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.

Uudet Harrastukset (New Hobbies)

First of all, I have to apologise to myself and everyone who is a loyal follower of my blog. For some unknown reason, I have been refraining from writing a new blog for three or so weeks. anyways… Because it’s been such a long time, I’m just going to write about some activities I’ve been up to. This post won’t necessarily be written in chronological order. For your information, I am already past the halfway point of my time in Finland.

The bowlers: Cindy, Anna, Vincius, and me

On the fourteenth of January, there was an exchange student get together in Seinäjoki for all of the exchange students in my Rotary district, 1380. It was the day after all of the “oldies” had gone back home to the Land Down Under. So this left only eight students in my district, of whom four came for this event. I caught the train and Vinicius, a brazilian, was on the same train. When we arrived in Seinäjoki, Cindy, a Californian, was waiting at the train station. We went out for coffee. Both Vinicius and Cindy live in Swedish speaking areas so I did a little bit of translation of the menu which was completely in Finnish. Then we went to the bowling alley where we met up with Anna, a German. We waited until two Rotex students (rebounds, both of whom went to Australia last year) because Rotary was paying. None of us were very good at bowling, but it was still fun. We then out for dinner at a Mexican restaurant (Los Gringos Locos).

In January, I have started a couple more hobbies in Kauhava. Every Tuesday night, a Rotarian name Reijo drives me to Ylihärmä to play in a wind orchestra so I can play my oboe. There are about 12 or so players every week. I play flute music most of the time because there is no oboe part. My first rehearsal was so painful. It was the first time in about six months that I had really played an oboe and my lips felt like they were going to fall off of my face. In subsequent rehearsals and practices at home I have improved and I feel like I can actually play again. Interesting fact: in the Finnish language you don’t “play” (pelata = to play) an instruments but instead “call” (soittaa = to call) an instrument. The music we play isn’t very advanced. I would compare it to maybe the music my concert band played in grade 9, but at least I’m playing again. I have also on my own time started learning an oboe concerto.

After an afternoon of skiing. (my gloves are in my pocket)

I have taken up cross-country skiing as a new hobby. For the past few weeks I have gone at least once per week. In my PE class on Wednesday mornings, I go skiing with a small group on a track near the school. Most of the other people in our class spend the time playing hockey (ice hockey or floor hockey). I am getting a lot better at Nordic skiing; I can go up the biggest hill on the track without stopping and without walking up like a duck (having the skis as a big V). On the weekends, I have gone on a couple longer ski trips. I have been told that I make the best hot chocolate and I am on cocoa duty for the rest of my year here.

I have also joined a musical theatre performance group. We have started rehearsing a musical that is very locally themed. Here in Etelä-Pohjanmaa (Southern Ostrobothnia), the locals speak with a very funny dialect. All of the dialogue and lyrics use this strange accent to its fullest extent which means I have a very hard time understanding anything. Sometimes, the cast argues about what should be said: the choice between two words that are non-existent in proper Finnish. I play the very small role of an “angry man” with no speaking part, but I sing in the large group numbers. The “ensi-ilta” (premiere) of the show will be in May. Then during June the show will perform in Helsinki and then in the fall it will have more shows locally. I can only be in the May show because during June I travel on a Euro Tour with rotary (9 countries, 19 days) and then I go home at the end of June. The director insisted that I stay in the show for the time that I can because I am on a cultural exchange and being in it will give me a real taste of the culture of this area.

The final board

I played a game of scrabble in Finnish with my host parents and my friend Kalle. I’ve never really been a great scrabble player in English. I think that Finnish scrabble is a bazillion times harder, not only because I don’t yet speak it well, but the rules state that only perussanat (basic words) can be used… so even though I can make a real word I can’t put it on the board unless it is in its most simple form, and as some of you remember there are something like 16 different cases of nouns and adjectives but you can only play the nominative case and for verbs only the infinitive. But I’m probably boring you with this rant…I got third place of four; I got more points than my host father.

Me as a high school graduate.

