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.