Ruotsi ja Syysloma (Sweden and Autumn Vacation)

Our ship, the Silja Serenade

Last week was syysloma, autumn vacation. It was a week long holiday to do whatever. As I mentioned in my last post, my family went to Stockholm, Sweden.

Monday morning we drove to Helsinki. We stopped twice: to have coffee with Jarmo’s aunt and then a bit later for lunch. I passed the car ride by reading The Life of Pi. It’s not the first time I have read it, but it was so good that I decided to bring it here to Finland so that I could read it again. It was refreshing to see more than a handful of traffic lights when we entered the city. We drove to the cruise ship terminal, parked in a reserved parking spot (reserved for us!...because Jaana booked it in advance).

A Muumin and me!

Many people referred to the ship as a ferry, but when I think ferry I think I am on the boat for two hours to Vancouver Island. This was definitely a cruise ship, although there were two decks for drive on passengers. Once checked in with our boarding pass/room key (one card served as both), we loaded. I was expecting to show some identification of some sort; I came prepared with my passport, but it wasn’t necessary. When we boarded, the first crew members we saw were some photographers, but then there was a giant Muumin. The Muumins are a huge children’s franchise in Finland; it started out as books, then television, and now they even have a theme park! Apparently we were on the official Muumin Cruise Line, so of course I posed for a picture!

The main promenade.

Once on board we quickly found our cabin and deposited our bags. It was the smallest “hotel” room I have ever slept in; when we looked it the bathroom (1 m x 1.5 m) my host mom exclaimed it was pretty big compared to their last cruise. Next we explored. The boat had 13 decks and among them included: a main promenade, several restaurants with varied cuisines, perfume and clothing shops, a few bars, a large duty free store (it basically had only candy and alcohol for sale), a theatre, a casino, a large buffet, a lounge, and several hundred private cabins. There was a very talented string quartet who gave several concerts on the promenade. Later, we ate dinner at the buffet and watched the midnight show: a magic/dance show (which was way too much dance and not enough good magic).

Royal Palace of Sweden. Princess Victoria (the
crown princess) recently got married. It was a big
deal in Finland and all of Scandinavia

The next day, we ate breakfast at the buffet and signed up for a bus tour of Stockholm. We also exchanged some currency. In Sweden they use the Swedish Krona. One krona is about 10 euro cents or 15 Canadian cents. The bus tour was on a double decker bus, we were upstairs, and entirely in Finnish. I didn’t pay attention at all to the tour guide. Along the tour we saw the major sites of Stockholm: the Royal Palace, the Royal Opera, the Swedish National Museum, and the House of Parliament just to name of few. I realized from both the tour and my map that Stockholm is made up of several islands; needless to say there are many bridges. At the end of the tour the bus stopped at the Vasa Museet (Vasa Museum). The Vasa was a bridge built in Sweden and named after the king in the 1600s. On her maiden voyage in 1628, she sunk in the waterways of Stockholm. The ship was salvaged in 1961 and was rebuilt using 95% original material. After we ate lunch at the museum, we walked backed to the cruise ship terminal and reboarded the vessel. Total time on land in Sweden: maybe 5 hours. Although we spent little time in Sweden, I was surprised how much Swedish (at least the written language) that I recognized. Swedish and English are both Germanic languages, so they have many similarities. Many more than English and Finnish.

In the afternoon, my host family did their tax free shopping on the ship. My host brother Iiro bought lots of candy and my host parents refilled their liquor cabinet. For dinner we went to El Capitán, a steakhouse, courtesy of my parents back home. When the bill came, I was shocked to see such a high price. Then I realized that the price was in both euros and in kronor, the kronor price approximately 10 times that of the euros price. That evening we spent some time in the karaoke lounge (I am embarrassed to say that I sang… my host mom did too). Afterwards, we caught the tail end of the magic show (a different one than the night before) and went to bed. The ship docked in Helsinki the next morning just before 10 am. It was a great trip and I am thankful to my host family for taking me. I just wish it had been a bit longer.

Me at the Hämeenlinna castle. It had a moat!

