Kortti

Off to school I go with Dana (exchange student from Canada) at my side discussing the important, the deep, troubling issues of life: why people on bikes in Finland do not warn you as they go swooshing by, why my school back home and the school here in Oulu can’t hire architects that construct buildings which are pleasing to the eye, and most importantly of all . . . why in the world do we have to have so many cards here in Oulu?? You might be pondering (or not depending on how inquisitive your personality is) at this very moment: what do you mean by “cards?” Well, well, well, let me just inform you of this interesting phenomenon here in Oulu, Finland. When I first arrived in Oulu I had my passport (I am not sure whether that actually constitutes as a “card” though), health insurance card (or rather paper with clear tape on it), drivers license (from TN), AAA card, credit card (for emergencies), ETSU student ID card, and, by accident, three grocery store “discount” cards. At first glance, yes, I seem to have several cards with me already. So, why am I discussing this in the first place?

A-hmm, hmmm, let me tell you: Picture it . . . a dim, cold, snowy, wintery day on the 3rd of January, in Oulu, Finland 2006, on the campus of Oulun Yliopisto during orientation . . . (Are you picturing, yet?) I am informed that I must pay a fee for the student card that will give us a discount at lunch and relatively anywhere else that provides discounts for students upon showing a card. Obviously, I thought to myself, this is quite practical, especially since almost every other college/university gives their students ID cards. I thought my duty with buying or receiving cards were done. Oh, no, no young grasshopper! Let me just list all of the different cards I have accumulated in my 4 weeks stay in Oulu: opiskelijakortti (i.e. student card – for the university), train card, Nordea ATM card, Oulu bus card, a “SIM” card (goes in your phone – isn’t big though), and a sports card (let’s you in to the different school sports halls around Oulu). To sum that up SIX, yes, six cards! With the cards I had mentioned above earlier, I accumulated those over the past 3 or so years. Now, I actually would have one more card to add to my repertoire, but I have not checked out a book in the library as of yet. For some reason, possibly a mere hunch, I believe there will be more cards I shall be in need of in the following months.

The Finnish National Epic

Tänään on Perjantai. Today is Friday. I actually wrote this on Monday (maanantai), but didn't get to posting it until today . . . . . . .

This morning began with the class called “Kalevala Mythology.” The Kalevala is a piece of work, 50 poems (runes), gathered by Elias Lönnrot, who took 11 journeys by foot and reindeer to Karelia and surrounding areas. It was first published in 1833. In short, it is the national epic of the Finnish people. In “long,” I will describe below :)
First of all, the Finnish people have an off sense of humor. Their sense of humor reminds me of that inside joke everyone talks about, but you “weren’t there,” thus making you the only one not laughing with a confused look on your face. Smile and nod, just smile and nod. This Finnish sense of humor can also be found, in short form, with the word Kalevala. If you were to transpose the first letter e with the last letter a, you would come up with the word Kalavale. At first glance it seems to mean nothing more than just a misspelled word. However, if you were to know Finnish (which I am learning as of this moment) you would see that kala and vale are actually two words in one – see BOTTOM NOTE at the bottom of the page). Kala actually means fish and Vale is a lie. So, our Prof was saying that the Finns often get a kick out of calling Kalevala, Kalavale because they can call the epic a Fish Lie, for reasons explained below. Even though the Prof gave some explanations to why they found that funny makes sense, but I still don’t find it quite hilarious or even mildly funny.
Okay, so back to the fact that the Finnish people say that Kalevala is their national epic story that helps them have a past identity to grasp hold of (mainly because their history is quite skewed due to being ruled for so many years by Sweden and then by Russia). First of all, it was vital to the Finnish Language. Not only did Elias Lönnrot compile a literary piece of work in Finnish, but he also was the forerunner in creating a standard Finnish grammar and vocabulary. Now, Finnish Nationalism began growing in the 19th century when Russia took it from Sweden and was made a Grand Duchy (of Russia). Thus, when Kalevala was published, it fueled the fire of Finnish Nationalism even more. Finnish Nationalism demanded that the Finnish language have the same status as the Swedish language. Even after Sweden no longer ruled over Finland, Swedish was still seen by many politicians, “educated” people, and the rich as the proper language to speak. The Finnish language was spoken by the common folk.
More to come about Kalevala’s “innards” in the following days or weeks (there is a play in March -- it will be in Finnish however, but I will still probably attend) . . . But here is a famous picture you often see when you encounter Kalevala. The man with the beard is Väinämöinen, the main character that eventually has to leave Kalevala, because a new God is coming . . . Jesus (christian influence here). The ugly bird like thing is Louhi, the woman of Pohjola (more explanation about her later).