One day a couple weeks ago all of the second graders went to an upper education institutions information fair in Seinäjoki. There were several different university and trade school booths to help the students decide their futures. Because high school is optional, there was a booth set up for the lukios in the area. When students graduate from lukio, they get receive a hat which is worn every labour day (May first). All in all, I walked away with a full stomach from all the fee candy, and a bag filled with other freebies like pencils, pens, pins, et cetera.

Henri's birthday dinner. Fyi, I have the only smile with teeth.

On another weekend, I went to Seinäjoki with my friends for a birthday dinner for Henri. We ate at the other Mexican restaurant (Amarillo). Most of my friends this year will be celebrating (or have already celebrated) their eighteenth birthday which is the big one here in Finland. At eighteen you can get your drivers license, you can buy alcohol (<21%), you can buy cigarettes (hyi!), and you can vote.

Pretty much the only campaign signs in Kauhava

Speaking of voting…Finland is in the midst of a presidential election. There is also a Prime Minister here, and they are like Canada’s Prime Minister meaning they are the leader of the equivalent of the House of Commons. The President however is the head of state. I’m not completely sure how duties are divided between the two politicians but I think the Prime Minister is more internal affairs and the President is more international affairs. In regards to the presidential election, all eight of the official political parties select a candidate to run for the presidency of the country. If after the first round of voting, no single candidate received more than 50% of the vote, the top two candidates advance to a second round of voting. The first vote took place and Niinistö of the National Coalition Party and Haavisto of the Green Party are advancing to the second round after receiving approximately 35% and 18% respectively of the first vote. Interesting fact, Haavisto could become Finland’s first gay president. I’ve noticed that there have been almost no signs, flyers, and other election paraphernalia trying to convince Finns who they should vote for.

So, if you have any questions remember you can always comment below and I’ll try to answer them in my next post (which I promise will not be another three weeks away!)

Uusivuosi ja Syntymäpäiväni (New Year's and My Birthday)

At home in Canada, December 24th to January 2 is a pretty busy time for most people, but especially my family: Christmas Eve (24.12), Christmas (12.25), Boxing Day (26.12), my parents’ wedding anniversary (27.12), New Year’s Eve (31.12), New Year’s Day and my birthday (1.1). With all of this being said, this time is normally the hardest part of anyone’s exchange abroad and I definitely felt some homesickness. It wasn’t “wah! I miss my family, Finland sucks, I want to go home” homesickness but more like “gee, I wonder what my family is doing now” or “I miss how <insert holiday tradition> is done at home”.

Niko, Henri, ja Kalle syövät sushia

On December 27^th, I had a nice phone call with my parents to congratulate them on 25 happy years of marriage. They spent it in Uclulet and Tofino on Vancouver Island. (I just received a post card from them today, Jan. 9) Also on this day I had a sushi party with my friends. Kalle invited us to his house for some homemade sushi. I have never really liked sushi. In my Rotary letter under things I don’t like, sushi was one of them. But Kalle’s sushi was “ihan ok”…it was probably the best I’ve ever had and I ate a few pieces but I didn’t love it. Afterward we went to see the second Sherlock Holmes movie in the theatre (yay! for free movie tickets for a year, thanks Kauhava Rotary).

Minä luistelen

I went jäähalliin luistelemaan (to the “ice hall” to go skating) on both the 28^th and 29^th of December. I am not a very good skater but I was able to put one foot in front of the other (pun intended) and I only fell once during the time that I skated. It was an agonizing fall, though, because I broke my fall with my hand but my watch was in an awkward position and painfully dug into my wrist. My host brothers and father in my current family all play hockey so they were skilled skaters, but I enjoyed my time nonetheless.

Peter on paras pilotti.

