The Forest and The Trees

sunset, sunrise

2010-06-24T18:36:00.004+03:00

The sunrise/sunset in Jyvaskyla at 1am on the longest day of the year.

The sun does dip below the horizon, but not far enough to make it dark. We have twilight for an hour or two, then the bright light returns!

Jill and Kalee's new favorite bread

2010-06-02T11:10:00.007+03:00

Kalee has had a whole series of strange little health problems for the last 9 months or so. We decided to make some dietary changes to see if that helped. So far it is. We have cut out refined grains, sugar, yeast and anything aged/moldy/fermented. This is a real challenge for a family with such a fabulous and prolific bread baker as Charles. This soda bread is one of the breads we have discovered. It is dense and chewy and really yummy. Kalee likes it best with some cream cheese and olives.

Whole Grain Irish Soda Bread

1 2/3 cup (400ml) whole wheat flour
2 cups (500ml) other whole grain flours (we like to combine spelt, barley and rye)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cup (300ml) rolled oats
1/2 cup (100ml) natural bran
2 cups (500ml) yogurt
1/4 cup (50ml) milk
==================
1 tablespoon butter to brush on top of baked loaf

Preheat oven to 375F (190C).
Combine dry ingredients in large bowl. Stir together.
Add yogurt and milk. Stir until a soft dough forms.
Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and kneed 5-6 times until smooth.
Shape into ball. Pat to 8" round. Place on parchment paper or greased baking sheet. With sharp knife, cut large deep cross on top.
Bake 50-60 min, until golden and loaf sounds hollow when tapped on base.
Brush with melted butter.
Wrap in clean, dry towel to cool. DO NOT CUT until nearly cool. While it is hot the center of the loaf is still cooking.

Note: I usually make a half recipe or form it into two small loaves. I think it cooks better that way. For a 1/2 loaf, cook about 35 minutes.

"When a Finn talks to you in an elevator ...

2010-05-06T13:46:00.005+03:00

"When a Finn talks to you in an elevator, either it is spring (and they can't contain themselves) or they are drunk."

So says my hairdresser, and I think he is right. Someone spoke to me in the elevator in our building last week and I was so shocked I almost didn't know how to respond. Then I realized the man was Chinese and staying in a University apartment like us. I guess no one told him about Finnish elevator etiquette.

He told me another joke, too. This one is about the Finnish Easter delicacy of Mammi, a mushy-textured thing made of rye malt and rye flour (my conclusion on tasting it was that one would have to like beer to consider liking mammi. I am not a fan of beer, nor mammi.). Anyway, here's the joke that my hairdresser's children say about mammi and other dark Finnish food: People think Finns are so poor that we have to eat our food twice! (Here's a nice post by another blogger if you want to read more about mammi: http://arcticrainbow.blogspot.com/2010/04/sacred-mammi-finnish-easter-food.html)

So now we know that scatological jokes are funny in other cultures, too.

While he was on a roll of self-deprecating Finnish humor my hairdresser also told me about how older Finns are very interested (concerned?) to know what foreigners think of Finland. "And they don't what to hear about the cold, the dark, and the silent people, either!" I really had to laugh about this because I have been asked twice in almost identical words What do you like most about Finland?

The question confounds me because the words "like" and "Finland" don't usually occur in my head at the same time. OK, that is an exaggeration. There are lots of little things I like about Finland - the toilets are all duel flush, the hot water in the shower is instant, the sauna's are great - but I suspect they are expecting larger answers, something more like "I love the architecture, the weather, the food, the people." Or at least they might expect ONE of those things. But truly, none of these come to the top of my 'like' list, some of them I downright 'dis-like'.

Mostly, being here is interesting.

It is interesting to live without a car and it is great that this is a pretty easy city for doing that (and that LOTS of people do that).
Experimenting with new foods is interesting but I am getting tired of having such a sparsely equipped kitchen for said experiments.
It is interesting to be the foreigner, to feel lost and confused and amused by so many things, to notice how much mental energy it takes to take care of the basic details of our lives, to imagine what it is like to be a foreigner in the US.

But like????

About Jyvaskyla one of Charles' colleagues says "It's a great place to live, but I wouldn't want to visit here!" We sort of live here and are sort of visitors, which just may be the worst situation.

This all sounds much more morose than I feel right now. Today is warm (mid 40's) and sunny, tonight I am singing with the Lutherans and this weekend we have a birthday party to go to. Today I feel connected. But those other thoughts above weave in and out of my days here so I decided to give them a little space to come out.

Much more than the "What do you like about Finland" question, I really like the question a friend asked me this weekend: What will you be taking away with you from your time in Finland? I don't think I'll be able to really answer that until we've been home for a while. More than anything, I have probably learned a lot about myself. Being here has been hard in many ways, but I am glad we did it. I just might even want to try it again for Charles' next sabbatical.

Vappu and other spring things

2010-05-02T12:14:00.021+03:00

May 1st is Vappu here in Finland, the festival of May Day. According to the newspapers, Vappu is the biggest holiday in Finland. It starts Friday evening with lots of parties, sweets and alcohol and continues throughout Saturday with picnicking and lots of Certainly one can understand that after the loooong winter, the arrival of spring is worthy of great celebration.

Our Vappu celebration started on Friday with a party at Kalee's play-school. All the kids dressed up (just like Halloween) and parents brought sweet foods to eat. Our costume options were a bit limited since I have no sewing machine here. Kalee went as a pot of flowers: brown clothes for the pot, flowers we made from felt, pipe cleaners and buttons around her neck.

In the afternoon we walked through downtown. All the restaurants had their tables outside, tents full of candy, crafts, and foods lined the pedestrian street, and Mylar balloons were for sale for 10-15 euros each (!?!) Crazy expensive for truly ordinary balloons. Kalee understood why we didn't buy one. Her comment was, "I thought that since they want everyone to have fun today they wouldn't make things so expensive." I love her innocence.

At home we blew up balloons and decorated them.

Saturday our friends Jo and Vessa (and kids) invited us to their "Mokki," (cottage). It is only a half-hour away so it is easy to spend the afternoon there. We started with a hike along a river (are those children or garden gnomes?)and saw evidence of LOTS of beaver activity.The area around the river was made up of at least two layers of very large boulders, covered with heavy layers of moss and lichens, birch and pine trees growing up where possible and lots of places for feet to find deep holes for things to live in (and feet to get stuck it). I felt like I was walking on another planet. From the road the landscape of gently rolling hills, forests of pine and birch surrounding plentiful lakes reminds me of northern Minnesota. But the forest floor ... it is a whole different thing: spongy to walk on, a riot of texture and color from all the mosses, lichens and berries.Oh, I haven't mentioned berries yet, have I. I finally understand about everyone (I mean everyone) going berry picking. You literally cannot walk around in the forest without treading on the berry bushes. Mostly it is lingonberries (the low-bush cranberry Nordic countries are known for) that are underfoot (here is a borrowed image of a lingonberry bush). There are also blueberries, wild strawberries, and lots of juniper (the stuff in gin). Charles tasted one of the juniper berries and confirmed it has that gin-ish taste.

The kids sorted all the treasures they collected on our walkand had a snack.

Later they dug worms and did a little ice fishing (didn't catch anything), we all ate a fabulous meal, and Vessa fired up the sauna for us.

The day vacillated between sun and rain all day, which brought us the most vivid rainbow I've ever seen.
The highlight of the day for Kalee was the balloon hunt. Vessa hid balloons, the kids found them, then Vessa and Charles took turns shooting them with the air-gun.
All in all it was a lovely day. The girls had so much fun together. These are friends we will miss when we go home.

A Finnish Easter Weekend

2010-04-04T09:25:00.016+03:00

Easter in Finland means everything closes for 4 days (from Good Friday to Easter Monday) and half the population leaves town for cabins, relatives, spas or other holiday fun. The remaining folks go to one or more of a myriad option of Holy Week worship services.

We, in our typical "got the holidays all wrong" experience in Finland, are home for the holiday while everyone else is gone, but are leaving town next Wednesday for our own "escape the rain, gray and melting snow" holiday in Barcelona with my dear friend Dawn and her two kids.

Here's how our long Easter weekend went:

Thursday -
After school Kalee opened the Easter package from Grandma Ann to find some Dove dark chocolate eggs (Kalee's favorite), a note that said this was just a little something "eggstra" for Easter (eggstra is now Kalee's favorite word), and a little thing called a "Wonder Knitter" with which Kalee can knit bracelets, necklaces, and other long thing things. She loves it!

Friday - Daddy made biscuits for breakfast. Usually this is a sign that it is Saturday so it got us all off to a confusing start. The day was beautiful, clear, sunny and up to 48 F by mid-day. We got Kalee suited up (to stay somewhat dry) and walked over to the park to play on the playground. The playground is much more accessible now that there is only about 8 inches of snow left on the ground. Last time we were at this particular park there was at least 2 feet of snow, it was bitterly cold and we were ice skating. Much more pleasant this time, though Kalee wished we could skate.

She mastered crossing this part of the playground even though she was scared to try. Once she did it once she kept doing it over and over and over.
On the way home we visited the last vestiges of the cave Kalee and Charles made three weeks ago.
In the afternoon we colored Easter eggs.

The tulips are from our guest, Suzelle. The box of grass Kalee grew at school (a traditional Finnish Easter project). Later we started watching E.T.! Such a great movie. Kalee is loving it.

Saturday - Kalee popped awake at 6:15 with the sun. I am counting the days (and hoping there are not too many) until the sun wakes up early enough that Kalee will go back to sleep after it has awoken her. We went to our English play group in the morning (so nice to have English speaking kids and moms).

