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!