Helmikuu loppuu (February is ending)

Kimmo measuring some copper (II) sulphate solution

So there is a new jakso at school. I am taking an äidinkieli, mother language, course (aka Finnish). Its focus is on spoken Finnish so I thought I might be able participate in an effort to improve my spoken Finnish skills. I think my favourite course of this jakso will be Chemistry 6 which is a työkurssi, meaning that it is a class for doing experiments. It is sort of similar to Physical Lab Studies at KSS except at a lower level. Unlike high school in Kelowna, during normal chemistry courses there are no experiments to help cement the concepts. This is my schedule:

	Maanantai	Tiistai	Keskiviikko	Torstai	Perjantai
8-10	Chemistry 6		Physics 7		Music 7
10-11:35	Math 12	English 6	English 6	Chemistry 6	Math 12
12:20-14	Physics 7	Chemistry 6	Math 12	English 6
14-15:30	Finnish 7	Physics 7	Finnish 7	Finnish 7

The band on the bridge. I'm in red with my oboe.

As I’ve previously mentioned, I am now performing in the local band. We had our first ‘gig’ last week. There is a new pedestrian bridge in my town and we played at the grand opening. Outside. On the bridge. In the freezing cold.

The protesters in the market square

The main employer in my town of Kauhava in the Finnish Air Force’s Lentosotakoulu (flying war school). A couple of weeks ago the federal government announced that this school would be closing down in a couple of years. This upset almost the entire population of Kauhava as it is the major economic engine of the town. When I first heard the news I initially thought, ‘That will kill Kauhava.” I really do think it would be horrible for the town. Both of the host families that I have had work at the lentosotakoulu: my first host father Jarmo is a mechanic and my current host father Petri (aka Major Kettunen) is a teacher. Anyways, on the weekend I attended a peaceful demonstration in support of keeping it open. An estimated 400 people attended, including local and federal officials who are against the closure. The event was covered on national news (and I saw my bright red toque on Finnish television!) Hopefully, for the sake of all Kauhavalaiset, the school will be kept open.

Saila and me.

I went tobogganing with my host family. We went to Mäenpää (the hill’s head) which is an area of Kauhava. We brought makkara and hot chocolate and it made for a nice afternoon.

The revontulet were very difficult to get a good photo of.

Last night, I was given a real treat. I was able to see the Aurora borealis shining above my town. My friends who live in Lapland were posting about how they were seeing the northern lights and I thought, well, maybe this is my chance. I checked the US government’s aurora forecast and it showed that within an hour they should be visible over my area of Finland. I set an alarm on my phone to go off every 15 minutes to remind me to check outside. Nothing. Then my friend in Seinäjoki (south of Kauhava) said she could see them. So I went outside to take a look. I kept looking north, because they are the northern lights. Nothing. I turned around to go inside and BAM! The south western sky was light up green. I ran to the other side of the house. Then I abandoned post for a split second to get Saila, my 4 year old host sister, to come look at them. From what I gather, it is quite rare that they are visible from Kauhava. I am super happy that I got to see them and I'm sorry for the other exchange students who missed out.

Abit lähtevät ja wanhat tanssivat (Grads Leave and Oldies Dance)

Me and the guys: Niko, Kimmo, Henri, Kalle, ja minä

Last week was all about big changes happening in my lukio. In short, the graduating students had their last week of school while the second graders celebrated becoming the oldest students in the school with a wonderful ball. Because I’m an exchange student, I got to be part of it all.

Just because this was their last week of school doesn’t mean the abit (grads) won’t be coming back. They now have a 3 week study break because they are preparing for their ylioppilastutkintot (matriculation examinations); YO for short. These are similar to the grade twelve provincial exams that used to be offered in British Columbia. Everyone must complete at least four exams which are each 6 hours long. At my school most students complete Finnish as mother language, Swedish, long English, and short math. Although I wanted to, my school counselor said I was not eligible to write any YO exams because students must have seventy-five course credits to do so. I wrote the preliminary (practice) long math examination and received the second best grade in the school. And this exam was entirely in Finnish!

The Abit getting kicked out of the school by the 2nd graders

Last Wednesday, the second graders presented each of the graduating students with an award; things like “vuoden Barbie” and “vuoden Rautarouva” (the year’s Barbie and Iron lady). After the presentation of the awards, the abit were all forced to drink some concoction brewed by the second graders (orange juice, coffee, energy drink were among the ingredients). Then the grads were sent on their way: each of the second graders had a stick made of newspaper and each of the third graders ran up the stairs of the auditorium while being ‘beaten’ (more like lightly tapped).