After Kalee went to bed I went off to the Kuokkalan Kirkka to sing with the Finnish Lutherans for their 10pm mass. The service starts with the lights dimmed and everything shrouded in black.

Within the first 5 minutes of the service the music changes mood, the lights come up, all the shrouds are removed and the celebration begins. I understood for the first time that all the Holy Week services combined are really one long ritual expression of death and rebirth. I know, I'm a little slow on these things sometimes. Not understanding the words helped me experience the ritual without my head getting in the way. The head, the intellect, rational discourse and skepticism are all great things, but it is good to set them aside on occasion for a different kind of experience.

Sunday - The Easter Bunny came! Kalee nearly exploded into our room saying the Easter Bunny had left little chocolate eggs all over the living room and kitchen! There was even one at the entrance to the lego-airport.
Charles made Sticky Buns for breakfast. Oh my goodness they were rich! Kalee could only eat half of hers, then asked for some regular cereal. So sensible. Charles and I each ate two of them. An hour later and I still only wanted to drink warm water to cleanse my mouth and body.

Kalee seemed to need some down-time after breakfast. She shed her PJs, crawled under her blanket with Brownie and stayed there for an hour. She choose this activity over going to the spa for swimming. She is in her tomb, perhaps, and will arise ... here she comes ... wrapped in a cape! Ahhhh, it is a fever, not the need for solitude. Bummer. (A little Tylenol did the trick.)

Charles made quiche for our Easter dinner and whole wheat crescent rolls from my childhood. Both were delicious.

Monday - Yes, the Finnish Easter Weekend just keeps going right through Monday. We had guests for dinner so spent the day cleaning and cooking. Entertaining in our apartment is a challenge. For example, we only have 4 chairs. With our 2 guests we needed to seat 5 so Kalee got to sit on swivel-y desk chair. It was a very nice evening and a nice ending to our long Easter weekend.

Tomorrow we head off to Barcelona where the forecast says it will be 63F and sunny all week.

Fun in Finland

2010-04-02T14:31:00.003+03:00

Some more pictures from the past month. Kalee and I have new hats for spring. I learned how to crochet from a YouTube video.

The whole family is having fun with legos. We built a three-room house complete with furniture and bathroom.

Here you can see the living room with couches, chairs, lamps and a flat-screen TV ...

... another view of the living room ...

... the kitchen with table, chairs and fridge (the white thing)...

... and, the real triumph, the bathroom ...

... including storage cupboard ...

Another day Kalee and daddy prepared for a birthday party with clay.

Photos from Kalee

2010-04-02T11:07:00.002+03:00

We got Kalee a camera for her birthday last August. Here are a few of the pictures she has taken in Finland. Self-portraits are, perhaps, her favorite:

Here is a view from our living room. Post-modern photography, hay?

We had some fun with clay one afternoon.

And Kalee loves playing school with her friends.

Finally, a portrait of Kalee's very best friend in the whole world.

of blogs, visits and teeth

2010-03-30T19:40:00.006+03:00

Friends,
It has been a long while since I have written anything here on the blog. We were away for 10 days in Israel and Istanbul and then I felt I should get those pictures up and write about the trip before I did anything else. But I haven't done those trip summaries yet, nor have I culled through our over-500 pics from the trip, and I decided I just needed to get on with life and the blog. So here we go.

Last weekend my colleague/mom's minister, Suzelle, came for to visit for the weekend. She was in Finland to explore her Finnish heritage for 10 days as part of her sabbatical. After three days together I can now call her "my friend Suzelle." We had such a great time. It was delightful for me simply to have someone to talk to and do things with who gets me and listens and has interesting insights on the world. The effortless communication ... goodness I have missed that.

Kalee also had a smashingly wonderful time with Suzelle. This woman LOVES children and Kalee reciprocated. Suzelle charmed her with her warmth and her thick pile of origami paper. The spent the whole weekend doing fun crafty things. By the end of the weekend Kalee was physically attached to Suzelle as much as possible and when Suzelle left on Sunday, Kalee spontaneously ran up to her and gave her a hug. If you know Kalee you know what a radical thing that is.On Friday Suzelle took us to The Craft Museum of Finland. Leave it to the visitor to show you around your own city! How did that happen? Anyway, not only do they have cool exhibits, they have a workroom filled with every sort of craft supply and tool you can imagine (and some you haven't thought of). Suzelle, Kalee and I played there for nearly two hours. Kalee and I went back today for three hours. It is endless fun and my new favorite place in Jyvaskyla.

On Saturday we all climbed the big hill in downtown Jyvaskyla. Lots of stairs ...
... then up an elevator to the observatory where we could have seen our apartment over on the other side of the lake, just to the right of the bridge, on a clear day.
The snow is melting in Jyvaskyla and spring is on it's way. I haven't seen anyone out walking on the lake for about 4 days now. Which is smart of these folks 'cause it has been above freezing during the day for the whole last week. The next few days are supposed to stay above freezing even through the night.

This morning we woke to a dusting of snow and the sight of two giant bunnies (hares, I guess) in the parking lot. The snow meant that Kalee and I could follow bunny tracks around the parking lot while we waited for her ride to school. But the MOST IMPORTANT happening of late is that Kalee lost her first tooth today. She is proud and happy and trying to stay awake to catch a glimpse of the tooth fairy.

Arctic Circle (5 of 5): The ARKTIKUM Museum

2010-03-04T08:30:00.006+02:00

Our last day in Rovaniemi we visit The Arktikum Museum a museum dedicated to teaching about arctic peoples, traditions, history, wild life and environment. The exhibits were great but we couldn't take pictures of most of that (we snuck a few). I was really struck by the building itself, though. Most of it is underground, practical in that cold climate and also mimicking the way nature shelters itself from the harsh winter in the north. You enter through the crecent shaped building at the back of this picture, then decend under the highway and into the grand hallway that is flanked on each side by exhibit space.
Looking down the whole length of the building, from the river to the entrance.
Chairs made from birth trees and reindeer hides. Much of the building uses these and other indigenous building materials.
We meet a polar bear,
... explore the inside of an ice chamber ...
... see a very old sled...
... hug a brown bear ...
... see some arctic fish ...
... and Kalee and Charles make an important proclamation.

There must be a traditional story about these geese and the little charter who is leading them, but we didn't hear it.

Kalee dances to some contemporary Sami folk music. We ended the day at a great restaurant at a mall next to our hotel and Kalee had perhaps her favorite moment of the whole trip - a free bouncer in the mall.

Arctic Circle (4 of 5): Reindeer

2010-02-28T14:21:00.017+02:00

Friday afternoon it was time for our Reindeer Safari at the Sirmakko Family Reindeer Farm. These are REAL reindeer herders, not just people making a euro off the tourists (though they are doing that, too). The family has been in the Reindeer business for at least 5 generations. They are Sami people (indigenous Laplanders) and our guide said he has shaman blood in him.
Our visit started in the "kota." The Sirmakko kota is sided in wood but a traditional one would be sided with reindeer hides, much like a Native American tepee. The Sami were nomadic people who followed their reindeer and lived in these kotas year-round as recently as 50 years ago.
Our guide did a short drumming ceremony to ask the gods permission to do the ceremony welcoming us across the arctic circle. There is no stress or hurry north of the arctic circle, our guide said. "Sometimes I have many things to do in a short time, but I never hurry," he said. I love that. I think that if you hurry you are more likely to make mistakes, and mistakes in the arctic can be deadly. Better to be focused and clear and leave stress and hurry behind.
Logs in the fire place are all laid in one direction, other wise your reindeer will get lost. (Also, our guide told us on the side, traditionally the fire would be on the floor, not raised up like this one, and the family would all be living right around it, even little kids. Logs laid across one another have a tendency to shift and roll when they burn down and might roll into the living area, but logs laid straight are more stable and safer. I love hearing the daily reality behind the stories.) Legend has it that anyone who has once visited the Lapland will return again ... in their next life ... as reindeer! But only if you receive the spots where your antlers will grow (otherwise you will come back as an elephant in Africa). We all got our spots and left them on for the required three hours.
Kalee is practicing being a reindeer.
After the ceremony it was a colorful traditional (vegetarian) Sami dinner of mashed potatoes (white), beets (purple), and rice and carrots (orange) with tomatoes, bread, pickles, and preserved lingonberries on the side. Our guide's grandmother picked and preserved the berries. They were a bit sweet but also vinegary. Not usually what I would choose but quite good.

Kalee's best cranky face. How can a girl be that cranky while drinking hot chocolate? Such determination.
Finally the sun is setting and it is time for our sleigh ride. First we meet the reindeer that will pull us. We stay well away from the antlers.
Into the sled ...
... and away we go. It's blurry but you can see how wrapped up we are attempting to stay warm at about 15 below F.
The view from the sled ...

That little white crescent is the moon.
Kalee thinks she saw some elf foot prints (our guide told her that sometimes kids can see elves in the woods) but said they also looked a lot like fox prints. Our guide said elves can be sneeky that way.