Perheeni ja lentokone

On December 30^th I was given the privilege of a private tour of the Finnish Air Force base in my town. Both of my host fathers work there: Jarmo my first host father is a plane mechanic and Petri my current host father is a teacher at the flight school. My current host family spent the day at the base and Petri gave us instructions on flying two different simulators used to train the students. One was in a classroom and was a bunch of computer screens. The other was really high-tech: it came complete with a control centre with all the screens, knobs, lights, etcetera. The actual simulator was a real cockpit with some big screens in front but the windshield of the plane distorted the images to look just like it really would (well, all the images were easily identified as computer generated, but close enough to the real world). Unfortunately the headset wasn’t working very well so I couldn’t hear the commands from the control centre even though they could hear me clearly. Eventually I ended up crashing the plane a few metres from the runway, but I considered it to be pretty successful for my first “flight”.
Petri gave us a tour of the two hangars which house the planes which are part of the Finnish version of the Snowbirds called the Midnight Hawks. In June, when there is the midnight sun, the Midnight Hawks have a performance in the middle of the night. Majori Kettunen also brought us to a classroom where he showed us a really neat computer reconstruction of one of their practices. After this we went to the officers’ lounge and relaxed in the awesome massage chairs. It was a really cool day.

Minä ja tina

On New Year’s Eve I went back to Kalle’s house for a party with our friends. We played a game of what is basically Balderdash but in Finnish. Forget about playing it in a second language that I’m not very good at, balderdash is a really difficult game to play. I had a strategy that got me pretty far in the game. I was allowed to use my dictionary, but none of the words were ever in it. I would look up each word, select a similar word from that page in the dictionary, and then try to write something strange that could be sort of associated with that word in some way. One of my favourites was “a postbox which has been scratched by cats” but it was written Finnish. I was also pretty good at guessing the correct definition. Also on the 31^st before the clock struck twelve we had a sauna and, in the manner of true Finns, rolled around in the snow. For midnight, we went outside and there were lots of fireworks going off everywhere. Our group didn’t have any, but there were several displays that we could see from the yard. I had happy birthday sung to me in three languages: “Paljon onnea vaan”, “Cumpleaños feliz”, and “Happy Birthday”. We spent a bit more time lounging around the house before deciding to go to a party in Hirvijoki (Moose River) which is technically still in Kauhava. There were lots of people from our school who were there celebrating the New Year. We went back to Kalle’s house (at 4:30) and people started heading home. Niko, Kalle, and I conversed with Kalle’s older siblings Emma and Mikko until 6 before finally giving our eyes the privilege of closing for a few hours. I woke up at around 1 in the afternoon and ate some yoghurt. We played a game of cribbage (probably my favourite card game from home) before I left for my host family’s house.

Minun kakku

It is a common New Year’s tradition to predict the future with tin here. So we each heated to small tin horseshoes over the fire and dumped the melted metal into a bucket of water. Then we examine our trinkets and decide what they mean. Apparently mine has the texture that signifies money (fingers crossed for scholarship $$ this year!)
That evening we had spaghetti for my birthday dinner and my first host family came over for cake. The delicious chocolate cake was baked by Sanna, decorated by Saila, and had the candles from my former host brother Ilari’s 19^th birthday in September. For my present from my families I got a bracelet which has the Finnish and Canadian flags on it. I finished the day with a birthday phone call from mom and dad in Canada.
School started on January 3^rd and I got my new schedule

	Maanantai	Tiistai	Keskiviikko	Torstai	Perjantai
8-10	Physics 6	Math 9	Phys. Ed. 2	Math 9	English 9
10-11:35	Math 17	English 10	Math 17	Physics 6	Math 17
12:20-14		Physics 6		English 10
14-15:30	Math 9	English 9 (only 1 hour)	Music 7	Phys. Ed. 2

The blanks are hyppytunteja (jump hours) or spare periods during which I have no class. Last jakso I took English 9, which is a speaking course, but only 3-5 people came to each class, so I offered to the teacher that I can come this jakso as well to help (I think I’m pretty good at speaking English, even though my skills in my mother language have drastically declined since being here in Finland).

On January 6^th there was no school because it is the twelfth day of Christmas (or something like that). Because there was no school Kimmo hosted a saunailta (sauna evening) the night before. I basically slept the day away. I got sick this week and I have been medicating myself with some good Canadian Buckley’s: “It tastes awful. But it works”.
January 7th marked my 5th month-aversary in Finland. Wow! Almost half way through the year!