My host sister with me in my pohjalainen clothes

That evening was a Pohjalainen Ilta. I think that I’ve mentioned before that the area I live in is etelä-pohjanmaa (Southern Ostrobothnia). This evening was when all of the third graders dressed up in traditional clothing and ate traditional food. I borrowed a jussi-paita (traditional red and grey sweater) and some tall leather boots from a friend of my host family. I thought the food was just normal food, nothing outstanding about it. Yes, there were potatoes of course. After the meal there was a short play followed by a teachers vs. students trivia competition. In the first round there were five teachers who were asked questions about the graduating class and five students who were asked about the faculty. The second round was the same teams of students and teachers on stage, but members of the audience could participate. It was Finnish music trivia (What song is this? What are the next lyrics? Etc.) and I don’t really know my Finnish pop music very well. In the end the teachers won by ½ a point. The next item on the agenda was the abit singing to the teachers. In small groups, the students rewrote the lyrics to several songs, personalizing them for the teachers. Then there was coffee and pulla. I proceeded to give a small speech. If your interested in what I said, it was the big block of Finnish text that is in my last post. All in all, it was a pretty good evening of Ostrobothnian-ness.

This is the other truck giving out candy at an elementary school

Thursday morning was Penkkarit. This is when the graduating class shares the celebration with all the other students in town by throwing out candy. The first thing that happened in the morning was when not a teacher, but the graduating students gave the morning announcement which was a song written, composed, and performed by students from my school. Then all of the abit (and me), dressed in the same traditional clothes we had the before, ran through the school throwing handfuls of candy into all of the classrooms. Then we all bundled up for the cold and loaded into the backs of two dump trucks. We drove to each of the elementary schools in Kauhava, throwing handfuls of candy to students and teachers alike. It was very fun even though it was little chilly. The best party was having all the kids shouting “Mä haluan karkkia” or something similar in the hopes of getting more candy. When we got back to the high school some second grade students served coffee and pulla to the staff and graduating students. There was a farewell speech from the principal and a thank you speech from one of the students. The abit then sang another couple of personalized songs to the staff. After the coffee was gone, most of the abit left to go on a cruise to Sweden similar to the one I went on in the fall with my host family.

A circle waltz. I'm dancing with Mira, the grey dress in the front

Thursday night was the Wanhojen tanssi at Kauhavan lukio. For the entire fourth jakso (January to mid-February), all of the second graders had a gym class dedicated entirely to learning old fashioned ballroom dances. I was in this class and I practiced the dances too. The Wanhojen tanssi is a showcase when everyone dresses up in ball gowns and tuxedos (well, suit and tie) and performs the dances. This is a very old tradition at all Finnish speaking lukios in Finland. It is on par with the prom that we have back home in Canada, however all of the dances are choreographed, unlike the fist-pumping celebration we had last June.

A tango. I'm with Paula in the pink dress

One of the dances was the Virginia reel which is a square dance I learned in middle school back in Canada. Other dances included the pompadour, the wengerka, a waltz, the pas d’espagne, the cicapo, a tango, and a “freestyletanssi” which was choreographed by a student. There was a small group (10 pairs) that performed another waltz. I of course was in this group. My current host father and sister came to watch the dance as well my first host mother. We, the second graders, were unhappy with our performance at the Thursday evening show. The DJ had some problems with the music which all of us dancers. Luckily for us the next morning was another show for the rest of the lukio, as well as some elementary and middle school students. We all felt the morning show went off without a hitch. I’m very glad I got a chance to partake in the tradition and learn some of these old dances. And it’s always nice to be dressed up with a bunch of friends.

The video below is the song written and performed by some of the abit at my school. 

Puoli vuotta Kauhavalla (Half a Year in Kauhava)

A nice, but very cold winter day coming to an end in Kauhava.

Over six whole months here in Finland, and more specifically here my new home town, Kauhava. Well I have been quite busy for the past little while. I have fallen back into my bad habit of not taking very many pictures, but I’m trying hard to mitigate this problem. It is definitely winter here in Finland, although I have heard from almost every Finn with whom I’ve spoken that this winter is nothing compared to last year. That being said, there is currently about a foot of snow on the ground. It is once again light outside for more than four hours per day. A few weeks went by with the highest temperature being -15º C and the lowest somewhere around -35º C.

Avanto – AW-vawn-toe – noun; a hole in the ice, frequented by Finns during the winter months immediately after sauna. There is a lake near Kauhava named Ojutjärvi. Beside the lake is a church camp, compete with a sauna. Beside the sauna is a hole in the ice. My first trip to avanto was with my friend Kalle. Apparently it was my “knighting” as a true Finn. Basically, we sat in the sauna getting nice and warm and then we went outside and submerged ourselves in freezing water (except not our heads because that’s dangerous). Now consider that this is when the air temperature outside was less than -20º Celcius. It feels so stupid when you climb down the ladder into the water, but afterwards it is a super refreshing feeling. You feel cleansed inside and out.

Looking down at Simpsiö from the top of the hill.

