Roma

preface: after so many months of (multiple) mittens, my fingers over vacation reveled in the fact that they could use the camera controls without freezing. as such (and perhaps also because I was in a gorgeous city the likes of which I have never seen before), this blog post contains very many photographs, which I shall insert at every possible paragraph break, with only occasional attempts to correlate the textual and photographic subjects.

there are many things that I have forgotten to blog about (including the luistelutapahtuma (skatingevent) on the lake two weekends ago, which included firedancers and moon-/candlelight skating), but there's no way I could ever blog about everything interesting that happens to me, so I may as well stick to the subjects I have pictures of.

so. last week, my part of Finland had hiihtoloma (lit. skiing holiday/vacation). this is when Finns tend to either go north to ski or go south to get some sun. my host family had been thinking of doing the former (we were going to go to Lapland), but about a month ago, the decision was made to go instead to Rome. 

I have to say, with all that has been going on this last (it's March already?!) month, I almost didn't have time to be excited. almost.

we flew from the tiny Lappeenranta airport (and a layover in Riga, Latvia) on Tuesday morning, after the very last-minute realizing that my host sister Tiina's passport had expired and the miraculous achieving of a temporary one for her (it turns out the family has connections in the local police office--good to know?).

in Rome, it was beautiful. just driving from the airport (in a shuttle with an unidentifiedly Slavic couple (it was fun to discuss their possible origins with my host father in Finnish and know they didn't understand what I was talking about)) past the suburbs (?) of the city amazed me. having never been to Europe (other than Finland and Estonia), the fact that there really were ancient ruins and very lived-in terracotta-roofed houses on the hillsides impressed me.

at the apartment building we were staying in (my host parents found a room through InterHome--it was gorgeous and so infinitely much better than a hotel), we waited for about an hour for the gentleman to meet us and give us our key. my host family's punctuality despite all odds and the gentleman's almost oblivious tardiness was a study in comparison of Finnish and Italian culture. at least it seemed that way to me.

we had a lovely little balcony that looked out over a courtyard where laundry dangled on lines between windows of all shapes and sizes that had been build over the years. the first night there was a full moon (as shown above). in the morning, there was sun. I had forgotten how much I missed the sun. if someone had told me, say, thirteen months ago, that this February I would find myself on a balcony in Rome (of all places!) reading in Finnish (of all languages!) Twilight (of ALL books!), I would probably have nodded and said "that's nice" and assumed the person was a Harvard Square crazy. but (as shown below), perhaps those Harvard crazies really aren't as crazy as we write them off to be. photo credits to my host father.

I was impressed, of course, by the ancientness and yet aliveness of the city. buildings and ruins that were ancient a thousand years ago still stand, amid cars and motorcycles and people going about their normal lives.

though, I have to say, there are so many vacationers in this city that it almost seems as though the "when in Rome..." saying would advise traversing the streets speaking a language nobody else understands, wearing large sunglasses, I <3 Roma shirts, and taking photographs of everything--which is exactly what we did.

but it was still a little bit surreal to finally be in a real European city and realize that people actually do zip around on motorcycles with Italian flag helmets, say 'allora' as often as Finns say 'no niin', exclaim 'mama mia!' at regular intervals, shout 'ciao bella', and blow friendly kisses at you on the streets. and I doubt I have ever before in my life consumed so much tomato, cheese, and wheat (in one form or another) as I did during our time in Italy. but it was delicious.

I recognize that this city is touristy, but it also felt, for the most part, very real. showy, yes, but not gimicky.

also, with all the recent pope-related bustle, this was a rather historic time to visit the Vatican. in a cafe my host father ran in to (not literally) a cardinal who he likes to think will be the next pope. we shall see.

we were told that Benedict XVI might make his last papal appearance during the afternoon when we happened to be at the Vatican, but he didn't turn up. we found out later that he had been helicoptered to the hospital.

 

personally, I wouldn't doubt that he would be spending his last days as leader of the Catholic church wandering the rooftop of the Vatican (from which the below picture was taken).

if I were in his position, that's what I would do. find a little nook under a spire and settle down with my hat to watch the sun rise over the capitol of the ancient world... maybe that's why I'm not pope.

the inside-parts of the Vatican (at least the ones I saw) were some of the most majestic places I have ever been. the light was incredible, and wafted in the space like the Latin changing that could be heard--sometimes untraceable, and not quite evenly distributed, but leaving no place entirely untouched.

while there (as while in Rome), I had many moments of recognizing a statue or painting or mosaic as one of those things that I had seen pictures of and always considered to belong to that foreign, exotic land of Europe. surreal to experience such icons.

and speaking of icons, we come now (below) to Pantheon. or rather Giacomo della Portan, in the piazza in front of the Pantheon.

entering the Pantheon itself was surreal. a place I have heard of so much, seen so many pictures of... when I first saw the famous shadowcatching ceiling, I shivered to realize that it was actually real and I was actually there.

speaking of the unrealness of being in iconic Roman places, I found that while my fingers itched to take pictures of them all, I knew that they have all been photographed and drawn and painted so many times so infinitely muchly better than I could ever accomplish, that if you all want to see pictures of them (as if you haven't already), you don't need to bother with my inferior ones. thoughts such as these have lead to the series of photographs which I created with my host father and which I now release to you, to let y'all know that I really was at the places. when you're done looking at these, go look for some really good photographs of these places because they're all gorgeous. (and for your information, the raggedness of those green boots aggravated my host father and he wouldn't rest until I bought some new ones, which didn't make it into any photographs as I only got them on the last night--sorry, iskä, for the restless trip on account of this.)