Yesterday, Sunday the 8^th, I went skiing. No, not downhill skiing on the (read with sarcasm) oh so tall mountains nearby…I went Nordic skiing (aka cross-country skiing) with my host brothers. Later, I went to see the movie Vares at the theatre (another free movie!) with some of my friends. It was a Finnish murder mystery. I understood some of the conversation but sometimes I found that I had stopped listening. It was a really easy mystery to figure out but the movie was pretty good. Although I didn’t understand every word, I understood the movie which is an accomplishment.

Today, January 9^th, I want to wish my Grannie happy 75^th birthday. An interesting fact, my Grannie was the New Year’s Baby of Wells, British Columbia, in 1937. I was born on the first of January, but I wasn’t the New Year’s Baby because I was the second baby born in my town.

Joulu Suomessa! (Christmas in Finland!)

Hyvää Joulua!

Saila is in the middle.

This post is going to be all about Christmas, as the title would suggest.
A pikkujoulu is literally a “little Christmas” party. A couple of weeks before Christmas, the daycare of Saila (my host sister) had a little pageant for their pikkujoulu. They sang songs and did some dances. Crowd participation was encouraged; luckily they had a couple sheets of the lyrics. During one number, some of the little kids dressed as the Moomin, a really famous book and TV phenomenon in Finland. Saila was the infamous Pikku Myy. About a week later, Konsta, my younger host brother had a pikkujoulu outside at his ala-aste (elementary school).

My school's g pageant.

Each class put on a little performance. I think that Konsta’s class’ performance was about the three wise men. Konsta was the Christmas star. During a couple of the other classes’ performances I tried taking pictures. When I focus my camera a little red light turns on. As I tried to take photos of the pikkujoulu bright red lines appeared on all the little kids because their snow suits all have reflective strips. It was kind of heart-warming to see all of these little kids trying to sing Christmas songs. On the last day of school our school had a Christmas pageant at the church with a play and several musical performances. A few of my friends were actors and musicians. Afterwards there was an unofficial party for the kids from the Lukio.

Paappa cutting the tree down.

The weekend before Christmas, I went with my host mother Sanna, her parents (my host grandparents), and my siblings Saila and Konsta. We drove to the grandparents’ house in Untamala the village where Sanna grew up, which is part of the larger community of Ylistaro. It has since been annexed by Seinäjoki. We drove along some back road and then just stopped the car and starting looking around the forest for the perfect Christmas tree. It was the first time I have chopped down my Christmas tree in the forest. Normally at home in Canada my family goes to a Christmas tree farm in October to pick out our tree and then we come back in December to cut it down. After we found the tree, the largest I have ever had at about 10 or 11 feet, we made a little fire, cooked some makkara, ate some pulla, and drank juice. Sanna needed to drive Konsta to a hockey pikkujoulu so I spent the afternoon with Saila and her grandparents who speak limited English. It was successful to me because I communicated with only a few struggles due to the language barrier. We brought the tree inside and decorated it a few days on the 21^st. I missed having the ornaments that have been on my tree every year since I can remember but it was nice to see some of the ones made by my host siblings. At home, my family puts a lot more decorations on the tree then we did here.

I have always been a terrible procrastinator when it comes to Christmas shopping. This year, when I received a package from home, I was happy because I had gifts for both of my host mothers: a maple scented candle and a set of Canadian flag dish towels. A couple of days before Christmas I went shopping with Kalle and his sister Emma in Seinäjoki, but I only bought something for each of the two sets of host parents. I did the majority of my shopping (as per usual) on Christmas Eve. I got boxes of candy for each of my host brothers. For my host sister, I had already acquired a purse and a little change purse which I proceeded to fill with a small package of salmiakki. For each of my host fathers I bought a “flame thrower”; every year at home I get my dad a BBQ lighter so I thought I would do the same thing this year.

Christmas (Eve) Dinner

On Christmas Eve, Finns celebrate Christmas. We ate an early, but delicious dinner. The joulukinkku (Christmas ham) was cooked overnight and was served with a selection of laatikot (literally boxes) of cooked pâté-like food: one of each potatoes, carrots, liver, and rutabaga.

