Kesämökki Pudasjärvellä - Summer Cottage in Pudasjärvi

On the way to Ullan Vanhemman kesämökki (Ulla's parent's summer cottage), Ulla played a CD of children's Finnish songs. I was happily listening to the CD, having no idea what the songs were about, when suddenly I recognised one. The tune was very familiar, but I couldn't place it. Then, I herd them say "puff" and I knew; this was Puff the Magic Dragon. I was a little bit too excited, honestly, and made my family listen to it again, because I wanted to see what I understood. Yeah, I only got "puff" and the occasional word, but it was still great!

The next two links are the Finnish Puff song. The first one is the original that I listened to, the second one is more... Upbeat? I dunno. The second one has lyrics, which I find handy, but probably won't help any of you English folk at all :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKz9X8VMZ84&feature=youtube_gdata_player

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbM6HK5lhg4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

My time at the actual cottage was very nice, though I had more homework than I would have liked. The weather was also less than agreeable, but that was alright in the end. 

The most eventful thing this weekend was the Savusauna (smoke sauna). This is a sauna where there is no chimney, so all the smoke stays inside the little hut. It took about 5 hours to warm it up, and once it is done heating you let all the smoke out and let the fire die out. Because of all the smoke the walls are totally black and you're not supposed to touch them, which is sometimes hard when you're stumbling in the dark! I learned that, a hundred years ago, women gave birth in saunas like this. It makes sense, but it had just never occurred to me, and I thought it was a cool little factoid!

The old savusauna, no longer in use, but still looks cool!

"Are you ready for savusauna?" my family asked me, and I was totally down. I became very not down when I asked the temperature of the sauna and they responded with "120℃." My jaw hit the floor. THESE FINNS ARE GONNA KILL ME, I thought. I almost passed out when they said "it was 140℃, but we figured that was a little hot." And so, after saying my goodbyes and updating my will, I walked out to certain death... But came back alive! I really enjoyed the Savusauna, even though it sometimes hurt to breathe. I felt like I had been baptized in fire, to be all dramatic, but it was truly amazing. Honestly though, the best part was walking out of the sauna into the 3℃ air and thinking that it was not nearly cold enough outside. I really wanted a snow bank to dive into, or even better a frozen lake! But no such luck. 

A look inside the sauna

Because there isn't any body of water nearby, this is a little "swimming pool" was made beside the old sauna.

So there you are, my fun and frightening weekend at a cottage. Next week is koe viikko (test week), and I'm gonna study for my English test!

Pesäpalloa Peli - Finnish Baseball Game

Alright. I want you to think of everything you know about American Baseball. Collect all of that info up from the far corners of your brain. You got it all? Perfect, now throw it out the window, because you won't need it here.

I watched three Pesäpalloa peli today, and I still don't really know what's going on. But here is a short summary of what I learned today. Just saying, most of this is probably wrong. Anyways, here we go...

There are two teams and there are two positions: catchers (defensive) and hitters (offensive). Each team has 9(?) people on the field at a time. The field looks like this:

1-pesä, 2-pesä, 3-pesä are the bases. Notice how they are not arranged as they are in American Baseball. Actually, you shouldn't notice that, because you threw away your previous baseball knowledge. I was just testing you... Anyways, the fact that the bases are arranged in a zig-zag shape makes the game look super random for someone who has no idea what's going on (AKA me). 

Each base can only have one hitter on it at a time. The hitters can... steal bases... but this is rather confusing and I will get to that later.

The catching team spreads its players around the field as they like, each team does it differently, but there is always a pitcher. The pitcher stands right beside the batter, and to pitch he throws the ball up into the air. A "proper pitch" is when the ball would land right on top of the home base if the batter had not hit the ball. If the pitcher throws three bad pitches, the hitter gets to walk (and the other men on the bases move in order to accommodate him. If there is a man on 3rd and he walks home, it does not count as a score).

A hitter that is on a base can run pretty well whenever he wants to. If the hit was out of bounds, if something went wrong, whatever, he can still run. This is called "stealing the base". In pro pesäpallo this never happens  but I was watching amateur players and they do it all the time (the reason amateurs can pull it off is because the defensive team may not be paying attention or might not be able to catch the ball as well).

Okay, now if a batter hits the ball and it isn't out of bounds (boundaries are the outer lines in the picture. The ball has to land inside the lines, but can roll out. This includes the line at the very back. If you "hit it out of the park" in pesäpallo, you just hit a foul), and all is well, he can run to first base and the players move respectively around the field and everyone has a happy day... but if the ball is caught before it hits the ground, that's when shit hits the fan.