We got into the car and started driving. My host mom wanted to drive to Turku, the former capital city of Finland, but the family decided to go home…not without stops, however. We stopped at a glass museum which gave plenty of information about the glass industry and artwork in Finland. It was in an old glass factory where, according to my host mom, my host father’s mother and grandfather had both worked. The other stop we made was at the Hämeenlinna castle in the town of Hämeenlinna. The city of Hämeenlinna is to be the birthplace of world renowned and Finnish national composer Jean Sibelius. Jaana and I both explored the castle which is from the era of Swedish rule of Finland. It was pretty interesting and I enjoyed it. We ate lunch in the city and then continued back to Kauhava.

I didn’t really do anything very exciting during the autumn break. I tried to study Finnish, but I wasn’t very productive. On Sunday, after eating lunch at Rolls, I went to Kalle’s house and helped him prepare metso. I have been informed that metso is “wood grouse”; Kalle went hunting when he was at his cabin in Lapland during the break and he came home with this 2 kg bird. I helped make the meal by washing, peeling, and dicing several root vegetables. It was a very nice meal and I am grateful that I was invited to join.

Now for a bit of Finnish:Viime viikko oli syysloma. Minä menin Tukholmaan perheen kanssa. Se oli lyhyt matka Ruotsiin, mutta se oli hyvä. Sunnuntaina, minä söin metsoa Kallen taloon. Pidin siitä.

In English: Last week was autumn break. I went to Stockholm with the family. It was a short trip to Sweden, but it was good. Sunday I ate wood grouse at Kalle’s house. I liked it.

This is Elvis, the King.

On a more melancholic note, my cat Elvis who has been a good and faithful friend for many years has wandered off from my house in Canada. Unfortunately, the circumstances do not look promising and he may not return home. Please think of happy thoughts for him.

Enough about me, remember that I want to hear from you: my family, my friends, my acquantences, and even the people I haven’t met.

Mokupäivä ja Vaihto-Opiskelijoiden Vikkonloppu (Freshman Day and Exchange Students’ Weekend)

On Thursday morning I didn’t ride my bicycle to school. Instead I rode to the cinema. All of the first and second graders were going to see a Finnish drama called “Prinsessa” (I’m guessing you don’t need that translation. The third graders went the day before. The film is about a mentally handicapped woman who thinks that she is a princess. It follows her for quite a few years of her life after being admitted to a mental institution. I didn’t need to know Finnish to understand most of the movie, but I was very happy when I understood a little. (I found out later that there was actually some Swedish dialogues too, but apparently they were so easy the Finns didn’t need subtitles). 

The Smurfs with their Second Graders




Friday was a very exciting day at school! It was “Freshman Day”. This is a day when the kakkoset (2^nd grade) humiliates the ykköset (1^st graders). It is a long standing tradition at my school and is done with good intentions, and not to great extremes. While you read this, keep in mind I was just a spectator; I was neither being made fun of nor making fun of anyone (well, I did laugh a lot). The second graders plan the day in advance but keep it very “hush hush”. What happens is the second graders break into groups and each group is assigned a group of first graders which they plan for in advance. On the day of, the older students dress up in very authoritative outfits (suits, stilettos, and police hats) and abduct the first graders from class (all of the teachers are aware of the day in advance). Then the younger students are dressed up in funny outfits (and often some type of make-up). Some of my favourite groups included cowboys, chimneysweeps, and athletes (basketball and hockey) but my absolute favourite group was the Smurfs. After all dressed-up, the first graders congregate in the main room of the school (lobby/atrium/multi-purpose-ish room) and do some sort of demonstration like dancing or singing, which was really just chanting. Then they as a class draw from their childhood songbook and sing Finnish songs such as “If your Happy and You Know It”, “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes”, etcetera. I joined in singing their version of Head & Shoulders because it was the first Finnish song I learned at language camp back in August. Next, the first graders were marched

All of the Freshmen.

 throughout the school and in military fashion required to answer questions like “Who’s the best?” with “The Second Graders are the best!” At lunch time, the freshmen were “slaves” to their respective second graders. After lunch, there were team competitions amongst the groups of younger students. These competitions included music trivia, “three-legged” dancing contest (the entire group (3-6 people) had their legs tied together), and several amusing relays. At the end of the day, the first graders were required to get down on one knee and repeat the pledge of loyalty to the second graders. I was excited because I understood some funny parts of this pledge like “the first graders will always be second and the second graders will always be first”. It was a very amusing day of school. 




