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!)