If the ball is caught from the air, the player batting is out. Any player on the offensive team that is out in the field at the time and was not standing on a base (AKA, trying to steal a base) must run to the next base. They cannot go back to the base that they were stealing from. They have to book it to the next base before the defensive team brings the ball to the base that they were supposed to be on. This is called "burning". This is the part that I am by far the most confused about. and it seemed that they were adding more rules onto these rules every time it happened. Take this whole paragraph with a handful of salt. It's probably wrong.


And that concludes my pesäpallo lesson for today. Below are some links to videos and the Wikipedia page about the game. I hope that you are more confused about the game than you were before! :)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pes%C3%A4pallo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TynjeWIoUY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vK49TOVZEQ

Epäonninen Päivä - Unlucky Day

I can honestly say that since I have arrived in Finland, I have not experienced an extreme emotional flare. Meaning, I've never felt homesick, lost, frustrated, or alone to a point I could not handle.

The above statement was 100% true, until today. Because today was.... it just was.

Today was my first day of Suomi language course in Oulu, and coincidentally, my first time alone in Oulu. I figured I might get lost on the way from my bus stop to the school, so I made myself a map from Google maps with all the cross streets and everything. I thought I was really damn through. While on the bus though, a series of events and misinterpretations lead me to get off at the wrong stop. I was 3km away from where I was supposed to be, but I didn't know that. I walked confidently in one direction, certain that I was going the right way. I stopped after a half of a kilometer and retraced my steps, then went a quarter of a kilometer the other way. I didn't see any of the street names on any of the maps I made. I knew something was wrong. I phoned my host mother and asked her to check where I was and she told me that I had gotten off at the wrong stop. She dropped everything she was going and drove half an hour to pick me up and bring me where I was supposed to be. When I finally arrived at the Finnish course (an hour late, I might add) I found out that I had signed up for the wrong one. I went down to the main desk and switched my courses, then trudged, defeated, to my bus stop. I got there half an hour before the bus was set to leave, but I was alright with waiting. And that's what I did. I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. 45 minutes passed, no bus. Oh god no, I thought, the bus has to be here. I can't have missed it. But I had. It turns out that at that particular time the bus left from a different station. At this point I walked behind the bus station building, sat down in the dirt, and cried. I had never felt so... Dependant before. I was so useless, helpless, and stupid. After a solid cry, I checked my bus schedule and found out the next bus left at 22:10. It was 21:00 at this point, and I was done with life. I phoned my host mother to let her know I'd be really late getting home. I insisted that I would wait for the bus and that she should not come drive into Oulu again to rescue me, but she would here nothing of it.

When she drove up a half an hour later, she smiled at me and said "epäonninen päivä."  I could not help but laugh, and she joined me. It had truly been an unlucky day. On the drive home we had a long conversation in Finnglish, and I was able to step off the emotional roller-coaster that I had been riding all evening.

I cannot now, and I don't think I will ever be able to express my gratitude towards my host mother and family. The support that they give me is phenomenal  and they are truly an amazing family. I hope that if/when I have a family, mine is at least half as loving and comfortable as the Manninens.

Lisää Vaellus - More Hiking

Ulla, Jukka, Elias and Anne, Ulla's sister, took me up to Saariselkä to hike the beautiful trails of northern Finland. 

As you might notice if you type Saariselkä into Google, I was well above the Arctic Circle. This marks my first time being above the Arctic Circle, and I spent almost 72 hours up there. 

We timed the trip perfectly with the changing of the leaves. The whole area was a beautiful golden colour with little patches of orange and green and occasionally red. There were moments during the hiking that I would have to stop, look around me and say "wow, I'm really here. This is really happening." 

I am so thankful that I had to opportunity to experience such beauty, and am forever thankful of my amazing host family.

We were visited by a lovely group of birds that were perfectly alright with sharing Elias' food.

"Making Friends"

Attempting pancakes.

The failed attempts

Suklaa Muro

Hello everyone.

I have noticed that my posting skills are rather lacking in this month, and maybe you have too. I've been spending so much time trying to learn Finnish that I forgot about this little thing.

I am currently writing the blog posts that I should have posted now, and will publish them during this week and next. I am writing them as though they just happened, because I want to! Don't question me... And the dates will represent that as well. So really, I'm just covering my tracks to make it look like I posted them on time..... But don't tell anyone.