Some things we learned in our time at Sirmakko:

There are no wild reindeer in Finland. The Lapland is divided into herding regions and each region is FENCED (unbelievable). A collective of Reindeer herders work together to round-up and tag all the reindeer and babies two times a year.
The Sirmakko family also harvests hundreds of kilos of berries each year to preserve and to sell. In Finland, berries and mushrooms are considered 'fruits of the forest' and belong to all the people of Finland. You can harvest in any forest land even if you don't own it.
Dehydration is just as much of a problem at very cold temperatures (-30 C.) as at very warm temps (+30C.) The kidneys, our guide said, are working just as hard, only in the cold you aren't sweating it out. No wonder I have been so thirsty.
I asked about the symbolism of our guide's costume. Not symbolic, he said, but each Sami tribe has a slightly different costume. One distinguishing feature of his tribe, he said, is they are Lutheran. I asked, "How does the shamanism mix or live along with the Lutheranism?" "It doesn't" he said. Generations ago the Lutherans sought to wipe out shamanic belief and practice and nearly did. Most of the shamans of his tribe (over 25 of them) committed suicide by walking into the river and drowning rather than convert to Lutheranism. Some shamanic knowledge and practice went underground but much of it was lost.
It takes two years to train a reindeer to pull a sleigh. Only the males pull the sleighs because female reindeer are too small.
Reindeer drop their antlers every year and grow new ones. The antlers grow bigger each year until the animals reach about 8 years old (middle age) and then come back smaller each year. Both male and female reindeer have antlers.

Arctic Circle (3 of 5): Rovaniemi

2010-02-28T10:00:00.008+02:00

The city of Rovaniemi sits at the confluence of two rivers ( the Kemijoki River and its tributary, the Ounasjoki). Rivers are always important strategic points in war and Rovaniemi found itself in this situation in WWII. At the end of the war when German soldiers were retreating, they destroyed the entire city. Literally. The bombed out the bridge and leveled nearly every building.
90% of the city was leveled. Have you ever been in a city built entirely in the 1950s? Not really very inspiring architecturally. Starting with a blank slate Alvar Alto (of course) designed a new street layout that looks like reindeer antlers ... ... and new municipal buildings. We never ventured out far enough in the cold to see those buildings. Maybe they were more interesting than the main street.

One morning, though, we did walk down the pedestrian mall to the river. We saw this ...
... an Alvar Alto sculpture of the Northern Lights.

After the war they re-build the railroad bridge and then, more recently, added this bridge a bit further down river.
Short bench?
No, just lots of hard-packed snow.
In Lapland you can make a snowman that stays all winter long.
Kalee takes a bow.
Now, a few state, according to wikipedia:

average temperature: +0.2 °C (+32°F)
annual rainfall: 535 mm/annum (21 inches)
snow stays on the grounds 183 days a year on average
lowest temperature ever recorded: −47.5 °C (−54°F), recorded on January 28, 1999
highest temperature ever recorded: +30.6 °C (+87°F)
the midnight sun can be seen from June 6 to July 7

Arctic Circle (2 of 5): Santa's House

2010-02-26T11:01:00.016+02:00

On Thursday we made the long-anticipated trip to Santa's house, just outside of Rovaniemi right on the arctic circle.The coolest part was going into Santa's Chamber where we got to see the giant machinery Santa uses to stop the earth from turning on Christmas Eve so he can deliver presents to all the children of the world. Photography was forbidden and I also couldn't find any pictures on the web so you'll just have to take my word for it - walking through all those creaky gears and cranks was really neat. Then we all had our photo taken with Santa. He is a very sweet man, over 300 years old, he said, but doesn't look a day over 200. Instead of the real picture, here's Kalee with a fake Santa.

Here is the line of the arctic circle, itself.

Santa lives 6204 km from New York.
Naturally, there are many crafts people who live near Santa. Some of them have shops that we visited. Here Kalee is standing near a large amethyst rock that is native to Lapland.
We stopped for a bite to eat ...
played a little ...

... and visited Santa's main post office.

It was COLD outside. Yes, that says -20 C. (which is -4 F). Our last morning in Rovaniemi the temperature was -32 F!! Forcasters have the sense to call this "bitterly cold."
But we didn't let the cold stop us. Slide across the Arctic Circle, anyone? Kalee had a great time with this ice slide. No sled required.

In this kind of cold you can build houses out of ice. The had a whole ice village but it was closed when we were there.

We visited more shops with some beautiful hand-crafted wares,
and got to see some jewelers at work. Kalee has had about enough of this, but ...... she got her energy back as soon as we went outside to wait for the bus.

Arctic Circle (1 of 5): On the Train

2010-02-26T09:56:00.013+02:00

Wednesday Feb 17th we boarded the train in Jyvaskyla for a three-train 8-hour journey north to Rovaniemi and the Arctic Circle. Our route is in red.The trains were great. Kalee and Charles had a lot of fun exploring each train, going between cars and walking from one end all the way to the other. Some of the trains (the new high-speed ones) have play-cars for children ...

... and a game room where we played yatzee.
These new trains are quieter than some of the older ones we road on, but when it gets up to top speed - 140 km/hr or 90 mi/hr - the whole thing shakes and bumps so much we could hardly drink our coffee and Charles could barely write down our yatzee scores.

And here is what we saw of the Finnish country side.
Trees ....
trees ...
trees ...
frosted trees ...

harvested trees ... [there is a huge timber industry, here, but no deforestation because over 100 years ago they passed a law that you have to plant a tree for every tree you cut down. Seems to be working as the vast majority of the country side is still forested despite seeing train after train full of logs.]
a few farms ...and lots of old train stations.

Kuokkalan Kirkko

2010-02-14T19:12:00.011+02:00

A new church opened in our neighborhood (Kuokkala) last Sunday. It is visually stunning from the outside and the photos of the inside in the newspaper intrigued me even more. We have heard this is the first new church building built in Finland for decades (I'll try to get more accurate information on that). Not surprising for a country where something like 80% of the population belong to the church but only 4% attend. In Finland this goes without saying, but most of you readers are not in Finland so I'll tell you this is a Lutheran church. It is nearly the only brand in Finland and it is the national church which can levy a 1% tax from its members.

Knowing I would understand hardly a word that was spoken, I went to the service this morning anyway. It was full to over-flowing with people of all ages. Spirits seemed high, as you would guess on the second Sunday in a new building. Perhaps a service that is mostly ritual, prayer and music is just the sort that can still be fulfilling despite a language barrier. I was already thinking that words wouldn't be all that important to me after a year and a half of 'un-programed' (silent) Quaker worship. Still, I was surprised to find myself teary-eyed in this service like I was for the first few months with the Quakers. Something in me has been hibernating since we last attended Meeting in mid December. Going to church was like the sun coming out and starting to warm up the ground.

It was the music, in part. The music drives the service. It tells you when to stand and when to sit, it bookends and weaves through the prayers, it gives emotion to the offering and communion. The music director is full of fabulous energy and made great, non-traditional musical selections. I knew right away that I wanted to join that choir and sing with that director. I spoke to her afterward and she enthusiastically welcomed me to sing with them, which I'll start doing in a couple weeks. She said they mostly sing from a song-book she published herself. The title, she said, translates roughly as "Singing for People Who Can't Sing." I love that attitude. And she had not one bit of hesitation about me not speaking Finnish.

More than the music, though, I think it was simply being in church. This went through my mind while walking home: we may not share the same beliefs, but we share a belief in church. I'm glad I can't really understand what is being said. I'm not sure I could sit through 90min of Lutheran theology every week. But to share in the ritual of going to church, of gathering with others in a worshipful attitude, this I love.

Now the pictures.
The preacher's eye view.

The parishioner's view. The whole interior is wood and cement with a bit of copper here and there. The chairs are the same pale birch as the walls and lattice ceiling with seats covered in cream/grey wool felt. If you look closely at the bubbles at the front you can see a few metallic outlines of christian symbols (a big Jesus, dove, wine chalice, and some others).

Outside back. The brown stuff that looks like old wood is copper. Imagine it green some day. And the black shingles are slate.
Front.
Bell tower (and a really big pile of snow).

Finnish Recipes - Riisipuuro

2010-02-13T17:17:00.006+02:00

"Wouldn't some rice pudding be good?" I said to Charles a few weeks ago. He concurred, and said he thought he'd seen sushi rice at the store, which is what we like to use to make rice pudding. When I looked, I didn't find sushi rice, I found puuro riisi, pudding rice. Perfect!

Then, to find a recipe. I had never liked rice pudding until our friend Genna brought some to our house for a potluck. It was simple and creamy, topped with some raisins and cinnamon-sugar. She gave us the recipe and it became such a favorite of our that we put it in the cookbook we made about 10 years ago. I remember that it said it was a traditional Finnish or Swedish (I don't remember) recipe.

But, we didn't bring that cook book with us so I went to the web. The web is teaming with rice pudding recipes but they all have lots of ingredients besides rice and milk: eggs, cinnamon, cardamon, sugar and more. That must be the stuff I never liked. After searching and searching I happened to turn over the puuro riisi package and discovered three recipes right there! They are in Finnish but with the help of Google Translate I figured it out. I've made two of the recipes so far.

Riisipuuro (Rice pudding - the stove top variety)
2 dl water
2 dl rice
1 liter milk
a bit of salt

Measure water, rice and salt into pot. Cook over medium/low heat until water is absorbed. Add milk (we use skim milk but substitute a bit of cream for the total volume). Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until milk is absorbed, about 90 minutes.

We scoop it into bowls and top with a small dab of butter, raisins, and some cinnamon-sugar.

And then there is this ...

Riisiuunipuuro (Baked Rice Pudding)
2 dl rice
1 liter milk
a bit of salt

Grease a 2 L. oven dish. Measure ingredients into dish and mix. Cook in 175C. oven on lower rack for 90 minutes. Mix a few times during the cooking.

I made the baked kind this week. It is easier, but without those extra 2 dl. of water, it is quite a bit dryer than the stove top variety. On the second night we re-heated it on the stove top and added a bunch more milk to make it creamier. Yummier.

Thank You!!