BOTTOM NOTE: Many times the Finnish language puts many words together without any spaces (e.g. the longest word in the Finnish language epäjärjestelmällistämättömyydellänsäkäänkohän; a million dollars to the one who can say that ten times fast! When our Finnish, Prof Milla, wrote the “word” I just couldn’t see it even being pronounced . . . well she did quite well and said it relatively fast. Really, Finns only use it when they are in deep distress. Personally, I believe just attempting to say the word would put me in deep distress! Here are two shorter versions of a long word: viikonpaivat – days of the week & yhdeksänsataa - kahdeksankymmentäkaksi – 982 – I am actually not sure if the hyphen is actually present in the wording of 982; oh well.)

Random Facts About Sauna:

From Prof Korhonen . . .
• Almost every household has a sauna
• A sauna used to be a chimneyless construction for at least the first thousand years of its existence
• Smoke saunas
o They have a club called “ The International Smoke Sauna Club”
o Finns prefer smoke saunas
o Smoke saunas (now) have chimneys (I did not take the picture below; found it on the internet).

• Finnish people in saunas are typically in the nude (even when it is a “mixed” sauna).
o However, they are not morally naked.
o It is not a place to “get it on,” since around 1000 years ago it was a spiritual place
• Sauna etiquette
o Can’t scream or shout (or anything of the sort)
o No alcohol (within the sauna, but after the sauna quite all right)
o In some places, no clothes
• The ideal temperature inside before the water is thrown on the stones is around +80°C (176F).
• Finnish children were born in the sauna (mostly those who lived in the country side; even practiced up until around 1930)
• Corpses were spiritually washed there (don’t think that happens anymore though)
• Sliver birch leaves are often seen in saunas
o They have a good aroma.
o Helps to open pores
o You slap yourself or another person with the gathered birch leaves(but you are not smacking them with the birch leaves or trying to hurt them with the birch leaves, this process is suppose to be comforting)
o A bunch of leafy birch twigs like this is called a vihta or a vasta. Sauna bathers beat their skin gently with it and enjoy its massaging, softening touch.
• Couparri – the gross part –
o Blood sucker
o Use to be an older woman, medicine woman, who would make cuts in your back – in the sauna – and then use a cow’s horn, which is hollow, to suck out the blood.
o Supposedly this procedure was supposed to make you feel better.
o Is still practiced today, very rarely, but one must get permission from the national board of health in Finland.
• Often, people will go to sauna and then go roll around in the fluffy snow . . . still naked.
• The most important random fact is that sauna is not pronounced “saw-nuh” it is pronounced “saw-unah.” (the u in sauna is emphasized, but not as in the letter u. More like if you were pronouncing Uma Therma’s first name).

Sauna in our Building :
This place actually looks quite re-done and thus quite new. We haven't checked this one out yet. I know on Tuesdays women have it sometime in the evening and then you can reserve it for another time (say every Thursday at 6 p.m.) for 6 euros a month.

The brick like objects you see are the things that help warm the sauna up. You throw water on them and . . . ta da a steam sauna begins to appear :)

Eden in Oulu

(Varra nyt! = book now!)