I have checked out local ski hill, Simpsiö; in all actuality it is in Lapua (about a 20 minute drive away). To try to put the size into perspective for everyone from Kelowna, maybe the entire hill was a bit smaller than Telus Park at Big White. One Friday night my host brother Konsta and his friend wanted to hit the slopes so I came along too. Sanna (my host mom) and Saila (host sister) came to go sledding. Saila also tried out down hill skis for the first time. We were at the hill for three hours. I skied off the main lift, which was a T-bar. There was a chateau at the top of the hill were we could buy food. Saila and Sanna drove up to the top and then everyone from our party went in to warm up; I had some hot chocolate. For your information, in the Finnish language they have two different words for the two different types of skiing: laskettella (to downhill ski) and hiihtää (to cross-country ski).

The skiers at our final destination

A couple weekends ago I went on a skiing (cross-country) day trip with my friends Kalle and Niko and the German exchange student Martin. We skied seven kilometres from the head of the trail to Fröötilä, which is a little red cabin with a fire place and some places to sit and eat. We each brought some makkara to eat and we drank some hot chocolate that I brought along. After our lunch, we got our skis back on and headed to Ojutjärvi to go swimming. We went back along the trail to its intersection with the path to the lake, just to find that no tracks had been made, and Kalle our resident skiing expert didn’t know the correct route to take. So we headed back towards Fröötilä and then went along the road to the lake. After a long day of skiing, we estimate 17 kilometres, we reached the sauna and avanto. We proceeded to spend time cleansing our soles as we repeatedly got warm and subsequently very cold. It was the first time that Niko, someone who has lived his entire life in Finland, went through the hole in the ice.

The first weekend of February I went to Vaasa, a primarily Swedish speaking city on the coast, to visit my friend Cindy who is from Northern California. Cindy was the first exchange student I met in the Seattle airport more than 6 months ago. It was a cold day (between -20 and -25) but we spent lots of it walking around the city and just catching up in general. We walked to the “water front” but the sea was frozen over; we took advantage of the cold and walked across the sea (ok we walked a little way on the ice but that’s because the wind was too cold). Unfortunately my camera’s battery died as soon as I turned my camera on in Vaasa.

This past weekend I went on another skiing day trip with Kalle and we went to Voitilanjärvi which is near the border between Kauhava and Lapua. It was a 24 kilometre round trip (more than a half marathon!). It took about 3.5 hours including a break at Fröötilä to get warm and drink some hot chocolate.

Our band providing accompaniment for some of the dancers.

On ystävänpäivä (Valentine’s Day) there was a dance show at the school which also featured some of the school’s rock bands, mine included. I sang in two songs and played my oboe in one song. We, the second grade boys, also performed our poikientanssi which we also danced at the lukio’s gala in November.

 Some of the biggest news I have to share (which has nothing to do with Finland, but whatever) is my receipt of the Chancellor’s Scholarship at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. This prestigious scholarship is awarded to fifty students every year on the basis of school and community involvement, creativity, and demonstrated leadership. It is valued at $36,000 over four years of study. I would like to thank everyone who was directly or indirectly involved in helping me obtain this award.

 This is an assignment I did with my new Finnish teacher to test where my language skills are currently at. If you really want to know what it says, Google translate does an ok job at translating it (but not perfect). I think it is definitely an accomplishment when you can correct Google translate, mostly because it doesn’t understand Finnish grammar. I presented this little speech the Abit (graduating students) on their last day of school.

Elokuussa mina tulin Suomeen. En tiennyt minkälainen minun vuodeni olisi mutta minä olin päätänyt että minä yrittäisin opiskella suomen kieltä.

Nyt, kuuden kuukauden jälkeen, minä jo osan suomea paremmin kuin yhdeksänkymmentäyhdeksän prosenttia ihmisistä maailmaassa, vaikka tiedän että minun täytyy vielä opiskella. Sanotaan että suomi on eräs maailmaan vaikemista kielistä. Tämä voi olla totta, mutta te suomalaiset olette auttaneet minua ja olen kiitollinen teille, suomalaisille.

Suomessa minä en ole oppinut vain teidän kieltänne mutta teidän kultuutianne myös. Mitä minä olen tehnyt täällä? Olen syönyt poroa ja hirveä, olen uinut jarvessä kun oli minus kaksikymmentä astetta ulkona, olen pelannut pesäpalloa, ja olen tavannut monta uutta ystävää.

Minulla on vielä neljä kuukaudet täällä Kauhavalla ja haluan että se on niin mahtava kuin minun ensimmäiset kuukauteni. On vielä paljon asioita joita minun pitäisi tehdä Kauhavalla ja haluaisin että minä voisin yrittää tehdä jotain uutta kaikien kanssa.

Haluaisin sanoa toisen kerran kiitoksia kaikille ja jos tulette Kanadaan te olette tervetulleita minun kotiini.