2010-02-13T17:11:00.003+02:00

We have the most fabulous family and friends who send us valentines and Good Earth tea. Thank you to my mom, sister, aunt and Friend Liz who have sent tea so far. It makes my mouth, my tummy and my spirit very happy.

Also, Kalee's friends at the Quaker meeting made her valentines. Even Sylvia, who was home sick that day, sent one on her own. And the grownup sent two really nice cards to us as well. That Meeting of our is just the greatest. We miss you.

Last Weekend in Pictures

2010-02-13T16:27:00.011+02:00

I always seem to be a week behind in the picture department. Here are some from last weekend, Feb 6 and 7.

Kalee loves her school here and I'm glad about that, but I'm getting a little anxious about her reading. Her school here is all about play, not learning. Finnish elementary school does not start until kids are 7 years old and there is no expectation that they should be able to read when they start. I don't criticize this at all. Finnish kids spend the fewest number of hours a year in school and have the best test outcomes. Whatever they are doing works. But ... Kalee will be in first grade next year in Kalamazoo and needs to be further along in the reading department than she is. She was making such good progress before we left. After her day or half-day at the Finnish school she is all tuckered out (they play outside alot, even when it is pretty darn cold) and in no mood to concentrate on reading. Last weekend I decided to see if we could teach her stuffed animals to read. She was totally into that and was a very good assistant teacher. She also "talked" all her animals and they gave very good answers. I think we'll be having a lot more school for her animals on the weekends.

Charles has started baking bread, again, which makes all of us very happy. He didn't bring his sourdough starter so he is experimenting with yeast. He is also navigating the world of Finnish flour which is more confusing that you would think. He promises a post about this sometime but don't hold your breath. Kalee declares the results of Charles' experiments "the best bread ever" and demands to eat "daddy bread" with everything.

After the bread was baked we went out for a little excursion on the lake. I've been wanting to investigate this thing that I can see from our window that hangs down below the bridge. From our apartment it sort of looks like someone is swinging underneath the bridge. Turns out that is exactly what it is.
"Why is that hanging up there, mommy?"
"Because someone thought it would be neat."
"But why is it there?"
"It's art."
"But why???"
"I don't know, Kalee. I just don't know."
(But really, it's pretty cool, don't you think?)

Not many people walk over to see this swinging doll so we were tromping through deep, deep snow, nearly up to my knees and over Kalee's. Under all the snow the ice is mushy - too much insulation. We headed back to the regular paths.

Something I have noticed while walking around town is that all the bridge underpasses and poured concrete structures were poured in wood molds (either the real or fake variety). The effect is that all this concrete has a wood grain to it with all of woods irregularity and line. It is amazingly effective in making the concrete seems more natural, a part of the natural environment. It must trigger something deep in my brain that says "this is natural, not synthetic." It is especially nice on curves. These three pictures are from the bridge over our lake.

Concrete, Jill, you are really writing about concrete? Well, at least my mom and my sister will get it.

How many busses can a girl ride in one day?

2010-02-13T11:04:00.004+02:00

Seven is my record, set on Friday. I made two long-desired purchases - a booster seat and a laundry basket - and brought them both back on the bus. Then took Kalee down to see daddy's office and to the red-cross re-sale shop where we bought ice skates for Kalee for 10 euros. Then home. I was pretty proud of myself.

Why do we need a laundry basket, you may be wondering, when we have a washing machine right in our little apartment? Well ... that little old washer broke. I think I tried to put too much in it at a time. Charles told the University people who own the apartment and we discovered the washer was just a left-over from a previous tenant, they wouldn't fix it or replace it. So, now we carry our laundry down to the first floor where there is a washer (free) that holds full-size loads and washes them in 37 minutes (the old washer took 90 minutes, I kid you not). After that, there is a big drying room with lines strung for hanging the wash, and big fans to turn on to dry it. Even a quilt will dry in less than 24 hours down there and we don't have to have laundry hanging anywhere in our apartment. The dead washer has turned out to be a blessing.

The Long Walk

2010-02-13T09:31:00.008+02:00

On Wednesday Kalee demonstrated her new walking prowess by walking all the way from our apartment to downtown (about 1 mile). Mind you, I never mentioned that this is what we were doing. I didn't even think that was what we were going to do. We headed out to investigate what was drawing dozens and dozens of people to the lake. What could be going on on a Wednesday afternoon? The plan was to walk across the lake, investigate, then catch a bus to go downtown.

We discovered it was some sort of game that was drawing all the people. It looked a bit like hockey but played on the snow (not ice) in boots (not skates) with a small ball (not puck) on a much smaller playing field with much smaller goals and with hockey sticks that had sort of webbed ends instead of solid ones. [Maybe one of the Finns out there can tell me the name of this game.] Loud music was playing, sausages were being roasted, much fun was being had.

Kalee and I walked over to check out the ice track that opened last weekend. Was it plowed well enough to slide with our boots? No, but it was still fun to walk on. We walked toward downtown some more until we had reached the furthest side of the lake (see the map to the right to see our walk. Google wouldn't let me put a path over the lake - they don't think we can walk on water, apparently - so you'll have to imagine setting out from our apartment at A, walking along the ice track toward downtown, etc. all the way to letter B.), then took a pier up to the sidewalk. "Kalee, look at that bridge! You can see trains from up there. Do you want to go look?" And off we were. By now I knew we were skipping the bus, but I didn't tell Kalee. We saw a huge train full of logs pulling out of the station as we walked by. Then Kalee ran down the spiral bike/stroller ramp on the other end of the bridge. From there is was just two more blocks to where we needed to be. "Do we have to walk up that hill?" Kalee moaned. "Only one block up. I'll give you a push." And then we were there.

We went to a coffee shop where Kalee ordered hot chocolate and a beautiful little 4-layer torte. "The best hot chocolate I have ever had" Kalee said, until it was 3/4 gone and then she decided it was too rich, she'd had enough and yes, I could finish it. I added it to my coffee. Perfect.

A Post from Kalee

2010-02-07T12:28:00.002+02:00

Kalee drew this picture for me to put on the blog. She says it is a drawing of fireworks. The black lines are the dark night sky. The thing that looks like a sun is one of the exploding fireworks. No, we haven't seen any fireworks in Finland, but a few days ago we saw a poster at a bus stop with fireworks on it. This picture was drawn soon after.

Sledding, again.

2010-02-07T12:00:00.006+02:00

Saturday was the warmest day we've had yet in Jyvaskyla: 24 F (-4 C). A great day for sledding. Kalee's pen-pall, Konsta, and his mom took us to the big sledding hill at the foot of the local ski hill. We all had a great time. Konsta has a snow-rocket sled with a steering wheel, though I'm not sure it gives as much control as it one would think. We took our little 1euro sleds and discovered it is possible to make ourselves into a three person chain and slide down together. Kalee let go of my feet a couple times, though, and left me in the dust. Here are are few pictures.

Kalee getting ready for her first run.
Down she goes!
Kalee and Konsta getting ready to go down the hill.

Kalee and Charles going fast on one of Konsta's sleds!!! The sled looks just like our plastic boat sled, but it has metal rails on the bottom which makes it sturdier and faster.
Konsta going fast on his rocket sled.
I think he liked it.

Thanks to the Finns...

2010-02-05T09:25:00.003+02:00

... we have xylitol, that stuff in your chewing gum that helps prevent cavities.

Here begins a new thread on Finnish Inventions.

Xylitol is a sugar discovered in Finland which is derived from Birch trees (which they have in plentiful supply). Wikipedia says: Early studies from Finland in the 1970s found that a group chewing sucrose gum had 2.92 decayed, missing, or filled (dmf) teeth compared to 1.04 in the group chewing xylitol gums.^[13] (To this research I must ask: does chewing xylitol gum lead to fewer cavities than if you didn't chew at all?) In another study, researchers had mothers chew xylitol gum when their children were 3 months old until they were 2 years old. The researchers found that the mothers in the xylitol group had "a 70% reduction in cavities (dmf)."^[13] Recent research^[14] confirms a plaque-reducing effect and suggests that the compound, having some chemical properties similar to sucrose, attracts and then "starves" harmful micro-organisms, allowing the mouth to remineralize damaged teeth with less interruption.

Kalee came home after a few days in her new school telling me that all the other kids had candy from home that they could eat after lunch. Could she please take some candy, too? I was suspicious of this so I asked her teacher for clarification. "Xylitol," he said, "the kids chew GUM with xylitol in it after they eat." Ah ha! And so, now Kalee has a bag of gum at school, too.

But it was our Finnish teacher who told us we have xylitol thanks to the Finns (she is full of interesting little tid-bits like this). She said they start kids chewing it as early as 2 years old. Kalee loves this gum so much it just may be her favorite thing about Finland so far. At least it goes well following the daily cup of hot chocolate, her other favorite thing about Finland.

Finnish Recipes - Kraupsua

2010-02-03T08:51:00.005+02:00

Here is the beginning of a new series of posts about cooking traditional Finnish food. Today's recipe is Kraupsua: Finnish Oven Pancakes.
Before arriving we read that it is traditional for Finns to eat pea soup on Tuesdays. Not just traditional, actually. The book said that everyone eats pea soup on Tuesdays. This seemed odd to us. A national soup, we would believe, but everyone eating it on the same day? We asked a couple Finns about that and while it struck a blank at first, both eventually said they could remember that tradition as a child. Someday I'll put a pea soup recipe up here, but today it is Kraupsua, Finnish oven pancakes which we are told are traditionally served for dessert with a dinner of Pea Soup. I found the recipe on cooks.com. Either the recipe is not terribly traditional or someone else already translated it into American measurements.