afront the Colosseum 

in the Vatican museum, just outside the incredible Sistine Chapel (in which photos were prohibited)

Piazza del Popolo

the Vatican has quite the floor

the north wind and I at the sundial in front of the Vatican

atop the Vatican's cupola

Spanish steps

in the Pantheon

and our balcony, the final must-see Roman destination

on the trip back, we had a six hour layover in Riga in which we hopped in a taxi and told the driver to take us to where the restaurants are. he took us to the beautiful old town and we ate at a steak house (I ordered everything vegetarian on the menu... it was delicious). as we were eating, it started to snow furiously, transforming the already-picturesque town square into a snowglobe. it was gorgeous. the snow ended up delaying our flight about an hour. I guess I'm back in the North...

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.

hyvää joulua ja onnellista uutta vuotta!

 with the Christmas break's end looming suddenly nearer, I think I had better blog about what was by far the most-hyped happening in Finish life since I got here: Christmas.

as one who has grown up Jewish and never really experienced Christmas, I expected to seem a bit like a little kid looking forward to the holiday with wonder and curiosity.  but it so turned out that everyone around me was looking forward to it as much (if not more?) than I. I have already mentioned in a previous post the way Finns start celebrating Christmas in October. I think it's a mixture of having something to brighten up the November--many have told me it is the "worst" month of the Finnish year because of the rarity of the sun and the inconsistency of snowcover and its brightening effect. personally, I had a lovely November despite (because of?) the darkness and mud.

but anyway.

Christmas is celebrated in Finland on the night of the 24th. and Joulupukki (lit. 'Christmas goat') or Santa Claus comes. compared with the American Santa, the Finnish (like with many things) does not beat about the bush. he doesn't do any sissy sneaking in through the chimney while everyone is asleep... no, he comes shamelessly to the door. in fact, he (again like many Finns) doesn't even wait for Christmas (or rather the Eve thereof). I've been seeing him around at pukkujoulut and such for at least a month. at any rate, when he comes on Christmas Eve, he is serenaded with carols and conveniently brings the presents that we lugged onto the front step into the living room. I sat on his knee and everything (there are pictures somewhere, but not here).

now if I may sidestep for a moment, this Joulupukki is an interesting character who rather tickled my curiosity. firstly, his name. Christmas goat? when I learned of this, I thought to myself: self, something is fishy. or goaty, really. also, adults are all asking small children (and me) after Christmas if they were afraid of him. afraid of Santa? as a Jew, I can't say I have much experience with Christmas, but still. very fishy. this article didn't exactly defishify the fishinesses, but it definitely appetized my curiosity. any Santa whose Wikipedia has asection dedicated to his dark side has got to come from a pretty awesome country.

the above photo was taken by Tuuli of me (in my lovely new Marimekko nightgown from äiti) shortly before I headed to the sauna on Christmas Eve. that is vasta in my hand, a bunch of birch branches that I received from my host-aunt. it is used for beating oneself with in the sauna, and it smells heavenly summerish. I never pictured myself as the type who would enjoy self-flagulation in a dark, overheated room with no windows, but I really did.

on Christmas morning we went to church at 7am (hearing the Lord's Prayer in Finnish makes me wish I was more religious) and then went sledding with the cousins, as photographed by äiti (below). now I can't speak for all of Finland, but in this family sledding is much more intense than in mine. the "slope" isn't some wide, open hill, but rather a narrow walking path that winds between the trees and requires excellent steering skills (which it seems children here are either born with or acquire by the age of five).

most of the time between Christmas and New Years I spent sleeping, walking in the snow with the pooch, sleeping, watching my room oscillate between various states of cleanliness, sleeping, visiting with friends, sleeping, shopping in the post-Christmas sales with Tuuli, sleeping, and trying not to sleep through the sunlight. I saw The Hobbit (Hobbitti) with some friends. it was my first time at the movies in Finland. tickets are ten euros. 

ten euros are tickets.

but it was definitely worth it for the double subtitles (Finnish and Swedish). ah this reminds me of the language-related post that I have still to make... but I'm kinda glad we didn't go to see it 3D because I (of course) was trying to read all the subtitles all the time and had a bit of a fantastic mental overload with the multilingual (albeit two-dimensional) experience.

on Monday we left for Jyväskylä to spend the turn of the year with some family friends in their house in the woods near said city. New Years Eve was spent between the outdoor hottub, the snow, and the sauna, with the launching of fireworks (above and below) and other such jubilation.

when we arrived home on Wednesday I was greeted by three large packages from home containing an unearthly amount of goodies. it is difficult to believe that break (which looked so long during the fall) is almost over. in retrospect, when I try to recount what I did, it doesn't sound like I did very much at all, but as it happened it felt that I was always either busy with something or busy procrastinating from something (and I still am... break isn't over yet). that's how it always seems to go here... boredom is quite honestly something I have yet to experience this side of the pond.

a very happy 2013 to you all, and thank you for reading my increasingly syntaxless rambles.