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!