2 tsp. butter
2 eggs, well beaten
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 c. milk
1 1/4 c. flour

Place 2 teaspoons butter in a 9x13 pan. Place pan in a 400 degree oven until butter sizzles and is almost brown. Beat eggs, sugar, salt, milk and flour in that order and pour into pan. Bake 25 - 30 min. Dot with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Cut into squares to serve.

I made these last night and topped them with jam (lingonberry and cloudberry), which we are told is traditional. They were very delicious. We'll certainly be making them again. Next time, though, I'll use my new whisk too make the eggs really fluffy (the beaten eggs are the only leavening) and hope for a bit fluffier pancake.

Quotable

2010-02-03T08:31:00.002+02:00

"There is a place called Egypt," she said. "I know nothing of that place. I wish I could tell you kids about Egypt. Forgive me for not knowing more. But, if you care to listen, I will tell you everything I know about the colour blue."

And so we heard about the colour blue.

"Blue is the colour of the Pacific. It is the air we breathe. Blue is the gap in the air of all things, such as the palms and iron roofs. But for blue we would not see the fruit bats. Thank you, God, for giving us the colour blue.

"It is surprising where the colour blue pops up," continued Daniel's grandmother. "Look and ye shall find. You can find blue squinting up in the cracks of the wharf at Kieta. And you know what it is trying to do? It is trying to get at the stinking fish guts, to take them back home. If blue was an animals or plant or bird, it would be a seagull. It gets its sticky beak into everything.

"Blue also has magical powers," she said. "You watch a reef and tell me if I am lying. Blue crashes onto a reef and what colour does it release? It releases white! Now how does it do that?" ...

"A final thing, children, and then I will let you go. Blue belongs to the sky and cannot be nicked, which is why the missionaries stuck blue in the windows of the first churches they built here on the island."

Mr Watts did that now familiar thing of opening his eyes wide as if waking from a sleep. He walked over to Daniel's grandmother with an outstretched hand. The old woman gave hers for him to hold then he turned to the class.

"Today, we have been very lucky. Very lucky. We have received a handy reminder that while we may not know the whole world, we can, if we are clever enough, make it new. We can make it up with the things we find and see around us. We just have to look and try to be as imaginative as Daniel's grandmother."

from Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones.

The city library here has about 1000 novels in English in their collection. It sounds like a lot, but when compared to what is available to me at my library in Kalamazoo, it is a small, small number. And a nice number. It is a browse-able number. I've never heard of Lloyd Jones or this book but its cover and description enticed me and I am really enjoying it. There are more books by non-American authors and that is fun to explore, too.

Swimming with Alvar Aalto

2010-02-03T01:50:00.004+02:00

Can't sleep. Might as well blog.

This weekend we visited the "Aalto-Alvari" at the University of Jyvaskyla, an amazing swimming complex designed by Jyvaskyla architect Alvar Aalto. It was built in 1958 and houses at least 5 swimming pools plus two saunas and a cold-water pool in each locker room. We didn't take our camera, but here are a few pictures from the web:
The upper (above) and lower (below) parts of the spa pool, connected by a small slide. Not only are they connected, you can actually swim under the upper part. It is like a cave back there, with underwater lighting, windows to swim through, a water fall to swim under and a strong current that keeps you moving in a clockwise direction. The upper part has jets of water to massage your back.

The Wave Pool (below). Every 30 minutes the pool erupts with 2 foot waves. There are huge foam floating boards (like kick board but about 4 x 6 feet) that people lie, sit or (attempt to) stand on to ride the waves. When the 10 minutes are over you can use the water slide again. It is about 2 stories tall and has great curves. After a surprise dunking at the end of the slide in the spa pool, Kalee wasn't about to try the big slide. But Charles and I both went down quite a few times. It was great! There is also a diving pool and a family pool which we didn't explore. Below is the main lap pool. Nothing terribly exciting but if you look in the background of the picture to the left of the lap pool you can see where all these other pools are situated. The two things I loved most about this place were the live plants all over thriving on the humid air and the big windows letting in light and a view of the great cold, snowy out-of-doors which we were escaping for a few hours.

After over 90 minutes in the pools we went to relax in the saunas. Kalee was really looking forward to this. She has been begging to stay up late on a Friday night to sauna with Charles or I. She's curious what this sauna thing is all about. So, we opened the big wooded door to the sauna, took one step in, she got a blast of hot air then turned around and said "it's too hot in here!" That was the end of Kalee's first sauna experience. That is pretty much what we guessed would happen. At least her curiosity has been satisfied. We showered, then went home warm, happy and all tuckered out.

Now, the cultural observations.

We saw no life guards anywhere near the pools. In the US the place would have been teeming with them. I did notice an elevated guard tower sort of place with video feeds from all the pools. Perhaps that's how they keep an eye on things. Europeans in general, I think, place much more responsibility on the individual for safety than do Americans. (For example, booster seats for someone Kalee's age not required by law. Most people seem to have them but no one panics about giving us a ride without one. Yes, we are trying to find one to borrow or buy cheaply while we are here, but, we are choosing not to panic about it, either.)
Along with no life guards, there is no one monitoring the top of the water slide. It is "closed" when the waves are on, but there is no gate and nothing to stop anyone from going down, yet no one does. Frequency (so there isn't more than one person on the slide at a time) is managed by red and green lights. Again, there is nothing physically preventing one from going down on a red light, but no one does.
The locker rooms. Honestly, I haven't been in a big locker room in about a decade but my memories of locker rooms are women wrapped up in towels as much as possible until they get at least their bra and underwear on, lest someone discover that something on them sags or bulges or wrinkles just like it does on every one else. Not so in Finland. Bodies of all shapes, sizes and ages were paraded around as though ... as though ... well, as though they were just bodies and not so terribly special that they had to be hidden, not from each other and not from children of what ever sex, either. No "family" locker room, here. The women's locker room was teaming with girls and boys under the age of 10 or so. Charles said the same was true on the men's side. (What age would you send your child to the locker room without you?) Next time we go, Kalee is going with Daddy so I can have a nice relaxing sauna.

Those Finnish Faces

2010-01-31T19:23:00.001+02:00

My friend Cindy asked:
I'm curious about the no facial expressions. Do they just not show emotion at all through facial expressions, or is it that they're just so different and hard to read, or that they're bundled up all the time so you can't see faces?

Great question, Cindy. A few thoughts:

1. No, they are not so bundled up. They actually don't cover their faces with scarves, no matter how cold, because breathing through your scarf makes it all wet, which then freezes and makes you even colder. So, bare face is LESS cold. I learned this the hard way, and also through observing how the Finns dress for cold. (In a driving life-style I always covered up my mouth and nose, but then, I wasn't out in the cold that much and I wasn't breathing hard from exertion. It's a whole different thing when I am walking.)

2. They DO make eye contact and don't look away, but their faces remain perfectly still. Very odd behavior if it was the US. It can almost seem confrontive or hostile, but I know it is not because it is so ubiquitous. They can't all be feeling hostile to me, can they?

3. From what we've read, Finns are SERIOUS introverts and the lack of facial expression is another aspect of that. They do not share themselves with people they do not know, but once they make a friend, our books say, they are friends for life. (One might ask, "Then how do they get to know people?" I do not know the answer to that. We have met people through Charles' work and through Kalee's school.) People we have actually met (as opposed to people we pass on the path) are very friendly and I feel like I can understand their facial expressions most of the time, even if they are a bit more subtle than ours. Finns are also very comfortable with silences in conversation. No need to fill every moment with some kind of communication. Maybe that is a piece of the answer, as well.

4. Our Finnish culture books also say that Finns distrust people who smile too much, like American business people. Finns don't smile unless they have a reason to smile. The smile with no relationship or specific reason to smile behind it is interpreted as trying to hide something.

4. Another thought I've had is that with sooooo many people on the path and on the bus, you would forever be smiling and acknowledging people and that could get sort of tiring. It is easier to go through your day without greeting everyone you meet. As I have accepted this as normal I (an introvert myself) have relaxed into enjoying an anonymous walk down the street, through the mall, along the path, wherever. There is a sort of freedom to it which I am coming to appreciate.

Quotable

2010-01-28T09:45:00.000+02:00

Spring came closer. During the day, the soil under the trees steamed in the warm sun; the nights were ice cold and deep blue. It was a brilliantly beautiful time. ... One night, the wind began blowing in from the sea. Katri lay listening, remembering the spring nights when she used to go down to the water to wait for the ice to break up. ...

Katri couldn't sleep. At dawn she got up, dressed, and went outdoors. It wasn't cold, and the wind was strong and steady. The sun was ready to come up, and the same gentle, transparent, colourless light lay across the shore and the ice and the sky. Katri stood at the end of the fish pier and watched the dark ice bulge and bend over the swells moving in towards the shore, a long, slow, rising and sinking surge.

It'll break, but not yet. Ice is tough.

from the novel The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson. Makes me look forward to experiencing the ice melt here in Jyvaskyla.

Jansson was a Finnish author who wrote in Swedish (the other official language of Finland, spoken mostly in the western parts of the country). She is best known for her children's books about the Moomin Trolls who live in Moomin Valley. There is even a MoominWorld to visit in western Finland.

Explaining UUism to a Finn

2010-01-28T09:38:00.000+02:00

"What kind of pastor are you?" I have been asked a couple times. This is the answer I have figured out so far (after they ask me what a Unitarian is). I say "I've read that in Finland nearly everyone believes in God but most people don't go to church. UU's often don't believe in God but do want to go to church." It is short and explains that UU's are different. Writing this now, though, I realized I am doing something I have railed against for years: defining UU by what it is not. I should add another sentence or two. "UU's want to gather with people and explore ideas of ethics and meaning and faith. That draws them to church. With or without God, church adds something important to their lives." That would work for a little sound bite.

