausage to my face. only the fire crackled. expectantly.

at the first breath I took with the sausage at such proximity to my olfactory organ, my courage left me. it smelled absolutely awful! no reason to put myself through such pain, I figured, and continued to munch my corn for the rest of the evening.

 

Zev, this picture is for you, taken by the light of iskä's headlamp. I know my viking bearded beanie was supposed to be a Hanukkah present, but (because of customs complications) it came in time for my birthday. I inaugurated it by the bonfire and it's beard still smells of smoke. I felt most splendidly barbaric.

 

the actual day of my birthday was somewhat less boisterous. aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins and family friends were at our house for most of the afternoon, in rotating shifts that necessitated us hosts to sit down to coffee (which means cakes and pastries and pies and all the delicious things my äiti had made) several times throughout the day as new guests came. in the Finnish tradition, it seems. I received a lovely package from home and plenty of candy Finnish (lots of salmiakki!) from relatives here.

after being in Lapland and coming back just in time for penkkarit and tanssit and turning eighteen, the next week at school was the last week of the 4th jakso and therefore examweek. as always, I tried to do nearly all of my grade's exams, with varying amounts of mishap.

something I will miss about Finland (or is it just Savitaipale?): handknit woolen mittens on sticks. I see them surprisingly often. at first I wasn't sure what to make of them, but we've reached a silent understanding at this point.

free time has, as you may be able to tell, not exactly been in plenitude. but I did find time to go on a photoshoot once (thanks to Kaisa for the tripodloan!). this is a test shot for a photo that I ended up editing into this. while it felt good to get back to my photo-editing-experiments (and find ways to outwit the confine of a black and white printer), I thought the test shot was more fitting for blog purposes as it represents how I sometimes like to spend my freetime here, exploring the frozen wonderland with Eddie the pooch.

and today I have been in Finland for exactly six months. crazy.

(thank you to Miira and Liina for the vanhojentanssit photos and äiti and Tiina for the birthday photos!)

Lappi

well, I'm a bit backlogged on blogposts... let me start out with one about the AFS trip to Lapland. it's something that AFS Finland hosts every year, and if any Suomi hopefuls are reading this, I hope it convinces you how worth it this trip is.

so, shortly after posting my previous post, I headed to the train station and to catch a train to Rovaniemi. well, actually it was to Lahti, from which I got on another train to Riihimäki, from which yet another train brought me to Rovaniemi. at each stop came more lost-looking teenagers with big bags (it's easy to recognize exchange students) until the last train's crowd consisted mainly of high schoolers from around the world, and a few old drunk Finnish men. some of us recognized each other from previous chapter meetings, but there were many new faces--and faces that until now had only existed to me as facebook profile pictures. there's nothing, I think, quite like being on a night train with a group of other exchange students. by the time we got to Rovaniemi, I had already met some incredible people, and didn't even notice the fact that I had only gotten about half an hour of sleep.

  

sunrise, and one of my first views of Lapland. this must have been near a stop because most of the way there were no electric lines. just trees and snow and trees and snow and trees and snow. it was mesmerizing. when we got to Rovaniemi, we were assigned groups and filed into two buses. 

 

we went to the Arktikum museum where we were served food and received tours. I took, with a few friends, the Finnish-language tour (and had a lovely chat afterwards with the tourguide about Saami languages), and then discussed philosophy with Felix (from Germany)while watching a slideshow of photos of Lapland. we then went to Kairosmaja, the series of cottages in which we would spend the next five days. I roomed with the lovely Angela (Italy) and Isa (Brazil) in one of the remote cabins by the lakeshore, next to the sauna building.

  

this, folks, is was the view from the porch of the sauna building (and very similar to the view from our room's window). that hole in the ice is called an avanto. it's not just a hole in the ice--it's an experience. and it is one of the loveliest experiences I have experienced. as soon as you step outside of the sauna building into the frigid air, you can feel your sauna-scorched skin stop steaming immediately. hair freezes. you can feel the stars (god, the stars!) staring freezingly down at you as you hop from foot to foot, waiting for your turn in the lake (we went in groups of two or three--going alone was not advised for good reasons). if you stand still too long your feet freeze to the icy walkway. then, it's your turn in the avanto. you climb down the ladder into the water and at first it feels as though your heart will freeze, but you grind your teeth. just between the pain of entering the icewater and the pain of being in the icewater for too long, comes a moment of bliss. if you're brave, you dunk your head. the run back to the sauna is a blind blur of eyelashes freezing together and icy feet trying not to slip. then you get back to the sauna and throw water onto the stones and bask in the steam until you conjure enough courage to go again.

the feeling afterwards is like nothing I have experienced. invigorating and refreshing and relaxing and exhausting.