Sydney from Utah & Me at the Zoo (We are lynx)

This weekend all of the exchange students from Rotary Districts 1380 (my region, central west) and 1400 (Lapland, the north) were invited to Ähtäri. This was the first time that most of us, the August arrivals, would meet some January arrivals, most of whom came from Australia. Everyone gathered at the Train/Bus station in Seinäjoki. I only had a short 35 minute drive, some people traveled for hours by train to meet us. Anyway, we caught a bus to a forestry school in the town of Ähtäri. This is a post-secondary school were you can obtain either a university degree or vocational certification in the field of forestry. We, the exchange students, stayed in the “dorms” which were little 4 bed/1.5 bath apartments with kitchenette. There were only six guys in attendance, so we got an apartment to ourselves. There were approximately 22 girls. We were chaperoned by the District Chairperson for Youth Exchange, Antti, and his wife. Friday night we just chilled with the other exchange students and enjoyed the sauna (however we weren’t allowed to go swimming because the lake was a little far and wasn’t lit up at all). On Saturday morning, we had a photo scavenger hunt of the campus. We were provided with 24 photos and some clues which lead us to places around the school, each place had a letter and in the end we needed to translate the phrase from Finnish to English. I was in a group with Cindy from California and Sydney from Utah. We were the first group to finish to hunt and I knew 3 of 4 words so I texted my friend just to realize I knew the last word, I just forgot it. In the afternoon, we went to the Ähtäri Zoo where we

Fun Fact: Rudolph the red nosed reindeer
is named Petteri (Peter) in Finnish

 saw animals native to Finland. I saw my first Finnish Reindeer! . I felt a bit patriotic when I saw the beaver, a.k.a. the national animal of Canada. My favourite animals at the zoo were the big cats: the snow leopard, and the lynx. At the zoo, one of the Rotex (Rebound) students and I found out that not only did we both go to the World Scout Jamboree in England in 2007, but we were both part of a group who played hand drums for His Royal Highness Prince William, the heir to the British Throne. When we got back to the school, a big group of us played a card game from France called “Jungle Speed” which was very exciting. In the evening, there was more hanging out and sauna-ing. This morning (Sunday) we were lucky* enough to watch a movie about the forests of Europe (*extreme sarcasm). The bus ride back to Seinäjoki was a great end to the weekend of exchange student bonding. There were lots of hugs for everyone from everyone at the train/bus station.

So, I had a request to write some information about myself in Finnish by one of my readers. All of you Finns who are reading this, please don’t rip my spelling and grammar apart! (It was almost completely without a translator, only to check the spellings of some words)

Terve! Minun nimeni on Peter ja olen kanadalainen. Minä tulin Suomelle seitsemäs elokuu. Minä pidan minun kaupingista: nimensa on Kauhava. Minun lukiolle on satakahdeksankymmentä opiskeljaa ja jokainen on mukava. Suomenkieli on tosi vaikea mutta minä opiskelan. Kun minä yritän kuunella, minä voin ymmärtää vain vähän.

Englanniksi (In English): Hey! My name is Peter and I am Canadian. I came to Finland on the 7^th of August. I like my town; its name is Kauhava. My school has one hundred eighty students and everyone is nice. The Finnish language is really difficult, but I learn. When I try to listen, I understand only a little bit.

So I have some pretty exciting news! Tomorrow I depart for – wait for it – Sweden! This coming week is syysloma (autumn break) and my host family decided that they would take a round-trip cruise to Stockholm, Sweden. We will leave Monday from Helsinki and arrive back Wednesday morning, so we get all of Tuesday in Stockholm. My decision to not learn any Swedish may turn around to bite me in the “peppu” (derriere).

So, just like always, please feel free to leave some comments, questions, or anything!

Kaksi Kuukautta Suomessa (Two Months in Finland)

So, it has been a while, about 2 weeks, since I updated my blog, so I am going to do it somewhat in short form.. In general, I am having a great time. It is definitely autumn here. It is rainy. The days are getting noticeably shorter. I need to wear my toque, mitts and jacket whenever I ride my bike... and I ride my bicycle a lot. I think I might have "legs of steel" by the time I leave Finland.

These are some key events

Thursday the 29^th: At Partio I taught the “key game” for lack of a better name. You put a set of keys underneath a chair in the center of the circle. Someone who is blindfolded sits on the chair and tries to point at any culprit who tries to steal the keys.For our Rotary meeting, we went on a tour of the Unico factory; Unico is a mattress company. I took pictures throughout the tour, but at the end was told that it is all “top secret” and no photos were supposed to have been taken. I want to put a picture up, but I don't think I should.