Finns learning English

2010-01-28T09:12:00.000+02:00

This video was sent to us by our Finnish teacher. She has a sense of humor. Words below.

LYRICS ('on' means 'is')

Yksi on "one", kaksi on "two",
Vanha on "old" ja uusi on "new."
Mitä on "what?", kuka on "who?",
Minä on "me" ja sinä on "you."

Kolme on "three", neljä on "four",
Katto on "ceiling", lattia "floor."
Vähemmän on "less", enemmän on "more",
Shakki on "chess" ja ovi on "door."

Kävellä on "walk", jutella on "talk",
Lusikka on "spoon" ja haarukka on "fork."
Korkki on "cork", possu on "pork",
Valmis on "ready" ja raaka on "raw."

Naama on "face", paikka on "place",
Rumpu on "drum" ja basso on "bass."
Ässä on "ace", avaruus "space",
"To start" on aloitus ja "stop" on seis!

Tiedän, "I know", kasvaa on "grow",
Nopee on "fast" ja hidas on "slow."
Läppä on "joke" Virta on "flow",
Kyllä on "yes" ja ei on "no."

Lyhyt on "short", pitkä on "long",
Soittaa on "play" ja laulu on "song."
Mieto maku "mild", vahva on "strong",
Oikein on "right" ja väärin on "wrong."

Tykätä on "like", fillari on "bike",
Levysoitin "turntable", mikrofoni "mic."
Yrittää on "try", miksi on "why?"
Märkä on "wet" ja kuiva on "dry."

Valhe on "lie", ujo on "shy",
Nauraa on "laugh" ja itkee on "cry."
Minä olen "I" ja riimi on "rhyme",
Kello on "clock" ja aika on "time."

refrain:
Hip hoppii englantii, siit oppii englantii
Hip hoppii englantii, siit oppii englantii

Tytöt on "girls", pojat on "boys",
Hiljaisuus on "silence", melu on "noise."
Valinta on "choice", ääni on "voice",
Huone on "room" ja lelut on "toys."

Sisko on "sister", veli on "brother",
Tämä on "this" ja toinen on "other."
Kylmempi "colder", kuumempi "hotter",
Leipä on "bread" ja voi on "butter."

Kuulla on "hear", pelko on "fear",
Kaukana "far" ja lähellä "near."
Kyynel on "tear", korva on "ear",
Nenä on "nose" ja täällä on "here."

Missä on "where?" No, siellä on "there."
Pöytä on "table" ja tuoli on "chair."
Reilu on "fair", karhu on "bear",
Kynnet on "nails" ja tukka on "hair."

Vuoro on "turn", oppia "learn",
Kastua "get wet", palaa on "burn."
Hattu on "hat", rotta on "rat",
Koira on "dog" ja kissa on "cat."

Isi on "dad", surullinen "sad",
Iloinen on "happy", vihainen on "mad."
Vähentää on "substract", lisätä on "add",
Hyvä on "good" ja paha on "bad."

Raha on "money", hassu on "funny",
Sateinen on "rainy", aurinkoinen "sunny."
Äiti on "mom", "mother" tai "mummy",
Vatsa on "belly", "stomach" tai "tummy."

Pöljä on "dummy", herkku on "yummie!"
"Nothing" ei oo mitään ja jotain on "something."

refrain

Hip hoppii englantii, siit oppii englantii. (4x)

Eka on "first", jano on "thirst",
Paras on "best" ja huonoin on "worst."
Kolmas on "third", lintu on "bird",
Toinen on "second" ja sana on "word."

Lapsi on "child", villi on "wild",
Vahva on "strong" ja mieto on "mild."
Silmät on "eyes", kaks kertaa "twice",
Tuhma on "naughty" ja kiltti on "nice."

Veitsi on "knife", elämä on "life"
Sulhanen on "husband" ja vaimo on "wife."

Vauva on "baby", ehkä on "maybe"
Laiska on "lazy" ja hullu on "crazy."

Tavata on "meet", kuumuus on "heat",
Juoda on "drink" ja syödä on "eat."
Kädet on "hands" ja jalat on "feet",
Rytmi on "rhythm" ja isku on "beat."

Kylmä on "cold", myyty on "sold",
Nuori on "young" ja vanha on "old."
Kun tarina on kerrottu, tarina on "told",
Päästää irti "let go", pidä kiinni "hold."

Taivuttaa "bend", korjata "mend",
Säästää "save", tuhlata "spend."
Lähettää "send", ystävä "friend",
Alku on "beginning" ja loppu on "the end."

Finnish Homework

2010-01-26T08:56:00.000+02:00

Mun nimi on Jill. Mä olen Amerikalainen. Mä puhun englantia ja vähän suomea ya saksaa. Mä olen pastori. Mä opiskelen suomea.

Mä olen naimisissa Charles. Me asumme Jyväskylässä (until) Kesäkuu. Mun tyttö Kalee on 5-voutias (viisi)

Vapaa aikana mä tykkään neulotaan, luen, blogi, ja käyn kävella. Mä tykkään myös laitta ruokaa, mutta mä en tykkää kkäydä kaupassa.

My name is Jill. I am American. I speak English and a little bit of Finnish and German. I am a pastor. I study Finnish.

I am married to Charles. We will live in Jyväskylä until June. My daughter Kalee is 5 years old.

In my free time I like to knit, read, blog, and go walking. I also like to cook, but I do not like to go shopping.

Sunrise

2010-01-26T08:39:00.000+02:00

Today we could see light growing on the horizon at 7:30am. It is 8:30 now and still not bright daylight, but light nonetheless (and snowing). When we arrived three weeks ago this process didn't start until at least 9 or 9:30 in the morning. Granted, we were sleeping at that time of morning when we first arrived so those are just guesses, but the light we have now at 8:30 is about what we had at 10:30 on our first day. The day grows longer quickly in these parts. It does, after all, have to get to 20 hours of sun-UP by the end of June.

Culture Shock, Culture Fatigue

2010-01-24T10:59:00.001+02:00

When I think of "culture shock" I think of something big, shocking, like being totally surprised by the new culture you are in. When people ask me how the culture shock is, I say I'm not sure I'm feeling much. We read so much about Finnish culture ahead of time that the differences we are experiencing aren't that much of a surprise.

Instead of culture shock, I think I am experiencing culture fatigue. Living in a place where every little thing is different is exhausting. Some of it is culture, language and food differences. The lack of facial expressions makes me feel invisible. The language is ridiculously hard and although I am starting to catch some things in class, in real life people still talk too fast for me so most interactions come with the need to ask "do you speak English?." And then I feel like an American cultural imperialist who couldn't bother to learn any other languages. OK, that's an exaggeration, but there is some of that there. Does the fact that I could say most of what I need to say in German buy me an indulgence?

We are still foraging for familiar foods. I found dried beans this week, lentils, garbanzos and more. They are really expensive but the bean soup now cooking on the stove smells and tastes really good. It will be worth it. Yogurt, have I told you, is pourable? And it comes in 1 liter containers which is just too small for our family. We use two or three of them a week. Butter doesn't come in quarters with tablespoons conveniently marked, you have to weigh it.
Grocery shopping on foot must be done at least 4 times per week, so far. Sometimes more. One person can only carry so much.

Some of it is the apartment (dorm-quality couch and no dryer for example, but onoone has dryers. Finns just don't do dryers). There is no microwave and no toaster. We are surviving just fine without these things, but it is one more adjustment. Also, the apartment came with enough dishes only for 5 people. Dishes must be washed after every meal or there is nothing left on which to eat the next meal. We are having Kalee's school friend and her family over this afternoon for "tea." That is 7 people, total, so on Thursday I went to the resale shop and bought more dishes and silverware, and a little tea pot. Then we realized we don't have 7 chairs, so the kids will have their tea in the kitchen and grown up in the living room. For people like us who love to cook for our friends, this really cramps our style.

And there are transportation differences. Taking the bus and walking is different (for Kalee and I) because it takes so much time and means we have to actually dress for the weather. On the plus side, Kalee is becoming a great walker. A week ago she finally stopped complaining about walking and being tired. She started asking nicely (instead of whine-l-ly) for a push up the hill. And one day when we missed the most convenient bus home and had to walk 6 blocks to the next bus stop she didn't complain at all (she did ask how much further, several times, but she didn't complain about it). I was so proud of her.

Do I sound whiny myself? It's been that kind of a week. But there are lots of really positive differences, too.

Finns make you pay 20 or 30 euro cents for every plastic bag you use. Guess what? Almost everyone brings their own bags!
The hot water in the shower and sink is instant. No waiting, no wasting water, no running out of hot water after everyone else in the building has showered. They are engineering miracle workers.
The city plows all the sidewalks and walking paths and then spreads gravel for traction. Yes, gravel. Serious snow requires serious measures. And it really works.
Great bus routs. On time and frequent, warm and comfy. Though it is expensive, about 2 euros a ride or 60 euros for 30-day unlimited pass. I guess that's how they fund it. Still cheaper than a car.
Sales people in stores leave you alone. They figure you will ask for help if you need it.
Duvets. We really like a nice duvet on a nice firm bed.
The cleaning lady who cleans the apartment and changes our linens (and duvets) every other Tuesday.
Spoon-able honey (hunaja). A satisfying little tub from which you spoon it into your tea or spread it with a knife on your bread. We all know it's going to get thick like this anyway. Why pretend it's meant to be poured? It has a distinctive taste, too, because it really is a Finnish product from Finnish flowers and bees.