That evening at about 5 o’clock after mummi and paappa arrived, Joulupukki walked up the driveway to the front door with sacks of toys. We graciously welcomed him into our home and Saila presented him with a wrapped gift. We proceeded to sing him two songs: “Tuiki tuiki tähtönen” (twinkle twinkle little star) and “Joulupuu on rakennettu” (no English equivalent; something like “the Christmas tree is decorated”)

L to R: Sampo, Saila, Joulupukki, me, Konsta

Then he handed out all of the presents and posed for some pictures before taking the 5 dozen eggs we gave him. I don’t know what he and Mrs. Claus will do with them because they don’t drink egg nog here in Finland. We all went around the circle in a semi-organized manner and opened all of our presents. I was not expecting any gifts but I was very surprised with my “haul”: five boxes of candy, a hand painted mug from one host grandmother, a CD from my other host grandmother’s choir, two books in Finnish (a children’s book called “Joulupukki” and a book of photos of this region of Finland), a pair of Reinos which a popular brand of slippers/indoor shoes, a box set of all the Big Bang Theory from my parents in Canada, and a lovely hand written letter from my grandma back home. All the boys in the house got a pair of these shoes. Some other notable gifts include a TV for Sampo, some hockey shoulder pads for Konsta, an electric dog for Saila. Petri received a guitar; I feel like everyone in the house knows how to play Smoke on the Water as I have heard it seemingly non-stop since December 24. In the evening the other Kettunen family (my first host family) came for a visit.

Guess who?

(It's me!)

Ilari showed off his present which is this crazy camouflage suit that looks like some interpretation of Sasquatch. Jaana and I made a trip to the graveyard to place a candle. Because it was very dark and we entered the graveyard from the opposite side which Jaana normally uses, we accidentally place the candle on the wrong grave, but she quickly spotted the mistake and we proceeded to find the correct grave and re-lay the candle. The cemetery looked really nice with all the candles but Jaana said it was the first time she ever remembers going there at Christmas with no snow. Late into the night we played a game of Pohjanmaa Tähti (Ostrobothnia Star) which is an adaptation of the popular children’s game Afrikan Tähti (African Star).

The next day, December 25, Christmas Day, we went to mummi and paappa’s house (Sanna’s parent’s house) with all of the cousins. We ate another full, early Christmas dinner almost identical to the previous night, except this one had a turkey roast (not a full turkey) in addition to the ham. I noticed there that Konsta looks so much like his uncle Mikko. The proud grandparents have a really nice picture take a couple of years ago of all seven of their grandkids. That night, I had a nice Skype conversation with my family (Mom, Dad, and sister Roslyn), my mom’s parents, one of my cousins and his wife, and my Auntie Sandy.

December 26 is basically like a second day of Christmas here in Finland. Most stores are still closed and the “boxing day” sales aren’t until the 27^th. I went with my family (minus Sanna because she was working) to mummi and ukki’s house (Petri’s parents) for yet another full Christmas dinner. Three consecutive days had the same meal, each day at a different house. My first host family came as well as mummi and ukki and Jarmo’s parents as well.

My Finnish families

Christmas was really good. I did miss some things from home but I am very grateful to have such wonderful family here in Finland. Some things I am definitely going to add to my personal holiday traditions. I want to add joulutorttu and piparkakku to my Christmas baking list. I also want to have some of the laatikot with dinner.
Hyvää uutta vuotta kaikille! Happy New Year to everyone!

Joulukuu asiat (December things)

Saila, minun pikkusiskoni, ja minä (Saila, my little sister, and I)

The day after my Lapland trip, I intended on going to school even though I was most definitely sleep deprived. Apparently my lack of sleep caught up with me and I slept through my alarm Thursday morning. That afternoon I made pippurikakku (gingerbread cookies) with my two younger host siblings Saila and Konsta. When we rolled out the dough my host mother grabbed some stuff from a cupboard and gave me cookie cutter: the shape of Finland! Thursday evening I rode my bicycle to Rotary, just to find out that they weren’t having a meeting.