  

the first three days, we had the choice of skiing, snowboarding, or snowshoeing. skiing/snowboarding lessons were available on the first day and snowfishing was available on the third. in the spirit of trying everything, I went for snowboarding lessons on the first day. the only thing I mastered was the art of falling and getting up again, knowing you will fall again very shortly. but it was fun. I don't think I have ever received so many bruises so quickly. I still hold to my original theory that the idea of tying someone's feet to a board and sending them off a cliff probably originated as a form of torture, but I gave it (a bit more than?) my all, and it was fun. but then again, how could one not have fun on slopes with such fantastic views?

in between falling bouts, I rode the lift up to the top (and back down again). it was utterly fantastic up there, with globby snow coating absolutely everything. it gave the lift equipment an abandoned air, like the disty algae that blankets the ruins of a forgotten ship on the ocean floor.

 

on the second day, I opted for the snowshoe hike. we set out shortly after the late-morning sunrise. we started out on a walking trail, complaining about the ski poles we had been given (who needs ski poles while snowshoeing?! we wanted our hands free to take pictures...), but soon our guide took us off the paths and across what turned out to be valleys and slopes.

 

it was beautiful. we plopped down in the -23 Celsius snow and ate our frozen sandwiches.

 

 in one valley, our guide took us to an outdoor theater that is used in the summer, a wooden stage structure in the depths of the valley, with wooden benches lining the slopes. there he lead us in singing Maamme (the Finnish national anthem) before we headed off on our way. 2.5 more kilometers back to Kairosmaja, where we huddled in the kota around the fire and ate the remainders of our now-frozen blueberry soups.

 

on the second to last day, we visited an amethyst mine. above is the entrance to the mine. we got there part by bus, part by trolley, and part by foot.

I have always liked amethysts (being my birthstone and being purple, and having an A initial, I feel we have some things in common), and I was looking forward to visiting the mine. I had been expecting cavernous icy caves that would glisten purple under dusty flashlight beams... well, I suppose I was setting myself up for disappointment. we crawled around in a sort of underground sandbox until we each found a small amethyst crystal (mine is rather pretty, I must admit).

...but whatever was lacking in the mine experience was made up for many, manyfold by the sunset that graced us on our ~40 minute walk down to our bus. many of us photo-inclined folks transformed into snaphappy shutterbugs.

it was rather fantastic.

as we descended, so did the sun and at the bottom of the hill we were surrounded by nothing but snow-coated trees and a fruity-colored sky.

...speaking of skies. we saw northern lights every night. with Jan-Gerben (the Netherlands), Simone (Italy), Felix (Germany), and a few others (I think we may have been the only faithfuls who went every single night, but I'm not sure...), I snuck out onto the skislopes to watch the sky explode. admittedly, most of the nights it was just a twinge of green that only showed up in longexposures. but on our last night there, I saw the most fantastic revontulet (northern lights... repo=folk name for fox, tuli=flames => revontulet=fox's flames=foxfire). it was after a sort of disco we had at a restaurant on the skis lopes... Benoît ((French) Belgium) and I climbed to the top of a ski jump and basked in the sky. it swirled and clustered and faded just barely too slow to notice, and little sprouts shot off here and there and inched like fantastic, luminescent grubs across the sky. we exchanged a hug of jubilation that gave me nosebleeds for several days. by the time we got back to Kairosmaja (where my camera was) and got back to the slop nearest there, the foxfire had expanded into a gently convulsing green mist that coated nearly the entire sky.

on the last day we visited a reindeer farm and obtained reindeer driving licenses. the grueling driver's-ed process consisted of sitting on a wooden sled with a friend and hanging on to the reigns while the a beautiful animal with fascinating hooves clopped a rapid loop through the snowy forest.

our (my and Felix's) steed was named Kuuro, which means deaf, because, according to the Lap I asked, it was.

and then it was back to the trainstation and back to a sleepless nighttrain with friends I had only just made and would have to say goodbye to already. I haven touched upon but a fraction of the trip in this blogpost, as I have focused mostly on our out-of-camp activities. we had several activities at Kairosmaja as well, in the evenings and mornings--dizzy races on the ice and a beauty pageant for gentlemen and group-Sudoku-torture and making pancakes on the fire in the kota, and other such things to keep us from boredom. we also visited Santa Claus and straddled the polar circle, and when we didn't have anything organized for us, we found ways of keeping ourselves from sleep, talking, pingponging, playing cards. I have never met a group of such friendly, interesting, interested people.