(this pic is from their website; however when we went the ocean was ice and covered with snow, along with the surrounding area)


This past saturday (lauantai), I went to Eden with 19 other exchange students. It is a Spa type hotel were anybody can go: young, old, and everybody in between. We paid 6 euros for the "entrance fee" (and another 4 for me, cause I forgot a towel – I should just have gone without one – I should have also kept the towel, grrrr). When everyone had paid their dues, we went to the dressing room to change. Once we donned our bathing suits, we headed for the pool and saunas only to find another changing room area with several open stalls of showers to rinse yourself off before you go in the pool or sauna. But it wasn’t the second changing room area that really shocked me. No, quite frankly it was all the girls/women naked walking around like it’s nobody’s business. I obviously have seen the female body before, seeing as how I have one, but it was just the mere fact that young, old, fat, saggy, skinny, boney, just stood there, talked their in the buff! Oh, ho, ho, and that’s not all . . . the instructions on the sauna specifically stated that you could not wear your bathing suit in them. Ha, well we sure did break that rule. Later on, this part I just find hilarious, the girl “life saver” – as her t-shirt said – came into the sauna and told us that we couldn’t wear our swim suits!! Haha!! Yeah, so instead of telling somebody to put their clothes on, she was telling us that we could not wear our “clothes” – bathing suits. Well, we all just sat their and smiled and nodded at her and said okay. We didn’t budge. Sure it probably was uncomfortable for the other naked people in the sauna to have a row of clothed people, but hey it was weird for us to have a row of naked people across from us. After a few more minutes, we finally left the sauna still fully suited-up and began to dry ourselves for the trip back to Linnanmaa.

(this pic is from their website)

Now for a description of the rest of the “spa” . . . It wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be. Yes the sauna felt spa like, but when we walked out into the main area we were greeted by a huge inside swimming area with a tropical décor. I am sure that if I had gone to the front desk and asked about the different spa activities such as massages, facials, or whatever else you do in a spa I would have found out where and how much those spa activities were. Nevertheless, the pool area was quite entertaining, and we all had a fun time wading around in the water. There were two small slides. On the longer slide you went through a tunnel, much like the ones at water parks in the states. The other one was a little bit steeper, shorter, and the tip of the slide was further up from the water, making for a splashier landing. They had several little kiddy sections with small colorful slides that looked like elephants or other animals.

(book now = varaa nyt)


Eden's Blurb about themselves
"Tropical warmth of Holiday Club Oulu time passes almost unnoticed. The surging waves and soothing bubbles of the indoor pool together with our heated outdoor pool appeal to both children and adults alike. Linger in a traditional Finnish sauna, try out an exotic Turkish steam bath or a Roman-Irish mixed sauna. Refresh and relax!
The pool department has a main pool (30 C), a children's pool (32 C), three jacuzzis (32 C) an all-year-round heated outdoor pool (27 C), water slides, water massage points and massaging waterfalls, water walls and lilos, a contraflow river and a wave machine. There's water aerobics with an instructor and water games too. Saunas include two Turkish saunas, a Roman-Irish mixed sauna and two Finnish saunas. Enjoy also our solarium and bright light treatment.
Spa Opening hours: every day from 10.00 to 21.00. "

Another COLD Day

Another cold day in Finland. The temp this morn on our thermometer read -27 Celsius. Purty durn cold if you ask me! So, it seems that the colder it gets the more sun, sky, and moon I get to see. So it is a double edged sword that I play with here. Oh well :)

Okay, so here's the low down on the class structure here in Finland . . . there really is no clear structure. After last semester's hard core Psych Labs and Lectures, all of my classes giving me a clear and concise (well except for one, and I hated that class) outline of the semester's goals and expectations of students, as well as having the classes in the same place and time every single week of the semester, I have been a little taken aback by the nonchalant attitude of teachers here. Even at orientation the ladies of the International Office were telling us that we would find a difference between our schools and Finland's. They were right. I was discussing with my friend Dana that in a weird sort of twisted way, deep down inside we like being pushed, challenged, and drawn through the mud (we just like to complain about it at times). Thus, here in at Oulun Yliopisto (The University of Oulu) I am getting a much need break away from the stress of ETSU.

Pyöräillä

Bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like

I find it quite amazing these Finns are able to withstand such tremendous cold. I looked on our thermometer this morning and saw -23 degrees Celsius (-9 degrees Fahrenheit -- & weather.com said it "feels like -27). Wonderful, simply wonderful ;) As I walked to the Yliopisto (university) I see more people than not . . . riding their silly bicycles in this freakin' cold weather!!