My "bed", the hammock was occupied when I wanted
to go to sleep.



Friday the 30^th of September: I went camping with Partio at their cabin (Partiomöki). Even though there was a cabin, which would have been warm if we slept inside it, we slept outside on the ground. We hung a tarp, but there wasn’t enough room for Juha (the leader) and me in addition to the scouts, so we just slept on our little foam mattresses outside on a chilly night. I liked when we went on a little walk at night and looked at the stars and after Juha pointed out a constellation, I would be able to say what it was in English.

Saturday the 1^st of October: I went to an awesome concert in Seinäjoki with my host mom, her friend (Kimmo’s mom) and her significant other. When we got to the concert hall, I met up with some of my friends from school. The group was called Semmarit (which is short for Seminaarinmäen Mieslaulajat) and they are a Finnish a cappella men’s choir. I really enjoyed the concert even though I didn’t understand most of the lyrics. But they are a very entertaining group with physical comedy and stellar harmonies which cross languages. Even thought they didn’t sing it at the concert, check out this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK_JZJGmnPk&feature=related.

The super awesome choir!

Tuesday the 4^th of October: After school we went to a café and I brought a deck of cards. I taught the group how to play Go Fish (menet kalaan)

Wednesday the 5^th of October: I brought my cribbage (crib) board to school with a deck of cards, just in case an opportunity pops up during which I could teach one of my favourite card games. After school my friends in second grade math had a calculator tutorial (side note: I brought my Ti-83+ here just in case I might need it. I think I have the most “ghetto” calculator in the class, everyone has super fancy graphing calculators) anyways, my friends who are in short math were just hanging out, so I whipped out the crib board and taught them how to play. I won, of course, but they were fast learners.

Still the 5^th: At the knife course, I shaped the handle of my knife using the belt sander and sandpaper. Now I need to decide how to finish it off. I also started making the sheath that my knife will go in when complete.

Thursday the 6^th of October: the scouts are working on their detective badge. They have already done fingerprinting and smell identifications. This week we used lemon juice as secret ink (the words appear when held to a candle). Unfortunately this meant that several pieces of paper caught flame, but they were quickly extinguished.

Friday the 7^th of October: TWO MONTH-iversary! I made a guest appearance via skype at my sponsor’s (Rotary Club of Kelowna Sunrise) weekly meeting. They meet at breakfast time so it was the early evening for me. The president and I had been emailing for a few days and he requested that I give a ten minute presentation on my time here so far. My host family spoke with them for a little bit too. Later that evening, I went to the papilla (sort of like a youth group hang out place with billiards, videogames, food, etc.) with some of my friends. Sect

Sunday the 9^th of October: I went to Church. Iiro, my younger host brother, is in the process of confirmation so he needs to attend church every so often. Jaana and I attended with him. The Kauhavan kirkko (Kauhavan Church) has a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran denomination, which is what many Finns practise. I got goosebumps when I heard the chorus singing from upstairs and the beginning of the service. I really made me miss the choirs from my high school back in Kelowna. Anyways, I tried to sing the hymns in the books, but it was difficult to both sight read the music and try to correctly pronounce the words. I enjoyed the service though, and I understood some of the priest’s sermon which made it even better.

My host mom insisted on getting this shot.
The gun has absolutely no ammo, but we
both got a stern disapproval from Jarmo.

Still the 9^th: In the afternoon we went mushroom picking. Then we when to the shooting range where everyone practiced target shooting with a hand pistol. I was better than I expected on my first try. I got a score of 85 out of 100 (not quite an A, but still pretty good for the first try)

Monday the 10^th of October: Thanksgiving! The first “big” holiday I’ve missed since being in Finland. I might not have had turkey dinner, but I got my host family to recognize the date by going around the table and saying what each person was thankful for. I said that I am thankful for great family and friends on both sides of the world. That evening I talked with my family for what must have been two hours or more via skype. I had good conversations with my parents, both sets of grandparents, and my sister.

Tuesday the 11^th of October: I got a haircut! The barber was a family friend; Jaana and Ilari (host mom and brother) both got haircuts as well.

Remember, I always want to hear your questions, comments, concerns, news from home, really anything you want to share I would like to hear it!