Panoramma from the Lake

2010-01-24T10:05:00.000+02:00

If you could put all these shots side by side it would be as though you were standing in the middle of the lake and turning around in a circle. Looking at the bridge you are looking southeast, our apartment and the water tower are south (our building is the red brick one right in front of the water tower. We live in the cheep seats. The buildings right at the lake shore are clearly nicer. This whole neighborhood, we are told, was built just 5 years ago and the walking path around the lake was only completed last year. We see more building happening all over the city. I wonder what has caused the population explosion. the pedestrian bridge is west (Charles walks on the pedestrian path around the lake and then across this pedestrian bridge every day to get to the University)
the city is north.

This is a close up of the old city water tower. There are steep stairs the go up to the top of the hill and there is a restaurant (!) at the top of the tower. We plan to go there soon and enjoy the view.
And finally we are back to the boats again.

Sledding

2010-01-24T10:00:00.001+02:00

Here are a few pictures from Kalee and Charles sledding last weekend while I was blogging.
This little blue thing ...
is a sled. Really! You put the round part under your bottom and hold the handle in front of you between your legs. Then lean back, lift up your feet, slide down on your bottom and hope it isn't too bumpy! The sled has little ridges on the bottom to help keep it straight, though spinning still happens a bit. This blue sled is one of the great toys our apartment came stocked with. We found them at the store for only 1euro so we bought two more so we can all sled together next time.

Week Three in Finland

2010-01-23T19:03:00.000+02:00

Our week in pictures.

Kalee is influenced by Jyvaskyla's most famous son, architect Alvar Alto, and creates a post-modern house. Her aunt will be proud.
And adds a garage.
Laundry. Have I mentioned the laundry situation? Here are our washer ...
and dryer. The air in the apartment is quiet dry so hanging the clothes is pretty quick (24hrs) and improves air quality a bit (when we aren't ducking to avoid the pants). The washer only holds about half what we are used to so every other day our living room is decorated by drying clothing. This adds color to an otherwise drab room.

After writing the above about the "dryer" some angels appeared in our lives bringing a daily ride to school for Kalee (giving me an extra hour in the morning), an assisted grocery shopping trip for me (the translation help was invaluable), and a drying rack. The angels are Kalee's pen pall's family who just returned from their winter holiday trip to California, Arizona and Hawaii. So very generous. And here is the miraculous drying rack loaded up with TWO loads of wash, and still not full. This means we can take down the green laundry line that currently circles our living room ceiling.
Speaking of drab ... perhaps you noticed in some earlier pictures that the living room is quite drab and dorm-ish looking. The couch is not only stained, it is ripped, exposing the inner foam and tempting small fingers to pick it to bits. So I bought sheets to cover the ugliness. The sheets are bright and colorful. However, I'm afraid the total effect is even more dorm-ish, my attempt at covering it up only drawing more attention to the problem and looking as cheep as it was. Ah well. I prefer it with the flowers anyway.
The end of the week brought us temperatures of -14F. I do NOT enjoy these temperatures. It is just rediculously cold. I am dealing with it by giving myself permission to take the bus wherever I go. But you can't stay inside this little apartment all weekend, not even all day, so today (it was only -6) we went for a walk. Kalee had a lot of energy so we headed out on the lake and actually walked all the way across. It's not that far, but it is a pretty cool thing to do. In this picture Kalee and I have just started across the lake. You can see it's not all that far to the boat on the other side. This is the narrowest part of the lake.
The sun is just starting to go down around 3:30 and is reflecting beautifully on the bridge and hills.
We have reached the other side.
Behind the boat is the cutest little round wood hut where you can buy hot chocolate and coffee on the weekends. We hadn't brought our money so we came home and had hot chocolate at home. Although hot chocolate has become a daily beverage for Kalee, this was special because Charles actually melted chuncks of a chocolate bar into the hot chocolate. Kalee liked it.

The Weekend: Sauna, friends and more

2010-01-17T11:12:00.000+02:00

Ahhhhhh. There is nothing more Finnish that a weekly Sauna. Our building has two saunas on the first floor (slightly nicer buildings have one in each apartment). Each apartment has an assigned weekly hour to use one. Our hour is Friday from 8-9pm. I had the first go this weekend while Charles stayed upstairs with Kalee. Next week we'll switch. Sometime we'll let Kalee stay up late and sauna with us. The heat, the relaxation, the solitude were all wonderful.

You'd think with Kalee at school and Charles at work I would have plenty of solitude. On weekdays, though, I seem to be spending most of my time forraging the city for food and household items, walking from place to place, or going to Finnish class. Right now Charles and Kalee are out sledding. I decilned to go in favor of a little time alone to write on the blog and drink some tea.

Charles had his solitude yesterday while I took Kalee on her first Finnish play-date. She has made a delightful friend at school and the two of them made plans to play on Saturday. The moms finally confered on Friday to work out a plan. I stayed while the girls played and had a great time making culture, food and vocabulary comparisons with her parents, a Finn and a Brit. They loaned us a really cool cookbook (in English) about the food and history of central Finland. We laughed alot and told stories about our kids. It was the most at-ease I have felt with anyone here yet.

Ma puhun vahan suomea. I speak a little bit of Finnish.

2010-01-16T11:04:00.001+02:00

Mika sun ammatti on? (What is your profession?)
Ma olen pastori.
"You make pastries?" my neighbor asked. If I was really quick in such things I would have answered, "No, I heat things up to purify them." That pretty much sums up what pastors do, doesn't it?

That was our first day of Finnish Language class on Thursday. The two hour class turns out to only be 90 minutes. In Finland a class that is posted to run from 14:00-16:00 actually starts at 2:15 and ends at 3:45. So strange.

After learning lots of useful little phrases (like how to say what country we are from and what our profession is) the teacher gave a little lecture about Finnish language. There are some things, she said, that make learning Finnish easy.

1. No articles. None of that 'der' or 'die' or 'das' like they have is German.

2. No gender. Really, no gender! For example, you want to say "My friend and I went to a movie. She didn't like it." There would be no she. The word indicating another person is han, used for male or female. Charles says Finns speaking in English have a really hard time with he/she, often using the wrong one or switching part way through the conversation. It is even more confusing for Charles because he doesn't necessarily know if Finnish names like Paivi, Nuppu, Jorma, or Jonna (names of a few Finnish people we know who's gender we actually do know) are male or female, and then the speaker will switch pronouns half way through a conversation. Kind of confusing, but also refreshing. Separate words for professions (ex, waiter, waitress) also no longer exist in Finnish. They decided decades ago that gender in such situations does not matter. The exception, our teacher said, is there are still separate words for King and Queen.

3. No future tense. Fascinating. You say "I am cooking." "I am cooking tomorrow." None of this "will be" stuff to worry about.

4. 1:1 relationship between letters and sounds. You pronounce every letter (even/especially when they are doubled). The difference between 'meet' and 'kill' in Finnish is a single 'a' versus a double 'a.' Very important to pronounce those double letters. Also, every letter only makes one sound. There are no long and short vowels, 'c' only says one thing.

5. Stress is always on the first syllable. Makes guessing at pronunciation much easier.

There are a bunch of things that make learning Finnish hard, too. Her list was shorter but, to me, they were much more daunting and too complicated to even try to explain in a blog post, mainly because I don't understand them yet. So it goes.

Care Packages

2010-01-14T11:52:00.000+02:00

Some of you have asked about sending care packages. The one thing we would really love to have is Good Earth tea, the original herbal "sweet and spicy" flavor. Kalee and I both love this stuff and I haven't found anything even close here. Boxes are expensive to send, but tea bags fit into envelopes really easily. We'll drink to you every time we have a cup!

Today's Walk

2010-01-13T19:32:00.000+02:00

I walked to Kalee's school today to pick her up at 1pm. The 25 minute walk gets me out in the mid-day sun to soak up some good rays, especially on a day like today - crisp, cold (9F) and clear. Not a hint of wind (there is very little wind here, which makes the cold temperatures much more bearable).

This is the sun over the lake at noon. Just over the tips of the trees. Over the next three hours it will move horizontally until it dips below the tree tops again. And this is my shadow at noon.Are you laughing yet? I am.

Monday and Tuesday were WARM here, up to 30F. Then the temperature dropped and all the humidity froze onto the trees, leaving everything covered with a layer of frost. Really beautiful.This is a sculpture in the middle of the traffic circle at the end of our street, frost covered trees glistening in the sun in the background. And here is the sunset reflected in the eastern sky. What time is it? 3:30pm.

The Kitchen

2010-01-13T19:15:00.000+02:00

Here are some photos of our kitchen situation.

The dishwasher/dryer. The two shelves above the sink are wire grating. Water drips back to the sink. Close the doors and drying dishes are out of sight.

The tiny stove. Two pots can cook next to each other if they are both small.

The giant refrigerator. The two doors on the left are the freezer, the two on the right are the fridge.

It seems so out of proportion. Currently our freezer holds one ice cube tray and that's it.

And finally, although there is much more to say about food sometime (I've requested such a post from Charles), here are how eggs come in Finland. Count them ... Metric eggs. Who'd a thunk?

Quotable

2010-01-11T19:38:00.001+02:00

"I take life at a walking pace. Spirituality and speed don't go together. You have to believe that when God made time, he made plenty of it."
Heard on a podcast from Wisconsin Public Radio, an interview with Satish Kumar, founder of Schumacher College in England.