You say black I say white
You say bark I say bite
You say shark I say hey man
Jaws was never my scene
And I don't like Star Wars
You say Rolls I say Royce
You say God give me a choice
You say Lord I say Christ
I don't believe in Peter Pan
Frankenstein or Superman
All I wanna do is

The weirdest thing happened though when I was walking to campus (so it had to be happening to the crazy people on the bikes). I know this sounds gross, but I have to tell the truth. Lately, every time I walk outside I get the sniffles. Thus, to prevent the slippage of nose mucus down the lower part of the face, one must ever so slighty “sniff” back in the slipping mucus. As I was completing the process described, I noticed that the insides of my nostrils were freezing . . . by golly my mucus was freezing!!! Weird I know, I apologize if you find this disgusting and are wondering why I am even posting this, but if I’m gonna relay my experiences here in Finland back to people in the states, I have to describe little odd things like that.

Bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycleI want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycleI want to ride my
Bicycle races are coming your way
So forget all your duties all year!
Fat bottomed girls
They'll be riding today
So look out for those beauties oh yeah
On your marks get set go
Bicycle race bicycle race bicycle race
Bicycle bicycle bicycleI want to ride my bicycle
Bicycle bicycle bicycle bicycle
Bicycle race

Now, I am finally getting some Oulu, Finland winter weather. In class yesterday, the professors were saying that this cold front is coming from Siberia and that we would be getting even more of that front in the following days. I don’t really care though; however, I don’t want this extremely cold weather to stay around too long ;) haha.

You say coke I say caine
You say John I say Wayne
Hot dog I say cool it man
I don't wanna be the President of America
You say smile I say cheese
Cartier I say please
Income tax I say Jesus
I don't wanna be a candidate for
Vietnam or Watergate
Cause all I wanna do is

The two pics that I have posted are the truth; these people are attached at the hip to their bikes. NO matter the weather, young and old take their bikes wherever they may go. They have so many places to park your bike; In fact . . . I think they have more biking spaces than car spaces!

Bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride my bike
I want to ride my bicycle
I want to ride it where I like
~ QUEEN

Kauppatori ja Toripoliis

Wow . . . I have seen the sun, sky, AND moon 3 times in the past four days!! Can’t believe it! Woohoo!! Haha, yeah well normally Oulu doesn’t see any of that until around mid February March. The temps have been up and down (-6 to 2 degrees Celsius), which is between 19 to 35.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Of course what I’ve been hearing is that in TN and NC it’s been as high as 60 and 70 degrees. So, it seems that many places are having abnormally hot weather.
So, Saturday my roommate and I (Eva, from Czech Republic) went downtown via walking. 5.2 km there and back :) I thought we did it in record time too. We ventured there to find the fat, statue policeman (name = Toripoliis) in market square. Lonely Planet says that he is located in one of the liveliest market squares in Finland, Kauppatori. I have to say it wasn’t exactly what you would call lively on a Saturday morning around 10:30/11 or so on Saturday. But we had our picture made with him. He was quite excited to see two beautiful, foreign, young women at his side (I'll put Eva's picture on here later). For whatever reason, the Policemen here are actually well liked and well known here (I'm not exactuly sure why, but I'll ask Janika and see if she knows). We then venture to his right and find an indoor market place – this is where we saw more of the “liveliness” Lonely Planet was talking about.
We enter the red and white wooden building and the scent of fish and seafood smacked us in the face. At first a little repulsive, but then you get used to it after you see all the varieties of seafood delicately decorated. Both of us bought some salmon (I told her not to pronounce the L, in a nice way though). It was already precooked so when we eventually made it back to the flat we didn’t have to cook it in the oven or the stove (of course these stupid people still haven’t come to fix our stove top so we couldn’t have used it anyway). But I digress, and then we make our rounds to the other parts of the indoor market place. I don’t know why, but I have been a’cravin’ some dessert type food ever since I got here. I don’t know if I’m not getting enough nutrients in some area of my diet and therefore I have a HUGE sweet tooth . . . I really dunno. Anyhow, it took ALL of me to restrain myself from buying all the different sweets they had. I would tantalize your taste buds with comprehensive, exhaustive depiction of those sweets, but the names are in Finnish and I haven’t tasted them yet. SOOO, once I do some more exercising and haven’t already downed some sweets the previous day, I will make ya’ll wish you were here to enjoy the cuisine of Suomi hedelmät or jälkiruoka ( Finnish desserts)! However, I did break down and buy pulla, which is a type of pastry that I think we have back home. Completely worth my mooollaaa . . . flaky type breading, ever so sugary sweetness, with a center oh, so provocative and gooey . . . . . . . . Okay so the inside stuff of the pulla is called marmalade. Maybe I’ve just been out of the loop for the past 20 and half years, but what is freakin’ marmalade?? Sure I had heard of the word before I came to Europe, but these people talk about it like it is everyday language. Somebody said that it was a type of jelly/jam which I kinda saw for myself to be true. I mean I may have heard of it in one of the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingles Wilder, but even then I am guessing if I had even heard of the word in those books. Oh as a side note . . . this girl from Denmark, Igna, said that she has read The Little House on the Prairie books and Anne of Green Gables books!! Simply fantastic if you ask me :) Those two sets of series are among my faves.
Alrighty, so enough about all that . . . I am going to go now, but until next time moi, moi!!