(photo by Jan-Gerben from our evening of pancake-making. in exchange for this I shall learn Frisian.)
and I still have much more to blog about... but I think this is enough for now. hopefully I'll get to the other things before we leave for Rome next week. (oops, spoiler...)

photoupdate!

oops, I haven't updated in a while. well, school has been back for about a month and it has been snowy and cold and beautiful here in the land of Fin. I am setting off for Lapland (!) tonight and thought I had better dump all these pictures I have from the past month and a half here before I post Lappish pictures. this blog post is for you, mumpkin, for reminding me to take more pictures.

at mummola (Mummo's (maternal grandmother's) house), playing Afrikan tähti (the star of Africa) with the cousins. it's a Finnish boardgame from the 50's.

the view from the porch of mummola. that's my hostaunt's cowshead.

the hairdo my little hostsister Tiina gave me on a whim.

the 23rd of January was my halfway-day. 152 days in Finland, 152 left. I went over to my good friend Essi's house and we made a half a cake.

it was a happy-looking cake, stuffed with Essi's mother's homemade jam, and it tasted much better than the cake that Essi's mother made in an attempt to rescue our first-attempt-batter (we forgot that the wet and dry ingredients and eggs can't just be thrown together at the same time...).

upclose on the lovely halfness of cake.

this is the portrait of the great Tove Jansson that Essi and I made at school. viewed from this angle because it's so big that I couldn't get it from straight on. it will be hung in the stairwell of the school building (which is new and is still in the process of decoration).

I have taken, lately, to enjoying long walks on the frozen lake with Eddie the pooch.  a road has been made so that people from the far side of the lake can get to Savitaipale without having to drive all the way around the lake. there is also a ~5km skating loop that is maintained to perfect slippery smoothness. we like to slide around there together.

there are several islands dotting the lake. in the snow they become sprouts of black trees against the perfectly smooth whiteness of the laketop.

Eddie enjoys the slippery freedom of running on the vast expanses of snowy ice.

sunset! they are getting later and later. from October, Finns look forward to Christmas. after Christmas, they look forward to spring.

a corner in the village. I have nearly no photographs of Savitaipale's inhabited parts, I realized. it's a lovely little town, though, if not particularly inspiring photogenic.

my host sister Tuuli took me to a concert at Savonlinnan taidelukio (the arts highschool in Savonlinna), where she went to school last year.

it was really a fantastic show, especially considering it was put together by students. and it was fun to photograph. c:

and then, last Saturday night, my brother (and surely one of the most fantastic people in the world) came to visit me on his way from Oslo, Norway to Tarttu, Estonia. on Sunday we toured and explored Savitaipale (portrait taken in the window of an abandoned house). on Sunday we also visited all my host grandparents, which (of course) included Pappa playing his haitari (accordion) for us and us trying to play it. it works rather well when I play the right hand and he the left (I wish I had pictures, but y'all can imagine it I think).

on Tuesday we only went to school for a few hours (so I could take him to some of my favorite teachers' classes) and then escaped to Lappeenranta where we explored until it was time for ballet class, which we took together (and it looks like I may have an opportunity to perform in the spring! whee! but that's another story). we found a magical little usedbookshop and waited for it to open so we could go in (no pictures from inside, because it was so small and crammed with books that I think if I had made any unnecessary movements (such as necessary to retrieve a camera from a bag) the stacks may have been catastrophically upset).

and then, today, he left. it was surreal to have him here--a piece of home in this place that has become home over the past five months. it's still hard to be sure I wasn't dreaming.

the speed of time here feels to have been accelerating constantly since I arrived. ever since school started back up in the second week of January, it has been fairly smooth sailing. I really feel, now, like a part of my host family and my group at school. days are full and I find I am never getting around to all the goals I put on reserve for when I don't have anything to do.

February promises many great things, and it has only just begun. I leave for Lapland in a few hours.