As a consolation prize, please enjoy this brief little story that is not relevent to anything except the title of this post:

A few days ago, Selja (host sister) and I went with Ulla (host mom) to the store to get groceries. Ulla asked me to pick a cereal from the aisle and Selja came with me. There were many choices, but I was leaning towards this trail mix looking one with fruit and nuts and oats.... But I did not fail to notice Selja eyeing up the chocolate section with a certain lust in her eyes. The Manninen house is not one you find full of Fruit Loops and Corn Pops, so I decided what the hell, let's get some chocolate cereal.

Now, we bought this while most of the family was away, so Selja strategically didn't tell anyone about the box of pure sugar in the cupboard, and of course I didn't spoil her fun. Today though, during evening snack, she was munching on some chocolate delight when Aapeli, my little host brother, gasped and exclaimed "SUKLAA MURO?!?! MISSÄ?!" I would have paid a sack full of Euros to get his facial expression on camera as I handed him the box. He devoured two bowls, and I suspect it will all be gone in the morning.

This, my blog readers, is why I love my isäntä-perhe.

Anyways, Claire out.

-originally posted on 15.9-

Oulanka Kansallispuisto - Oulanka National Park

I have returned, in once piece, from my 35km hiking course in Oulanka National Park. It was a program offered by my lukio that I took with about 30 other students from second and third year.

I had a wonderful time, it was absolutely amazing. I really love hiking, so this trip was right up my alley. I'd done hiking trips before so I knew how to pack and what to bring, as well as what to expect. The Manninen's graciously lent me a backpack, sleeping bag, mattress and even a stove. My backpack weighed in at 15kg, about 33 pounds, but it was nothing I couldn't handle. 

I am very thankful for my enthusiastic hiking partner Emi, who hiked at a ferocious speed that motivated me to keep walking. She was very patient in answering my questions about her life in Finland and singing me the Finnish alphabet, and she only laughed a little bit whenever I forgot the word for 'path' (which is polku Emi, I remember it now!). 

This trip was also a great opportunity for me to meet the elusive Finnish teenager! Admittedly, I didn't talk to as many of them as I had hoped, but I still think I am on my way to making friends. I have wonderful memories of sitting around the campfire attempting to understand what everyone is saying, and the absolute joy I felt when I understood what was going on. There were some very confusing moments though, such as one where I was certain some of the guys were talking about roasting and eating another student. Thankfully I had misunderstood. I also have a hilarious memory of Teemu interrupting a conversation to say "Claire, say 'about'", obviously hoping I would pronounce it 'aboot'. He was disappointed by my answer and left the fire. 

On the final day, after we'd made it to our destination, another student wanted to do some more hiking to a little camp about 3km away. I had sworn to never walk again ten minutes earlier in a dramatic flop to the ground, but I agreed to go with him. I left my pack behind but the crazy kid brought his backpack with him. We had a lovely conversation about biking, and he was very excited when he found out I lived close to Whistler. During that little trek I made a promise to myself that if someone asked me to come somewhere I would go, even if the antisocial humbug part of me wanted me to stay home. I realised that, if I stayed in the comfort of the Manninen house all the time I would never see the rest of Finland. 

Altogether, the experience was one that I will not forget, and would recommend to any other exchange student visiting Muhos lukio.

Probably the most disappointing group photo ever taken, but it's what we've got!

My tent group.

Pikku Erilaiset - Little Differences

So I've been in Finland 27 days now, and here are a list of some differences that I have found. I read once that the big differences in countries aren't that big of a deal, it's the small things that stand out. Well, whoever said that was very right. Here's my little list of differences!

*Please note, these things may not be true for all of Finland, but in Muhos this is how it is.*

*I have been corrected on some of these things, and have changed them.*

1. Their hole punches (Canada on left, Finland on right).

2. They leave their bags in the hallway at school and even sometimes in stores, just sitting there, unattended.

3. They don't lock their bikes when they put them out.

4. Classes aren't on time, despite the stereotype of Finns always being early!

5. Students call teachers by their first names.

6. The trees are all really tall and skinny.

7. The street name comes before the house number in your home address.

8. The houses all seam to be painted with a "barn theme" (meaning the windows and doors have wide white trimmings and the rest of the house is a solid, and normally bright, colour)

9. Bathrooms have sinks, paper towel dispensers and mirrors in each stall.

10. There is a Nintendo Wii sitting in the hallway of my school for anyone to play. It is not locked down. There are no chains on the TV. It's just sitting there.