2nd Post of the Day :)

The Stove and Ravioli Story

It was my 1st day in Finland. I had only arrived about 2 hrs before my first grocery store outing (in Finland). I had bought several items to last me through the rest of the weekend, because the campus dining areas weren’t open yet. One of the items I bought will be discussed in this short story: Ravioli or in Suomi – Ravioleja. Ravioleja seemed like a good pick and would be easy to prepare. Thankfully the previous tenants had left some eating utensils, plates/bowls, cups, and cooking ware. I chose a small sized pot, opened the can of ravioleja, and poured it into that small pot.
As most people do, I proceed to place the pot on a small eye and turn the knob to about the 5 mark. I had a little something to do in the other room, so I left for a few minutes. As usual, those “few minutes” turned out to be a little bit longer than I expected. I rush back expecting the contents of the pot to be boiling and to have possibly burned on the bottom of the pot.
And did I seeeeee . . . the ravioleja looked exactly the same as I had left it!! I take the pot off the stove and slowly rest my hand on the eye. What did my skin feel? Why, it felt an eye that was cold as ice! Yes, astonishing. I proceed to check all the other eyes, and they too did not produce the much desired heat. Thus, I try the oven next . . . and to my amazement it worked!! YEA!!! Then I realize that pouring my ravioleja on to a flat pan wouldn’t produce the results I so desired. The proverbial light bulb went off in my head and . . . TA DA! I could put the pot in the oven, keep the door open, and wait patiently for my food to warm up (by the way there is no microwave; so that option was out of the question).
Thus, I spent part of my New Year’s Eve sitting in front of a stove waiting for my ravioleja to have a decently warm temperature. Finally my ravioleja was ready!! I felt like a real college student ;) The picture of this scene can be found below.

Olen tässä

TERVE!!! Never fear . . . Olen tässä!!

Hello!! Never fear . . . I am here!! hehe so glad I finally got internet and can use my computer. I've been in Oulu (pronounced as O -as in the letter- and lu) over a week now and really am loving every minute of it! I shall have to update you all on my first couple days in Finland. They were quite interesting. Especially when it came to cooking food. But I will leave you all with a picture of a part of Oulun Yliopisto (the University of Oulu). It is at the entrance to where most of my classes will take place -- and if you couldn't notice that's me in the pic ;). (That pic was taken on the day that Eva and I went trekking around Oulu; we did probably about 7 kilometers or more of walking). I have class at 12 . . . so I'll write more after class or within the next couple of days :)

Moi Moi

In Finland I am!!

Sorry people I haven't had internet until this past monday and today (which is only in the library at the moment). but I have some interesting news once I can hook up my own computer :) Hope everyone had a happy new year. I saw some fireworks in the distance, but went back to sleep after about 12:15. But that's how New Year's usually is for me :) until next time

Moi, Moi