Today my walk home from taking Kalee to school took 85 minutes. I went the long way to try to go shopping at the thrift store, but it didn't open until 10. And then I got lost and walked almost all the way around the lake instead of taking the pedestrian bridge across it. It was a nice walk through an old neighborhood with traditional Finnish houses (instead of the modern apartment buildings that most people seem to live in). I had plenty of time. It was a warm day (in the 20s). The snow was beautiful. Finns walk a lot. I wonder how that slowness affects their outlook on life. I wonder how six months of walking will affect mine.

First Impressions

2010-01-09T17:34:00.000+02:00

Looking out the windows of the Helsinki airport and past the runways (being brushed clear of snow by a line of 5 plows followed by a truck spraying something [de-icer?] over the pavement), one's eyes immediately run into a dense wall of trees. To call it a wall is not quite right as that implies something long and narrow, a boarder delineating two spaces. Rather, my immediate impression is that the airport is a small clearing carved out of the dense, ubiquitous forest.

Coming to our city of Jyvaskyla that impression has been strengthened. Everywhere that is not carved out for roads or buildings is covered in forest. The effect is enchanting. Clearly we are in a different sort of place when people and trees live so closely together. Our books call Finns "Forest People." Now I understand.

Finns do not smile at you in the street. Shop keepers do not ask you if you need assistance (which makes browsing much more pleasant). Cashiers do not make friendly chatter. We had read about all these traits in our books. They are true. I smile at people in the street if our eyes meet and receive only curious looks in return. I am probably making people feel uncomfortable. I'll have to work on my neutral face so I don't stick out quite so much.

This city is made for walkers. There appear to be more miles of walking paths and sidewalks than roads. The walking paths are at least 8 feet wide and perfectly maintained - plowed down to a hard-packed layer of snow that gives (mostly) decent traction. [Charles has been slipping around a bit but my new boots are keeping me sure footed, comfortable and warm. I cannot say enough good about these boots.]

As it is winter and the lake is frozen there are extra walking paths across the lake making the distance from our apartment to the city center three or four blocks shorter. These paths are used by walkers of all ages, parents pushing strollers (yes, they take their babies out in -8F and colder air), and bicyclers. I even saw one preschooler riding a tricycle when it was about -16.

Arriving II

2010-01-09T09:31:00.000+02:00

Arriving in our apartment. 700 square feet seems quite sufficient. The layout wastes no space with hallways, the bedrooms are just large enough to sleep and dress in (Kalee's has space to play since her bed is smaller than ours). The kitchen/dining area is generous and, when the weather warms up, opens onto a balcony. We are on the sixth floor with a view over the lake towards the city center in one direction ...... and up the hill to a spaceship-like water tower in the other direction. The water tower glows blue at night. It is one of the many light installations the city has created to make the winter evenings more interesting. Every apartment building has it's own play area for children. Kalee hasn't let the snow deter her from enjoying ours. Actually, it probably makes it more fun.
Everything was spic-n-span clean except the kitchen. Charles spent two or three hours cleaning that. And the fridge smelled ... um... well... really bad. Bad enough to make the whole apartment smell. We've bleached it and put baking soda in. It is better but still not great. Any suggestions?

And we've had to buy things. Lots of things. Rolling pin and baking sheet. Tea/coffee cups that hold more than 3 oz. Cheese grater. Measuring spoons. Some extra blankets. Food.

Food shopping is the most challenging thing so far. Charles stands before the grocery store shelves head bobbing up and down from the packages to the dictionary as though he's performing some ancient ritual of supplication. It is effective, though. He has located flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and all sorts of other things that are not entirely clear from the picture on the package. And today he puzzled out metric measurements and made cookies to take to his colleague as a thank you gift. Very impressive.

We've yet to find anything like a hardware store or Target-type store. We have a long list of those sorts of needs. We'll have to ask.

Arriving

2010-01-08T16:25:00.000+02:00

Arriving is not something that happens all at once, is it. I have a feeling I will still feel like I am arriving in a few weeks.

We physically arrived on Tuesday afternoon. The husband of Charles' colleague here picked us up at the airport. Luckily he drives a nice normal size station wagon so was able to fit all our suitcases in the car. He had already been to the apartment a couple days earlier to stock the fridge for us (including at least 5 different kinds of cheese, all of them delicious). It was too cold so he called maintaince and had it up to a toasty 22c when we arrived. Not only that, they had stocked the apartment with toys for Kalee - a keyboard, puzzles, games, some stuffed animals, a remote control car and a never-been-opened LEGO camper. The camper is so cool. They also gave us a cell phone to use. And they are having us over for lunch on Sunday. Such a wonderful and generous welcome. We are so grateful.

Our bodies are still in the process of arriving. I'm not sure what time zone they've made it so far, but they certainly haven't quite gotten to Finland. We are going to have to resort to using the alarm clock this weekend to try to get in sync and get Kalee to school before 11 am.

Away We Go

2010-01-03T00:08:00.000+02:00

A few days ago I realized we have been planning this trip for a full two years. It is hard to believe we are leaving tomorrow, but the mounting evidence around us is starting to make it real. The house is clean and most of the clutter has been tucked away from where it can accumulate dust. There are almost no clothes left in Kalee's drawers (we, on the other hand, still have closets full of stuff), the cupboard and fridge are, quite literally, bare (thanks to friends, we have eaten quite well all week).

Tomorrow we turn down the thermostat, throw sheets over the beds and couches, make some sandwiches and hit the road. A most generous friend is driving us the two hours to Detroit where we will spend the night in a hotel. We'll have a swim in the pool, order pizza, spread left-over frosting on the last package of graham crackers for dessert, then try to get a good night's sleep. Monday we fly from Detroit to New York to Helsinki to Jyvaskyla, finally arriving in Jyvaskyla mid-afternoon on Tuesday Jan 5th.

The adventure finally begins.
Next post from Finland.
Love,
Jill

PS: Here's all our stuff.

Finished Getting Ready for Finland

2010-01-03T00:05:00.001+02:00

Quotable

2009-12-29T15:37:00.000+02:00

Here begins a new thread: quotes from and thoughts about what I/we are reading.

In the face of an overpowering mystery, you don't dare disobey.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery in The Little Prince which we are reading to Kalee right now, and which Charles and I are both reading for the first time.

Luggage Repreive

2009-12-28T17:06:00.000+02:00

We were becoming more anxious by the day about the 44lb checked bag weight limit for our trip so Charles called Finn Air and spoke to an actual human being. And GOOD NEWS ... we can each check two 50lb bags! We are going to try to make it with 5 bags, not six, to leave us some room to bring home extra things. Plus, we will have to move all these bags (plus the carry-ons) around on occasion, so less is more.

The LIST

2009-12-16T03:31:00.001+02:00

18 days to go. Need I say more?

Where is Jyväskylä?

2009-12-16T03:14:00.001+02:00

Jyväskylä is in the southern third of Finland, right in the center, at the northern tip of lake Paijanne (a 100 mile long lake), about 270 km (170 miles ) from Helsinki. The town is about the size of Kalamazoo.

Pen Palls

2009-12-07T21:01:00.000+02:00

While we are in Jyvaskyla, Kalee will be attending an English Music and Play School. Her class will have 8 students. Their group is called the Pirates and their teacher is James. He is from the UK. Kalee's class at Northglad Montessori Magnet School sent some drawings and letters to her Finland school telling them what makes them smile: pizza, my kitty cat, my mom, and (my personal favorite) "my mouth!"
The Pirates of Finland sent back some great drawings about Christmas.

A snowman a present and a star!

Father Christmas' Sofa

A House and a garage with Father Christmas Overhead!

This last picture is drawn by Kalee's pen pall Konsta. He and his family (mon, dad and little brother) lived in California for over a year. His english is fluent and he knows what it's like to be in a foreign land. Konsta's family have already been so welcoming (and we aren't even there yet!), offering toys and books, playdates and family excursions. I'm so grateful to the Playschool director for connecting us.

Finland by the numbers

2009-12-03T16:08:00.000+02:00

Three is a magic number,
Yes it is, it's a magic number.
Somewhere in the ancient, mystic trinity
You get three as a magic number....

A man and a woman had a little baby,
Yes, they did.
They had three in the family,
And that's a magic number.

- Bob Dorough, Schoolhouse Rock

As the three of us prepare for our magical trip to Finland some other numbers are on my mind, too.

31 - the number of days until we depart for Finland.
62 - the number of pounds each of us can take to Finland. That's 44 for the checked bag and 18 for the carry-on, including the weight of the bag. I thought space was going to be the issue, but it turns out we have plenty of room in the suitcases, we just aren't allowed to fill them.
99 - the number of cents it costs to mail an old-fashioned letter to us in Finland. PLEASE send us some mail.
268 - the numbers of dollars it would cost to send a 20lb package from Kzoo to Finland via UPS. Crazy expensive. But it looks like the USPS can do 20 lbs for 42$ - 54$ depending on the volume of the package.
700 - number of square feet in our two-bedroom apartment.
5 - the number to which Kalee and I can consistently count in Finnish. Yksi. Kaksi. Kolme. Nelya. Viisi. Charles, thankfully, has figured out the whole counting thing.
less then 50 - the number of Finnish words I know.
5.5 - number of daylight hours in Jyvaskyla on Jan 1, but much of that is like dusk.
11.5 - daylight hours on March 16
19 - daylight hours on June 16, but the remaining 5 hours are like dusk, never totally dark.
178 - number of days we will be in Finland.
countless - the number of anxieties I have about this trip. I did take care of one serious anxiety on Monday. I purchased some awesome winter boots that are warm, waterproof, comfortable-on-my-nearly-unsatisfiable-feet, and have really good grippy soles for walking on snow and ice.