The next day, surprise surprise, I slept in again, but this time it wasn’t too late and I made it to the second half of my geography lesson. I had a free period from 10 o’clock until after lunch with a few of my friends so we went to Rolls to eat lunch. After that, we went to a café for some warm beverages before heading to my last class of the day.

Sampo with the puck.

On Saturday I supported my brothers’ hockey games. First Sampo had a game in Vaasa. After my Finnish class (my last one of 2011), Sampo and Petri picked me up at the school and we drove to the ice rink in Vaasa. Sampo’s team won (I think it was something like 8 to 5). Also while we were there, my Rotary counsellor was there because he has some high rank in the hockey referees’ association. After the game, we ate dinner and headed off to meet Konsta at his game. His team also won (8 to 6 I think). I watched more hockey that one day (two full games) then I think I ever have in a single day.

L to R: Kalle, Henri, Kimmo (joulupukki), Niko, ja minä

Sunday, a bunch of exchange students met up in Seinäjoki. I caught the train! My first time! (excluding the TGV in France). I realized when I bought my ticket that I really needed to get a student card because the ticket fare was double what I thought it would be. My friend Hanna was on the same train so we chatted. After I got off the train I realized I left my phone on the seat. Way to go me. I immediately went to the ticket sales desk and managed to tell the vender what happened, where I thought I left my phone, and what my phone looked like (all in Finnish). She called the conductor of the train, but unfortunately my phone would be going to the train company’s lost and found centre in Helsinki anyways, if it was found. So here I am in Seinäjoki, a town I don’t know very well, without my only communication link. All I knew was the name of the coffee place we were meeting and the approximate time. So I wandered around, walked into a mall, and looked at the mall map to find the coffee place was in the same building! Lucky! But I was about 30 minutes early so I read my book. An hour later, some exchange students snuck up on me. We all went for Chinese food and a little Christmas shopping. Those present were me, the three Aussies in Seinäjoki, an American who was an exchange student to this area last year and decided to move back to work and go to school here, and another Aussie from a more northern city. We had some coffee, did a little more shopping (I bought 2 new sweaters for myself), and played cards. To finish it off, one of the exchange student’s former host moms drove me to the ice rink where Sampo had another hockey game.

Pippurikakkutalomme (our gingerbread house)

The upcoming week at school was test week. For most exchange students this means an early start to Christmas vacation…but I wrote two tests. My chemistry test was about stoichiometry, reaction kinetics, and energy. Even though it was all in Finnish and my teacher spoke no English, I received a respectable mark of a 9 (a low A). I also wrote my second grade math test which seemed fairly easy but I haven’t received my number yet. The day of my chemistry test, my friend Kimmo dressed up as joulupukki (Santa Claus) and handed out candy as people left the cafeteria. Some days, even when I wasn’t writing a test, I would go to school just to eat lunch and hang out with my friends. During the week I did some more gingerbread baking and decorating and we made a pippurikakkutalo (gingerbread house) which we decorated with some Smarties from Canada. I also received a Christmas card from my Grannie and Grandad. Thank you so much, it really brightened up my day when my host mom delivered it to me.

The full choir (I am right beneath Jesus)

Last Sunday, the church choir had their annual Christmas concert, which I was fortunate enough to perform in. Some of the songs were familiar but with new words, and some were completely new to me (that is they were new to me before the rehearsals). I really enjoy singing in the choir and the concert was very enjoyable.

This week I finally started getting into the Christmas mood. I made some of my favourite cookies from home: the “Best” Davidson Shortbread and Candy Cane cookies. I watched some Christmas movies: The Polar Express and The Grinch (animated version of course).

The other day my phone was returned to me through the mail. I never want to leave anything on the train ever again; it is too expensive to get it back! I recently received my first package from home, which has seemed like it has been in the mail forever. I was packed full of candy, Canada paraphernalia, and maple syrup. My room still smells like maple!

Stay tuned for my post next week which will be all about my Christmas and the accompanying celebrations here in Finland.
Hyvää Joulua Kaikille! Merry Christmas to Everyone!